Shaun Wade’s final season at Ohio State didn’t go as smoothly as he had hoped, but he believes the challenges he had to battle through this past season have prepared him for the obstacles he will soon face as an NFL player.
In a year where Ohio State’s pass defense allowed more than 300 yards per game, Wade’s play at cornerback – even though he was named a consensus All-American – was viewed by many as a disappointment. It didn’t help matters for Wade, playing a new position after lining up primarily at slot cornerback for the previous two seasons, that much of Ohio State’s offseason was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic while the Buckeyes played just five regular season games.
Wade also wasn’t fully healthy. His father Randy Wade recently revealed on Twitter that Shaun had to have surgeries both before and after the season. And while Shaun didn’t want to get into the specifics of his injuries during an interview with Eleven Warriors this week, he said he was dealing with those injuries for much of the 2020 season – though he also knows he can’t use that as an excuse as he prepares to play at the next level.
“For me personally, a lot of people don’t know but I had a lot of things going on during the time, so I was going through a lot of things with my body and just with personal things at home,” Wade said. “So it just showed me how to grow up and put those things to the side. Which, at first, I’m not gonna lie, it took time to do. But toward the end of the season, I was getting better just putting them things to the side and just focusing on this team and focusing on football.”
After Ohio State’s 52-24 national championship game loss to Alabama, Wade briefly considered staying with the Buckeyes for one more year. The chance to win a national championship was the primary reason why Wade came back for the 2020 season when he could have entered the NFL draft one year earlier, and he was upset about the way he and the rest of Ohio State’s defense played in that game, in which the Crimson Tide put up 621 yards of offense.
“I felt like we just didn’t come to play as a unit and as a team,” Wade said. “There’s a lot of plays we wish we had back, especially on the defensive side of the ball.”
Upon discussing his options with his family, however, Wade decided that it was time for him to enter the NFL draft. Playing in the NFL has always been Wade’s goal, and after battling through injuries in 2020, he didn’t think he should risk any additional injuries before getting to the league. And he’s still glad he at least had the opportunity to play in the national championship game even though the Buckeyes didn’t achieve the result they wanted.
“I wanted to stay on the sideline and remember how the national championship felt,” Wade said. “It’s just a good memory to have, so I can tell my kids in the future, how that felt losing the national championship. But at the end of the day, I’m proud of the team, proud that we made it and we did get to our goal, we just didn’t accomplish it.”
Thank you Buckeye Nation!! pic.twitter.com/4jdX3V3g4m
— Shaun Wade (@shaunwade24) January 15, 2021
Ultimately, Wade believes the ups and downs he went through in 2020 have hardened him for the adversity he’ll surely face in the NFL, where players are expected to fight through injuries and where everyone has to bounce back from being on the wrong end of big plays. He also learned that he needs to do everything he can to take care of his body as he prepares for the grind of 16-game NFL seasons.
“It’s not an excuse for anything, at the end of the day I still gotta play. A lot of NFL players, they play through injuries, they just get the shots and go through it,” Wade said. “So at the end of the day, you just gotta play through it. There’s nothing you can’t do about it but just play. And I’m just happy that I played through it.”
While Wade and his fellow Ohio State defensive backs drew plenty of criticism this past season, he tried to block that out, and he’s doing the same now that he’s going through the NFL draft process. Although many NFL draft analysts have posited that Wade won’t be able to play outside cornerback in the league, Wade remains confident he can line up anywhere in an NFL secondary.
“I know what I can play. I know what happened this year. And that’s just their opinion,” Wade said. “I know I can play corner, I know I can play nickel, I know I can play safety. I know I can play all positions in the back end. So that’s just a plus on my side. But at the end of the day, it’s their opinion, and I know what I can play. And the people that are professionals know what I can play.”
“It’s not an excuse for anything, at the end of the day I still gotta play.”– Shaun Wade on playing through injuries
Wade also defended Ohio State defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs, who’s taken more flak than anyone for the Buckeyes’ defensive issues against Alabama and over the course of the 2020 season.
“Coach Coombs is a great coach, man. You gotta understand this is his first year being a D-coordinator,” Wade said. “And look where he got us. So you can’t complain about that. Look where he got us. He got us to the national championship, being a D-coordinator and coaching the DBs. So he’s a great guy, great coach and he understands football and knows what he’s talking about. Whatever the outside world say is what they say. They’re going to speak their mind and just make noise and that’s just how it is. But Coach Coombs is a great guy and a great coach.”
Shaun Wade believes Kerry Coombs deserves more credit for helping Ohio State make the national championship game in his first year as a defensive coordinator.
And even though he’ll no longer be playing for Ohio State himself, Wade is expecting big things from the Buckeyes and their secondary in 2021.
“I’m looking forward to them playing next year, for real,” Wade said. “They all understand that process of how to get there (to the national championship game) because we got there through a hard time of COVID that in the history of football, people haven’t gone through. So they understand the work and what they have to do just to get there so I know that they’re really grinding right now.”
As for Wade himself, he’s now in Dallas training at EXOS for Ohio State’s March 30 pro day, where he plans to go through a full workout and is looking to run the 40-yard dash in the 4.4-second range (if not faster).
He was mad when he learned he wouldn’t get to have a traditional NFL Scouting Combine experience due to the ongoing pandemic, but he knows that’s just another piece of adversity he has to deal with. And he is excited to return to Columbus and put his skills on display alongside his former Ohio State teammates one more time.
“At the end of the day, everybody wants to accomplish their goal and that’s just getting to the NFL, and the combine’s a part of the process,” Wade said. “Now I just gotta focus on medicals and interviews and just do my pro day and treat that like the combine. Which is kinda better to me because I get to do it in front of my old teammates and my brothers and my coaches and make them proud.”
