Ohio State is No. 2
Ohio State checks in at No. 2 in the first College Football Playoff rankings of 2024.
A backup defensive tackle captured the attention of the college football world for a brief moment in time on Thursday night.
That was when second-string Ohio State nose tackle Robert Landers recovered a fumble and returned it 35 yards for a touchdown.
Alas, the play didn’t count – Indiana quarterback Richard Lagow’s fumble was overturned to an incomplete pass upon replay review – but the memories of Landers’ touchdown return, on which he lumbered down the field before spinning and falling forward through a tackle into the end zone, still remain.
"I was heartbroken," Landers said with a laugh about the play being overturned. "In my book, it still counts. So I’m not even paying attention to them calling it back. But I can say it is a moment I will never forget."
Not sure about everyone else, but we're still watching this. pic.twitter.com/VhKqrvmW01
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) September 1, 2017
As he fielded media questions from the podium following Urban Meyer’s press conference on Monday, Landers seemed to bask in the spotlight that came with his short-lived "fat guy touchdown."
The only thing he didn’t like: Being called a "fat guy."
"People calling me fat on Twitter, I’m not fat," Landers said, pointing a warning finger toward the cameras in a room. "I’m just a little thick around the edges."
"Aw man, I was heartbroken. That's every fat boy's dream." - Robert Landers on his overturned scoop-and-score. pic.twitter.com/BNBJIK43EP
— Kevin Harrish (@Kevinish) September 4, 2017
Landers, who is listed at 6-foot-1 and 283 pounds by Ohio State (but said Monday that he is "6-foot on a good day" and about 285 pounds), believes he carries the weight he has well, which enabled him to make the play he did on Thursday.
"I would say that my biggest thing for me is just I’m very quick off the ball and I hold my weight very well," Landers said. "I’m very explosive through my hips and through my legs and my first step."
“People calling me fat on Twitter, I’m not fat. I’m just a little thick around the edges.”– Robert Landers
Landers, who played 25 snaps off the bench in Thursday’s season opener, also credited his fellow defensive linemen, as the Buckeyes’ defensive line rotation kept him fresh enough to have the energy to run the ball to the end zone.
"Making a play on the ball and pursuing to the ball would have still been the same (if he played more snaps), but the amount of energy that I had to exert to get in the end zone, no. I would have probably got tackled," Landers said.
Robert Landers is big, but he'd prefer you don't call him fat.
Landers had reason to laugh and smile when thinking back on his big moment from Thursday’s game – especially given that Ohio State ended up winning the game, 49-21 – and his teammates got their share of enjoyment from the defensive tackle’s near-touchdown, too.
Defensive end Jalyn Holmes described the fumble return as a "comedy show." Fellow defensive lineman Tyquan Lewis said he was laughing about it before the play was even over.
"I’m jogging (down the field during the play), I’m laughing the whole way there," Lewis said after the game Thursday. "I don’t think nobody thought anything like that would happen, so we all laughing on the field. I even look at the Indiana players, and they laughed. And I’m like 'Dang! This is really funny.' It’s probably the funniest thing I’ve ever seen on the football field."
Long snapper Liam McCullough was among the Ohio State players who reacted to the play on Twitter.
@roblanders96 this is the greatest thing I've ever seen/heard https://t.co/QlbPA0gjyv
— Liam McCullough (@LiamMcCullough2) September 2, 2017
Quarterback J.T. Barrett also got a kick out of watching the play from the sideline.
"We saw his little legs just rolling," Barrett said Monday. "That was really funny."
Barrett said he would not lobby, though, for Landers to get playing time on offense.
"He’s good where he’s at, and that’s holding the B-gap, A-gap, rushing the quarterback," Barrett said.
Had Landers’ touchdown counted, it would have been the first touchdown scored by an Ohio State defensive lineman since Adolphus Washington’s 20-yard interception return against Western Michigan in 2015.
