Tyler Friday thought the 2021 season would be his final season at Ohio State. Instead, his 2021 season ended before preseason camp even began.
About two weeks before camp started last summer, Friday was running through some bag drills at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center with some of his fellow Ohio State defensive linemen when his cleat got stuck in the turf and his leg gave out. Immediately, Friday felt a pain in his right knee that was different from any pain he had ever felt before, but he didn’t realize quite how serious the injury was until after he got home.
“I was able to drive home and all that. But once I sat on that couch, watched some TV for about an hour, I couldn't get back up,” Friday said last week. “I was trying to push off this right leg, and I was like, ‘Oh no, that’s painful.’ And then I looked at my knee, and they say when it swells up that fast, that's usually an indication that something's wrong.”
Friday was devastated when he received the diagnosis of a torn ACL.
“It was hard, man,” Friday said. “Going into your senior year, everybody thinks ‘That’s it, one more year and I'm out.’ And then two weeks before fall camp, on a non-contact injury, we didn't have pads on when this happened, so that's the last thing on your mind is getting hurt like that. And then when it happened, man, it just broke my heart. Broke my heart.”
Friday didn’t allow the injury to keep him down for long, however. After a couple days of mourning, Friday decided that he would still try to help the team however he could while watching from the sidelines. And he believes the lessons he learned from watching his teammates play last year will make him a better player when he returns to the field this year.
“I saw the game from a whole new perspective,” Friday said. “My football IQ increased. I was able to see things I wouldn't be able to see just being on the field, like formations from the offense, the secondary on our defense. So I feel like I’m going to be able to use that to my advantage this year.
“Before I got hurt, I thought I was ready to play. I thought I knew everything about the game. I thought I was fully prepared. And after I got hurt, I realized I had a lot more room to grow as far as like mentally. Not even the physical part of the game, just like football IQ, play recognition, things like that.”
About eight months removed from the injury, Friday isn’t going through any contact drills this spring. But he’s pleased with how his recovery is going and expects to be full-go for this year’s preseason camp.
“Right now I feel the best I've ever felt,” Friday said. “I feel like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.”
Four years into his Ohio State career, Friday hasn’t had a ton of production yet. Coming mostly off the bench in a deep defensive end rotation, Friday appeared in 25 games from 2018-20 and recorded 18 total tackles with four tackles for loss and three sacks.
He faces plenty of competition for playing time at defensive end once again in 2021, as Zach Harrison and Javontae Jean-Baptiste also return as veterans while J.T. Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer are primed for increased playing time as sophomores. But Friday – who still has two years of eligibility left, as he still has the additional year given to all players by the NCAA after using his redshirt year last season, though he’s approaching this year like it will be his last at Ohio State – is confident he can make a bigger impact than he ever has before in 2022.
“From this point last year, a lot has changed obviously, but I feel like when I get back to that point around fall camp, my body will be in tip-top shape, my mental will be where it's supposed to be, so I feel like this year will be definitely an impact year for me,” Friday said. “What it was supposed to be, what I planned for it to be for a couple years.”
Although he’s already been at Ohio State longer than he originally anticipated, as he had hoped to be in the NFL after three or four years as a Buckeye, he’s treating last year as a blessing in disguise, as he believes it humbled him and made him tougher and more mature.
“Nothing seems as bad anymore,” Friday said. “Like I could be tired, ready to pass out, but you know, at least it's not my knee. So I feel like it was a chance for me to grow in a lot of ways.”
He also thinks last year taught him how to become a better leader.
“When I was out, I also seen ways that we can grow as a team, not only myself as a player,” Friday said. “So once I saw that, I feel like they had to be spoken on. So just being a fifth-year here, I felt like that was my job.”
Tyler Friday still tried to find ways to help his teammates last season even though he was forced to watch from the sidelines.
Sawyer took notice of Friday’s leadership last season even though Friday wasn’t able to be on the field.
“He handled it like a grown man,” Sawyer said. “Every day he was in here with a positive attitude. I never saw him down, always supporting us, always trying to help us in any way he could. And just seeing him go through that and just be so positive with it, it was eye-opening for all of us. He was always in here working, rehabbing and it was really good to see that. Because it broke all of our hearts to see him get hurt like that.”
Harrison is among those who expect Friday to make a difference for the Buckeyes’ defensive line this year, and he’s looking forward to having Friday back on the field with him.
“He's a great player,” Harrison said. “He's strong, he's quick, he’s fast, he's athletic. I take a lot from his game. I like to watch what he does and see if I can incorporate that in my game.”
