HALL BELIEVES BUCKEYES WILL HAVE “BEST DEFENSIVE LINE IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL”
The first time Mike Hall met Jack Sawyer, Hall had not yet joined Ohio State’s 2021 class, but Sawyer was doing his best recruiting job on his fellow defensive line prospect and was already setting the standard for what he expects from them.
Soon enough, Hall committed to the Buckeyes, and he is now on the path to hitting the ceiling that he believes this three-headed haul of himself, Sawyer and Tyleik Williams will one day hit.
“I believe we will be the best defensive line in college football,” Hall told
Eleven Warriors. “That’s the mindset. That’s always been the mindset for Jack. When I first got introduced to him, that was his mindset, and that’s all we talk about is being the best defensive line in college football and to win national championships. That’s been the mindset since day one.”
THE HALL FILE
- Class: 2021
- Size: 6-foot-3/290 lbs
- Pos: DT
- School: Streetsboro (Streetsboro, Ohio)
- Composite Rating: ★★★★
- Composite Rank: 49
Hall is a four-star prospect ranked No. 49 overall while Sawyer is a five-star defensive end ranked No. 4 overall and Williams is ranked No. 161 overall and No. 12 at defensive tackle as a four-star recruit. It’s one of the best three-man hauls in America’s 2021 recruiting class, and in two months (or maybe longer), they could be joined by the No. 3 overall player in five-star defensive end J.T. Tuimoloau.
Hall and Co. are making a concerted push to land the No. 2-ranked strongside defensive end out of Eastside Catholic (Washington) High School after having recently landed a fellow Washingtonian in five-star receiver Emeka Egbuka.
“J.T. doesn’t talk too much that I know of,” Hall said. “But me and J.T. are cool. He’s definitely a cool person to talk to over the phone. He seems like a good person. We try to talk to him every day, but at the end of the day he doesn’t talk back. He’s just like Emeka. They’re not really talkative guys so it’s pretty hard to get those guys to talk when they’re not used to it.”
In an opposite story of Tuimoloau – who has been ranked in the top 10 overall ever since he received his first ranking as a sophomore – Hall was a late bloomer rankings-wise.
In the summer of 2019, Hall was ranked No. 409 overall as a three-star before slowly rising into the top 250 as a four-star, then into top-100 territory and eventually getting to his perch now as a top-50 prospect.
“It’s definitely been crazy going from being underrated and under-ranked and going to one camp and just being a three-star and coming out of nowhere,” Hall said. “But it made me work harder because it made me realize that not everybody is good as when they rank them. Rankings don’t really matter as long as you know your worth and your work ethic and work hard, you can do anything.”
At a summer camp in 2019, Hall blew up after a head-turning performance to jump-start that journey. Even though he was unable to work in Larry Johnson’s group that day, word eventually got around to the Buckeyes’ defensive line coach and he got in contact with Hall to get his Ohio State recruitment truly rolling.
“It was in the summer camp with a lot of people just talking about me, coaches and everything,” Hall said when asked how Johnson got his eyes on him. “I was the top guy at the camp, and people kept talking about me and I guess Coach J heard about it the next day. So they started contacting me when they could.”
That eventually sprouted into a strong relationship between the like-minded pair.
“I talk to Coach J just about every day,” Hall said. “I definitely have a strong relationship with him. We talk about life in general, football, anything. I feel like I can talk to Coach J or any of the coaching staff about anything. It’s just that culture and that bond we built.
“I’m not a talkative person. I like to get comfortable with a person first before I really talk. But Coach J talking, him talking gets me hyped up. Anything he says just fires me up, especially on the pregame speeches. Man, it really makes you wanna be out there like, ‘Man, why can’t I be out there now?’”