With the departures of J.T. Barrett, Billy Price, Tyquan Lewis and several other key veterans from last year’s Ohio State football team, the Buckeyes’ potential leadership void entering the 2018 season has been well-documented.
One Buckeye who is expected to play a huge role in filling that void, however, is Parris Campbell.
As one of two returning captains from last season, along with fellow wide receiver Terry McLaurin, Campbell was already a leader for the Buckeyes in 2017. Going into 2018, though, Campbell appears poised to potentially become the most prominent leader in Ohio State’s locker room.
Following a recent vote by his teammates, Campbell is set to replace Barrett as the player who gives the Buckeyes their pregame speech before each game this upcoming season, he and his fellow wide receivers revealed at last week’s Ohio State job fair.
Campbell said he was not present for the vote that put him in that role, but he is honored by the responsibility, though he says he isn’t going to simply try to duplicate what Barrett did.
"I cannot go in there unprepared," Campbell said. "I got to get my mind right. I want to go about it my own way. I don’t want to be too repetitive. I want to bring my own swag to it, my own flavor to it. And maybe it’s not always serious. Just get my guys up, get them to smile a little bit."
It will be tough for Campbell or any other player to fill Barrett’s shoes as a leader this season, not only because of how highly regarded Barrett was by his teammates and coaches in that area, but because Barrett was a quarterback – a position where a player is naturally expected to be a team leader.
Dwayne Haskins, however, is only a redshirt sophomore and entering his first season as Ohio State’s starting quarterback, and will therefore likely need some time to grow into a leadership role. So the Buckeyes are counting on some of the players around him to step up in that capacity.
"You got four legitimate leaders in our program at receiver, and (director of sports performance Mickey) Marotti just is very positive about everything going on in that room and how they’re really helping Dwayne with a leadership standpoint," Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said. "And that’s a void. J.T. Barrett was not a good leader, (but) a phenomenal leader."
In addition to Campbell, those leaders also include fellow fifth-year senior wide receivers Terry McLaurin and Johnnie Dixon, as well as fourth-year junior wide receiver K.J. Hill. Ohio State’s wide receiver corps also includes third-year juniors Austin Mack and Binjimen Victor, who both also saw regular playing time last season, and several others who have demonstrated the potential to be contributors, including Demario McCall, Jaylen Harris and C.J. Saunders.
Among all those players, though, Campbell is the one who will seemingly be expected to carry the biggest load both on the field and in the locker room.
On the field, of course, Campbell is a big-play threat with great speed – an attribute Campbell wanted to remind people about after being left off a recent list of the fastest players in college football by NFL.com’s Chase Goodbread.
Campbell made a video that was posted to the Ohio State football team’s Twitter account last week in which he said he was “highly disrespected” by his omission from the list, which did rank Ohio State cornerback (and occasional track star) Kendall Sheffield as the fastest player in college football. The video also showed Campbell running a 40-yard dash that was timed at 4.26 seconds.
#Zone6s @PCampbell21 strongly feels that he needs to be on everyones list for Fastest Player in College Football.
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) June 12, 2018
Will we see a race between him and Kendall Sheffield #TuneInNextTimeOnDragonBallZ #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/YOssSXI6K3
Asked whether there are any other players on the Buckeyes who can keep up with him in a footrace, Campbell said Sheffield is the only one.
"The only one I can say for sure is Kendall," Campbell said.
While Campbell is clearly confident in his speed, though, he also recognizes that he still has room to improve.
Although Campbell caught 40 passes for a team-high 584 yards last season, he has been inconsistent as a downfield receiver, missing some opportunities to make plays because of dropped passes. Campbell and the rest of Ohio State’s wide receivers have been working on their hands, however, by setting a goal of each catching 10,000 balls this offseason.
"That number might seem a little crazy to a lot of people, but actually, we’re making progress to getting there," Campbell said. "And we catch every day. I think ball skills are something that every receiver in our room needs to improve on, and I think we’re taking a huge step."
Parris Campbell is working to become a more consistent pass-catcher as he goes into his final season as a Buckeye.
Coming out of St. Vincent–St. Mary High School as a running back, Campbell said he needed to learn proper pass-catching technique upon arriving at Ohio State. He believes he has made strides in that regard throughout his career as a Buckeye, though, and has worked to continue getting better this spring and summer.
That said, Campbell said he has tried to improve in every area this offseason – even in the areas of his game, like his speed, in which he already excels – as he looks to be a leader for the Buckeyes offense and finish his Ohio State career strong.
"Myself personally, I feel like there’s always room for me to get better," Campbell said. "There’s always room for me to improve. And even in my strengths, I feel like there’s still room for me to improve my strengths."
Meyer is among those who expect that offseason work to pay off with Campbell, a third-team All-Big Ten selection in 2017, having his best year yet in 2018.
"He’s an elite person, an elite worker," Meyer said of Campbell. "Very, very talented. So I expect him to be exceptional."
