EP #7 | Ohio St. Football Walk-on WR - Marvin Davies | - WalkieTalkieZ Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Walkie Talkies is a presentation of I Heart Radio and
the College Athletes Network. Heyday, Yeah, what's up? Walkie Talking's

(00:25):
Welcome back to episodes seven of Walkie Talking is podcast
on the College Athletes Network, featured on I Heart Radio
with the coolest walk on in the country. I'm your host,
Noah Bano, and as always, before I get into today's episode,
I would like to kindly ask for you to subscribe
to the show so you don't miss any episodes, and
also feel free to leave it a review after listening
or whenever you feel like doing that. It just don't forget.

(00:45):
It really does give the show a big boost, so
I thank you in advance. Now let's get into today's episode.
Today's guest is a walk on wide receiver from the
Ohio State football team, Marvin Davies. Okay, so I don't
want to give too much away because I want you
to hear it all through the flow of our conversation.
But Mark really lays it all out there, and that's
why the episode is a little bit longer than normal. Um,

(01:07):
I would have made it shorter had it not been
this great, but everything that's in there and needed to
be in there so I ask if you choose to
listen to this episode to please listen to the whole thing.
It doesn't have to be in one sitting, but listening
to it in its entirety is definitely a must. Um.
Some things to expect to hear in our conversation is
how he got the walk on spot, being around NFL

(01:29):
level players and competing against them, the dynamic of walk
on verse scholarship when you're in a college football program,
the dynamics of travel with the team and how that works,
giving his all to the team and it not being
reciprocated back uh. And then the struggle that just came
with this journey UH, and ultimately where it's led him
two now after two years in the program. Those are

(01:52):
very broad, but we dive into each one of them,
and there's just so much good conversation in parallels of
our two stories. As a football walk on and a
basketball walk on, that kind of matchup and really open
up the conversation. Marks also super smart and has insanely
good perspective and just a great attitude on his circumstances
and the reality that he has been in the last

(02:12):
two years in the Ohiuse State Football program. So it
really was just great getting a chance to talk to
him and talk about this journey, talk about this this
path that he put himself on and where he looks
to take himself in his future. So so stick around,
you won't regret it. And let's get right into it.
Here's my full conversation with Ohio State football wide receiver

(02:33):
Marvin Davies. Okay, so you joined the team in June,
pretty much in the middle of the pandemic um. What
kind of went into it into your decision to want
to walk on? How did the walk on spot come
about for you for Ohio State football? So I had
been recruited Biohouse States since I was a sophomore, just

(02:55):
by going to camps and things like that to the program.
So I was kind of already connected with some of
the cod which is and maybe one or two games
in my senior year, I got a call from our
player personnel coach asking me what i'd be interested in
walking on with the team. And I really didn't have
any big offers at the time or anything like that,
you know, do the injuries and so I was all four.
So I was, you know, as soon as I got

(03:17):
everything I needed signed away and you know, figured out
how academically that was gonna work for me. I was
ready to go. So I was committed, if you you know,
I could say that for a walk on in December
of my senior year and I was just waiting to
get on campus in June, and then the pandemic kind
of happened and it's delayed everything. So when it delayed everything, like,

(03:39):
did you not know if you were going to go
to Ohiuse State? Did you have some other offers? I
know you said you technically committed in December, um, but
was there anything else on the table for you, like,
especially coming out of high school in the middle of
the pandemic, like to maybe go somewhere else or it
was Ohio State all along. Well, I chose to go
to a house state on my own. You know how

(04:01):
the football recruiting schedule works. Most of your decisions are solidified,
you know, mid December, early January, and February at the
absolute latest. So the pandemic it in March, but all
my options were pretty much, you know, solidified by then.
I had a lot of ivy school interests. Buck now
Dayton came to visit, UH, some smaller D one schools.

(04:22):
But it just wasn't what I was looking for at
the time. You know, I never won the state championship
in high school. You know, obviously it's a huge winning program.
I just want to be a part of a winning
culture and experience, you know, that side of playing ball.
And so I just you know, I had the opportunity
and I ran with it. But the pandemic mostly made
things uncertain about when we were going to school, you know,

(04:43):
senior year, They're like, you know, you go home for
a couple of days and then you'll be back, and
then we never went back to school again. Then you know,
May hit, I'm like, well, if I didn't finish our
high school, you know, I don't know when we're gonna
start classes at oh State. People are talking about being
virtual and things like that. And then the last week
of May, my coaches me up be like, okay, you're
good to come down to oh stayed on you know,

(05:06):
June one, all the gyms have been closed. We can't
get on the field, can't run any routes or anything
outside you know, backyard stuff. So my conditioning is minimal
to say the least. But uh, and it just you know,
hit the ground running as soon as we got there,
and they give us a little a booklet of things
that you should be doing a transition, so you know

(05:27):
it the plan was was fine, but once all the
gyms were closing and I don't really have a weight
set at home, so you know, they want you to
heavy dead lift and you know, heavy squad, and you're
not really having access to all those names at home,
so it was hard to really get those workouts in
the way that they would have wanted me to do.
You think you've had a bad impression, bad first impression

(05:47):
when you got there where you're like kind of you know,
mad about the player you were giving them off the jump,
because you know, had you been able to work out
and really like work on your game before you got there,
you probably would have had a different first impression that
what you gave them. I was, you know, not so
much at the program personally. I know I'm a competitor.
I always wanted to do the best that I can.

(06:08):
But you know, the first day we got there, we
learned the warm ups and then we're immediately doing combine drills.
We're running the forty, we're doing the shuttle, we're doing
all this kind of stuff that I hadn't really been
working on for a minute. So it was really you got,
you know, one practice attempt and then it was time,
and everything you did from the second you put those
numbers up was you know, basically, did they write you off?

(06:28):
Did they do you know whatever, their thought process was
strictly based on those numbers because they don't care about
the film anymore or anything like that, because you're already
in the in the program. So I would have wish
that I had the opportunity to put my best foot forward,
but that just wasn't something I was able to do
given the circumstances. So it was kind of like an
uphill battle from my very first day there, and as

(06:48):
a walk on, you know, that is already how our
structure is supposed to be, so it was just kind
of adding another layer of layer of difficulty that which
was you know, not very beneficial at the time. It
took me about a month or so to really feel
like I was, you know, ready to compete, just because
you know, not from not from just a a players standpoint,

(07:10):
but just the athletes out here. Like you know, I
never was overthrown in high school. I came up here
and you know, one of my first passes from CJ. Actually,
I mean he let that thing a rip. It's probably
fifteen yards over my head. I'm sitting here, like just
just the little things like that that you wouldn't even
think about, like you gotta learn the speed of the game.
It's just quicker, like you know, its just stuff like

(07:31):
that that really makes you think. Yeah, So let's let's
kind of dive into that. Because you were a walk
on wide receiver. Um, you know, obviously I know the
role of what a basketball walk on tails. So before
we really dive into the you know, your full experience
in the Ohiose State football program, let's just describe what
the role of a football walk on kind of generally
entails so people can get an idea of, you know,

(07:52):
what the role of a football walk on is. So
I was a preferred walk on the those two different types.
So that was if you were recruited out of high
school but not given a full athletic scholarship, you didn't
have to try out, you have to do all of
those things. You were basically already given a roster spot.
So that's how my path is a little bit different.
From others. But once you get there basically as a

(08:14):
walk on, most of the things you have to do
are are scout related. So you lift every day when
the team lives, You go to practice the same time
everybody else goes to practice. You you do individual drills
with your position group. You know, they don't split it
up like that. But the biggest thing that you gotta
do is scout work. When we come to game weeks
and things like that, it's our job to get our

(08:34):
offense and defense ready to go out there and perform
on Saturday. So, you know, we get the playbook of
our other team based on you know, the film we've
watched on them, and I'm running their routes during practice.
You know, I'm wearing their jersey numbers, all those type
of things, so that our defense gets a que on
you know, what's going on offensively for them. So it
kind of sets me back in in our offense because

(08:55):
most of the time during the season I'm focused on,
you know, learning the stuff from the other team to
get them ready. The one cool thing about that is,
like I guess, you know, with any scout team is
being able to see what all the other teams do
and how they run their stuff. The same thing in basketball,
Like you're running the scout you know, Davidson's running this,
Richmond's running that like, and you know, playing in it,

(09:16):
you get to kind of get in a sense, like
a little bit more experienced and the guys just running
Ohio State's offense because now you're running you know, seven, nine,
ten different programs stuff like it almost helps you, you know,
learn the game a little bit faster, a little bit easier.
Um So, you would say, though, when you're on the
scout team, is it a like I'm I'm here because
I know my role, what I want to do to

(09:37):
help these guys get better. But regardless of how stacked
their receiving corps is. Um So, every day and scout
team is there there's that mental edge of like, Okay,
I'm gonna do with the coaches tell me, but like
I'm also you know, I'm out here trying to get
noticed as well. Right, there's there's a little bit A
lot of it comes from, you know, your personal drive,

(09:59):
how each individual sets their goals just gonna you know,
reinforce what they're what they're striving for. But it's a
little bit of I wouldn't say politics, but there's like
a a way in which to go about it. So
the way I did it was I was always team
first over me, And I think that's the most important,
uh for any non scholarship guy, anybody really, but more

(10:20):
importantly non scholarship just because of how the spotlight you know,
ships between players. But when I got there, my my
goal was, you know, on Saturdays, when when they line
up against whoever we're playing, and they know the routes,
they know, you know, the timing, they're out there anticipating stuff.
I know, I did my job. So my first year, um,
just the way it shook out, I did one on

(10:41):
ones with Sean Wade every day, And looking back on that,
you know, I took that for granted because now Sean's
in the NFL, you know, doing things seven banks, you know,
on the other side. But we did one on ones
every day and I'm just you know, working them, and
I got a little excited or you know, I did.
I did my thing when I could uh throw them
off as timing or I caught a pass over and

