Carrico focused on winning titles

IRONTON, Ohio – Future Ohio State linebacker Reid Carrico and his Ironton high school squad have been going through drill work for this week and it couldn't come soon enough for the Rivals250 linebacker as months of working on his own during the COVID shutdown had grown old.

At his school, small groups of players were being cycled through multiple stations as social distancing was followed and when we caught up with Carrico, he admitted that he was really put through the paces during his most recent day of work.

Carrico has been committed to the Buckeyes for better than nine months and held three-dozen offers and that number could have swelled if he would have stayed open longer than he did. His commitment happened "all of a sudden" and while Ohio State recruiting fans often take Ohio kids for granted, he was conflicted on where he wanted to go, until he had a moment of clarity out of the blue.

"I was up in the air between Ohio State, Clemson and Tennessee and schools like that," Carrico said. "I really did not know. The day that I woke up and I committed later that day, I had no idea that I was going to be a Buckeye that day. I was just kind of sitting around in class, not doing much and it just came to me."

The relationships that Carrico had with his fellow Ohio State commits at the time played a big role but he also remembers some words from a coach on the staff that is on the opposite side of the ball from where Carrico will play.

"I remember when I went up to the Wisconsin game, coach (Kevin) Wilson, who won't even be my position coach came up to me and said that that players who win a national championship that are from Ohio, they are legends forever, and that kind of stuck with me," Carrico said. "I was thinking about that in class and was like, 'Why not me?'"

He has now had time to build a strong relationship with his position coach, Al Washington, and while they talk a couple of times a week, he has been quick to let the Ohio State staff know that there is no worry about him being on any sort of flip watch once the NCAA-mandated dead period comes to an end.

"I am going to sign with the Buckeyes, you don't have to worry about me flipping (anywhere)." Carrico said.

A lot is put into the recruit-led recruiting effort and Carrico admitted that there are a couple of text threads between the commits and commits and beyond. He has been able to get to know his future teammates well through the daily conversations and they have also done some work in helping secure the nation's No. 1 recruiting class to date.

"It is really close," Carrico said. "We have got a group chat with all of the commits and we have another one with some recruits in it, the one with the recruits started out with 25 or 26 guys and we have secured a lot of those guys. I don't know off the top of my head how many commits we have got, it worked out pretty good for us. We are batting about .700 it seems like."

A recruiting title would be all well and good but Carrico did not pick Ohio State for winning just a recruiting national championship(s).

"I am more focused on everyone showing up in the '21 class and going to work," Carrico said. "It would be great to have the best recruiting class in history or whatever but to me, you can look at that Florida class (that is the tops before)… they did not win a natty, so it doesn't matter. I just feel like we need to focus more on winning the national championship or more than one."

He admits that Emeka Egbuka is the number one target on his personal recruiting board but that there are other key players as well and would not really go into a full list at this time. Don't expect the Ohio State recruiting effort to let up any time soon.

But that recruiting success needs to lead to carrying on the legacy classes before him have set on the field.

"We need to focus on winning Big Ten championships and not paper championships," Carrico said.

Check out more of his comments from our exclusive in-depth one-on-one above.