The redshirt freshman has been working at safety since the second week of the season, and now there's an opening for him to play. Watch video
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Randy Wade wanted to have a word with the coaches at Trinity Christian Academy. They wanted to take his son, so dangerous with the ball in his hands, and stick him at defensive back.
One some level the change made sense. In high school you don't leave your best players on the bench for any reason if they're capable of playing on both sides of the ball. But Shaun Wade was running back, a playmaker, fast and elusive and looking like he'd be an offensive star.
Randy was nervous then like he's nervous now.
It's two-fold. His son is changing positions again. Ohio State co-defensive coordinator Alex Grinch approached Shaun after the opener against Oregon State and asked if he'd be willing to move from cornerback to safety. Wade has been practicing with the Buckeye safeties since.
The other part of Randy Wade's concern is that he's not one to assume his son, despite his talent, will automatically take well to a new position with new responsibilities. Though he's been wrong about that before.
"We're a little nervous about that, but I was nervous when he moved to defensive back in the ninth grade," Randy Wade told cleveland.com this week. "He moved to cornerback, and his whole life he played running back. I was so mad I went and talked to the coaches about it. They said just calm down, relax. And look how that turned out. So I guess it will be OK."
Shaun ended up a five-star cornerback in the Class of 2017, the No. 2 player in the country at his position. He was named National Defensive Player of the Year by USA Today as a senior after registering 63 tackles and six interceptions, two of which he returned for touchdowns, in helping Trinity win its fourth-straight state championship.
Randy was nervous when his son took on a new position. Shaun quickly eased those concerns. Randy is nervous now with his son making a transition. Shaun might have the opportunity to again show dad it will be OK.
There's been a lot of buzz around Shaun Wade this season. His position change is intriguing in a year when Ohio State has cycled two players through the safety spot next to Jordan Fuller without finding much in the way of consistency. Isaiah Pryor has started every game there, but he has to sit out the first half of Saturday's game against Indiana after a targeting ejection in the second half against Penn State last week.
So there's an opening, and a chance for the Buckeye coaches to finally give Wade a crack at playing safety instead of just talking about it.
"I just want to be on the field and help the team," Wade said.
The redshirt freshman on the field now, finally, playing as OSU's nickel corner. That alone is a welcome change given how his first season in Columbus went.
Wade aggravated a pre-existing abdominal tear during camp last year that left him hobbled as he tried to make his way through his first camp with the Buckeyes. He finally had surgery after the second week of the season, and sat the rest of the year.
"He handled it pretty well, but he did get down on himself because it was hard," Randy Wade said. "You gotta think, you're at a big-time school, you're expected to do big-time things, you're a five-star, you got all of these awards an accolades and now you can't play. All of your friends and everybody else are playing. So it was hard."
Even at the beginning of this season, it wasn't clear what Wade's role would be until Grinch approached him after the opener and got the ball rolling on this move to safety.
He's been the starting nickel since, flashing at times while still showing room for improvement at others. Wade was in coverage against K.J. Hamler last week when the Penn State receiver caught a slant out of the slot and ran for a 93-yard touchdown.
"I backed up," Wade said. "That's the only thing. If I didn't back up or got hands on him it would've been a deflection, or a catch and a tackle right away. He stuttered and stuck outside and I backed up instead of taking my leverage step and didn't get hands on him."
If you watch the play, Wade seems concerned about Hamler releasing up field for a deep shot, and gets beat inside. Lesson learned playing a new position. That's a thing all young corners talk about when placed in the slot. It's more challenging because, unlike covering a receiver outside, the receiver in the slot can break in either direction.
It's hard to manage. But do it well and you really stick out.
That Ohio State's coaches put Wade into that position in what was essentially the second game of his freshman season shows they have confidence in him.
"It's athleticism, range," defensive coordinator Greg Schiano said earlier this year. "If you remember we moved Damon Webb from corner to safety. It was his athleticism, but he had really good range too. Coverage skills. (Wade) has got those special traits, and he is a bright guy as well. He has to continue making that progress that he's made. Sometimes young guys make that jump and then they level off. The challenge to him is to keep that upward trend going."
So they like Wade, but not enough yet to play him alongside Jordan Fuller at safety. Wade did play, briefly, at safety for a few snaps at the end of Ohio State's win over Tulane when the starters were out of the game.
Though an interesting change occurred against Penn State that might shed some light on Wade possibly, finally, getting his chance.
The Buckeyes started last week's game with Fuller as the boundary safety on the short side of the field, and Pryor as the field safety to the wide side. That was a different alignment than the previous four games. When Pryor went out, the coaches moved Fuller back to the field safety and put Jahsen Wint at boundary safety to finish out the game.
Wint is listed as the starter next to Fuller on this week's depth chart.
Fuller took a big step forward as the boundary safety last season, and it seems clear that Schiano feels most comfortable with Fuller in that role and in position to be more of a center fielder on the back end of the defense. Wade said Tuesday that he's practiced exclusively at field safety, but never alongside Fuller.
Wade as the field safety, with more coverage responsibility, and Fuller at boundary safety, with more opportunity to play deep, sounds like it might be worth exploring. If there was ever going to be a week to try that alignment, it's now with Pryor's one-half suspension creating an opening.
And then perhaps Randy Wade can feel a little bit better about his son making another position change.
"For me to say that he's gonna do good, he's gotta show me" Randy Wade said. "I don't know. He's gotta show it. That's just kind of how we roll. I think he has the skill set to be a safety, but he has to definitely show me."
