Ohio State Visit Eye Opening for Top 100 Defensive Tackle

OPELIKA, Ala. — Ohio State has worked quickly in its recruitment of four-star Opelika (AL) defensive tackle prospect Malik Autry. The Buckeyes reached out to the 6-foot-5, 320-pound prospect just a few weeks ago and in that time they have received a visit and subsequently offered.

BuckeyeHuddle.com caught up with Autry at his high school on Tuesday as part of our Southern Swing recruiting tour.

“It was about three weeks ago,” Autry said of the beginning of his Ohio State contact. “Coach (Larry) Johnson and coach (LaAllan) Clark both started following me on social media and were in my inbox asking me if I was interested in Ohio State.”

“Ohio State is a great program, so of course I was,” he continued. “I got the visit setup with my parents and it’s just been rolling from there.”

The visit this past weekend opened Autry’s eyes a little bit. He has been committed to the hometown school, Auburn, for more than a year but has recently started to listen to some other programs.

“I knew they had a great program,” he started. “I had heard a lot about the great Larry Johnson. Going down there, I really didn’t expect it to be as good as it was. It was a great visit overall, my family loved it and I loved it.”

Ohio State has some ground to make up in the relationships department with Autry and his family but this past weekend helped them make up quite a bit of that ground.

“It really surprised me, they jumped up a few spots just on that one visit alone,” Autry explained. “Coach Johnson is a very wise person. He’s an older guy so he can relate to the recruits’ parents better than most younger coaches. My parents have a lot of respect for him. They’ve definitely jumped up the list super quickly based on that one visit.”

Autry has since setup an official visit to Ohio State which will take place the weekend of June 21st. It will give the Buckeyes one more shot to make another big impression.

Hear more from Autry from our one-on-one with the big defensive tackle on our Southern Swing. Autry talks more about Ohio State as well as his relationship with fellow Alabama four-star defensive lineman Zion Grady who also made a visit to Columbus this weekend.