The Rise of Terry McLaurin

In the summer of 2010, the crowd of young emerging football players at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis, Indiana participated in preseason workouts. A highly touted high school prep program, the Fighting Irish are two seasons removed from winning the Indiana 4A state championship. Hot summer days of training and practicing helps the staff weed out the committed from the merely interested in a large group of high school boys. Like all coaches and leaders, the staff wants to begin the journey with the committed.

In the crowd of committed and interested is a 5’4” 125 lb athlete with no obvious projectability. A fine athlete, and a great young man, but not the type of athletic prowess needed to help Cathedral return to Lucas Oil Stadium for the Indiana 4A state championship run. While a growth spurt is on the horizon for Terry McLaurin, the most projectable traits for this emerging athlete are his intense work ethic and the measure of his heart. The combination of these traits works to create one of the most powerful motors to fight discipline drift the world has ever seen. 

Twelve years removed from the summer of 2010 in which his high school career began, Terry McLaurin is one of the best athletes in the world. Compensated with the highest signing bonus for a wide receiver in the history of the NFL ($28 million signing bonus as a part of his 3-year, $71 million dollar deal with the Washington Commanders). Highly respected by his teammates and those around the sporting world, Terry McLaurin is a true professional. His journey from undersized middle schooler to one of the best wide receivers in the world went right through some of the same experiences all emerging transformational leaders feel. 

The overcoming and combating of discipline drifting.

In his junior year of high school the breakout began. Terry McLaurin was not an undersized freshman player anymore. In the fall of 2012, McLaurin was beginning to contribute to the powerhouse Cathedral program. State champions in his freshman and sophomore years, McLaurin began to see significant time as a junior on special teams and at multiple positions on defense and offense. A do whatever the team needs type of player, McLaurin began to plug in wherever needed. Buried in obscurity for his first few years of high school, the junior athlete began to emerge. In the state championship game he had a 79 yard receiving touchdown, 41 yard touchdown run, and ran a punt return 66 yards in a 56-29 state championship win for Cathedral.

In the day and age of recruiting rankings, stars, and projections, McLaurin was still a bit of an unknown. Despite helping his team to a third state championship in three years and performing at a high level all year, none of the thoroughbred programs around the country came calling. He took his first official visit to the University of Toledo. A day later he visited Purdue University just a few hours away from home in Lafayette. 

In March of 2013, McLaurin received his first scholarship offer. The Toledo Rockets wanted McLaurin in the blue and yellow. The offers began to roll in that spring. Western Kentucky, Ball State, Cincinnati, Western Michigan, and Missouri all sought McLaurin out for his talents. But he had his sights set on more.

A month after receiving his first offer from Toledo, he received a visit from Ohio State University assistant Kerry Coombs. Coach Coombs spent time with McLaurin and his family at their home in Indianapolis. He invited McLaurin to the Ohio State summer camp in June. A big opportunity for the rising senior. Perform well at a camp like this and doors begin to open for you. Perform poorly and perhaps you settle to a lower division of the pecking order in college football.

June is camp month at Ohio State. One of the powerhouse programs in the United States. The Buckeyes staff are not going to be swayed by the likes of Western Kentucky and Toledo. They want to see with their own eyes a prospect to determine if he has what it takes to join one of the most elite collections of talent across the country.

On the day of the camp, McLaurin did not disappoint. He knew this was his moment. Perform well and hop in the car back home with another offer, this time from one of the big boys. He was the fastest kid at the camp and performed exceptional in all of the one-on-one drills. Coming off a phenomenal junior season, third straight state championship, high character leader, and now a great camp at Ohio State. It would be difficult to put a person in a better position than that. And yet it wasn’t enough.

Head Coach Urban Meyer brought McLaurin back up to his office and explained where the Buckeyes Staff stood in relation to the Terry McLaurin recruiting sweepstakes.

“Your ball skills aren’t where we want them to be. Come back and see us again in a few weeks at our next camp.”

It’s at this moment that the rise of Terry McLaurin begins to become explainable. How does a 5’4” 165 lb average athlete become one of the best wide receivers in the NFL over twelve years? Growth spurts of the body can’t close the gap of this size. There must be another factor for this type of growth and transformation. There must be a form of greatness unfound in common neighborhoods. A touch from another galaxy. But what we find is actually available to all of us. 

