COLUMBUS, Ohio — Bradley Robinson was initially going to transfer to Michigan.

After three semesters at Michigan State, Robinson was looking to transfer from East Lansing to find a new fit, thinking the best path would be to follow his brother Andrew Robinson and become a Wolverine.

Bradley Robinson was so close to joining what he now refers to "That Team Up North," coming within a week of signing a lease to an apartment in Ann Arbor, when he got a text from his long-snapping coach Chris Rubio.

"'Hey, Ohio State is going to call you at some point today,'" Robinson remembered reading.

"I was like, 'Are you serious? No. There's no way. That's not real,'" he said.

The call came from Kerry Coombs, telling him Ohio State needed a guy like him, a player to help the team out, to add depth and compete for a spot.

"It was kind of one of those things that was surreal in the moment, like 'Ohio State is calling me. I didn't reach out to them,'" Robinson said. "'They reached out to me and called me.'"

Robinson grew up watching Big Ten football, watching former Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith, growing up a Michigan State fan because his father went to the school.

And even with an apartment lease hanging in the balance in Ann Arbor, Robinson was encouraged to weigh all his options prior to making a decision official.

"Me and my dad were like, 'They are kind of the enemy, but why not go and visit,'" Robinson said. "'Say that you did.'"

Robinson arrived in Columbus in 2017 with no expectations. But after further conversations with Coombs and former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer, Robinson found a home with Ohio State as a walk-on, earning and holding onto the starting long-snapper job for each of the past two seasons.

On Saturday, Robinson will participate in Ohio State's pregame senior day ceremony at the Buckeyes' final home game of the 2021 season.

Even with a sixth year of eligibility on the table if he wants it — a decision, he said, that hasn't been made yet — Robinson said he couldn't pass up the opportunity to have his ceremony against his former team.

But honestly, Robinson thrives in the shadows.

His success as a long-snapper, he said, is based on how kicker Noah Ruggles and punter Jesse Mirco do.

"That's the only recognition I need," Robinson said. "If they are getting the recognition, that's all I need. That means I'm doing my job."

This is leadership Ohio State head coach Ryan Day sees on a daily basis, saying that he sees Robinson taking in a new kicker and new punter in 2021 and being that example of a veteran among the specialists, setting the expectation of the room even when many eyes aren't on them.

But that hasn't been Robinson's only role with Ohio State.

On the 2021 team, Robinson is the eldest "Michigan man," the oldest of four players from "That State Up North'" along with redshirt freshman safety Cameron Martinez from Muskegon, redshirt freshman offensive lineman Grant Toutant from Warren and freshman walk-on running back Cayden Saunders from Northville.

From the moment Robinson went and introduced himself to each of those players, the redshirt senior said he immediately gained respect from each of them, knowing the bond that each of them shared.

"I think a lot of the times, you see guys from Ohio go north, but it's really rare for guys to come here," Robinson said. "You automatically have that bond."

Day has an idea of what the difficulty looks like for those former Michigan residents coming down to join the Buckeyes.

"I know that when you come from the state up north, you need to embrace Ohio State and everything we stand for. It's not always easy," Day said. "You sometimes feel you're in enemy territory for a little while before you quickly embrace it."

It's something Robinson has had to help his family embrace, seeing his brother Andrew in the stands, a former Michigan football player, wearing one of Ohio State's gray jerseys players wore against Penn State in 2017 since it "'doesn't have scarlet on it.'"

But when he goes back home to Troy — about 60 miles northeast of Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor and about 80 miles east of Spartan Stadium in East Lansing — Robinson is viewed as a sort of villain, as "this guy that went to Ohio State."

But it's something Robinson has come to love. It's something Robinson has come to embrace.

Running out of the tunnel Saturday for his senior day, Robinson doesn't know if it will be his last time in Ohio Stadium. For him, that's another decision for another time.

Instead, it will be validation for that call he got from Coombs in 2017.

It didn't matter if Robinson was from "That State Up North." Coombs just knew Robinson could help.

Coombs knew that Robinson could become a Buckeye.

"If you are a good player, Ohio State's going to know you're there," Robinson said. "Also, if you are a good player, why wouldn't you want to come to Ohio State, no matter where you are from?"