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Buckeye Banter: Former Ohio State National Champion Safety Donnie Nickey · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Wednesday, February twenty six
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Thom your host Tom or the Texas game in one
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: hundred and eighty five days the game against Michigan in
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: two hundred and seventy six days. If you are planning
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: your next event, you should make it unforgettable with Grateful Griddle,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Columbus's favorite food truck serving up smash burgers, gourmet sandwiches,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: and good vibes. Book your catering today at gratefulgriddleoh dot com.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: This is a surprisingly busy week for February, the NFL
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Combine that starts on Wednesday. We've got Kevin and Tony
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: and Mark all in Indianapolis for that. We're gonna have
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: a ton of coverage for you from Indianapolis all week
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: long in this feed, in the Buckeye Weekly Feed, at
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: bucke Huddle dot com, on our YouTube channel, all the
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: places you can find all sorts of coverage of all
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: fifteen buck Eyes at the NFL Combine this week. That's
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: all going to be starting on Wednesday. Also, just a
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: heads up, Kevin and I will be there on Saturday
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: when the Blue Jackets and Red Wings play in Ohio.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Stadium in the NHL Stadium series that's coming up this
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: weekend as well. We'll have tons of coverage on your
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: YouTube channel and of course at Buckeye Huddle dot com
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: as well. All Right, so that's all the stuff that's
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: coming up. A little later on this week. Today, I'm
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: going to let you hear a little bit from one
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: of my favorite new shows, a great show on our
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: podcast network, Buckeye Banter. You may remember I had Seth
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Shaner on the show about a week or so back
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: to sort of talk about that new show he's doing.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: He just dropped a new episode with former Ohio state
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: quarterback Bob Hoying. I really still struggle to not call
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: him Bobby Hoying. He is now Bob Hoying. He is
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: now a very successful businessman in central Ohio. This was
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: a great conversation. You can find that in the Buckeye
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Banter feed. In this episode, though, you're going to get
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: to hear the last episode of the Buckeye Banter show
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: that was with former Ohio state safety Donnie Nicky. He
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: was someone who had a very eventful career ended with
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: a national championship in two thousand and two. This was
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: another really good conversation. I would strongly suggest you check
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: out subscribe to that Buckeye Banter podcast feed. You can
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: find that wherever you get Buck Eyes Tomorrow Morning. Seth
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: does a great job with that show. He's been some
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: really really interesting conversations. So here's Seth's conversation with former
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Ohio state safety Donnie Nicky.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to another edition of Buckeye Banter, part
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: of the Buckeye Huddle podcast network, and on Buckeye Banter,
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: we tell the stories of people who played for or
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: worked around Ohio State athletics. And I'm very pleased today
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: to join Donnie Nicky, two thousand and two national champion,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: a longtime starter for the buck guys. Donnie, thanks for joining.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: Me, Thanks for having me on.
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: Well, hey, let's start at the beginning.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Man. You were born April twenty fifth, nineteen eighty and
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: you grew up in Plain City, Ohio. Tell me a
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: little bit about growing up Dan.
• 2:54
  Speaker 5: It was a so I was born in Akron originally,
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: and then we moved down to Plain City when I
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: was eight years old. And it was a small school.
• 3:05
  Speaker 5: Jonathan Older had a great childhood, great friends. It was
• 3:10
  Speaker 5: a rural community, grew up in the neighborhoods, riding bikes,
• 3:17
  Speaker 5: playing football in our backyard, front yard, baseball in the
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: front yard, always outside.
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: Then had a great time.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, Jonathan older, as you mentioned, not a
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: very big community. It's a you know, Dublin and Hilliard
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: are kind of right there. So those were bigger schools
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: and those those school districts. What was playing there kind
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: of you know, especially the goal I assume was to
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: play at a place like Ohio State. What was that
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: like for you as you kind of went through high
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: school and tried to get recruited.
• 3:49
  Speaker 5: Man, it was it was amazing like to start to
• 3:53
  Speaker 5: get recruited. So I didn't get recruited until I was
• 3:55
  Speaker 5: a junior in high school, which is really late by
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: today's standards. I went to I went to Ohio State's
• 4:02
  Speaker 5: football camp and ran ran a good forty got some
• 4:05
  Speaker 5: offers from max schools, and Ohio State started to recruit me.
• 4:11
  Speaker 5: So I'd go to games on recruiting visits and started
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: that recruiting process. But it was they didn't offer me until.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: Really late.
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: It was almost January of my senior year that they
• 4:28
  Speaker 5: offered me, and I was reluctant at first. I committed
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: originally to Ohio University to play football and baseball. Ohio
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: State had some things fall through, commitment fall through, and
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: then they offered me a scholarship. I went on a
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: visit and then I fell in love and it's all.
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: It's where I always wanted to go. It was my
• 4:52
  Speaker 5: dream come true. And to get in to get a
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: full ride to go there made a lot of sense.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: Do you remember the you really recruited you the most?
• 5:02
  Speaker 5: Bill Connley was the was the my recruiting Yeah, the
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: guy that recruited.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: Me, okay, and and so you get you know, this
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: is back when signing day was in February only, and
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: so you're talking just a few weeks before signing day.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: You get the offer and yeah, your decision. I bet
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: that was a tough phone call down to Ohio University
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: though it was.
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: It was, but they understood completely well oh yeah, yeah, man,
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: it was.
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: Everybody was really gracious about it.
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: And then I'm glad it turned out the way it
• 5:34
  Speaker 5: turned out.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Well, when you think about coming from a smaller school,
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: and I remember I've got a buddy who played at Bexley,
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: and so even back in those days you you were
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: in the same league as Bexley. I believe in uh,
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: at least in the mid nineties, Jonathan Alder was, uh, yeah, yeah,
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: you're coming from a smaller school and Tom Moore from
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: Buckeye Huddle here. He actually made me think about this
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: as well. I wonder I wondered if you could give
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: some some thoughts on as you enter Ohio State. It's
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: a little similar to tav in Saint Clair.
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: At Bell Fountain, you know. And and he's coming in.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: He played in Division three in high school, and and
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: so he's gonna come in and all of a sudden, Man,
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: your fate. You're up there with guys that have played
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: much bigger schools. Uh in high school. What do you
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: think the transition is going to be like for him?
