There are three words that no freshman wants to hear heading into his first season of collegiate football: You’re being redshirted.
But in reality, many players each season are forced to cope with the idea of sitting out an entire season, especially in a program with veteran players in which freshmen rarely have an impact on game day.
Ohio freshman nose guard Antwan Crutcher heard those words this summer when he learned he would watch the season from the sideline.
Just a few months after coming to terms with his fate, Crutcher is now being thrown back into the fire.
Despite the coaching staff’s intentions to keep Crutcher around for a fifth year, an injury-plagued defensive line forced the team to pull his redshirt for last weekend’s game against Ball State.
“I thought he did a very good job,” Ohio coach Frank Solich said. “Obviously pulling his redshirt in the middle of the year like that, that’s not an easy thing to do as a coach and not an easy thing to accept as a player, but he was real positive about it.”
Crutcher recorded nine total tackles in his first action since high school.
“It felt good. I had fun and I played hard,” Crutcher said. “I wouldn’t say I was rusty, I just had to get it going. I was just eager to hit people.”
Solich said most players are disappointed when designated as a redshirt but eventually come to realize that sitting out a year might be in their best interest.
Crutcher said he is just trying to do what is best for the team.
“I just go wherever the wind takes me,” he said.
After watching the first five games of the season from the sideline, Crutcher said he was able to learn from some of the guys he is now forced to replace.
“I learned a lot from Neal (Huynh). Being an experienced nose guard, he helped me a lot,” Crutcher said. “For the plays that I know but I might need a little more help with, I have Tremayne (Scott) and Corey (Hasting). We’re like a family. We all revolve around each other so we’re here to help each other out.”
After redshirting a player for the first part of the season, Solich said coaches are reluctant to burn that redshirt.
He did say, however, that there are some benefits to allowing Crutcher to play this season.
“The fact that he’s playing a lot right now is going to speed up his development in terms of what he’s going to be about next year,” Solich said. “That’s the positive way to look at it.”
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