ARMANI REEVES APPLYING WHAT HE LEARNED FROM OHIO STATE AS MARYLAND'S COORDINATOR OF PLAYER DEVELOPMENT
Thanks to the Ohio State football program and how it teaches players about life off the field as well as on the field, Armani Reeves felt prepared to move forward with his life after his college football career came to an end.
Now, Reeves is working to help provide the same kind of preparation to football players at another school in the Big Ten East.
A cornerback for the Buckeyes from 2012-14, Reeves was forced to give up his career playing football – and his dream of playing in the NFL – earlier than planned due to head injuries. Reeves remained with the team, though, as a student coach, and continued to impress Ohio State’s coaches and staff with how he helped his former teammates and handled his business off the field.
So when Maryland strength and conditioning coach (and former Ohio State assistant strength and conditioning coach) Rick Court called Ohio State director of player development Ryan Stamper last summer, and asked Stamper whether he had any recommendations for Maryland’s opening for a coordinator of player development, Stamper gave him Reeves’ name.
"And I kind of just took the ball and ran with it after that," said Reeves, who is now entering his second season as Maryland’s coordinator of player development after being hired to the role last July.
A member of Urban Meyer’s first three teams at Ohio State,
Reeves was among the first Buckeyes to reap the benefits of Ohio State’s Real Life Wednesdays initiative. Now, Reeves is among those leading the way for Maryland’s own version of that program.
While Reeves says he has tried to put his own twist on things, the way he coordinates the player development program at Maryland – whose head coach, DJ Durkin, was an assistant coach for Meyer at Florida – has certainly been influenced by his experiences at Ohio State.
"One of the things Coach Meyer does a great job of is not only teaching us how to good football players, but how to be great men," Reeves told
Eleven Warriors. "And that leads to just doing things right off the field, whether it being a good husband, father or just a good worker altogether. And that’s really translated to what I do here at Maryland.
"He is one of the best coaches ever to coach college football, so you would be foolish not to at least try some of the things that he’s done," Reeves added. "So we have some similarities, but we also want to make it our own and make it our program. And I feel like we’ve done a great job at that."
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