Everybody has a Joey Bosa story. If you don't, you will soon.
Maybe it was when he supplanted Adolphus Washington for the starting defensive end spot at Ohio State as a true freshman. Or, when he recovered a fumble in the end zone on the last play of the game at Northwestern that season. Then did the same against Wisconsin the Big Ten Championship Game last December, putting a cap on an All-American season where he earned Big Ten Defensive Player and Defensive Lineman of the Year honors while tallying 13.5 sacks, a half-sack shy of tying an Ohio State record. What about when Bosa threw Akeel Lynch into the leg of Christian Hackenberg to seal a double overtime win for his team at Penn State?
Is that when you knew Joey Bosa was special? If not, maybe Illinois deploying three blockers on multiple occasions solely to stop him Saturday changed your mind.
"I think the term is disruptive. What makes Joey Bosa, he's only got so many sacks, but at least two and I saw a video where there were three guys blocking him," Urban Meyer, Bosa's head coach, said Tuesday. "He took one where he took his — he came from the left side and took a 300-pound man and threw him in the backfield and made a tackle on the back. Completely disruptive."
The play against the Fighting Illini wasn't the first time a team had willingly decided to put itself at a disadvantage elsewhere during a play in the hopes to hold one over Bosa. He "only" has 4.0 sacks this season, but is fourth in the Big Ten with 15 tackles for loss. He's seventh on his team with 40 total tackles.
Plus, Bosa commands attention like most have never seen because of the superhuman strength and ability that was only ever going to keep him in Columbus for three years.
"It’s so crazy, I haven’t really thought about it at all yet," Bosa said Monday. "It’s hard to even think that three years is over already."
Bosa and the No. 3 Buckeyes host No. 13 Michigan State in their biggest game of the season to date Saturday at 3:30 p.m. It's the final home game of 2015 for Ohio State and 18 players are set to be recognized as they run out of the tunnel alone in front of the crowd. Meyer will be waiting at the end with a hug and a handshake, the first step in saying goodbye to arguably the most successful senior class the school's ever seen.
"Forty-eight wins since their freshman year, which is an Ohio State program record. A record 30-game win streak, which is Big Ten, and I think someone said a national record, and they've been a part of two winning streaks, 24 and 23 games, which are both Ohio State records," Meyer said. "So I joke around with our players and say how's it going, seniors? It's going pretty good."
Amid all the emotions, tears and love that will shower down upon guys like Braxton Miller, Joshua Perry and Taylor Decker, the best player in the stadium won't receive a moment like that.
Bosa, only a true junior, will be waiting at the end of the line with the rest of the non-seniors, readying himself to get after Connor Cook and the Spartans' high-powered offense.
"It’s for our seniors and I’m not a senior yet," Bosa said. "I really haven’t thought about it much."
But he knows. He knows that had he been draft eligible last season, he'd likely been a top-5 pick. Bosa said he in December he felt like he needed another year to hone his craft, which he's done in earnest through 10 games already this season.
But through it all, Bosa's always been on the three-year college track.
"When people tell you when you’re younger, ‘Make sure you don’t wish time by, it flies,’ you don’t believe them," Bosa said. "It seems like yesterday I was coming here for the first time so it’s definitely going to be an emotional day for me."
It'll be emotional because he'll say goodbye at season's end to some of his best friends, like Washington and Tommy Schutt, for example. Just like he did a year ago with Michael Bennett and Steve Miller after a national championship victory.
And even though his little brother, Nick, is set to head to Columbus next season as a five-star defensive lineman in Meyer's 2016 recruiting class, Bosa knows it is his time to earn a living playing the game he loves.
"It’s really crazy that three years has flown by so quick and now my brother is going to be taking my spot here next year," Bosa said. "It’s really exciting, but it’s still hard even after all of that to take every moment in one at a time but I’m trying as best I can to not waste time by."
Bosa said the chance to play with his brother for a year is "the only possible thing" that would keep him at Ohio State another season, but even that's infinitesimal. Just like it always was.
Whether or not Michigan State employs a triple-team to try and stop the potential No. 1 pick in the 2016 NFL Draft won't be decided until kickoff at 3:30 p.m. What's already decided is Bosa's going to be emotional and he's going to be dominant. All for reasons that he wouldn't have believed as a true freshman.
It took three years, but Bosa's ready to move on. He's ready to complete his football education at Ohio State as both a person and a player.
"You can listen to what everybody says or whatever, but you really don’t understand it until you go through it all with cherishing every moment you have here," Bosa said. "I have a lot of different mindsets, a lot of different goals. What I want to achieve personally, it’s definitely changed a lot over the years."
