I already took a brief look at the ’12 class at the end of June. Since then, Ohio State landed ’12  LB/TE/DE/whatever  prospect Josh Perry, officially making it not too early to start talking about the rest of the class.

Another factor that makes it worth looking ahead is that the ’11 class is all but finished.

Even though official written offers aren’t allowed to be sent out until September 1st, Ohio State’s staff has identified quite a few ’12 players at camp this summer to extend verbal offers to.

Extremely early/rough estimates for the ’12 class indicate that it will be very small, possibly less than 15 spots small, pending transfers, people coming back (Duron Carter) and early departures to the NFL.

The limited scholarships plus the early verbal offers mean that the class could (and most likely will) fill up quickly.

When everything is said and done, the 2011 and 2012 recruiting classes will be extremely talented and building blocks for the future, similar to what the 2008 and 2009 classes are on the team right now.

Verbal Offers

Not surprisingly, a majority of the early verbal offers are to in-state players, and even less surprisingly, most of them have the Buckeyes as their strong early favorites. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few of these players commit before the ink is dry on the ’11 class.

While a lot of the out-of-state verbal offers appear to be long shots at best, it seems likely that the staff is letting the out-of-state guys know two things; the class size is limited and the in state guys aren’t going to be waiting very long to take up spots.

Hopefully this strategy will help get some elite out of state players in the class, but if it doesn’t, the in-state guys are plentiful and talented.

Chris Wormley

Defensive End, Toledo (OH) Whitmer

Wormley has the size to play strong side defensive end at 6’6″ and 250 lbs. While Michigan fans will probably tell you that they are in the running, given the state of the program up north, the fact that Chris’ teammate Kenny Hayes is one of the most enthusiastic Buckeye commits in the ’11 class and is actively recruiting Chris every day , and that he came away extremely impressed after camping at Ohio State, I say Buckeye.

Greg McMullen

Defensive End, Akron (OH) Archbishop Hoban

At 6’4″ and 220 lbs. McMullen projects at the LEO defensive end spot for Ohio State. He was one of the top performers at camp over the summer, and has Ohio State as his early favorite. The other schools at the top of the list are Cincinnati and Nebraska.

While McMullen seems to like Nebraska a lot, distance is a factor for Greg and he canceled visits to Pac-10 and SEC schools because he wants to be close to his family and home.

Buckeye.

Se’Von Pittman

Defensive End, Canton (OH) McKinley

Pittman is another LEO candidate at 6’3″ 230 lbs. Like Wormley and Hayes, he is teammates with ’11 DE commit Steve Miller.

How would you like to be a quarterback facing a pass rush with two Ohio State caliber ends on the opposing line. Not fun for high school quarterbacks, great for Ohio State.

Pittman earned an offer at camp over the summer, and Ohio State is clearly the early favorite.

Buckeye.

Adolphus Washington

Defensive End/Tackle, Cincinnati (OH) Taft

Washington is another defensive line prospect that earned an offer at camp this summer. Ohio State is the early and heavy favorite.

Buckeye.

Dante Fowler

Defensive End, St. Petersburg (FL) Lakewood

Fowler has the potential to be a type 5 nationally ranked DE who lists Ohio State in his top 5. With so many verbal offers already out to in-state players at the same position, it seems likely that the staff is either not worried about positions at the moment because you make room for the talent, or they are letting everyone know what the situation is and encouraging early commitments.

2012 is going to be an excellent year for defensive ends at Ohio State, it is just a matter of who commits first.

George “Bam” Bradley

Safety, Trotwood (OH) Madison

There are several elite DB prospects in Ohio next year, but at the moment Bradley is the only one with a verbal offer. He camped at Ohio State this summer and has plenty of nice things to say about the Buckeyes. I would be extremely surprised if he ended up anywhere other than Ohio State.

Dorial Green-Beckham

Wide Receiver, Springfield (MO) Hillcrest

Dorial is a freakish athlete at 6’6″ and 215 lbs. It is way too early to predict where he will end up, but he does have a verbal offer from Ohio State, so we will see what happens. He was recently adopted by his head coach, thus the hyphenated last name.

