The future stars of Ohio State football officially begin their college careers, as standouts from all over the country put pens to their National Letters of Intent.
For the second year in a row, Ohio State is taking a chance on a lower-ranked but enormous offensive lineman.
Reppin' the Scarlet & Gray Welcome @trey_leroux#GoBucks #XXclusive pic.twitter.com/W6J3hPcUGE
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) December 18, 2019
The Leroux File
- Class: 2020
- Size: 6-foot-8, 330 pounds
- Pos: OT
- School: Norwalk (OH)
- Composite Rating: ★★★
- Composite Rank: 89 (OT)
Much like 6-foot-8, 360-pound current freshman Dawand Jones, who was the 1,043rd overall prospect in 247Sports’ composite rankings for the recruiting class of 2019, Trey Leroux doesn’t arrive at Ohio State as a highly touted prospect. The 6-foot-8, 330-pound blocker is ranked as the 89th offensive tackle and 1,127th overall prospect in the class of 2020.
Even so, the Buckeyes opted to invest in his long-term development, and Leroux – a native of Norwalk, Ohio, just about two hours north of Columbus – jumped at the opportunity almost as soon as it came his way.
Leroux committed to Ohio State on March 11, just three days after he received an offer from the Buckeyes. He told Eleven Warriors in April that he and his family had already talked about Ohio State being his top school, which “made the decision really easy” once the opportunity was presented to him.
It’s unlikely that Leroux will see immediate playing time at Ohio State – though the same could have been said a year ago about Jones, who has played in nine games as a true freshman – but he will add depth at a position where the Buckeyes needed it while he competes to try to work his way up the depth chart as his career in Columbus progresses.
Leroux’s measurables, as you might expect, are what stands out most from his high school film. He consistently towered over his opponents at Norwalk, and was typically able to dominate them physically with his sheer size and power, while he was also more agile and athletic than most of his competition there.
As he makes a massive jump in competition to Power 5 college football, Leroux won’t be able to physically overmatch his opponents to the same degree, which will make his technical development crucial to his success. He’ll also probably need to lose some weight and improve upon his quickness to keep up with Big Ten pass-rushers.
He’ll likely spend his first couple years at Ohio State practicing with the scout team while learning from offensive line coach Greg Studrawa and director of sports performance Mickey Marotti, but he is joining the Buckeyes as an early enrollee in January, which will give him the opportunity to get to work right away on his conditioning and development as a tackle.
Leroux is one of six offensive linemen in Ohio State’s recruiting class of 2020, including two additional in-state prospects in Jakob James and Paris Johnson Jr., both from Cincinnati. The Buckeyes sought to bring in a large class of offensive linemen this year to replenish their depth in the trenches, and particularly made an effort to bring in some of the state’s top prospects up front after whiffing on some of Ohio’s top offensive linemen in recent years.
Among the incoming offensive linemen, Leroux is one of three expected to play tackle, along with Johnson and Grant Toutant. With Branden Bowen and Joshua Alabi both seniors this year and Thayer Munford also a potential candidate to enter the NFL draft after this season, the Buckeyes needed to bring in multiple tackles this year to beef up their pipeline at the position.
