Nate Salley Reflects on His Time at Ohio State – Ohio State Buckeyes
12/30/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 30, 2005
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – It seems like a long time since Buckeye safety Nate Salley first stepped on the Ohio State campus. Actually, those initial foot prints came long before Buckeye fans saw him take to the field.
His official visit to campus was an eye-opening experience.
“The first thing that caught my eye was when I saw the `Shoe,” Salley, then a multi-sport athlete in football, basketball and track at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., said. “I had never seen anything that big before. After hearing all the great stories about the stadium and seeing it on TV every once in a while, seeing it in person, kind of opened my eyes like crazy.”
When Salley eventually matriculated to Ohio State prior to the 2002 season, it was a big deal for him. He was the first person in his immediate family to attend college and that first week of fall camp brought good feelings.
“Going to those first few practices, I was happy and grateful that I was in college,” Salley said. “It was a real happy feeling because none of my immediate family had ever gone to college. That was a huge thing for me; to graduate (from high school) and get to Ohio after coming from Florida and being able to say I’m in college and doing something positive with my life. It just felt great to be doing something with my life.”
Part of a highly regarded recruiting class, Salley made an immediate impact, playing mostly on special teams all 14 games in a season that culminated with a national championship after a 31-24 double-overtime victory over defending titlist Miami (Fla.) in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.
“Definitely winning the national championship was a huge memory while I was here,” Salley said. “That, along with being with all my teammates, those are some great memories; all the fun times we had on and off the field. We had a lot of fun. We had great camaraderie.” The most memorable game for him personally, though, came the next year. It was the season opener against Washington in a primetime game at Ohio Stadium.
“I didn’t start, but that was the first time I really played,” Salley said. “I had a big hit in that game near the sideline and had a chance to hear the crowd go crazy. That was one of the most memorable things. That is when I realized it was my time to play after watching (Michael) Doss and Donnie (Nickie) for a whole year when I was a freshman. That was kind of the point when I found out it was my time, along with Tyler (Everett) and all of us, it was our time to step up.”
His class leaves quite a legacy and the group, now totaling 16 members, will be trying to tie the school record with its 43rd win in four years on Monday when it leads the Buckeyes in a meeting against Notre Dame in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. The group head coach Jim Tressel brought to campus his second season at the helm of the Buckeye program has won a national championship, two Big Ten championships, has won three of four games from Michigan and is in search of its fourth straight win in a bowl game.
“It shows the type of character that coach Tress wants here; the type of guy he recruits, guys like us, our class,” Salley, now one of four co-captains, said. “We have been persistent and haven’t given up. We’ve been through ups and downs. We had people who left the team that were in our class, but we kept on pushing and moving forward and we kept believing in one another and this team and our coaches. We had changes to the coaching staff and all kinds of things have gone on, but we remained optimistic and stayed positive through everything.”
Salley’s eyes are now set on his final game in the scarlet and gray, the matchup with Notre Dame in a bowl he and his teammates have come to know well. The third trip to the Fiesta Bowl in the last four years has a familiar feel.
“My big memory from the Fiesta Bowl is winning the national championship, but the people here have treated us really nice,” Salley, a first-team All-Big Ten pick as a senior, said. “We always have great weather and that reminds me of home. With this being our third time out here, it is like a second home for us. It feels like in January this is our place to be.”
