OHIO STATE FOOTBALL
O?Neal fills need at free safety smoothly
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The bell sounded, and Jamario O?Neal answered the call.
Top-ranked Ohio State had just suffered the first major injury of the season Saturday night at Iowa. Free safety Anderson Russell, who had won the job two weeks earlier, was knocked out for the season by a knee injury while covering a kickoff early in the game.
The time to grieve would come later, the players said. More important at the moment was putting someone in there who could do the job. The coaches turned to the sophomore.
"I had to get the jitters out and everything like that," O?Neal said. "But as the game continued, I started getting more confidence and getting more relaxed and just making plays, doing the things I know I can do."
The defensive coaches essentially pulled the handle on a pump they had been priming since the start of the season. Nick Patterson opened against Northern Illinois as the No. 1 free safety, but Russell and O?Neal, the backup to strong safety Brandon Mitchell, played extensively.
The Buckeyes see the personnel for their two safety spots as interchangeable, which explained why O?Neal was called to replace Russell.
"Obviously we have four guys back there who were in a deadheat competition throughout the fall, so everybody can play," Mitchell said. "We?ve been rotating guys through every game, so it?s not a matter of anybody not being ready to play, not being in the game plan and not knowing what?s going on.
"Everybody knows they are going to get their shot, and fortunately Jamario stepped up and played a pretty good game."
Anything less would have been disappointing, cornerback Malcolm Jenkins said.
"When Jamario came in, we all expected him to do just as good a job as Anderson does," Jenkins said. "It?s unfortunate Anderson had to go out like that, but I think Jamario did a pretty decent job filling in in that situation."
Or as O?Neal put it: "I wouldn?t say it?s pressure on me. It?s just my turn to step up and do the things that I am taught every week."
But what now?
"Someone is going to have to step up for us to keep moving on," coach Jim Tressel said.
That?s why O?Neal said he?s not taking his promotion for granted. Nothing is promised.
He gained fame by being offered a scholarship ? and committing to the Buckeyes ? while still a sophomore in high school in Mansfield. By the time he was a senior he had transferred to Cleveland Glenville after getting into some trouble in his hometown. Glenville coach Ted Ginn not only straightened him out but allowed him to live in the family home.
O?Neal arrived in Columbus with the great expectations that come with being a prospect from Glenville. He was expected to smooth his way into the starting lineup this season because of the loss of last year?s safeties, Donte Whitner (also a Glenville grad) and Nate Salley, to the NFL.
But Patterson and Mitchell won the starting spots, and then Russell joined Mitchell. O?Neal was making do as a contributing backup and as a special-teams performer before Russell was injured.
"I?ve never been down," O?Neal said. "This is a team thing, and I feel the coaches are going to play the best guys. If it was my turn to wait, then it was my turn to wait.
"They just said, ?Stay up. You never know when you?re going to get in.? And now is my time."
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