COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Cheer Ohio State fifth-year senior linebacker Dante Booker on Saturday because his career didn’t turn out as he hoped.

And he stayed.

Senior Day is often a time for stories of sacrifice, dedication, commitment and often, personal success. It’s the farewell to the Buckeyes you know so well, a chance to applaud the way they toiled, fought and played.

How do you explain a former Mr. Ohio in football who toiled, fought, earned a starting job as a junior, got hurt in the first start of his career ... and never got back to where he was?

But he stayed. Why?

“Its loyalty," Dante Booker Sr. told cleveland.com about his son, the only senior on the Ohio State defense, the one-time starter who will take the field at Ohio Stadium for the last time Saturday. “It’s complete loyalty to this program, it’s loyalty to finish what he started.”

Booker Jr. is one of 12 seniors the Buckeyes will honor Saturday, with one of the unluckiest senior stories in recent memory. He may have the toughest ratio of talent to bad luck of any Buckeye I’ve covered.

Booker bided his time for two years behind National Championship talent in 2014 and 2015. He won a starting job in 2016 and suffered a knee injury in the opener that ended his season. Jerome Baker replaced him and started a career that sent him to the NFL as a third-round draft pick after three seasons.

Booker is here for year five. He started six games last year, then missed time with a a concussion after the Iowa loss. He had offseason shoulder surgery. But he’s healthy now ... and he has never returned to the starting lineup.

That’s why Booker, who graduated with a degree in sport industry this summer, visited Cincinnati in the offseason. He thought about leaving as a graduate transfer to play for Luke Fickell, the former OSU linebackers coach who recruited him to Ohio State and coached him for three years.

“He came back and he said it was awesome,” Dante Booker Sr. said of his son’s visit. “It was a great environment, he was excited for the opportunity to start fresh and be able to play and show his talent.”

So why didn’t he leave? Why is Dante Booker Jr., who played five defensive snaps against Nebraska and seven against Michigan State but was relegated to special teams against Maryland against last week, still here for Senior Day?

He loved his Cincinnati visit. But it wasn’t Ohio State.

“He said it didn’t feel right,” Booker Sr. said. “He was loyal to finish what he started. I don’t know if that was naive of him. But I believed and he believed at the time, and we still do, that he made the right decision. It was for the right reasons, too.”

Loyalty isn’t a guaranteed two-way street. What Booker could control is what he gave to the Buckeyes.

I remember Fickell and others during 2015 referring to Booker as a more athletic version of Joshua Perry, the linebacker he backed up for two years. Perry started and led Ohio State in tackles for two seasons, and helped lead the Buckeyes to a national title.

What’s the difference between Perry’s career and Booker’s career, which included a season-ending injury, his coach leaving, another round of injuries and a final year of mostly watching from the sideline?

Is it anything more than a twist of fate?

“Obviously it’s been rough for him,” said Parris Campbell, a fellow fifth-year senior who also played with in high school with Booker at St. Vincent-St. Mary. "He wants to be an integral part of the defense. It hasn’t gone the way he wanted it to go. But that’s a guy who has a ton of resilience. He has never given up. At times, people thought he would, but he kept pushing. The thing about Dante is he’s a team-first guy. He’ll never put himself above the team, and that’s why I respect him so much.

“And he’s always been that way, honestly. Always been that way.”

When I asked defensive coordinator Greg Schiano before the Maryland game about Booker, he offered the words you’d expect.

"I tip my hat to him because of the way that he has worked through all of this,” Schiano said. “It’s incredible. You talk about a guy that has resolve. This guy has fought through so much adversity. When you coach a guy like that, you just root for him. You want him to have success. So, I’m hopeful that he can and we can write the end of his career in a really good story.”

Then the next week, as the Buckeyes gave up 51 points, Booker didn’t get a single defensive snap.

Dante Booker Jr. gave all he could with no promises about what he’d get in return.

What he has is Senior Day. And the comfort on his own loyalty.