(11:01):
or did stuff like that where it was like little things,
little victories. Because the way they do it is they
want the defense to have success. Right, so you make
them look bad or you do something that you know
throws them off, they don't let over again. Right, Yeah,
there's gotta be a fire lit in you to show
them what you got. You're running the other team's offense,

(11:21):
you know you're going at you're starting cornerbacks, like there's
there's gotta be some sort of competitive fire in you.
That's like, I'm gonna burn him, I'm gonna make this
nice catch, I'm gonna run a great route. I'm gonna,
you know, try to make a name for myself. This
is this is my time. So how often do you
feel like you're making a name for yourself? You're doing
the right things. You know you maybe catching coaches I
like is more often than not, Is it not as

(11:42):
much as you'd like? Like? Where do you feel like
and how do you feel like that? That is brud
for you? You know, while you're you're on the scout team, see,
and that's the toughest part because you know scout is
tailored too. I always call it for defensive success. So
the coaches will scheme up, you know what play we're running,
and I'll have the route that they want the guy
to throw, to highlight it on the page, so you know,

(12:04):
we'll have the playbook out there and to hold it up.
And they're like, okay, you know, Margaret here and all
the other guys are there, and I look, if us
not how I already know from the beginning to play
like I'm not getting it, so I can, you know,
break the kid off. I'm running an amazing round. I'm
wide open, and I know the quarterback is not looking
at me because my route is not highlighted. And it
was always like a pet people of mind. I hated

(12:25):
that because you know, if you want to give a
good look, you know, if your first read is not there,
the other team's quarterback is not going to force it there,
especially if you know the second read is wide open.
And so it was tough to get Scout Player of
the Week and earn those accolades, especially as a receiver,
because most of the time your success is kind of
already dictated before you, you know, make a play on
the ball or do anything like that. I hate that.

(12:47):
I don't like that, like it just it feels like
it takes a competitiveness out of it. It's like you're
giving you could burn your cornerback and you're giving him
an out because you weren't. It's it's it's robotic. It's
like we can't really go out there and play a
real simulated game, like we're literally being told. I mean,
it's like I'm not trying to you know, I know
nothing about Scott team football. I'm just saying in terms

(13:09):
of like really being aware and kind of have to
think on your feet, like that cornerback is almost being
done a disservice because like you could take the playoff,
he could take a rep off. It's like, I don't
know if the defense knows that the ball is not
coming to you. So maybe I'm wrong on that. Maybe
I'm off there. Once you get on the schedule that
we have these sheets, and once we finish it like
one time, if for whatever reason, you know, they'll watch

(13:32):
it back old film and they see me, you know,
burn this kid on this route. They're they're gonna run
it back again. So they kind of get and then
we shrink it based on problematic plays as we get
throughout the week, and so by Thursday we have forty
plays that we need to run over and over and
over again. Just a scheme nose up, and then the
corners are jumping routes and doing all this because they've
seen it, you know, nine or ten times driving during

(13:54):
the week, and it's like, you know, I had to
the first four times we've run this route, but we
keep coming back to it, and you know, I'm still
not gonna get it, and so it's not doing anybody
any service to continue to do it that way. But
you know, it's because the coaches want to see how
this route is going to line up against this coverage
and things like that, which you know, I'm gonna say
that they know the best way to do it. But
as a competitor, it's like, you know, I just want

(14:16):
to go play seven or seven and let the best
route win and and just throw a jump on. Lets
let's see what happens, right. Yeah. Um, is there any
if you can remember anything, any part of your role
that you may be struggled with initially when you got
on the team that you maybe look back at now
and you're like, Okay, I'm glad I hoped that barrier
got over that. Anything in particular that stands out that

(14:37):
was just hard about the role of a walk on.
A lot of it is is trying to find value.
I mean, they bring you in because they think you
can you can contribute, but they don't necessarily always tell
you how or where right right? And so wait, where
where is exactly right? Because I got here and you know,
I I play one one receiver or one position and

(15:00):
in high school, and if I switched, somebody let me know.
When I got here. Coach heart lines like, hey, you know,
how you increase your value is knowing every position because
if we need somebody, we know we can calling you,
which is way easier said than done because you look
at you know, coach Days and offensive Mastermind. So if
you could see how thick our playbook is, and to
learn it from three or four different spots, you know,

(15:22):
you'll have your you know, your head spinning. And so
I tried to figure out, you know, at first, when
I got here, I'm like, okay, we're doing receiver drills.
Which line is the shortest. I'm hopping that line and
try to get in as much as I could. And
you know, not knowing guys, not know who's in and out,
you know, that kind of fluctuated a little bit, but
just trying to find your niche find where you can

(15:43):
make an impact and really excel at that. It is
the biggest thing that you know. It was hard for
me at first that I just had to kind of
work through because once you find your value and it's like,
all right, now I know my purpose. Now I understand
what I can really do every day that I know
and the rest of the team knows is gonna be
benefit to the overall group. And so that's always like

(16:04):
another little reward for you because when you're running around
there aimlessly every day, like well, I think I'm doing
the right thing, like I mean, you're just taking a
fucking guess and at that point, like you know, there's
no security in that. So it's it's nice to know
what you can do every day that is going to
add value. Can you think of one thing that you
would say? What would you say? Is just the hardest
thing about being a walk on in a college football program.

(16:28):
There there's no as much as you think you can
that you're ready for it, you can never truly understand
what you're what it's gonna be like until you step
foot in the door. You know, having that team first mindset,
having that you know, whatever comes my way, you know,
I'm knocking it out like all of that is gonna
be beneficial. But he gets real as soon as you
walk in and you know your your lockers picked out,

(16:51):
your numbers picked out, you you know, you kind of
just go with the flow. You know, whatever they tell
you to do, you get to you have to do basically,
and it's it's huff having that, you know, transition, and
the more you are around it, the more used to
what you get to um. But at first it always
throws you off, just because you see guys who were

(17:13):
the same age, kind of the same height, same same build,
and for just god given ability, you can see the
difference between you know, what their career looks like, what
their day to day life looks like. Things like that
where you know, five minutes ago we were doing the
same thing in the weight room, same thing on the field,
same thing. But just like as soon as you step

(17:35):
but outside of the woody or we call it that's
our practice facility, you know, the as soon as you
step outside it, it's totally different, like just life in general,
and so just being able to be around guys and
watch that happen and understand that their path and their
goals aren't your goals and that you can have your
own and set your stuff. That's that's probably the biggest

(17:55):
thing that was an adjustment for me when I got there.
You know, when I walk in, I'm I'm researching. I'm
looking at you know, who's the guys in and we have, uh,
you know, Julian Fleming, Jackson Smith, and Jake ba g S.
Guy was a receiver when he first guy here, like
all of these guys, I'm looking at their high school tape.
I'm looking at all this stuff like, you know, what
can I do that they can't do? What do we do?
The same similarities and differences, trying to see where I

(18:18):
can um you know, best fit in. When you get here,
you know, coaches have their plan on what they want
you to do, they have their path. But you have
to realize that I might not do the same things
that Jackson does. I might not end up achieving the
things that he does. But that doesn't mean what I've
accomplished since I've been here, it's not significant just because
we're not on the same field or not on the level.

(18:40):
Understand you, Yeah, it's completely right. It's like it's like, say, okay,
just because you know Jackson gets drafted and Marvin doesn't.
That doesn't negate the work and the progress that you
made during your time, because you know, their heck of
a talent of athletes. I mean, watching everybody at practice
every day is like highlight field, like crazy. You see

(19:03):
it on Saturdays and it's like it's it's it's a
while because it happened in the big moment, but it's
like I've seen that same thing nine times or a
hundred times, and it's just like you get so used
to unusual things, like you just don't even take it.
You know, you take it for granted sometimes and it's
almost like you become desensitized to it. You're like, oh,
I've seen him make that one handed catch a thousand times,

(19:26):
like and then he dozen in the game and you're like, well,
you know I've already seen that. I'm not ex excited.
You know. The two examples that come off the top
of my head as soon as you said that is, um,
you know Jackson, if you if you watch the Rose Bowl,
his little his catching the corner of the end zone
where he's just like rolling his head like that in
the most impossible catch. And then you know Marv Harrison
doing his one on one goal line fade for one

(19:47):
of the last touchdowns of the game. Those two plays,
I've seen marv us that release in practice four hundred
times and routes the dB up like crazy. He has
no clue what's coming. I still couldn't guarden to if
I was in front of I've seen him use that
move four hundred times, and so it's like, I know
it's in his bag. I've seen him rap it. I
know that like he didn't probably even know he was using.

