Urban Meyer made it pretty clear he intends to do things a little differently for 2016 when he announced captains Thursday for a season still eight months away. Meyer usually leaves that decision up to the players on Ohio State’s team and waits until the season is closer before having that vote, but he felt it was something important to establish very early with what’s going to be an extremely young group next season.
“The one thing is we have very good leadership,” Meyer said of the future. “Pat Elflein is a captain. J.T. Barrett is a captain. Raekwon McMillan is a captain. Coach [Mickey Marotti] and I are working on that, we’re jumping the gun a little bit. But those are three captains that we’re not waiting until August. It’s done.”
None of the three being named captain is really a surprise. The timing is a little unique, but the underlying message is clear: The Buckeyes will rely heavily on the guys who have been there before.
Barrett, of course, is the team’s starting quarterback and is entering his third season at the helm. He was also a captain during the 2015 season. Elflein will be a fifth-year senior who will also be entering his third year as a starter. He’s a guy Meyer lauded all throughout 2015 as one of his best leaders who was not named a captain.
McMillan isn’t all that surprising either being that Ohio State returns just three starters on defense and he’s the guy in the middle. For many, though, it feels like just yesterday he was a freshman rotating in with Curtis Grant at middle linebacker.
And even though McMillan is the youngest of the three captains named for 2016, this is something that was a long time coming.
“[McMillan] was ready when he walked in the door, to be honest with you,” Ohio State defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Luke Fickell said. “Everyone has different definitions of leadership and I try to make mine really simple: Not to change up from what the head coach’s is, but those who can make others around him better.”
As a sophomore and first-year full-time starter in 2015, McMillan led the Buckeyes with 119 tackles. He was named a Butkus Award finalist and was one of Ohio State’s best players despite playing with a group of guys who largely had at least one more year of experience.
He will be one of the veteran guys on the Buckeyes’ defense next season, though. McMillan, defensive end Tyquan Lewis and cornerback Gareon Conley are the only returning starters on defense for Ohio State in 2016.
The Buckeyes will rely heavily on their man in the middle.
“The day he walked in, Raekwon was that kind of person,” Fickell said. “Selfless commitment to one another and he makes others around him better at everything he does.”
McMillan was as highly-touted of a linebacker prospect as there was in the 2014 recruiting class. Talent isn’t usually the question with five-star recruits like McMillan, of course, but many coaches worry if they’ve ever truly had to work for anything they’ve achieved.
That wasn’t the case with McMillan and Fickell credits McMillan’s mother, along with Grant, for molding him into captain material.
“For a guy to walk in this environment, to be as highly recruited as he was, to step into this situation and have a big brother like Curtis Grant and truly, truly act the way he did and what he did, that started at birth,” Fickell said.
Ohio State's staff saw enough from McMillan in his first year as a full-time starter in 2015 to name him a captain well before the 2016 campaign officially begins. Now, the Buckeyes are officially looking for more from their star middle linebacker.
“We’ve gotta do a better job of making sure he can spread his wings even more,” Fickell said.
