Todd Boeckman comes from one of those everybody-knows-everybody-type towns 145 miles west of Columbus, Ohio. He graduated high school with only 90 classmates. He spent his weeks mostly looking forward to Friday night games.
So is it a surprise the sheltered kid from St. Henry is performing so well on the nation's biggest platform?
"He's grown tremendously and he's done a great job of stepping up," Ohio State wide receiver Brian Robiskie said.
Boeckman's been biding time at Ohio State since Maurice Clarett led the Buckeyes to a national title. He enrolled in the 2004 winter quarter -- Ohio State runs on a trimester schedule -- just after Ohio State's 2003 championship season. So, yeah, he's a first-year starter. But Boeckman's a fifth-year junior who has seen plenty of action already, and he's quietly become a star for the Buckeyes this season.
"We're always joking that Todd might be one of the oldest quarterbacks that played here," Robiskie said.
Coming into the season, the quarterback position was very much uncertain for Ohio State. Troy Smith, fresh off winning a Heisman trophy and taking the Buckeyes to a national title game, had graduated and left a gaping hole. Not only was Smith a proven winner, he led the Buckeyes with a blend of passing efficiency and scrambling ability.
Boeckman beat out Rob Shoenhoft in the preseason position battle to become the starter. And so far Boeckman's experience in the system has helped the adjustment.
Before Boeckman could assume the starting role, he had to greyshirt (delay his enrollment for one year) and then he redshirted.
His redshirt was almost burned in 2004, when quarterback Justin Zwick got injured in the Alamo Bowl. Zwick was playing in place of Smith, who was suspended, and so Boeckman was the next logical step. The coaches decided to save Boeckman a year of eligiblity, opting to play wideout Ted Ginn at quarterback.
"We had a pretty decent lead," Boeckman said. "If it would have been a closer game you might have saw me in there."
Boeckman played in three games in each of the following seasons (2005, 2006) but for the most part he was just observing. During the time he's waited he learned how players like Craig Krenzel and Smith approached the game.
This season, Boeckman has led Ohio State through a relatively mild schedule and done it in relatively vanilla fashion, which has kept his name from the bright lights. Still, he's been steady.
Teams generally focus attention on Ohio State running back Chris Wells, a sophomore who ranks among the nation's best rushers. Boeckman's been overlooked by many defenses this year.
He's done well, though, and ranks 7th nationally in passing efficiency; he has thrown 19 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
"He's a very accurate deep-ball passer, accurate in general," Penn State cornerback Justin King said of Boeckman. "They have a good balanced attack, very few tendencies, very balanced run-to-pass ratio."
And he's shown signs that he's mentally developed, too.
Boeckman threw three interceptions but managed to rally to a 23-7 win at then-No. 23 Purdue in perhaps Ohio State's biggest game.
"I've been around," Boeckman said. "I've seen how [Smith] handled himself the last three years. I saw how Krenzel handled himself. ... That's part of that maturity, where I'm at right now. Being here for so long is maybe an advantage over some guys."
