COLUMBUS, Ohio –– He may be Ohio State’s defensive coordinator, but Kerry Coombs is a secondary specialist through and through. Still, it was an interior defensive lineman that Coombs sought in the locker room after the game Saturday, and one that didn’t even figure to be available for the Buckeyes until the day before the game.

Gunshot wounds through each side of Haskell Garrett’s face, suffered in the offseason, threatened his football career entirely, and certainly his status for the Buckeyes’ Week 1 game against Nebraska.

But not only did Garrett play, he recorded a sack, nearly had another, and made a huge impact on a thin Ohio State defensive line when it needed it most.

“I hugged Haskell in the locker room after the game and I said, ‘This is a miracle. I mean it’s a miracle,’’ Coombs said. “This kid was shot in the face, and I don’t know how many days ago it was, but it wasn’t that long ago.”

It was 55 days before Ohio State’s season opener that Garrett, a senior defensive tackle from Las Vegas, was shot in an overnight incident near Ohio State campus in which he told police he was trying to break up a fight.

At that point, there was no fall season planned for Ohio State or any other Big Ten team, but less than two weeks later, football would be back on schedule to begin in October.

Not great timing for a player who figured to step into a starting role for the first time in the 2020 season, but Coombs said Garrett remained engaged throughout his recovery process.

“He just never gave up, he just kept coming in. My office is right across the hall from Larry Johnson’s, and he’s in there working with Larry with stitches and all that stuff, learning and preparing without being able to do anything physically,” Coombs said.

Even when Johnson spoke with the media on Oct. 7, he said that Garrett had still not been fully cleared, but on Friday’s team status report, his name was noticeably absent from the “Game-time decision” and “Unavailable” lists.

He may not have started, in fact, he only played 23 snaps. But Garrett might have had the best game of any Ohio State defensive lineman on Saturday.

In a tight 17-14 game toward the end of the first half, Nebraska got the ball back trailing three points with a chance to retake the lead, having already shown the ability to march down the field on the new-look Buckeye defense.

But on a second-and-16 from the Nebraska 19-yard-line, Garrett shed a double team around the outside to grab the leg of Husker QB Adrian Martinez and bring him down for a sack.

The very next play, this time on third-and-20, it was Garrett again, but this time rushing up the middle to get a hand on Martinez, forcing him out of the pocket but right into Josh Proctor and Tyreke Smith who forced another loss of six yards.

It was a huge series for the Buckeye defense, and it was Garrett that forced the action on the two biggest downs.

“I’m not gonna tell you how he played, I don’t know that until I watch the tape. But I know having him on the field was the difference-maker for the Buckeyes,” Coombs said. “In every way shape and form.”

Garrett’s recovery is huge for a Buckeye line that head coach Ryan Day called his biggest concern in terms of depth a couple weeks ago, and after his performance Saturday, he’s sure to earn more snaps in the coming weeks.

“I think it was good to get him out there, the depth is certainly something we’ve been focused on, make sure that we have two-and-a-half, three-deep at each position. So to have him there was a huge boost for the inside guys,” Day said. “I don’t know how many plays he ended up getting in there for, but his experience and his ability, it was great to have him in there.”

There could be bigger things to come for Garrett in terms of on-field production, but his road back to the field in the first place has already rallied coaches and teammates alike in the Ohio State program.

“You can’t undervalue the impact that that has on his teammates and the defense in general, that experience he went through and how he got back on the field in such a short period of time,” Coombs said.

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