After departing Coach Meyer’s office and wishing Coach Coombs well, the McLaurin family drove back to their home in Indianapolis. Disappointed. Dejected and frustrated. A rising star playing big minutes for a state championship team. Scholarship offers ranging from multiple tiers of NCAA Division I football including one SEC school in Missouri.

Come back again in two weeks? Some would call this a slap in the face. Some athletes would leave and never return to Columbus again unless of course they are playing for another team. McLaurin weighed his options, and navigated the many layers of frustration, disappointment and most importantly, the attack on his ego. 

After all the dust settled he got to work. Uncommon commitment to the truth. No blaming, no deflecting, no arguing. The ability to receive criticism and find the truth. He began to transform into the multi-million dollar receiver we see today.

“I went home and caught 200 passes a day.” McLaurin said in an interview in 2019 with Brandon Hall of stack.com. “200 a day, from anyone who would throw them to me. High school teammates, my neighbors, my mom, 200 a day. I remember complaining early on. But I started focusing more and more, the finer details, the intricacies of catching a ball.”

He began to deploy a strategy to improve his skills. For two weeks he caught 200 passes every single day. After two weeks of training he returned to Ohio State for another camp in front of Urban Meyer and his coaching staff. Coach Meyer instantly sees a change and offers Terry McLuarin a scholarship offer on the spot.

Terry McLaurin committed to the Buckeyes one day later.

Where Can You Be In 4-5 Years?

In modern college athletic recruiting there are two types of student athletes. One athlete views the commitment as the end of their journey. The conclusion of a long, difficult journey to their college decision. The other athlete views their commitment as the preface, the introductory chapter opening the door to more work and more development.

Terry McLaurin viewed his commitment as just the start. After returning to Cathedral High School for his senior year, McLaurin led the Fighting Irish to another Indiana High School 4A state championship. McLurin capped off his high school career with his best season yet. The once undersized athlete became a 4-star prospect, and was named Mr. Indiana High School Football, an award given to the best player in the state. In his final high school game of his career he caught 3 touchdown passes en-route to his fourth state championship. 

In the winter before heading to Ohio State, McLaurin was asked by scouts and reporters why he chose to go to Ohio State. His response:

“Just the chance to be great. Look what they’ve done with receivers. It appealed to me. Just the chance to compete at a high level. Just that day in and day out grind to get better. I wanted the challenge. To see what they’ve done with me in two weeks of camp in the summer, it just gets me excited about where I can be in 4-5 years.”

Any continual pursuit of mastery has ebbs and flows. Periods of success and periods of darkness. If you’re going to pursue anything of significance, whether it’s in athletics, creative outlets, weight loss or business endeavors, we must prepare for the rolling hills. The satisfaction of progress realized, and the empty plateaus of little to no gain. Occasionally the rolling hills will make a leader disappear into complete darkness.

Year 1

Ohio State football is one of the most storied programs in college athletics. Eight national championships, 41 Big-Ten championships. The Buckeyes have had seven Heisman Trophy winners, an award given to the best college football player in the country. In the mid 2010’s after a change in program leadership, Ohio State was in a new stratosphere when it came to the accumulation of top end high school prospects. Under Urban Meyer, Ohio State was attracting the very best players in the United States. Not just recruiting in their own backyard or the midwest, Meyer began to pull players from every corner of the land. In doing so, the Buckeyes obtained a level of roster depth they had not had before.

As Mr. Indiana Football Terry McLaurin arrived on campus, eager for an opportunity to compete for playing time he didn’t know at the time just how long it would be before he caught a pass in a real game. 

One of the top players in the state of Indiana, McLaurin becomes lost in the Ohio State player machine. Arriving at Ohio State, McLaurin becomes buried on the depth chart behind multiple top end players. In the fall of 2014, McLaurin disappears. He redshirts and begins the challenge of working on his craft in one of the most competitive environments in the country. He is relegated to the scout team. 

The scout team’s job is to give the top players game-like looks of their upcoming opponents. In scout team reps, Terry McLaurin isn’t really Terry McLaurin, he is the wide-receiver for Illinois, or for Penn State or for Michigan. Each week his job is to mimic the play and routes of the upcoming opponent to better prepare the Ohio State starters for the challenge they will face on Saturday - while McLaurin watches on the sidelines. 

