If you were to become a fly on the wall inside Ohio State’s wide receivers room, you’d see a collage of different personalities.
“We’re all fools to our own extent,” Evan Spencer said.
“We definitely have divas,” Jalin Marshall said, laughing.
That’s the cliche, after all.
“I guess it’s part of the position,” Spencer said.
“That comes from being a wide receiver,” Marshall said.
And when asked by reporters to describe his teammates in greater detail, Marshall did not hesitate. He leaned forward in his chair as if deep in thought and cracked a smile: “Oh, who we got.”
On redshirt sophomore Mike Thomas: “He’s kind of the class clown of the room. He always makes those comments.”
On Spencer: “The leader, he’s like the class president or something.”
On senior Devin Smith: “He’s the goofiest one in the room, he does all them impersonations and stuff like that of all the coaches."
On sophomore Dontre Wilson: “He’s probably the jokester or the class comedian — he talks about everybody, doesn’t let nobody take a break about their outfits and stuff.”
On junior Corey Smith: “He’s kind of quiet, but he’s a clown too.”
Marshall laughed.
“We all clowns.”
Such is the life of a ball-catcher and with only wall ball to go around.
“Everybody wants to do well, everybody wants to score and everybody wants their name in the big light,” Spencer said.
There’s an inherent — and probably necessary — self-obsessiveness and selfishness that comes with the playing the position; the things that make a good wide receiver often make for a bad teammate.
And on an Ohio State offense that’s exploding week after week, it’s hard not to get greedy. It’s hard not to want in on the frenzy that is how the Buckeyes are gutting opposing defenses.
Then they think about their room — the one filled with all those clowns, fools and divas — and how it’s forged a brotherhood bigger than all of it.
“We’re all so close, we all treat ourselves like family — we say that all the time. And when one person’s doing well, we’re all doing well,” Spencer said.
Added their position coach, Zach Smith: “There's not a guy in there that doesn't want to see one of the others do something well. In order for Mike Thomas to touch the ball, Jalin might not touch it as many times, but there's a great relationship between the two. He wants Jalin to touch the ball. They all want to do well.
“At the end of the day all they really care about is we win and we do our job ... They're all bought into the fact that whoever is in is going to make the play. There's confidence in my room.”
Because there, different personalities work toward one goal.
“I feel like we want to win more than we want the ball,” Marshall said.
“We fight the diva-ness in each other.”
It’s worked so far.
