As Ohio State begins spring practice following its national championship season in 2014, there are a number of young players looking to shine after a redshirt season, just as J.T. Barrett, Darron Lee and Eli Apple did last fall. No one in the 2014 class has had a journey quite like Sam Hubbard, though. The Cincinnati Moeller product was the only Scout.com five-star prospect in Ohio State’s class of 2014, but his freshman season included stints at three different positions and both sides of the ball.





With his redshirt freshman season officially underway, what follows is an oral history from teammates and coaches discussing how Hubbard became one of Ohio State’s most intriguing players without lining up for a single snap.





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'I'm A Lacrosse Player'







In an alternate universe, Hubbard would be suiting up Saturday for the fourth-ranked Notre Dame men's lacrosse team against No. 7 Virginia. Lacrosse was his first meal ticket to a college scholarship, and the Cincinnati Moeller standout committed to the Fighting Irish midway through his prep career. A funny thing happened on the road to South Bend, though. Hubbard carved out a starting role on what became a state-title winning Moeller football team, and assistants at big-time football programs finally witnessed what lacrosse coaches saw long ago -- a rare mixture of size, speed and athleticism perfectly suited for the gridiron.





Dave Berk (Scout.com recruiting analyst): When I first noticed him was week one of his junior year. They played (Baltimore) Gilman from the East Coast, and there was this kid I’d never seen before. After the game I went over and introduced myself and he told me, ‘I’m a lacrosse player. I’ve already committed to Notre Dame to play lacrosse.’ I told him, ‘Now you’re a football prospect,’ and I don’t think he believed me.





As that season went on and people started noticing what he could do on the field, I think he started believing he could do it. Moeller went on to win a state title and he got seen by a lot of people. I think he was intriguing because you don’t see a lot of 6-6 guys playing safety.





John Rodenberg (Cincinnati Moeller head coach): From what he told me, lacrosse is a sport where you commit when you’re a sophomore. I had him up on varsity in football and he had to do a couple things where he had to go to some showcases or do some things, and he went ahead and committed to Notre Dame for lacrosse. I went up to him after his junior year and I said, ‘Sam, you’re going to get recruited by some big-time football schools.’





At the time, he said he was still really committed to lacrosse. He gave me a list of five schools and it was Ohio State, Michigan, North Carolina, Stanford and Duke. He said if one of those schools offered a scholarship he’d take a look at it. I think he had the idea of playing lacrosse and football. Surprisingly enough, Notre Dame was not one of the schools he listed as a football school initially.





Sam Hubbard (Redshirt freshman defensive end): I was a really under-recruited guy because of lacrosse. I was like three stars and nobody had really heard of me.





Rodenberg: The offers started coming and he eventually made the decision to go to football full-time.





Berk: I think once Ohio State offered and he realized that was a place he could go, it intrigued him a lot. Every time he visited Ohio State he loved it, and he came away believing he belonged there. I think he fell in love with it.





Rodenberg: The Ohio State coaches never led Sam to believe this or that. They knew he wasn’t going to be a free safety, which he played for us. They let him know that and they let him know they’d have to find out where his niche was going to be. I tip my hat to Ohio State for not lying to him and for trying to figure out where he was best going to fit in.





Hubbard: I’m still a big fan of lacrosse. I know all the guys at Notre Dame. I still talk to some of the recruits in my class and they’re excited about this season. I hope they win a national championship, so best of luck to those guys.





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Mr. Versatility



Hubbard spent his first summer at Ohio State bouncing around between linebacker and tight end. He showed up as a linebacker, but a June 22 tweet from the daughter of tight ends coach Tim Hinton showed Hubbard wakeboarding with that position group. On Sept. 24, Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer said in a post-practice press conference that the Buckeyes were considering switching Hubbard to defensive end, his third position. Meyer reiterated those comments one day later on his call-in show.





#teamtightends @OSUCoachHinton and his players pic.twitter.com/EDa9WdKqZT

— Dawn Hinton (@dawnnhinton) June 22, 2014



Hubbard: I didn’t know what I wanted to play. I just wanted to find a way to get on the field, so that’s what I was focused on doing. I knew I wasn’t going to be playing safety just because it’s not my body type. I kind of knew I wanted to play defense because I have more of a defensive mind-set and I’ve played it all my life.





Stephen Collier (redshirt freshman quarterback): A lot of guys would be selfish. From the start, he was switching positions. For him to say, ‘I’m just going to give the Ohio State Buckeyes what they need right now,’ and not be worried about himself is huge. It says a lot about his character and a lot about his parents and how they raised him. I’m blessed to be his teammate.





