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Ex-Tiger Jordan looks at coaching
[FONT=verdana,Times New Roman,Times,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]By GREG KOHNTOPP
[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,Times New Roman,Times,arial,helvetica,sans-serif][email protected][/FONT]
When Devin Jordan arrived at Ohio State in the fall of 2003, he believed it would be a matter of time before he was hauling in touchdown passes in front of 105,000 fans at the Horseshoe.
Four years have gone by and Jordan has caught more injuries than passes. The last, a devastating ankle injury during the 2004 season, ultimately ended his football career.
Despite the career-ending injury, now is not the time for the ‘poor Devin’ stories. Although one chapter of Jordan’s life has ended, the next chapter has just began. That chapter is helping Ohio State be the best team it can be this season – as a student coach.
“I’ve started working with the receivers and trying to get them ready for the season,” said Jordan, a prep star at Massillon who caught 152 passes for 2,511 yards and 31 touchdowns – all school records – during his Tiger career. “I want to show my teammates and coach Jim Tressel that I still want to be around the team. I’ve always wanted to be a coach anyway.
“I’ll still be on scholarship, but I won’t play anymore. It’s the best situation because I’ll be able to help the team and this gives Ohio State an extra scholarship. They can use it on somebody that can contribute on the field.”
Jordan redshirted in 2003 after injuring his knee. Then a broken ankle and fibula ended his 2004 season. He rehabilitated and was back practicing with the team by the middle of the 2005 season. But a setback during spring practice forced Jordan to come to the realization that his playing days were over.
“When I first got the ankle injury, the doctors told me it would be hard to come back from it,” Jordan said. “They told me it was one of the worst injuries they have seen. But I wanted to come back. I fought through the injury and I was back with the scout team. My ankle felt good all through the offseason. Then when we went through the spring, it started to hurt again. I just got tired of having those good days and those bad days. I know most people are surprised that I had even come this far.”
The transformation from player to coach has now begun. In Jordan’s case, that transformation comes easy. Even before the injuries, Jordan prided himself on being somebody that would pull a fellow receiver over to the side and give him some pointers.
“Even though those guys know I didn’t make big plays on the field, they know I’m good enough to be here,” Jordan said. “They know who I am what I’ve been through and who I’ve been around. I can go up to Tony (Gonzalez) or Ted (Ginn) and say, ‘You need to do this.’ They’ll say, ‘Yeah, I know’, because they respect me in the aspect that they know I worked hard, and just because I never got to play, doesn’t mean that I don’t know football.”
How much does Jordan’s word mean to his fellow receivers? Even his elders ask for his advice.
“He’s like having a second pair of eyes out there,” said Ohio State senior receiver Roy Hall, who is expected to challenge Gonzalez for the starting position vacated when Santonio Holmes declared early for the NFL draft. “He’s not a true coach, so we can talk about things that we can’t talk to some of the other coaches about. Right now, he’s around us all the time.
“We ask him to be another set of eyes and show us things that we can’t see. Our relationship with Devin is close. We know he is going to keep it real with us. Personally, he is always on me. He came (to Ohio State) right behind me. I remember hearing about him in high school and I knew he was a great receiver coming into Ohio State. With him being a year behind me, he used to ask me a lot of questions and we developed a bond. Now, I’m the one asking him questions because I know he can see things, as a spectator, that I can’t see as a player.”
Instead of waiting until after practice to discuss what the receivers are doing right and what they are doing wrong, Jordan won’t hesitate to approach Hall, Gonzalez or any of the other receivers and give them a word or two of advice.
“Sometimes things happen so quickly at practice that you don’t notice them,” said Gonzalez, who entered Ohio State along with Jordan in the Class of 2003. “Devin knows the position, he’s one of us. He can look at the situations and see things from a different perspective. He may some little things to us that could make a huge difference.”
If veteran players like Hall and Gonzalez are seeking Jordan’s advice, the younger receivers are surely following suit.
Ohio State freshman receiver Brian Hartline remembers how good the Massillon teams – which also included current Ohio State quarterback Justin Zwick – were during Jordan’s prep years. During the years Jordan was breaking nearly every Massillon receiving record, Hartline was a skinny underclassman at GlenOak. Now, Hartline only needs to look across the field to get advice from his fellow Stark County native.
“When I came to Ohio State, I really didn’t even have to search (Devin) out,” said Hartline. “He was the one searching for me. He was willing to help me understand how things work and he helped me adjust to college. Him and Tony Gonzalez were the two guys to really come to me and help me out when I first got here.”
Hartline, himself, also knows a thing or two about injuries. The former Golden Eagle star broke his tibia and fibula as a senior in GlenOak’s season opener. He recovered in time to cap his high school career with a state championship in the 300 intermediate hurdles at the Ohio state track meet in the spring of 2005. But this past winter, Hartline broke his collarbone in a practice prior to Ohio State’s Fiesta Bowl showdown with Notre Dame.
“Coming from somebody that has had to deal with injuries, I think he is doing an admirable job,” said Hartline, who says he is 100 percent healthy heading into fall camp. “Anytime you are an athlete and you have that taken away from you, it’s tough. I know it was tough for me. I don’t know how I could handle being in his situation. I think he’s been optimistic about it and he’s doing the best thing for himself.”
The frustration of never reaching the endzone at Ohio Stadium will always linger with Jordan. However, the junior – who is on pace to graduate next year with a degree in financing – is now on a path to etch his name along side of Paul Brown, Chuck Mather, Earle Bruce, Lee Tressel, Don James, Alex Wood or any of the other successful coaches to come through the Massillon Tiger football program.
“The (injury) might lead me to bigger things,” Jordan said. “I’ve started this coaching thing and you never know how it will end up. But coach (Jim) Tressel came to me and said, ‘your goal is to be the next receiving coach at Ohio State.’ That’s my goal. I know I would rather being doing this than playing. It’s something I can be most productive at. I really wasn’t helping the team by practicing one day and having to take the next day off. Now, at least I’m helping the team.”
Anyway, he'll have a chance to start when he's a senior, assuming Ginn doesn't stay all four years. He'd be competing with Gonzo, Lyons, and Dukes, primarily, depending on how Robiskie and Hartline develop.
