Ohio State football is laced with players who arrived with a ton of hype and managed to live up to it for multiple seasons, becoming Buckeye legends in the process.
Typically, that process starts slowly as a guy works his way onto special teams and/or sees limited reps at his position before gradually turning into a multi-year stud for the local team.
More rarely, a guy explodes onto the scene as a true freshman or as a forgotten veteran of sorts to put up a huge statistical season, only to vanish almost as quickly as he arrived. One-hit wonders, if you will.
As noted the past few weeks, with the offseason in full force, I'm filling my Thursday slot bastardizing my postgame Five Things article with offshoots looking at various aspects of Buckeye football history.
Starting things off a few weeks ago, I listed the most impressive individual streaks of greatness in school history. Two weeks ago the most acrobatic receptions were chosen before last Thursday's look at the most crushing losses over the last quarter-century.
Today, we march on looking at Five Flings, aka the biggest one-hit wonders turned in by Buckeye footballers over the last 25 years.
CLARETT GOES BONKERS AS A TRUE FROSH
Maurice Clarett arrived in Columbus via Youngstown in 2002 with plenty of hype but considering only two other true freshmen had ever starred as Ohio State's tailback in Archie Griffin and Robert Smith, there was certainly cause for pause among the Buckeye faithful.
That pause vanished following the season opener as Clarett ripped off 175 yards with three touchdowns against Texas Tech.
Two weeks later he would shred a 10th-ranked Washington State squad to the tune of 230 yards on 31 carries with a pair of scores.
He would go on to score 13 touchdowns over his first six outings and eclipse the 100-yard mark in six of his first seven collegiate games. A shoulder injury plagued Clarett down the stretch but he still managed to punish Michigan for 119 yards on 20 carries with a touchdown and added two receptions for 35 yards including a wheel-route, on a play he called, setting up the game-winning score.
Clarett ran into tough sledding (23 for 47) against the Miami Hurricanes in the national championship game but managed two scores and made the play of the game as he chased down Sean Taylor after the 'Cane safety picked Craig Krenzel in the end zone and raced up field. Clarett miraculously caught up to Taylor, stripped the ball and recovered it all in one sweeping motion leading to a field goal and a 17-7 Buckeye lead early the 3rd quarter.
When the dust settled on Clarett's amazing season, he amassed 1,237 rushing yards on 5.6 per carry with 18 total touchdowns becoming the first true freshman to lead a national championship team in rushing since Ahman Green in 1995.
Sadly, Clarett was reduced to one-hit wonder status as Buckeye AD Andy Geiger suspended him for the entire 2003 season citing numerous violations of the NCAA's ethical conduct bylaws and receiving impermissible benefits.
With Clarett never again suiting up for the Buckeyes following his magical 2002 campaign, he's a no-brainer for this list.
HOOKER TURNS THE TRICK
A recent one-hit wonder, Malik Hooker actually spawned the idea for this article.
After seeing the field for just 25 defensive snaps, posting 10 tackles in 2015 as a redshirt freshman, Hooker exploded onto the college football scene last season.
Having turned in electric plays in the Spring Game, fans were already cautiously optimistic about what Hooker could bring and he exceeded those expectations in spades.
Flashing a rangy game and a knack for big plays Hooker tallied the 3rd-most tackles on the team (74) while recording the 2nd-most interceptions in the nation (7) and returning a national-best three of those for touchdowns.
Hooker also chipped in 11 passes defensed and four pass breakups as a Thorpe Award semifinalist.
Patrolling the back line of Ohio State's 3rd-rated Scoring Defense (15.5), Hooker was a unanimous All-American selection before becoming the 15th pick of the 2016 NFL Draft.
GLENN GOES FROM WALK-ON TO 7TH PICK OF NFL DRAFT
A slender cat out of Brookhaven, Terry Glenn walked on to Ohio State's football team and caught a combined 15 passes during the 1993 and 1994 seasons.
As such, not a ton was expected from Glenn entering the 1995 campaign.
