Ironton High School football coach Trevon Pendleton needed only one word to answer when asked what will stand out most to Ohio State fans when they watch Reid Carrico play.
“Effort,” Pendleton told Eleven Warriors. “Without a doubt, effort. The kid never takes a play off.”
Ask Ohio State coach Ryan Day why Carrico was the Buckeyes’ linebacker of choice for their recruiting class of 2021, and it’s because he has no doubt they’ll get that same kind of effort from Carrico in Columbus.
“You talk about somebody when you look him in his eye, he’s gonna get something done,” Day said when the Buckeyes signed Carrico in December. “He’s gonna have a great career here just because of the way he takes care of himself. In the classroom, on the field, one of the toughest guys I’ve seen on film running sideline to sideline.”
Ohio State director of player personnel Mark Pantoni made a point of watching that film as much as he could over the past couple of years, and he was consistently impressed by what he saw.
“So Friday nights, a lot of these guys play and then myself and my staff come in early Saturday morning to start cutting up the games from Friday night, and there’s certain guys that you really look forward to Saturday morning, like you’re fighting to who gets to cut them up, and Reid was always one of them,” Pantoni said. “Reid was really fun to watch. How hard he plays. He’s just this old-school, throwback linebacker who has no regard for his body. He’s making 20, 25 tackles a game. He’s playing running back and having 80-yard runs. He was a dominant high school player.”
Carrico was a mainstay on both sides of the ball for the Ironton Fighting Tigers, leading them to back-to-back state championship game appearances over the past two seasons. In the process, Carrico established himself as the No. 3 prospect in Ohio, No. 5 inside linebacker in the nation and No. 86 overall prospect in the recruiting class of 2021.
Defense is where Carrico will make his home at Ohio State, likely at the Mike linebacker position, where he has the potential to be a future leader of the Buckeyes’ defense just like he was at Ironton – and that’s what he wants to be.
“I’ve been a leader on my high school team, which every guy there at Ohio State has, I guess. But I was a leader on my high school team, I was always the vocal guy, the guy that wasn’t afraid to get in somebody’s grill or maybe hurt their feelings a little bit to make them better,” Carrico told Eleven Warriors before enrolling at Ohio State last month. “I think that would be the biggest thing that I’m bringing to the room.”
Pendleton says Carrico was a player he could always count on to do whatever he asked him to do, and he often used Carrico as an example to his younger players of how to do things the right way.
“You know the old adage, if you give a kid an inch, he’ll take a mile? If you give Reid Carrico an inch, he’s honestly gonna take about a centimeter,” Pendleton said. “He’s the type of kid that he keeps himself on the straight and narrow, he’s a great teammate, he’s a great leader and he just does things right all the time. He’s really, really an impressive kid. He’s a 45-year-old successful man trapped in an 18-year-old’s body.”
When Carrico isn’t on the field, he isn’t one to show a lot of excitement or emotion. He describes himself as “a pretty even-keeled guy until it’s time to play,” and he didn’t have much interest in the glitz and glam of the recruiting process.
When it comes time to strap on the pads, though, it’s easy to see how much Carrico cares about playing and winning the game.
“He wasn’t into recruiting, he wasn’t into all the splash, he just loves ball,” Pantoni said. “So Reid, if you have stock, you’re gonna put it in that kid because he’s just a grinder, blue-collar kid who’s gonna have a great career here.”
“You know the old adage, if you give a kid an inch, he’ll take a mile? If you give Reid Carrico an inch, he’s honestly gonna take about a centimeter.” – Ironton coach Trevon Pendleton
There won’t be much need for the Buckeyes to derecruit Carrico, as he was already preparing himself for the tough Mickey Marotti workouts that were soon to come before he arrived on campus. Even after Ironton’s season ended in November, Carrico was still getting up for 6:30 a.m. workouts every morning.
Pendleton said he never had to worry about Carrico missing a workout or showing up late during his Ironton career.
“In my three years that I was able to coach him, I never remember him missing a practice. I never even remember him missing a rep in practice,” Pendleton said. “He was hurt, banged up at times, but he’s a kid that he is always trying to compete and always trying to get better.”
Carrico knows there will still be tough times in his first offseason as a Buckeye as he gets acclimated to the challenges of being a college football player. But he also believes that will all be worth it come September, which is what Pendleton – who played at Michigan State from 2011 to 2015 – has also told him.
“He said that there were times when they were like, ‘Man, this really, really sucks,’ as far as the training and stuff like that. But once you get to the Saturdays, you find out that it’s all worth it,” Carrico said. “And that’s really what I’m excited for. I’m excited to lace them up for the first time.”
Reid Carrico wasn't one to get excited by the glamour of the recruiting process, but he can't wait to play his first game in Ohio Stadium.
Toughness is a tenet of the Ironton program where Carrico comes from, and he believes Ironton “trains harder than anybody in the state,” preparing him both physically and mentally for the collegiate level.
Still, Carrico knows he has to be prepared to work harder than he ever has before as he arrives at Ohio State. He could have an opportunity to push for early playing time with the Buckeyes, who lost their top four linebackers from last season and enter 2021 with only seven returning scholarship players at the position, but he knows nothing will be given to him.
“They’re gonna assume that I know nothing about playing linebacker. And I’m all right with that, because everybody has to go through it, but I’m just going to be a sponge, man,” Carrico said. “I just get to focus on being the best linebacker I can be. So like it was in high school, where I’m playing multiple positions and I have to help the team win, and now I just get to focus on one position and I’m pretty excited for it.”
