In today’s college football world, you don’t see players sticking around for a full four years much anymore, let alone a fifth. COVID-19 gave players an extra year if they wanted it, and Tanner McCalister took full advantage, following Jim Knowles from Oklahoma State to Columbus.
McCalister was key in helping implement Knowles’ new system at Ohio State. Although the last two games didn’t live up to anyone’s defensive expectations, Ohio State was clearly a much-improved defense from a year ago and part of that was due to having the veteran McCalister directing the secondary. A new system can be tough to grasp, so having someone who knew the system well helped ease the learning curve for the OSU defensive backs.