(20:09):
It was just instinct. And Jackson, you know, we'll just
mess around in practice during second period, we catch fade,
you know, the ends of the fades, and I'll just
watch me, you know, I'll stick his hand out and
just do things like that. He's just it's so natural,
so instinctual that like when they go out there, I'm
telling you, he's not trying to do what he's just doing. Right. So,
where do you feel like you kind of rank up

(20:29):
against some of these big name guys like Marvin Harrison Jr.
I mean, he's his dad was in the NFL. He
clearly has an advantage, But like you know, just like
you have a ton of talented receivers. I'm pretty sure
the NFL Draft rank like Chris Chris olav I don't
know if I'm saying his last name right, and yeah
live I thank you, and Garrett Wilson like they're like

(20:50):
top five on the receiver boards, like and so that
that's kind of that's why I wanted to go to
House State. You know, I grew up loving playing receiver.
Coach Harline is the best to do it. I mean,
you can't go to another school and get coached at
the receiver position like coach Hartline does. And so you know,
the talent gap is bigger here than if I went
to a different school where maybe not everybody you know

(21:13):
has that type of athleticism, has the type of coaching,
So here it's amplified. Whereas if you know, I go
fifteen minutes down the street, you know, go to another
school maybe in the Big ten there, there still would
be a talent gap. But I'm telling you it's much
smaller than what's going on here at up State, just
because you know the coaching. So what's what do you
think separates you? Though? Like what would you say? And

(21:33):
your game is different from those guys games, whether it's size, speed, agility,
picking up on schemes quicker, like, what what about them
do you think is you know, separating you from them
that you still probably you know, need to work on
a little bit more. I don't know however you want
to put it, but I'm one of the bigger guys.
There's a couple of guys taller than me, but just

(21:54):
from from weight wise, I'm one of the bigger guys.
So just playing on my skill set and just being physical,
you know, running to the catchpoint, being strong, running through
contact after the catch, things like that, where you know
guys might be able to make you miss when they
get out here in space, and I want to run
right through you just because I know that, you know,
I might have pounds in the next TB that I
have to use that to my advantage because you know, uh,

(22:17):
Jamison Williams from from Alabama's to play here, and you
know we didn't want on ones and stuff. We race
all the time, but jam Mos is gonna run right
past you. And not everybody can run with that flatline
speed like he has. So you gotta know what you
have and use that to your advantage. You know, you
always want to see like who you match up with
and kind of where you stand and when you're playing
with talented guys like that, you understand where the bar

(22:38):
is at. Okay, that was just a warm up, guys,
There's still so much more to get into. I would
have made the episode much shorter if there wasn't this
much good stuff throughout it. So Walkie Tucky's Podcast quick
break coming your way. We'll be right back. You're listening
to Walkie Tuckies podcast on the College Athletes Network. I'm
your host, Noah Bano. Remember since you click this episode
to please stick around for the entirety of it. I

(22:59):
swear you won't regret it. Now, let's bring back in
my guest, Ohio State football wide receiver Marvin Davies. So
I counted a hundred and seventeen kids on the Ohio
State football roster, and to me, that is just absolutely
mind boggling that there could be a hundred seventeen kids
on a team, Like there's probably a higher percentage of
players on that team that have very minimal value than

(23:21):
there are players who have value. Because there's only twenty
two starters and there's a backup for every twenty two.
So you're looking at about forty four guys that really
play and then the rest of you guys are third string,
fourth string, and maybe not even on a string. And
so how many walk ons would you say are on
your team including you? Um, and are there any partial scholarships?

(23:43):
I don't really think football teams do partials. It's normally
just full or none. So what would you say that
percentages of that hundred seventeen is scholarship and and walk on.
And it's crazy because that one seventeen, like, if you
get that off the website, you might be missing a
couple of guys because I know that it's me, you know,
six weeks because I was gone for media day when

(24:04):
they took all the hedge shots and so I just
you know, wasn't on the active roster for you know,
five or six weeks until they were able to get
my picture put it up there, and so we could
have anywhere we probably have closer on the active roster,
which is incredible to just think about. But um, in
terms of how many walk ones we have, we probably

(24:24):
have about forty or so. We probably have seven to
eight each grade level basically, then depending on what the
gaps in the scholarship players look like, you know, some
go to the draft, some stay, you know, some transfer.
The walker number kind of helps mold that out so
that we have pretty consistent numbers in our position groups.

(24:47):
So it's somewhere probably between thirty five to forty. That's
a good chunk of the roster. I mean, especially if
you have, like I said, forty four guys probably consistently playing.
That leaves out another twenty to thirty guys on scholarship
who still aren't even playing. So there's a big ladder
to climb for a walk on to really get on

(25:08):
the field. And ultimately, like you making this decision, like
you you probably knew, you know what to expect to
a certain extent. Now, I don't know if you knew
there would be this many guys on the roster. I
don't know if you knew exactly where you lay on
that hunter and man roster in terms of the totem pole,
Like you know, if there's thirty ISHU or so walk ons, Like,

(25:29):
are you all necessarily equal? Do they rank walk ons?
Are they like? Where do you guys all lie? Obviously
you know your bottom thirty. It is what it is.
But like there's gotta be some competition among you know,
you guys on the Scout team and the Scout Team
quarterback trying to make a name for himself, the Scout
Team defensive tackle, the Scout Team running back, Scout team

(25:51):
wide or wide receiver like yourself, Like, so what do
you feel like? That vibe is like, are you guys
ranked by the coaches? You all kind of looked at similarly,
Like how does of work? I feel like between us players,
we have a closer bond. You know, the Scout team
is probably the closest out of anybody else in the
team because we spend the most time together, you know,
in meetings and all of those things. That that is

(26:11):
like our our unit compared to everybody else. So from
a competitor, you know, I'm always gonna want to be
the guy who catches the highlighted route or things like that,
and those things are kind of issued out by seniority.
So the senior receivers are going to get the targets
because they know that they're not gonna want to run
around and do all this for for nothing essentially, So
that's kind of how it goes, and touches and things

(26:32):
like that, where seniors and guys who have been there
the longest are kind of first in line, and and
it kind of just trickles back from there. So but
from the guy's standpoint, nobody looks at each other from like,
you know, I know I'm better than this guy, or
this guy you know shouldn't be playing as much as me,
or things like that, because we kind of have the
shared bond of of going through the additional struggle together

(26:54):
of this that you know, nobody else wants to really
do it. Dude, So how many how many passes in
in scout teams throughout the year did you even get
to catch? How many? How many balls do you think
we're throwing to you? How many passes do you think
you actually caught this year? Actually I caught significantly less
than I did last year. I didn't know, because you know,
COVID made everything weird, so they weren't really recruiting any

(27:16):
other walk Ons. The team was kind of small in
numbers just because of you guys opting not to play
and things like that, where some of the older walk
Ons were actually running reps with the ones and twos
just to you know, make sure anything happened for for
COVID precautions, so they were only like three or four
walk on receivers. So I mean I was catching you
know a ton of passes last year. I thought I

(27:37):
was doing my thing. That came back this year, Uh,
you know, the thing kind of shook up the way
it was supposed to be, where all the senior walk
ons are still down on scout and doing that kind
of stuff. I'm looking around and they're like, I did
all list of last year, and I'm thinking I gonna
have the same production this year, if not more. And
then here come all the seniors from last year who
were taking you know, game reps coming back like, well,
you know, this is my spot. I've earned this for

(27:57):
three years. I'm gonna take these reps. And as taking
a back seat to that was tough because this is
the only way I have to, you know, do something,
because when team periods are happening, I'm not catching any passes.
So my production level in my eyes was gazed on
how did I do in scale? How many balls I catch?
How many you know, attempts that I have those type
of things where if those numbers are dropping, It's like
sometimes I used to joke with my friends, I'm just

(28:19):
out there running Cardio Like you know, I'm running these
go routes and things like that just to to get
my steps in because I know it's not coming to me.
I'm just trying to, you know, help these guys out
the best way I can. Man. That's tough, man. It's
gotta in a way strip your love for the game,
you know, piece by piece, like the less, unless you
play the more and more, you're probably like, well, one,

(28:39):
what the hell am I doing here? And too, do
I even really like this ship? Like like I'm I
don't even get to play. I'm not even getting to
Like I don't get to do anything, Like I'm saying
that from experience, like my first two years, the less
and less I got to play the more and more,
I was like, do I even want to be here?
Do I even do I even like this? Like I mean,
I don't like, I don't get to play, So I
really can't tell you if I like this because I'm

(29:01):
not getting to play. So it just weighs on your
mental It's it's real. It's a real mind fun sometimes
because you're like, where's my value? Like you know you
mentioned value. I I mentioned value earlier, Like do you
feel like that was something that maybe you struggled with,
you know, when you got on the team. And if not,
if it wasn't a value part of it, what do
you think kind of held you back a little bit?

(29:21):
Like you know, this is real stuff, like everybody you
know needs to know this, but it's kind of about
how you personally attack it, and so you know, Uh,
Coach Hartline was like, you're gonna have the most value
in terms of playing by knowing you know every position
and being able to be called on for everything like that.
But in the reality of the situation, there's like ten
scholarship receivers. It's very rare that we get to a

(29:41):
point in the in the depth chart where they're like,
you know, Mark, we need you to hop in here.
So for me, it was you know, being a player's player,
making sure, you know, guys had what they needed, just
kind of bringing an energy along, keeping everybody's spirits up,
just you know, kind of making sure that practice was
still fun and I kind of having a good energy
about stuff when when things weren't necessarily going well, especially

(30:01):
for other people. You know, guys are out there dropping
pass is not doing the things that they're used to
doing just going kind of going over there and like
you know, you got this, uh kind of keeping them
in a positive headspace and kind of just made everybody's
energy collectively better. And I felt like that was where
my value was noticed the most, just with little things
like that where guys might appreciate it more than coaches,

(30:22):
but at the end of the day, like those are
the dudes I'm here for because it's it's about the brotherhood.
So you know, I would rather be in good standing
with all my teammates other than the coaches. Like That's
what I'm fine with for sure. And did you kind
of know about that and that that would be maybe
what you'd be asked to do more of verse playing?
You know when you accepted the position, did you did
you have a better understanding of that before you got there?

(30:44):
Did it take you some time to kind of get
to that headspace. That's just kind of what I aim
to do. When I first got there, I didn't know
that was what was gonna be asked to me, but
just kind of the person I am, I knew coming
to a High State it was gonna be we before me,
and so making sure that you know, every way I
could do that I was trying to, you know, make
sure that I was making sure that the receiver room
was as cohesive as possible and achieving the group goals

(31:07):
instead of you know, man, I'm at the back of
the line for this driller. Man, I'm not catching all
these routes that I wanted to. Like, that kind of
energy is going to really, you know, drain the unit
as a whole. So just kind of getting rid of that,
you know, so with you making the most of it.
There's a hundred and seventeen guys on the team, Like
I said, like, what would you say if there's any
you know, sort of different and mistreatment that goes on.
You know, there's thirty walk ons, there's about seventy or

(31:29):
so scholarship guys, Like did you deal with anything that
is like Okay, this is only happening to me because
I'm a walk on and literally just because I have
that title, Like whatever it might be, Like, what what
of that stuff went on? You know, if any there
are different variations of it, you know, just down to
you know, when I got there, I was in I

(31:51):
was number thirty eight, and I was like where where
where did this come from? And I'm like you know,
happy to be here and all this kind of stuff.
And I'm like, you know, hey, how how do we
end U upon the sumber? And they were like, you know,
you know, the coaches just kind of decided that this
is your number. And I was like, oh no, cool, um,
you know, guys are taking pictures in one, five six.

