By: JON SPENCER  (MansfieldNewsJournal.com) –
COLUMBUS — Clear Fork grad Dalton Britt figured out a way to get his foot in the door. Buckeye Central alum Derek Erwin actually used his foot to get through the same door.
Facing odds almost as daunting as an American Idol contestant, the two north central Ohio athletes were among 12 non-scholarship players from a field of 108 candidates invited to join the Ohio State football team for its recently concluded spring season.

Britt, a freshman heavyweight Buy Generic Cialis on the OSU wrestling team, was a last-minute addition to Jim Tressel’s squad and saw action at defensive end in the annual Scarlet and Gray scrimmage. He recorded a sack for the Scarlet in its 23-3 loss to the Terrelle Pryor-led Gray before a national record spring game crowd of more than 95,000.

“It’s a whole different game,” the 6-foot-4, 265-pound Britt said. “Coming from Clear Fork, I was one of the bigger guys in the area. Seeing some of the guys here, they’re like freaks of nature. Now I’m just an average-sized guy.”

At 5-11, Erwin knew his lack of size for a first baseman would be a drawback in his hopes of earning a baseball scholarship somewhere. So once he enrolled at OSU in 2007 and began pursuit of a civil engineering degree, he fell back on his football skills and tried to join the Buckeyes as a punter.

“I tried out (the winter of) my freshman year and didn’t make it, but I decided to give it one more shot this year because I didn’t want to look back and regret not doing it,” Erwin said. “It’s always been a dream of mine. Coming from Buckeye Central, it’s so much different. I was used to there being 30 guys on the team. Now there’s more than 100 and most are way bigger than what I’m used to size-wise.”

There’s a reason the NCAA rule book is as thick as a New York City phone book. Believe it or not, one of the rules prohibits the use of footballs during tryouts. So, with his dad wielding a video camera, Erwin headed back to his old stomping grounds last fall and put together a practice tape. The Buckeyes were impressed enough with his leg strength and hang time to take a closer look.

Britt and Erwin probably won’t know for several weeks if they will be asked to remain with the team for summer conditioning and fall camp. The coaching staff is on the road recruiting and evaluating. The staff will huddle up upon returning to campus to decide which walk-ons to retain.

It might work in Britt’s favor that co-defensive coordinator Luke Fickell has a wrestling background and is one of the greatest high school heavyweights to ever come out of Ohio. He knew since last winter of Britt’s interest in joining the football team because Fickell’s cousin is John Hiles, another heavyweight on OSU’s wrestling squad.

Britt was spared the combine-like workout that serves as an audition for most walk-on candidates.

“Coach Fickell knows wrestling is so hard and knew I was in shape,” Britt said. “I was running like a 4.8-4.9 40 (yard dash) and I’m able to bench press 225 pounds about 30 times.

“My plan all along was to come down here, wrestle for a season, then play football.”

Britt found out he would join the squad just a couple of days before spring drills began.

“We had already wrapped up tryouts with the walk-ons, but when Dalton showed up one of our other walk-on defensive linemen had dislocated his elbow,” assistant recruiting coordinator and Plymouth native Greg Gillum said. “We had a need and he took advantage of it and ran with it.

“He’s a big body and we’re glad to have him. If not for the injury to the other lineman, he probably would have had to wait until the fall or next winter to try out. But something bad happened and in through the door walked the answer.”

Getting acclimated to major college football became an even bigger challenge for Britt because he was exclusively an offensive lineman in high school.

“When I was looking at schools, I sent Ohio State film of me on the offensive line because that’s all I played,” he said “But I knew because of all the huge guys on the offensive line down here, I’d have to switch up and play defense.”

Britt, who plans to study nursing, said football practices aren’t as grueling as what he endured during wrestling season.

“When I first got to school, we got into conditioning heavy,” he said. “We’d run for 20 minutes during practice, then head over to the ‘Shoe (Ohio Stadium) and run up to C Deck several times, then do a few ‘buddy-carries’ up to C Deck and then run around every stairwell on A Deck.

“Wrestling practices are so fast-paced. Practices were always ‘live,’ because they expect you to know your stuff. I knew, hands down, that wrestling here would prepare me for football. That was the gameplan all along.”

Erwin earned 10 letters in football, basketball and baseball for Buckeye Central. His OSU locker is next to Shelby walk-on Garrett Hummel, in his third year as a wide receiver for the Buckeyes.

“He told me to always give 110 percent and do the extra-effort things that will get you noticed by the coaches,” Erwin said.

He got the same advice from another Buckeye Central grad, Chris Rietschlin, who spent the last two seasons as a walk-on defensive tackle for the Buckeyes.

Erwin is one of two walk-on punters on the roster, working behind fifth-year senior Jon Thoma and redshirt freshman Ben Buchanan. Those two are the leading candidates to replace the departed A.J. Trapasso.

“My (punting) average wasn’t that great in high school because I was always banged up from playing linebacker and quarterback and never coming off the field,” Erwin said. “I know the staff here is looking for potential. They want to coach us up and see if we can build off that.”

Britt is excited about learning the ins and outs from one of the most experienced units on the team. With the exception of tackle Nader Abdallah, all the defensive linemen on the 2008 two-deep roster are back, including Thaddeus Gibson, Cameron Heyward, Doug Worthington, Todd Denlinger and the oft-injured but gifted Lawrence Wilson.

“Lawrence is a big motivator,” Britt said. “Even though he’s been injured and wasn’t able to do much during the spring, he’s always pushing the younger guys.”

The biggest eye-opener is being across the line of scrimmage from the 6-6, 235-pound Pryor, the Big Ten’s reigning Freshman Offensive Player of the Year.

“He’s a big guy; he’s right there with me size-wise,” Britt said. “And he’s getting a lot better. I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do.”

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