The 2019 Rose Bowl was the final game of Urban Meyer’s Buckeye career, but it also marked the end of the road for the OSU seniors as well.
It wasn’t a huge group; only nine scholarship players participated in Senior Day ceremonies. But it was definitely an impactful one.
The wide receivers alone – Parris Campbell, Terry McLaurin, and Johnnie Dixon – were all captains, with the first two serving in both 2017 and 2018.
Three were starters along the offensive line: Isaiah Prince, Demetrius Knox, and Malcolm Pridgeon, and Brady Taylor was a top backup.
Kicker Sean Nuernberger finished fourth in OSU history in points scored and never missed an extra point in his career: 216-for-216.
Backup linebacker Dante Booker was the only senior on defense, and finished his career with 74 tackles, nine for loss.
The class ended their careers with an 11-win season, a pair of 12-win years, and a 13-1 mark this year. The fifth-year players were also part of the 14-1 national championship season in 2014.
They won three Big Ten titles, a Rose Bowl, Cotton Bowl, and Fiesta Bowl.
In all, the fourth-year players ended their careers 48-6 as Buckeyes, just two wins shy of the school record of 50. The redshirts finished 62-7.
But it wasn’t an easy path for some.
“There’s been a lot of hard work, a lot of time put into it,” said Campbell. “Just coming in from high school, from playing running back my entire career since I’ve played football and then making a switch to receiver when I got to college, it was hard. It was rough for me. But you know, never gave up, never quit on myself.”
Meyer has frequently credited the team’s leaders for keeping them together during the occasional adversity that they have faced – whether it was comeback wins over Penn State in 2017 and 2018, or rebounding from stunning losses to Iowa or Purdue.
Prince was the person who stood up after the loss at Purdue and challenged the team to do something memorable with the rest of their season.
Meyer said that those seniors help create that culture in the locker room.
“Why does a fifth-year senior come back? For the brotherhood. Why does the team go on the road and when you’re down by two scores they come back and win that game? It’s not for a coach. It’s not – it’s for the brotherhood,” Meyer said.
As Campbell looked back at his career, he provided some pretty good advice for the players who will be back for the 2019 season.
“You don’t get anywhere in life without hard work,” he said. “I think I’m a testament to that.”