Ohio State football: Top tackle target is a real reach

The Ohio State football team’s top remaining offensive tackle target is a real reach for them. Not a reach in the traditional sports sense where one team thinks highly of a player everyone else views as marginal. The reach I’m talking about is literal. The Buckeyes are reaching all the way to Finland to try to land Olaus Alinen.

Ok, so Ryan Day and offensive line coach Justin Frye are not literally going all the way to the Nordic nation to land the Finnish phenom. Alinen attends The Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut. He’s the number fourteen tackle in the country in 247Sports’ Composite rankings and someone the Buckeyes really want.

While recent OSU tackle commit Miles Walker is considered a project (read my article on him here), Alinen is much more college ready. He already has prototypical college tackle size already at 6’6” and 315 pounds and is fast, athletic, technically sound, and an aggressive blocker. He’s certainly not viewed as a recruit who will take a few years to develop.

So, I’m sure you’re now wondering the Ohio State football team’s chances of landing a commitment from Alinen. Well, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is when he took his official visits in June, Ohio State was the last school he saw. Day and Frye got the final chance to make a lasting impression; that’s usually considered a plus.

The bad news is four of 247Sports’ experts have given predictions within the last week and none are for the Buckeyes. Alinen maintains it is still close between all five schools he visited, but the overwhelming consensus is he will choose the Miami Hurricanes. Unfortunately, Alabama and not OSU is thought to be running second right now. He is also considering Oregon and Georgia.

Ohio State still has a puncher’s chance here but will have to land a haymaker in the next few days. Alinen is set to make his announcement on Friday.