COLUMBUS, Ohio — Garrett Wilson knew Ohio State didn’t play well enough against Tulsa. He just needed to say something.
As the players of the game came up, the junior wide receivers used his platform to talk about the standard: Ohio State beat Tulsa, sure. But it wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t up to the standard he was used to.
The standard Wilson is used to is a pretty high bar.
In his first two seasons with Ohio State, the wide receiver had not lost in a regular season game, falling to Clemson in the 2019 College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Fiesta Bowl and to Alabama in the 2020 National Championship.
To him, the practices after the Oregon loss this season felt different. It was not normal.
“When you win so much, sometimes those things… it’s still the same problems you had, they can go under the rug because you are still winning,” Wilson said. “You don’t really address them like you should because the result is still good. When you lose, it’s time to look at all those same problems whether you win or not, but you really address them.”
As one of the elder statesmen in the offense, Wilson’s job was to help make sure the offense was prepared. That included a room full of quarterbacks that had never thrown a pass at the college level.
But luckily, Wilson himself knows a thing or two.
“I grew up playing quarterback, so I like to think I know a little something,” Wilson said with a smirk.
Wilson knows he’s not redshirt freshman quarterback C.J. Stroud. But he knew what was going to bring him success.
To him, it simply comes down to game reps. Practice time. It’s those points throughout the week where quarterbacks can emulate full-speed action with his receivers; “real looks,” as Wilson describes them.
“If we are getting a rep with C.J (Stroud), that’s a game-time rep,” Wilson said. “We are running off the ball. In the game, it’s the same thing. It’s no different.”
It’s the time to make sure a quarterback and wide receiver are on the same page. It’s also a time to make sure both the quarterback and receiver are ready to go full speed Saturday.
After missing last week to rest a shoulder injury that lingered through each of his first three starts as Ohio State’s quarterback, Stroud resumed throwing Sunday, according to head coach Ryan Day.
Over the course of the week, taking in game reps with Wilson and the rest of the Ohio State wide receivers, the junior is convinced that Stroud is healthy and ready to go.
“It’s the best I’ve seen him spin it in a while,” Wilson said. “Definitely looked good practice wise.”
As Ohio State prepares to return to Big Ten play, Wilson is not overwhelmed by the standard. Instead, he’s eager.
To him, the trip to Rutgers is the opportunity to pick up steam, to make up for lost time.
“It’s time to take that next step,” Wilson said. “We feel like we have a lot of people doubting us, and we have a lot of ground to make up. So lucky for us, there’s some teams hiccuping around their schedules too all over the country. We took that loss early, so it’s time to make up ground.”
