Todd Boeckman doesn’t care what the preseason football publications say.
The Ohio State quarterback doesn’t care that four of the top college journals — Street & Smith, Athlon, Lindy’s and Phil Steele’s College Football Preview — all rank Michigan a better team than the Buckeyes and most rank Penn State and Wisconsin ahead of the Bucks, as well.
They all rate the Wolverines third to fifth in the nation. Lindy’s has Ohio State ranked 13th and the other three have the Bucks 15th.
All say that the OSU offense — which returns just five starters and lost key personnel to graduation and early flight to the NFL — will be a watered-down version of last year’s unit that averaged 34.6 p.p.g. last season.
“I don’t get caught up too much in the rankings,” said Boeckman, the fifth year junior from St. Henry who is the front-runner to replace Troy Smith.
“I know we lost a Heisman Trophy quarterback, one of the greatest ever to play here, two receivers who were first round (NFL) draft picks, a 1,000 yard rusher and all our seniors.
“They’ll be tough to replace, but that’s why we recruit. We’ve got guys with the ability to play. I know it will take some time to jell, but I don’t think it will be that big of a drop off.
“We’ve got guys who have to wait each and every year and when they get the chance, a lot become great players for us.”
And no one has had to wait longer than Boeckman.
After an All-State prep career — he threw for 7,021 yards and 64 touchdowns for the Redskins — he’s taken a long road to this coming season.
He came to Columbus in 2003 and “gray-shirted,” a limbo life as a part-time student, not participating in football practice or games during the regular season and waiting on a scholarship. Then came three seasons in the wings as Troy Smith — and Justin Zwick for a while — ran the team.
Now, as a reincarnation of Chris Weinke — as a 23-year-old junior with two seasons of eligibility left — Boeckman is No. 1 on the OSU depth chart ahead of Rob Schoenhoft and Antonio Henton.
The last time I talked to Boeckman at length was eight years ago — when he was a high school quarterback! He was a freshman then, just 15 years old, and he was near tears as he sat battered and beaten in the dressing room of Canton’s Fawcett Stadium.
He had led St. Henry High to the Division V state title game, but the Redskins had been over-powered by Amanda Clearcreek.
The other day we met again at a Columbus eatery and though he’s grown in a lot of ways, I soon realized one thing is the same.
He’s still a personable and thoughtful kid, the kind of guy who, once you talk to him, you can’t help but pull for him.
Here are some of his thoughts:
• “Back when I was a high school freshman, I was 6-foot-4 and maybe 190 pounds. A straight string bean. Now I’m about 6-5 and 240. I put on 50 pounds. A lot of that meat came in the weight room. You have to do that if you want to compete at this level.”
• “Everybody always says it’s in the water, that’s why St. Henry has so many (college) football players. But really, all it takes is one or two guys to make it, then you see how they were successful in high school and you strive to be like them and you push yourself harder and harder.”
• “Yeah, the (St. Henry) teams that go to state all get to dance across the bar at Fish-Mo’s. It’s tradition and it’s a neat experience. …Well, except for my brother, Toby. There’s a little gap up there and somehow he fell in between it and fell off the bar. At first we thought it was serious — he did something to his arm and had to go to the hospital and get stitches — but now it’s pretty funny. He’s 6-foot-7, an athlete. We hecked him a little bit on that one. We didn’t let him forget it. And now they have a piece of wood up there so nobody else falls off.”
• “The first one who brought (gray-shirting ) to our attention was Coach Daniels (OSU quarterbacks coach Joe Daniels.) It ended up being totally our choice, but it was a way for me to get a year’s separation from Troy and Justin.
“But it wasn’t easy. Not being able to go out on the field at all was tough. Really the past 3/12 or 4 years have been. You work hard and train and watch other guys and you ask yourself, ‘What am I doing this for?’ If I’m here for this long, what am I trying to get at?’ And then all of a sudden you see light at the end of the tunnel. And now here I am. I’ve got my chance. It’s what I’ve been waiting for my whole life.”
• “The past three years I’ve lived with Anthony Gonzalez and one of his friends. He’ll be leaving next week for (Indianapolis Colts) camp. Some guys from St. Henry are gonna live with me this year, but I’ll miss Anthony. He’s from a bigger city (Cleveland). I’m from a small town and he helped open my eyes to a whole different world out there.”
• “I know I’ll be battling two other quarterbacks this year and they’re both great players and good guys, but hopefully I can pull ahead. I know we’ll all push each other, but we’ve got to do what’s best for the team. The coaches told us, ‘Worry about yourself. You can’t be looking over your shoulder saying how did he do? How did he look on that last play?’
“I watched how Troy Smith and Justin did it. At first they were a little tense. They’d both been recruited and wanted to play, but you’ve got to try to stay friends,. You can’t be in a little heated argument back and forth. And if you take it the right way, you should do okay.”
• “My dad (former St. Henry football coach and now the school’s athletics director, Tim Boeckman) has always been a coach to me. He supports me now, but he knows his time is up with me and I’ve got coaches here who have been coaching so many years. My quarterbacks’ coach coached Dan Marino and, I think, Jim Kelly, too. He’s been around the block, per se. My dad knows I’m in good hands here.”
• “It seems like I’ve been here forever. I’ll be 24 by the time I get out of here. So every interview I do, someone makes a joke. It’s fine with me as long as I get a chance to make my dream come true.”
He started laughing: “But no, Archie Griffin wasn’t still playing here when I got here….It just seems that way.”
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