Urban Meyer knows better than anyone the importance to recruit the fruitful ground of the state of Ohio into his college football program. Due to this perception, Eleven Warriors will look at the 12 Ohio high school programs who produced Buckeyes in 2015.
DUBLIN, Ohio — When Urban Meyer heard Nick Conner's name muttered by a reporter for the first time following Ohio State's Spring Game, all he could do was crack a smile.
"He's good," Meyer said April 18, before bending over to grab a drink. "He's really good."
The reporter finished his question, asking Meyer if there were any other young guys on the team that stood out to the head coach during the Gray team's 17-14 win that day.
But Meyer would only rave about Conner.
"We had high expectations for him," Meyer said. "Hope he doesn't redshirt and gets involved in the kicking game. He had a very good, had a good day today. He's a tough guy to place hard. Good qualities to have."
Conner, one of four members of Ohio State's 2015 recruiting class to enroll in January, prowled the Ohio Stadium turf during the Spring Game on his way to a game-high seven tackles, an interception and pass deflection during the scrimmage.
He used the opportunity on a big stage to make introduce himself to Ohio State fans, something Conner's high school coach said he's been doing all his life even when he's been counted out.
"I always believed that he was a no-brainer to be at Ohio State," Karl Johnson, Dublin Scioto's head coach, told Eleven Warriors May 11. "He was one of the best kids I've ever coached. Definitely one of the most competitive kids I've ever coached."
Nick Conner's photo hangs proudly above the entrance to the Dublin Scioto High School gymnasium, next to other members of the Fighting Irish athletic programs in the graduating class of 2015.
He's posted up next to his peers that also earned All-State nods, for which Conner earned second team honors following his junior and senior seasons.
"Had a work ethic to be successful, had a drive to be successful, had a toughness. Had all the things that a great linebacker at Ohio State can be and he was getting a lot of love from a lot of schools all over the country," Johnson said. "Deep down inside, he wanted to be a Buckeye, but it took a long time to get to that point."
Conner was dubbed a four-star prospect by national recruiting websites, a distinction that carried a bevy of scholarship offers from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Purdue, Cincinnati, Boston College and many more.
Sure, Conner heard from Ohio State co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Luke Fickell often, but it took the Buckeyes a little while to extend the arm that carried with it a chance to wear the scarlet and gray.
"I would say being in the backyard of Ohio State, it's going to be slow. And you know that going in. I just felt like for Nick, he was a no-brainer. He was going to be a kid that should be playing in the Horseshoe on Saturday," Johnson said. "I've been jumping up and down and saying it for over a year."
Dublin Scioto High School is not even 20 minutes from Ohio State's campus, an easy trip for Fickell and even Urban Meyer to make during the recruiting process. Add that to the fact that Conner suffered an injury during his sophomore season and his recruitment started slowly.
"For Nick, he had to make ... he was keeping an open mind to lots of other places," Johnson said. "He had other schools that he really liked, but he wanted that Ohio State offer so he could really know that's what he wanted to do."
Then came his junior and senior seasons when Conner romped into an All-OCC first team performer in addition to second team All-State, leading the Fighting Irish to the Ohio state playoffs both years.
Conner continued showing up at Ohio Stadium for games his junior year, aware that Urban Meyer's top priorities at linebacker for the 2015 class included a couple of studs named Jerome Baker and Justin Hilliard.
"You know who the highly-liked guys are, the highly-recruited, and I went to all the games and everything and you can tell who the highly-recruited ones are," Conner told Cleveland.com in February. "I just wasn't one of them. I just had to keep grinding throughout the season and showing them that I am good enough."
He kept coming to campus and finally earned an offer at Ohio State's June 17 camp, then wasted hardly any time before he committed.
"I know once they get to know me and who I am and how I do things it will work out," Conner told Eleven Warriors last year. "I know they've been wanting me to continue working on my speed and I have been."
He did that and at last earned an offer, showing the conviction Johnson's seen for the last three years.
More Conner
Read up on how Conner caught Ohio State's eye,
his recruiting process, commitment and more
in his Better Know a Buckeye feature.
It's the conviction Dublin Scioto tries so hard to instill in each of its athletes, regardless of caliber or sport.
"We need every one of our kids to be at least a dual-sport athlete. We push that all the time," Johnson said. "By being athletic, by playing lacrosse or baseball or running track, you're getting coached hard."
While other schools may want their kids to specialize in one sport to give them a better opportunity at earning an athletic scholarship, Johnson said as long as student-athletes are competing against others from the state of Ohio, they'll get better.
"You're competing in another sport, you're competing against other kids in Central Ohio, in the state, that's as important as anything else," Johnson said. "You coach them up and the football on the field is good football."
Crawling past the gymnasium, through a side door at Dublin Scioto High School and behind a pair of doors sits the office of Karl Johnson, the coach. Though it's a little dimly lit and clustered with equipment, tables and the desks of the rest of his coaching staff, it's a little different from the office of Karl Johnson, the social studies teacher.
"This is the War Room, this is the dungeon," Johnson said. "It's actually awesome. It's not fluffy or anything like that, but it gets the job done."
In a way, that's the persona Johnson exudes to the young minds he impacts on a daily basis, especially when it comes to athletics.
That's how it is all across the state of Ohio, Johnson says.
"Well, I think Ohio kids get coached up hard. People talk about not having spring ball, they talk about this and they talk about that," Johnson said. "The reality is, coaches are working their kids and coaching them to be better athletes all year round."
That ties back to the multi-sport movement for high schools — more exposure to competition yields more athleticism, more desire and better results.
"We work our kids, and every program's the same. We work our kids, coach them to be better athletes," Johnson said. 'When Ohio kids go to college they're well coached, they're disciplined, they have a good education background, it's a good kid to recruit."
