Haskell Garrett wasn’t supposed to be on the field when Ohio State played its penultimate game of the 2021 regular season against Michigan State.
Garrett had been playing hurt throughout the second half of the season after spraining his ankle in the Buckeyes’ sixth game of the year against Maryland, and by the Buckeyes’ 11th game of the year against the Spartans, it had gotten bad enough that team doctors told him he shouldn’t play. But Garrett, who famously guaranteed that Ohio State was “gonna whoop their ass” at the pregame Skull Session before the Buckeyes’ 56-7 win over the Spartans, refused to let the injury keep him off the field.
“The doctors outside told me to rest and you need to heal, but I had a sense of urgency and I needed to be there for my teammates,” Garrett said. “I made that promise at the beginning of the season that we were going to make this run and I wanted to be there and help as best as possible.”
Garrett, who proclaimed after the Buckeyes’ first loss of the year against Oregon that Ohio State would do what it needed to do to make a run to the Big Ten Championship Game and the College Football Playoff, did not miss a single regular-season game despite his ankle injury. After the Buckeyes suffered a 42-27 loss to Michigan in their final game of the regular season that knocked them out of both the Big Ten title game and the CFP race, however, Garrett decided it was in his best interest to opt out of the Rose Bowl and get healthy.
“I wanted to be there for my teammates and be there for the last two games,” Garrett said Friday at the NFL Scouting Combine. “They told me to rest, but we were chasing something bigger at the time. When we lost that game, I had to change my focus to my family and do what's best for me.
“It was really hard. I was torn. I really wanted to finish the season and be with my brothers in that bowl game and say farewell in a good way. But I had to really take care of my health and get ready for the next step.”
Skipping the Rose Bowl gave Garrett’s ankle time to heal up before the Senior Bowl in the first week of February, but he suffered another injury – this time to his shoulder – when he was driven into the ground by former Michigan guard Andrew Stueber during a midweek practice. Yet he didn’t let that stop him from playing in the game that Saturday.
“It was a dream of mine to play in that Reese's Bowl,” Garrett said. “I wanted to stay there and finish, because it was a goal of mine, something I dreamed about as a kid.”
Four weeks later, Garrett will be back on the field for defensive line workouts at the NFL Scouting Combine on Saturday, and he says he is feeling fully healthy now. But by playing in Ohio State’s final two games of the regular season and in the Senior Bowl, he wanted to prove he has the dedication and toughness to perform even when he’s not fully healthy.
“I'm 100 percent,” Garrett said. “It was just answering those questions, showing them especially at the Reese’s Bowl that I can play through injuries and I'm dependable.”
Although he wasn’t always healthy during his final season at Ohio State, Garrett still had his most productive season as a Buckeye in 2021, as he led the team with 5.5 sacks and seven total tackles for loss, recorded a career-high 22 total tackles and returned a fumble for a touchdown in the Buckeyes’ season-opening win over Minnesota.
Considering all of that, Garrett is glad he chose to stay at Ohio State for his additional year of eligibility instead of entering last year’s NFL draft.
“Both as a leader and as a person, I think I did exactly what I came back to do,” Garrett said. “I set new records for myself. I made more sacks than I did the previous year in our COVID year and I lived up to expectations.”
Looking back on his collegiate career, Garrett believes playing for Ohio State and specifically for Ohio State defensive line coach Larry Johnson has prepared him well to take the next step to the league.
“Coach J is the best in the business in my opinion as a defensive line coach,” Garrett said. “I think Ohio State has not only prepared me on the field but off the field as well for this moment.”
Last year’s injuries were far from the only adversity Garrett endured during his Ohio State career, as he was shot in the face while attempting to break up an argument less than two months before the start of the Buckeyes’ 2020 season. But Garrett still played in every game that season and earned All-American honors, and he believes going through that experience gave him a new perspective and increased motivation that have helped him get to where he is now.
“I'd say without the adversity, I'm not who I am today,” Garrett said. “It really fuels and drives me, and going through that has made me a better person, a better teammate and overall, better man in this world.”