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: And how how do you think it compares to what
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: you dealt with?
• 6:23
  Speaker 5: And so the transition for me, the biggest thing was
• 6:26
  Speaker 5: the conditioning and.
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: And getting getting used to that workload.
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: So I and my after my senior year of high school,
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: I started in the summer of my senior year, I
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: started to go to Ohio State to work out and
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: then I threw up every day for two weeks. I'll
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: get used to the conditioning and the amount the volume
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: of running that we did. It was really a uh
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: that was the that was the biggest shock to me.
• 6:55
  Speaker 5: And then just the the nature of every everyone's talent
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: being so much better than it was in high school.
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: In my high school teammates, yeah.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: You were a great player though you played you you
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: rushed for thirteen hundred yards as a senior.
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: Is that right?
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 7:13
  Speaker 5: I played, Uh, I played both ways. I played safety
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: and then I played tailback.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: That's awesome, and it certainly, I bet from what you
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: just told me about the conditioning and things like that.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: You know, it's never easy.
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: It's all relative.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: But in high school apparently you just didn't have to
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: do quite as much right to get ready as you
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: learned pretty quickly you had to in college.
• 7:35
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I didn't know. I just didn't know what I
• 7:37
  Speaker 5: didn't know. I'm are my high school program did. We
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: just didn't condition like we did at Ohio State. And
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: then I never conditioned in the NFL. It wasn't nearly
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: the volume that we did in college. So Dave Kennedy
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: was our strength coach, and man, he did a great
• 7:58
  Speaker 5: job of breaking in and pushing me and motivating me.
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: I was going by fear at first, but then it
• 8:06
  Speaker 5: was the competitive drive of everybody around me, and then
• 8:10
  Speaker 5: really buying into the Ohio state culture and just the
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: competitive nature of what it's like to be a buck guy.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: Well, Dave Kennedy, certainly in the nineties was well known.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: In fact, our first guest Greg Bell, Sorry, I mentioned
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: coach Kennedy, So you know it was known back then
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: that he was going to put you through the through
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: the tough times to get ready for the season, wasn't.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: He Yeah, it was a crucible for sure.
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: Well, hey, I shared this story with you. I met
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: you a few years ago.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: I was calling a high school football game and you were,
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: I believe you coached at Hillary Davidson right as an assistant.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: So we chat a little bit, and I think I
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: did something that only your parents could say they did.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you remember me telling you this.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: My buddy growing up was playing for Center College. So
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: they played a game at Kenyon and they played there
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: in the morning, like late morning, and your brother Ian
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: was playing for Kenyon. So, as I said, I think
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: myself and maybe your parents are the only ones who
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: saw that The Nicky Brothers play two college games in
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  Speaker 2: the same day.
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  Speaker 4: That was pretty neat.
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah.
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  Speaker 5: My older brother, Ian played at Kenyon and I used
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: to go to I used to go to his games
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: on Saturdays after my game came in Jonathan Alder, I
• 9:25
  Speaker 5: played my game on Jonathan Older on Friday. Go to
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: the game at Kenyon on Saturday, and there'd be about
• 9:32
  Speaker 5: as many about the same number of people in the stands.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the big takeaway though for me was that that
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: Ian played defensive end.
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: Yes, he may have been he may have been an
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: as tall.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: Or a little taller than you, I don't remember for sure,
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: but he wasn't as heavy as you. And here you
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: are playing safety and he's playing defensive end. That that
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: was just bizarre to me to see, you know, the
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: difference between the levels of where Kenyon played at their
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: level and then where obviously Ohio State playing. That was
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: pretty amazing. You're a D one safety and you're bigger
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: than your defensive line brother.
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's awesome.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Well, hey, so the other thing I was looking up
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: you were also an All state center fielder. You mentioned
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: you might have played baseball at high university. Were you
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: on a state championship team at Jhonathan Older as well.
• 10:19
  Speaker 5: Yeah, we won the state championship my senior year and
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: we actually won the game on graduation day, so instead
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: of going to graduation, we had our graduation. They brought
• 10:31
  Speaker 5: her diplomas to home play and gave it to us
• 10:35
  Speaker 5: as after we won the state championship.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: Well, and certainly for me remembering like Maurice Colette was
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: the first one I remember enrolling in January. Now it's normal.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: I think they said twenty nine players that were recruited
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: by higher state this offseason here have already enrolled. And
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: back then it wasn't like that you were still to
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: play baseball your senior year.
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a completely different era, completely different. Now guys
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: are before going their senior year, which is to me.
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: To me, it's crazy And I wasn't nearly developed enough.
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: And like I said, the conditioning is what was my
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: biggest hill to climb. So it took me a year
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: of red shirting to really get used to the flow
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: of the game.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: What was required of me.
• 11:24
  Speaker 5: And that red shirt year I really learned about the
• 11:29
  Speaker 5: commitment it took to be to play at Ohio State,
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: not only not only to be on the team, but
• 11:36
  Speaker 5: to start and have a chance to play significant minutes.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: So it took me.
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: It took me a year of development, and I put
• 11:45
  Speaker 5: it on about I went from about one one hundred
• 11:47
  Speaker 5: and eighty five hundred and ninety pounds to about two
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: hundred and fifteen pounds, wow, in a year of working
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: out and eating.
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: That.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: That's what I was going to ask you about, because
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: that nineteen ninety eight team, and look, I was in
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: college at that time as well at Ohio State, and
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: so that ninety eight team for me, I always actually
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: tried to compare like the ninety eight team to the
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: two team because had it not been for the Michigan
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: State game, certainly Ohio State might have won one in
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: ninety eight. So I was wondering as I was getting
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: ready to talk to you. You were one of the
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: few guys that were kind of there on that ninety
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: eight team as a red shirt, and then you played
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: in O two. What was it like kind of did
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: that help get you ready for what was to come
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: as far as, like, you know, seeing how good you
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: could be? And then I guess tell me a little
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: bit about the talent on that ninety eighteen man.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: It was amazing.