(32:12):
I always knew like I wasn't gonna get a single enough,
nothing like that, but I thought, you know, you would
have some say hey, these all the scholarship guys got
to pick. These are the remaining numbers you have lack
it then doesn't really work out like that, and you know,
I go to try to change my number, and it's
just knowing that you have x amount of guys who
are instantly the attention of the coaching staff first and

(32:33):
foremost because they've you know, put so much money, so
much effort, all this kind of stuff into them. Just
knowing that those guys have to be you know, taking
care of first, or like, you know, we'll get on
the game day, we're all putting on stuff. We'll have
arm sleeves, arm bands, all of this kind of stuff.
It gets cold, we have handwarmers. It's make sure the
scholarship guys are take care of first. Make sure the

(32:53):
travel guys, which is basically the ones and twos, and
then the couple other ones who have not to travel,
those guys taken care of first. If we have any extra,
then you guys are more than well would to have it.
But it's like, you guys can't get this stuff until
we make sure these guys have it. So it's just
it's stuff like that where it'll bug can kind of

(33:14):
get used to it and get used to it, you
I mean, And like I said, like that's just how
some certain programs run things, you know, Like if I
could draw a comparison to that, it's like, you know,
the last couple of games we've had, we've been like
on the road in specific, like we're not bringing our
stools for media time out, So like me and a
couple of guys at the end of the bench need
to take the end of the bench chairs that we're

(33:36):
all sitting in and move them out to the court
so that the two coaches who sit down in our
five players in the game can sit down. It's not
a big deal, but you know, it kind of does
make you feel like a semi manager sometimes and you're like,
you know, and you've got the little You've got the
guys in the student section talking shift to you, like
saying exactly what I'm saying, and you're like, well, you know,
there's literally nothing I could do, like but yeah, you know,

(33:59):
it's just the way of the the walk on world.
I think that's funny though, Like if you know the
guys sitting on the sideline and the freezing cold, that's
not playing, not moving, not getting his blood flowing, like
he's sitting there freezing his ass off. He can't get
a couple of handwarmers. I mean, the craziest thing happened,
you know, Um they ended up, you know, hooking me up,
but we were It was one of the coldest games

(34:21):
of the year. And and scholarship guys and and ones
and twos get the heated jackets first, you know, the
benches are heated out there on the field, but when
they come off the field, they have to sit down,
so you gotta get up for them to sit down.
And then coats you you can't wear a coat, you know.
The only time you can have it is if you
make a little alliance with it. Dude who plays when
he goes in, give you coat day in there for

(34:44):
you know the series or whatever. When he comes out,
you gotta get it back to him. But like you know,
things like that. But it's funny. You got an alliance,
you gotta you gotta coat your coat. Buddy out there,
got a foreman want to go, you know the good ones,
you know, as a guy here you get one offensive
one and one defensive one the right and I'm set,
but you know, and I brought my hat out there,

(35:06):
and I talked to the EQ guys. I was like, hey,
you know, can I bring this hat? Cann be cold?
And I stopped wearing my helmet because I looked like
one of those goofy's who was ready to get in.
And he's second, like you know, like you know, it's
it's fourteen fourteen with a minute left to go. You know,
a lobby is not coming out for me, So why
I sit there with this this helmet gets cold? And
when all the plastic and stuff hardens up. So I'm
wearing my hat and it's a defensive series and the

(35:28):
EQ guy comes over. He's like a mar uh, can
I borrow your hat? CJ is cold. I'm sitting there
like are we for real? He's like, yes, he just cold.
I give our EQ guy that had to give to
c J for him to wear for two minutes left

(35:48):
to go before halftime, for them to go back into
the locker room to get him his own hat. And
they hooked me up like they gave me, you know,
some some extra gear or whatever for being nice, which
they didn't have to do. But like, you know, just
the thought of you thought ahead to bring this hat out,
he because you knew you were gonna be cold. But
you gotta give it up right now. You gotta give
it up. And I'm seeing I'm seeing coaches all up

(36:10):
and down the sidelines, trainers, everybody else gotta had on
coaching wise, I see one coach offered to give their
hat up for this man to have a hat. Okay,
don't go anywhere. Last break coming up. Two hints for
what's to come. Even though there's like ten more great
things that we talk about when we come back, the
conversation really opens up. Marv expresses some more difficulties within

(36:30):
the program and being able to find success there, and
also expresses his passion for the team and his love
for being on the team. But the lack thereof from
their end and being told not to come back to
the team. It's pretty crazy stuff you don't want to miss.
So stick with us. We'll be right back, all right,
walk you talking. His podcast on the College Athletes Network
is back and it's about to get a real juicy people.

(36:51):
I swear all the ends, all the outs of the
walk on life in the Ohio State football program. Marv
take us right back into it. It's just like seniority
happens in any program just by oldest, but being a
walk on just adds a like a little asterix next
to your name where it's just like another subcategory that
kind of puts you that much lower when it comes

(37:11):
to things to do. Because if it was normally just
seniority I'm now, I would be going into my third year,
I would be pretty much up there in terms of,
you know, reps. I'm getting individual practices things like that,
where I'm still underneath the guys who were scholarship from
the beginning. So as soon as guys get there in January,
they're already getting thrown into the rotation, already getting thrown
ahead of me in drills and things like that. Just

(37:33):
because coaches have invested all of this money into a
scholarship athlete that they're going to give them the benefit
of the doubt regardless. So they have to they get
to go first, and most of the drills and and
things like that, whereas, uh, you know, walk on if
because there's so many of us, we have timed period.
So if we only have five minutes to do a
drill and they think that, you know we're going too slow,
you know my rep is gonna get cut. You know,

(37:54):
I might not be able to do this. I might
have to just watch that rep. And it's like in
terms of more learning how to do it and getting better,
I was always a guy who needed to you know, physically,
you know, get it or you have the opportunity to
do it, so I could learn how to do it,
and just watching it just wasn't really helping me with
that process. I feel you, man, I'm a hands on guy.
Like I could watch it, I could understand it and

(38:15):
explain it to you, But when you put me on
and you tell me to do it correctly the first time,
there's probably like a three percent chance that I'm going
to do it correctly. Like I need the rep. I
need to I need the ability to mess up correct
my mistake. Now I've gone through the motion, I know
exactly what the movement is, what the action is, and
so on, and so I'm the same way. Bro. It's

(38:37):
it's very hard to just and for some people they
pick up on a super easily. I could just watch
it and go do it. But you know, when you're
walk on and you don't have the ability to, it's like, well, funk,
how do I How do I get better? Yeah, And
you really don't have the opportunity. Like if if I
was a scholarship guy and I really was terrible at
you know, a footwork specific drill or running this kind

(38:57):
of route, They're gonna stay after and make sure or
that I know how to do it, or that I
get an extra up to to correct it. Because they're
putting so much time and energy into you that really
it's impossible for those guys to fail. You might not
play as much as you want to, but in terms
of learning things and getting good at them, no scholars
have gone on program. It's not gonna be able to
do something because they will stay for as long as

(39:17):
they need to stay doing that stuff because that's their
their job. But for us, if I go out there
and my playbook was small in high school, it's only
we're in the same couple of routes coming up here.
You know, we're probably one of the most past heavy
offenses and college football, and so there's a ton of
stuff that I have never run before before I got here,
and you get, you know, maybe two times to run it,
and if you screw up both those times, check your

(39:39):
name off the list. Like you know, that's pretty much
that was your only chance. And it's tough because there
how am I ever gonna get to running game reps
in practice if I'm screwing up the work in individual period,
So they're not gonna let me run routes when it
comes in time. And so getting behind the chain like that,
it's almost impossible to catch yourself up with things like that.
To give them like semi benefit of a doubt, like

(40:01):
kids like it makes sense for their lack of investment
in their walk ons, Like to a certain extent, it
makes sense, like they got seventy five eighties scholarship guys
that you know that they are paying for that need
the work, need the reps that they obviously you know,
inevitably going to put more of their time and effort
into However, it feels like to me, and I could
be wrong, but that there's gotta be enough guys on
staff where there there should be. Maybe there isn't, but

(40:23):
there there definitely should be a couple of guys who
are willing to put that investment, put that extra time
into the walk ons that want more, that want to
get better, that want to fight for a scholarship, that
maybe want to get good enough that they can go
play at, you know, a lower level school, and they're
taking this experience to go and then do that. Like,
it's hard to hear, and I've been around it to
have a staff and people that are older than you

(40:44):
that are supposed to be teaching you, that don't really
care about your development, and that's a that's a hard
pill to swallow because you're like, well, I care about
my development and I also care about this team, so
I'm gonna do my my job as a teammate. But
at the same time, I'm gonna put in extra work,
extra reps to get this. And when you don't have
any he wants to work with you, it's like, well, now,
what have you felt like that there there have been,

(41:05):
but it's not like people are required to do it,
so it really comes down to individual coach. And so
you know, coach Fessler was one of the gas for
us this past year, and he was a great guy.
You know, from the day I got in there, from
the day he got in there, he was trying to
help us along in the process. But he can only
really do so much in terms of you know, he
already has these responsibilities to get these guys ready, so
when he stays after to help us, that's just him,

(41:28):
you know, loving coaching and trying to get us better.
But um bye, that was already going into my second year,
had already been there a whole year without really having that,
So it's kind of already discouraged from you know, they
aren't really too focused on what I'm doing in this
category that my willingness, I guess you could say to
go continue to put yourself out there for them to say,
you know, no, I can't do this, No I'm not

