A challenge, a plan and a safety net: The offensive linemen forming the backbone of Ohio State's recruiting
'If there’s a unit that needs to be Ohio guys, it’s in the trenches.'
COLUMBUS — Ohio State offensive line coach Tyler Bowen visited Lakewood St. Edward High School in the spring and presented a plan to offensive lineman Mason Wilhelm.
Work on hip mobility and playing lower, and continue to get stronger. And stay in touch.
“When I hear someone tell me there’s stuff I need to work on, I take it as a challenge,” Wilhelm said in a recent phone interview. “It’s something I’m not afraid of. It’s something I want to do because I want to prove people wrong.”
The communication continued through the offseason. On Thursday, Nov. 6, Bowen called Wilhelm for a specific reason — to offer him a scholarship.
“He said I had worked my butt off and improved so much,” Wilhelm said. “We kept a good connection and it got us to where we wanted to be. He said you kept your head down and kept grinding and on the film, we love it, we love how good of a player you’ve become.”
Committed to North Carolina since June, Wilhelm the next day called Mike Lombardi, Bill Belichick’s general manager, to tell him he was decommitting. And then he announced he’d be a Buckeye.
“Ohio State isn’t going to be easy,” Wilhelm said, “and I love stuff like that.”
Offering a three-star recruit in November may seem like the Buckeyes trying to fill in some final gaps in the Class of 2026, and they did see Arizona offensive lineman Aaron Thomas decommit three days before their offer went out to Wilhelm. But in Ohio State’s recruiting approach in this new era of paying players, where a team must choose how to balance its budget, these late offers can actually be a plan in action.
“That was our philosophy coming into the season,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said this week, “for a lot of reasons. We wanted to be able to identify the guys who really played well their senior years and use that as an evaluation tool, maybe even more than we had in the past.”
It can particularly work on the offensive line. Particularly with in-state offensive linemen.
OFFENSIVE LINE WEEK WITH BILL AND DOUG
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