• 12:35
  Speaker 5: We had joj Ermain was the quarterback, Michael Wiley was
• 12:41
  Speaker 5: the running back, David Boston, D Miller the receivers, talent
• 12:49
  Speaker 5: all over the defense. Andy Katsimorner headline of defense, Anchewana Winfield.
• 12:53
  Speaker 5: Nate Clements started as a freshman. He was in my class.
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: There was just talent all over the place like that team.
• 13:02
  Speaker 5: We were number one the entire year and then lost
• 13:05
  Speaker 5: to Nick Saban in Michigan State.
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, trust I remember, Yeah, that was rough.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: I was actually a sophomore and I was calling the
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: games back then for student radio, and I just remember, well,
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: the story is that I went back to my apartment
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: about an hour after the game.
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: I lived in Riverwatch Tower.
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I had a.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: Milk creek full of equipment from the press box too,
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: And I'm going through the tailgaters right. All the people
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: are still there. They're kind of crying in their beer
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: as it were. And I get into my apartment and
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: my buddies had left the stadium when it was twenty
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: to three. You were ahead twenty to three, and they
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: had left and they thought we won the game. They
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: hadn't turned on a TV. And I was so angry
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: with them. That was awful.
• 13:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah, just offul anyway, that was a heartbreaking loss and
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: it was the first sign of weakness and adversity.
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: But we went on to the Fiesta.
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: Bowl yeah and smoked Texas A and m right.
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah yeah. That actually was a Sugar Bowl right down
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: in New Orleans.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: Sugar Bowl. Yeah yeah, yeah yeah.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: So, I mean you red shirt that year ninety nine,
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: though you start ten games as a red shirt freshman,
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: you were named to the Sporting News second team All
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: Freshman Team, and both those first two years you were
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: scholar athlete. That's that's a feather in your cap as well.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, I mean, grades were a big thing. My
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: dad always made me.
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: Work hard on my grades too, and man, it was
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: it was an adjustment. So from going to starting my
• 14:42
  Speaker 5: My very first game that I played was against Miami
• 14:45
  Speaker 5: of Florida in nineteen ninety nine and it was in
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: New York at the Meadowlands for the Kickoff Classic, and
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: I just remember, man, everybody's fast, like everybody's so fast,
• 15:01
  Speaker 5: and that game was like a blur. We ended up
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: losing that game. That that season was a struggle. There
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: was a learning curve for sure. So we had a
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: new quarterbacks. Steve Steve My Bell sorry, my classmate was
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: the starting quarterback. So he he had a pretty successful
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: freshman season as a special teamer and then got some
• 15:25
  Speaker 5: reps quarterback, and he was kind of the leader of
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: our class. So I really looked up to him and
• 15:32
  Speaker 5: I respected everything he did. He got the he got
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: the nod to start, and I got thrown in there
• 15:42
  Speaker 5: to start the season and then I'm not gonna lie
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: I was. I was pretty nervous, but man, getting that
• 15:49
  Speaker 5: first game under my belt was the experience. I've got
• 15:52
  Speaker 5: flashbacks of it.
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: You just had to go against Santana Moss and Reggie Wayne.
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: That's you know what, Yeah, yeah, Santana Moss. Yeah, yeah,
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: that was That was something else. That's a good way
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: to break in.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, that one didn't go the buck Guy's way.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: In fact, I was at the game too. We called
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: that game, and then I had to drive back. I
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: came all the way back to Higher State that night.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: But the u c L a game that's long remembered
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: as Steve Bell Sorry's breakout game. But but you also
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: kind of came to the mind of a Higher State
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: fans for the first time. You intercepted a pass that
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: game that was something else. That was an electric night
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: and it went over U c l A. And actually,
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: what was it, Matt Stanley I think was a Bexley grad.
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: He scored a touchdown for U. C l A in
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: that game.
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: He did, he did. Yeah, it was cool.
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: I played against right.
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I played against him in high school too, so
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: it was cool to see another another local guy have
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: success in that game, even though it was even though
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: it was against us.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: But yeah, yeah, I got a I got an interception. Yeah.
• 16:53
  Speaker 5: Drew Bennett was a part of that game too. I
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: played with him at the Tennessee Titans as well.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: Oh okay, yeah, I mean to think about two, you know,
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: small school Ohio kids being on that big stage. That
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: was That was interesting to see between you and Stanley.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: You also had a game that year where you had
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: fourteen tackles against Wisconsin. That's a that was a Yeah.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: That was a that was a rough game. That was
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: a man, it was rough.
• 17:18
  Speaker 5: That was Ron day Dane. Yeah, yeah, fourteen tackles. It's
• 17:24
  Speaker 5: never good when a safety has fourteen tackles.
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: That's right.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: You know, it's nice on the stat sheet for you,
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: but you don't want, uh, two hundred and forty pound
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: running back to be running downhill right at you every year.
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: And then that was that was a rough day and
• 17:39
  Speaker 5: it was a I was sore after that game for sure.
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: Tackling that He's it's like trying to tackle a tree stump.
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, hey, let me ask you this.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: I was actually looking back at the media guides and uh,
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: the two thousand media guides, so reflecting on you know,
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: the first couple of seasons you were there in ninety
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: eight and ninety nine, it said you actually played some
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: scout team receiver when you were a true freshman.
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: Is that true? Is that right? You play?
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: I played offense too.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: That that shows kind of their faith and knowing how
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: what an athlete you were too, Right, you were able
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: to kind of replicate what those guys were doing.
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: Then yeah, coach coach Tanuda and uh the offensive staff too,
• 18:24
  Speaker 5: I mean our whole coaching staff. John Cooper's coaching staff
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: really showed a lot of faith to me and trusted
• 18:32
  Speaker 5: me to do different things.
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: And then it took.
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: Time, and I had a really good spring after my uh,
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: after I redshirted my freshman year, I had a really
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: good spring, and then I put like, it was me
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: and uh Percy King were kind of fighting for that
• 18:53
  Speaker 5: starting job, and then Mike Dass came in as a
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: freshman and kind of pushed me to get better.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: And then eventually.
