Today’s Topic: What Is a Typical Day Like For An OSU Freshman?

There are six Ohio State freshman football players who enrolled last month and in so doing they agreed to have their daily routines completely changed and entirely regimented.

Workouts, classes, tutoring, more workouts.

It all probably sounds delightful to you.

“Yeah, they kind of take away all of our free time right now,” Mentor tackle Ryan Jacoby said. “But once you show that you can handle yourself in the classroom and you do everything you need to do, then they pull back on the tutoring and mentoring. But coming in new, you’ve got to prove it to them.”

Until that time, however, there is a path that requires following. It’s probably the only way to make sure they don’t get overwhelmed along the way.

“Your workout can be anywhere from 6 to 10 in the morning,” receiver Garrett Wilson explained recently. “So this morning we had the 6 a.m. workout, we were all here at least probably 5:30. Get some breakfast, head to the workout, and the breakfasts are mandatory so you can’t not eat. Then once you go through the workouts it’s usually about two hours, hour and a half, and you get some more food after that. Head back to the dorm, hopefully if you have time after that you take a nap. If you have one of the earlier workouts, you usually can take a nap before your first class.”

Naps are at a premium, just as in any walk of life, provided there is time for one.

“Typical day? Well, it depends,” Jacoby said. “You work out at 7 or 8 or 10. So if I’m working out at 7, I’m waking up at 5:45, leaving at 6, getting here at 6:15. Eat, get ready, on the scale by 6:59 for a 7 a.m. workout. Then you work out until about 8 or 8:30. Shower. Eat. Go home. My first class is 12:40 most days. You go to class, and then tutoring and then class and then mentoring and then tutoring. So you get out about 7 or 8 and then you’ve got the rest of the night to do what you want because you finished most of your homework in tutoring.”

Of course, the days are so long that the nights become less appealing. It keeps the focus where it needs to be for young athletes, even if it sounds a little bit less than fun.

At this level, however, embracing the hardships is necessary if a player is going to get to where he wants to be.

“Nah, I love it,” Wilson said. “I mean, this is what I dreamed of growing up, and I mean it’s here now. It didn’t seem real to start, but it’s awesome.”