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- Thread starter MD Buckeye
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ShowMeBuck
You know what? Chicken butt.
Just saw the dude’s senior stats. Holy smokes. 181 tackles including 40 tackles for a loss. Good gracious, talk about being disruptive. That’s unreal. One season with 40 tackles for a loss. That’s getting it done!!
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Payton Pierce Says He's "Grateful" for a Productive First Year at Ohio State and Hopes to Integrate Himself into the Playbook to Be More Productive in His Second Season
By Garrick Hodge on February 11, 2025 at 11:35 am @garrick_hodge
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There were no shortage of expectations for Payton Pierce when he arrived on campus.
The Texas product was a Butkus Award finalist in his senior season of high school, notching nearly 200 tackles in his final prep season and slotted in as a four-star recruit in the 2024 class.
But the 6-foot-2, 223-pound linebacker came into spring football with Ohio State at a disadvantage, as he was recovering from a serious leg injury that prevented him from doing much in his first few months on campus.
“I didn’t really know what to expect,” Pierce told Eleven Warriors last month before the national championship. “I obviously didn’t expect to be hurt when I got here, but there have been so many great things that have happened this year. I learned a lot through my injury in the spring and carrying that into fall camp, now I’m playing special teams in the national championship. I’ve come a long way since then, so I’m super grateful for that.”
Once he fully recovered from his injury and was a full participant in fall camp, Pierce felt rejuvenated. Like nearly every freshman, there were plenty of highs and lows.
Pierce remembers his “welcome to college moment” all too well from fall camp. The way he describes it, the offense ran a pin-pull with a quarterback lead with Quinshon Judkins as a lead blocker. Pierce put himself in position for what he thought would result in a big play by tackling the quarterback (well, really wrapping up the quarterback, it’s fall camp after all), but he failed to see Judkins lurking as a blocker. Pierce got blindsided by the future NFL Draft pick, resulting in him getting launched in the air and his helmet getting flung even higher as it left Pierce’s head.
Payton Pierce Says He's "Grateful" for a Productive First Year at Ohio State and Hopes to Integrate Himself into the Playbook to Be More Productive in His Second Season
Payton Pierce says he's "grateful" for a productive first year at Ohio State where he raised his football IQ and hopes to contribute more in year two.
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