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: At the end of that ninety nine or at the
• 19:07
  Speaker 5: end of that ninety nine season, uh, in the Michigan game,
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: I got demoted and he came in and started, and
• 19:15
  Speaker 5: then Mike and then Mike and I started the next
• 19:17
  Speaker 5: three years together.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you did, and in two thousand you made honorable
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: mention all Big Ten. And you know, that's what I
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: was wondering about. The media guy talked a lot about
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: you switching from one position together from was it from strong.
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: Safety to free safety?
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: I think it was that way, And then Mike Dass
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: certainly came in. Can you describe for me because nowadays,
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: certainly safeties are, especially the way the highest State has
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: been playing, safeties are kind of more interchangeable, I feel like,
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: and what was the difference between the two positions. I
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: don't think a lot of people understand that the two
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: safeties had different roles. Can you explain kind of what
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: the difference was?
• 19:55
  Speaker 5: Basically, like, the way we used to play, is we
• 19:58
  Speaker 5: had a lot of eight in the box.
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: It was mostly stopped the run.
• 20:01
  Speaker 5: Wasn't a lot of spread offense until Drew Brees came around,
• 20:05
  Speaker 5: and then we had to play too high, but we
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: played it. We played a pro style defense, so it
• 20:10
  Speaker 5: was Fred Puggage was the coordinator, Johnson Neuda was my
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: position coach, and man They did a great job of
• 20:18
  Speaker 5: preparing us and it was really fun to play for
• 20:20
  Speaker 5: them and attack defense really aggressive, lots of blitzes, lots
• 20:25
  Speaker 5: of man coverage, and a lot of man free. So
• 20:29
  Speaker 5: man free was probably our base coverage. And in that coverage,
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: the strong safety is basically a linebacker down in the box,
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: covering either the tight end or a running back, and
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: then the free safety is back in the middle of
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: the field playing center field. So the center field guy
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: and man free has between the hashes. His job is
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: to murder anybody that comes within between the hashes. And
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: then the corners are playing man on the outside, so
• 20:59
  Speaker 5: they're giving them inside help to their week week spots.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: Okay, okay, and certainly you mentioned Drew Brees. That was
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: a heartbreaking game in two thousand because you you're in
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: a position to maybe make a run at a Rose Bowl.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: If things could have gone right, but Drew Brees had
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: that long touchdown pass to I'll never forget because my
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: name is Seth. Seth Morales cut that pass. It was
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: a sixty five yarder. Bring up bad memories.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: But yeah, that was rough. That was a tough one.
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: For everybody in Scarlet and Gray, that's for sure.
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: Man, a lot of growing pains.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Well, talking about growing pains. In two thousand
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: and one, you had to adjust to playing for a
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: new coach and kind of a whole new coaching staff.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: What was it like to have to make that transition
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: if as coach Jim Tressel came in and it.
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: Was a challenge.
• 21:44
  Speaker 5: So we really really grew close to John Cooper and
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: his coaching staff and were kind of felt bad for
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: Coach Cooper, felt like we let him down. It wasn't
• 21:59
  Speaker 5: we weren't we just weren't good enough. I mean, in
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: ninety nine we didn't go to a bowl game for
• 22:05
  Speaker 5: the first time and the last time in a long time.
• 22:09
  Speaker 5: So we went six and six and man, it was rough,
• 22:15
  Speaker 5: and man, just the transition was was kind of rocky.
• 22:20
  Speaker 5: At first. It was just kind of feeling each other out.
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: But Coach trust Will really quickly laid down the framework
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: for an infrastructure of teamwork and team building, and that
• 22:35
  Speaker 5: was kind of a that was a different approach. Not
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: that not that coach Cooper didn't do a good job
• 22:39
  Speaker 5: of that, but Coach Trustill really emphasized it and emphasized.
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: Our personal relationships.
• 22:47
  Speaker 5: So get to know each other really quickly, get to
• 22:52
  Speaker 5: know each other on a deeper level other than surface,
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: and know that, know that we played football together for
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: each other, and really dig dig down though, why why
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: are we here?
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: What are we here to do? Yeah?
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: I mean I remember I just graduated, Donnie uh there,
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: I grat he got hired, and then I went I
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: was still covering spring drills for student radio, and then
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: I graduated in June. And I remember my brother in
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: law worked for w CBE Radio here in town, and
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: he had gone to a press conference and it was
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: revealed that they were going to have you sing Carmen
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: Ohio after the games, and you'd never done that before.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: And my brother in law, like, he put me on
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: the spot. He's like, well, do you know how you
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: know the lyrics to Carmen Ohio? And here I just
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: graduated from there, and I don't know them, like we
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: didn't you know, it wasn't a part of anything back then,
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: and now you can't help but go to a game
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: and know, hey, I'm gonna lum, I'm gonna sing Carmen
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: Ohio after the game. I mean that was just one example,
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: but he really did focus on the team. And but
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: what did you think, do you remember I got to
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: memorize these lyrics? What are we talking about here?
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: Like?
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Was it kind of like annoying at times? Or was
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: it like, no, we're all bought in.
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah, there were a.
• 24:05
  Speaker 5: Lot of things that there were a lot of things
• 24:07
  Speaker 5: in my immaturity that I was bothered by. I just like,
• 24:12
  Speaker 5: I was like, we're just here to play football. Well, no,
• 24:15
  Speaker 5: it turns out we're not. Like there's a lot more
• 24:18
  Speaker 5: to it, and there's a lot more to be in winning,
• 24:21
  Speaker 5: winning program and upholding tradition than than what I thought
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: when I was that young.
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: I remember having an.
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: Exercise where each player got a piece of paper and
• 24:36
  Speaker 5: we had to write down the jersey number, name, and
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: hometown of every student or everybody on the team. And
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: I didn't understand what we were doing, but we were
• 24:49
  Speaker 5: building a team that cared for each other and really
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: really like propelled us to the next level. So once
• 24:58
  Speaker 5: we started playing for each other, not that it wasn't
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: that way before, but it wasn't a focus. So by
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: that force kind of getting to know each other personal
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: on a personal level, like, we began to play for
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: each other a lot harder and mainly had some success.
• 25:17
  Speaker 5: So the next couple of years in two thousand and one,
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: still struggle, but we got to Rose Bowl or not
• 25:26
  Speaker 5: a Rose Bowl outback full.