Jameis Winston

Quarterback, Hueytown (AL) High School

Winston is Ohio State’s #1 target at QB for the class. Being an elite out of state prospect, it will be an uphill battle for the Buckeyes with Alabama as the team to beat, but he does have a verbal offer.

Watch List

There are some players that don’t have confirmed verbal offers at the moment, but if Ohio State were to extend an offer (which is extremely likely in most of the cases) they would be one of the favorites.

James Ross

Linebacker, Orchard Lake (MI) St. Mary’s

Ross is an elite linebacker prospect that is already garnering national attention. He camped at Ohio State this summer and has nice things to say about the Buckeyes. He claims no leaders and his recruitment may drag out a bit.

Kaleb Ringer

Linebacker, Clayton (OH) Northmont Senior

Ringer is one of the top prospects in Ohio for 2012 regardless of position. He is the nephew of former Michigan State running back Javon Ringer, so Michigan State is a factor in his recruitment. However, he is all Buckeye if (when) an offer comes his way.

Warren Ball

Running Back, Columbus (OH) St. Francis DeSalles

Ball is on of the top backs in Ohio in a class filled with plenty of great prospects. The fact that Ohio State has so many options to choose from at RB most likely the reason they haven’t extended an offer to anyone yet.

When the offers do go out, whenever that happens to be, Ball is a likely candidate to receive one and is just as likely to be a Buckeye upon receiving an offer. It will be interesting to see how long the staff waits on this one, and in which order they decide to hand out the offers.

Brionte Dunn

Running Back, Canton (OH) GlenOak

Dunn is the other back in Ohio that is receiving a large amount of recruiting buzz. He is a big back at 6’1″ and 225 lbs. and we all know how Ohio State likes to utilize a bruiser in the backfield.

He is receiving attention from across the country and seems interested in Notre Dame at this point, but like Ball, if an offer comes from Ohio State it is hard to imagine Dunn will be heading anywhere else.

Rushel Shell

Running Back, Hopewell (PA) High School

Shell seems to be the wild card in this years RB class. With Dunn and Ball in-state, it would take quite the prospect to draw Ohio State out of state lines looking for a RB, but Shell may be that good.

Shell is a big fan of a certain former Pennsylvania QB by the name of Pryor, so if an offer comes his way, Ohio State would certainly be in the mix.

It is unlikely that Ohio State will take all three backs I mentioned here, which is the reason that offers aren’t on the table at the moment. Ohio State will take their time with the backs in this class and make sure that they get the two they really want.

Any combination of these three would be outstanding, and if someone else comes into the picture, you know the staff must be really impressed to offer them over guys of this caliber.

Like the DEs, the RBs in 2012 are going to be good, it is just a matter of who pulls the trigger first.

Corey Smith

Defensive Back/Wide Receiver, Akron (OH) Butchel

Smith is the cousin of ’11 CB Doran Grant and is a target for an early offer from OSU. He is one of the top prospects in Ohio and says Ohio State is an early favorite.

Allen Gant

Defensive Back/Wide Receiver, Sylvania (OH) Southview

Gant is another top in-state prospect in the ’12 class. He has some disturbingly close connections to tsun, but grew up as an Ohio State fan anyways. His recruitment will certainly be one to watch.

Even more names, and some closing remarks

Ohio offensive linemen Anthony Stanko and Taylor Decker and Michigan defensive lineman Danny O’Brien are some other names that are popping up in recruiting circles early for the 2012 class. There are obviously some additional prospects that will show up on Ohio State’s radar during the next several months and beyond, but for now this list covers just about everyone that is getting serious early interest from the Buckeyes.

Clearly the in-state class in 2012 has plenty of talented players for Ohio State to choose from. It would be nice to continue some momentum from the 2011 class and get some (more) early commits from the 2012 guys.

Given that Ohio State is the heavy favorite to land pretty much every recruit that I listed here, it seems very likely that the 2012 class will fill up relatively quickly with some very good players.

Official written offers for the 2012 class go out on September 1st, and it will almost certainly get interesting shortly after that.