Shaun Wade exclusive: Ohio State prospect on Clemson redemption, Apple CEOs, building

Shaun Wade in action against Northwestern (Photo by Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire)

Shaun Wade is a self-proclaimed quiet guy, a quiet leader if you will.

He’s an indoor person. He doesn’t really party. He’ll go to the mall in his spare time but he’ll rarely buy anything, content with the clothes and sneakers he already owns. He’s a thinker, a learner, head buried in the book of life and ears open to those that need him, whenever they need him.

“I just help others, communicate with others, watch TV and workout,” he tells Sky Sports.

Simplicity veils complexity. As a student he was forever tuned in to Ohio State’s renowned prestige, maximising every relationship, every interaction, every conversation with friends and strangers, conscious of the implications. He lives to make every second, every breath count.

“You don’t know if you’ll be meeting the CEO of Apple one day or a CEO of a company that’s going to be made in the future,” he adds. “You don’t know what could happen or who you’re going to meet at Ohio State, so you’ve got to take that moment, embrace it and push for greatness off the field and on the field.”

Ohio State defensive back Shaun Wade celebrates a play against Indiana during the 2020 season. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)

“Life only happens one time”

Wade’s team-mates could count on the latest in a long line of household Ohio State defensive backs to know the playbook religiously. Leave no stone unturned, pull out all the stops, move heaven and earth, call it what you will, he has conditioned his mind to mop up every grain of information possible.

His curiosity translates into life off the football field. How many NFL players or prospects do you hear of being engrossed by water polo? Here’s one of them. And while gridiron continues to touch more corners of the earth, Wade has expanded his studies to one of England’s very own sporting masterstrokes.

“That’s something I learned, especially with the Olympics coming up I’m going to be watching the water polo again this year, I just like learning a lot of sports,” he said.

Where will Wade land at this month’s Draft? (James D. Smith via AP)

“Like cricket, that’s something I’m going to probably have to watch and learn, I haven’t read about it but watching it on TV you get to learn a lot of different sports. I wish I’d have played baseball, I wish I’d have played soccer more.

“That’s something I’m going to strive for my son and daughter to do in the future and enjoy that process. Those are things I like to do, learn different sports overseas.”

The cogs in Wade’s mind begin to turn again as the prospect of playing in the United Kingdom courtesy of the NFL International Series arises in conversation.

But why stop there? He ponders the Asian market as another opportunity to spread the game he loves, before forwarding the potential of an even vaster global stage.

“I wish we could make it an Olympic sport in the future, it’s one of the only sports that’s not an Olympic sport, it’s just crazy how it is,” he explains. “I think we need to get people around the world more interested in football, and people in the United States more interested in water polo, cricket and different things because you don’t know what you really love.

“Sometimes you’re just forced to play a sport because that’s all you know, at the same time you just need to learn. Life only happens one time.”

Inquisitive, innovative, progressive, all of the above. Watching his mind work is fascinating, and an insight into the forward-thinking, day-seizing mentality he promises to bring to an NFL locker room.

“Unfinished business”

That itching desire to attack and exploit each opportunity was suppressed to an uneasy spectator role on December 28, 2019, a day Wade remembers for less than welcome reasons.

With under five minutes to play in the first half and Ohio State leading Clemson 16-0 in their play-off semi-final, an unguarded Wade surged through the gaping lane to deliver a thumping hit on quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

Buckeyes fans rose to their feet rejoicing over what they believed to be a foiled Clemson drive on third-and-five, only to see Wade ejected from the game for targeting. His night was over, Lawrence and co eventually coming from behind to win 29-23 and book a National Championship Game showdown with LSU.

Ohio State Buckeyes cornerback Shaun Wade runs off the field after being ejected against Clemson in 2019. (Photo by Kevin Abele/Icon Sportswire via AP)

A yearning to be alongside his team-mates was matched by the emotional agony of having to watch the remainder of the game on a split-second delay on the locker room TV.

“I’m in the locker room yelling out plays trying to make sure this person is doing the right thing because this play is coming up and things like that,” he recalls. “It was just crazy because the crowd would yell and then the TV would play the play and I’m thinking it’s for us sometimes and it would be for them.

“The last play where Chris Olave slipped, I thought we scored but it was Clemson catching a pick. It was just crazy I would hear the crowd, I knew the play was about to happen but I wouldn’t know what that play is. It was definitely difficult.

“Just not being on the field with my brothers at the end of the day, Jeff (Okudah), Damon (Arnette), Jordan Fuller, we poured our hearts out that season, it’s just hard to get by because I just feel that year we should have won. I felt we were the best team in the nation.”

That might well have been how it ended for Wade at Ohio State as the prospect of declaring for the 2020 NFL Draft gathered momentum. But something didn’t quite feel right and very quickly he confirmed his intentions to return for his junior year.

“It was definitely unfinished business, but at the same time I wanted to graduate too. When football is over you’ve got to have a degree and know what you want to do and have different connections as well. Football is not forever.”

Wade on his decision to return with Ohio State in 2020

Again, though, there came uncertainty over his immediate future in the summer as Wade opted out of the 2020 season amid concerns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, which had initially seen the Big 10 campaign cancelled. But much like before, the decision didn’t quite sit with him, and while celebrating his birthday back home with his family Wade had a change of heart. The Big 10 was back on and he was back in.

“I don’t play for myself, I don’t play for the money, I play for the team and to win games and a National Championship,” he said. “That’s what we did, we got to the National Championship and lost but we got there and that was our goal. I just came back for my team and not myself.”

“Clemson game all we talked about”

Wade recalls being reassured by team-mates that they would not have made it as far as they in 2019 without his experience patrolling the secondary. They were excited to have him back, he was excited to be back, and there was one thing on their mind.

Fast forward to January 2, 2021, and Ohio State are up against, you guessed it, Trevor Lawrence’s Clemson, playing for a place in the National Championship game, again. Almost exactly a year on from Wade’s early exit.

This time there was no such turmoil, no such heartbreak, quite the opposite, in fact, Wade tallying a team-high nine tackles as the Buckeyes won 49-28 to set up a winner-takes-all meeting with Alabama.

Wade tackles Clemson wide receiver E.J. Williams playoff semi-final. (Photo by Ken Murray/Icon Sportswire via AP)