Hartline: Fleming has been ‘operating at 75%’, had offseason surgery

COLUMBUS, Ohio –– Even in a shortened eight-game season, seven receptions was a lower number than many expected from Julian Fleming, a five-star prospect and the class of 2020’s No. 1 wide receiver.

Fleming didn’t step into immediate stardom in his first season at Ohio State, although almost no one does, but wide receivers coach Brian Hartline revealed Thursday that the highly-touted talent has been held back by a shoulder injury that dates back to his high school career at Southern Columbia in Catawissa, Pennsylvania.

“The guy’s been operating at 75 percent for the last couple years,” Hartline said.

Fleming’s health was not a public point of conversation in 2020, as the 6-foot-2 wideout never found himself on the team’s unavailable list even with COVID-19 spreading across the country, but Hartline said the second-year Buckeye actually had surgery following his true freshman season.

At open practice on April 5, Fleming stayed on the indoor field at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center to do individual drills while the rest of the team took to the outdoor field, hinting to the fact that he was working through an injury.

This past Monday, Fleming took snaps with the third-team offense, a strange sight for a player that replaced COVID-19-stricken star receiver Chris Olave as a starter in the Big Ten Championship Game in 2020.

“He’s been going through some things since high school medically that he needed to get cleared up, got it cleared up, but it was pretty intensive,” Hartline said. “I mean the kid is one of the toughest kids I’ve probably ever been around to operate at the level he’s operated at with a linebacker strap on his shoulder to help protect that thing, and then try to execute at such a high level.”

Fleming finished with 74 yards on his seven catches this past season, with the best performance coming in the aforementioned start against Northwestern, where he caught four passes for 53 yards.

However, Fleming’s modest season statistics were not an outlier for any Buckeye receivers outside of Olave and Garrett Wilson, who combined to catch nearly 60 percent of Justin Fields’ completions and 70 percent of his passing yards in 2020.

Even his injury issues have not taken Fleming off of what Hartline thinks could be a sky-high trajectory though. The Buckeye WR coach called Fleming a “rockstar as an individual,” and said his improvement is clear even without an unencumbered spring camp.

“I think he’s a special individual. His size and speed combination are probably like nothing I’ve seen in college football, me personally,” Hartline said. “The development he’s had from last camp through the season, to develop but also learn football and grow, I thought was really awesome.”

Blocking out the pressure that comes along with five-star expectations has been another challenge for Fleming, and one that not every Buckeye has to deal with. Hartline said Fleming has excelled at staying focused on his goals though, and those may be accomplished in short order if he can make a full recovery ahead of his second season.

“He needs to get ultra-healthy first so he can maximize what he’s capable of doing,” Hartline said. “But I’m really excited with where he’s at mentally and how he’s progressing physically, and the health that he’s gonna have.”