Lathan Ransom was built to be a bone-clattering enforcer before his age even reached double-digits.
Fathers coaching their sons in youth sports often works out one of two ways. Either the parent plays favorites and perhaps even coddles the child or they go the opposite direction and hold them to a higher standard, pushing them harder than everyone else.
Not to say there isn’t a full spectrum between those two extremes, but Nathan Ransom, Lathan’s father, definitely landed in the latter category. Just ask the Ohio State safety about Oklahoma drills in his Pop Warner football practices.
“If I ever lost a hit or missed a tackle, I'm going back up again and again and again,” Ransom told Eleven Warriors on Saturday. “He just made sure that – first of all, he made me a competitor, made me a fierce competitor – but made sure that I was always the one delivering the blow and made sure that he explained to me at a young age that, because I was smaller when I first started, that to not be scared because if you go there as fast as he goes there, 90 percent of the time you're going to win. And you go there fearless, 90 percent of the time you're going to win. So that's been ingrained in my head, man, to always play fast, always run and hit fearless.”
Ransom has had to get back up again and again and again in his college football career, too.
Ingrained with his father’s toughness, Ransom has endured ridicule, severe injuries and those who overlooked him to become as fearsome a strong safety as any in the country. And there’s no more fitting a team to close his Ohio State tenure against than the Notre Dame team he had his breakout performance against in 2022 with a national championship on the line.
“God works in mysterious ways, and he's worked on my life an amazing amount this year,” Ransom said. “I go to think about, I get a chance to play in the Rose Bowl, where I broke my leg. I get a chance to play in the Cotton Bowl, which I didn’t get a chance to play in last year. Now I get a chance to play against Notre Dame, where I really, like you said, I had my breakout there. So, I just thank God, man, because it's amazing to watch his work.”
Before his breakout against the Fighting Irish, there was concern as to whether Ransom would ever broach his potential after one of the worst injuries a player has suffered in the Ryan Day era.
He played plenty in 2021 as a cover safety (essentially a nickel in the strange 4-2-5 scheme Ohio State ran that year under Kerry Coombs), logging 431 snaps, but only picked up 38 tackles for one of the most maligned defenses in recent Ohio State memory. The Buckeyes were 97th in pass defense, giving up 246.2 yards per game through the air. Then in the Rose Bowl vs. Utah to close that season, Ransom snapped both the tibia and fibula in his left leg, which he said bent all the way to a horrifying 90-degree angle.
As coordinator Jim Knowles rode in from Oklahoma State to fix the Buckeyes defense, Ransom set to work in rehab. Josh Proctor, who split some time with Ransom at cover safety in 2021, took up the mantle as Ohio State’s strong safety in the meantime.
"Lathan loves the game. He loves his teammates. He's had his ups and downs both on the field and with injuries," Knowles said on Wednesday. "That's just a guy you always pull for because he's experienced both ends of it. I love to see him do well because he's earned it. He's fought through the adversity."
Proctor missed a tackle on the first series of the Buckeyes’ first game that year against Notre Dame, and suddenly Ransom was chucked onto the field at strong safety the following drive. He stonewalled star tight end Michael Mayer on a third down soon thereafter en route to a seven-tackle performance as Ohio State won 21-10.
For 11 games of 2022, he was one of the team’s best defenders. He piled up 74 tackles, most among Ohio State’s non-linebackers that year, with 3.5 tackles for loss and an interception. He blocked punts in back-to-back contests. But the enduring memory many Ohio State fans have of him from that season is the pair of big touchdown passes he allowed against Michigan and Georgia to close the season.
All he did was bounce back once more in 2023 to emerge again as one of the defense’s best players through eight games, with 34 tackles and an interception including a 13-tackle day in another win vs. the Fighting Irish. Then he suffered another season-ending injury at Wisconsin. The defense sorely missed him in the back half of the campaign as Sonny Styles had his ups and downs filling in at strong safety.
Ransom said he’s always been motivated by being overlooked, and perhaps there were some overlooking him entering 2024 due to his 2022 ending and 2023 injury despite an otherwise fantastic pair of seasons at safety under Knowles.
“I appreciate Ohio State for recruiting me as a dude from Tucson, Arizona,” Ransom said. “But I just feel that, growing up, there was always people seeing other players over me. There was always people that never rated me the highest, always people that thought other dudes were better than me. And I feel like I never forgot that. I never forgot that. Always had a chip on my shoulder. Just always remembering being overseen, never getting the appreciation I feel like that I deserve.”
Ransom’s operated in the shadows again in 2024, even if the Buckeyes are recognized as having the best safety tandem in college football. That’s because of the other half of that tandem, Caleb Downs, a superstar transfer from Alabama who became a unanimous All-American and Thorpe Award finalist as a sophomore. Downs glows about Ransom’s play far more than his own, though.
“I really don't think people give him enough credit,” Downs said. “He's an elite player. He has elite instincts, and he's one of the most physical people I've met in my life (laughs). And he pushes me to be more physical every day.”
“He pushes me to be more physical every day.”– Caleb Downs on Lathan Ransom
As Ohio State has emerged as the nation's No. 1 scoring and total defense, Ransom’s 2024 has been his best season yet, with 73 tackles, an impeccable nine TFLs, a sack, an interception and three forced fumbles. JT Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer have struck fear into quarterbacks but Ransom has been the Silver Bullets’ enforcer during their College Football Playoff run.
Ransom has 16 tackles and three TFLs in the CFP, which are replete with hits like these against Oregon running back Jordan James. The two men weigh the exact same amount but Ransom has clearly hit the weightroom a bit more. He came from 10 yards off the line of scrimmage backside to make the play.
LATHAN RANSOM #RAMTRUCKED#PMSCFPESPN2 pic.twitter.com/z3P2utlDxs
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) January 1, 2025
Ransom is the highest-graded run defender in the country per Pro Football Focus, with a run defense grade of 93.5 on the season.
“I feel like I've been a physical dude since I was a little kid,” Ransom said. “My dad made sure that I wasn't soft since I was really young (laughs). So I think I just try to keep that on my shoulder and always keep a chip on my shoulder. Being a dude I feel like has been overlooked, a dude that's been overlooked my whole life since I was young. I always go into the game with that chip on my shoulder, not forgetting where I've come from.”
With all the adversity he’s overcome in his collegiate career, Ransom now considers himself an “older soul.”
“It's hard to explain,” Ransom said. “When I think about myself a couple years ago, some of the ways I would think about stuff and some of the ways I would do stuff. Man, I was really young. I was really young and I just have a different perspective now. And all the stuff I've gone through has given me a different perspective, man. So, I appreciate everything I've been through. I appreciate all those years and all those games. And I'm excited to be here at this moment.”
Ransom and his teammates, especially his fellow seniors, will be in search of a storybook ending against the Fighting Irish in the CFP national championship game on Monday.
