The gift of Carnell Tate: "We attacked the training room each and every day. Now here I am rolling."

Ohio State's junior receiver said he always had a plan to be back when the Buckeyes really needed him

Carnell Tate has 48 catches for 838 yards this season. (Photo by Doug Lesmerises)

ARLINGTON, Texas — In the moment, it felt like Carnell Tate might be added to the list of Ohio State what-ifs, those talented Buckeyes whose final seasons were torpedoed by injury or off-field actions.

Cris Carter’s ineligibility in 1987 and Terrelle Pryor’s NCAA issues in 2011. Nick Bosa’s torso injury after the third game in 2018 and Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s hamstring injury in the opener that wiped out almost all of his 2022. The foot injury that limited Keith Byars in 1985. Even Braxton Miller’s shoulder injury that kept him out in 2014 and turned him from a quarterback into a receiver for 2015.

Tate felt something in warmups against Purdue. He confirmed this week that’s when the injury first cropped up, that it hadn’t happened in a game, and while he never said specifically what it was, the presumption is a soft tissue issue.

In those moments, as Tate went from 124 receiving yards against Penn State, to standing on the sideline in uniform against Purdue the next week, to out against UCLA, to out against Rutgers, thoughts of Smith-Njigba entered the minds of many watching the Buckeyes.

A JSN hamstring injury against Notre Dame in the opener in 2022 led to a missed game and an aborted comeback against Toledo two weeks later, and then another rest period and a final failed attempt to get back on the field against Iowa another five weeks later.

Sixty total snaps, five catches, 43 yards in the farewell season of a receiving star currently leading the NFL in yardage. It was a season of regret all around, with Smith-Njigba feeling he’d rushed back and ruined his season.

“That’s Jaxon’s body,” Tate said this week of that comparison. “Me and Jaxon have two different bodies.”