Inside the ‘unseen hours and unrequired work’ by Ohio State football’s Lathan Ransom while overcoming ‘traumatizing’ injury (2024)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Lathan Ransom knew as soon as it happened that his second year as an Ohio State football player was over.

As he was carted off the field in Pasadena during the Buckeyes’ 48-45 Rose Bowl win over Utah, it was clear he was in for a long offseason.

His leg was broken, similar to what Josh Proctor had suffered against Oregon earlier in the year. The only difference was that, unlike Proctor, Ransom didn’t have to sit on the field watching his bone popping out of his leg.

“That’s definitely the most traumatizing and worse thing that’s ever happened to me,” Ransom said. “I knew it was broken immediately. I looked down and saw it broke. Everyone’s thinking the worst at the moment, and I definitely was.”

Ransom’s traumatizing moment turned into a spring of doubt and frustration. OSU hired a new defensive coordinator and new safeties coach, reigniting the excitement about a defense that’s struggled for most of the past two years. Except Ransom wasn’t part of any of that. He missed all of winter workouts, all of spring football and most of the summer.

“That was the hardest part on me,” Ransom said. “That was the time I was at my lowest. I wanted to be out there with my teammates. I wanted to be out there with my brothers. I wanted to learn the new defense.”

He didn’t even start walking under his own power until around March, let alone being able to run around in a way that suggested he’d be playing football in the fall. Then something clicked in his mind, putting him on the path to speed up his recovery and return better than he was before.

“I had no idea whether we would have him or not, or really what he can do,” new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said. “I’m very impressed. I think he’s gonna have a great season.”

Ransom’s injury proved to be a blessing in disguise because it forced him to grow up as a football player. He’d also been an elite athlete. Being so is what made him a top-200 recruit, with 28 scholarship offers coming out of Salpointe Catholic High School in Arizona.

His size and speed made him a versatile defender whose best role was as a free safety but didn’t limit him to just one spot in a defense that uses three safeties. It’s also why he made an impact in OSU’s biggest games at the end of the 2020 season despite little preparation and not getting on campus until June that year.

His athletic ability was his greatest strength, but also the thing holding him back. Taking that away from him for six months forced him to rethink his approach.

He wouldn’t have an opportunity to blow coaches away with his physical talent in the spring to set himself up for a role in the fall like he had in the path. He would have to do it with his mind, and how quickly he could take things from the classroom to the field -- even if that part wouldn’t come until August.

“After I cleared my head and understood the situation I was in, I started focusing on learning the playbook,” Ransom said. “Doing everything I could do because I couldn’t be out there with my teammates.

“It took time. When I first got here as a freshman, I was immature. Didn’t understand how much the mental part of the game meant to me. Since I’ve been hurt, I’ve grown a whole new perspective and a whole new thought process of football. My injury was the biggest setback I’ve had, but I appreciate it because it gave me a different perspective. It’s gonna help me in the long run.”

Ransom threw his head into the new playbook, and with the help of his position coach, Perry Eliano, the two made sure he wasn’t behind once he was cleared. He spent his summer in Columbus going through rehab, getting on the field as much as possible with Keenan Bailey, senior advisor to the head coach, to get the physical reps necessary for the preseason.

He was cleared for all activities by the first day of camp, and it didn’t take long after that for him to start turning heads the same way he did when he first arrived as a freshman. Only this time, he was doing so as a player more sure of himself.

“I feel like a lot of people have maybe forgotten about him,” safety Ronnie Hickman said. “Lathan’s had one of the best camps I’ve seen since I’ve been in this program. He came back and fought back from his injury. He’s been balling out now. ... Seeing him make those strides and become the player that he is is huge.”

It’s a process that’s continued into fall camp as he still finds himself doing the extra little things with Eliano and Bailey to make up for lost time. That included a one-on-one session late Monday night after spending hours at an event put on by the Name, Image and Likeness collective The Foundation as a way to raise money.

It’s all part of the epiphany brought on by an injury, forcing him to sit down long enough to realize that being a great football player is just as much about the mental side of things as the physical. Players who really excel do more than what’s asked of them.

“Unseen hours and unrequired worked,” Eliano said. “There’s a lot of things that a lot of people don’t see that these young men are putting in. That way, the product on the field is what it looks like. It doesn’t surprise me at all.

“That’s what we have here, and continually building here is that type of mentality. When we say B.I.A. (Best In America), we can’t just say that. That can’t just be talk, that can’t be just some slogan. That’s gotta be real. So we live that every day. Not only the players but myself and coach (Tim) Walton.”

Like with any traumatizing long-term injury, a player is fighting two battles to get back to who he once was. The first is getting over the physical hurdles. The second is the mental hurdles. Those never come simultaneously, and the second almost always trails far behind the first no matter how eager you are to get back.

That mental moment typically comes randomly in fight-or-flight moment where a player can often feel that weight lifted off his shoulder. That moment came early in fall camp at the expense of running back Evan Pryor.

“I had a good hit on Evan, and that’s when I really felt like I was back,” Ransom said. “I came down really fast and filled the alley. That’s when I felt like I was 100 percent.”

He’s been off and running ever since, constantly flashing in a way that’s given Eliano and Knowles no choice but to find ways to get him on the field.

Eliano’s only wish is that he could’ve had him in the spring with how much he’s doing. Knowles didn’t know what to think of him then and wasn’t going to speak out of turn, basing his opinion on old game film from a defensive scheme that wasn’t his.

But he knows what he’s dealing with now and exactly how to best use it. That’s because Knowles watched Ransom take the most traumatizing moment of his life and use it to transform himself as a football player.

“He’s decisive,” Knowles said. “He just goes. He’s a football player. He sees the forest through the trees. He can diagnose the play extremely fast, and he’s aggressive with how he treats it. You can’t ask for more from a safety than that. He’s had an exceptional camp.

“He just stands out on the field in how he operates. He plays at a fast tempo, and he’s usually never wrong. Everyone makes mistakes, but he’s usually never wrong. In any case, he’s aggressive.”

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