Each asked to tab a breakout player on Ohio State's defense ahead of the program's first game in the 2016 season, a pair of team leaders didn't hesitate.
"Tracy Sprinkle," middle linebacker Raekwon McMillan said Monday. "He wasn't voted a captain but I think by the end of the year guys will look to him as one of the guys who led this 2016 team going into the season."
"I think Tracy will have a good game and great season," center Pat Elflein added.
Sprinkle is now a redshirt junior and more than two years removed from a bad Fourth of July weekend where Lorain police arrested him at a bar for possession of drugs, drug paraphernalia and rioting/failure to disperse. Urban Meyer kicked him off the team but eventually reinstated Sprinkle once the legal process took its course and after the defensive lineman served a one-game suspension and performed subsequent community service, among other things.
A player who lost his opportunity to play for his home-state Buckeyes because of a dumb mistake to now being considered a team leader. Talk about a life shift.
"I've definitely grown a lot and it made me mature a lot," Sprinkle said last week. "I'm happy where I'm at right now."
Sprinkle came to Ohio State as a three-star defensive end in its 2013 recruiting class. The Buckeyes eventually felt he could help them more if he moved to defensive tackle, so Mickey Marotti helped him add weight before he started to work with Larry Johnson.
A lot of weight.
“I don't want to be known as anything negative. So I guess I just gotta show it on the field to change people's minds.”– Tracy Sprinkle
"I'm 295 (now). I was 241 when I first got here," Sprinkle said. "You go out there with Coach Mick, he'll get you strong, get you fast and if you gotta put on weight you'll put on the good weight."
Still, Sprinkle sat in the shadows behind stars Mike Bennett and Adolphus Washington on Ohio State's defensive line. Both of those players are now in the NFL but when Meyer suspended the latter for the Fiesta Bowl last season, Sprinkle and Mike Hill suddenly saw their roles increase against Notre Dame.
"I think I did all right. Did my assignment," Sprinkle said. "I would have liked to made a lot more plays, but it was just a good feeling to be out there with my teammates and I'm just ready to be out there this season."
Throughout camp, Sprinkle's name has almost been an afterthought in the conversations about Johnson's new-look defensive line. With Washington and Joey Bosa on to the NFL, plus Joel Hale and Tommy Schutt's also gone, gaping holes need to be filled. The defensive line coach and even Meyer consistently spoke about Sprinkle's presence as if it were already a given to be among the starting group.
"Inside guys are going to be Tracy, Mike Hill, Davon (Hamilton), it's going to be (Robert Landers), Dre'Mont (Jones) and Jashon (Cornell)," Johnson said. He thinks the Buckeyes could use as many as 12 players on its defensive line this year, a hefty number, but one Sprinkle heads at tackle.
"He comes in day in and day out and goes to work," McMillan said. "Never complains about anything and then when he finds a young guy complaining about something or not doing what he's supposed to do or feeling down, he always picks them up. You can expect the same thing during the season."
"He’s that story I talk about usually every year and with the guys that maybe have struggles which are the majority of college athletes, the struggle in some way. Maybe its academic, maybe it’s socially or athletically," Meyer added Tuesday. "(He's) a leader of our team and a starter. Just one of those great stories."
It's been difficult to find anything but high praise for the man most associated with the Grown & Sexy Lounge through his first few years in Meyer's program. More mature, the Buckeyes see him being a more than viable leader both due to his play and being one of the key pieces on a frightfully young roster. Even if he wasn't named a team captain.
"It was tough but my coaches believed in me," Sprinkle said about his transgressions as a freshman. "That's the thing. My coaches believed in me, my players, my teammates believed in me and I believed in them and I got through it.
"I don't want to be known as anything negative. So I guess I just gotta show it on the field to change people's minds."
Sprinkle is set to get his chance starting Saturday against Bowling Green.
