COLUMBUS – Before Raekwon McMillan ever played a game at Ohio State, he knew there were big expectations for him.
He arrived in 2014 as a 5-star recruit who was ranked as the top middle linebacker in the country. Sight unseen, many people expected him to displace senior Curtis Grant – also a 5-star recruit — as OSU’s starter at middle linebacker.
At the Buckeyes’ preseason media day in 2014, he compared the pressure he’d felt of starting as a freshman in high school with those expectations.
“It’s magnified here, but I’m used to coming in my freshman year with a lot of expectations,” McMillan said. “It’s either you break under pressure or you make diamonds with it.”
After backing up Grant in 2014, McMillan has started and led Ohio State in tackles the last two seasons, a performance that is far from broken. He has 87 tackles, 5 tackles for losses and 1.5 sacks this year, and he had 119 tackles, 4 tackles for losses and 1.5 sacks last season.
But some people still question if Ohio State has gotten diamonds from him.
Earlier this season, McMillan acknowledged the questions when he told a group of reporters “If I asked y’all, I’m playing the worst season in the world.”
His coaches are quick to contradict any negativity about McMillan’s performance. As the middle linebacker he has responsibilities that don’t show up in his statistics, they say.
“His reputation here is solid as gold. He’s exceeded every expectation. I’ve had very few like that. From day one when he walked on campus, he was a grown man,” OSU coach Urban Meyer said.
Co-defensive coordinator Luke Fickell says McMillan, a two-time second-team All-American, compares favorably with former OSU linebacker James Laurinaitis, a three-time consensus All-American.
“His body of work is unbelievable. James was a three-time All-American, he won this award, he won that award and maybe Raekwon hasn’t won those awards. But in my mind, the body of work of what he’s done in that locker room to build that culture to what we have is second to none,” Fickell said.
“Maybe the people outside don’t see everything because statistically he doesn’t have the stats or the sacks or those kinds of things, not make the flash plays like Ryan Shazier or that Darron Lee made. But the reality is, I haven’t coached many guys that mean more to that unit, to that group, to this team,” he said.
McMillan enrolled early and began working out at Ohio State in January 2014. Something that happened very early in his career convinced Fickell that McMillan was far from ordinary.
“I think it was his third day here. It was minus-17 degrees, they closed school, which they don’t normally do, and someone didn’t pick him up for a 6 a.m. workout. He hustled over, walked, jogged, whatever it was. Got here late. Well, he had dawn patrol (punishment) the next day because he was late for a workout,” Fickell said.
“We were on the road recruiting. I remember saying, ‘Hey, why do you have dawn patrol?’ He said, ‘I was late.’ Simple as that. ‘I was late.’ He didn’t make an excuse, he didn’t blame somebody else, he owned everything that happened. Not to mention he walked when it was minus-17 degrees.
“It was one of those things where you step back and say, ‘Wow. We’ve got something special. I don’t know if he can play yet, but we got something special in a kid,’ “ he said.
Several mock drafts have McMillan as a second-round choice if he chooses to enter the NFL draft after his junior season.
If he is down to his last game or two at Ohio State, McMillan is happy with his career so far with one exception.
“I would have hoped to be a first-team All-American,” he said. “I was a team captain, Fiesta Bowl champion, Sugar Bowl champion, national champion, Big Ten champion. There’s not a lot more I can do but finish out this season great and see where we can go from there,” he said..
“I always wanted to be a first-team All-American, but everything doesn’t always work out the way you want it to. Hopefully, since I’m not a first-team All-American, I can be a national champion.”
.neFileBlock {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
padding-bottom: 5px;
padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
font-size: 85%;
}
