As part of the redesign of the Bucknuts.com web site, we have added an area
where we can publish excerpts from Bucknuts The Magazine. Each week, we will put
in a new excerpt from the latest edition of Bucknuts The Magazine.
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In each issue of Bucknuts The Magazine, we have in-depth features on Ohio State football players, coaches and prospects. We also have analysis pieces on
the Buckeyes as well as their opponents, the Big Ten and college football world
in general. Plus, we have features on OSU athletes in a variety of sports,
including men's and women's basketball, hockey, wrestling, baseball and other
sports.
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This week's excerpt is from our February 2005 issue. This article is on defensive end Ryan Williams, who will be a true freshman this year at OSU:
Headline: Staying Firm
By Gary Housteau
Without knowing any better, it might seem like Ohio State pulled off
quite a coup when they secured verbal commitments from Ryan Williams and Kevin Bemoll, two of the most talented players on arguably the best high school
football team in California, if not the best team in the entire nation.
Mission Viejo finished their season at 14-0, advancing as far as they
possibly could in capturing the CIF Southern Section Division II championship in
their state. It was good enough for them to be ranked as the third best team in
the country by USA Today in their final poll.
Along the course of their season, the Diablos beat the two Division I
finalist teams in the Southern Section and they also knocked off the somewhat
legendary program from De La Salle as well. Despite having their long winning
streak broken this season, De La Salle still finished the year as the Division I
sectional champions of the northern section of California.
To put things in even greater perspective pertaining to MVHS, they advanced
to the final game undefeated in each of the last four seasons, and they won
every championship game except for one of them – last year. So Williams and
Bemoll lost just one game in all during their four years as a Diablo.
"I’m just real proud of our team I guess," said Williams, who was
brought up to the varsity as a sophomore. "We’ve had some really good
teams every year and I’ve gotten a lot better to be able to play on our team
because it’s really hard to start and play and I was starting as a junior, and
that was fun."
Up until late December, Williams and Bemoll were excited about the future
they had in store playing together at Ohio State. But concerns over
off-the-field incidents and allegations caused Bemoll to begin to look at other
schools, thus making it unlikely as of press time that the two would play
together in college.
While Bemoll decided to check out schools such as Cal and Oregon, Williams
continued to make it clear that after graduation, he will take his immense
talent on the gridiron to Ohio State where, fortunately, he has a lasting tie
that binds him to the Buckeye state.
Williams was born in Ohio, and his father, Wes, who grew up there and went to
Washington Court House High School, has always been a rabid Ohio State fan.
Obviously, this particular Buckeye didn’t fall too far from the tree.
"I’ve always been raised watching Ohio State, and that’s always been
my team," Williams said. "So it’s really a great opportunity to
finally get to play for them. It’s like a dream come true.”
Williams’ early dreams of being a Buckeye were stoked in part by his late
grandfather who was at one time a cancer patient at the Arthur G. James Cancer
Hospital on the Ohio State campus. Both of Williams paternal grandparents passed
away from Leukemia. Ryan’s grandfather just happened to be a huge Buckeye fan.
"When my grandpa was sick, I remember being in his hospital room, and he
would point out the window to the Horseshoe. We could see the stadium from his
hospital room," Williams said. "And he would have us walk down with my
dad to the stadium, and we would look in through the bars because we couldn’t
get in."
But Ryan’s father was active in the ministry, and the family moved around
the country during much of Ryan’s formative years to places like Nashville and
Phoenix before they eventually settled in southern California. The likely odds
of the much-traveled Williams ever going to Ohio State at one point seemed to be
about as prodigious as the amount of miles that separate Ohio and California.
"I’ve always thought that (Ohio State) would be the perfect school to
play at, but I didn’t really give it that much consideration," said
Williams, who, at 6-5, 240 pounds, has matured into a top prospect as a
defensive end at Mission Viejo. "I was mostly looking at the Pac-10 schools
because that’s where everyone around here ends up going. You don’t see too
many kids going back to play at a school like Ohio State, so I didn’t really
put too much thought into it. I didn’t think it was even going to be a
possibility until I started talking to them. And then I got really excited about
it."
Williams was somewhat proactive in making the initial connection between
himself and the Ohio State coaching staff. He flew in from California and went
to a one-day camp at Ohio State in the summer before his junior season.
"It was awesome," he said. "I loved the facilities and I got
to see everything. I had a good time."
Sometime after his junior season at Mission Viejo, Williams made a highlight
tape of himself and asked his head coach Bob Johnson, who happens to run the
Elite 11 camp every summer, to deliver it to the OSU coaching staff. Johnson was
an instructor at the Nike camp at Ohio State back in April.
"They liked the tape and they called me back," Williams said.
"I told them how interested I was in their school, and from then on they
scheduled a trip to come out and see me practice. And then after that they
offered. I just accepted it the day they offered because I knew it was where I
wanted to go."
Williams committed to Ohio State in late May, and as fate would have it,
Bemoll, his teammate and good friend, became very interested in OSU shortly
after.
"Kevin wanted to leave California, and he was looking at LSU and all of
the Florida schools at the time," Williams said. "I think Kevin might
have got offered by Ohio State about a week after I did. When Coach (Luke
Fickell) came out to watch me practice, he really liked Kevin too and they ended
up sending him an offer in the mail."
Later during the summer, Williams, already committed at the time, was going
to take an unofficial visit to Columbus to check things out and so he asked
Bemoll to come along. And he did.
"(Kevin) got to walk around Columbus and he loved it," Williams
said. "He was amazed by the stadium and the facilities and the coaches and
everything."
With an assist from Williams and his father Wes, Bemoll grew to love Ohio
State and decided to issue a commitment soon after his trip. Over time, however,
things would change for Kevin Bemoll.
When the news of OSU quarterback Troy Smith’s suspension for accepting
money from a booster began to circulate around the country in late December,
uncertainty formed in Bemoll’s mind. Being constantly barraged with negative
news and portrayals of Ohio State eventually took too much of a toll on the
offensive lineman.
“As of now, I am keeping my options very open,” Bemoll told Bucknuts
assistant editor Dave Biddle in early January. “I had a really firm commitment
to Ohio State, but with all the stuff that is going on in Ohio, I’m going to
see what else is out there.”
Bemoll said the process was very difficult, but he was unable to prevent
being affected by the things in the news.
“Sure, you can’t believe all of it,” Bemoll said to “I’m sure they
are playing it up. Like you said, a kid from California, what we see (on ESPN)
is all we get out here. It just makes it difficult to know what is going to
happen.
“I know Ryan and I – especially me – I’m feeling very uncomfortable
with it. It’s a long way from home to hear all this stuff is going on, where
you’re supposed to be going. It makes me a little uneasy.”
It remained uncertain exactly where Bemoll would wind up, but Williams has
always had an allegiance to Ohio State even before he even had any idea that he
would give thought to becoming a Buckeye. Bemoll, who admires Ryan’s
dedication to the school, gave a description of just how firm of a hold the
Buckeyes have on the talented defensive end.
"Ryan’s been the biggest Ohio State fan all of his life, let alone
high school," Bemoll said in December. "Ryan was the first of all our
guys to commit. He got offered by Ohio State and I believe he committed on the
same day he got offered. And I remember thinking, ‘Oh what an idiot, he didn’t
even trip around.’ But Ryan is the type of kid that has been wearing Ohio
State shorts to our football stuff everyday. He doesn’t wear the Mission
shorts, and he just bleeds Ohio State. So that’s where his heart is and he
couldn’t be happier."