Pilot Mountain, N.C. - On the final day of BuckeyeGrove’s trip along the mid-Atlantic, our first pitstop was in Pilot Mountain, North Carolina, at East Surry High School.
On Thursday, we had a chance to spend time around Benji Gosnell, the most recent addition to Ohio State’s 2022 class. Gosnell demonstrated why Rivals has him as the fifth-ranked tight end in next year’s cycle, showing off wide receiver-like route running and reliable hands when catching the ball.
Before he went out to the football field, however, Gosnell took some time to speak with us for a one-on-one video interview. As you can watch at the top of the page, the Rivals250 junior opened up about his relationship with Ohio State’s coaching staff, teaming up with Bennett Christian at the next level and what led to the Buckeyes landing a commitment from him a couple of weeks ago.
“Just overall, they checked all the boxes,” Gosnell said. “I’ve said in previous interviews before that I had a mental checkbox of what I wanted each school to check… ‘I wasn’t saying I guess they had it,’; I was saying, ‘That for sure has it,’ and they were going the extra mile.
“Everything from academics, school, developing you as a player, developing you as a person, having internships while you’re in school to get you prepared for life after football if the NFL doesn’t work out. Most of the time, for Buckeye people, the NFL does work out. Just, overall, the academics, school and life after football, I couldn’t say no to that.”
If you read our article on Gosnell from August, then you knew his relationship with Kevin Wilson and company started well before he received an offer on June 2. He would reach out to the staff and conduct Zoom calls during the spring, so Gosnell was well-informed about the program by the time he was given the green light.
Gosnell says the relationship between him and his future coaches continues to get better by the day.
“It’s been progressing pretty steadily,” Gosnell said. “We don’t really text a lot, but we call a lot. We talk on the phone; I talked with them for 20 minutes, I think it was Tuesday night. I texted Coach Day for like 30 minutes [on Wednesday night]. I’m actually in the process of talking with Coach Fleming today and just how today’s going and how the week’s going.
“I’m talking with them on a regular basis, and they’ve become not just recruiting coaches, but friends and mentors. I already feel like I’m one of their players right now, so it’s been going awesome.”
