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Fans didn’t get to see him much last year, but Ohio State coaches have always had big plans for Garrett wilson. From the time the five-star receiver from Austin, Texas made a commitment to the Buckeyes in April 2018, the head coach Ryan day, then the offensive coordinator, had visions of what Wilson could do in this offense.
“The first thing that stands out is his talent,” Day said of Wilson. “He is extremely competent. His ball skills are excellent. His change of direction and his ability to accelerate in a short zone is just great. The other part is just his timing on the pitch and fetching balls. His ceiling is as high as he wants it to be.
While Day made that assessment of Wilson on Tuesday, he could have said the same during his recruiting or last year before breaking into the Scarlet and Gray receiver rotation. And it just keeps getting better.
After catching 30 passes for 432 yards and five touchdowns in 12 games as a true rookie, Wilson is poised to quickly eclipse those numbers in his sophomore year. The Broad recorded 24 receptions for 344 yards and two touchdowns in the first three games of Scarlet and Gray’s shortened 2020 season.
“He got better,” Day continued. “The better he trains, the harder he plays, the better he will be. He has incredible talent and he can be as good as he wants.
For Wilson, being productive in this attack comes as no surprise. Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, before his parents moved the family to Texas, the catcher was an Ohio state fan. He watched Buckeye’s record breaking offense under Day and saw Dwayne Haskins pitch for 4,831 yards and 50 touchdowns the year before he arrived. He imagined himself in this offense once he committed.
With Day taking over as head coach but remaining heavily involved in the offense, Wilson knew his skills would be used as long as he continued to progress. Then quarterback Justin fields transferred to the program before Wilson’s freshman year and the offense began to evolve into the top 20 passing offense it is today.
“Being in this attack and playing with someone like Justin, he’s always going to put him where he needs to be, ”Wilson said. “It’s fair to me, (my fellow receivers) Chris (Olave) and Jamo (Jameson williams) to make a room at this point. I feel like I’ve been in a lot of good situations to play and then it was just up to me to play then.
What Wilson didn’t see coming was the statistical success he had at the start of the 2020 season. In the win over Rutgers, Wilson caught six passes for 104 yards and a touchdown. It was the third game in a row that Wilson broke the 100-yard mark after registering 129 yards in the season opener against Nebraska and 111 two weeks ago at Penn State.
That stretch makes Wilson the fourth wide receiver in Ohio State history to record 100 receiving yards in three straight games. The other three are all Buckeye legends in Cris Carter, David Boston and the late Terry Glenn.
“With these guys putting on these records, these are the people that I admired growing up,” Wilson said. “I couldn’t see a lot of them playing just because of my age. But seeing my name with their names was super special for me. Now I just have to try to keep going and hope we can break some records.
Wilson will get his chance as it’s likely Scarlet and Gray will need him to continue making big numbers in what could surprisingly be the toughest two-week stretch of the season against Maryland and the No. 10 in the ‘Indiana the next two Saturdays.
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The Ohio State record for consecutive 100-yard receiving games is five and was set by Carter in the 1986 season. The record for most 100-yard games in a season (9 ) belonged to Boston in 1998. With the way Wilson has played so far this year and the offense he’s been in, those marks aren’t out of reach for a sophomore.
And while Wilson says he doesn’t know when he hits 100 receiving yards in a game – although he admits he has a feeling on the sidelines – he wouldn’t mind continuing his streak. Although if the state of Ohio wins, it doesn’t care what its numbers look like.
“I would say as a receiver you have goals for yourself, you have personal goals and 100 yards is usually a milestone in a good game for a receiver,” Wilson said. “There are a lot of other ways to do this, but 100 yards is just a good statistic, a good benchmark. If that’s what the team is asking for I think I can do it and if I have to do 20 meters that’s what it is.
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