Tim May: Camaraderie, experience bringing this Buckeyes team closer together
INDIANAPOLIS – This isn’t about the future of this coming season for Ohio State, not even the season opener or the start of preseason camp next week.
This feeling that has permeated the football program for months, it is about today, but in the abstract. It is the intangible that seems to have driven the players, and the coaches for that matter, since the makeup of the 2024 Buckeyes coalesced in the spring.
And if that feeling had a battle cry, well, according to fourth-year cornerback Denzel Burke, it probably could be “Fore!”
“Just a lot of activities outside the building that we are doing together,” Burke said here Tuesday during the start of Big Ten media days 2024. “The majority of the team golfs now so everyone at least has someone to golf with.
“This has been a big-time summer for us. Hard off-season [workouts], just good momentum that we’re heading into fall camp with. It’s our job this year just to win the moment, take care of the little things, situations, and have fun.”
More about the golf in a later story. This is about the lineup at the tee, an impressive group that stretches to the clubhouse, and what their mix has done for the main goal, which as Burke said so eloquently in the spring is “Natty or bust.”
The return of could-have-been-drafted players such as Emeka Egbuka, Jack Sawyer, Burke, J.T. Tuimoloau, TreVeyon Henderson, Lathan Ransom; the influx of Will Howard, Caleb Jones, Seth McLaughlin and Quinshon Judkins, freshmen Jeremiah Smith and Eddrick Houston, just to name a few; and the bubbling to the fore of Ty Hamilton, Tyleik Williams, Josh Fryar, Josh Simmons, Gee Scott, Cody Simon, Sonny Styles and C.J. Hicks, just to name a few more – the roster is impressive. Just ask any expert.
Then throw in a coaching staff that’s topped by two recognized innovators, defensive coordinator Jim Knowles and former Oregon, UCLA and NFL head coach Chip Kelly, long ago a Ryan Day mentor and boss and now facilitator; the rise of Tim Walton to be considered one of the elite defensive back coaches and recruiters in the country; and the spice of fast-rising running backs coach Carlos Locklyn, fresh from Oregon – spice is there, keeping in mind also that anybody associated with the team can coach freely in some capacity thanks to an NCAA rule change.
What’s importate, Egbuka indicated, is all understand the credo needs to be one day at a time, definitely one game at a time, as they seek to flip the script that has seen the Buckeyes lose to Michigan the past three seasons after owning the series for two decades, thus that has seen them not play in this building for the Big Ten title for three straight years after winning four straight, indeed, that has seen them not win the national championship since 2014.
So back to that one game at a time thing, the question was whether at this point they would be looking forward more to, say, the much-anticipated new-look Big Ten showdown at Oregon on Oct. 12 while perhaps looking over the season opener Aug. 31 with Akron.
“Yeah, well, some of the later games in the season aren’t going to mean as much if we drop one to Akron,” Egbuka said.
That’s why the work through the winter, the spring practices, the summer training sessions, and even those golf matches, have been methodical with a purpose, Sawyer indicated.
“The chemistry we have with this team, it kind of speaks to how we all came back,” Sawyer said. “I think if you look around at programs across the country, if you’ve got 11 or 15 guys who could go pro and be drafted, a lot of those guys are going to leave and go to the pros.
“We all decided to come back [except for third overall NFL draft pick Marvin Harrison Jr. and defensive tackle Mike Hall Jr.] and play another year at Ohio State, that in itself speaks to the brotherhood that we have with each other. But then again, just the camaraderie that we have on a day-to-day basis [whether it’s] in the weight room or outside of the Woody, I’m really excited for you guys to see how far we’ve come, come this fall.”
Oh yes, as much as they’re working, plotting and at times frolicking, they’re looking for the season too, which is right up there with the more anticipated in Ohio State history.
“It needs to get here a little quicker,” Burke said. “Fall camp starts next week. I’m gonna get to do what I love, which is to be able to be out there with my boys and play the game that I love.”
The post Tim May: Camaraderie, experience bringing this Buckeyes team closer together appeared first on On3.
