Steele Chambers’ 2021 season was kind of chopped in half: half spent on offense at running back and half spent on defense at linebacker.

As he prepared for the Rose Bowl, Chambers was a full-fledged linebacker. His transition was old news by that point. Everyone’s focus turned to either Cade Stover: the tight end-turned linebacker ahead of the final game of the season; or DeaMonte Trayanum: the Arizona State running back transfer, who was joining Ohio State as a linebacker.

Chambers’ transition was old news, but also a product of what could work.

But by no means is Chambers done.

The redshirt sophomore realizes his potential — a running back turning a few months’ worth of work into 47 tackles, five tackles-for-loss and an interception. But he knows he’s not finished with his progress.

“I still think my foundation’s a little shaky, just some of the basics at linebacker,” Chambers said. “Getting back to the basics, getting bigger, but still keeping my speed and stuff like that. Just really training to be a linebacker, getting a full year of that instead of training to be a running back.”

Chambers didn’t sugarcoat the learning process. He had to start from square one. He had to go to extra meetings.

It was challenging: knowing how to play running back well and finding the shift to another style of football mentally frustrating.

But he found linebacker to be easier with less reads to contend with and, instead, keying in on a running back and knowing where he likes to go.

“It’s one read and then it’s read and react,” he said. “It’s more instinctual at linebacker, where at running back, you just have to make a lot more reads, know what your linemen are doing exactly.”

Instead of finding a way to stay upright, Chambers’ job became bringing his target to the ground no matter what, whether it’s a 250-pound running back or a receiver in coverage.

For the redshirt sophomore, the main challenge came in the mindset. It was forced to flip entirely, never looking back to running back: the position he was recruited to be as a three-star athlete out of Roswell, Georgia.

“I had to really cancel that out as soon as I moved over,” Chambers said. “If you are still, in the back of your mind, thinking ‘I’m a running back, I’m a running back,’ it’s never going to work. You just fully have to jump in.

“I felt I wasn’t ready at all at some points. But, I mean, Coach (Al Washington) helped, everyone in that linebacker room helped me. So I feel like without them, I wouldn’t have been able to be here. They definitely helped me improve my game and to get to where I am now.”

Chambers doesn’t view himself as an example to a player like Trayanum. The redshirt sophomore admits that there’s players in the linebacker room that are better equipped and prepared to guide Trayanum through the process.

Chambers doesn’t view himself as a finished product. Instead, he’s someone who said he can be there for Trayanum, someone the Arizona State transfer can lean on throughout the offseason.

Chambers hasn’t talked with his new linebacker teammate yet about the transition. But he knows where Trayanum is coming from.

As a former Ohio high school football player out of Akron, Chambers already knows Trayanum is mentally tough enough to make a transition.

And he will be there to help with whatever he needs.

“He’s jumping into this venture he really doesn’t know anything about yet,” Chambers said. “But I’m sure he’ll be fine.”