Hubbard: It basically started when I got here. They told me they were thinking about playing me at tight end and linebacker, so I kind of just went through the summer juggling both – getting a feel for both coaches and going to both meeting rooms. I went to the tight end room officially right before camp. When Trey Johnson got hurt with his knee, they moved me back to linebacker to help fill in some depth and I spent all camp at linebacker. When Jeff Heuerman’s foot was aggravated at the beginning of the season, they needed me to fill in some depth at tight end. I was all over the place trying to fill in where I could and take it all in. It was hard to learn both positions, but I just did the best I could. They gave me 30-page playbooks to learn. When he came healthy they decided it was so late in the season and to not burn my redshirt. I started doing some pass rush with the Jack backer position Darron Lee plays. They saw I was really good with my hands and decided to try me at D-line, and that’s where I’ve been ever since.





Collier: He’s one of my roommates. We had a running joke where every time he came in we would ask him what position he’s playing that day.





Steve Miller (Former defensive end): He came to the D-line sometime in the middle of the season. I think it was around the Cincinnati game.





Dante Booker (sophomore linebacker): He didn’t really miss a beat. He’s the type of guy that goes hard. I feel like we’ve got a good friendship and we’re a lot alike. He’s a real versatile guy – safety in high school, linebacker, tight end and defensive line in college. They can put him anywhere, and that’s awesome to see and know you’ve got a teammate like that.





Raekwon McMillan (sophomore linebacker): No matter what position he was at, Sam always worked hard. Even when he was out of position at linebacker and then when to tight end and D-line, he never complained about it, never whined about it, never told the coaches what he wanted to do. He always took the coaches’ preferences and kept grinding throughout. He’s one of the guys that kept us together.





Larry Johnson Sr. (defensive line coach): It was a conversation between our entire staff, and it was Coach Meyer’s decision. He could be a great tight end or a great outside linebacker, but if you look at his body frame, he’s going to grow out of that.





Jalyn Holmes (sophomore defensive end): Sam is a beast. It’s really scary because he gets better every day. He went from tight end to linebacker to defensive end, and watching him pass rush you just think, ‘Oh man, we’re going to be good.’





Adolphus Washington (senior defensive tackle): With the position changes, I haven’t seen any frustration from him at all. You expect that, but it never happened. He just wants to learn. That’s all it is with him. He just wants to learn.





Mark Pantoni (director of player personnel): We knew his versatility. He was a free safety in high school, which is freaky when you see his size. I told Sam on (Jan. 9), ‘From day one when you got here you’ve turned from a baby giraffe into a grown-ass man.’ It’s cool to see. I think he’s found his home there at defensive end. He’s looking like they’re supposed to look. I’ll tell you what – the kid worked as hard as anyone on the scout team. He’s helped get us where we are today, for sure.





Hubbard: It wasn’t as hard as you’d think because we’re together so often. During camp, we’re in the Woody Hayes 18 hours a day together. I’d say the most important relationships are with your position coach, but we do so many Power of the Unit events and spend so much time together, it wasn’t really hard. All three – Coach Fickell, Coach Hinton and Coach Johnson – welcomed me with open arms and really went out of their way to get to know me.





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Learning Curve



One of Hubbard’s most prized attributes is his ability to process information quickly. The aforementioned 30-page playbooks can be a problem, but he managed to juggle them at three different positions during his first year in a college system.





Rodenberg: I had him in class when he was a sophomore, so right away I knew how smart he was. You could just tell. We moved him up to varsity as a sophomore. I just knew he had a lot of potential. He can listen and pick things up. He doesn’t need to study too much. He kind of has a photographic memory. I never worried about him being overwhelmed with the material he had to learn.





Pantoni: He’s a sharp kid. He picks things up really fast. He was splitting time between linebackers and tight ends and going room to room, sometimes in the same day or every other day. The kid just picks things up right away. He’s football smart and he works hard at the little things to make himself very good.





Rodenberg: He’s extremely confident, very intelligent. He’s that all-American guy, the type of guy you’d want your daughter to date. He’s got it together. He comes from a super family. His dad is a lawyer and his grandfather is a lawyer. He’s the type of kid that can fit into an high academic environment and then blend in with the jocks. He can fit in at almost any situation he’s in.





Washington: He’s not afraid to try things. He might not be able to do something but it doesn’t mean he’s not going to try it. He’s going to keep trying until he knows how to do it.





Joshua Perry (senior linebacker): The thing about Sam Hubbard – freak of nature, cares a lot about the team, intelligent player. He can go from linebacker to tight end to linebacker to tight end to defensive end. You could put him at quarterback. You have to be a freak athlete to do that, as well as a guy who cares about the team and is selfless. He’ll go to new positions not because he knows he’ll be successful there but because he knows the team needs him there most. You also have to be smart enough to be able to pick up the things at different positions and adapt and adjust.





Johnson Sr.: If you give it to him the first time, he gets it right. He’s a great learner. He’s got a chance to be special.





Rodenberg: He’s one of those guys that’s going to be a leader. When he gets done with college, he’s going to be a leader in the business world. You’re going to see him as the CEO of a company. He has a great charisma and a great confidence about him. I don’t think he gets overwhelmed by the compliments because he knows who he is. I don’t think there are going to be a whole lot of things that are going to get in the way of accomplishing his goals. The compliments are nice, but he has the mind-set that he has things to accomplish and he’s going to get them done.





