Signing day

The first Wednesday in February, otherwise known as National Signing Day, is upon us again.

It's always a day to remember for dozens of area high school standouts, who get to sign letters of intent to continue their academic and athletic careers at various colleges and universities across the nation.

But this year's NSD also is critical for the football programs at Ohio State and Youngstown State. The Buckeyes expect to close the deal on Urban Meyer's first OSU recruiting class and if he gets all the expected signatures, it will have been a tremendous couple of months on the recruiting trail for Jim Tressel's replacement in Columbus. Based on the verbals Meyer received since his hiiring was announced, some "recruitniks" have projected what had been shaping up to be a very ordinary OSU class to a top-five or even top-three class nationwide.

Meyer appears to have fired a preemptive strike in Big Ten Conference recruiting by flipping the verbal commitments of some big-time recruits to OSU from rivals like Michigan, Michigan State and Penn State. The Buckeyes won't be going to a bowl game in 2012, but that doesn't seem to have hurt Meyer's ability to close the deal.

YSU's 2012 class is critical to the continuing development of the Penguins as a playoff contender. Their 2011 season ended in disappointment when a loss in the regular-season finale kept them from a likely playoff berth. It had to be tough to watch North Dakota State, a team YSU beat during the regular season, win the FCS national championship. The up side of that is that the Penguins may not be far off away from getting back to the postseason, especially with some improvement on defense. A solid combination of JUCO talent and high school players, particularly on defense, could make a huge difference.

Check out Thursday's edition of the Tribune Chronicle for a rundown of all the National Signing Day angles locally, regionally and nationally, or get the details at tribtoday.com.