Marcus Williamson didn’t wait until after the 2020 season to announce he’d be back for a fifth year at Ohio State.
Five days before January’s national championship game, the Buckeyes’ starting cover safety said he still had “unfinished business” and wanted to help a struggling secondary “get to the standard that we know we hold ourselves to.”
In that moment nine months ago, the Westerville, Ohio, native didn’t expect to be pursuing those goals from the sideline in 2021.
After starting all eight games for Ohio State last year, playing fewer snaps than only Shaun Wade and Sevyn Banks among Buckeye defensive backs, Williamson has seen the field less than nine other DBs in 2021. Williamson didn’t receive any defensive reps in the season opener, and has played no more than 22 snaps in the subsequent four contests.
“This season didn’t go how I personally envisioned for myself. But I’ve always, since peewee, considered myself a team player,” Williamson said Tuesday. “Sometimes you got to just put your ego aside, put the distractions aside – people in your ear, people in the community back home, whatever it may be – and just kind of put your best foot forward and focus on the team. That’s what I decided to do.”
Buckeye head coach Ryan Day alluded to those same distractions Tuesday and said Williamson was finally able to put them aside heading into this past Saturday’s matchup with Rutgers.
Although he played just 15 snaps in the 52-13 blowout, Williamson graded out as a champion for his efforts for the first time this year. Williamson stopped a first-quarter quarterback rush by Noah Vedral for a five-yard gain, and in the second quarter, he broke up a Scarlet Knight pass attempt.
“Marcus, this past week, has had his best week of preparation. He even shared with me that he got a lot of distractions out of his head, he cleared a lot of noise out and just gave himself to the team,” Day said. “His energy level was off the charts, his attitude was off the charts, and then lo and behold, he plays probably one of his better games. I just thought it was a great example of when you get focused and you dedicate yourself to the team and you don’t listen to all the noise, how that can affect your performance. Hats off to Marcus.”
Williamson’s lack of playing time may be less about him than it is the emergence of several young talents that have both surprised and impressed with their ability to challenge veterans for spots this season.
Sophomore Lathan Ransom began the season as the Buckeyes’ starter at cover safety, but redshirt freshman Cameron Martinez’s pick-six against Tulsa helped him step into the starting role when Ransom shifted over to free safety a couple weeks ago.
Secondary coach Matt Barnes described the situation at cover safety as a “logjam” last week, but it seemed clear that Williamson was the third option in that group.
Understandably for the former regular starter, Williamson has had to work through the process of accepting that fact. Williamson said he had second thoughts about the entire situation before eventually making peace with it.
“It might be human nature to think, ‘I’m the guy.’ But for a lot of guys, that doesn’t go that way,” Williamson said. “There’s 100-something guys on the team, and so everybody has to find their role, find their niche, find what they’re different at, find what they’re good at. And then find your limitations and figure out where you fall in from there.
“When you understand that role, I think it just allows you to go that much harder to see how far you can get. So I think that’s what makes this team special is a lot of guys have that mindset, and top to bottom, it’s all starting to come together.”
Since embracing the sacrifice, Williamson said he has tried to impart other members of the position room with the same realizations he has come to in trying to help the team above all else.
“It just comes down to humility. Just taking that servant mindset, I think there’s a lot of power in that,” Williamson said. “No matter what that guys’ role may be – I explained this to the defensive back room – maybe the buddy next to you, maybe he makes that play. Maybe you thought it was your play to be made. But at the end of the day, you’re only hurting yourself when you try to put yourself above the team. So just taking that servant mindset, that love mindset that, ‘I’m gonna put my best foot forward and I’m gonna help the team.’ I think that’s having huge dividends for what we’re doing here.”
The Buckeye defense has taken strides in the past two weeks, having given up just 20 points total against Akron and Rutgers. Perhaps one factor in that success is the understanding and acceptance of roles – be they expanded or contracted from a year ago.
Williamson falls into the latter category, but he remains eager to help the team as best he can nonetheless.
“I think I just have too much love for this team to want to put myself first before the team,” Williamson said. “So I decided to just keep working, because that’s what we do.”
