The walkon program is self-propagating, too. Because they have given 32 scholarships to walkons, the best, most driven potential walkons are attracted to Ohio because they know that if they produce, they will be rewarded. At some schools they may take walkons, but walkons are used primarily for practice fodder. If you watch the videos of the drills you see that at Ohio the walkons go through exactly the same drills, and are treated with exactly the same respect. I remember clearly seeing Scipio in "Relentless" last year, being moved from running back to DB, and being encouraged by the other DB's. Last year he earned playing time. This year he's earned a scholarship.
A less obvious benefit to the walkon program is the impact they have on the attitude throughout the program. The walkons come in knowing they have to prove they deserve a scholarship, and trying to get one by out-working everyone else. That hard-working blue-collar attitude becomes the attitude of the whole team, and everyone works harder, and gets better. It's a win-win situation.
A potential negative is that as result of giving out an average of 4 scholarships a year to walkons, Ohio can recruit 4 less Freshmen a year. That, in turn, causes Ohio's recruiting classes to be ranked lower by the recruiting services than they otherwise would be. Does that really matter, though? The 4 scholarships a year end up going to players that are known to deserve it, players you know are going to contribute. Personally I'll gladly take players like Paul Hershey, Ryan Senser, Dak Notestine, and Corey Hastings, that I know will produce, rather than an equal number of unknown and untested Freshmen.
In the end, the only real negative of the walk-on program is that it keeps Ted guessing - he never can keep the scholarship table on his recruiting page 100% accurate.
