COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ever since he played his final snap at Ohio State, Nicholas Petit-Frere has been living on cloud nine.

To him, it’s a continuation of what he spent four seasons doing with the Buckeyes, making sure he was physically, mentally and emotionally prepared, but to a whole other level: learning what it takes to be a professional, what it takes to be an NFL player.

Wednesday was the chance to show that progress off, and the former Ohio State offensive tackle wasn’t nervous.

He was at first, stepping into the Woody Hayes Athletic Center days before his first workout with a bit of anxious energy, instantly evaporating at the sight of his friends and teammates, signifying that Petit-Frere was home.

For the actual drills, though, for the performance the offensive tackle was set to put on at his Pro Day, Petit-Frere was fine. He’d been training since December, developing a trust and a confidence that he would take the field for his final practice session and do what he always did, walking in the footsteps of the Pro Days he’d seen before in that very spot: Josh Myers’, Isaiah Prince’s and Wyatt Davis’.

“I saw what they did. I saw how they performed, how they carried themselves,” Petit-Frere said. “All I said to myself was I want to make sure I do exactly what they did because they represented themselves so well, they represented Ohio State really well.”

When he saw Myers, Prince and Davis participate in their pro days, Petit-Frere knew this was his path all along. He knew he would get his chance at some point. He just never knew when.

Over the course of the 2020 and 2021 seasons, the Ohio State offensive tackle at the same plan: come in and play as hard as he could all season long, helping the Buckeyes win a national title. And at two points — the bye week and at the end of the season — allow himself to “come up for air,” seeing where he was at.

At the bye week, it was more of an assessment for the remainder of the schedule, seeing what he could do to make his team better, to improve himself and get Ohio State where it needed to be for contention.

The big questions, the self-evaluation came at the end of the season, a season that ended with the offensive tackle being named a first-team All-American.

The personal accomplishments were not the first thing on Petit-Frere’s mind though. Instead, it was what he was unable to accomplish and how his final game ended — the loss in Ann Arbor to rival Michigan.

“That’s probably the biggest thing that was going through my mind: ‘Is that how I wanted to end it off? Is that kind of the ending of my career here at Ohio State?’ My goal was to help my team win a national championship, goal was to win as many games as possible, graduate with a degree. Along with that comes beating the team up north every single year,” Petit-Frere said. “That’s how we understand. We know we have to, to get to that point, we have to beat them. We have to win that game.

“It was hard. That probably was one of the harder things to really cope with was that I really wanted to take this one opportunity, this one shot to go play in the NFL, to go run at the combine, for me to go back to Pro Day to do the things I saw all my former teammates, the teammates that I love, do. To have that kind of just sitting there, it hurts to this day. I told a lot of coaches, that’s probably the worst loss I have experienced in my life.”

When Petit-Frere came up for air after the season, he knew it was time.

And it was a hard decision to face.

“It’s hard to understand,” Petit-Frere said. “I pour so much into Ohio State. From the day I got here to now, I just pour a lot into this place and into the people. Having to say that you got to go and leave them, it was different than high school. At least with high school, you kind of understood there was a path: you had four years and then your senior year, you have all the senior stuff. You don’t really do that in college because you never really know. You could leave as a junior, you could leave as a senior, you could transfer. You never really have that moment of ‘Hey, this is it,’ until… it’s very quick.”

The former Ohio State offensive tackle said, even after his Pro Day, that it was hard to wrap his mind around the fact it was his last time being out on the practice field at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, the last time being with his teammates, his coaches.

But he knew it was coming. He knows it happens. It happens to every player.

Now, Petit-Frere's focus is on the next level, already scheduling visits with the Tennessee Titans, Buffalo Bills and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, possible stops for the former Ohio State offensive tackle set to be secured in the coming weeks.

It was just his turn. And he left Wednesday’s workout remaining on cloud nine, ready for whatever came next

“Make sure that whatever you did with your time during your four years, five years, three years, whatever it is, it’s that you don’t have regrets,” Petit-Frere said. “That’s one thing I was really glad about. I didn’t feel I really had that much regret.”