Wilson Wants To Show His Football Passion

It will be a hotly contested debate on which receiver will go first in the upcoming NFL Draft and Ohio State wide receiver Garrett Wilson has just as good of a case as anyone to take that top spot at his position.

During a three-year career, Wilson had 143 catches for 2,213 yards and 23 scores including a 1,000-yard season during the past 2021 season.

Wilson leaves Ohio State with one year of eligibility in his pocket but the move to the NFL was a logical one and now the ongoing NFL Scouting Combine is the next step in the process to making a NFL dream a reality. It all started with a difficult decision opting out of the Rose Bowl.

“That’s something I talked to my family about, talked to my teammates about before I made that decision and talked to Coach (Ryan) Day about,” Wilson said on Wednesday. “I came (to Ohio State) to win a national championship. We didn’t perform to our standard, we hold ourselves to this past season, and at the end of the day, we had no excuse to not be playing in that. We didn’t play well, and it’s one of those things, I felt it was the right decision.”

Wilson is joined in Indianapolis by fellow Ohio State wide receiver Chris Olave as two-thirds of the nation’s top receiving corps from the 2021 season.

The Buckeyes have not had two wideouts drafted in the first round of the same draft since the 2007 season when Ted Ginn went No. 9 to Miami and Anthony Gonzalez went No. 32 to Indianapolis. 2022 should see the tandem both hear their names called on day one of the draft.

“That would be awesome. First round is awesome, it would be great to go first round, but a lot of those dudes get missed,” Wilson said. “They end up going in the second round and are just as good players. So, my mission is to prove myself once I get there, but it definitely would be a blessing to go first round.”

Ohio State fans are aware of what Wilson’s game looks like but for people who have not had a chance to see three seasons of the Austin (Texas) product, what would they see?

“I feel like I do a good job of getting the 50/50 balls. I play bigger than my size, and I feel like I play with a whole lot of passion,” Wilson said.

The Ohio State program has put a lot of wide receivers in the league and is well on its way to holding the title of WRU. Receivers coach Brian Hartline heard his name called in the 2009 draft and now two of his prized students are ready to walk the same path.

“He’s a great teacher,” Wilson said. “He’s the type of person that will show you what he wants you to do. He’ will show you and back it up. Being three or four years removed from the league when I got there, he was really good at running routes still. He could run the routes and look like he was still playing. So that made it easy on us watching and trying to mimic that.”

Wilson and Olave will go through on-field workouts on Thursday evening at Lucas Oil Field. A place familiar to the Buckeyes with it being the same place as the Big Ten Championship Game. Coverage starts on Thursday at 4pm (EST) on NFL Network.