Aidan Leigh has potential to surpass brother

One of the biggest questions for Ohio State’s 2021 recruiting class is whether or not the Buckeye coaches and, perhaps more importantly, the Buckeye commits will be able to sway five-star offensive tackle Tristan Leigh to join them over LSU and possibly Oklahoma (though I think LSU is the clear frontrunner).

I know it’s a big tease, but I will be getting into more of the Leigh recruitment and the type of player he is later this week after speaking with Robinson Secondary (Virginia) head coach Scott Vossler. I had a really good conversation with Vossler the other night, and he offered some interesting perspective and thoughts on Leigh that I want to dive further into.

Today, though, I want to talk about Leigh’s little brother, Aidan Leigh, who is already a player Ohio State fans need to keep in mind despite the fact that he is only in the class of 2023.

The younger Leigh has a very long way to go in terms of growth and development. Though he is 6-foot-4, 225 pounds right now, he is still a ways away from growing into his body and needs to put on a lot more weight.

But he's still incredibly young and has a massive amount of potential. It’s possible he could surpass his brother in terms of his size.

“I think Aidan might end up being bigger,” Vossler said. “It’s always different how kids develop. Some kids grow early and then they’re a little short on the athletic side of it. Some don’t grow, but they develop some of those athletic traits and then grow late and are able to combine the two.

“Aidan looks, right now, like he’s gonna be a bigger version of the same body type that Tristan has right now. He might end up being a couple inches taller, even, than Tristan. But as he gets older, will that foot speed, quickness and agility all come together for him like it did for his brother? We’ll see. But it looks promising today.”

It’s a bit hard for Vossler to give a full evaluation of where Aidan is in terms of his development right now. Robinson Secondary is still not allowed to play football this fall, and Vossler has not been able to evaluate Aidan in person for about six months. Even from afar, though, it’s clear to see the similarities between him and Tristan.

“That’s a long time for a freshman in high school,” Vossler says of the development that can occur in that brief time period. “He’s a sophomore now, so I’m sure he’s changed a bunch. I’m sure he’s gotten a lot better, but with everything we’ve got going on, it’s hard for me to see how the progression has occurred because I haven’t been able to witness it. They’ve been doing it in their basements. But if you see them walking the streets next to each other, it’s like Mini Me and the other guy. They’re a spitting image of each other.”

Aidan projects as a left tackle right now because he already has the length to do so, but Vossler believes he could also move inside to guard. That length and size is what has college coaches across the country intrigued, as Ohio State, LSU, Oklahoma, Florida and Maryland are the first five programs who have offered him.

Don’t expect the younger Leigh to be making a decision any time soon, though. It’s really just the beginning for him as he jump-starts his football career this offseason and this spring.

“I think he’s so far away from thinking about all that,” Vossler said. “He knows how it works from his brother. He knows that the better you do, the more options you’ll have, and if you don’t do well those things will go away. He knows that he’s just gotta focus on continuing to improve and all that recruiting stuff will take care of itself. 

“Because of his brother, he’s gone on a lot of the visits. So nothing’s gonna blow him away because he’s already seen a lot of stuff, whereas Tristan didn’t get his first offer until January of his sophomore year. He hadn’t really been anywhere and then he started getting offers and going on visits. The next thing was always bigger than the thing before. His brother’s been tagging along on all those visits with him so I don’t know if anything’s really gonna shock him.

A fun fact I feel like mentioning: Vossler is a native of St. Mary’s, Ohio, who played defensive line at Dayton, where he was named a second-team All-American. He then coached at Hamilton High School for two years before earning the head job at Robinson Secondary. Vossler’s dad was a high school football coach for 35 years in Ohio, so he’s very familiar with the area and how important high school football is to the state. I wouldn’t read much into that in terms of how it affect the Leighs’ recruitment, but thought I would share.

Receiver target Allen exploding in senior year

We have written about Northmont receiver Markus Allen a couple times at Eleven Warriors – both about his decommitment from Michigan and his strong relationship with Brian Hartline, and his performance in Week 4 against Springfield.

The three-star Ohio receiver is still building that relationship with Hartline and the rest of the Buckeye staff, but in the meantime, he’s continuing to ball out while in high school and proving he deserves to rack up some more offers.

On Friday night, Allen hauled in an astounding 14 catches for 224 yards and three touchdowns in an intense 28-27 win over Wayne.

The 6-foot-2, 190-pounder, ranked No. 12 in Ohio and No. 62 at receiver, is now up to 43 catches, 659 receiving yards, nine touchdowns and 109.8 receiving yards per game, all of which lead the Greater Western Ohio Conference.

While Ohio State has yet to offer, Allen is continuing to do what he can on the field to earn that call from the Buckeyes. One of his best friends, 2022 Ohio State commit C.J. Hicks, is certainly on the bandwagon to get him to Columbus.

Burton top 12 coming

As we touched on last week, five-star receiver Caleb Burton will miss the rest of his junior season. But that’s not going to slow down the No. 1 wideout’s recruitment at all.

Burton, who is Ohio State’s top receiver target in the 2022 class, will be announcing a top 12 list on Tuesday, he announced via Twitter. 

That’s not major news, and neither will the fact that the Buckeyes are going to make the list. But it’s still an update for a player who Ohio State fans are hoping will follow in the footsteps of Julian Fleming (and maybe Emeka Egbuka?) by becoming the latest top-ranked receiver in his class to make the move to Columbus.

Header photo: Aidan Leigh