The Scarlet and Gray

[Soapy]

Malachi Toney FC has arrived for duty

[djp73]

FSU!!
How do you get the screen shots so big?

[toysoldier00]

Something in that water in Florida

Have a feeling that won't extend to Gainesville

Malachi Toney FC has arrived for duty

He's going to have a monster season

FSU!!
How do you get the screen shots so big?

GameCapture->OBS

[toysoldier00]

Why Larry Johnson Bet on 3-Star DT Dillon Bridges — and Why Ohio State Believes the Gamble Will Pay Off
By Blake London on September 2, 2025





Ohio State doesn’t often dip into the 1,000s of the recruiting rankings. Not for defensive linemen. Not for positions where the Buckeyes sign five-stars like clockwork. But when Fort Wayne Snider defensive tackle Dillon Bridges committed to Ohio State back in May, the reaction inside the fanbase, and, quietly, even inside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, wasn’t confusion. It was curiosity. Who was this kid Larry Johnson was so sure about?

Ohio State already had a plan at the position. The Buckeyes landed four-star in-state nose tackle Vondree Eagles early in the cycle, a 345-pound space-eater who fit the prototype. With Eagles in the fold, the staff could afford to be selective with its second interior lineman. What they didn’t expect was to end up here, taking one of the lowest-ranked commits in the class and doing so with total conviction. But that conviction didn’t come from a general staff consensus. It came from the program’s most respected evaluator. It came from Larry Johnson.

“Coach Johnson sees what I can be.”

Bridges, listed at 6-foot-3 and 290 pounds, isn’t a camp darling or a recruiting industry favorite. He didn’t chase stars, didn’t tour the national camp circuit, didn’t spend weekends trying to impress recruiting services. His high school film is good, flashes of real power, a heavy-handed strike, surprising movement skills, but it isn’t the kind of tape that overwhelms evaluators in two minutes. To some teams, that made him a question mark. To Johnson, it made him a canvas.

“Coach Johnson told me early, ‘I’m not recruiting what you are today. I’m recruiting what you’re going to be,’” Bridges said when we spoke with him this week. “That stuck with me. He saw something in me that other people didn’t. And that meant everything.”

Ask Bridges to expand on that “something,” and he smiles.

“We talk all the time,” he said. “I’d send him clips of my hand placement, my steps, whatever. He’d break it down, Coach Johnson style, little things I didn’t even know to look for. We built a relationship off that. He made me love the details.”

The connection between the two goes beyond position coaching. Bridges describes Johnson as equal parts mentor and teacher, someone who’s been brutally honest about his strengths and his flaws. Someone who saw the kid behind the ranking.

“Coach J never promised me anything,” Bridges said. “He just said, ‘If you come here, you’re going to work harder than you ever have, and I’ll pour into you.’ That’s all I wanted.”

Ohio State’s Calculated Gamble
Inside the building, there was some debate, not resistance, not doubt, just healthy skepticism. Taking a 3-star defensive tackle ranked No. 1,230 nationally was unusual for a reason. Ohio State doesn’t need to chase projects. They get their pick of the nation’s elite linemen. They’ve had four straight years of signing at least one top-100 defensive line prospect. But Johnson’s voice carries weight earned over more than a decade of player development at Ohio State. When the man who built the Bosa-Washington-Young-Harrison-Tuimoloau-Sawyer pipeline says he sees tools worth investing in, people listen.

Especially when those tools don’t show up on a rankings page.

Bridges has:
-A naturally heavy strike
-Uncommon lower-body strength
-Disruptive first-step quickness
-Room to grow technically and physically

What he doesn’t have is polish or exposure. And Johnson loves that.

“He told me he likes molding guys,” Bridges said. “He said sometimes it’s easier when you’re not taught bad habits yet. That made me feel like he was really studying me, not just recruiting me.”

A Bond Built on Trust
Bridges’ recruitment wasn’t defined by hype videos or photo shoots. It was defined by trust, and by conversations that felt more professor-student than coach-player. He remembers the moment it clicked.

