COLUMBUS, Ohio- Parris Campbell has always been fond of C.J. Saunders. Ever since the Dublin, Ohio native walked onto the Ohio State football team in the fall of 2015 as a cornerback, Campbell said that he has been an example to the veterans in how hard he has worked.

With a smaller body size and an efficient running style, Saunders brought something to the receiver room that Ohio State did not really have.

“From my perspective, he was a guy that, you know, came in, didn’t really say much, you know and really just put his head down and grind,” Campbell said. “Then when he moved to receiver, on the first day he moved to receiver, we seen him running routes and was like he should have been a receiver the whole time.”

Now, after recording 17 catches for 221 yards and a touchdown in 2017, Saunders is building himself up physically for the 2018 season. As a 5-foot-11 wide receiver, Saunders played last year at 176 pounds, breaking out against UNLV for 102 receiving yards and a touchdown on six catches. However, at the request of the Ohio State coaching staff, Saunders has bulked up, coming into spring practice at 185 pounds.

When head coach Urban Meyer challenged him to get bigger for the 2018 season, Saunders said he had a warped view of what that process would look like.

“I thought is was a weight room thing,” Saunders said. “You know, the harder you lift, the more weights you lift, that’s how you are going to get bigger. That’s not necessarily true. That will be part of it. For me, it was eating consistently and eating six, seven meals a day every two, three hours to keep food in the system.”

Already a few practices into the spring, Saunders said he can feel a noticeable difference in his physical ability with nine more pounds of muscle. Despite not participating in blocking drills yet, he said he has seen a difference in his lower body, becoming more explosive in and out of breaks on routes. He said that now, with the added muscle, he can push past defensed at the line, having the ability to attack defensive backs vertically.

This adds to what wide receiver coach Zach Smith describes as a receiver that does not waste much movement, saying that he plays much faster than he actually is.

For Saunders, this is not a short-term change. Going into a crowded wide receiver room with many veterans, he believes that this lifestyle change could be something that pushes him into the regular rotation. This is something that the 5’11” receiver is willing to invest in.

“You really have to invest your lifestyle too,” Saunders said. “The coaches pushing that lifestyle on me and just saying, ‘if you do this, you can be this good.’”