Oller: Ohio State football spring stars sometimes lose heat when regular-season arrives
Some say getting recognized as the GOAT of the Ohio State spring game is like being the fastest two-toed sloth. It’s worth something, but so is a penny.
Brandon “Bam” Childress doesn’t see it that way. Then again, he wouldn’t, since the 42-year-old former OSU receiver remains the "greatest of all time" performer during the annual spring scrimmage, having turned heads by lighting up the glorified practice four consecutive spring Saturdays from 2001-2004.
“It’s a little bigger than practice, because now we get to have a little bit of practice in front of everybody,” Childress said, recalling his glory days of Aprils past. “It’s just a chance to show the world what you’re capable of. A lot of times people don’t see the guys behind the guys. And coaches, too, don’t always know what you can do when the bullets are flying.”
He makes a good point. I’d argue the spring game is more like shooting BBs than bullets, but you catch his drift. What the Bam is saying – and it is the Bam, thank you very much – is that the scrimmage which took place Saturday in Ohio Stadium held meaning. It mattered. Maybe not for everyone, but for those unseen Buckeyes it was a big deal.
Honestly, it wasn’t until I caught up with Childress last week that I began to feel a little ashamed for taking the spring game not-so-seriously. But only a little. It’s not like I am alone in my Allen Iverson lack of exuberance for … practice? The majority of fans who paid $10 to enter the Horseshoe on Saturday did so because a) they were more interested in maintaining their spring break tan than in watching football; b) regular-season game tickets are too rich for their blood; and c) they wanted to decide five months in advance which quarterback should start against Akron in the Aug. 31 opener.
My lack of exuberance for semi-touch football and a fourth-quarter running clock can be traced to the eye test. Having attended more than two dozen spring games, my eyes have witnessed players knock your socks off when the redbuds are in bloom, only to nearly disappear before the leaves drop in the fall.
Childress is a prime example. I don’t mean to pick on one of the more colorful characters to wear the scarlet and gray. Bam, who works as an insurance agent in his hometown of Bedford, had serious athletic talent. He was Mr. Football in Ohio in 1999, leading Bedford Chanel to the Division V state semifinals as a two-way player. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.34 seconds. It’s just that like so many other spring game sensations, he struggled to follow it up when the statistics mattered.
Tom Hoying tossed the game-winner for the Gray in the 1995 spring game, but it was his brother Bob who started at QB from 1993-95. JaJa Riley upstaged Maurice Clarett in the 2002 scrimmage. Erik Haw was the rushing leader in 2005. Senior Taurian Washington caught two touchdown passes in the 2010 April practice, after totaling three regular-season receptions the previous three seasons.
Bam was the man in spring games past
And then there was the GOAT.
When Jim Tressel replaced John Cooper early in 2001, he switched Childress from cornerback to receiver. Soon after, Bam caught a touchdown in the spring game – but went without a reception in the fall.
In 2002, Childress scored three TDs in the spring scrimmage and was listed as second team behind Chris Vance. But Chris Gamble’s emergence pushed Childress to the margins, and he ended the regular season with four catches.
The headline after the 2003 spring game was “Bam Steals the Show.” Childress scored TDs on a 94-yard kickoff return and two long receptions. But again he was listed as second-team in the fall. And when starter Drew Carter went down with a knee injury, Santonio Holmes stole Bam’s show.
Childress made a spectacular one-handed 30-yard catch in the 2004 spring game and nearly topped it with a devastating spin move to elude a defender on a 10-yard catch-and-run. Finally, in the fall he made some noise with 17 catches for 205 yards.
You might think Childress is bitter about how his college career went down. You would be wrong. He considers himself blessed to have been put to the test, to have had his patience run through the ringer. It girded him for what was to come – four seasons of moving on and off NFL rosters, including coming oh-so-close to collecting a Super Bowl ring with New England in 2008.
“I made the best out of my opportunity,” he said of his limited time seeing the field with the Patriots. “We had Randy Moss, Wes Welker. My mindset was, ‘I’ve been here before (with Ohio State). Be patient. Work harder. It’s going to come.’ ”
Would Childress have entered the portal if today’s transfer rules were in place then?
“I’m going to say no," he said. "The selfish part thinks yes, but staying made me what I am and who I am now. Going through hard times taught me stuff about myself.”
Not to mention leaving would have robbed him of his April highlights.
“I could have transferred and still never seen the field,” he said. “And I never would have had the spring game. But the spring game happened and the world got to see what I was made of. What I would tell the young players of today is go out and show what you’re made of, too. Be patient. I know it’s hard with NIL and other colleges coming after you, but look long term instead of short term.
"Anybody can think the grass is greener on the other side. But your time will come. And when it does, show what you’re made of.”
I’ll tell you what the Bam is made of – good and solid stuff.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State football: Spring game allows lesser lights to shine