(41:48):
I don't have time today like to continue to ask
in the hopes of one day that I'm saying yes.
Like I was kind of already discouraged. Whereas some of
the younger guys who hadn't experienced that yet, you know,
had the luxury of having coach Billy like he was great,
and so they would want to go over there and
have that kind of stuff. But it's like in the
back of the head, you know, you know what their
mindset is, and so it's kind of hard to get
yourself to think differently about it. And so you know,

(42:09):
that's kind of something that kind of kept me from
doing that because it's like why do I keep putting
myself out there? Because you can, you know, there's opportunities
and drills where if you just you know, keep going
up there, eventually they're gonna let you do it, you know,
in terms of the team setting. But it sucks like
you go up there for a drill and they're like no, Marv,
like get out, somebody else go in, Like how many times?
And in practice are you gonna want to continue to
do that? And hear them tell you that you can't
do with drill, like you're just gonna want to sit

(42:30):
back and like you know what, like maybe this is
not a drill that you know they want me to do,
And it kind of just you know, changes your mindset
on things. You start second guess and stuff, and and
it's like you go from all right, I'm gonna take
the initiative. I'm gonna just put myself out there. I'm
gonna try to get in this drill first couple of times,
like maybe you get kicked off, maybe you don't get
kicked off some but then the more you start getting
kicked off, the less and less you want to take

(42:50):
that initiative to hop on the drill because you're like
you're deflated. It's like, man, I'm not man, I'm gonna
I'm cool right here. I'm good. Like it's a bad
bro I've I've dealt with it, and it's like I
hate myself for it sometimes, but I'm literally like like
you know, older people would say, well, you never know
until you ask, or you never know until you try.
Like and it's like, man, like I'm pretty sure I've
tried enough particular drills that like I don't even I

(43:12):
don't need the rejection again. Like I'm just gonna assume
that I will be rejected and I'm now going to
stand here and had chance that like they yell at me, hey,
mar like why didn't you get in this rep It
makes me smile and laugh because it's like, yeah, you
were just yelling at me to get out, and I
finally stop asking, and it's like, you know, the scholarship
guys don't want to do it, So now the numbers
are thing. Now they're looking at me. You know, hey,

(43:34):
hopping this drill. But for the first six weeks, I
couldn't do it. So now I'm not really great at that.
Drew let me hop in for once, and I make
a mistake. It's like, hey, like what are you doing?
Like you should know this already is like coach this
week six, but this is my first time doing this trade,
Like I don't really know what's going on as much
as the guys have been doing this all year. And
it's like you're never gonna really have that level playing field,

(43:54):
Like you just gotta you just gotta roll with it
and kind of let it go sometimes. So you're two
years in. You won the Sugar Bowl and you won
the Rose Bowl your first two years, and you've completed
two full seasons of college football, So you know where
are you at now? What are you ultimately hoping to
gain from this experience? Is what you were hoping to
gain in the beginning when you first got there, different

(44:15):
than what you're hoping to gain now having done two
full years as a wide receiver walk on Ohio State, Like,
where are you at in this situation? So from the
moment I got he always knew that I didn't really
have any NFL aspirations, so playing beyond college was was
nothing I really ever gave thought too. So I knew
that football would end at some point. And now as
two years in, I realized that it was hard to

(44:38):
to network. It's hard to you know, have internships and
do all of those things with such a heavy load
on practice and things like that. So I've decided after
two years that you know, I had a couple of
internships lined up from before and having connections and things
like that, where that's where I want to pursue and
kind of enhance my professional career. So I've you know,
decided to step away from football and kind of pursue. Uh,

(45:00):
I'm into finance, so I want to be a financial
advisor one day. So just getting that opportunity, I decided
it was more important than planning for two more years,
two more years if I knew I wasn't really going
to play after college. And when did you ultimately, you know,
make that decision. Was it the middle of the year
you kind of knew going into the year, did you know,
all right, this is gonna be my last Like when

(45:20):
did it kind of hit you that I was like,
you know, I'm gonna just put all my eggs into
one basket. So you know, that one's actually a a
pretty detail one. Like at the end of my first year,
you really don't have an off season because it just
turns into you know, different style workouts. And so I
was here for part of the summer after my first year,

(45:41):
and you know, I talked to my coach and they're like, hey,
you know, based on guys, we have a total number
of guys in the roster, and they're like, you know, hey, Marv,
like with the guys coming back for the next year
of COVID and things like that, like you know, roster
size is just like not looking good for this year,
Like we're gonna need you to step away a and

(46:01):
you know you might be able to come back in January, uh,
just depending on number size. And that was in the
middle of of May, so then you know, I was
home in June July and part way through August, and
that was tough because like two hours earlier, I was
practicing with the guys, running around having fun. I get
a call like I basically had just gotten fired, and

(46:22):
so that was a tough pill to swallow, just because
you know, I didn't see any of my teammates after that,
didn't see any of that kind of stuff, and it
was just hard to adapt to. And then, you know,
God always works in a mysterious way, and I get
a call in the middle of August something happened with
some guys on the team. Numbers are different. You know,
they need they need a receiver to come in and help.

(46:45):
They don't want to go try anybody else out because
they know I've already been in the offense for a year.
I know what it is to do. Go try alone.
Calls me back. He's like a Marv like, instead of you,
like red shirting, are you gonna be willing to come
back and help us out this this fall? And so
I was able to hop back in and you know,
do the things that I was already planning when I'm
doing forout this year. But ever since then, I already

(47:06):
knew that, like I had a thought in the back
of my head, like I had already had an internship
over this summer when I was at home, figured out
what I love doing, and just decided, like it really
became on whether or not I was going to continue
playing or start my career path. And as I kept
going through the year, it just kind of like made
sense for me to to go out on my own
terms and be able to uh make decisions that was gonna,

(47:30):
you know, affect my personal career the best. And so
I decided that getting that internship was it was gonna
be the most beneficial for me. So you wrap up
your freshman season and then you immediately jump into spring workout,
spring ball, and then, like you said, you essentially get
a call that you're you've been fired from the team,
kicked off the team, not needed anymore. Um, well, that

(47:51):
that sucks, Like that absolutely sucks, and I you know,
I'm sorry you had to deal with that, because it's
like you and your mind were invested too. Yeah, I'm
gonna be back up here or in the summer, I'm
gonna be doing my thing, like I gotta. You know,
I got a little bit of experience under my belt,
you know, year one, I know from me a year
two at my first school, year two at my third school. Uh,
we're always the easiest because it was like, well, no,

(48:12):
I'm just picking up where I left off. You know,
there's nothing really new to learn. I'm just picking up
where I left off. Now I can like sharpen the
iron and get better at all the things that I
was just shown. So my next question was gonna be
what is the worst thing that happened to you as
a walk on? And I would, without you even telling me,
I'd have to rank that up. There is being told
you're not wanted and then being told you're wanted. So

(48:33):
is there anything else? I mean, that's like, that's just
so hate hearing that. There's a lot I mean that
goes on. I bet you it's probably just based on
the dynamics of college football. But it was so shocking
to me because it was unexpected. You know, we have
a meeting with coaches at the end of Spring Bowl

(48:54):
and so, and I'm sitting down with coach Day and
I'm hearing totally different messages, you know, coach hard lines,
like hey, these are the things you kind of struggled on.
This is where we want you to improve on. You know,
coming up next year, and I had COVID during spring ball,
and so I missed a huge opportunity for me to
get better in these areas because I was out almost
every practice based on getting back and having my heart

(49:17):
skins and all that kind of stuff. So I missed
that huge chunk. And then I'm sitting down on the
coach day afterwards and he's like, you know, Mark, we
need you to have a big summer. Um there's opportunities
for you to grow on the scale team and even
end up running with the two's, just based on numbers
by the end of next year, coming in the spring
of that would have been twenty two. And so I'm
pumped and I'm calling my mom like hey Mom, Like

(49:37):
this is gonna be a huge summer for me, Like
I gotta get right, this is gonna be my time.
Maybe three weeks later, like they're like, you know, you gotta,
you know, take a step back. And it's like if
that was the point, Like I wish I would have
known that. I wish somebody would have said that while
we were having these meetings conversations, like I had no clue.
I was completely blindsided, Like I actually the craziest thing
about that was I had a terrible day that day, know,

(50:00):
because they switched my position. I'm learning something new. It
just wasn't a smooth day for me in my standards.
And so I actually text coach. I'm like, hey, coach,
can I come in and watch some some film or
get some corrections. I want to make this better? And
like yeah, like there's two o'clock works fine, Like, I'm
coming in. I got my notepad and stuff. I get
in the room. There's nothing up on the board and

(50:21):
I wasn't running late. I'm in there like I'm like, okay,
maybe he just doesn't pull up. Then he comes in
and he's sitting right next to me. Still nothing's on
the screen. I'm like, what's going on? Like I still
got my note pad and everything, and he's like you
know what. You know he had this conversation. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
like we're gonna ask you to you know, step away
and come back, you know, come off season and next year.
And it's like I thought I was coming in here
to watch film. Like time period this was one month

(50:44):
of May, like we're in the middle of summer workouts,
just came off of running, you know, a two minute
drill on the offense and somebody wasn't there, so instead
of playing the slot, I was playing your backside receiver.
And it just threw off my concepts because I don't
I learned that everything from that one spot, just trying
to get the best I could to maybe, you know,

(51:04):
try to play in this spot first. And so when
I got thrown over there, it was, you know, confusing
for me, and I struggled that day. But I was
literally just out there running two minutes, like so, I'm
thinking we're gonna go through connection corrections and get better,
and then all of a sudden, I'm packing my stuff
up and going home. That's cold. That's like, really that's cold.
You've got a kid coming in there thinking he's gonna
watch him tape. You know, he's got a notebook, he's

(51:26):
ready to learn, he's ready to get better, correct his mistakes.
And the next thing, you know, like the kid that
wants to get better and work on his game is
literally just getting the boot. Like that's cold, man. It's
because I was super invested in the program and I've
always put the program above myself and still to feel
that because I wasn't going in there asking for more
playing time. Hey coach, why am I not starting? Why
I'm not doing this? Like I accepted my role. I

(51:48):
just loved being a part of the team and kind
of rolling with it. So I thought, you know, it
was mutual. As long as I knew where I, you know,
stood in the on the rankings and how I could
get better, that everything's gonna be smooth. But I take
that back. That was the middle of June, because at
the end of May. This is the craziest thing I
never understood. Our strange staff will not let you miss
a day of practice of weight lifting for any circumstance.

