No doubts for OSU's Laurinaitis

COLUMBUS - It was a sure thing. A best bet.

James Laurinaitis was going to leave Ohio State after his junior season to enter the NFL draft.

All the draft projections said he wouldn't last past the first 10 picks in the draft. Millions of dollars awaited. If he needed any reassurance, former teammate A.J. Hawk told him he could play and play well in the pros right now.

But when it came time to jump, he stayed at Ohio State.

Laurinaitis has been explaining that decision ever since he made it in January. And, though it might puzzle other people, he says it really wasn't that complicated.

The 6-foot, 3-inch, 240-pound senior was one of several Ohio State juniors who could have left for the pros.

Laurinaitis, Malcolm Jenkins, Alex Boone, Brian Robiskie and Marcus Freeman all stayed, while teammate Vernon Gholston went on to sign a contract with the New York Jets that guaranteed him $21 million.

Thanks to those decisions to stay, Ohio State is in the fortunate position of having 20 returning starters from last season's 11-2 BCS national runner-up team. Nine of those starters are from a defense that led the country in fewest points allowed last year, surrendering only 12.8 a game.

The juniors who stayed talked with each other about their decisions. Eventually, they presented a unified front.

First Jenkins announced he was returning. A few days later Laurinaitis followed suit. Then the rest fell into line.

Undoubtedly, the teammates influenced each other. "If somebody in that group might have said they were leaving, then it could have been the type of situation where everyone left," Butkus Award winner Laurinaitis said.

The chance to win a national title if he returned played a role, but not necessarily as large a role as people might imagine.

"I was talking to Marcus Freeman after the BCS championship game and he said, ‘You can't make a decision to come back just on trying to get to the national championship game because we understand how hard it is to get there, let alone try to win it," Laurinaitis said.

And his call to Hawk was about more than just his chances of playing early in the NFL. Hawk also said no to the pros after his junior year, then was picked No. 5 overall by Green Bay after his senior season.

"He said he wanted to experience his senior year and I kind of felt the same way. I'm excited about how my senior year might play out."

In the end, though, Laurinaitis' decision was personal, made for his reasons, not for his teammates' reasons or for A.J. Hawk's reasons.

"My dad and mom made a list of the pros and cons. They felt I made a good decision," Laurinaitis said.

"I'm a man of faith. If I get hurt, it wasn't God's will for me to play football. I'm comfortable with that. Maybe some guys aren't comfortable with that and are thinking, ‘You idiot, take the money.' But there are always avenues to go down other than football."