https://theathletic.com/1152678/2019/08/21/ohio-state-chris-olave-next-great-buckeyes-wide-receiver/
Chris Olave’s odd path to Ohio State won’t keep him from being the next great Buckeyes receiver
By Ari Wasserman 7h ago
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Chris Hauser doesn’t remember all the individual conversations; he just knows there were a lot of them. One of them was with the former UCLA staff, before Chip Kelly took over. He often pleaded with coaches from west coast Power 5 schools to take a real, honest look at his skinny wide receiver and offer a scholarship. Hauser, the coach at San Marcos (Calif.) Mission Hills, knew how it would turn out.
Chris Olave was a risk. There was no game tape from his junior season because he was ruled ineligible as a result of a high school transfer rule, so that stifled the momentum of his recruitment because all coaches had was Hauser’s word.
Hauser’s word was good enough for only Washington State because he has a close relationship with then-Cougars defensive coordinator Alex Grinch. It’s an “I trust you” relationship.” If other Pac-12 schools would have taken Hauser’s word, too, maybe Olave, the next great Ohio State receiver, wouldn’t be a Buckeye right now.
“You never know how things turn out when you try to go back in time and change history,” Hauser said, “but my gut feeling is that Chris would be somewhere on the west coast right now.”
Had USC offered Olave as a junior or early in his senior season, maybe things would be different. Same with UCLA or Washington or maybe even Arizona State. Late in Olave’s recruitment, he told
The Athletic that he was leaning toward Washington State because it had faith in him from the beginning. “There was a time where I thought I’d be on the west coast,” Olave said again Wednesday.
How it all turned out makes sense. That true freshman receiver who caught two touchdowns and blocked a punt in his first Michigan game is a prospect from California? Not shocking. The majority of Ohio State’s roster is made up by national recruits. But in Olave’s case, Ohio State recruited him like he was an under-the-radar kid from Ohio the Buckeyes had to take a chance on.
In reality, this former three-star prospect is a Buckeye because of circumstance, some trust and elite talent evaluation from Ryan Day, Grinch – who since has left for Oklahoma – and the rest of Ohio State’s coaching staff. By now, you’ve probably heard how Day was at Mission Hills recruiting quarterback Jack Tuttle, saw Olave working out and immediately fell in love with him by chance. But that opening for Ohio State was there because in-state programs – the same ones who could use rising-star wide receiver – didn’t act early enough.
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