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: Or two thousand, Yeah, that was O one.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: And so you played out back both both years against
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: South Carolina two years in a row. Yeah, you're under
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: John Cooper. The second year under coach Tressell. You almost won.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: The second one. You had a furious comeback and everything
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: was looking good, but it didn't go the way you'd like.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: And but you're right, the seeds were planted by that
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: point of being more together, and I guess there's no rut. Well,
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: you can do things a certain way and still win, right,
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: But coach Trussell kind of probably it felt like formed that.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: And that takes us to two thousand and two because
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: in two we talked about the loss of ninety eight
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: against Michigan State, very talented Ohio State team in two
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: there were multiple games that could have gone against you.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: And you know, there's no science that proves because you're
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: more of a team is why you won all those
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: close games, right, But at the same time, just amazing
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: the number of times you guys got out of kind
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: of danger and was able to pull off these wins.
• 26:31
  Speaker 5: Yeah, each game that we won that was close, we
• 26:36
  Speaker 5: got a little more faith and believed in each other
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: a little bit more, believed in ourselves a little bit more,
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: and knew that as long as it was close, we
• 26:45
  Speaker 5: had a chance. And that belief in that faith in
• 26:50
  Speaker 5: each other, in God, in the Higher Power, and knowing
• 26:57
  Speaker 5: that everything's going to be taken care of the way
• 26:59
  Speaker 5: it's supposed to as long as I do and give
• 27:02
  Speaker 5: my give my best efforts, so we can control.
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: Our effort and our attitude.
• 27:07
  Speaker 5: And by having a positive attitude and encouraging each other
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: and then giving our full effort every play, magic happened.
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: It sure did.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: I mean you think was the Cincinnati game, the Illinois game,
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: the Purdue game.
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: You've got Holy buck, guy.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: I mean, as fans, we're just a especially at my age,
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: I'd never seen an higher state team win a national
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: championship yet, and so B, I never knew for sure
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: in each game, Oh my goodness, how they going to
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: pull this out? What was like as a group of
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: players to be in so many close games? I mean,
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: did you just did you gain confidence that you were
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: going to find a way?
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: Like, the belief, the belief in each other and relationships
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: just grew stronger and strong as we went through those
• 27:56
  Speaker 5: adversities in close games.
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: Don't think.
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: We become the team we are if we don't have
• 28:05
  Speaker 5: those those small margins of victory in those close games.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: Well, you had such a good defensive backfield. The way
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: it ended up happening with Chris Gamble playing both ways,
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: You've got four NFL players, Chris Gamble, Dustin Fox, yourself,
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: and Mike DAWs. Take me through a little bit about
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: that group, especially as Chris kind of worked his way
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: into that lineup, and I remember what's his first name,
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: mc nutt ended up getting.
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: Hurt right and Richard, Yeah, Richard McNutt.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: And then he Gamble just all of a sudden starts
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: playing both ways and us we're like, WHOA, what's happening here?
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 28:44
  Speaker 5: I mean it was. It was a surprise to me.
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: But man, we saw in practice, like like Chris could play.
• 28:51
  Speaker 5: C Grant had played corner the year before, so he
• 28:58
  Speaker 5: went from playing and Sea was one of the best
• 29:00
  Speaker 5: athletes on the team. He was, he was in my class.
• 29:03
  Speaker 5: We're very close to this day. And and somebody I
• 29:07
  Speaker 5: loved dearly and he went from uh being a safety
• 29:14
  Speaker 5: with me to play in corner, yeah, and then playing linebacker.
• 29:19
  Speaker 5: And how talent he was and how fast he was. Man,
• 29:22
  Speaker 5: he could throw the ball like I've like sixty yards.
• 29:25
  Speaker 5: I mean he was a quarterback in high school. He's
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: just a great athlete all around. And uh, but we
• 29:31
  Speaker 5: had talent like that all over the field, and so
• 29:35
  Speaker 5: Steve moved to linebacker. Yeah, I played with first The
• 29:42
  Speaker 5: first couple of guys at the first corners I played
• 29:45
  Speaker 5: with were Anchewina Winfield and around Ned Plumber and then
• 29:52
  Speaker 5: Nate Clements. Yeah, I got to play with him, and
• 29:54
  Speaker 5: then Dustin Richard McNutt, Chris Gamble.
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 30:02
  Speaker 5: It was There's a lot of talent all over the field.
• 30:05
  Speaker 5: But that's that's what it's like at Ohio State. The
• 30:07
  Speaker 5: best of the best come to play there, and it's
• 30:10
  Speaker 5: that's a long standing tradition, that's always been that way.
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: Mm hm.
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: You we all expected to win.
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: Right, You have the credit Coach Cooper and his staff
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: a little bit.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: You go back even a little before your time, and
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: you've got Sean Springs and Ty Howard and and we're
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: talking about defensive backs and obviously Damon Moore. You you
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: saw close up as a freshman, a true freshman when
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: he was playing safety. You know, you get to win
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: over in Michigan at the end of the regular season,
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: and I know you'd been on that ninety eight team
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: that had got it done. But the crowd rushes the
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: field at that point, you're undefeated. You know you're going
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: to play in the national title game. Can you take
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: me back to that feeling? As as the the clock
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: ticked off and and you know, the fans are all
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: over the field.
• 30:56
  Speaker 5: Man, it was it was amazing, Like, uh, I remember
• 31:00
  Speaker 5: game ended, we won, every crowd the crowd rushes the
• 31:04
  Speaker 5: field and out of one hundred and thousand people, Man,
• 31:08
  Speaker 5: I ran into my older brother, my older brother and
• 31:10
  Speaker 5: my younger brother on the field.
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: It was like, hey, there you are.
• 31:14
  Speaker 5: And I saw them in the middle of the field
• 31:17
  Speaker 5: of out of all those people, and man, I just
• 31:21
  Speaker 5: remember thinking, all of our hard work is going to
• 31:24
  Speaker 5: pay off. We just got to finish this game. We
• 31:27
  Speaker 5: got to finish the season out and and win this
• 31:31
  Speaker 5: last game.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and then I mean, you go up against Goliath.
