Three years into his Ohio State career, even Jerron Cage himself had to wonder whether he’d ever see significant playing time for the Buckeyes.
Going into the 2020 season, Cage had played just 105 defensive snaps as a Buckeye. He didn’t play at all as a freshman in 2017. He appeared in just three games for a total of 17 snaps in his second year as a Buckeye. He saw the field in 12 of Ohio State’s 14 games in 2019, but most of his 88 defensive snaps came in the second half of blowout wins.
Now going into his fifth season at Ohio State, Cage acknowledges it was frustrating to be stuck on the bench for so long.
“Yeah, definitely, definitely,” Cage said Friday. “And that’s anybody in my situation. You see all these guys leaving, and you’re like, ‘OK, it’s time, it’s time, it’s time.’ And then you just don’t see it yet. But if you just wait, God always got a plan for you. So I just stuck in there and stayed strong and now I’m reaping the benefits right now.”
Finally, last season, Cage started to play a regular role in the defensive tackle rotation. While Tommy Togiai played the majority of snaps at nose tackle, and Antwuan Jackson played more snaps too, Cage did appear in all eight of Ohio State’s games for a total of 109 snaps. And when Togiai contracted COVID-19 and was unable to play in the national championship game, Cage made his first career start in Togiai’s place.
Getting that opportunity meant a lot to Cage. But he was forced to make a major sacrifice off the field last season so that he could play for the Buckeyes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ohio State asked its players not to visit their families last season in order to decrease their risk of getting the coronavirus, and because of that, Cage was unable to spend time with his infant son, who was born last June.
“The whole situation was emotional for me, just going through everything I’ve been through,” Cage said. “I had to sacrifice so much during that timeframe of this pandemic because my son was just born, and I couldn’t even see him. So the fact that I just had all my brothers around me, and I just did it for them and I did it for my son, and they understood that.”
That said, Cage was excited to be able to show what he could do on college football’s biggest stage. And he’s hopeful that will serve as a springboard into this season, in which he should see his most consistent playing time yet.
With Togiai now in the NFL, Cage and Jackson are expected to lead Ohio State’s nose tackle rotation this season. Taron Vincent could also see some snaps at nose tackle, since Haskell Garrett is locked in as the starting 3-technique, but Ohio State defensive line coach Larry Johnson named Jackson and Cage on Friday as the two players he is primarily looking at to lead the way at the nose position.
Regardless of who starts between them, it’s likely they’ll rotate regularly and play a comparable number of snaps. Based on what Johnson said Friday, it sounds like Cage is doing what he needs to do to make a run at the starting job or at least ensure he’ll maintain his expected place on the nose tackle two-deep.
“Jerron Cage is having probably the best spring he’s had since he’s been here,” Johnson said.
Ryan Day also said this week that “Jerron Cage is playing his best football” of his Ohio State career.
Jerron Cage started at nose tackle and played a career-high 32 snaps in the national championship game.
While Cage’s long wait to play a substantial role at Ohio State has come partly because of the players who have been in front of him for the past four years – namely DaVon Hamilton, Robert Landers, Togiai and Jackson – he also had to get better. The four-star recruit from Cincinnati wasn’t able to make his mark and prove he deserved a place in the rotation in his early years.
By staying the course, though, Cage has a chance to make a late-career surge and be a key player at a position where the Buckeyes need some new difference-makers to emerge in 2021.
Cage credits assistant director of strength and conditioning Kenny Parker, a former Florida defensive lineman who rejoined Ohio State’s staff last year after four years as the head strength and conditioning coach at Rutgers, with helping him take his game to a new level.
“I feel like the biggest push was last year with my growth, just getting stronger and everything with Coach KP, Kenny Parker, showed us all types of different ways to get stronger at the little things,” Cage said. “So I feel like me, Taron, Antwuan and Haskell, we all just gravitated to him and I feel like my personal feeling, I feel like I’ve gotten stronger, faster and more explosive.”
