RISING STAR
From early age, Ohio State receiver Garrett Wilson was destined for stardom
Other pickup teams had tried unsuccessfully all week to beat the Wilsons in 4-on-4 basketball during their cruise a decade ago. No surprise there, really. Kenneth Wilson was a Hall of Fame basketball player at Davidson, scoring 1,573 career points. His three oldest sons — Cameron, Donovan and Shea — were also standout athletes.
But when someone suggested the games expand to 5on-5, the Wilsons had to employ Kenneth and Candace's youngest son, 10-year-old Garrett, who had been confined to watching the action. Finally, the adults who'd taken it on the chin figured they had their chance. What 10-year-old could hang with adults?
“But we knew,” Kenneth Wilson said. “His brothers and I knew.”
The first time Garrett got the ball at the top of the key, the defender dared him to shoot. Garrett drained it. Next time, the defender got in his face. Garrett dribbled through his legs, pulled up and made a jumper. Again and again, he lit up the grown-ups.
“Garrett scores like five, six, seven, eight in a row before the guy realized this was no ordinary 10-year-old,” Kenneth said. “And his brothers and I were just looking at him, like this kid is unbelievable.”
Garrett Wilson has always made it look easy as an athlete. The junior's combination of speed, hands and especially body control has made the Ohio State junior one of the top wide receivers in the country. The Buckeyes open their season Thursday at Minnesota, and Wilson has one major goal.
“I really just want to win a national championship,” he said. “That's what I said when I decided to commit here, and I stand on that.”
One of the biggest cliches in sports is that they are games of inches, and that's true for Wilson. If he'd grown a few more, he'd probably be playing basketball instead of football.
Kenneth is 6 feet 5, but Garrett is 6 feet at most.
He was still good enough to get scholarship basketball offers from major college programs.
“It's definitely my first love,” he said of basketball. “The real deciding factor was what was a better business decision for me, being how tall I am.”
His basketball skills have transferred to football. Wilson credits his ability to contort his body to make acrobatic catches look routine to understanding angles and positioning from basketball.
“He moves different,” Ohio State wide receivers coach Brian Hartline said. “He attacks the ball differently. He's got a talent, a set of skills, that is really hard to find.”
With such natural ability, it could be easy to coast. That hasn't happened with Wilson. Hartline said his work ethic this offseason was particularly impressive as he worked on transitioning from slot to outside receiver.
“His approach and his focus on skill development has been the best it's been,” Hartline said. “He's continued to grow in that facet year after year. His effort has been off the charts. It's not a guy just sitting back and relying on talent.”
Wilson said he adopted a different mindset this summer.
“It's about making this a lifestyle for me now. It's always been about that, but when you're balancing playing three sports in high school, and you're pretty good at all of them, things can come easy,” said Wilson, who also ran track at Lake Travis High School in Austin, Texas.
“This summer, I really just honed in on being 100% where my feet were and just taking advantage of every rep I get. This summer's been huge for me, and I feel like I've never been better at this sport.”
Wilson has been plenty good in his Ohio State career. As a freshman, he caught 30 passes for 432 yards and five touchdowns. In the Covid-shortened 2020 season, he caught 43 passes for 723 yards and six scores in eight games. Wilson and Chris form probably the top
receiving duo in the country at a position group loaded with talent.
Though Wilson spent much of his youth in suburban Columbus, he didn't really grow up a Buckeye fan. He was born in Chicago but lived from ages 6-12 lived in Dublin, where Kenneth worked at Cardinal Health as a senior vice president. Kenneth is now chief operating officer for a health-care company, Modivcare.
Garrett remembers watching Terrelle Pryor play at Ohio Stadium and was a big fan of Braxton Miller. But when the Buckeyes didn't recruit his older brothers out of Dublin Jerome, he ceased being a fan. (Cameron played with Iowa and Ohio; Donovan played with Georgia Tech and Bowling Green.)
“I couldn't root for the Buckeyes if my brother was playing somewhere else,” he said.
The Wilsons are a close family. Garrett looked up to his older brothers, who let him tag along when they played sports. It didn't hurt that his athletic ability made him far better than the typical baby brother.
“Being able to throw balls with my brothers ever since I could stand up, I definitely owe a lot to my brothers as far as where I am today,” he said.
Wilson also has a special relationship with his dad.
“He's my role model, so I've always looked up to him,” Wilson said. “He's always made sure I was taken care of.”
Kenneth said Garrett was an easy kid to raise. They bonded over sports. When Garrett was little, he'd sit on his dad's lap and watch games on TV. At a young age, Garrett showed rare understanding of what he saw.
“He processes information really quickly,” Kenneth said. “He would watch and know and pay attention, and you could see him incorporate it into what he did.”
That went beyond sports. “Garrett's got a strong constitution,” his dad said. “He's got a strong mind, strong opinions. He's super respectful — as a son, as a person. I always said to him, ‘Let me be less your dad and more your friend.' There were very few occasions where I've had to be a (strict) dad to him. There have been a few because kids need guidance. But he's always been somebody who's never taken his eye too far off the prize.”
Wilson is projected as a first-round NFL draft pick next spring and the expectation is that this will be his final year at Ohio State. But people thought the same thing about Olave, who is returning for his senior year instead.
“It's always been a dream to me to be in the NFL, so if I had that opportunity I don't know how I'd react,” he said. “A lot can happen. I know we play Notre Dame Week 1 at the ‘Shoe (in 2022). That just sounds like something I don't want to miss. But we'll see how things shake out and we'll see how the season goes.” Brabinowitz@dispatch.com @brdispatch