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Ohio State blows out Indiana, 38-15. Now, it's time to do the same to That Team Up North.
Gareon Conley was always going to play in the Ohio State–Michigan rivalry.
He just happened to almost do so from the other side.
Conley, a redshirt junior captain for the Buckeyes and the leader of Ohio State’s secondary, was a one-time Michigan commit under former coach Brady Hoke. He doesn’t hide from that. But he also doesn’t spend too much time dwelling on the past, either.
“I was a young-minded person and that was really my first big offer from [Michigan],” Conley recalled Monday. “In high school, I was a basketball player so once there was like a Big Ten school that came across I was like, ‘Oh, I’m going to jump on it because I probably won’t get anything better.’
“Then, more schools started coming so I wanted to explore my options.”
And there was the problem — at least in Michigan’s eyes.
Hoke didn’t like when prospects who were committed looked around, so when Conley wanted to do so, it didn’t sit well with the Wolverines’ coaching staff. This isn’t all that uncommon in college recruiting — Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio has a similar “no-visits” policy — but it still rubbed Conley the wrong way during his recruitment.
“I wanted to explore all of my options and they like threatened to pull my scholarship if I did so,” Conley recalled. “That’s why I decommitted.”
It's important to keep in mind Conley's commitment to Michigan wasn't exactly a hard pledge. He said he only visited the school once and, as mentioned, it was his first big-time offer. So when that conversation with the coaching staff happened and Conley opted to decommit, Ohio State was there to jump all over the Massillon, Ohio native.
“I do remember that very well,” Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer recalled Monday. “[Former defensive line coach] Mike Vrabel recruited that area. It was an early commit. We thought highly of him, and I remember he played his tail off senior year. I went and watched him actually practice basketball and that’s when I was like this is a crazy athlete.”
Conley officially committed to the Buckeyes in December of 2012 and became a member of that now-legendary 2013 recruiting class. Now in his second year as an Ohio State starting corner, he’s turned himself into an All-Big Ten caliber player and a potential first-round NFL Draft pick.
“He’s another one who is a brilliant player for us,” Meyer said. “Not just a great player, but a great leader as well.”
Through 11 games this season, Conley has 19 tackles, three interceptions and seven pass break-ups. According to Pro Football Focus, he’s the No. 1-ranked cornerback in the country in terms of opposing passer rating. Quarterbacks have a rating of just 11.8 when targeting Conley this season as the redshirt junior has allowed only nine receptions for 94 yards and a touchdown on 33 targets in 475 snaps.
Conley is the leader of Ohio State’s vaunted secondary, the lone returning starter from a group that lost Eli Apple, Vonn Bell and Tyvis Powell from last year’s team. But the Buckeyes’ back end of Conley, Marshon Lattimore, Denzel Ward, Malik Hooker and Damon Webb has arguably been even better in 2016.
It wouldn’t be that way without Conley, though. And Ohio State was certainly happy to take the star corner off the hands of its biggest rival.
Does Conley have any regrets about the decision?
“Magnificent decision because obviously two years ago we won a championship and last year we had a good season,” Conley said. “Overall, just the teams I’ve been a part of and the brotherhood I’ve experienced, it’s great.”
Fans of the Buckeyes would certainly agree.
