I'm guessing you could go all the way back to the days of Tom Lichtenberg without seeing as poor a showing for Ohio on the First, Second and Third All-MAC teams. Zero Bobcats on the first teams for offensive and defensive - incredible.
But we're loaded with talent, right Monroe?


 

But, do those other teams have as strong a "walk-on program" as we do? I bet they don't!

First Team:
Kickoff Returns - Devin Bass
Punt Returns - Travis Carrie

Second Team:
Wide Receiver - Donte Foster
Placekicker - Josiah Yazdani
Defensive Back - Devin Bass

Third Team
Defensive Back - Travis Carrie

Preseason, Phil Steele expected:
Tettleton - 2d team (oops)
Blankenship - 2d team (oops)
Foster - 4th team (did 2 better than this)
Lechner - 3rd team (due to injury, played 46% of snaps during MAC)
Prior - 2d team (due to injury, played only 38% of snaps during MAC)
Moore - 3d team (injury and position move may have been factors)
Carrie - 2d team (ended one lower than this)


True, the walkon program has produced some All-Mac players, notably Paul Hershey and Dak Notestine, but this year most of the walkons/former walkons are Freshmen and Sophomores, except Chad Moore, Josh Kristoff, Nic Barber, and Neico Teipel. All did start games, but none played at an all-Mac level. Moore was a possibility, but whether it was due to the position  move, or his injury, he didn't have as good a season this year as he did last year.

I was being sarcastic LC! :)

Not until the last couple years was Ohio getting the players they wanted. Each year they sent out ~100-150 offers early, mostly to Ohio players. Each year they got back 1-5 acceptances from that group. Then, in November-January, the coaches scoured the country for talent that had been missed, and brought in players from places like California, Florida and Oklahoma. If you compared head to head battles, you'd find that Ohio generally lost far more than they won. I stopped tracking that in about 2010, though, as it was too much work. This following data does not include players offered by both teams, but which chose some other school, but only includes players that actually chose Ohio, or chose some other MAC school.

As an example, in 2009:
3 players had offers from Ohio and Ball State, and chose one or the other - All to Ball State
7 players had offers from Ohio and Miami, and chose one or the other - 5 to Miami, 2 to Ohio (John Taylor, Skyler Allen)
3 players had offers from Ohio and Toledo and chose one or the other - All to Toledo
4 players had offers from Ohio and BG and chose one or the other - 3 to BG, 1 to Ohio (John Taylor)
3 players had offers from Ohio and Akron and chose one or the other - 2 to Akron, 1 to Ohio (Xavier Hughes)
2  players had offers from Ohio and WMU and chose one or the other - Both to WMU
1 player each had offers from NIU, Kent, CMU, and Temple, and Ohio, and chose one or the other - none to Ohio
Did Ohio beat anyone that year? They won 3-0 over Buffalo (Lechner, Hughes, and Dylan Reda) and 4-0 over EMU (Allen, Hughes, Gary Fortune, Jamil Shaw)

The last two years something very, very different has happened. They sent out their 100-130 offers, and instead of 1-5 acceptances, they got more like 20. Using Ted's Excellent recruiting page (since I don't track this anymore), the data for 2014 looks much, much different. So far:
vs Ball State - Ohio 2, BS 0
vs Toledo - Ohio 4, Toledo 2
vs Maimi - Ohio 1, Miami 0
vs BG - Ohio 5, BG 4
vs Akron - Ohio 4, Akron 0
vs WMU - Ohio 3, WMU 1
vs Kent - Ohio 5, Kent 1
vs U.Mass - Ohio 1, U.Mass 0
vs Buffalo - Ohio 3, Buffalo 1
vs CMU - Ohio 0, CMU 1

Was Ohio getting the players they wanted? No. Is Ohio now getting the players they want? Yes. They pretty much only lose to BCS teams now.

I decided to see who Ohio is losing recruiting battles to (since they are not losing too many to the MAC anymore). You can tell a lot about the level of talent they are after not only by who they beat, but who they are losing to:

ACC - 30 lost (Louisville 6, Duke 4, UNC and Virginia 3,  Wake Forest Syracuse BC Vir Tech Pitt 2 each, Flor St Maryland NC St Ga Tech 1 each)

Big Tenfinity - 22 lost (Ohio St and Indiana 4 ea, Nebraska Mich 3 each, Illinois Mich St Iowa 2 ea, Northwestern Purdue 1)

SEC - 15 lost (Kentucky 7, Vandy 3, Alabama 2, Tenn Georgia and Missouri 1 each)

MAC - 10 lost (BG 4, Toledo 2, WMU 2, Kent 1, CMU 1)

CUSA - 6 (Tulsa 2, FAU UAB UTSA ODU each 1)

PAC 12 - 4 lost (Stanford 2, UCLA 1, Arizona 1)

Big 12 - 4 lost (West Virginia 2, Okahoma and Iowa St 1 each)

Sunbelt - 2 lost (Texas State and Ga St 1 each)

Others - 3 lost (Notre Dame Harvard and App State 1 each)

I have no clue on that, sorry.  I'd say that Ohio, BG, and Toledo are all looking at similar talent, and Ohio is winning slightly more than the others at the moment. Let's hope it continues. Some of the other top MAC schools, like NIU, Buffalo and the directional Michigans, are a bit further away, so they cross paths with Ohio a bit less often.

A big question in my mind is why there was such a big change the last two years. For lack of a better reason I'm saying that it's due to the IPF. The only other explanation I can toss out there is the recruiting coordinator change in 2011.

I think's safe to say that Brian Haines does not remain on the staff due to his special teams coordination.

To be honest, I don't understand those selections. According to the MAC stats, Bass isn't even top 6 in kick return average. The conference doesn't list the stats for top punt returners, but as a team we were #3 in the conference, and Carrie had issues hanging onto the ball on punt returns.

As a team we're middling or worst on just about every special teams category except PATs, where we're in a 5-way tie for first.

Nice statistical analysis, L.C. (I'm not being sarcastic.) 

How is it that Dri Archer was selected a receiver.  Looking at the stats he is 31st in yards in the MAC. 327 yards.  Heck, he was 4th best on his own team.   Seems he should have been included in the RB's not Receivers.  

I can see not holding Archer's statistical ranking against him since he was injured most of the season, but yeah, he's a RB and Return Specialist in most minds, not a WR. And if he makes it in the NFL, it will almost certainly be as a Darren Sproles-type RB/KR/PR. The MAC might actually be doing him a disservice by giving him recognition as a WR, if it causes NFL scouts to analyze him as a WR instead.