As Ohio State suffered its third straight loss to Michigan last November, all Lathan Ransom could do was watch from afar.
Because he had suffered a season-ending Lisfranc injury in his left foot four weeks earlier in Ohio State’s win over Wisconsin, Ransom didn’t make the trip to Ann Arbor, where the Buckeyes were defeated 30-24 by the Wolverines. But he felt just as much pain as his teammates did as the Buckeyes’ goals slipped away from them for the third year in a row.
“It was ridiculously hard,” Ransom said of watching that game. “That's the only game I really wanted to play all year. Like that's all I thought about, especially just how the last game ended and me not playing the game I wanted to play, that's the only game I had circled. So I guess I gotta wait two years. God has a plan for me that in two years (from 2022), I'll be able to play in this game.”
Even though he’s been at Ohio State for four years, Ransom has yet to earn a pair of Gold Pants. He won his only Big Ten championship as a freshman in 2020, when the Buckeyes lost in the national championship game, which they haven’t gotten back to since.
Ransom didn’t want to leave Ohio State without fulfilling those goals, so he chose to take advantage of the extra year of eligibility all players received in 2020 to play a fifth season for the Buckeyes in 2024.
While Ransom’s ultimate goal is to play in the NFL, he decided that aspiration could wait one more year for another chance to finish his Ohio State career the right way.
“I'm not going to sit here and lie and tell you like in the moment it wasn't hard. It was definitely hard, but it wasn't as hard when I realized that me and my brothers didn't achieve our goals,” Ransom said of making his decision to stay. “We have three goals here at Ohio State: Beat the team up north, win the Big Ten, win the national championship. And I'm still yet to achieve those goals. So when I sit there and look at the big picture, it’s yeah, the next level, I mean, that's my all-time dream. But I still haven't finished my legacy here at Ohio State with achieving those three goals, so that made the decision a lot easier.”
Had Ransom entered the 2024 NFL draft, he likely would have been limited during pre-draft workouts as he continued to recover from his injury. By staying at OSU, Ransom was able to continue the rehab process with team physical therapist Adam Stewart and the rest of the team’s medical staff.
While Ohio State held Ransom out of full-contact work this spring so as not to rush him back from injury, Ransom said in March that he was ahead of schedule in his recovery. He credited Stewart and Ohio State with helping him get there, just as they did two years ago after he broke his leg in the Rose Bowl on the first day of 2022.
“I've been blessed to be around Stew,” Ransom said. “They told me on my leg injury I was supposed to take like eight months, seven months (before he was cleared to play), came back in like six-and-a-half. And they told me on my foot, I forgot the exact time they gave me, but I'm back a lot faster than they said I was going to be back. So I'm just blessed to have Stew in my life to make these injuries not so major.”
Before his injury last season, Ransom played a key role in the Ohio State defense’s improvement to become one of the best in the country last season. Starting all of Ohio State’s first eight games at strong safety, Ransom recorded 34 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, one interception, one forced fumble and two pass breakups. He showed improved consistency in both tackling and coverage after he was responsible for multiple costly mistakes in Ohio State’s final two games of 2022 against Michigan and Georgia.
Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles is confident Ransom will pick up where he left off in 2024.
“Lathan was making very good progress,” Knowles said. “Always loved the way he played. His attitude, his physicality. First year (with Knowles in 2022), he had some eye violations. He was improving on that until he got hurt.”
Safeties coach Matt Guerrieri was pleased with Ransom’s effort to continue improving this spring even though he was only a limited participant in practices.
“I've been impressed with, if you're not taking as many physical reps, what are the mental reps that you're taking, and he's done a really good job of having a daily routine, putting the time in, making sure that he's caught up to speed with everything,” Guerrieri said.
“The next level, I mean, that's my all-time dream. But I still haven't finished my legacy here at Ohio State.”– Lathan Ransom on staying at Ohio State for a fifth year
Ransom could be overshadowed among Ohio State’s safeties this year by new starting free safety Caleb Downs, who earned national freshman of the year honors last season at Alabama. That said, Ransom is thrilled to have the opportunity to play alongside Downs in his final season as a Buckeye.
“Super-duper excited,” Ransom said when asked about his excitement to play with Downs. “To have someone like that come here, that makes me compete every day. I love Caleb being here. We're in the film (room) watching film together, we're competing in the weight room, we're competing on the field. So just having someone like that to just push you every day is going to make both of us better.”
Even with the addition of Downs and the return of starting cornerbacks Denzel Burke, Davison Igbinosun and Jordan Hancock, Ohio State will be counting on Ransom to be a leader of its defensive backfield this season. He’s the only fifth-year senior in the secondary and one of the team’s most experienced players, having played 1,597 snaps from scrimmage – the third-most in an Ohio State uniform on the entire roster behind only Burke and left guard Donovan Jackson – over the past four years.
“He's a guy that's been there, done that, has accomplished a lot, but not the goals that he wants to yet,” Guerrieri said. “So I would say from a leadership standpoint, holding guys accountable and he's done that at a really high level.”
Two of Ransom’s last three seasons ended with injuries while the other ended with a nightmare game against Georgia, but he has one more chance this year to finish his Ohio State career on a high note. And he’s made it clear his goal is nothing less than to help Ohio State’s defense be the best in the country this year.
“We all came back for a goal, and that's to be the best defense, one of the best defenses to ever play at Ohio State, and hopefully the best defense in the country,” Ransom said. “Obviously, if you look on paper at the defense, we have the best defense in the country. So it's on us to put it all together. It's easy to say you have this and that. But at the end of the day, you still gotta go on the field, strap your helmet up and show it every week.”
