Reid Carrico: State Championship highlights

CANTON, Ohio -- Ohio State linebacker commit Reid Carrico and his Ironton team came up short on Saturday night in the OHSAA Division V Championship game, falling 17-7 to perennial power Kirtland.

Carrico, however, was a major bright spot in the game, recording 10 tackles, 40 yards rushing and 32 yards receiving.

This was my second live evaluation of Carrico during the OHSAA playoffs and with the championship on the line, Carrico was at his best. This was a better all-around performance than the one he put forth against Amanda-Clearcreek a few weeks ago.

Carrico blew up several Kirtland running plays with well-timed A-gap blitzes, but where I was most impressed with him was with his ability make plays in space and going sideline-to-sideline. Carrico did a good job of navigating through traffic, reading the play, and then accelerating and being decisive in his read and making the tackle.

There will be questions about competition level during his high school career, but Kirtland is a tremendous football program and Carrico was the best player on the field on Saturday night as you would expect him to be. Carrico's athleticism makes a pretty versatile linebacker prospect long term as I could see him playing either outside or inside at the next level, which should give the Buckeyes plenty of options to get their best three linebackers on the field.