Jaylen McClain lined up on the edge, and nobody blocked him. The Ohio State safety wasn't accustomed to the blitz call, but he made the best of it against Indiana. The defending national champions passed up a 45-yard field goal attempt and kept quarterback Josh Hoover on the field on fourth down, trailing 13-7 in the third quarter.
McClain blitzed, struck Hoover's blindside, and rocked him so hard he coughed up the ball. Ohio State recovered, and the Buckeyes won 19-15, snapping the nation's longest winning streak at 22 games. It was the first sack and forced fumble of McClain's three-year career.
Twenty-four years earlier, his father made a similar play: an interception against Virginia Tech on the first snap of the Hokies' third overtime possession, sealing a 50-42 upset. It was senior Maurice McClain's first interception of his career after returning to the field just two weeks earlier from a broken leg. "It was a long recovery back," Jaylen said of his father.
When the play came to him, he just had to make that play." Fate can be funny. Syracuse's defensive backs coach in 2002 was Tim Walton. Matt Patricia was one of Syracuse's graduate assistants working with the scout team.
Now Patricia is Ohio State's defensive coordinator, and Walton is Jaylen McClain's secondary coach. "[Patricia] is the same guy that he was back then," Maurice McClain told CBS Sports. "He was the guy that when he saw a player down, he'd pick him back up.
That's just him." Walton "had a lot more fire to him" in 2002, Maurice said. These days, Maurice describes him as "more like a teacher, if anything. He's a life coach." The Buckeyes may need more of what Jaylen and his coaches gave them in Bloomington two weeks ago.
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