OSU’s new RB coach Carlos Locklyn: “ain’t my first rodeo”

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COVER PHOTO: New running backs coach Carlos Locklyn addresses the media at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center for his first appearance as the team's position coach since his hiring on April 1. Picture courtesy of Eleven Warriors video snip.

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New Ohio State running backs coach Carlos Locklyn met with the media on Wednesday for the first time since being hired by Ryan Day on April 1 and from the jump, he gave a sense to the reporters in the room that he was the right man for the job.

The newest addition to Day’s staff, who said he prefers to be called “Lock”, addressed all sorts of questions like what his philosophy is when it comes to coaching the position, why being a former law enforcement officer prepared him to be a college football coach and his stance on soft batch cookies.

His confidence on how to approach being the position comes off like an exuding swagger, something the Buckeyes seemingly need when it comes to trying to regain the glory of a university that has been known for boasting high-profile running backs.

Within a few minutes of taking the podium at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, he let everybody in the room as well as Buckeye Nation know exactly what kind of coach he is.

“I know you all haven’t heard me say it before and I’m going to keep saying it but this is the worst-coached position in football. It’s terrible. Guys hire anybody to coach this position as recruiters. Carlos Lock is not a recruiter, I’m an elite relationship-builder. But I coach this position, I’m a ball coach, so that’s who I am,” he said.

“I’m going to pour into these kids, I think they’re kind of seeing it now, and I jumped in day one. I’m ready to coach.”

Another question was how he is going to approach the Buckeyes’ unique situation of having two top-tier running backs and if it was something that came up during his interview with Day.

“This ain’t my first rodeo,” he said with a grin. “I know a lot of people look and say, ‘this guy (has) only been on the field for three years?’ Just because I didn’t have the title of a running back coach where I was at in Memphis? I never carried myself that way. I always carried myself as a running back coach.”

Locklyn spent the past two seasons in Eugene, Ore. as the Ducks’ RB coach and his first year in the position in 2021 was spent with Western Kentucky. Before that, he was at Florida State in 2020 as their Director of High School Relations and was in that same position the year before with the University of Memphis, which is where he got his start in collegiate athletics. In 2017, he was hired as the team’s weight room assistant and was then promoted the next season to Offensive Analyst.

His road began as a football coach in 2009 with Trezevant (Memphis, Tenn.) High School as their offensive coordinator and then spent the next six years in the same position with Westwood (Memphis) High School, Manassas (Memphis) High School and Cordova (Tenn.) High School until getting the position with the University of Memphis.

The journey to Columbus came via a text from Day one morning when he had barely gotten his day started. He had been in talks with “a couple of different places” that never came “to play” so when he got a text message from Day, he could barely hold his excitement. Even if his wife didn’t initially feel the same way.

“I was actually getting out of bed and I was heading to go work out and I shook my wife and was like, ‘look at this!’ And she said, ‘I don’t know who that is, let me get my glasses.”

Although, he said he wasn’t sure why Day was texting him but after he called Day back, his excitement heightened like a kid on Christmas morning.

“I have to pinch myself every morning that I’m here in Columbus at Ohio State. It’s kind of surreal for me,” he said.

Now Locklyn has to pivot that excitement into coaching the room on the approach he said would by making sure the Scarlet and Gray’s running backs are ready to take on a load that could be a heavy one considering their road to dreaming of a national championship could be a grind at 16 or 17 games.

He mentioned having the ability to see up close and personal guys like Tony Pollard, Kenneth Gainwell, Antonio Gibson, Patrick Taylor and Darrell Henderson while at Memphis. The first four are all currently in the NFL while Henderson is a free agent.

“I’ve seen talented backs and I’ve seen them be able to function with one another. Same thing I did at Oregon. We had Bucky Irving, Noah Whittington and Jordan James. If you go look at their numbers, they all functioned together. We all got to play as one.”

Last season, the Ducks rambled to 2,583 rushing yards with Irving as their featured back, who ended with 1,180 yards - good for 25th in the nation - 11 touchdowns and earned second-team All Pac-12 honors. James gained 759 yards and 11 TD’s, too. Ohio State finished 87th last year with 1,805 yards as junior TreVeyon Henderson led the team with 926 yards and 11 rushing scores. Departed fifth-year senior Chip Trayanum was second on the team with 373 yards and three rushing touchdowns.

The year before, Oregon finished at No. 12 nationally with 2,805 yards. 32nd two years ago with 2,501.

So how is Locklyn going to get it done for the Scarlet and Gray? He attributed “The Winners Manual” written by former OSU head coach Jim Tressel as an inspiration for him.

“My main focus is to change the hearts and minds of them and they’ll play for me,” he said. “It’s something I took from that book. You have your purpose and you have your goals. My purpose is to serve and pour into the young men. Now my goals as a football coach, all of them will take care of themselves. I’m just real relationship-based and I’m very detailed at this position.”

Even though Locklyn has only been with the Buckeyes for less than two weeks, he already brings a huge benefit to the room because he has established relationships with guys like TreVeyon Henderson, Quinshon Judkins and true freshman James Peoples because he formed relationships with them when he was at Memphis, Florida State and Oregon while those three were high school recruits.

And he doesn’t plan on coaching them like a bunch of soft batch cookies, a term he said he stole from a coach he worked with while at one of his high school stops in Memphis.

“Me being a guy that loves the running back position, I already broke those kids down because I recruited them out of high school,” he said with a shrug.

Locklyn said not being a soft batch cookie all comes down to a frame of mind and having mental toughness, something he had to deal with at some of the other places he’s been throughout his life and something that he learned through being a law enforcement officer.

“I had a pod with 51 inmates, you talking about me having six or seven guys, like are you kidding me?”

He said the way he carries himself and shows his players that he cares are some of the ways he gets them to buy into what he’s selling.

“When you look a certain way, you kind of deter people from doing certain things so there’s a reason I go train every morning. I want to look as good as my boys look so it helped out a lot, in other words.”

Locklyn said the soft batch cookie reference can also go back to him and some of the things he faced through social media when he decided to move on from some of his previous stops but that didn’t deter him from having to make tough decisions that ultimately make him a stronger person.

“I’ve been called everything but the name of a child of God by the people at other places I left. It had nothing to do with guys in the portal. Now most people say I’m a soft batch cookie for leaving there but in actuality, I’m not because it takes great strength to make a decision to leave a place, you know? A weak-minded person wouldn’t be able to make the decisions I make so it took great strength to do that.”

Buckeye Nation will get their first chance to see him as OSU’s running backs coach on Saturday for the annual spring game, which kicks off at noon and will air nationally on FOX.