Shrive Liked What He Saw From OSU

Ohio State has had its share of success with highly rated offensive line talent over the past year, and the Buckeyes hosted another top prospect in Keystone Stater Eric Shrive this past weekend. Find out what the nation's No. 3 offensive tackle had to say about what he saw.

Ohio State added three five-star offensive linemen in its class of 2008. The Buckeye staff has its eye on adding more in ’09.

Among those targets is Eric Shrive, a 6-7, 300-pounder from Scranton (Pa.) West Scranton and the No. 3 offensive tackle prospect in the country. Shrive was on campus this past weekend and left with a good vibe about the Scarlet and Gray.

“It was everything I expected and more,” he said. “Their facilities are top of the line. You go around from school to school comparing facilities, and their facilities are top of the line.”

Shrive made the unofficial trip with his father, brother and a friend and had a full docket lined up by the Buckeye staff. Friday night, he ate dinner on the OSU campus before hanging out with two of those ’08 five-star talents in J.B. Shugarts and Mike Brewster as well as wideout Jacob Stoneburner.

Saturday, Shrive was in attendance for the jersey scrimmage and took in the offense’s 55-44 win from the press box.

“It was very enjoyable,” he said. “They have a lot of guys injured so a lot of their starters were out, but the guys that played did a good job. The offense took the jerseys.”

The rest of Saturday included a tour of the facilities, meetings with academic staff and a sitdown meeting with OSU line coach and offensive coordinator Jim Bollman. Sunday included a meeting with head coach Jim Tressel before returning to Scranton.

“We try to pack in as much stuff as we can,” Shrive said of his busy weekend.

Being busy is nothing new to Shrive. He recently took in Illinois and has been to Rutgers – just two hours from Scranton – and Notre Dame already this spring and plans another trip, this one along with No. 11-ranked quarterback Tom Savage of Springfield (Pa.) Cardinal O’Hara, to the state university of New Jersey for the Scarlet Knights’ spring game this weekend.

“I enjoy all of my visits,” he said. “It’s fun to get away on the weekend and actually see a school. It’s fun.”

Shrive, who has 31 offers and boasts a 3.0 GPA along with a bench press of 350 pounds and a squat of 450, said he can see himself waiting to make a decision until January of February.

“I’m just still wide open,” he said when asks where Ohio State stands. “I don’t really have a ranking system or anything like that, but coming away from the visit, they really impressed me.”