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INDIANAPOLIS — Ohio State was a preseason top-three team last year with aspirations of beating Michigan, winning the Big Ten and competing for a national championship.
None of what was hoped came to fruition, and nothing came easy for Emeka Egbuka in particular.
He returned alongside Marvin Harrison Jr. to form what looked like the best receiving duo in the country. But on Oct. 7, Egbuka was helped off the field in the fourth quarter of a 37-17 win against Maryland with a leg injury. Though coach Ryan Day said at the time “it doesn’t seem like something major,” Egbuka wasn’t the same the rest of the season.
He missed three games after undergoing surgery on his ankle and wasn’t 100 percent when he returned, catching just one touchdown pass in the final five games as the Buckeyes stumbled with losses to Michigan and Missouri. Egbuka and his 2021 classmates have yet to beat the Wolverines or win a championship. Many of them returned to correct that.
Speaking at Big Ten media days on Tuesday, Egbuka seemed calm and at peace with the struggles of 2023. And though the spotlight is on him more than it ever has been with Harrison gone, he doesn’t seem flustered by the expectations as he returns healthy to a team that went all in over the offseason to build a national championship contender.
“Now that I’m healthy I’m looking forward to displaying my talents this fall,” Egbuka said. “I was hurt and I didn’t really play healthy the back half of the year, so I wasn’t really doing all I was capable of.”
Emeka Egbuka enters the season with 1,857 career receiving yards. (Robert Goddin / USA Today)
Egbuka has often been the forgotten star at Ohio State, even in his own receiving corps. First, he was behind Jaxson Smith-Njigba and Harrison. Even now, much of the preseason talk at wide receiver has been directed toward freshman Jeremiah Smith, the No. 1 player in the Class of 2025, not to mention additions elsewhere on offense like All-SEC transfer running back Quinshon Judkins from Ole Miss and quarterback Will Howard from Kansas State.
Still, Egbuka is the name that comes up whenever the coaches need a player to step in various scenarios.
Need somebody to block on the edge? Egbuka can do it. What about a kick return or punt return? Egbuka. If the team’s banged up at running back, who can get a carry or two and make a play in space? Egbuka.
It’s not gimmick plays that Ohio State runs trying to catch the defense off guard. Ohio State trusts Egbuka to do everything on the field.
“He can catch a handoff, run a bubble, he can block, he can run deep routes, there’s not much Emeka can’t do,” Day said. “He can do a lot of things as a player. When I think about him as a player, it’s somebody who is strong.”
Even as Harrison enjoyed a breakout 2022 campaign, there was nothing Egbuka couldn’t do alongside him. Though he wasn’t named first-team All-Big Ten, nor was he an All-American, he finished the year as a finalist for the Paul Hornung Award, given to the most versatile player in the country. He was targeted 106 times and caught 74 passes for 1,151 yards and 10 touchdowns, averaging 15.6 yards per reception. He also ran for 87 yards and two touchdowns, averaging 7.9 yards per carry.
With the injury in 2023, Egbuka slipped to 41 catches for 515 yards and four touchdowns, failing to post a 100-yard game while Harrison won the Biletnikoff Award. Ohio State needs Egbuka to return to his 2022 form this year. It’s just a matter of health, Day said.
Egbuka spent a large part of the offseason trying to make sure he would be ready to go for camp on Aug. 1. He says he is 100 percent now. Ohio State needs him, both on and off the field.
When he was a freshman and sophomore, playing alongside Harrison and Smith-Njigba, he wasn’t asked to lead a unit. Last year he was an upperclassman, but it still wasn’t his receiving corps to lead with Harrison, Julian Fleming and Xavier Johnson around.
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Now, Egbuka is the guy. He’s the one defenses will focus on in every game plan, and he’s the one who has to help prepare younger receivers like Carnell Tate, Brandon Inniss and Smith to take on sizable roles. That’s a task that is passed down from one great receiver to the next at Ohio State.
When Egbuka was a freshman, he leaned on Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson as the leaders. It’s his turn to pay it forward to the next generation.
“They’ve kind of allowed me to be a leader they can listen to,” Egbuka said. “They’ve taken my coaching, which gives me a lot of encouragement to keep doing it.”
Egbuka has focused on leading by example, too. That means continuing to be his versatile self, while also showing everybody how good he’s capable of being.
A bounce-back season could allow Egbuka to vault into the first round of next year’s NFL Draft, an accomplishment that would’ve been on the table last year if he hadn’t gotten hurt.
“I can’t say enough about who Emeka is,” Day said. “He’s an old soul. Since he has been here, he’s been a warrior. He has his degree. He had to make his decision on whether he wanted to go to the NFL or not. He decided to come back with a degree in hand. We didn’t get to see the best version of him last season with his ankle injury, but we’re seeing it now.”
Egbuka returned to Ohio State to accomplish what the Buckeyes fell short of last year: Beat Michigan, win the Big Ten title and compete for a national championship. Those goals have only been magnified in 2024.
If he does that, nobody can possibly forget him.
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(Top photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
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Courtesy : https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5654370/2024/07/24/emeka-egbuka-ohio-state-football-draft/