Ohio State football assistant Al Washington says OSU program is unique because of this …

Ohio State assistant Al Washington says there’s something that makes Ohio State football’s brotherhood unique compared to other programs.

Ohio State football assistant coach Al Washington is a Columbus native so he knew about the Buckeye program from simply being around it. I mean, if you go out in the rain, you’re going to get wet.

But he had really known the program from the inside until Ryan Day tapped him on the shoulder to leave Michigan – er, That Team Up North, and come join his staff in Columbus. Now he not only understands the program from what you see and hear around town, but he is now in the trenches and engrained in the DNA of the program.

He can compare programs too. He’s had stops at NC State as a grad assistant, and both Boston College and TTUN as an assistant coach in the major college arena. College coaches are always touring around at conventions and clinics too, so they get a peek behind the curtain at a lot of programs just from being in the coaching fraternity.

According to Washington, there’s one thing that’s awfully unique to the Ohio State program that he believes sets it apart. It came up when he was asked during media availability last week if the older guys in the linebacking corps are being pushed.

“That’s the competitive culture we have,” said Washington. “And I’ll say this though — and this is unique to Ohio State, at least in my experiences. They are being pushed, but unlike any other place, I think our older guys do a great job of helping the young guys. Like I could tell you the countless times Baron (Browning) is working with somebody, or Tuf’s working with somebody, Pete’s working with somebody. And that really is unique, and I think that speaks to the brotherhood.”

Now we won’t say where that might not be happening, and I’m sure this goes on at other programs Washington has not gotten to experience, but we hear countless times about the family atmosphere at Ohio State, and this is just one more example.

It would be interesting to get Greg Mattison’s take on this too. He’s been around the block a time or two and inside multiple programs and you wonder if he sees the same thing.

 

* Lori Schmidt contributed to this story.

 

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