COLUMBUS, Ohio – Damon Arnette has heard the criticisms throughout his Ohio State career, from anonymous people on social media all the way to the most important people in his life.

It would have been easy for the Ohio State cornerback to up-and-leave after last season and take a shot at the NFL process, and by his own admission, he had already made up his mind to do so. It took a difficult conversation with former Ohio State great and lifelong friend Cris Carter along with some real talks with his new position coach Jeff Hafley to realize there was a lot more left to be accomplished in one final season with the Buckeyes.

“I talked to (Cris) at the Rose Bowl,” Arnette said. “He has known me since I was a baby. He saw me in the Rose Bowl and I guess my dad told him that I was leaving and just looked at me and was like, ‘So you are not even going to ask me my opinion?’ and I just looked at him because I knew what he was going to say. I was just not trying to hear it from (anybody). I just looked at him, smiled and walked away.”

Carter, undeterred was not going to let that be the end of that conversation.

“He called me (at a later date) and just went off,” Arnette added. “He was like, ‘You are no All-American, you are not this, that and the third,’. Everything he was saying cut deep but it was true. So when something cuts deep but is true, you have got to evaluate what they are saying. He was not the only person to say something.”

Arnette had also heard it on social media through the years.

“I got a DM one time that said that I need to go back to high school and pick a different sport,” Arnette joked. “I was like, ‘Damn’ (laugh).”

Arnette had already made up his mind that he was going to go, leaving a year of eligibility on the table. Arnette was on pace to graduate over the summer term and was so sure that he was going to leave, he was out looking for places to train for the NFL Combine and improve his stock. It was on that call that Carter had reached him and was able to finally get through to him as he was leaving Dallas.

“I was picking out my apartment, where I was going to stay at and come back and get my dog,” Arnette said.

Carter’s words hit Arnette down to his core. He knew that he couldn’t leave on that note and did an abrupt about face and decided that another year at Ohio State would be in his best interest.

“It definitely hit my pride a little bit,” Arnette said. “Me knowing what I can do, me knowing what I have shown and then them just spitting facts back into my face it was really just a reality check. That is why I am using this whole year to just get everything that I left out there.”

The two would link up again via text message and Carter told Arnette that this was the best decision of his life. The respect runs deep for Carter from Arnette, and that meant a lot.

“He was the reason that I came to (Ohio State),” Arnette admitted.

Arnette knew that he had a lot of growing up to do still, off the field as well.

“A lot of dudes just mature faster than others, (I feel like) I have always been on edge type of person,” Arnette said. “Once I just realized that playing with fire, you will get burnt a lot of different ways, it is just not worth it. A part of learning from that is going through certain things and just learning from those mistakes.”

As one of the veterans on the team, Arnette is trying to be there for younger players to try and lead by example and keep them from potentially making some of the same mistakes that he made.

“I try and use my experiences to help a lot of the young guys that I may see just going through the some of the things that I went through and I feel like just maybe the message should come off a bit differently than how I received it,” Arnette said. “I try to use what I know that I rejected and what I accepted to help others.”

Arnette has taken that message to the community as well where he has made several in-school visits to talk to middle schoolers about similar types of issues.

There is a lot that Arnette can still give, both on and off the field. This is the year for him to shed some of the baggage that has weighed him down in the past and leave Ohio State with the best possible legacy that he can.

“The question was (am) I the best player that I know that I can be, did I leave everything out there and do I regret anything?” Arnette said. “I could not check all of those boxes. Then I was like, ‘Can you live with that?’ and then I realized that (I couldn’t) and I am not doing Buckeye Nation and my teammates a service if I would have left last year.”