In 'surreal' career, Pat Elflein at center of Ohio State's success

PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. — On a wall inside the Ohio State’s indoor practice facility at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, two dozen photographs of the team’s major award winners hang. There’s Archie Griffin and Chris Spielman and Eddie George and Orlando Pace and Troy Smith and James Laurinaitis and so many others, spanning so many years. And then, after Malcolm Jenkins, who won the Thorpe Award as the nation’s best defensive back in 2008, there are no more.

What’s more surprising, someone asked Buckeyes center Pat Elflein — that there hasn’t been another photo hung despite all of Ohio State’s success, especially since Urban Meyer arrived? Or that Elflein’s smiling mug shot will end the drought?

He just laughs.

“Both,” says Elflein, who was awarded the Rimington Trophy as the nation’s best center. “Both are pretty weird.”

He also describes it as “surreal,” which frankly is a pretty good way to sum up Elflein’s entire college career at Ohio State — or that he’s even had a career at Ohio State. The Buckeyes offered the local kid from Pickerington North only after a more highly rated recruit decommitted. His first meaningful action came as a redshirt freshman, when a starter was ejected at Michigan. This time last year, he considered an early departure for the NFL draft, like nine of his teammates did.

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Instead, Elflein came back for his senior season, moved from guard to center and became the linchpin for a very talented but young offensive line. And then he became the poster child for players who decide to stay in school — almost literally; if not an actual poster, he’ll get his own place on the wall with other Ohio State greats.

“It was a no-brainer for me,” Elflein says. “It’s paid off 1,000 percent. I don’t think you could ask for a better fifth year.”

It’s worked out for the Buckeyes, too. By now the wonder of Ohio State’s precocious talent translating into Playoff-level performance has worn off, but it bears repeating. After losing 12 players to the NFL draft, Ohio State returned only six starters, the fewest of any FBS team. And yet at 11-1, the Buckeyes will face Clemson in a Fiesta Bowl semifinal on Saturday, and no one would be surprised if they won and advanced to the championship game.

But if it’s an amazing reload, there was also some important returning leadership, beginning with the 6-3, 300-pounder who slid seamlessly into one of the most important, if largely unheralded positions.

“It makes us so much better as a team,” says quarterback J.T. Barrett, who like Elflein is one of three remaining starters (left guard Billy Price is the other) from the 2014 national championship team. “His leadership, helping the offensive line out, understanding the culture we’ve had. He’s been there.”

And he’s done that. Elflein and Price — who like Elflein was named an All-American — helped the Buckeyes overcome the loss of three offensive line starters. While the line has been inconsistent (“Sometimes we look like the best offensive line in the country,” Elflein says, “and sometimes we can look the opposite of that”), Ohio State averaged almost 43 points and ranks ninth nationally in rushing, with a 258.3-yard average.

“They are the backbone of who we are and what we do,” Meyer says. “Zero probability that Ohio State’s where we are without them. On top of that, they’re as good of people as you’ll find. Great students, great people and exceptional leaders.”

For Elflein, who graduated with a communications degree last spring, it remains, well, surreal. He was the lowest-ranked recruit in Ohio State’s class of 2012. He was considering Northwestern and Cincinnati when the Buckeyes offered a scholarship. Amid the continuing turmoil after the forced exit of former coach Jim Tressel, Kyle Kalis had switched his commitment to Michigan, of all places. Elflein, who like his parents grew up a Buckeyes fan, didn’t need much convincing.

“There was no hesitation,” says Lisa Elflein, his mother. “It was done, no questions asked. And it’s been awesome, awesome.”

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After redshirting in 2012, Elflein’s first real action came in the final game of the 2013 season — yeah, The Game, when guard Marcus Hall was ejected for fighting (and flipped off the fans in Ann Arbor, Mich., as he left the field). He moved into the starting lineup then and never left. He grew gradually into a stalwart, and then a standout — this season, he was a unanimous All-American. At least as important might be his status as one of the Buckeyes’ captains.

Meyer, who calls Elflein one of the best leaders he’s coached, says when he learned in December 2015 that unlike so many other teammates, Elflein would return for his fifth season, it was “one of the best days I’ve ever had as a coach — that’s how valuable he is.” Ed Warinner, the Buckeyes’ offensive coordinator (and former offensive line coach; he now coaches the tight ends), likened it to luring a five-star recruit to campus, if he was a three-year starter.

So yeah, it’s been surreal.

“I never thought I would start here coming as a freshman,” Elflein says, “let alone that my picture would be up there (on the wall). … It’s just been a crazy career for me. I never thought I would be in this position.”

Looking back, Elflein says the decision to return for his senior season was “easy.”

“I knew I was a good football player, but I knew there was a lot of room for improvement still,” he says. “Sometimes guys should go early. I wasn’t ready to go early, and it’s paid off.”

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