Jaylen McClain remembers wanting to be just like his father.

Maurice McClain was a high school All-American safety before playing at Syracuse from 1999-2002. Jaylen started that same path at age 12, researching high schools with football programs that could help him eventually get to Division I football.

To Maurice, that’s just Jaylen: a “Type-A personality” who's always known what he wanted.

“We really didn’t have to do too much with him,” Maurice McClain told The Dispatch. “He tells us what he wants, and, as parents, we just go out there and pretty much put him in the right environment so that he would be successful.”

Jaylen McClain found that environment, starting three seasons at safety for Seton Hall Preparatory School in New Jersey and accumulating more than 30 offers to follow in his father’s footsteps at the Division I level.

That included Ohio State where Jaylen McClain committed the June before his senior season, and where he plans to enroll in January.

“I think Jaylen is ahead of the game,” Maurice McClain said.

Why defensive back is 'second nature' to Jaylen McClain

To Jaylen McClain, football is precious.

He lives for the competition, he said. He lives for the adrenaline rush he gets each time he puts on his helmet and pads.

“It just feels good,” McClain said. “You don’t ever want to just put the cleats up.”

Bill Fitzgerald first saw McClain play at a middle school youth camp at Seton Hall Prep. Fitzgerald remembers McClain then as a player who had “a maturity to him.”

By the time he was old enough to play for Fitzgerald, McClain was, according to the coach, an all-around weapon.

“He can do everything in the defensive backfield,” Fitzgerald said. “He can get the team lined up correctly. He understands his opponent, scouts his opponent. He is a terrific tackler. He can get people on the ground, but more than that, he’s fierce.

“He’s a hitter. He can come down and really knock you back. And he can cover. He can cover as well as a corner… He can cover in the slot, he can blitz. He can cover punts. He’ll be on the punt team in protection, so he’s going to have a role on special teams too, and it’s not a tedious thing for him. He wants to do that. ... He loves to play. It doesn’t matter where he’s playing.”

McClain describes himself as a “cornerback that can play safety.” He said can come down to the line of scrimmage and play press man coverage on one play and zone coverage on the next. That versatility earned him the notice of schools such as Syracuse, Penn State and South Carolina.

“It’s second nature,” McClain said. “It’s nothing new. It’s just real fluid. I’m comfortable everywhere.”

That isn't, according to his dad, because Jaylen McClain was “the most athletic kid.“ Rather, it was his willingness to outwork everyone that allowed him to develop.

“He has the ability to be the fastest player on the field,” Maurice McClain said. “He plays very fast and plays with ill intent. He’s going to go out there and try to knock your head off and things like that. That’s like the same way I played, so I guess he got a little bit from me. But he’s faster than I was, by far.”

Ohio State sets 'the stage' for Jaylen McClain

The offer from Ohio State, Jaylen McClain said, was the one he was waiting for.

His first interactions with the Buckeyes were with former defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs and safeties coach Matt Barnes at a recruiting camp that took place after McClain's freshman high school season.

When Coombs and Barnes departed, safeties coach Perry Eliano and program assistant Gerren DuHart took over McClain's recruitment, extending an offer after the safety’s junior season.

“Ohio State is not going to recruit you if they don’t think highly of you,” McClain said. “They don’t recruit you if they don’t feel you can play at a championship level. Getting that made me want to work even harder because I can’t stay the same. I want to improve everything: my body type, my speed, my agility, all that type of stuff. So once I got that, I was like, ‘Wow, a school like Ohio State believes I can play for them to help them win national championships.’“

Maurice McClain could see why his son bought into Ohio State, having also been coached by current Buckeyes secondary and cornerbacks coach Tim Walton at Syracuse in 2002.

“Ohio State is one of the places where they set the stage for you,” Maurice McClain said. ”All you have to do is do your part.”

Jaylen McClain is one of two safeties in the Buckeyes’ class along with three-star Leroy Roker.

Jaylen McClain: 'Ohio State believes I'm one of the best in the country'

Based on McClain’s track record at Seton Hall Prep, Fitzgerald would not be surprised to see the safety on the field sooner rather than later.

“I don’t know what their depth chart is and how they’re going to work it,” Fitzgerald said. “But he’s going to come in and he’s going to compete and keep his head down and learn, and learn, and learn, and ask questions and do extra work.”

McClain said Ohio State's coaches have told him they expect him to fill in the "Bandit" safety spot. He will join Ohio State as the No. 257 player and No. 26 safety in the country.

“I think he’s overlooked,” Maurice McClain said. “I don’t know what schools are looking for. But I know, from watching him, that’s what a safety’s supposed to be like.”

Does Jaylen McClain think he has something to prove? Yes. But as he prepares to transition to Division I football, McClain is fixated on one opinion.

“Ohio State believes I’m one of the best in the country,” McClain said. “I feel that’s all that matters.”

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Why 'Ohio State believes' in 2024 safety commit Jaylen McClain