Ohio State Linebacker Commit Reid Carrico Earns Second-Team All-American Honors
You've heard the old-fashioned saying: "If you're good enough, they'll find you."
Reid Carrico is from a small town in south east Ohio, not really known for being a football powerhouse. Ironton High School hasn't exactly churned out Division I college football talent with any regularity.
But Carrico is precisely the kind of blue-collar kind of player Ryan Day and his staff were looking to add in the Class of 2021, and Carrico made it official by putting pen to paper on National Signing Day last week.
On Tuesday afternoon, SI All-American announced that Carrico earned Second-Team All-American honors this fall. He joins incoming classmate Donovan Jackson as SI All-Americans this year.
Check out in the vide above what OSU Director of Player Personnel Mark Pantoni had to say about how much he and his staff enjoyed evaluating Carrico's tape each week.
Meanwhile, here are some of Carrico's best high school highlights, as he guided Ironton to State Finals appearances in each of his final two seasons.
Carrico is a top-100 player nationally (regardless of position) and was nearly as good as a running back as he was at linebacker. He was the first player ever to be named the Ohio Prep Sportswriters Southeast District Player of the Year on offense and defense in the same season. Carrico had 56 tackles and 17 tackles for loss and four sacks in 12 games as a senior in 2020, while he rushed for 1,544 yards and 25 touchdowns in helping Ironton reach the Division V state championship game for the second straight year. He rushed for over 3,000 yards with 48 career touchdowns, and was named Ohio’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2019 by the Ohio Prep Sportswriters.
Carrico has outstanding toughness and physicality, to go along with his good play speed and range. He works as a decisive middle linebacker who takes good pursuit angles with good play speed versus the run. While he must show he can do more than spy, hug and blitz, Carrico does have athletic traits to develop in pass coverage. He fits best as a Mike ‘backer in an attacking single-gap defense with a 4-3 base alignment.
LOOK: Ohio State in Pursuit of LSU Linebacker Decommit
JOHN GARCIA, SI ALL-AMERICAN, ON CARRICO
Some tape is more fun to evaluate than others and Carrico's is among the best in the country on defense. It's truly see ball, get ball. He is a tackling machine with an ideal frame, great instincts, play speed and leverage when it counts most. His sideline to sideline range could contend with any second level prospect in the class of 2021, with decisive and efficient pursuit angles to boot.
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