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Weight Room Work



Hubbard could switch seamlessly between linebacker and tight end, but the move to defensive end required a physical transformation in addition to the work of learning a spot he’d never played before. His teammates describe him as someone who already enjoyed the weight room, so the task of adding weight in order to become a properly sized defensive end didn’t prove difficult.





Hubbard: They’ve just had me going to extra developmental lifts and I’ve been eating whatever I can. They move my goal weight up every week, so I am trying to put on weight. They want me at 260-265 for spring ball, so that’s what I’m shooting for.





Washington: I love Sam Hubbard, man. Not only is he from Cincinnati, but he works hard at whatever position he’s at. Just to see him grow over these past couple of months, it’s just ridiculous. He works hard, he loves the grind and he just wants to be the best, and that’s what I love about him. He never complains about anything. He just goes out there and puts his head down and goes to work.





Collier: The biggest thing about Sam is he’s a grinder. He loves to lift. Part of that is because he needs to get bigger for D-line but he also enjoys the work. He enjoys working to be a better player and he’s going to be a great one.





Pantoni: His size-speed combination is unique. The biggest thing is his work ethic. Every day, every rep he takes he’s trying to make himself better. He’ll be ready to go next year for sure. We’re looking forward to watching him play.





Joey Bosa: He’s just speedy. He can flips his hips. He watches everyone else and can duplicate what’s great about them. He’s going to be a special player.





McMillan: These next coming years, he’s going to be one of the hardest workers. Yeah, he’s a freak of nature – 6-5, 265 and one of the fastest guys on the team – but he’s going to be one of the hardest-working guys on the team.





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'The Position He Was Meant To Play'



By now, Hubbard has spent more time at defensive end than he did at linebacker and tight end. Ohio State’s run to the national championship helped give him more chances to earn reps, especially when Meyer opted to limit the reps of starters during playoff practices to keep them fresh. The redshirt freshman enters spring practice with a better grip on his position than he’s ever had as a college athlete. Had he started there, all parties agree that he would have played in 2014. Instead, Meyer spent the back end of the season lamenting the inability to utilize one of the team’s most promising young players. He reiterated that comment following the first day of spring practice Tuesday.





Washington: Basically, we just try to get him to trust us. Show him that you care and show him that you love him. Other than that, just try to teach him the things Coach Johnson can’t teach him. Obviously he can’t go through and teach each individual player, so we just pick up right there – show him moves, show him what to do in certain situations and stuff like that.





Hubbard: I go after (Bosa) in pass rush. I sit behind him and watch him every day. After he goes and after I go, he’ll give me some advice on what to do with my hands and how to flip your hips. If you want to be the best you have to learn from the best, and he’s definitely one of the best. I’m fortunate to be behind him.





Bosa: He’s finally got to the position he was meant to play. I think he looks up to me and the way I play, and I’m going to be with him all the time. I’m forcing him to work out with me all offseason. He’s excited. He’s definitely going to be a player next year.





Johnson Sr.: He’s done really well. Position No. 3 is the best position for him, and he’s got a chance to be a very special player. He’s very willing to learn and he has no bad habits because he’s new to the position. He’s like a sponge. I can’t wait to get my hands on him full-time.





Hubbard: Coach Johnson is just an incredible person. He cares so much about all his individual players. He’s a very religious guy. I’ve never heard him say one cuss word in my entire life. He’s a heck of a coach, too, and just a person I really admire. I’m glad to be in this position with him. He never recruited me and I never knew him before I switched, but I’m really fortunate that I’ve gotten to know him the way I did and wound up in his room.





Perry: He looks fast and athletic and he goes really hard. He has long levers. He’s getting stronger. He would have had a hard time playing on the D-line in all game situations because he has some development to do, but he would have been really good as a pass rusher on third downs because he goes hard and is really athletic.





Urban Meyer (head coach): We almost pulled his redshirt last year because he came on so hard.





Hubbard: I don’t think it was tough. It wasn’t hard on my confidence or anything because I was always getting positive feedback and good coaching from the guys here, so that’s all that really mattered. It’s just a motivation to get ready to back up what he’s saying about me.





Johnson Sr.: He’s talented enough that if he had come here as a defensive end, there’s a good chance he would have played. He could have helped us. He really could.





Holmes: Yes. Yes. I think if he would have played D-end from the jump, he would have gotten the hang of it early and would have played.





Perry: You can tell by (Meyer’s) demeanor and the way he looks at Sam when he watches practice. If he could go back and do it over again, he would put him on the field.





Collier: Sam’s a freak. Sam’s a freak. Sam is a freak. He is. It’s true. You can’t go from playing safety in high school to playing linebacker, then go to tight end, then go back to linebacker and then go to D-end and play all those positions fine. All the coaches want him. He’s a monster. He’s going to be an amazing player. He’s an unreal athlete, he’s a beast and once he gets out there it’s going to be unreal.





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