It had been a long time coming, but the official announcement that the nation’s top player in the 2020 class —Maryland defensive lineman Bryan Bresee— would be attending Clemson still had to sting for Ohio State a little bit. To say that this wasn’t a surprise is not meant to say Ohio State had come to terms with it, or passed on Bresee at all. They didn’t. They wanted Bresee, and he ended up elsewhere after months of increasing separation.
To say this is on Ohio State would also be a mistake. Ohio State did everything they could do in this recruitment, led very early on in the process, and ultimately had to battle against location, which they pretty obviously can’t change.