First Posted: 10/15/2014
COLUMBUS — He’s a sturdy, dependable four-door sedan at a car show where the main attractions are Corvettes and Mustangs.
Ohio State senior starting wide receiver Evan Spencer has earned the respect of his coaches with hard work, discipline, knowledge of the game and his ability to do the often unnoticed things, mainly blocking.
What he doesn’t have is a collection of memorable highlight plays.
Ohio State has a long list of big-play “skill” players – Devin Smith, Michael Thomas, Dontre Wilson, Jalin Marshall and Ezekiel Elliott, to name a few.
Smith has made a career out of big plays. Eleven of his 23 career touchdown catches have been for 40 yards or more. Spencer is at the other end of the spectrum. He has never caught a pass longer than 44 yards.
He has 42 catches, five of them for touchdowns, in 35 games in four seasons at Ohio State. This season, he has one touchdown catch and has caught 2, 0, 1, 1 and 1 passes in five games for the Buckeyes (4-1, 1-0 Big Ten). He ranks ninth on the team in catches.
Apparently those numbers don’t reflect Spencer’s value to the team. Or OSU’s coaches feel they owe him a big debt of gratitude for embracing roles not all wide receivers are enthusiastic about.
Probably not many people would have put the words Spencer and NFL in the same sentence, except when talking about his dad, Tim, a former Ohio State and NFL running back.
But OSU offensive coordinator Tom Herman did that earlier this week. “In my opinion he should have a pretty decent career at the next level just because he’s so versatile and can do so many things.
“He’s probably our most complete receiver when it comes to understanding the offense, understanding all three positions at wide receiver and the element that he brings in the run game in terms of his ability to block,” Herman said.
Spencer said winning trumps personal statistics for him. “It comes with its difficulties but my No. 1 goal is to win. I’m the most competitive person I know.
“At the end of the day whatever I have to do to make our team win, I’m going to do it. Whether that means I touch the ball 100 times a game or I touch the ball zero and I’ve got to secure the edge (blocking) then I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do,” he said. “I get the most pleasure from winning games.”
