Ohio State enters its 2021 offseason with a lot of leadership to replace, but it could have been worse.
For the first time in seven years, Ohio State doesn’t have any returning captains in 2021. All seven of the Buckeyes’ captains from 2020 – Tuf Borland, Jonathan Cooper, Wyatt Davis, Justin Fields, Justin Hilliard, Josh Myers and Shaun Wade – chose to enter the 2021 NFL draft. Other veteran leaders from last year’s team who have now moved on to start their professional careers include Pete Werner, Luke Farrell and Tommy Togiai, among others.
While Ryan Day said before last season that the Buckeyes “probably could have had 11 or 12 captains,” that might not be the case in 2021 with all of those players gone. They still have plenty of strong candidates to become new captains and team leaders, though, thanks in large part to the players who chose not to begin their NFL careers this year.
Thayer Munford, Haskell Garrett, Chris Olave and Jeremy Ruckert all would have been selected if they entered the NFL draft this year – if the NCAA hadn’t given all players an extra year of eligibility, Garrett and Munford wouldn’t have even had the option to stay with the Buckeyes – yet all of them chose to return for one more year at Ohio State.
Ryan Day expects that to make a big impact on the 2021 Buckeyes.
“I think it’s unbelievable, and I think it speaks not only to our leadership but again, you keep hearing me say it and I know it gets old but it’s true, is our culture and the environment here,” Day said during his press conference on Jan. 22. “It just goes to show you their maturity. Not only do they love their teammates, they love Ohio State.
“Really, I think a lot has to do with their brothers and how much they love being around their teammates, and so we’re very, very excited to get those guys back. It gives us a huge boost as we head into the spring.”
Though Ohio State won’t have a three-time captain like Borland or even a two-time captain like Cooper in 2021, it will have no shortage of veterans. Munford, Garrett, Marcus Williamson and Jerron Cage will lead the Buckeyes’ contingent of fifth-year seniors this year, while 20 members of Ohio State’s recruiting class of 2018 are still in Columbus entering their fourth year with the Buckeyes – including Antwuan Jackson, a junior college transfer who is now a sixth-year senior after using his additional year of eligibility.
All of those players were eligible for the 2021 NFL draft, but all of them decided to stay at Ohio State for at least one more year, which Day believes is a testament to how Ohio State doesn’t just develop players to get to the NFL, but succeed once they get there.
“They still have unfinished business here at Ohio State,” Day said. “They want to maximize themselves as players here in college, but then also in the NFL. And I think that’s what a lot of them understood was that it’s one thing to be able to go play in the NFL. It’s another thing to be ready when you get there. And I think that these guys understand that.
“We didn’t have a whole offseason (in 2020), spring ball and all the stuff that we do in the offseason to make sure that they’re ready physically with Coach Mick. They’ll have a whole season now where they can prepare physically to be really good players in the fall and have a full season. So I think when you combine all of those things, that’s the reason they came back.”
Haskell Garrett is among the Buckeyes who opted to return for another year even after his NFL draft stock soared in a breakout 2020 season.
Offensively, the leadership of Olave, Munford and Ruckert as returning veterans – along with other upperclassmen like Nicholas Petit-Frere, Master Teague, Garrett Wilson and Harry Miller – will be crucial. Since Ohio State will have a first- or second-year Buckeye starting at quarterback, it will be important for other players on offense to shoulder some of the leadership burden that often falls upon the starting quarterback.
Munford and Olave seem like safe bets to be captains in 2021, while any of the others named above could also be candidates to join them, but Day will be looking for all of them to step up as leaders this year. When asked specifically last month about Olave, Day said he wants to see him follow in the footsteps of Parris Campbell and Terry McLaurin by becoming one of the Buckeyes’ top leaders as a senior.
“That’s a huge area that we’ve gotta focus on here because you’re gonna have a young quarterback, but then those young receivers really gotta step up now. And hopefully Chris can really take over that leadership role and take some pride in how they’re gonna practice and develop over the next few months,” Day said.
Defensively, the Buckeyes have some huge leadership shoes to fill with the departures of Borland and Cooper. Garrett and Williamson coming back as returning starters and fifth-year seniors could be big in that regard, though, while fourth-year defenders like Tyreke Smith, Tyler Friday, Teradja Mitchell, Dallas Gant, Josh Proctor and Sevyn Banks will also be expected to set the example for their younger teammates.
Now that winter workouts have started at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, the Buckeyes who will be team leaders in 2021 will be expected to start asserting themselves. Whether those leaders can pick up where the departing veterans left off could be a real factor in whether Ohio State can make another run to the national championship game next season. According to ESPN’s Bill Connelly, Ohio State has the seventh-least returning production out of all Football Bowl Subdivision teams going into 2021.
That said, Ohio State has proven it can overcome an exodus of experience and leadership. The last time Ohio State went into a season without any returning captains was in 2014 – also the last time it entered a season with a starting quarterback who had never thrown a collegiate pass (J.T. Barrett, then a redshirt freshman) – and those Buckeyes won the national championship.
And again, there’s no question that the returns of Garrett, Munford, Olave and Ruckert among others give the Buckeyes much more leadership and experience than if they had left. Their decision to come back for one more chance to pursue a national championship sets an example for the young Buckeyes to look up to, and more motivation for the entire team to want to win for them.
“It’s awesome,” true freshman defensive end Jack Sawyer said about them returning in a recent interview with Eleven Warriors. “It just makes you realize how much they love playing here and how much they love playing for Coach Day and the staff and for Buckeye Nation in general.”
