Ohio State Buckeyes

Spencer open to any way of making Redskins roster

Published Jun. 22, 2015 1:42 p.m. ET

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Evan Spencer's experience as an Ohio State football player probably was not quite like he dreamed it growing up the son of a Buckeye legend. 

(Well, maybe aside from the ultimate ending.)

The coach he committed to (Jim Tressel) was not around for Spencer's first day in Scarlet and Gray, and that first season was one of only two losing seasons for the Buckeyes in the past five decades. 

He did not leave Ohio State with historic numbers like his father, Tim Spencer, put up, either. 

But the Washington Redskins rookie told the team's official website he would not change a thing. 

“Going through that first year, my freshman year, we went 6-7," Spencer said of the 2011 campaign that followed the forced resignation of (soon-to-be Hall of Fame) head coach Jim Tressel. "We had games against Purdue where we scored an unbelievable touchdown and got the extra point blocked to lose the game essentially. To go through those struggles my freshman year, and then to rebound, build with our new coaching staff, and the next year we go 12-0 but can’t do anything because of the bowl bans because of the previous two years. The year following, we have this 24-game win streak, and we’re doing really well then we lost the last two games. And then my senior year we go on to win the national championship, so we hit all ends of the spectrum.”

Spencer eventually earned the respect of his new head coach, Urban Meyer, and became one of Meyer's favorite players by doing anything necessary to get on the field. Downfield blocking turned out to be his calling card, but he also chipped in 15 catches for 149 yards and three touchdown receptions. In Ohio State's Sugar Bowl victory over Alabama, Spencer was at his versatile best, throwing a touchdown pass on a trick play and laying out a Crimson Tide linebacker on Ezekiel Elliott's 85-yard touchdown run that gave the Buckeyes a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter. 

It sounds like he will take that same willingness to do anything to earn a spot in the NFL. 

“Being around football as much as I was when I was a young kid, my dream was to play at this level,” he told Redskins.com. “Every time I went to sleep, I was dreaming, ‘I wish I could do some of the things he did.’ To have the ability, or to be in the position I am now to go out and make plays and contribute to this football team and fulfill some of those dreams I had as a kid is absolutely mind blowing. 

"I’m excited to get going.”

(h/t Redskins.com)

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