C.J. Saunders earned everything to become a captain
COLUMBUS, Ohio - In 2016, C.J. Saunders was not focused on playing a role on the offensive side for the Buckeyes or leading a team. Instead, he had one focus: to be part of a team.
When Ryan Day announced the former walk-on as a captain on Monday, the journey for Saunders seemed to be straight out of a movie. Three years ago, Saunders was not even focused on the possibility of being a captain one day.
“I came in wanting to be part of a team,” Saunders said. “I really missed the aspect of working toward a goal, and sports is something that you can see that every day.”
The undersized wide receiver would start his career with the Buckeyes as a cornerback. Saunders was fighting to make his mark known and show that he belonged.
In the spring of 2017, Saunders earned a scholarship with the program, and he began making an impact at wide receiver later that year. The move proved to Saunders that he was deserving of his position on the Ohio State football team.
“I think when I got moved to receiver, that’s when I thought I had a chance to play here,” Saunders said. “I had belief in my ability, but I had a lot of work to do.”
It is clear that his coaches and teammates have not let his hard work go unnoticed. Day believes that despite his limited playing time in the past, Saunders’s work in the weight room, practice facility and classroom have inspired the team.
“You can tell that these guys respect hard work, they respect and really give a lot of credit to the way he's gone about his work every day, the way he handles himself, his character,” Day said.
Despite the impressive rise to captain, Saunders remains humble and wants to make sure that the proper credit is given to the people who helped him to get to where he is now.
“Once you get to a place like Ohio State, everybody is good, so it doesn’t matter if you came from nothing or everything,” Saunders said on his unusual journey. “You have to prove it every day, and I am thankful I was raised to go to work every day and treat people with respect. That’s just a testament to my family and the program itself.”
As far as being a captain at wide receiver goes, Saunders could not have asked for a better group of guys to show him the way last season. The leadership at wideout included Parris Campbell, Terry McLaurin and Johnnie Dixon.
Saunders gives credit to those guys for showing him how to lead, and he says that they set the standard for what it means to lead from the wideout position.
“They just set an expectation, and they showed how to do it, the right way to do it,” Saunders said.
The responsibility to carry on the legacy left by last year’s group will be shared by fellow-captain K.J. Hill and the other seniors in the room.
On the field, Saunders’s role is still unclear. According to Day, the fifth-year senior is in competition for backup H-back with Jaelen Gill.
“He's had a good camp,” Day said about Saunders. “A little bit of a situational guy. He's going to help us on special teams, help us in the pass game a bunch. But he's tough. He's got really great short area quickness, good hands. Glad we got him.”
Even if his statistics don’t pop off the page this year, Saunders’s impact will be felt throughout the program for years to come.
He is proof that hard work pays off, and his journey can serve as inspiration for the future generation of walk-ons.
“Once you get in these doors it doesn’t matter,” Saunders said on his message to walk-ons. “Ohio State is all about how you treat your teammates, your coaches, your family and then what do you do between the lines. It doesn’t matter anything else, that’s what it is all about. It’s a big honor, and I am proud to pass that on to hopefully more walk-ons.”