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: Basically it's Miami. A Miami team the beginning early in
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: two thousand hadn't lost. They lost like Labor Day weekend
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: or something like that, I think the Washington in two
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: thousand and then they ran off a string of wins
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: in two thousand and then they won the title on one.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: They'd won every game in O two and you're talking
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: about guys like Willis McGahee and Kellen Winslow and just
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: up down the lineup, just pros everywhere, which, as it
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: turned out, though you had pros too, some of your
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: pros were a little younger, so they didn't all come
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: out at the same time. But but it was just
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: an amazing collection of talent on that field. But of course,
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: the run up to that game was that it's just
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: going to be a blowout, right you guys were you
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: weren't gonna have any chance. The funny thing is, it
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: feels like, though as we look back down at that
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: fell right into the hands of coach Jim Tressel, didn't it.
• 32:26
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it did, and it it let us play the
• 32:29
  Speaker 5: underdog and have nothing to lose, really sell out on
• 32:34
  Speaker 5: on preparing for that game, and like, we just didn't
• 32:37
  Speaker 5: have anything to lose, so.
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: We played loose.
• 32:42
  Speaker 5: And man just had had an amazing game.
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: On all all three sides of the ball.
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: It was.
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: It was a combined effort. You're right now. I want
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: to ask you about the last play. In fact, see
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: Grant you know, charged through and bothers doors the pass
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: comes through. I was on the field as a reporter
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: covering the game, so I didn't really see this much
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: until later, because when you're on the field you can't
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: see like the elevated view, but when you watch the
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: TV broadcast, I'll never forget it looks like your trained
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: mind is telling you I need to intercept this pass yep,
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: and you're kind of bent over, like oh what do
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: I do? And then you're like no, like let it go,
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: it's over. What was it like as a player, and
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: then was that kind of what was going through your
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: mind real quick to think, Oh, it's it's great if
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: I could pick this pass off.
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: But no, it doesn't matter.
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: I should have called it.
• 33:33
  Speaker 5: I dropped it, Like that's why I played, That's why
• 33:38
  Speaker 5: I went from scout team receiver to playing defense. And yeah,
• 33:44
  Speaker 5: just I just dropped the ball. But I remember looking
• 33:47
  Speaker 5: at it like do I bat it down or what
• 33:49
  Speaker 5: do I do? And I just got caught in between. Yeah,
• 33:52
  Speaker 5: but that last pass, and man, I couldn't believe that
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: he threw it that poorly. And man, we just want
• 33:58
  Speaker 5: knew we won the game, and it was on so
• 34:01
  Speaker 5: we earlier earlier in the game, like the before the
• 34:06
  Speaker 5: pass interference call gave us new life.
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: Man, I thought we lost the game.
• 34:10
  Speaker 5: So I went from thinking we lost and heartbroke into
• 34:14
  Speaker 5: ecstatic when we won the game.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: There was a play at one point when I think
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: it was Roscoe Parrish for Miami caught up pass and
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: that was when they were kind of trying to come back,
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: and the comedian Richard Lewis was right beside me, and
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: he was like he turned around. He had his hands
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: on his face and he turned away and because he thought,
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: oh it's over, and I think he had Perish had
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: actually fumbled the ball, you know, and you guys recovered
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: and it was like no, no. I was like, hey, hey, hey,
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: it's we got the ball back. We're okay, you know,
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: and you're right, the passer inference called it's very infamous
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: if you're down in South Florida, right They they still
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: would argue about that. But I remember there was a
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: guy named Jeff Rapp who I think at the time
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: was working for Buckeye Sports Bulletin, and it was just
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: chaos because like he actually got on the field and
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: was like, no, throw that's a flag. And I grabbed
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: him and pulled him back, and I'm like, no, no, no,
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: they did throw the flag.
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: You know, it was past the inference were good to go.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: But that's just the way that season was. You just had,
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: you know, these tight rope moments throughout the entire season.
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: You go fourteen and.
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: Oh yeah, it was wild, man, Like just close games,
• 35:26
  Speaker 5: things happening, adversity flying.
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: Well, man, you sweeved at each.
• 35:31
  Speaker 5: Other and at all calls, play our play, be relentless
• 35:36
  Speaker 5: and give our best effort.
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: And then I think we did that every game, played
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: for each other.
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the camaraderie and to think that like Maurice Clirett
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: certainly scored you know, key touchdowns in that game, but
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: Craig crimsle led the team in rushing in the game,
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: and you know, you know, just to think of all
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: the plays you guys made up and down the lineup
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: and for a huge you know, multiple generations of Ohio
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: State fans. It had been thirty four years since the
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: nineteen sixty eight team, right, I know. I think the
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: school kind of was awarded a title in seventy, but
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: the sixty eighteen was known as the last national championship
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: at that point. And to think of the fact that
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: you know, here we are and all the all the
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: teams in the nineties kind of built toward this, right,
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: I mean, those guys that couldn't you know, pull it off,
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: you know, and you think about ninety five, ninety six
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: and ninety eight and then here you guys were and
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: you got to the mountaintop. I mean, it just it
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: has to be great. And even I remember a few
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: years ago you had to celebration the twenty years all
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: of you guys got back together. It's just it's something
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: else to think about being a part of that group,
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: isn't it.
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: And it's awesome.
• 36:49
  Speaker 5: It's it's such an honor, and man, we're we're still
• 36:52
  Speaker 5: close to this day. Just the family atmosphere that exists there,
• 37:00
  Speaker 5: tradition that exists at alive of State, the pride that
• 37:04
  Speaker 5: everybody carries because we all know what we put in
• 37:08
  Speaker 5: we put. We put our whole heart and soul into
• 37:10
  Speaker 5: everything that we did for that national championship.
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: That was the goal, that's always been the goal. In
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: ninety eight came really close.
• 37:24
  Speaker 5: We're a few plays, I mean a few plays away
• 37:26
  Speaker 5: from being a national champion in ninety eight, So got
• 37:31
  Speaker 5: I saw what it was like and then always wanted
• 37:35
  Speaker 5: to and then climb in the ladder to get back
• 37:36
  Speaker 5: there and get back to that level of play and
• 37:43
  Speaker 5: to be to be a national champion was a great,
• 37:47
  Speaker 5: great day in my life.
