When the Ohio high school state football playoffs began in November of 2014, Robert Landers was a senior defensive tackle at Huber Heights Wayne High School committed to play college football at West Virginia.
A couple of weeks after Wayne’s playoff run ended following a state championship appearance, Landers flipped his commitment to Ohio State.
What happened during that five-week stretch is the reason why.
“He was just unblockable,” Wayne head coach Jay Minton recalled. “We played [Cincinnati] Moeller that year, we played some really powerful teams, and every one of them said this kid was just phenomenal, that you just couldn’t block him.
“Some of them were saying that there were plays they couldn’t run because of Robert. They just had to throw them out of the playbook.”
The phone of Buckeyes co-defensive coordinator Luke Fickell did not stop ringing. With each week that passed, another head coach would call Fickell to talk about an undersized defensive tackle who ruined his team’s game plan.
“[Landers] went to the playoffs and four weeks in a row every head coach that he played called after the game,” Fickell said. “He beat Dublin Coffman and [ head coach Mark] Crabtree called me after the game and said, ‘You guys gotta look at this kid.’”
“Everybody’s got a little different journey. His is a unique one at that.”– Ohio State co-DC Luke Fickell
“Then, they beat Moeller and the Moeller coach called and said, ‘I don’t know what you guys have, but you gotta look at this kid.'”
The Lakewood St. Edward coaches called, too, after they played Landers and Wayne for the state championship that year. Soon enough, Landers found himself on an official visit to Ohio State.
When the official scholarship offer from the Buckeyes came, Landers had a decision to make. It wasn’t an easy as one might think, either, even though Landers was an Ohio kid from a high school just an hour away from Columbus.
“One thing about me growing up, I was always raised to believe that you don’t own much but your word and your name,” he said Wednesday. “At the time, with me being committed to West Virginia, I was solely committed on going to West Virginia."
"But I had to sit down with my mom, my granddad and just sit back a little bit and jump out of who I am. I had to do what I felt was best for me and Ohio State was what was best for me.”
Why was it best?
“It’s hard to say no to Coach Meyer,” Landers said. “It really is. It’s hard to say no to him. I’ve been loving it ever since.”
At the beginning of his senior year of high school, playing for Ohio State was somewhat of a pipe dream for Landers. Now, just two short years later, he’s been one of the most pleasant surprises for the Buckeyes at a position of need.
“Everybody’s got a little different journey,” Fickell said. “His is a unique one at that.”
Robert Landers is listed on Ohio State's roster at 6-foot-1 and 285 pounds. If you’re standing right next to him, those measurements might be kind. He hardly looks like a Big Ten defensive lineman.
“I get that a lot,” he joked.
He’s small in stature, but Landers’ impact on the field in his first season — he redshirted last year as a true freshman — has been hard to miss on Saturdays.
On a defensive line that features All-Big Ten candidates Tyquan Lewis and Sam Hubbard, it’s Landers who leads the Buckeyes with five tackles for loss through four games. He doesn’t start, either, as he rotates in primarily at the nose tackle position behind Mike Hill.
His size — or lack thereof — is something Landers has always used to his advantage.
“A lot of times you’ve got a lot of offensive linemen who are 6-3-plus and it tends to be a little bit more difficult for them to bend down,” Landers said. “One thing about me, I’m quick off the ball and since I’m a little shorter I’m able to use my leverage to my advantage so I just try to play my game.”
Added Hubbard: “He’s got such a great center of gravity. He’s low to the ground and he can slip through and around blocks.”
When you love what you do progress is something that comes naturally it's some of the hardest things you will do but you love it anyways... pic.twitter.com/qA8ZkuezpP
— Robert Landers (@roblanders96) October 6, 2016
Landers’ play even impressed his head coach.
“He’s a twitched up, quick-twitch guy that gets underneath pads,” Meyer said. “You can’t have a whole defensive line like that, but he creates havoc in there.”
Being disruptive and dominant on the interior is something Landers has always done, though. Minton said there were times in high school when he had to hold Landers out of certain situations in practice because nobody on the offense could block him.
It’s hardly a surprise to those at Wayne what Landers is already accomplishing at Ohio State.
“I don’t know that we’ve ever had a guy with that much determination,” Minton said. “When you’re 6-1 and 285 pounds and most of the D-linemen are 6-3, 300-plus, you ask yourself how is this kid succeeding out there in Big Ten play? It’s simply because he’s going to find a way.”
“It’s just a matter of his determination,” Minton continued. “I keep using that word over and over again, but I don’t know that we’ve ever had a more determined player.”
A throng of reporters surrounded Landers on the indoor practice field Wednesday night at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. Cameras, recorders and microphones were in the face of the Buckeyes’ defensive tackle as he answered questions from the media for the first time in his collegiate career.
Standing behind Landers was Meyer, who was preparing to tape a weekly interview of his own with a local television station. Before Meyer sat down, though, he looked at the crowd surrounding the redshirt freshman and then shouted toward defensive line coach Larry Johnson, who was seated on a bench on the side of the field.
“It’s just a great feeling seeing all of your hard work pay off. I’m just counting every blessing that I get and taking it one day at a time.”– Ohio State DT Robert Landers
“Landers is getting interviewed!” Meyer yelled to Johnson. “Think about that. What a country.”
Johnson could do nothing but flash a wide smile.
“All about the process,” he responded to Meyer.
When Landers signed with Ohio State back in 2015, few thought he’d be a guy who would make an impact this early on. He was an undersized three-star recruit coming to one of the most prestigious college football programs in the country. This was supposed to take some time.
That’s why Johnson flashed the smile. It really hasn’t taken that much time.
“We hoped that somebody would take a shot and give him an opportunity because the only thing that young man needed was an opportunity and he would take care of the rest,” Minton said. “His determination to succeed is what you really think of when you bring Robert up.”
Landers has been and always will be undersized for his position. That’s not going to change.
That hasn’t stopped him from performing yet, though, and there is no sign of him slowing down in the future either.
Ohio State may have found its next developmental star.
“It’s just a great feeling seeing all of your hard work pay off,” Landers said. “I’m just counting every blessing that I get and taking it one day at a time.”
