The Bedford Bearcats were victorious only twice during the entire 2010 season.
They didn't win a home game until their season finale against Lorain, so at least their lousy season ended on a high note. It can be tough to draw attention from your dream school when you're the best player on a bad high school football team - but if you're good enough, diligent enough and resilient enough your dream school eventually finds you.
In 2010 Bedford's best player was a charismatic defensive back named Tyvis Powell.
Despite the unkind results for his team on the field, Tyvis closed his junior year with a dozen scholarship offers. Tiffin University, 100 miles to the west of Bedford, was one of them. Akron, half an hour south, was another. Youngstown State, Bowling Green, Ball State, Toledo, Ohio and Cincinnati all offered to pick up Tyvis' college tab as well.
Tyvis Powell is the embodiment of Ohio State's rebirth.
He had the vast majority of Ohio's major football programs pursuing him, along with Buffalo, West Virginia and Western Michigan. All 12 of his options were close to home, and that was fine - except that the one option he had wanted since he was a child had not yet come through. He was waiting patiently for lucky number 13.
Then one night the following spring Ohio State cornerbacks coach Taver Johnson paid Tyvis a visit. He was accompanied by Jim Tressel, who never took a break from recruiting throughout the controversy engulfing his coaching career at that time. Tressel told Tyvis the Buckeyes only offer the best players in the country, and that he was one of them. That night that dream option finally came through. He didn't accept it right away; he had to talk to his mom first.
A quick conversation with mom and one week later Tyvis made it official. It may seem like a quick turnaround and obvious conclusion now - he was all Buckeye before the Buckeyes offered him the chance, and everyone knew it - except that particular week was different from most others. Ohio State football changed dramatically between the evening with Taver and Tress when got his offer and that morning when he accepted it.
You already know what happened next. But it's amazing and awesome and feels good so we're going talk about it anyway.
Tyvis Powell committed to Ohio State hours after Jim Tressel resigned and we have loved him ever since. http://t.co/STJJo5v54Y
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) January 2, 2015
Braxton Miller ended up being the prodigy at the center of Ohio State's imperfect 12-0 season when it emerged out of its own darkness. The Super Sophs became the core of the machine that bulldozed its way to the undisputed 2014 national title. Urban Meyer is the face of the program that now practically chooses who it wants from across the country.
And Tyvis Powell is the embodiment of Ohio State's rebirth that followed the transitional year of 2011. Recruited by Tressel, signed by Meyer and happily running toward the fire while others were running away.
Powell is mobbed by teammates after picking off Notre Dame QB DeShone Kizer in the 2016 Fiesta Bowl (Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports)
The first interception of Tyvis' college career sealed Iowa's fate in a game where the Buckeyes' best defensive back was ejected in the 1st quarter, but his most memorable plays always seemed to occur right around the endzone with everything at stake: His second interception happened at Ohio State's goal line in Ann Arbor with just seconds remaining in the game.
The fourth interception of his sophomore year ended the Sugar Bowl in the endzone. A little over a week later Oregon went for it on 4th and 1 to try and tie the national championship game, but Tyvis stuffed the B-gap and Ohio State got the ball back on downs.
It was Oregon's last, best chance to tie that game. The Ducks ran right into where Tyvis was supposed to be. That did not go well for them.
Time after time teams tried to beat the Buckeyes in a spot where you would expect to find the protagonist of Ohio State's defensive backfield. Those iconic memories he created throughout his college career did not happen by accident, and neither did Ohio State offering him a scholarship very late in the process (he received his offer the same week Billy Price and Cameron Burrows - both high school sophomores at the time - received theirs).
There are no accidents. When he decided to forego his final year of eligibility to test the NFL market he was not projected to be drafted highly, if at all. Tyvis waited for that phone call that would never come, and he was rewarded with a free agent contract from a team with one of the most formidable defensive backfields in NFL history.
He spent his first professional season embedded in exactly what he wanted his career to look like. A year later he's set to spend his sophomore season where his football career began (the Seahawks waived him to make room for 35-year old Devin Hester because playoff games can hinge on one big punt return; Seattle's ultimately did not).
THERE'S A GOD!!! #BlessedByTheBest #ClevelandMadeClevelandPaid
— Tyvis Powell (@1Tyvis) February 6, 2017
That's the reaction of a man who has happily run toward the fire before, upon being hired by arguably the worst professional sports franchise in America. In 2016 the Browns didn't win a single game until their home finale against San Diego, so at least their lousy season ended on a high note. Rooting against Tyvis is nothing short of impossible.
Cleveland's native son is the good guys' good guy; the player who bullied his way into being a starter without any serendipitous calamities elevating him there. He's Cardale Jones without that or a single regrettable tweet - it is no mystery that their bromance in Columbus took off the way it did.
He may not be the piece that pulls the Browns out of their historic mediocrity, but he is not entitled, has natural talent, is tireless in his approach and performance and comes packaged in a beaming, positive attitude. Cleveland desperately needs all of those things, and it's not as if playing for Seattle and Ohio State insulated him from the crushing humility of what starting at the bottom feels like.
Bedford ended up dropping six games during Powell's senior year in 2011, two more losses than he would suffer during his four years in college. The Browns lost 15 games last season alone. The Seahawks only won one playoff game his rookie season, which was considered by that organization to be a disappointment.
He turned 23 last week and has already experienced every altitude and depth that playing football can offer. Now he gets to try and deliver another championship to his home state, no matter how daunting or impossible that task may seem. It's not unfamiliar territory in any sense.
Tyvis returns to Cleveland knowing what the bottom is like, the agony of having to wait longer than you'd like to - and what it takes to reach the apex. Perhaps he'll be able to do it once again where it all began.