(52:10):
If you miss a day, you will have to make
it up. So you know, life happens. I have, you know,
a death in the family and somebody real close to me.
I'm working out on Thursday. I got a text from
my mom, Hey, call me when you can. I'm huffing
and puffing. I'm just checking my phone a caller and
she tells me the news. I'm devastating. I'm sitting in
the locker room, like completely thrown off guard. I go

(52:32):
back in there and tell coach Mike. You know, hey, coach,
I'm not gonna be able to be here tomorrow. You know,
I gotta go be home to be with my family.
And they're like, you know, I'm sorry to hear about that.
I called Coach hard Line and I tell him like, hey, Coach,
I'm driving home to Cleveland right now. He's like, you know,
keeping updated, let me know when you're gonna be back.
You know, we got practiced on Monday, and so I

(52:53):
go home, and instead of staying home to be with
my family, I'm trying to, you know, come back out
to be in Columbus on Monday so I'm not missing
practice in the day of the actual funeral that next week.
I remember I had two funerals in a three week span,
and I had to move my lift time to six
am the day of the funeral so that I wouldn't
miss my lift so I could drive home afterwards to

(53:14):
be there for my family. Because that wasn't an excuse,
I guess to to miss a workout. And I never
understood how that was, how that was the thing that
that just baffled me. And that was before everything happened.
So and I'm giving everything i can. I'm trying to
make all of this stuff work. I'm not taking any
excuses I never missed a day of practice, just trying

(53:35):
to put this team before myself. And two or three
weeks later, they're like, you know, we're good, like you know,
see you in a couple of months, and that was it.
I was like, damn, Like I thought, like you guys,
I met as much to you guys as you guys
meant to me, Like I would feel terrible letting you
guys down. I thought it was mutual. But you know,
that's just kind of the way the program works. Like, man,

(53:55):
first of all, I'm sorry to hear about your loss
your losses um. Second of all, to not have support,
you know, from people that you're giving a lot of
your time and energy into, regardless of it not being
fifty fifty mutual, like you're in there and maybe you're
eighty there twenty or you're seventy or thirty whatever it is,
like on the level of respect, like that's just not right,

(54:17):
you know, like you said, life happened, man, Like I'm sorry,
I gotta miss a lift, Like that's not cool. So
how did you you know? Mentally, well, let me let
me let me get the timeline right, this this death
happened in the season, or this death happened during all
your spring workout's close to when they were going to
give close to when you know that June. It was
all in May, most of the stuff. Okay, it was

(54:39):
a huge month, Like you know, I learned about one
of them in the middle of May. The next one happened,
you know, maybe a week or two later, and it's
like back to back, and it's like the first one
you you get a little bit of sympathy for, and
they're like, man, you know, I'm sorry to here that.
The second one they're like, you can't be for real,
Like you don't lose two people in three weeks, like
and it's like I didn't. I didn't. I didn't them

(55:00):
like that life happened, man, Like I don't know what
to tell you. I didn't plan this, Like so obviously,
you know, dealing with death not easy. Had to be
weighing on you mentally, and then you get this news
that you're no longer on the team, and it's like
where is your head at? Like how are you? You
know you had to be I mean, that was the
lowest point you know, in my life I'd ever been at.

(55:21):
Like the people who were around me, it was always
my family and my team and to to kind of
lose connections to now I'm still in the group chat.
You know, guys would reach out to me occasionally, uh,
you know, things like that. So it was never like,
you know what, you know, screw you in a way
to to that extent. But in terms of having the

(55:42):
guys you know, be around and and calling things like that,
nobody really knew because I was just trying to keep
going every single day and it was like to to
lose that that sense of camaraderie over you know, logistical
things where it's like an uncontrollable thing to right, it was,
it was tough. And so then I was forced to

(56:03):
you know, go at home and kind of deal with
all that, you know, all my own in a sense.
But I have a good structure, you know, family was
there for me, everything like that. And I'm doing great now,
but just being in that moment that was a tough
bill of swallow. Yeah, man, no doubt. I bet it
feels good to be out on the other side of it. Uh,
but you know, it's never easy for anybody, and you know,

(56:25):
like there's just to be like, in a sense punished
for something that is entirely out of your control, like
and then man tough, tough, tough, tough. So you keep
bringing up you know there's a hundred and seventeen guys
on your roster, Like what is the you know, I
know you went to the Rose boy, he went to
the Sugar Bowl, Like did you get to travel to those?
What is the travel dynamic for all of you guys

(56:47):
on the team? Like how does how does that work?
There's no way the red shirts are coming and maybe
even all the walk ons are coming, Like what is
what is that dynamic like for you guys? Yeah, so
all of our other sports for the most part, travel commercial.
So but us whenever we fly somewhere, um, you know,
we'll we'll run the plane out or whatever to go.

(57:10):
So seventy guys traveled seventy two I think is the
number or something like that. But there's you know, a
hundred and five of us and so a little more
than half go. But that's basically ones and twos on
offense and defense, um, and then special teams guys. And
that was tough because I didn't know that coming in

(57:31):
and travel, you would think it is just away games.
And so when you go and you get recruited, you
do the walk, and you're with the team and all
these kind of things, and coaches are like, you know,
this is something you look forward to. But they didn't
tell you that that was just the travel roster. And
I didn't know because I didn't know how big the
team was. I'm looking at seventy guys, I'm like, well,
this is crazy. It's a huge number. I didn't know

(57:53):
there were fifty more, you know, sitting at home or
already in the stadium waiting on them to get there.
So you know, those seven guys for home games are
after we practice on on Friday, the non travel guys,
that's you know what they call us, We go home.
They stay at the facility and then they go to
a hotel the night before the game just to keep

(58:13):
everybody together, um and focus for the game. And then
um in the morning they'll wake up, they'll have breakfast
or whatever, and then they walk throughout the kind of
throughout campus and you know, hick hands and do all
the things with the fans and everybody else who isn't
on that travel list is at home for that night

(58:34):
and then you're, uh, you're expected to wake up the
next morning and you know, find transportation to the game
and be in the locker room, you know, an hour
and a half before they get there, so that when
the travel roster gets there, you're you're ready to go.
And it was tough because, you know, I stayed on

(58:55):
campus my first year, but it was COVID, so nobody
really went to the game. So I was able to
just kind of, you know, move around. Nobody really asked
me questions. But then my second year, I would park
on campus and I would walk to the stadium. Now
you get the same gear, you get all the same stuff.
So I'm loaded up in this this big red travel sue,
big backpack, deffle back, all this stuff. I'm walking through campus.

(59:16):
There's dads, there's parents, tail games, all this stuff, and
looking at me like, what's going on with this kid?
I'm like, yeah, Like I'm about to walk to the stadium,
go through security, and get into the locker room. But
walking through this the campus like that by myself, when
I knew that the guys were in the hotel eating
breakfast together and doing all those things and getting ready
to come. Because the most deflating things in the game day,

(59:38):
like I would get to the locker room, there's you know,
the rest of the travel guys, but we kind of
you know, one or two guys at the time. So
you come in there's like ten or twelve guys there.
You dap those dudes up, but you're just sitting your
locker and you're on your phone, just waiting for the
rest of the guys to get there. Nothing to really
eat for real, no things, and everybody else who's in
the locker room or the equipment people of the trainers

(01:00:00):
who are getting ready for the day, so they're just
you know, going about the thing, and the rest of
us are just kind of sitting there, you know, looking
at the clock, like you know when the rest of
guys gonna get here. And then you you hear the
crowd cheering and stuff, you know, like you know they're
walking in, and then you stand up and you know
there's the rest of the seventy guys who are getting
ready to suit up that day, all there together, and

(01:00:21):
it's it was kind of the worst feeling on Saturdays,
knowing that like you put in the same amount of
work they did all week long, that you know, walking
in and being with the team was too much to
ask in a way that they just kind of I
would say segregated, but like they like split us up there,
like you know you can't you can't participate in that, bro,
I'm not gonna lie to you. Uh, there's not many

(01:00:42):
and this is not to be negative, but there just
doesn't sound like there's a ton of like enjoyable features
to being a walk on on Ohio States football team
or probably any football team because you're at like the
highest of highs like they are, they're top dog. So
like if you're if you're walking at some mid major
football school, I couldn't even imagine how much worse it is,

(01:01:03):
like because that you know, it's not to say like
that's worse, Like I kind of understand the dynamic like
why it is the way it is to a certain extent,
but like it doesn't sound worth it, and it also
doesn't really sound like you guys are really needed. And
I'm not you know, I'm not trying to be a dick.
Sometimes I question the same thing with myself as like
is this how much is this walk on role really needed?
And when you hear stuff like that, it's like you

(01:01:25):
just want to be a part of the team. You
want to feel like everything you're doing is like because
you're you're you know, you're giving everything team. You want
to feel like, man, like I'm on this team. Like
when seventy other dudes are eating and sleeping at the
hotel and you know, you and the rest of the
guys are just in the dorm room and you're walking
through like it's just like you don't feel part of it,
like you really. There had to be a sense of like, Okay,

