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Buckskin86

Head Coach
Craig Cataline

Walkon who served a tour in Iraq is a ?great story'
Published: Monday, September 03, 2012
By John Kampf
[email protected]
@JKBuckeyes

COLUMBUS ? Craig Cataline recorded only one tackle in his debut with the Ohio State football team in its season-opening win over Miami of Ohio.

But the sheer sight of the product of nearby Grandview Heights on the field brought a smile to the face of Coach Urban Meyer.

Cataline is playing his first season of college football and hasn't played a down since 2005. He was in the Navy and served a tour in Iraq before walking on for the Buckeyes.

Cataline is listed as a 6-foot-2, 226-pound sophomore fullback, but got his playing time on special teams.

"Great story," Meyer said. "He earned that right, so it's a great story.

"It's what you would imagine a guy that served in the Navy for a while. He's tough as nails. He's completely committed, and incredible discipline and just goes a hundred miles an hour. I wish he was more athletic, because we'd find a way to get him on the field more. He's got some talent, and he's tough."
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http://news-herald.com/articles/2012/09/03/sports/nh5938857.txt?viewmode=fullstory
 
I've met Craig and hung out with him a couple times, so I always watch him on kickoff coverage and punt returns. On kickoffs, he is right beside the kicker, and you can tell he likes to hit. Against Iowa, especially, he was blowing up blockers.
 
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Navy vet a valued contributor for OSU
Updated: November 11, 2013
By Austin Ward | ESPN.com
ncf_g_us_flag_b1_576x324.jpg

Jamie Sabau/Getty Images
After U.S. military members unveiled the flag prior to the Florida A&M game, Navy veteran Craig Cataline took the field for Ohio State.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- At least once it was somewhere in the ocean.

Other times it was on an oil platform in Kuwait.

Regardless of the location, it was usually in the middle of the night when Craig Cataline would grab a spare moment, find a place to settle in and get a glimpse of his beloved Ohio State football team playing back home while he was half a world away serving in the Navy.

A bad call against USC still sticks in his mind. The scenic shots of the Rose Bowl were surely worth waking up to see at around 2 a.m. But perhaps more than just the opportunity to be a fan or enjoy a distraction, what Cataline was really watching was a glimpse at his future.

"I remember waking up at odd hours," Cataline said. "I always watched the games on Saturday if I could, but I didn't really see myself playing.

"It was always something I wanted to do, but I guess it just wasn't something that was really my objective then."

Cataline had plenty of other missions to keep him busy at that point, starting with a stint as an aircraft mechanic in Nebraska and a year on a security force in Kuwait.

Now he's a seek-and-destroy member of the team he's spent his whole life watching. He has a role as a walk-on nearly eight years removed from Grandview Heights High School. He's a valued member of the Ohio State special teams and is on the short list of the coaching staff's favorite players on the team.


Andrew Weber/USA TODAY Sports
Craig Cataline served four years in the Navy before walking on at Ohio State.

The 6-foot-1, 225-pound linebacker has a relatively modest two tackles to his credit, but his relentless work ethic and passion and attention to detail consistently draws praise as an example for the rest of the program, which is perhaps no surprise given his military experience. But after a long layoff without putting on pads, he's also showing potential of being able to contribute a bit more often on the field. He graded out as a special teams "champion" in a recent victory over Penn State, and the No. 3 team in the country wouldn't be putting Cataline or anybody else on the field at this point if he couldn't get the job done.

"He's very, very physical. He has no fear, which is what you would expect from somebody who has served," special teams coordinator Kerry Coombs said. "He's a good athlete, a good player, a run-and-hit guy, which is really what you're looking for on special teams. But it's the maturity that he brings to the unit, for him to walk out there and do things the way he does them sends a message to everybody else.

"I don't think there's a single kid or coach on the team that would question the value every time Craig is out there on the field."

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http://espn.go.com/college-football...veteran-craig-cataline-contributes-ohio-state

Cataline proud of his journey to OSU
Linebacker spent 4 years in Navy
BY DAVID BRIGGS
BLADE SPORTS WRITER


COLUMBUS — He is just now living his college dream, almost eight years out of high school and half a world away from his last job.

Craig Cataline is a linebacker at Ohio State, and for a player who grew up in a scarlet-blooded house two miles from Ohio Stadium, he can’t believe quite how that sounds.

“Sometimes, I try to step back and look at it from a different angle,” he said. “It’s neat being a part of something so much bigger than myself.”

Yet Cataline is prouder still of another identity.

When he tears into the Horseshoe before more than 105,000 fans on Saturdays, he thinks about his brothers — his two older ones who served in the Army and the friends forged from his own time overseas.

“I like to be able to say that I served,” he said. “It commands a little respect.”

Before the 25-year-old Cataline walked on at Ohio State last season and became a key special teams contributor on a national championship contender, he spent four years in the Navy — including a one-year tour in the Persian Gulf guarding an oil platform off the coast of Kuwait.

“A very unique story,” OSU coach Urban Meyer said. “He’s one of my — arguably my favorite — but one of my favorite players. He’s a very powerful guy on kickoff cover, a very valuable guy on our team right now, just with his demeanor, his leadership, his toughness.”

For Cataline, an all-state linebacker as a senior at Grandview Heights in 2005, it is not a path he could have envisioned.

Uncertain of his future after high school, he joined the military with the intention of later attending college on the GI Bill. His older brothers, Ryan and Eric, who spent time in Iraq, nudged him toward the Navy. But Cataline, too, soon found himself in the Middle East.

Stationed in Kuwait, he was part of the security team standing watch on a massive oil platform amid Iraqi waters, often in the middle of the night. Though the temperatures soared beyond triple digits and loneliness set in, he cherished the comradeship among his group.

“My oldest brother was infantry in the invasion [of Iraq],” Cataline said. “It wasn’t like I was kicking down doors and arresting people. But when you ship overseas, when you’re in close quarters with your friends like that, you grow attached.”

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Read more at [url]http://www.toledoblade.com/Ohio-State/2013/11/11/Craig-Cataline-proud-of-his-journey-to-Ohio-State.html#bBL5X1AKHwMeXvkc.99[/URL]
 
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