Heading into his third visit to Ohio State for the Buckeyes’ spring game on April 16, four-star 2024 linebacker Edwin Spillman was eager to meet Ohio State’s new defensive assistants.
After getting to know them and taking in the spring game, Spillman was pleased with how those conversations went.
“I really enjoyed visiting Ohio State, it was a really cool place,” Spillman told Eleven Warriors. “Just getting to meet the coaching staff. It was a great visit.”
Had a great visit thankful for everyone! @kalebbeasley @OhioStateFB @ReillyJeffers @CoachTonyAlford @CoachJimKnowles @MattGuerrieri @CoachKMcFarland @ryandaytime pic.twitter.com/amAIuLPnCW
— Edwin Spillman (@ESpillman13) April 16, 2022
Spillman said he met Jim Knowles, senior advisor and analyst Matt Guerrieri and defensive graduate assistant Koy McFarland. The 6-foot-2, 220-pound linebacker said his talk with Knowles was a productive one.
“He really enjoyed watching my film,” Spillman said. “He sees how I can really impact them on the field. They just see me being able to do everything.”
Knowles didn’t limit Spillman to a specific linebacker position, saying he enjoys the versatility the Tennessee prospect offers.
“He told me I’m going to be able to do everything,” Spillman said. “I think I would fit really well at Ohio State. Most of the stuff they’re doing at OSU, I’m already doing at my high school. So as of right now it looks like it would be a good fit.”
Spillman was impressed OSU drew more than 60,000 fans for a spring game, and used the scrimmage as a teaching tool for his own benefit.
“The atmosphere was amazing,” Spillman said. “I didn’t think there would be that many people that would show up to a spring game. There was tons of red everywhere and it was a really cool environment to be in.
“When I watched the game, I was mostly viewing how the linebackers were reacting off plays and what types of drops they were making so I could learn from that point on. It was really cool. I got to sit in meetings with them before the spring game and hear the conversations and everything like that. It was really cool.”
Spillman, considered the second-best 2024 prospect in Tennessee according to 247Sports’ composite rankings, made the visit with his Lipscomb Academy (Nashville, Tennessee) teammate, four-star cornerback Kaleb Beasley. Beasley does not yet hold an Ohio State offer but has visited OSU numerous times and is ranked as a top-100 prospect in the cycle.
“We were both talking about how cool it would be if we both ended up playing at Ohio State,” Spillman said. “We’ve been talking about how cool it would be if we ended up at one of these schools that are recruiting us both really hard. We just thought it would be cool to play with each other from high school all the way through college.”
Spillman anticipates making another visit to Ohio State later this year, though he doesn’t know exactly when yet.
“I’ll definitely come up again at some point,” Spillman said. “But this summer I plan on staying mostly at my school and learning how to become a better linebacker and stuff like that. I’ll be doing a lot of visits my junior year and stuff like that.”
OSU offers Owusu-Boateng
Ohio State has offered its second linebacker from the 2025 class.
The Buckeyes presented an offer to DeMatha Catholic (Hyattsville, Maryland) linbeacker Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng on Monday. The only other linebacker in the 2025 class with an Ohio State offer so far is Zayden Walker from Georgia.
#AGTG Extremely Blessed To Receive An Scholarship Offer From The University Of Ohio State @CoachMcGregor @R2X_Rushmen1 pic.twitter.com/vxMwIVs4oz
— Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng (@_nob11) April 25, 2022
While there are not yet composite rankings for the 2025 class, Owusu-Boateng holds nine Division I offers thus far including Boston College, Florida State, Maryland, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Penn State and Pittsburgh.
Padilla, Montgomery making push for Siereveld
By now, many of you know the top remaining in-state target for Ohio State in the 2023 class is four-star offensive lineman Austin Siereveld.
Siereveld is down to three schools: Ohio State, Notre Dame and Alabama, though most in the recruiting industry see the 6-foot-5, 315-pound lineman’s decision really being more of a two-team race between the Fighting Irish and Buckeyes. He visited OSU for its spring game on April 16, and went to Notre Dame’s spring game last weekend.
A decision could be made by Siereveld shortly, so the two offensive linemen already committed to Ohio State are putting the full-court press on recruiting their fellow in-state prospect. Joshua Padilla and Luke Montgomery both tweeted out graphics Tuesday afternoon trying to convince Siereveld to join them in Columbus.
Come HME Austin!!!!! @SiereveldAustin @lukeMonty8 pic.twitter.com/TrSeDsgsKB
— Joshua Padilla (@JoshuaPadilla66) April 26, 2022
Only makes sense!!! @SiereveldAustin come home brother @JoshuaPadilla66 @CoachJFrye @ryandaytime pic.twitter.com/8LZXvARzK4
— Luke Montgomery (@lukeMonty8) April 26, 2022
