Ohio State has had some impact true freshmen over the years. They wouldn’t have won a national championship in 2002 without rookie running back Maurice Clarett, for instance.
Last season, another running back — J.K. Dobbins — stepped in for an injured Mike Weber and set an Ohio State freshman rushing record with 1,403 yards on the ground.
Defensively, the Brothers Bosa were able to step in as major contributors in their first seasons on campus. And in 2014, Urban Meyer was singing freshman linebacker Raekwon McMillan’s praises from the day he was allowed to talk about him by NCAA rule.
None of those players were surprises to their respective coaches because they all came in with high expectations. But plenty of other freshmen have arrived with similar expectations, only to take longer to develop than anticipated.
In other words, nothing is ever truly guaranteed.
“Well, you never know until you get them here,” defensive coordinator Greg Schiano said this spring. “We saw them perform at a high level as high school players, but high school’s high school and the Big Ten’s the Big Ten. So you don’t know.”
However, coaches have been doing this sort of thing long enough to have a pretty good idea of who will play early and who might be more developmental.
What they saw from those player on the football field in high school is what caught their eye, but once the players get to campus, it’s not just the football field that a player will have to be dealing with.
“But from all the years of doing it, you’re hopeful that the things you saw that initially attracted you to offer them a scholarship, you feel when you’re around those guys, you think there’s a possibility,” he said. “But until they get here — I always say, football’s part of it. But being away from home’s part of it.”
Some players are more mature than others. Some have different circumstances they are leaving behind. Others may simply not be ready for such a shock to the system.
Sure, the talent may have been there, but there’s more to it than just being good at football.
“You don’t know if a guy’s going to be homesick, does he miss his girlfriend, does he miss mom and dad?” Schiano said. “They’re human beings, so those things affect their play as freshmen. Are they going to someday, yeah, they’re going to be really good players. I believe that. Is that day September 1? I don’t know that. We’re going to figure that out through training camp.”