The legacy of the Pace family will continue in the state of Ohio.
Jalen Pace, son of Ohio state legend Orlando Pace, has accepted a favorite meeting place with the Buckeyes, he announced on Twitter today.
100% committed pic.twitter.com/m85OiK7EfR
– Jalen Pace (@pace_jalen) March 9, 2021
Pace will now follow in his father’s footsteps, who was twice unanimous on the first All-American team and twice Big Ten Offensive Lineman of the Year for the Buckeyes. Pace, a Pro Football Hall of Famer, was chosen with the first overall selection by the St. Louis Rams in the 1997 NFL draft and won seven Pro Bowl selections and three All-Pro distinctions as a left tackle.
Her son, however, starred in a different role for the Mary Institute in Missouri and for Saint Louis Country Day School. Pace is a 6-foot-tall, 195-pound outdoor linebacker who also played some of the tight end during his senior season en route to being runner-up in the Class 4A playoffs last fall.
Pace ended with 46 tackles (29 solo) with three tackles-for-loss, three sacks, three defended passes and four interceptions in eight games in 2020. He also added a blocked punt and a forced fumble.
“I am very proud of all the work he has done, because the process is much more difficult than most people think,” Orlando Pace told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Benjamin Hochman.
Jalen Pace had three scholarship offers on the table at Dayton, Quincy and Lindenwood University, and he will bring a high level character to the Buckeyes’ program, says his head coach.
“(Jalen is a) warm, very friendly and unpretentious young man,” MICDS coach Fred Bouchard told Hochman. “It’s clear that your parents taught you the right character traits that will last Jalen’s life.”
Pace will join names like Jackson Kuwatch, Mason Arnold, Cayden Saunders and Zak Herbstreit as favorite visitors in the Buckeyes’ 2021 class, as well as Toby Wilson and Reis Stockdale.
Like Pace, Saunders and Herbstreit are also legacies from the state of Ohio. Saunders is the son of ex-Buckeye and Dwayne Haskins’ agent, Cedric Saunders, and Herbstreit is the son of ex-Buckeye quarterback and current ESPN commentator Kirk Herbstreit. And Wilson is the son of Ohio State’s offensive coordinator / tight-tip coach Kevin Wilson.