Ohio lineman looking for more offers
Olmsted Falls (Ohio) offensive guard Zach Laird picked up his first scholarship offer this summer, and is now hoping his senior season performance creates more opportunities for his future.
The 6-3, 260-pound Laird received his first offer from Air Force. He is excited about the Falcons, but would also like to add a few more schools to his list before he has to make a decision.
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"They are a possibility," Laird said of Air Force. "It is a good school and a good program, but I just want to keep my options open. I'm still talking to a lot of places, getting a lot of calls and a lot of people coming to see me.
"I was able to make it up to Akron a couple weeks ago, but I haven't been able to make it up to any of the other ones."
This fall Laird has been receiving regular calls from Harvard, Miami and Bowling Green and he has also been keeping in contact with Illinois and Michigan State via email. The question now is where will his next scholarship offer come from.
"Miami and BG have kind of hinted at it, but they haven't given me anything yet," Laird said. "If I got an offer to a place I'd be interested in in the month or two after football, I'd wait as long as I could to see what else could come in and see what I could get."
Most schools are recruiting Laird as an offensive guard, but he has also been standing out on the defensive side of the football for Olmsted Falls. In order to generate the offers he covets, he knows he'll need to finish his senior season strong.
"I think we need to win out the rest of these games and I need to play past my potential as best as I possibly can," Laird said.
Olmsted Falls is off to a 2-4 start to their season, but Laird said the focus is to win out the rest of their games to ensure a spot in the postseason. In order to accomplish that feat, Laird has been willing to contribute wherever his coaches feel he is needed.
"I started off as guard, but our tackle is out now so they switched me over to tackle. There's not a huge difference in our offense between the guard and tackle on our side," he said. "I think I have gotten a lot better on defense at reading my keys and reacting to where the ball is coming."
Laird is also a standout in the classroom where he holds a 3.8 GPA and scored a 1912 on the SAT.