When Ohio State travels to Piscataway this weekend seeking its eighth straight win over Rutgers, a notable group of Buckeyes will also be returning to their home state.
Ohio State’s 2021 roster includes five players from the state of New Jersey and three other players from just across the state border in New York, and many of them will be playing key roles for the Buckeyes on Saturday.
The Buckeyes’ Garden State contingent includes a pair of defensive starters, Ronnie Hickman and Cody Simon, who have been two of the most impressive new starters on Ohio State’s defense so far this year.
Hickman, in particular, has been a standout, leading the Buckeyes with 33 total tackles and two interceptions, one of which he returned for a touchdown in Ohio State’s 59-7 win over Akron. He’s started every game at bullet this season and is the only defensive player who’s graded out as a champion in all three wins. Simon also had an interception against Akron and ranks third on the team with 17 tackles.
“He’s starting to build a little bit of a reputation for being a guy who’s playing really good football right now,” Ryan Day said of Hickman when discussing defensive standouts after last weekend’s game. “Many people didn’t really know who Ronnie was four weeks ago. Now he’s really going. And Cody Simon’s starting to show up.”
.@OhioStateFB picks off Akron and takes it allllll the way for 6! pic.twitter.com/hzQmdPpF6p
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 26, 2021
Another notable New Jersey native making a big impact for Ohio State so far this season is starting center Luke Wypler. While Harry Miller was expected to be Ohio State’s starting center this year, he’s been unavailable for the Buckeyes’ first four games, and though he is back with the team this week, Day said Thursday that the plan is to “ease” Miller back into action, so Wypler is expected to remain the starter in the middle for at least this week.
Wypler (St. Joseph Regional), Hickman (DePaul Catholic) and Ohio State defensive ends Tyler Friday (Don Bosco Prep) and Javontae Jean-Baptiste (Bergen Catholic) all played their high school football in New Jersey’s Big North Conference (though Jean-Baptiste’s hometown is just over state lines in Spring Valley, New York). Hickman and Wypler both said this week that they believe their New Jersey upbringings instilled toughness in them that they’ve been able to bring to Ohio State.
“We all had the chance to play in the Big North, which is to me the best football in Jersey and I’m sure others can agree,” Hickman said. “But just competing against the top guys in Jersey, ultimately in the country, just in that one state, only helps you for the next level of college football.”
The other New Jersey native on Ohio State’s roster is freshman quarterback Kyle McCord, who played his high school football at St. Joseph’s Prep in Philadelphia (along with freshman wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr.) but grew up in Mount Laurel, N.J. McCord, whose father Derek was a quarterback at Rutgers, played a huge role for the Buckeyes as their starting quarterback against Akron, though C.J. Stroud is expected to return to the starting lineup this week.
Ohio State will also have at least one New York native in the starting lineup this week in Long Island’s Jeremy Ruckert, the Buckeyes’ top tight end. Whether Brooklyn native Matt Jones is also in the starting lineup this week could depend on whether Thayer Munford is ready to return from his ankle injury, though Jones has performed well enough at left guard in Munford’s place over the last two weeks – earning champion grades for both games – to make the case that he should have a place in the starting lineup even when Munford is back.
“The idea is that you try to find the best five (offensive linemen) … I think that we have kind of a best six right now, as Matt has proven that he can play with those guys,” Day said this week. “Matt Jones has worked really hard to really solidify himself as a guy that we can count on in there.”
Matt Jones (55) and Luke Wypler (53) both grew up in Rutgers territory but are now playing on Ohio State’s interior offensive line.
Either way, Ohio State should have at least four or five players from Rutgers’ backyard in the starting lineup at Rutgers on Saturday. Jean-Baptiste is also likely to return to the defensive end rotation if he’s available to play, which he wasn’t for last weekend’s game against Akron.
With Rutgers making a resurgence under former Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano – who played a part in recruiting many of the aforementioned players, like Hickman, Jean-Baptiste and Friday, to Ohio State – it could become a bit more difficult for the Buckeyes to recruit top talent out of New Jersey and New York going forward. The Scarlet Knights currently hold commitments from the top recruits in both states for the class of 2022.
Still, Ohio State will continue to pursue top talent from the region, such as 2023 Don Bosco Prep four-star offensive tackle Chase Bisontis, who camped at Ohio State this summer.
“It’s always been an area that has a lot of talent, a lot of good players and Greg’s doing a good job of recruiting in that area,” Day said. “Certainly I know growing up in the Northeast as well, a lot of great players in New Jersey and New York, that area, so it’s obviously an important recruiting area for us as well.”
Keeping future top New Jersey prospects like Hickman, Simon and Wypler home will be crucial to Schiano’s efforts to continue building Rutgers, and Hickman acknowledged that the Buckeyes from New Jersey have talked about what Rutgers could be if they had all stayed home.
“If we did, we would definitely be crazy,” Hickman said. “We do talk about that sometimes, honestly, it would definitely be a different kind of team, for sure.”
That said, they’re all happy to be at Ohio State, and the Buckeyes are certainly to have them on their side instead of having to play against them in the Big Ten East.
“You can look at it the other way, what if we didn’t come here?” Wypler said. “So I don’t try to look at it like that. I’m just happy I’m here, I’m thankful that I’m here.”
Saturday’s game will be special for those Buckeyes, though, as it will be an opportunity for some of their family and friends who can’t usually attend games in Columbus to watch them play in person. Wypler said he is going to have about 200 family members and friends at SHI Stadium, and both Simon and Wypler said they’re hoping to have the opportunity to eat some bagels and pizza from their home state before they return to Columbus.
“This game’s really special,” Wypler said. “It’s gonna be really fun to just play in front of them, play in the stadium that I grew up going to, so I’m very, very excited.”