• 37:49
  Speaker 4: It's amazing.
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: I know, if you could tell me a little bit
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: about you know, seeing this year's team get it done
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: this past year as a fellow national champion, what goes
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: through your mind when you see these guys get to
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: celebrate and hold the trophy at the end.
• 38:03
  Speaker 5: Man, just pride, gratitude, really greatful to be a part
• 38:11
  Speaker 5: of this and to be uh to be on a
• 38:16
  Speaker 5: national championship team, to get to witness it again, to
• 38:19
  Speaker 5: see the tradition that still is going on and thriving,
• 38:24
  Speaker 5: and see how well we're doing. It's it's fun to
• 38:27
  Speaker 5: be a part of that family.
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: Well in your part of that. I mean, there's there's
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: different points where we can look at and see the
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: foundation being laid for what it is today, and certainly
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: your group is at the base layer of that. It's just,
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: you know, anybody who knows anything about high state football
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: knows that coach Tressell took things to new levels of well.
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: Coach Cooper did too. You know, coming out of a
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: time when things weren't quite as good.
• 38:50
  Speaker 4: It's hard to believe.
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: You look back at the certain times and think, well,
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: this team won't even make a bowl game and it
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: doesn't happen. You mentioned ninety nine twenty twelve, there was
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: a band on making a bowl, but that team went
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: twelve and oh, just pretty impressive to be a put
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: all that, I would I would think. Now before I
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: let you go, we talk a little bit about your
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: NFL career. You're a fifth round draft pick by the
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: Tennessee Titans in the two thousand and three draft, but
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: you played for eight seasons in Tennessee. I guess take
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: me through that a little bit. I got one specific
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: question I need to ask you about, but talk about,
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: you know, sticking it out as a fifth round pick.
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: Those guys don't stick around for eight years usually.
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: No. I remember my my rookie year.
• 39:34
  Speaker 5: I got to training camp and and one of the
• 39:37
  Speaker 5: one of the players on the team had gray hair.
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: His name was Neil O'Donnell.
• 39:42
  Speaker 5: Yeah, And I remember like, oh, I'm gonna this is different,
• 39:45
  Speaker 5: Like these are grown these are grown men doing this
• 39:47
  Speaker 5: for a living. So I got to experienced training camp
• 39:52
  Speaker 5: in the NFL. NFL team. So when I got to Tennessee,
• 39:56
  Speaker 5: everything was a downgrade. So the practice facilities weren't as
• 39:59
  Speaker 5: nice to you, forums weren't as nice. So I realized
• 40:02
  Speaker 5: that this is a this is a business. And I
• 40:05
  Speaker 5: quickly quickly realized that my best ability was availability and
• 40:13
  Speaker 5: staying healthy, doing everything I could possibly on the team.
• 40:18
  Speaker 5: I figured out pretty quickly that special teams was going
• 40:22
  Speaker 5: to be my my ticket to make the team. We
• 40:29
  Speaker 5: uh my rookieyear, my rookie year, we were really good.
• 40:34
  Speaker 5: Steve Bingner was the MVP along with Peyton Manning. And
• 40:39
  Speaker 5: to be on that team and to experience that was.
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: Was a shock. The length of the NFL season, going
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: from a senior year.
• 40:48
  Speaker 5: Of of college football into a rookie year of sixteen
• 40:54
  Speaker 5: games and then making the playoffs.
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: We played it. Uh.
• 40:58
  Speaker 5: My first playoff experience was in Baltimore against Ray Lewis
• 41:02
  Speaker 5: and the Ravens, and I was shocked at how competitive
• 41:08
  Speaker 5: and how crazy that that atmosphere was.
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: But I was hooked as soon.
• 41:12
  Speaker 5: As we've gotten that playoff game, and I mean just
• 41:15
  Speaker 5: the regular season games. The first preseason game of my
• 41:18
  Speaker 5: rookie year, Lance Schulters was the starting safety and he
• 41:23
  Speaker 5: had Bell's pals from a dental appointment, so I got
• 41:27
  Speaker 5: to start. I got to start the entire game and
• 41:30
  Speaker 5: play the first preseason game against the Browns, who was
• 41:32
  Speaker 5: my childhood team, and that was like a dream come true.
• 41:37
  Speaker 5: So I played really well, got to play the whole game.
• 41:42
  Speaker 5: But the preseason was another adjustment, so just the length
• 41:46
  Speaker 5: of the season, so you're playing twenty games plus playoffs. Man,
• 41:49
  Speaker 5: after that first rookie year, I was tired and man,
• 41:53
  Speaker 5: I was beat So I took some time off. And
• 41:57
  Speaker 5: then my second year, I thought I made the team
• 42:02
  Speaker 5: and the punter Craig Henstrick got hurt threw his back out.
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: Well, I got cut.
• 42:08
  Speaker 5: I got cut for a weekend, and then that was
• 42:11
  Speaker 5: really where my career took a change.
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: So after that, I started.
• 42:19
  Speaker 5: Hitting everybody in practice, playing with the chip on my shoulder,
• 42:25
  Speaker 5: and really understood what was required of me if I
• 42:29
  Speaker 5: wanted to make the team, and it was to be
• 42:31
  Speaker 5: it was to be an enforcer on defense and an
• 42:37
  Speaker 5: enforcer on special teams. So that was back in the
• 42:40
  Speaker 5: day when we had the wedge. So four big defensive
• 42:43
  Speaker 5: linemen offensive linemen were holding hands together and they tasked me,
• 42:50
  Speaker 5: was going to hit that, going to take up two blocks?
• 42:53
  Speaker 5: And Man, I found out I could do that. I
• 42:55
  Speaker 5: could turn off my brain and will myself to do that,
• 42:59
  Speaker 5: and that's how I made the team. I became our
• 43:02
  Speaker 5: one of our better special teams players after that second
• 43:06
  Speaker 5: year and had a really nice career, really great time.
• 43:12
  Speaker 5: Played with a lot of great players, Steve being their
• 43:17
  Speaker 5: Kerrie Collins quarterbacks since young, had a lot of good times.
