Fleming allowing himself to buy into the ‘Brotherhood’

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‍Cover photo: Fleming celebrates a 36-yard touchdown catch on the first play of the second quarter against Rutgers on Oct. 1. He finished the game with four catches for 51 yards and one score in Ohio State's 49-10 win. Photo by Sam Fahmi/Columbus Wired.

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Brotherhood.

It’s a term Ohio State football teams have been using since at least the Urban Meyer days if not earlier than that.

For this year’s group of Buckeyes, the term is something they’ve all taken to heart.

You’ve heard head coach Ryan Day and other coaches on the staff talk about it, as well as quarterback C.J. Stroud and other guys, too.

Now wide receiver Julian Fleming is talking about the Brotherhood and has finally allowed himself into being a part of it.

“Last year in the offseason, it was just kind of a wake up call,” he said after Wednesday’s practice. “It was like, ‘I wanna continue to excel.’”

He said it finally got to a point where he truly felt something needed to change.

“It was at that time, I talked to my family, talked to my friends and I’m like, I’m about to really lock into this. And it was something I really had to buy into and make some sacrifices along the way.”

Whatever wake up call he may have received, Fleming said he wants to move forward rather than speculate what might have been.

“They’re big ‘what ifs’ and I really don’t want to think back to that time.”

The sacrifices he made ended up paying off when he was anointed as an “Iron Buckeye” before going into fall camp, which is a new distinction that highlights guys who have performed at an elite level during summer workouts.

Stroud said he’s seen the difference in Fleming and attributes it to not only that but to something higher.

“I think God showed him a little bit of humility and made him sit down and realize, like, ‘Julian, I have you here for a reason’”.

Even though Stroud said Fleming may not be the most spiritual, Fleming’s relationship with the Lord has given the receiver some more strength than he previously had.

“I know Julian isn’t the biggest … religious guy but he’s coming into it, though. Because God will sit you down if you don’t realize what he has you in your position for. I definitely think Julian has realized that and, I’m not saying he wasn’t a humble guy before or he wasn’t a good dude, it’s just he realized the work he has to put in to be great.”

Stroud continued to extoll Fleming by saying Fleming's new attitude has also made him a better teammate.

“He’s put the young guys under his wing and makes sure that they listen to him and things like that. So I think that’s where Julian has come along.”

Day said after the Rutgers game that he’s been impressed with Fleming's work ethic.

“Everyone has their own journey,” Day said. “Everyone has different backgrounds of where they come from. He’s on his own journey (and) I think he’s made a lot of progress in a few years here. Now he’s playing his best football and he has come a long way in his development.”

Fleming’s college career has been widely noted since stepping foot on OSU’s campus in 2020. A five-star recruit out of Southern Columbia (Catawissa, Penn.) High School, he was the state’s 2018-’19 Gatorade Player of the Year as a junior and led the Tigers to their 10th state championship the next year in his senior season. When all was said and done, he had hauled in a total of 255 receptions and came to Columbus as the state of Pennsylvania’s all-time leader in receiving yards (5,541) and touchdown catches (77) which was good enough to make PennLive’s 2010-’19 All-Decade team. He was also the class of 2020's overall No. 1 player, according to ESPN.

To date, he’s rated by 247Sports’ composite rankings as the third-highest player ever signed by the Buckeyes and still currently holds those state records.

Not bad for a guy who played in an offense that, according to him, ran the ball a lot.

However, things got off to a bumpy start for Pennsylvania’s two-time Mr. Football. He was constantly nicked up for the first two years with shoulder injuries and said it was those injuries that were beginning to define his college career and he didn’t want that to be the case.

“It was my second year going into my third year (and) I had a lot of injuries, a lot of ticky-tack stuff, a lot of bumps and bruises, and at first, I felt like I didn’t really embrace those injuries in the process.”

He said as time went on, he realized the adversity of the setbacks could actually be something to help him achieve his goals.

“I just had to embrace everything that I had been through and kind of wear it on my shoulder and really just bring that chip in every single day.”

It seemed like the pendulum was finally beginning to swing back his way after having a stellar summer and fall camp. However, he had a speed bump plunked down in the road of his OSU career when he accrued yet another injury at the start of this season and had to sit out the Notre Dame and Arkansas State games. Both he and Day preferred not to disclose the specifics but Fleming said it was unrelated to the previous shoulder injuries.

Then came the third game of the year against Toledo and it looked like all of his hard work was starting to pay off. He only caught three passes for 23 yards but two of them were touchdowns including one where he snagged the ball with his fingertips and was able to get a foot down before stepping out of bounds and secured the catch for a five-yard score, his first of the season.

Since that game, Fleming has found himself becoming an ever-more popular target for Stroud, grabbing 14 passes for 304 yards and four touchdowns. He even led the team against Iowa last weekend with 105 receiving yards, which included a 79-yard score where he had to haul it in over defensive back Cooper DeJean’s outstretched hands and ran the remaining 35 yards untouched into the end zone.

He’s currently fourth on the team with 17 receptions, third in yards (327) and touchdowns (6), and is the only receiver in the past five games, including Toledo, to catch a touchdown pass in each game.

Stroud said he’s had a chemistry with Fleming since the two were in high school and took part in The Opening in Dallas and that Fleming was one of the guys instrumental in him committing to Ohio State.

“Honestly, I didn’t come to Ohio State for no coach or nothing, I came for Julian, Jaxon (Smith-Njigba) and Gee (Scott, Jr.),” said Stroud.

“We used to come up here (the Woody Hayes Athletic Center) all the time and run routes and get a feel for each other even when no one (the coaches) was looking.”

Fleming said he feels things have gone “pretty well” so far but knows he still has room for improvement.

“The sky’s the limit so you just got to keep improving every aspect as a team and as an individual.”