Home Grown: Justin Hilliard Molded By Culture, People at St. Xavier

CINCINNATI — Justin Hilliard's been pushed before, just like the rest of his teammates and friends at St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati. That's the way things work at the perennial Greater Catholic League South power, but not even Hilliard, the crown jewel in Ohio State's latest football recruiting class, expected what came during one of his first visits to campus.

"I remember on my sophomore visit (strength coach Mickey Marotti) said, 'When you get here we're going to kick your ass,' and all that stuff. That was one of the, I guess, surprising things. Some teams try to sugar coat things and everything, but he kind of showed me the plan," Hilliard told Eleven Warriors May 20. "It's going to be really hard and at sometimes you're going to want to quit and everything but at the end it's going to make you a better player."

Marotti is known as Urban Meyer's right hand man, the guy who fortifies the already special bodies the head coach and his staff recruit to his Ohio State football program. He's a little crazy because he has to be, and a conversation like the one with Hilliard is a daily thing with recruits.

Hilliard can take the heat — the 6-foot, 230-pound star outside linebacker didn't earn a consensus five-star rating for nothing. He grew into a must-have player for Meyer and the Buckeyes by buying into the system put in place by St. Xavier head coach Steve Specht, a man who won his 100th game last fall and consistently has the Bombers near the top of the Division I state rankings.

"Coach Specht will tell you, when you come here as a freshman, they'll tell you it's not going to be easy. Especially Coach (Terrell Williams) with the strength program. He'll tell you it's not going to be easy because they're going to push you, but at the end it's going to make you a lot better," Hilliard said. "And that was the thing with Coach Micky Marotti."

Ohio State isn't a place that allows its people to waste time, so the need to surround the football program with individuals who excel under pressure and possess character-driven minds is crucial to its success.

The same could be said for St. Xavier under Specht, one of the brightest minds in the realm of high school football in the state. Tucked away on a beauteous campus roughly 10 miles north of the Ohio River, the Bombers have made the state playoffs every season but one since Specht took over in 2004.

"As far as culture's concerned, Justin will tell you, Justin's a great player, but Justin wouldn't have played here if he wasn't a great person. He can talk to that. But when you talk about culture and what Urban Meyer's built at Ohio State, I think again it starts with people," Specht said. "You get great people, develop the great football player, but make sure he's a great person."

Meyer often speaks to the families and other people involved with a player's recruitment, putting their situations outside of football ahead of the game. If he doesn't see an affable, hard working and respectful person, chances are you're not going to receive an Ohio State offer.

Specht notices that too and implements it into his own program, the same way the majority of high school coaches do in the state of Ohio. It's a monumental reason why the game is played so well within the state's boundaries.

“I remember on my sophomore visit he said, ‘When you get here we're going to kick your ass.’”– Justin Hilliard

"I just think football, high school football in the state of Ohio matters. It's important. When you talk about Indiana, you talk about Indiana high school basketball. It just matters in Ohio," Specht said. "Friday nights it's about high school football. Saturdays it's about Ohio State Buckeyes. Sundays it's the Cleveland Browns or the Cincinnati Bengals, but it just matters. It's different."

Different in a sense that it's all football, all the time in the state of Ohio, just how its neighbors to the West eat, sleep and breathe basketball. The devotion to the craft runs deep.

"It starts at an early age. It's cultivated and it always has been cultivated at an early age," Specht said. "You can look at Florida, Texas it matters. It's just different around here. Kids grow up wanting to be a part of the football culture. I think that's one of the other things in the answer. It matters."

Holding the game to such a high standard isn't something that exists only at top programs like St. Xavier, either.

"It's the culture of the town, it's the culture of the school," Specht said. "I don't care if you’re a Division I big school like a St. X or a smaller school like Clinton-Massie. Those communities embrace the game."

Justin Hilliard sat at a table with his family last July, in front of an ESPN camera and blue St. Xavier High School sign and his hand on a microphone. He patiently waited his turn, answered the anchor's questions honestly and with a smile, just excited to pledge his allegiance to Ohio State and finally end his recruitment.

He'd spent a considerable amount of time on campus in Columbus when his brother, C.J., toured the school most everyone within Ohio's state lines is a fan before ultimately electing to become an Iowa Hawkeye. Offered a scholarship to Ohio State during the summer of his sophomore year, Justin admitted he had to take his time before deciding to become a Buckeye.

"I would say at first when I got offered I really didn't know the coaches at all," Hilliard said. "As a school, I didn't know if I was as interested as I was in it. I didn't know the players and that's what attracted me to it. I guess after I kept going on visits and stuff and really seeing how the players interact with each other, that's when I started giving them a lot of looks and they started recruiting me hard."

Hilliard said he grew up an Ohio State fan, but wanted to be sure it was the place for him both personally and academically.

"As far as building a relationship at first, it was definitely not a lot about football. But as far as later on, obviously they did talk about football when I was recruited," Hilliard said. "When I was committed even, (Meyer) would still call me twice a week and everything. Even when I was signed, he knew I was going there, but he was still trying to build that relationship so I really knew then that it was real."

Hilliard's is about as close to a "can't miss" prospect from the state as you can get, which is why Meyer, Cincinnati native Kerry Coombs and Luke Fickell came calling early and often. It proved there isn't a disconnect between Cincinnati talent and Ohio State.

"I think Ohio State's recruited the guys they're supposed to recruit down here. Have they come down and hammered the MAC guys? No, but those guys aren't going to Ohio State," Specht said. "But Ohio State's on a totally different playing field than most of the other colleges in the country. There's a reason they're wearing a big national championship ring."

Hilliard's the type of player from a great program in Ohio the Buckeyes wanted and got, a talent that, on paper, looks prime to play a key role in more championships down the road.

Even if Marotti is a tad frightening when you're a high school kid.

"I'd be like sitting in a chair or something, I'm just sitting and listening to him and he would just look at me and start yelling. Make me say stuff back," Hilliard said. "But they were honest about the culture."

It's the culture that's been instilled in him forever, the culture that builds champions state-wide in Ohio.