With his wrestling season now over, three-star 2023 Ohio defensive end Michael Kilbane will turn his focus to his recruitment.
The 6-foot-4, 240-pound St. Edward (Lakewood, Ohio) product concluded his junior year of wrestling by finishing fourth in the Ohio Division I 285-pound weight class at the state meet last weekend. Because he spent all his time and energy preparing for that meet over the last few weeks, he had not scheduled any recruiting visits for this spring. That will soon change, starting with Ohio State, as Kilbane plans to take a trip to Columbus within the next two weeks, he told Eleven Warriors Tuesday.
Michael Kilbane places 4th!! #edsup #states pic.twitter.com/gOF00rra6r
— St. Edward Wrestling (@_stedswrestling) March 13, 2022
“I haven’t planned any visits because my Dad and I decided during the last three weeks of the season I wanted to focus on the wrestling postseason and my goal on winning a state championship,” Kilbane said. “Now that I’m in the spring, I’ll be planning out all my visits and seeing all the places that I have high interest in.”
Kilbane is ranked as the 409th-best prospect and the 33rd-best edge defender in the 2023 cycle, according to 247Sports’ composite rankings. He currently has 25 Division I offers, a list that includes Cincinnati, Penn State, Indiana, Iowa State, Kentucky, Purdue, West Virginia and Virginia Tech.
He does not yet have an offer from Ohio State, but that could change, perhaps as soon as on his upcoming visit. After playing linebacker as a freshman and sophomore, Kilbane made his case for an offer was a monster first season as a defensive end, as he racked up 104 tackles and 16.5 sacks en route to helping St. Edward win the Division I state championship.
“I played mostly standup defensive end and there were a good amount of reps where I played inside on the 4i,” Kilbane said. “Which is a defensive tackle oriented position where I’d have that inside responsibility. I’ve also dropped into coverage at times too.”
Ohio State first contacted Kilbane after he played Massillon in his fifth game last season, and he was invited to make a game visit for the Akron game in late September. Defensive line coach Larry Johnson stopped by his high school to talk to his coach about him in January. In that same month, Ryan Day made a separate visit to watch Kilbane’s wrestling practice for a half-hour and speak with him. As recently as last week, Day, Johnson and Perry Eliano all started texting Kilbane regularly.
“That was pretty cool, especially me being an Ohio native, I grew up a huge Buckeyes fan because my mom went there and everything too,” Kilbane said.
If an offer does come when Kilbane makes the trek to Columbus, he wouldn’t have words to describe the feeling.
“It would just be surreal,” Kilbane said. “It would be like a childhood dream come true. My brother and I and my entire family have always been repping the scarlet and gray. Knowing the team you grow up rooting for may want you to play for them, that would just be an unreal experience for me.”
Neither Johnson or Day have told Kilbane if they see him as a true defensive end at the next level or if they could ask him to bulk up and move inside.
“They may go more in detail on the visit. Especially if I receive an offer, I’m sure they’d go more in-depth on what they see me playing,” Kilbane said. “They haven’t told me where they see me yet but I’m sure that will come. When I get to college, I’ll let the coaches make the decision of where the personnel fits best.”
Kilbane’s high school teammate, 2024 offensive tackle Ben Roebuck, is also being heavily recruited by Ohio State, but also does not yet hold a Buckeyes offer like Kilbane. Roebuck and Kilbane have discussed being recruited by Ohio State, though.
“He and I have talked about our contact with them and what it would mean (to play together),” Kilbane said. “We’re both from Ohio and the Buckeye state. Everyone from Ohio just wants to be an Ohio State Buckeye. We were just talking about how surreal it is Ohio State is showing interest in us. If they offer us, it would just be like a dream come true.”
Roebuck was a first-year starter for St. Edward last year, making his varsity debut Week 3 of the regular season. The 6-foot-7, 320-pound tackle often went against Kilbane in practice. So, who came out on top more often than not?
“We went up against each other a lot. I don’t want to put down a teammate or anything, but I think with him being a sophomore and everything and inexperienced at the time, I probably won more of the matchups,” Kilbane said with a laugh.
Kilbane was impressed with his teammate’s improvement over the course of the year.
“I definitely noticed from the beginning that he made some tremendous improvements over the course of the year. It’s some of the craziest strides I’ve seen from the beginning to the end, he was like a machine at the end of the year. Really, I think the sky's the limit for Ben. He has all the psychical tools to succeed. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up first-team All-Ohio.”
As for a commitment timeline, Kilbane hopes to make a college decision in either late May or early June. But that isn’t set in stone as he waits to see whether he’ll add an Ohio State offer to those he already has.
“If my decision takes longer than I’d like it to, that’s fine with me,” Kilbane said. “I just want to make sure I pick the right school for me.”