(01:01:46):
I'm on this team. I have a locker, I have
a jersey, I have some gear and stuff, but like,
I'm not really on this team, like and I mean,
we could be here all day if it was really
you know, going through all these things. Because last year
was COVID spread out guys. So we have a hundred
and twenty lockers or something locker room, but they want
to go every other locker to keep the guy spread out,

(01:02:07):
like they had just stay in the hotel and things together.
So the rest of the guys who didn't travel, which
were essentially just the walk Ons and a couple special teams, guys,
we're upstairs, not even in the locker room. So I
remember my first game, my first home game, I went
to check the locker room out there, like, yeah, you
guys are upstairs. I went upstairs. It was all my stuff,
you know, folded up together and like this foldout chair

(01:02:28):
my name played on it, so I knew that was mine.
I'm sitting there and I just looked at the locker
room and I had to go upstairs and just like
you know, thirty chairs or whatever. And it's like, man, like,
I'm happy to be buck. I got the big on
my chest and everything like that. But it's like music
is blasting downstairs and all this kind of stuff and
I'm sitting up with my you know, chair, on my
phone and stuff. And it was it was a very
separate feeling like you had to be up there, but

(01:02:50):
you weren't allowed to just go, you know, sit on
a chair near you know, justin Fields or so or
whoever your boy was. It wasn't the players, like the
dudes and you know, seeing me like Mark, what's up?
Like where have you been? I was like, you know, well,
if it was upstairs and they're confused because it's not
them who you know, picks this stuff out like it
was their choice, we'd all be doing everything together. But um,

(01:03:11):
you could. But it was just for like a pride
thing for me, Like I wanted to stay up there
because you know, I gotta call like, hey, we're trying
to cut down numbers of guys on a warm ups.
We don't want you to do warm ups either, So
it's like, why am I going downstairs and I hear
everybody's going out for warm ups. I can't do warm ups,
So I'm just gonna chill up here so that I
ain't gotta watch everybody else leave and do like that
because you at the beginning that was I was tough

(01:03:32):
to hear, but then I got used to it and
become that. Yeah, so like you just said, like you
you know, you get told to get off this drill.
You get told we need a lesson, we don't need
as many guys for warmups. Like you're taking jab after
jab throughout your two years, Like how are you responding?
Like in the moment, it can't be easy and it's

(01:03:53):
got to be like this, man, what the fund is
going on right now? Like like like what is in
your mind when it hits you and then what is
in your mind that you're learning from these things? Like
what are these subtle little kind of you know disrespectful
in a way, their disrespectful moments, like what are they
teaching you? Like in the long run. I mean, my
parents always told me life wasn't fair, it's not equal.

(01:04:13):
And if I was one of the guys who I
wasn't a big fame guy in high school anyway, Like
it was always team atmosphere there too, so I wasn't
ever the guy. So that transition wasn't as tough as
it could be for guys who were the superstar was,
you know, doing everything like that for their home team.
But to get up there and to to realize that,
you just had to chalk it up to you know,

(01:04:34):
that's what life was like because weekend and week out,
something was basically happening once a week, and if it wasn't,
you could always kind of on Tuesday tackle period where
it was just basically skill walk ones lining up and
running at our defense and we were you know, the
tackle dummies for for ten minutes on Tuesdays every week.
You just getting you got you got one cut, you

(01:04:58):
had they told you which direction to run. You can
only make one cut and you couldn't lower your shoulder
and just try to like completely run them over because
we would get yelled at when kids are getting hurt
like that. So you were essentially you had to get
low to protect yourself, but you weren't you know, going
head to head trying to you know, knock them out
because we want to protect our defensive guys. So you

(01:05:20):
were essentially just tackled for ten minutes. And it's only
the scouts. It's only the Scout team guys because they
don't want to put scholarship guys out there. So this
year it was only five of us and there's probably
twenty dbs and we're just going over and over and
over and over again for this you know, six minute
temper period. Just you know, you're getting tet off. Yeah right, yeah,

(01:05:43):
that is just like talk about another deflating feeling like
you're just getting five, six, seven, eight minutes in a
row of just abuse, accepted abuse. And the crazy thing
is it's like if because I used to stiff form,
like that is my thing high school. I did it
my first year. I kind of got yelled at like
you know, hey, it was the defensive period. You're not

(01:06:05):
supposed to make them look bad, like if you make
a miss. It's like you know, ah, that's okay, but
the way that they cheer when these guys make these hits,
it's like, you know, like I'm not Oh my god,
I know, I know exactly what you're talking about. We
do this drill. It's like a three man uh. They're
kind of running like a simulation of like our continuity offense,
and the two big start on the block and the

(01:06:27):
point guard is up at the top of the key
and it literally just turns into a dunk fest, like
because we are like the two guys guarding the bigs
are just constantly going, We're not getting a subp, so
we're going, going, going, going, And so like each time
one big comes off, the next two bigs come on
fresh and like it's a it's a dunk fest, and
all the guys are screaming and going crazy, and it's
like we're not allowed to swipe down. We're only allowed

(01:06:49):
to wall wall straight up, like no real jumping and
contesting the shot. And it's like, dude, you're literally like okay, fine,
like I'm gonna walk on, fine, but like, don't set
me up to fail, like it's summer work out. Let
me jump with them, let me like contest with them
a little bit, I'll know my limits. I won't hurt them,
I won't whatever jam his finger like, but it's like, damn,
like you guys are cheering. I have these ten limitations

(01:07:11):
on me. And that's the only reason you're allowed to
be doing this stuff you're doing. You're not dunking on
someone like that, You're not hitting someone, you know, when
you're saying in a game like that, it's like, it's
just I don't know. The set up for failure thing
is so funny because it's like you want me out
here competing and I'm trying to be competitive blah blah blah,
but I can't can't even really be as competitive as
I want to. I got I got one more quick one.

(01:07:32):
Like we're at the Rose Both site. We only tackle
you know, one day like full go, and then we
started taking off iPads just to you know, keep the
guys fresh. So it's on one of those Wednesdays where
we only are in shoulder pads but no no leg pads,
like no knee pads or anything. And so that's how
we knew as walk on, like if we got through
the week without kneepads, like we how to do tackles.

(01:07:54):
So if we didn't do it on Tuesday, we were
smooth because Wednesday we took the knee pads off. So
it's Wednesday of the Rose all week, no kneepads or anything.
And they blow whiz for tackle circuit again. I'm like,
we just did this yesterday, Like what are we doing.
We go off and it's supposed to be a tag
off period, and so you go, give the guy a
little move and he just firms up on you, but
nothing to the ground. We're going, We're going, We're going,

(01:08:15):
and this one kid just keeps messing up and he's
not being physical enough and he has to play this week,
so they're just hyping him up. So I have to
keep going with this kid because he's just not doune
up hard enough. Next thing I know, we go to
make a move. He goes and just tries to level me,
takes my feet and just slams me in the ground,
and everybody's cheering like, hey, you know, great job, all
this kind of stuff. I'm like, nobody told me it's

(01:08:35):
full go. Nobody told me we were going, you know,
full contact to the ground. I made no move to
kind of like lower my shoulder anything, and they're cheering,
like this kid just had this all star hitting him,
Like what are we doing? Like what does what good
does that do? Ultimately, like it's embarrassing for us to like,
I mean, you got picked up and body slammed into

(01:08:56):
the ground, like and you got a bunch of people
cheering for your I bet you, I bet of all
the people watching that you probably had less than five
people say yo, you're good, bro, like you all right,
Like you probably didn't even have three people ask you dude.
That is that's ultimately, Like what it comes down to
is sometimes it's like the embarrassment. The embarrassment level to
it is like all right, I'm doing this. I'm putting
myself out there, and like I'm really trying to help

(01:09:17):
the team. But like I mean, you're not gonna just
like pick me up and slam me, Like I mean,
I'm not a football player. So it's probably hitting my
mind a little bit differently because like if but then
if I were to get upset, I'm trying to you know,
check the kids, like, yo, you know what you're doing
now I'm in the wrong, Yes, you're yeah, why are
we doing this? Isn't that not playing? Potentially the rule
is not caring that this is putting me at risk.
Like I had just taken off the knee brace from

(01:09:40):
tackle circuits. I'm already heated that I still got to
do it and we're still going and I'm heat it.
But if I was the one to initiate something like
I'm not, yeah, God forbid, like you stick up for
yourself in an instance where like something wasn't fair. I mean, dude,
it's very funny that the parallels from your football journey
and my basketball journey and just some of the you know,

(01:10:01):
the initiations we've taken to get on the court and
on the field getting kicked off. Some of this just
I don't want to use the word unfairness. I mean,
yes it's unfair, but like I don't say it's unfair,
and I don't say it to like voice that like
I am bothered by it. Like I was bothered by it.
It was something that took some getting used to, and
I'm sure it was the same for you where it

(01:10:21):
was like I really just like I'm not accustomed to
this sort of treatment, and then once you kind of
like dove into your everyday reality of like this is
what it was for you, and it's like, Okay, fine,
I don't care that it's not fair, Like I'm just
gonna do what I can do to the best of
my ability and the opportunities that I'm giving, so on
and so forth. So what do you think like doing that?

