'I can work with this.' How Miles Walker became Ohio State's fourth 2023 offensive lineman

Wayne McGillicuddy needed a favor from two of his friends. He had to make sure he wasn’t crazy.

The Brunswick School football coach out of Greenwich, Connecticut, reached out to coaches at Vanderbilt and Kentucky, sending video of Miles Walker, a 6-foot-6 offensive tackle who had not gotten the attention on the recruiting trail McGillicuddy thought he would.

“‘Am I wrong to think he’s better than the Ivy League?' " McGillicuddy asked them. " 'I placed a kid at Texas Tech. I think he’s just as good if not better than (him).’ ”

Walker was a late bloomer, reclassifying back a class to make up for his lost COVID-19 season in 2020.

On film, he was a 240-pound offensive tackle who had the attention of the Ivy League. But Walker had grown into a 285-pound behemoth heading into his senior year − a big-shouldered, big-legged true tackle who had to duck under doors to walk into rooms.

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Ohio State offensive line coach Justin Frye wasn’t swayed by the lack of attention Walker had on the recruiting trail. Frye was convinced of what Walker could be, getting a commitment from the Connecticut native to join the Buckeyes' 2023 recruiting class.

To Bobby Walker, Miles’ father, that was just his son’s journey. But he knows that journey will continue to be the center of Miles' fuel as he makes the transition to the life of a college football lineman in January.

Bobby remembers telling Miles, "You ended the year with an offer from Fordham and you left your junior year committed to Ohio State. That’s work. That took a process to get there. So stay humble, man, and remember the people who pass you over.’”

Miles Walker aimed to become like a tank

Bobby wanted his son to become a tank.

Bobby, who was an all-conference lineman in high school before playing Division III football at Williams College, seeing early that his son could follow in his footsteps.

“Think about what a tank looks like,” Bobby Walker said. “Tanks don’t have to move too fast, but they crush everything in its path. You guys are tanks. You’re going to establish position, keep your feet wide and just keep driving, driving, driving until you move the guy in front of you.”

He knew his son's path wasn’t one of glory. That didn’t matter to Miles, who could still see his dream intact.

“My dream was, essentially, if my parents were busy and they couldn’t make it to a game,” Miles said, “they could just turn on SportsCenter or whatever it is and there I am playing right in front of them.”

But the recruiting process didn’t prove to be easy.

While Connecticut has produced linemen such as Michigan’s Alessandro Lorenzetti and Tristan Bounds along with 2023 four-star Alabama commit Olaus Alinen, the state, like many of the surrounding New England states, is not known for producing high-level college football talent at a rate like Texas, Georgia, Florida or even Ohio.

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“Being from Connecticut, nobody really thinks to even come and recruit up here,” Miles said. “I had a few coaches even telling me like ‘I never even thought of Connecticut or any of the states in New England.’

“The thing that I just kept at the back of my mind was just you have to be one of the best in the league and you have to have coaches talking about you.”

Miles Walker uses extra year of high school to grow into Ohio State target

One extra year of high school was a hard pill for Miles to swallow.

Walker’s name was coming up during his junior season, but with the caveat that he “wasn’t filled out enough," which didn't allow him to be physical enough for college football. He was a 240-pound offensive tackle, dropping nearly 40 pounds during a junior season that was lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Without a junior season, Walker didn’t have a chance to show what he could do as his body continued to grow.

Once the idea of reclassification was introduced, Walker family talked about for months, weighing the pros and cons for Miles' best path as one of the younger students in Brunswick’s 2022 class.

But if he wanted to play major college football, he knew one extra year would make a massive difference.

“I really didn’t want to do it,” Walker said. “But after talking with my coaches and even like my trainers at my gym, they were like, ‘Honestly, I think it would be the best thing for you… If you put in the work and you put in the time and effort, I think you would be a Power 5 kid.’

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“I kind of took that to heart and I had a big smile on my face and I kind of just got to work.”

Bobby started to see the work pay off during the pandemic, watching Miles study YouTube clips of professional offensive line drills, while working on quickness and sprints to keep his athleticism as his body grew.

During his 2021 season, while Miles remained “underweight," he came in with the mindset of utilizing his athleticism, punch and fundamentals to beat opponents during the season before putting on 40 pounds in two months after the season was complete, returning to a leaner 280 pounds than he had previously been.

This was the Miles Walker Frye saw at Brunswick, floored by the way the lineman moved along with his comfortability in terminology and technique and an increased level of nastiness as he continued to get bigger, leading to him “dumping kids left and right in the fall,” according to McGillicuddy.

Frye believes Ohio State can put weight on Miles Walker’s frame. But what the Buckeyes offensive line coach saw was something he could build.

“He looked at me and he was like ‘OK, I can work with this,’ ” Miles Walker said.

With offers from Texas A&M, Duke, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Penn State and the Ivy League schools, among others, never getting the attention of the majority of the SEC, Walker committed to Ohio State in July.

Miles Walker joins Ohio State brotherhood ready to work

Enering his first Ohio State visit as a commit, Miles Walker was nervous.

The family atmosphere of the Buckeyes was one of his main draws to the program, something that had been strong in his time at Brunswick. But up until the final game of Ohio State’s regular season against Michigan, the “brotherhood” had grown only through text messages with the Buckeyes’ three other 2023 linemen: Luke Montgomery, Joshua Padilla and Austin Siereveld.

Walker knew he was an outsider, being the only lineman from outside of Ohio.

“I was a little nervous at first,” Walker said. “It was like, ‘I don’t know if they are going to like me.’ But it was almost like I had already met them previously. It was almost like an old high school reunion: coming back together and just hanging out.”

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Each of them, Walker said, have the same mentality as him − to grow and be supportive and accountable to one another through the process.

It’s something Walker remembers seeing from Zen Michalski on a tour through the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.

As Frye led him through the facilities at 7:30 a.m. while he was on campus, Walker saw the second-year Ohio State lineman on the indoor practice field by himself working.

“Coach Frye was like, ‘He has what it takes to be at the top in this league and at this level,’ ” Walker said. “ ‘He’s one of the only ones who comes in on the regular, on his own just to work by himself.’

“That was something I had done. If it was a Saturday morning and I didn’t have anything to do, and I was just sitting at home, I would grab my bag, grab my cleats, grab a water and just head to the field.”

That is all Walker’s been to McGillicuddy − Brunswick’s leader by example as the first one on the field or in the weight room and the last one to leave.

Improvement is all that Walker is focused on.

“He’s 6-6, 285 pounds. He walks around campus and he tries to be very quiet,” McGillicuddy said. “He tries to be the guy that’s under the radar, and he just wants to work hard and continue to get better. That’s the only thing Miles Walker cares about.”

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: How Miles Walker became Ohio State's fourth 2023 offensive lineman