In honor of the Final Four in basketball starting Saturday, one of Ohio State’s top offensive tackle targets for the 2023 class has narrowed his decision down to four schools.
Four-star Connecticut tackle Olaus Alinen announced a top four Friday consisting of Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia and Miami.
THE FINAL FOUR #AGTG @Hayesfawcett3 pic.twitter.com/HxjrBjmdrF
— Olaus Alinen (@alinen_olaus) April 1, 2022
Alinen, the 127th-best prospect and the 14th-best tackle in the 2023 class per 247Sports’ composite rankings, visited Ohio State March 8-10 and will return to Columbus for an official visit during the last week of June.
“It was really good, I enjoyed it a lot,” Alinen told Eleven Warriors in March of his visit to Columbus. “It was the whole package. I was able to watch practice, watch a walkthrough and watch film with the coaches. I met all the important academic and strength and conditioning people. I saw coach Day and met some players and spent time with them also. I was able to do almost everything you need to do on a visit.”
Alinen has been building a strong rapport with Justin Frye over the last few months, but Alabama is going to be difficult to beat for the commitment of the Finland native.
Kilbane enjoyed OSU visit, will wait out recruiting process
After breaking out during his junior year with a 16.5-sack season for St. Edward, three-star Ohio 2023 defensive end Michael Kilbane made his first visit to Ohio State last Saturday.
“It went really well,” Kilbane told Eleven Warriors of the visit. “I talked with coach Johnson and coach Day for a while and watched practice and saw all the facilities, it was really cool. I really liked how coach Johnson coached, he’s really technically sound and brought the best out of his players.”
Awesome day today at @OhioStateFB!! #gobucks pic.twitter.com/3RX5U1Clna
— Michael Kilbane (@MichaelKilbane3) March 26, 2022
Kilbane made the trip with three of his St. Edward teammates who are offensive linemen in the 2024 class: Ben Roebuck, Deontae Armstrong and Devontae Armstrong.
“It was pretty cool,” Kilbane said. “Since we’re all Ohio boys, we’ve all been Buckeyes fans growing up. It was really cool.”
Kilbane met with both Larry Johnson and Ryan Day on the visit. During his one-on-one with Johnson, he was told the Buckeyes are interested in him, but if he wants a chance to end up at Ohio State, he may be in for a bit of a wait.
“He told me I’m good enough to get an offer and play there,” Kilbane said. “But he thinks since they can only take one or two defensive ends this year, he’s evaluating how that process is going to work out with some of the defensive ends they’ve offered. If things play out the right way for me, they could offer me.”
Kilbane currently has 25 Division I offers, including six from Big Ten schools. If Kilbane got an Ohio State offer down the line, it could be a game-changer in his recruitment.
“For me really, obviously, it would be a very intriguing offer,” Kilbane said. “But I’d have to evaluate the situation and see what the best fit for me would be. Obviously Ohio State would be very high in that conversation.”
Kilbane is hopeful he will return to Columbus for a camp in June.
Carr puts OSU in top 8
Ohio State has made the top eight for 2024 wide receiver Ny Carr.
The 6-foot, 170-pound wideout from Georgia put the Buckeyes on his updated schools list along with Michigan, Penn State, Tennessee, Georgia, USC, Arkansas and South Carolina.
A top 5 nahhh heres 8 @ChadSimmons_ @Mansell247 @JeremyO_Johnson #Recruitingthehardest pic.twitter.com/pAbEoZi2Ht
— Ny Carr (@NyCarr1) April 1, 2022
Carr just picked up an offer from the Buckeyes on March 23. In 10 games for Colquitt County High School (Moultrie, Georgia) last season, Carr racked up 856 receiving yards on 40 receptions while hauling in 13 touchdown passes.
Flores Jr. teases possible commitment … April fools or not?
When I was a younger lad not working in journalism, I used to love April Fool’s Day.
I’d usually do some dumb prank that would no doubt irritate my mother, and in hindsight, probably wasn’t all that amusing. We all know what they say about karma coming around, though.
These days, April Fool’s is a reporter’s nightmare on Twitter. We’re trained to be cautious and verify any information that comes across regardless, but this goes triple for the first of April. For example, being a recruiting reporter, you see thousands of top schools graphics that are tweeted out by various recruits. I saw a top eight graphic this morning featuring Ohio State, failing to see the graphic was tweeted by “Baby Gronk” until a few seconds after.
— BABY GRONK (@BabyGronk5) April 1, 2022
This long-winded prelude does serve a purpose. One of Ohio State’s wide receiver targets, four-star 2023 California wideout Rico Flores Jr., announced he will be making a commitment at 9 p.m. ET tonight.
Committing today at 6pm
— Rico Flores Jr (@lil_reek_) April 1, 2022
Using context clues, just remember to question anything you see on April Fool’s Day, especially considering Flores Jr. has recently tweeted about upcoming unofficial and official visits he plans on taking with schools later this month and in June, and originally planned to commit sometime this summer.
If Flores Jr. truly has made a decision and just happens to be announcing it on April Fool’s, it’s likely going to be some place other than Ohio State, especially considering his upcoming visit to Columbus isn’t for another week. But there’s a good chance this is just a high school athlete having a laugh.
Big visit weekend begins
As we wrote about earlier in the week, this weekend is a massive recruiting weekend for Ohio State for various reasons.
Big-time recruits have started to arrive Thursday and Friday, posting various updates from their visits.
#Zone6 pic.twitter.com/UsF9nPGN8b
— Carnell Tate (@carnelltate_) April 1, 2022
Ohio state visit pic.twitter.com/ROTpkKJHqt
— Jalen Hale (@JalenHale8) April 1, 2022
— Jeremiah Smith (@Jermiah_Smith1) April 1, 2022
#GoBuckeyes pic.twitter.com/nbLdYhPrrW
— Darron Reed (@DarronReed45) April 1, 2022
Columbus Im here
— DaemonFagan (@FaganDaemon) April 1, 2022
Ohio State this weekend..
— MarkFletcherjr (@fletcherjr_mark) April 1, 2022
Columbus what it iz!!
— Brandon Inniss (@brandon5star2) April 1, 2022
Coming back to the crib this weekend! #GoBucks @OSUCoachKDub @OSUCoachHinton @ryandaytime
— Ty Lockwood (@TyLockwood7) April 1, 2022
— Cedric C4 Baxter Jr (@CedricBaxterJr1) April 1, 2022
Overton commits to Texas A&M
As expected, five-star 2022 defensive lineman Lebbeus Overton committed to Texas A&M on Friday, giving the Aggies’ already loaded No. 1 recruiting class yet another weapon on the defensive line.
Gigem @Hayesfawcett3 pic.twitter.com/c4ENpnPHMr
— Lebbeus Thomas Overton (@LebbeusO) April 1, 2022
If you need a stat that proves just how loaded Texas A&M is for future seasons in the defensive trenches, just read this stat.
Texas A&M is the first school in the internet recruiting era to sign four 5-star defensive linemen in the same cycle.
— Chris Hummer (@chris_hummer) April 1, 202
Florida State (2012) and Flordia (2010) had previously signed three. https://t.co/7EYO4kBwX9