• 43:23
  Speaker 5: Really really loved Nashville. I still live in Nashville. It
• 43:29
  Speaker 5: reminds me a lot of Columbus and they're building, They're
• 43:33
  Speaker 5: trying to build a tradition down here. It's not quite
• 43:36
  Speaker 5: like Ohio State, but nothing quite is. So to see
• 43:42
  Speaker 5: that and to go through the ups and downs of
• 43:44
  Speaker 5: the NFL life really uh has been insightful and impactful
• 43:52
  Speaker 5: in my life, really changed who I am.
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: Well, you were your your rookie year. You actually Eddie
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: George was still on the team. So if you're like
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: me and you we're about you grew up just o
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: was it.
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: Team? Yeah?
• 44:06
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I got to play a year with Eddie. Now
• 44:08
  Speaker 5: I love I love Eddie. He was really good to me.
• 44:13
  Speaker 5: And then to see him have success and still be
• 44:18
  Speaker 5: around and Cooke TSU is pretty cool too.
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: So you mentioned you started hitting guys in practice more.
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: I want to ask you about this. I can't let
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: you go with that asking about uh. Up in Columbus,
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: we heard about a little bit of a fight you
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: had with Lyndale White, the former.
• 44:35
  Speaker 4: USC running back. What what was that?
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: Take me through that a little bit and you hear
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: you are teammates, but you're getting a little bit of
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: a scrape with him.
• 44:41
  Speaker 5: Yeah, So training camp, I had to make the team
• 44:44
  Speaker 5: every year, so it was it was I was competing
• 44:47
  Speaker 5: my tail off every every day and uh, Lindale was
• 44:52
  Speaker 5: a rookie. So he got mad because I was hitting
• 44:58
  Speaker 5: him earlier. I was hitting him late after the player,
• 45:00
  Speaker 5: well not after the play, it was during the play.
• 45:02
  Speaker 5: It was just late in the play and I was
• 45:05
  Speaker 5: letting him know that, like there's no free passes and
• 45:09
  Speaker 5: hit him.
• 45:10
  Speaker 3: He didn't like.
• 45:11
  Speaker 5: He didn't like that I hit him kind of late,
• 45:14
  Speaker 5: and so he spit at me. I swung my helmet
• 45:16
  Speaker 5: at him. I was trying to hit him with my helmet.
• 45:19
  Speaker 5: And then the next play so that that got broken up.
• 45:22
  Speaker 5: And then the next play I caught him. He was
• 45:25
  Speaker 5: through an outside run to the right and we were
• 45:27
  Speaker 5: in cover two and I came down and corralled him
• 45:31
  Speaker 5: and started punching him. Got thrown out of practice. I
• 45:38
  Speaker 5: had to explain myself and the one there's a few
• 45:42
  Speaker 5: things that you don't do in football, and one of
• 45:44
  Speaker 5: them spitting at somebody, and that was kind of a
• 45:48
  Speaker 5: cardinal rule. So I just had to enforce the law
• 45:51
  Speaker 5: of the rules.
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Jeff Fisher was your coach, right, so he was
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: he kind of has a reputation of being more involved
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: in those types of situations. Is he probably was, you know,
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: you got thrown out practice, but he probably liked the
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: fact that he had you in his corner to kind
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: of be that enforcer as you mentioned earlier.
• 46:08
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, he encouraged it without encouraging it. Yes, it
• 46:13
  Speaker 5: wasn't It wasn't encouraged, but it was kind of implied.
• 46:16
  Speaker 4: Maybe a wink or something. Right.
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: Hey, So I guess now you know you played the
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: eight seasons in the NFL, But as I let you
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: go here, you've done a lot of coaching as well.
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: Now what's it like kind of being on that end
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: of it and being able to share what you know.
• 46:31
  Speaker 5: It's awesome. It's great to give that gift away and
• 46:35
  Speaker 5: help guys pursue their dreams. I mean, it's there's nothing
• 46:39
  Speaker 5: better than and seeing a kid and coaching a kid
• 46:43
  Speaker 5: and seeing him like, because any anybody can really play.
• 46:47
  Speaker 5: If you want to play college football, there's a place
• 46:50
  Speaker 5: for you.
• 46:50
  Speaker 3: Division III.
• 46:51
  Speaker 5: Like I saw my brother play at Kenyon with guys
• 46:55
  Speaker 5: that had never played before at Kenyon, so I knew.
• 47:00
  Speaker 5: I knew that it was possible from watching my brother play.
• 47:04
  Speaker 5: But coaching guys, really, the decision is yours, Like for
• 47:09
  Speaker 5: every college, for everybody that wants to everybody that's in
• 47:11
  Speaker 5: high school, Like, you just got to decide to play
• 47:14
  Speaker 5: football like I want to play college football, and then
• 47:17
  Speaker 5: you can find there's a place for you. It's just
• 47:20
  Speaker 5: are you willing to put the work in and get
• 47:23
  Speaker 5: better every day on an incremental basis and really push
• 47:27
  Speaker 5: towards your goals and helping guys do that is the
• 47:31
  Speaker 5: most satisfying thing.
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: That you can really do.
• 47:37
  Speaker 5: Teaching and teaching the game of football and giving that
• 47:42
  Speaker 5: gift away that I've been given from all my great
• 47:44
  Speaker 5: coaches has been an honor. And I'm doing that with
• 47:48
  Speaker 5: my son now, getting to do with my thirteen year old.
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: All right, Well, we'll expect the offer to come in
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: from Ryan Day anytime now. No pressure, Yeah, but no,
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: It's just awesome to see you and I met you
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: on a field a couple of years ago. You're helping
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: out up in Hilliard. Just awesome to see you doing that.
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: And Donnie Nikki, you're a national champion, you win a
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: state championship in baseball. Just a great athletic career. Thanks
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: so much for spending some time with us here on
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: Buckeye Banter.
• 48:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, man, thanks for having me.
• 48:18
  Speaker 4: Appreciate it, all right, Thanks again, Donnie, and tune in.
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: Please follow us on YouTube and anywhere you get your
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: audio podcast.
• 48:26
  Speaker 4: Thanks a lot.
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: Yep, all right,