COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Even before the confetti started falling and the first College Football Playoff trophy was hoisted, the knocking on the door was getting louder.
Cornerback Shaun Wade, then just a sophomore, made his pledge hours before the game kicked off in Arlington, Texas, a domino falling for a class two years down the road even before Ohio State earned one of its strongest selling points.
Armed with that momentum and riding the wave of a title, a little more than a year later the Buckeyes busted the door to the nation’s best recruits clear off the hinges.