Meet Grant Brix, the most unassuming top-100 prospect in the Class of 2024
The top player in Iowa will choose among Alabama, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Kansas State.
theathletic.com
Grant Brix didn’t put too much thought into his decision to start playing football as an eighth-grader in small-town Iowa.
He had some new classmates who played, and he wanted to try something new. He had previously only played basketball and had no expectations about where football might take him.
Turns out, he wasn’t too shabby.
“I really enjoyed it. It was kind of, more natural,” Brix said. “It wasn’t really something that I was planning from the moment I started in eighth grade, but I just worked hard at it and just worked a bunch in the weight room — a bunch in drills outside of football practice.
“And it paid off for me.”
Fast forward four years and Brix, a 6-foot-6, 290-pound offensive lineman, is now a senior at Logan-Magnolia High School in Logan, Iowa. In the last year, he’s gained about 30 pounds without sacrificing his speed or motor.
As recently as February, he was a mid-four-star prospect, ranked No. 241 nationally in the 247Sports Composite. Now, he’s safely inside the top 100 at No. 62 overall and the No. 5 offensive tackle — as well as the No. 1 player in Iowa — in the Class of 2024.
A rare late bloomer given today’s recruiting landscape, Brix went from zero offers in spring 2022 to 20-plus by the time his senior year started. He’s down to four schools — Kansas State, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Alabama — each of which hosted him on an official visit this summer. And if he’s being candid, even Brix doesn’t quite know how he’s made such a big climb in the rankings.
“I have no clue,” he said, laughing. “To be honest, I don’t pay much attention to the rankings. Maybe it was just people looking at my film? I don’t know.”
Brix’s rise to Power 5 prominence began in summer 2022 when Logan-Magnolia coach Matt Straight encouraged him to start attending camps. Brix was only 260 pounds at the time, but Straight knew his motor and ability to get off the ball would at least make him an attractive option for big-time programs.
Brix started his camp circuit at Nebraska — the closest Power 5 program to his home, about 90 minutes away. But as the camp came to an end, the Cornhuskers communicated to him that they weren’t ready to extend an offer. Neither were Michigan, Ohio State, Iowa, Iowa State and Minnesota as the summer wore on.
“I really don’t know what goes on in a coach’s head,” Brix said. “I just know that if they were going to offer you, they’d come up and talk to you obviously about it. I was at Iowa State and they said, ‘We’re gonna wait and watch your (junior year) film.’ And same thing with Nebraska, ‘We’re gonna wait and watch your film this fall.’”
But then an exhausted Brix took one last visit, to Kansas State, his 10th and final Power 5 camp of the 2022 summer.
Brix admittedly struggled a bit with his pass protection at the K-State camp — no surprise since Logan-Magnolia runs the wishbone offense — but he excelled in run-blocking drills. Near the end of camp, offensive line coach Conor Riley walked over and took Brix into the tunnel to meet with head coach Chris Klieman.
A good sign.
“That’s when I got my first offer,” Brix said. “And it was awesome.”
That Kansas State offer, in July 2022, was the first of many. Oregon offered in February, along with Notre Dame, Ole Miss and Pitt. Alabama most recently offered in June at the end of his official visit. And even Nebraska, which passed on two previous occasions, joined the list.
“I’ve always been kind of wondering. … If Kansas State didn’t offer, what would that look like?” Straight said. “Would the film have been enough for people to go ahead and say, ‘Yeah, let’s do this?’ because he still has a lot of room to grow and a lot of progress (to be made). And although he’s getting offers, he’s still very raw.
“If you watch film right now compared to some other top recruits, you probably wouldn’t see some of the same things maybe from him. But I think people know that his inexperience is something that can be fixed.”
Straight said Brix’s pass blocking will need to be overhauled at the next level, which probably best explains why he was late to get onto the radar of some of college football’s biggest programs.
But with three running backs in the backfield at Logan-Magnolia, it’s crucial for the Panthers that their offensive linemen are quick and fly off the ball fast. That’s where Brix is at his best.
“His frame is so good. He moves so well,” Straight said. “(College coaches) know they can turn that into something really good.”
Brix does not have a timeline for when he will announce his decision but indicated he is done taking visits.
Oklahoma’s ceiling is attractive to him, and he likes how experienced the coaching staff is. Nebraska is his closest option to home and has a head coach, Matt Rhule, who is known for turning struggling programs around. Alabama, “is Alabama” and Nick Saban is Nick Saban. And Kansas State has been recruiting him the longest and has a strong family atmosphere. The Wildcats have also been prioritizing recruiting in Western Iowa — Klieman is a Northern Iowa grad and former assistant coach, and Riley is an Omaha native.
Iowa, the in-state school, filled its class too fast, Brix said, with the Hawkeyes’ taking commitments from other offensive linemen before he was ready to make a decision.
Though it might be a reach to call Brix an under-the-radar prospect — he is flirting with the top 50 after all — he is far from a household name in recruiting circles.
“I knew that he would get looks,” Straight said. “And so he went and he fought and did what he had to do and got that first offer, and that just got it going.”
(Photo courtesy of Rob Howe / HawkFanatic.com)
