[ad_1]
Chris Olave will play a starring role in Saturday’s game between Ohio State and Oregon, but it won’t be the first time the star has had a vested interest in a contest between the two programs.
This will be just the first time he wants the Buckeyes to win this game.
The California native remembers the 2015 College Football Playoff National Championship game, the Buckeyes’ most recent encounter between the Buckeyes and Ducks vividly, and Olave couldn’t help but pause, smile and laugh when asked on Tuesday which team he was rooting for at the time. .
“I was young, I remember watching it at home with my family. I was definitely an Oregon fan, ”Olave said. “I remember they beat Florida State before that, so I was going to Oregon, but Ohio State came in and kind of set them on fire. They were hitting hard and sort of ruined Oregon’s game. This is what I remember. Ohio State came to play that game, they had a really good team. ”
Olave’s Oregon fandom may not immediately make sense, given that he grew up just hours away from USC in his own home state. However, between the 2010 and 2014 seasons – when Olave moved up from fifth grade to freshman at Eastlake High School in Chula Vista, Calif. – the Ducks finished in the top 10 in the AP poll each year, with four top five.
USC, on the other hand, finished two of those unranked seasons while juggling four different head coaches during that five-year window.
“Oregon was really like a powerhouse growing up,” Olave said. “Chip Kelly, I remember seeing Oregon growing up with my family. We were all Oregon fans, me and my brother, so just so we could play against them. All the different jerseys, they were one. powerhouse, the top five in the country every year, so just being able to play against them and have the opportunity to take the pitch with them is going to be huge.
It was Kelly’s successor, Mark Helfrich, who was running the show in Oregon when Olave transferred to Mission Hills High School in San Marcos, Calif., As a junior, and Willie Taggart took over the program. while Olave began to climb the recruiting ladder as a senior.
While Ohio State discovered Olave’s talents earlier than most by chance when then-quarterback coach Ryan Day traveled to California to watch Mission Hills, Jack Tuttle, to train in 2017, Oregon was late to the party.
Olave said he had contact with the Ducks, who wanted him to visit the program in late January 2018, but “Olave’s mind was already turned to the state of Ohio” by this time- there, and he made a commitment to the Buckeyes on January 28 of that year. .
Few could argue that things haven’t worked out for the best for Olave, a three-star rookie who has a real shot at putting the Buckeyes on. career all-time record receiving touchdowns this season en route to a potential NFL first-round selection, but things might have turned out differently if Oregon had shown interest early in their recruiting.
“It was the school of my dreams, but I don’t know. We’ll never know, ”said Olave. “They never came, so I guess we’ll never know.”
If Olave still harbors resentment, he’ll have a chance to show the Ducks what they missed this weekend. Even without Justin Fields as a quarterback, Olave didn’t miss a beat in Game 1 of his senior season, racking up 117 yards on just four catches, with touchdown receptions of 38 and 61 yards in the second period against Minnesota.
CHRIS OLAVE FOR 61 YARDS @OhioStateFB add another with less than 5 minutes to play pic.twitter.com/NEFe76cfGQ
– FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 3, 2021
In fact, Olave actually sees quite a bit of similarity between the prolific Ohio state offense of which he was long a star and the one operated by Kelly in Oregon when he religiously watched the movies. Ducks.
“Coach Day and Chip Kelly, I think they’re very close,” Olave said. “They both worked together. I think Coach Day gets a lot of concepts from him and that tempo. We certainly have an attack similar to this, and it’s huge.
Kelly’s mentorship for Day has been well documented, and the latter doesn’t deny the influence current UCLA head coach Bruin has had on him and college football as a whole over the years.
“When that spreading attack took hold and the no-huddle took hold, he was really at the forefront of that,” Day said. “And then to see what he did in Oregon, and from there I think he was one of the guys who I guess could be responsible for the spread offense, the offense without caucus – one of the pioneers of this area.
Kelly is no longer in Oregon and the Ducks have only taken the latest AP poll in one of the past five seasons. However, Mario Cristobal’s side are in the top 15 for Ohio State this weekend, and it’s a clash that many have been anticipating for some time.
Olave not the least.
“It’s a childhood dream to play in a game like this, Ohio State vs. Oregon Week 2,” said Olave. “I grew up as an Oregon fan, I always wanted to go to Oregon. But just to play against them, one of the best Pac-12 teams got excited. So I can’t wait to be able to play against them.
[ad_2]
Source link