(01:10:41):
You know, you you get kicked, you get sort of
kicked off the team, you get put back on the team,
You ride out this second year, you go to the
Rose Bowl, you get to experience that, and then at
the end of the year, you ultimately step away, Like
where do you feel like these two years have taken you?
Like what do you feel like they've done for you
that you'll take with you? You know, be able to
look back on some of these, you know, not so

(01:11:03):
fun experiences, but experiences that you can take with you
and I bet in a couple of years because it's
the same for me, Like you wouldn't trade them. Like
you saw a bunch of stuff. You got to experience
a bunch of things ultimately like help shape you into
a better man and cattle and catapulted you into pursuing
your your bigger dreams. So what do you think you're

(01:11:24):
going to take away from you know, some of these
not so pretty moments and and even some of the
good ones, but just this experience as a whole that
as you step away, put your eggs into this, you know,
this basket of financial advisor and what you want to pursue,
Like what do you feel like this is is giving
you in terms of when you pursue this next path? Connections?
I mean, just the people I've met these past two

(01:11:46):
years and just becoming genuinely you know, brothers with a
lot of these guys, guys that from the outside looking
in like you here, I'm ana walk on you hear
you know, because as a first overall draft pick coming
up this year, like you would never think how close
we were throughout the season, how much we would laugh
and joke and you know, do all these kind of
things where it's not just receivers in general, Like you know,

(01:12:06):
I just ran into Trey Henderson yesterday or not yesterday,
a few days ago out on campus and the way
we just kind of reconnected, like, hey, bro, how have
you been you know, what have you been doing lately?
Things like that where the brotherhood is real when you
know you hear about OHI I was staying things like that.
But if We're being honest, it's really between just the players,
like coaches will cheat guys a little differently based on

(01:12:27):
this and this and that, but everybody within the program,
player for player. If if you buy into what it
is that you know, the team is about, the culture,
the friendships, the connections, the everything is just gonna you know,
that's the most impactful thing. And so that's something I'm
never gonna you know, take for granted, where I'd rather

(01:12:47):
have done everything and experienced everything the way that I did,
knowing that I got to get as close as I
was to all of those guys where you know, regardless
of if I'm not playing, we're still close. I still
get text insted that I still good phone calls and
things like that, and it's like you pick off, pick
up right where you left off whenever you see him next.
It's that's the best part. It's super cool too, because

(01:13:08):
with all the separation that you kind of experience that
you've explained, like you still were able to cultivate, you know,
good relationships with a lot of those guys. You know,
I bet that that's something I will hold hold true
for you is because it's the same with everybody, especially
all the people that I talked to on the podcast
is like the connections they make, their relationships that they build,
like they really are like you know, something that you

(01:13:28):
wouldn't trade because like especially all the ship you gotta
go through, Like I mean, it's the same Like I
look at my first two years of college and I'm like, well,
how did I not gone through that? Like I wouldn't
have these fifteen dudes that are some of my best friends,
like see would trade for the world. And you know,
I think that that's an important thing to not overlook.
And also it's it's a little bit more of a

(01:13:48):
comforting thought to know, like, alright, I came out of here.
You know, this was a little rough, is a little tough,
but like came out of here with knowing some good people,
meeting some good people. Um. The last thing I want
to ask, and I asked what you were kind of taught,
what you kind of will learn and take from this? Um?
But what has like seeing that world, seeing this side
of college football and now kind of going into your

(01:14:09):
next you know, endeavor as you finish up your last
two years and get your degree, Like what do you
think it's done seeing this world done? For your perspective
on life, on yourself, just how you kind of see things.
It was really just it was a learning experience. You know,
I didn't come from a super athletic family or anything
like that where this was an expectation or reality that

(01:14:30):
we were used to. So every step of the way
it was something new, and just being able to to
learn from that and have wisdom with you know, maybe
my kids or the next you know, great player to
come through my school where they can know, you know, hey,
you know Marvel went through this process. Give him a
call and see if he can give you any information.
Like sometimes I get d M s from just you know,
guys who heard about me from the area, just asking

(01:14:52):
me questions, and like I always try to respond and
always try to give information when I can, because I
wish I had somebody who was older than who could
kind of show me the way, teach me, you know,
some of the things I could have expected when I
got here. So just taking it all in as like
a learning experience and and knowing that for whoever I
can pass this information to for the next time will be,

(01:15:13):
you know, that much better off than I was when
I started. But I'm just glad that you know, people
can really get a perspective on on why it is
that you know, I make the decisions I make and
how life kind of sways this way because you know,
you'll tell people, hey, you know I got an internship,
or uh, you know I'm stepping away from football, you know,

(01:15:33):
even back home or friends are like, man, you played
for Ohio State, Like that's so cool. Millions of guys
want to do what you're doing, and it's like, you know,
lots of kids want to do it, lots of people
want to be in my shoes. But it's like it's
all great when you're hosting up the Sugar Bowl Trophy
of the Rose Bowl Trophy and I will never forget those.
But it's like if you knew what happened every single

(01:15:53):
day leading up to those points, you know, at some
point like shakes itself out, like you have one good
day or or you know, a week's worth of good days,
but you've already gone through six months of like struggle.
Ship is real, and so just being able to voice
that so people understand like it's not all you know,
what people make it seem on camera and having all

(01:16:14):
that stuff like it's more free gear. No, man, I
appreciate you shining the light on it. And you know,
the idea here is like anybody listening, you know, to
find inspiration from a story like this. And honestly, I
think it's cool because you know now that this is
out there in a couple of years, like whatever you're
doing and wherever you're at, like you come back on

(01:16:34):
the pod and you shine light on like how you'll
have a better perspective even then, like four or five
years from now, and like what really being a walk
on did for you because you're only you're just you
just exited the mix, like you just got out of it.
So like when you're really close to it, when you're
very close to a situation, sometimes it's hard to you know,
kind of analyze everything right away. And it's just it's

(01:16:55):
so fresh. It's the last two years of your life.
Like it's literally it's all you know right now. Five
years from now, when you get away from this ship,
you're gonna have a ton more perspective and a ton
of memories that pop up and and flare up on
you that you're like, Okay, that's why this is this,
that's why I am that, And it all kind of
pieces itself together. I know for me it's done the
same exact thing, like I'm I been my last year

(01:17:15):
of being a walk on, but like I have four
years prior to this to already have reflected on and
three different schools, you know, to kind of circulate with.
So I mean, I just want people that are that
are listening to hear the inspiration or find the inspiration,
you know, because there's there's a lot of a lot
of good stuff here, um and it's great for people here.

(01:17:37):
So I want people to understand like that you live
a walk on journey that like, regardless of you signing
up for it, you didn't have a written contract of
every little thing that you were going to endure during
that time. Everything that popped up in your experience was
like completely spontaneous for you. You You had no you had
zero clue any of those things were going to occur.

(01:17:59):
So that battle tested you, like you took those jobs.
You took them right to the jaw, you took them
right to the chest, you took a body slam right
into the turf, like you know, like and you had
to you had to respond, you had to keep it rolling.
And so like I want you to, you know, finish
it up with just like what you hope. You know,
people can gain from from listening, you know, to your story,

(01:18:20):
just that you know, everybody's story is different, you know,
just from the guys I've seen come before me. You know,
I have a a buddy who is in the NFL
right now who started as a walk on here. And
so just because this is how my story works, this
is you know, what was beneficial to me. Does it
mean that you know, being a walk on at a
big university is terrible anywhere you go, or that it's
amazing anywhere you go. It's really individual to you, your

(01:18:43):
mind set, your ability, the approach that you take and
things like that. So just the more that people can
hear both sides, the good and the bad, and just
kind of my biggest thing is if you have all
the information, you make the decision based on what you
want to do, not sign up for something hoping it's
one way or thinking it's one thing. Then you get
into mixing it's completely different. You know, if you love

(01:19:04):
to do it, do it. If you don't really think
you can do it or don't want to do it,
that's fine. But I feel like everybody should know the
whole story, the full information, and be able to gauge
your interests, your love for based on that preach. I
appreciate you coming on sharing your story, Um and really
laying it out there. You know, you didn't go through
two easy years. You went through some stuff that I'm
sure a lot of people after one job would have

(01:19:26):
been gone, after two jobs would have been like, all right,
I probably can't do this and you know quit pretty quickly.
Like to write it out, to give that much to
a program and to a team who really didn't really
give a ship to you know, improve that to give
it back to you, and that's not a shot at
a house state, Like it's not a knock on them,
like this is just the circumstances, is the way of
the world, that this is how some of this stuff

(01:19:48):
kind of unfolds for people. But it's a true testament
to your strength, your perseverance and you know you as
a person. So I appreciate you sharing your story, appreciate
you coming on the pod Man, and I hope everybody
who listened um enjoyed our story. So thank you, brother,
absolutely thanks for having me. That's a rap, what a banger. Um,
Marv is a fucking beast, and I couldn't have enjoyed
putting this interview together more for him, because man, he

(01:20:10):
deserves it, and I'm just glad I was able to
help put his journey and his story together into this
podcast and put it out there for people to listen
to and to learn something from and to find inspiration from.
Because the adversity and the grind and the battle that
he went through every day for two years and just
constantly putting himself out there and putting himself in uncomfortable

(01:20:30):
situations after uncomfortable situations just to continue growing and learning
and becoming a better person is ultimately just why this
is so amazing. And uh, like I said, Marv is
a great guy. Talking to him was super fun. You know,
we chopped it up for probably fifty five minutes another
hour after the episode wrapped, just kicking him. Marvel's is
a great dude, and um, you know, like I said,

(01:20:51):
really enjoyed being able to put this out there for him,
and I just hope that everybody who listened also enjoyed
big things that come from Marv. And I'll have more
on mar on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok throughout the weeks,
uh and you can find that on the Walkie Talkie
Socials at w t Z podcast to continue highlighting his
amazing story and journey. Super grateful for him coming on

(01:21:11):
the show. And that's it. I gotta wrap it up here.
We've gone too long already today. So you know, whoever
did stick with us throughout the entirety of this episode,
much love to you, very much, appreciate it, um, but
we'll cut it here. Remember, please subscribe to the pod
to be notified every week when new episodes come out,
and please leave the show review if you enjoyed this
or even if you didn't enjoy it, let us know

(01:21:32):
what you think. All reviews are appreciated, So thanks again, guys,
and we'll be back next week and remember double's Up You.
Walkie Talkies podcast has been a presentation of I Heart
Radio and the College Athletes Network.

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EP #7 | Ohio St. Football Walk-on WR - Marvin Davies |

Episode Transcript

Host

Noah Buono

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}EP #7 | Ohio St. Football Walk-on WR - Marvin Davies |