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Ohio State blows out Indiana, 38-15. Now, it's time to do the same to That Team Up North.
The Hurry-Up is your nightly dose of updates from the Ohio State football recruiting trail, keeping tabs on the latest from commits and targets from around the country.
Schrauth final four
Greg Mattison and Ryan Day have done a great job building a relationship with St. Mary's Springs (Wisconsin) four-star offensive tackle Billy Schrauth.
Over the weekend, that foundation was at the core of why the nation's No. 151 overall prospect and No. 17 offensive tackle in the class of 2022 picked the Buckeyes as one of the four finalists in his recruitment alongside Michigan, Notre Dame and the home state Badgers.
FINAL FOUR pic.twitter.com/4wOEujpsuk
— Billy Schrauth (@SchrauthBilly) October 16, 2020
In April, when Schrauth announced that he had been offered by the Buckeyes, he told Eleven Warriors that his relationship with Mattison and Mattison's wife had made a heavy impact on him over the years. Schrauth met Mattison at a Michigan camp three years ago when Mattison was still a Wolverines coach.
Years later, that opened the door for them to build a bond, leading to Mattison and Greg Studrawa extending an offer to a player they like for his aggressiveness.
“They like the style of my play,” Schrauth told us previously. “They know what they get with me, and that’s a hard-nosed football player who’s going to get off the ball every snap to get that first step and block to the whistle. Not much to it other than a lot of intensity. I’m just going to try and run through the guy’s face and that’s it, and I think that’s why they like me.”
Schrauth broke down his final four with Eleven Warriors over the weekend:
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Ohio State: “All my talks have been good with the coaches. I’m just maintaining contact three times a week. If it’s not Coach Mattison, it’s Coach Day. If it’s not Coach Day, it’s Coach Stud. I’m always on the line with someone. It’s been going good, and I really like what the program’s about. They check the box for football for me. They play at a really high level. The coaches really believe in their players, and I can see that.
“I really like the coaches. The talks have been easy, and my family really enjoys talking with them. So I say the coaches really stand out about that program, for sure. ... I just love the way they handle their business at Ohio State. That’s with Coach Stud and that’s with the whole coaching staff. It doesn’t make sense to work that hard and not come out with the W every weekend. They believe in that, and that’s something I believe in too.”
- Michigan: “I’ve been around that program since I was 10 when I went to my first game with my uncle. Ever since, it’s just been a place that’s stood out to me. I’ve been to the Michigan-Ohio State games since I was 10 years old. I think I’ve missed two, maybe. Just seeing that atmosphere and those games, it’s hard to forget and hard to get out of my head. It’s definitely pretty cool. And they have a great business school, and that’s what I wanna go into so that’s really important to me.”
- Wisconsin: “Wisconsin kind of speaks for itself. Great program, great coaches. It’s home. I don’t know what else to say.”
- Notre Dame: “I love everything about them. I’m a big tradition guy. I like all that, just the strive for excellence with that program really stands out to me. The academics side of it, it’s super top notch. That’s important.”
In the end, Schrauth's lifelong goal is to make it to the NFL, and as an offensive lineman he believes all four schools give him the avenue to do that.
“All these programs, that’s a huge part,” Schrauth said. “My goal is to be playing on Sundays one day, and I think all four of these programs can help me do that. That’s a big part with all of these.”
At Ohio State, Schrauth is viewed as an interior offensive lineman but, as is the case with most prospects, the Buckeyes like his versatility.
Schrauth says he communicates with the Buckeye staff about two or three times a week, including with Day.
“I would definitely say I feel like a priority. They’ve kind of made me a priority,” Schrauth said. “They get me on with Coach Day pretty frequently. He’s always texting me, telling me to have a good day and talking to me about training. It’s pretty cool.”
Leigh talks Buckeye Bash
Last week, we confirmed the report that five-star Virginia offensive tackle Tristan Leigh was planning on coming to next weekend's Buckeye Bash.
With Rivals' Adam Friedman, Leigh says the plan is still to make the trip, but it's not set in stone:
"If my mom can get off of work next weekend, I'm pretty confident we'll go (to Ohio State)," Leigh said. "It's not 100-percent but I really hope we can go so I can get a feel for what the other commits are like and just be in the Columbus area.
"I went for a game last year so I got sort of a feel for it but with these types of visits it's kind of hard because there are no games and you can't see the coaches," he said. "Honestly, my main things are seeing who I would be playing with, what the vibe is in Columbus, and how people act.
"Most recently they've been talking to me constantly about the opportunity at the tackle position because they're not as solid as they were last year," said Leigh. "Recently I've been watching film with coach Stud a lot. He doesn't miss. If you go to him he's going to develop you and get you to where you need to be. Based off his track record, I don't doubt him. It's kind of the same thing with coach Bedenbaugh at Oklahoma. He just gets it done. It's hard not to believe what he says when I'm seeing it actively happen with these guys in the league.”
Header photo: Billy Schrauth/247Sports
