With national letter of intent day exactly one week away, it is time to do one last recruiting update to bring us down the homestretch. The last time I did one of these updates was for the Army All-American game, and let's just say that that didn't go very well for Ohio State.

Hopefully this update will bring the Buckeyes some good fortune or I may never do one again. On the plus side, the general positive feelings that I discussed about Bradley Roby and Jonathan Hankins turned out to be correct, so it hasn't been all bad news between the Army game and now.

Speaking of good news, Glenville standout Christian Bryant committed to the Buckeyes yesterday, giving the Buckeyes 18 commitments for the class thus far.

I mentioned last time that I wasn't going to get into the numbers game of how many scholarships are available, and I won't again here, but Tressel has said that he expects the total number of players in this class to be 20. Whether or not that factors in transfers and Gibson's early entry into the draft is unknown. Regardless, the number of spots left in the class is limited.

That being said, the number of players that the Buckeyes are looking to land is also limited at this point (funny how that works out) so join me after the jump for a look at the potential cherries on top of the 2010 recruiting sundae. (Good analogy, great analogy, or just creepy?)

Once again, I am going to start with all-everything recruit Seantrel Henderson. He is one of the top players in the country and fills a major need for Ohio State at left tackle. There really isn't much to say about Henderson that hasn't already been said, so I won't even try.

Feelings are generally positive about Henderson joining the Bucks, but you can never be 100% sure about these sorts of things (see: Sharrif Floyd). At this point it seems like USC and Notre Dame are the main contenders for Seantrel's services... we'll see what happens, hopefully Urban Meyer doesn't have any dreams this week.

Sticking with offensive tackles, Matt James is another name that has been on Ohio State's radar forever, and for pretty much that entire time his recruitment has been a two horse race between Notre Dame and the Buckeyes (with Cincinnati in the mix until Kelly left).

At this point it is anyone's guess where James will end up. It seems like his heart is in South Bend and his head is in Columbus, does that make it a 50/50 chance of where he will end up? who knows.

One more offensive tackle prospect that has recently emerged on the Ohio State recruiting scene is Morgan Moses. Moses was one of the top offensive lineman in the '09 recruiting class. He originally committed to Virginia, but  academic issues forced him to attend Fork Union Military Academy for a year to get his grades in order (the same school that Ohio State commit Carlos Hyde attended to get his grades in order).

Following the firing of Virginia coach Al Groh, Moses reopened his recruitment, and Ohio State emerged as a serious contender for his services. All signs seem to be pointing scarlet and gray at this point, Jim Tressel has made an official in home visit and the whole "same school as Carlos Hyde" thing doesn't hurt.

There may be some continuing academic issues involved here, however, and since Moses is a member of the '09 class, how he goes about picking a school is a little ambiguous anyways (does he sign a LOI? can he just enroll? is there a deadline?). So once again it is difficult to say what will ultimately happen here.

Also of note is the implications of the late interest from Ohio State. Does it mean that the coaches aren't confident about landing Henderson or James? does it mean that an extra spot in the class opened up due to transfer? Hopefully it is the latter, but it does raise some questions.

An offensive line class of Henderson, James, Moses, and already committed Andrew Norwell would be spectacular. Unfortunately, the chances of landing all three of the non committed prospects is pretty slim, and missing on all three is also a possibility, making offensive line depth a very real concern.

Compounding the issue is the fact that there doesn't appear to be any premiere offensive line prospects on the radar in the '11 class. At least not yet.

The implications for the future of the offensive line are going to be large in the next week.Landing at least one additional offensive lineman in this class is pretty important, and two would be even better.

Moving on.

Another big name that everyone is familiar with is linebacker Jordan Hicks. Some people feel like Hicks is a "must get" for this class. I don't share that feeling due to the embarrassment of riches that is the OSU linebacking corp at the moment.

Still, Hicks is a premier talent who currently resides in Ohio (even though he grew up in Texas) so losing a top in state talent would sting a little bit extra. Good news though, while many had initially written off Hicks as heading south (to either Texas or Florida) the longer this thing drags on the better for Ohio State... at least it seems that way.

At this point it seems like it is down to Ohio State and Texas. It may be another one of those heart in one place (Texas) head in another (Ohio State) situations. 50/50? sure, we'll go with that.

A couple of names that were on the radar but who are probably going elsewhere are Dominique Brown and LaTwan Anderson.

It appears that Brown's choice boiled down to deciding between playing at Ohio State and playing quarterback (probably at Georgia Tech), and it looks like he really wants to play quarterback. I wish him good luck.

LaTwan Anderson is opening up his recruitment a bit after committing to West Virginia at the Army game by taking an official visit to Southern Cal. He is also mentioning Ohio State in the mix.

This move really isn't surprising, but after the nationally televised spurning of Ohio State, the chances of Anderson finding a spot in the class are pretty slim, especially considering he appears to be academically borderline anyways.

Ohio State stuck their neck out for him by giving him a scholarship offer, and he chose to go elsewhere. I am ready to move on (Ohio State probably is too).

Finally, a very new name on the radar is Jay Karutz. Never heard of him? Yeah, me either until a few days ago. Karutz is a punter from Australia (so don't feel so bad about never hearing about him) who is apparently getting some serious interest from Ohio State.

He has a strong leg and can place the ball like only a non-American could. It is probably pretty lame of me, but after watching some videos on youtube (1, 2) it actually kind of excites me to have Karutz in scarlet and gray pinning teams inside the 10.

Only after watching Tressel Ball for ten years can a punter actually make you excited.

DAMN YOU TRESSEL BALL!!

So, other than some serious concerns over the offensive line which can be made great or awful depending on how the next week goes, I am willing to call this recruiting class pretty damn good (even if no one else commits, something that is unlikely) no matter what the recruiting services say.

It fills needs (offensive line pending) and is filled with solid, if not spectacular players. But hey, who cares if they are spectacular in high school or not. Work ethic is 75% of being great in college, so I am optimistic that this class will have quite a few guys that will make significant contributions during their time in scarlet and gray.

Despite my optimism with the class as is, this final week of recruiting could be the difference between a top 5 class for Ohio State and a class that Buckeye nation at large is disappointed in. All of the players I mentioned could sign with Ohio State, or none of them could sign. It will probably be somewhere in the middle, but at this point I am not making any predictions about who is in and who is out.

Needless to say, it should be an interesting week in recruiting.

We will probably do a review of the class once all of the ink has dried next week and talk more about the strengths and weaknesses of the class at that time.

Even though we can't hope to do as good of a job on each player as Vico does with his "better know a Buckeye" series over at Our Honor Defend, we will do our best, and ours will be faster!

Until then, enjoy your week! It will be the last bit of anticipation concerning football until the Spring Game (which is why I chose that picture up above, in case you were wondering).