Keenan Bailey doesn’t want his young tight ends to sit back and wait for their opportunity.
No matter what their experience level, recruiting pedigree or projected place on the depth chart, the first-year Ohio State tight ends coach wants the players in his position room to go out and take it.
“I think they came to Ohio State knowing that everyone's a competitor, everyone came here to be a first-rounder and whatnot. I don't think there's any waiting your time,” Bailey said at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center on May 30. “I don't ever want to coach someone who's patient. So I hope they're all hungry to get on the field right now. I mean, Cade (Stover) could be sitting right here and I'd tell Pat Gurd or Jelani (Thurman), 'Hey, go take his job. That's why we're at Ohio State.' So I wouldn't tell them to be patient. But to answer your question, when you're surrounded by elite people every day, it's pretty hard not to be hungry.”
It won’t be long before fans begin clamoring to see Thurman, a four-star freshman who already measures in at 6-foot-6, 253 pounds, get his chance. But the amount of playing time he receives early in his Ohio State career depends mostly on the extent to which he can prove he’s earned it.
"He's got enough talent, but now it's the skill and discipline. When you put all those together, it'll be fun.”– Keenan Bailey on Jelani Thurman
So far, so good for Thurman, who managed to generate the aforementioned buzz from the Buckeye fanbase in just his first spring as a college football player. The Georgia native’s size alone had plenty to do with that, as Thurman won’t have to struggle to put on weight like many past and present Buckeye TEs, but he had his fair share of standout moments on the football field as well.
Eleven practices into Ohio State’s spring schedule, Thurman showed the coaching staff enough to become the second member of the 2023 recruiting class to shed his black stripe. That alone was a strong vote of confidence in Thurman’s ability and early development. However, that alone won’t guarantee him early playing time, and Bailey said the bar for his performance will only be raised after what he’s shown to this point.
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) April 7, 2023
the TE room just got better. welcome to the brotherhood, @jelani3345#GoBucks pic.twitter.com/ADtuwjrSqW
Thurman was treated like a freshman upon entering the program. Heading into the preseason though, that will change.
“I don't know, I think when you start putting expectations on (how soon he’ll play), that's when you start getting jammed up. All I asked for him was to strain and learn our culture by the end of spring ball and learn to know what to do,” Bailey said. “And now I'm challenging him, you're not a freshman anymore. I know he still is. But after spring ball, you don't have a black stripe on, you're not a freshman anymore. So now I'm holding him to the standard of Gee (Scott) and Joe (Royer) and Cade and Ben (Christian) and Sam (Hart) and the rest of the guys. So it's only gonna get harder now that we're raising that expectation for him, if that makes sense. I don't know how much he's gonna play, hopefully a lot. Hopefully all these guys play a lot.”
But what’s different about the Thurman that got to campus in January and the version that completed the spring with flying colors? Bailey joked, “he's a high school graduate now, so that's changed.” In actuality, Bailey said Thurman got a firm grasp on the basics of life as a Buckeye both on and off the field and can now begin transitioning into the finer details of both preparation and scheme.
“I think in spring it was, 'OK, what do I do?' It was the what. What do I have on this play? What do I have to do on a Tuesday morning? What classroom building do I go to?” Bailey said. “Now it's the how and the why. How do I do my job? How do I become a successful student-athlete? And then lastly, the why. OK, why do I need to be here 25 minutes before I'm supposed to? Why do I have to influence with my right step so that he steps down? So just progressing from the what, to the how and the why.”
Thurman’s work ethic impressed Bailey as well. He said Thurman spent extra time in the meeting room to ensure he was up to speed on everything being asked of him as an early enrollee freshman at Ohio State.
“He was diligent. I think that was just a byproduct of – he had all these meetings, I would go into my office and him and (graduate assistant) Sean Binckes would be in there at night and early in the morning to make sure he knew what he had to do,” Bailey said. “And he's got enough talent, but now it's the skill and discipline. When you put all those together, it'll be fun.”
Most tight ends at Ohio State face a long road to round out their skill set before being trusted as an every-down fixture on offense. The Buckeyes haven’t been known to frequently use specialists at the position, whether they be pass catchers or blockers.
That won’t change with Thurman, who excelled as a receiving threat with 36 catches for 582 yards and 12 touchdowns in 14 games as a senior for Langston Hughes High School. But given his natural size, his path to improving as an inline blocker may not be as difficult as it is for other Ohio State tight ends.
“He had a couple a couple blocks towards the end of spring that the whole unit got really fired up about,” Bailey said. “But still, it's every play, what do I got to do, how do I got to do it?”
Stover will be the unquestioned top tight end for Ohio State after returning from a breakout season in 2022, but Bailey is looking to lighten his snap count on a game-to-game basis this season. Thurman isn’t likely to be the next man up after that, either, but he said opportunities will be available nonetheless.
“We've got a lot of guys in the room. So if there's an opportunity that we're up big, the next best guy is rolling in,” Bailey said. “I'm not looking to get a rep count or anything like that.”
