No matter the weather — in the rain, in the snow, in the sleet, in the heat — Ohio loves football.
Like all football teams, Ohio’s post-victory locker room is a mash of music and yelling, but there is always one uniting rallying cry that brings the team together for a proclamation of the sport it loves the most: football.
The “we love football” chant has been around long before it gained traction on Ohio’s social media accounts, and it has been around long before current Director of Football Operations Jeremiah Covington was the leader for Ohio’s post-game chant.
“This is my fifth year as the DFO,” Covington said. “I inherited the position from our last DFO, Chris Rogers; he did the chant, and the DFO before him, Jason Brunes did the chant.”
Covington, a former football player at Wingate University, knew nothing about Ohio or its traditions before arriving in Athens.
“I had no Ohio ties whatsoever,” Covington said. “The only way I knew about Ohio football was Maction, watching football on Tuesday nights back in North Carolina.”
Covington knew he had reached his peak at Wingate, and when he arrived in Ohio, it didn’t take long for the North Carolina native to become an Athens fan.
“My head coach is a great mentor; he's still a mentor to me today,” Covington said. “He gave me the opportunity to be a GA and to be a DFO there. I told him, I said, ‘Hey, I think I reached my ceiling here’… (I was looking at Ohio, and) I was like, man, this is a great place. I got here and fell in love with it.”
The chant is a Bobcat tradition that spans multiple eras of Ohio football and multiple eras of directors of football operations.
Covington knows what it is like to be in that locker room after a big win, allowing him to rally the team and keep spirits high.
“Every DFO that has been hired to this position has been former football players and former coaches,” Covington said. “So that gives us the opportunity to do our part in the game, to get the guys motivated, because we know how important that is, to keep the guys' morale and spirits (high).”
Ohio's spirits have been high all season when playing in Athens, as all three of its wins so far have come on Frank Solich Field at Peden Stadium. The home-field environment is certainly helpful to Ohio, and the chant after the game keeps Ohio energized and engaged.
The tradition of the chant is another important thing to not only Covington but the Ohio program as well.
“Tradition is huge around here, so it was an honor when I got hired for this position,” Covington said. “Doing (the chant), I knew I had big shoes to fill from those two past DFOs.”
One player who sticks out in the locker room before the chant is graduate center Parker Titsworth. The longtime Bobcat has done the chant more than any other player on the team and still gets amped for the post-game tradition.
"All the guys love it, but Parker Titsworth keeps me ready,” Covington said.
For the sixth-year center, the chant represents much more than signaling a victory.
“That chant means more than just winning a game to me; that represents something that's lasted a very long time,” Titsworth said. “It all reflects on the culture.”
The chant and the culture of Ohio football go hand in hand, which is clear to Covington.
“It has shown people across the country when we go to bowl games, when we go across the West Coast, they see how tough Ohio football is,” Covington said. “I think that just speaks of what we say in that chant because we really live by it.”