So what did Glenn do? He simply went out and became Ohio State's first ever Biletnikoff Award winner on the strength of 64 receptions for 1,411 yards and 17 touchdowns.
The 64 single-season receptions still stand as the 4th-most in school history, as does his 22.1 average yards per catch.
The 1,411 receiving yards still serve as the 2nd-most in OSU lore and those 17 TDs have stood the test of time as the most ever by a Buckeye receiver. In fact, he's three clear of David Boston's 14 touchdown receptions (1997).
Glenn's penchant for spectacular grabs and big plays helped Ohio State to an 11-2 season as he became just the second Buckeye receiver to earn consensus All-American honors with NFL Hall of Famer Cris Carter the first to earn the distinction.
The kid was flat out dominant from game one though it was game three against Pitt when Ohio State fans and the rest of the country realized Glenn was a legit gamebreaker as he torched the Panthers for a school-record 253 receiving yards and four touchdown catches.
He would go on to record seven 100-yard receiving games and his 82-yard catch and run against Notre Dame remains the 4th-longest in school annals.
Then, just as quickly as he blew up the college football world, Glenn headed to the New England Patriots as the 7th pick in the 1996 NFL Draft.
LATTIMORE GOES HAM WITH HEALTHY HAMSTRINGS
Big things were expected from Marshon Lattimore after he stepped on campus as a top-50 recruit fresh from the Cleveland Glenville pipeline.
Unfortunately, balky hamstrings robbed him of most of his first two seasons as he redshirted in 2014 before appearing in seven games in 2015 posting four tackles.
Finally healthy for the first time in his collegiate career, Lattimore showed what all the hype was about as he posted 41 tackles, 13 passes defensed, nine pass breakups and four interceptions for Ohio State's 7th-ranked Pass Defense.
In a secondary also featuring Gareon Conley and Malik Hooker, Lattimore was easily the team's best pure cover guy.
Despite having two seasons of eligibility remaining, Lattimore left almost as quickly as he arrived as the New Orleans Saints took him with the 11th pick of the 2017 NFL Draft.
DUDLEY GIVES FOOTBALL A TRY, TURNS OUT TO BE GOOD IDEA
Rickey Dudley came to Ohio State via a hoops scholarship and enjoyed a four-year career averaging a productive 13.3 points and 7.5 boards as senior.
Toward the end of his hoops stint, Dudley decided to give big-time college football a try. The Henderson, Texas product backed up tight end D.J. Jones during the '94 campaign posting a pedestrian nine grabs for 106 yards.
The next year, Dudley had to step in for Jones as he underwent open-heart surgery during the summer leading up to the '95 season.
With limited experience at the collegiate level Dudley went on to post arguably the most impressive season ever by an OSU tight end with 37 receptions, 575 yards and seven touchdowns.
Dudley would record a catch in all 13 games while finishing second on the team in receiving yards and touchdowns.
Quarterback Bobby Hoying was adept at exploiting Dudley's athleticism and perhaps no play showcased the duo more than the tight end's 32-yard snag over the middle setting up the winning touchdown in a 28-25 thriller over No. 12 Penn State.
Dudley capped his one-hit wonder in style with a five catch, 106 yard, one touchdown performance in 20-14 loss to Tennessee in the Citrus Bowl.
A few months later, Dudley parlayed his football talent into the 9th pick of the 1996 NFL Draft.
Honorable Mentions include:
- Dimitrious Stanley went off as a wide receiver (43 rec, 829 yds, 8 TD) in 1996 after notching just 13 receptions the previous season. He did however serve as the team's primary punt returner in '95 so he wasn't exactly an unknown or otherwise unproductive.
- Antonio Smith went from walk-on to a key cog in Ohio State's defense at cornerback during the 2006 season earning a nod as one of 11 semifinalists for the Thorpe Award.
- Kevin Johnson was a rare juco transfer who arrived at Ohio State in 1995 via Northeastern Oklahoma A&M and stepped right into a starting linebacker spot for the nation's 12th-best Scoring Defense during an 11-2 season posting 65 stops (4th on team).