“I was talking with Coach J about a rep where I got washed inside,” Bridges said. “He paused the film and said, ‘You know what you did wrong?’ And I said, ‘Yeah… but I want you to tell me.’ He just laughed. After that, we talked almost every week.”

That trust went both ways. Johnson believed in Bridges enough to stake his reputation on him. Bridges believed in Johnson enough to commit before the rankings changed, before the industry caught up, before other offers materialized.

“He told me, ‘Don’t worry about stars,’” Bridges said. “He said, ‘When you get here, nobody cares. It’s who works.’”

A Developmental Bet Worth Taking
Ohio State doesn’t need Bridges to be a star as a freshman. That’s the luxury of having a player like Eagles in the class and a deep, veteran defensive tackle room already in place. What they need is someone who can develop into a disruptive interior presence two years from now, a rotational piece turned starter who adds the depth and longevity championship teams require. And they believe Bridges is that player.

Ohio State’s staff has learned to trust Johnson’s bets. The Buckeyes have seen too many “projects” turn into monsters. Too many overlooked prospects turn into Sunday players. Too many raw kids with the right mindset become the backbone of championship defenses. Bridges knows this. He embraces it.

“I’m not coming to Ohio State to be the ‘3-star kid,’” he said. “I’m coming to be the next great defensive tackle Coach J develops. That’s the standard.”

If Johnson is right, and his track record says he usually is, Dillon Bridges might someday be the latest example of Ohio State’s most enduring recruiting philosophy:

You recruit stars to build classes.
 You recruit Larry Johnson evaluations to build championships.

Rank	Pos	Name	Height	Weight	High School	Home Town
***	QB	Tyree Figurs	6'3"	190 lbs	Mission Hills	Mission Hills, CA
*****	WR	Ashton Ramsey	6'3"	190 lbs	Loyola Academy	Chicago, IL
****	TE	Jordan Ivory	6'5"	235 lbs	Culver Academies	Culver, IN
****	OT	Marcus Okam	6'7"	285 lbs	Pickerington Central	Pickerington, OH
****	OT	Grady Austin	6'6"	305 lbs	Princeton	Cincinnati, OH
***	OT	Derron Merriman	6'6"	300 lbs	Hilliard Bradley	Marysville, OH
***	OT	Alex Jordan	6'7"	280 lbs	Paramus Catholic	Paramus, NJ
*****	IOL	George Crecelius	6'4"	285 lbs	Cy-Fair	Cypress, TX
****	IOL	Thaddeus Roe	6'4"	290 lbs	Avon	Avon, IN
***	DE	Deontae Savage	6'6"	240 lbs	Avon	Avon, IN
****	DT	Vondree Eagles	6'3"	345 lbs	Reynoldsburg	Reynoldsburg, OH
***	DT	Dillon Bridges	6'3"	290 lbs	Snider	Fort Wayne, IN
****	LB	Pauly O'Dwyer	6'5"	215 lbs	Washington	Massillon, OH
****	LB	Emmanuel Wooden	6'2"	210 lbs	Westerville South	Columbus, OH
***	LB	Jaylen Smalls	6'2"	210 lbs	Glenville	Cleveland, OH
***	LB	Avondre Lincoln	6'1"	200 lbs	Princeton	Cincinnati, OH
****	CB	Teion Cherry II	6'1"	175 lbs	Wayne	Huber Heights, OH
****	CB	Tremayne Shepley	6'1"	185 lbs	Greenville	Greenville, SC
****	S	Bobby Jackson-Ruud	6'1"	190 lbs	St. Thomas Aquinas	Fort Lauderdale, FL
****	S	Landon Bishop	6'0"	195 lbs	Whitmer	Toledo, OH
***	P	David Procter	6'5"	170 lbs	Elder	Cincinnati, OH

[six7]

Ok let’s see wat he’s got