Not every path to the sidelines in Ohio Stadium on football Saturday is the same. Garrett Hummel’s path led through a walk-on training camp in winter 2007.
Hummel heard from a friend that the OSU football team was holding tryouts, so he went, along with 95 other hopefuls trying to make one of five spots on the team.
“The combine went pretty well, so I was kind of expecting to [make it] at that point,” Hummel said.
He did make it and was ready to start training with the team right away.
He had a productive year as a junior wide receiver at Shelby High School in Shelby, Ohio, claiming all-conference and all-district honors.
Hummel did not play his senior year, however, because an injury sidelined him. He doesn’t regret the injury, though.
“I probably wouldn’t have ended up here honestly,” Hummel said.
Four years later, Hummel is in his last season as a Buckeye, but it hasn’t hit him yet that the journey is almost over.
“It doesn’t sink in because it feels like everything goes so quick,” Hummel said. “You don’t have that much time to sit around and think.”You’re kind of in the grind of everything, you’re still at practice like four or five hours a day.”
Most of Hummel’s time off the field is spent studying; he hopes to attend dental school after graduation.
Hummel maintains that balancing so much at once is about time management.
“I try to put most of my time to good use,” he said. “Most of my time is one or the other, either school or football.”
Hummel said he might want to stay involved with football down the road as a coach, but not right away.
Right now, Hummel, like the rest of the team, is focused at the task ahead, winning games.
“It’s definitely business as usual,” he said.
Through his journey at OSU, Hummel values the friendships he made on the team the most.
“Definitely the guys I spend my time with,” Hummel said. “You spend four years with those guys, you get pretty close.”
