Wednesday, September 15, 2004
By Bruce Feldman
ESPN The Magazine
Santonio Holmes is a star. Not will be. Not could be. Nope, is. As in, the guy is a genuine difference maker and there aren't many of them in college football.
We must admit, we outsmarted ourselves when we left the Ohio State wideout off the preseason Hot 100 list. The thinking (or over-thinking in this case): Without Mike Jenkins around, defenses will focus all their efforts on locking up the 5-foot-11, 185-pounder. Well, if you watched the Buckeyes game against Marshall (10 catches for 218 yards, 2 TDs), you found out what many OSU people already knew, that containing Santonio Holmes just isn't that easy.
Santonio Holmes leads OSU's WRs in catches, yards and TDs.
"'Tone is just smooth as silk," says Buckeye assistant coach Mark Snyder who recruited Holmes to Columbus.
Smooth is the perfect way to describe Holmes. He gets in and out of his cuts well, has wonderful body control and he has that one special quality all the great receivers have to have -- ball skills. He knows how to maneuver in traffic and make plays.
The Buckeyes are fortunate to have him. A Belle Glade, Fla., native, Holmes was interested in Miami, but the 'Canes seemed to be more smitten back then with Sinorice Moss and Darnell Jenkins so the Buckeyes got their man. While Moss had a huge game against FSU and Jenkins looks like he's ready to break through, Holmes is pushing Taylor Stubblefield (Purdue) and Michigan's Jason Avant and Braylon Edwards for the title of Best WR in the Big Ten.
"He's special," says OSU coach Jim Tressel. "He's not similar to Michael Jenkins, although he make plays like him. Some of the old timers here might compare him to Terry Glenn or Paul Warfield." Heady stuff right there.
Holmes is just one of a host of guys who has already emerged to fill a huge void and it's guys like him, the "step-up" guys, who enable great programs to reload not rebuild.