Imagine being a sales-rep and your daily job is to mimic the conversations of real clients for other sales-reps. You will help other sales reps prepare for sales calls in which they will close and make thousands of dollars, while you make $16 an hour. That’s the role of a scout-team player. 

For many, feelings of bitterness, frustration and helplessness can overwhelm periods of our lives on the scout-team. While there likely were days here and there where McLaurin felt all of those emotions he stayed true to the work.

“People don’t appreciate how much scout team reps can make you better. I was going against Eli Apple and Marshon Lattimore and other NFL cornerbacks every single day in practice. Not playing on Saturday, but getting better every single day.”

Year 2

After his first year in college on the scout team, McLaurin returns to Ohio State for his second season. More of the same. Daily work. Day in and day out grind that McLaurin expected as a prep prospect. In his second season with the Buckeyes he appears in a game for the first time. He would go on to play in six games but did not catch a single pass in a game. No targets his direction, more thankless work of blocking for others and running decoy routes in blow-out games. His unseen contribution on the scout team and in menial in-game roles helps the team to the overall goals as Ohio State won the National Championship. Another championship for a team McLaurin is on.

Progress but still preparing.

Year 3

In the fall of 2016 in McLaurin’s third season with the program McLaurin entered the wide receiver room with a renewed sense of opportunities. Despite few opportunities in his career thus far a new season always brings new chances. The Buckeyes had just lost three producers to the NFL draft in wide receiver, Michael Thomas (2nd round), wide receiver, Braxton Miller (3rd round), and tight-end Nick Vannett (3rd round). The three combined for 100 receptions and 12 touchdowns out of 203 total receptions and 19 touchdowns for the entire offense. Fifty-percent of the team’s targets just left for the NFL and McLaurin has been improving. If ever the time for a breakout season for the former Indiana Mr. Football it would be the fall of 2016.

Three years after committing to Ohio State, McLaurin caught his first pass. On the year he played in 13 games with eleven receptions and two touchdowns. No longer a scout team player, McLaurin is finally a contributing member of the receiving core. He plays in all thirteen games, mostly doing what he had been doing best - Blocking and running decoy routes. 

Before coming to Ohio State, McLaurin spoke at length about what this environment could do for his development.

“Just the chance to be great. Look what they’ve done with receivers. It appealed to me. Just the chance to compete at a high level. Just that day in and day out grind to get better. I wanted the challenge. To see what they’ve done with me in two weeks of camp in the summer, it just gets me excited about where I can be in 4-5 years.”

Three years into the 4-5 year journey, McLaurin is rising. Eighth in total receptions for the team, a trusted teammate and an emerging leader. The plan is working, but the results are still in the abyss. 

Year 4

In 2017, his redshirt junior season he again starts all 13 games, a testament to his toughness and preparation. McLaurin catches 29 passes and has a career high six touchdowns. Behind only K.J. Hill and Parris Cambpell in total receptions (both future NFL draft picks), McLaurin becomes a trusted target for the Ohio State offense. But despite the progress, McLaurin isn’t in the top fifteen in the Big-Ten Conference in any meaningful receiving statistic (yards, receptions, touchdowns). He was passed over in the second year of draft eligibility. We tend to think thoroughbreds hit every mile-marker along the way. But in the first season of draft eligibility for McLaurin he caught 11 passes total, in his second season of draft eligibility he didn’t rank in the top 15 in his conference let alone the United States.

In the fall of 2018, Terry McLaurin is not the receiver he used to be. But he’s also far from the receiver who just received the largest signing bonus for a receiver in the history of the NFL. How does a person go from “level-three” to “level-five?” In anything the more a person moves toward elite the harder it is for gains to be realized. It’s easy to pickup quick wins early in a pursuit, it’s harder to go from good to great, from high performer to the rare air of exceptional performer. 

Between the fall of 2017 and 2018 is another transformational zone that makes the rise of Terry McLaurin so special. At a time when most peers are graduating and getting “real jobs” McLaurin is preparing for his final year of college football eligibility. He heads into the season a relative journeyman at the college level. But McLaurin is rising. The summer of 2018 resembles the summer of 2013 for McLaurin. Alone in the darkness doing the work. Honing his abilities. Fine tuning the delicate intricacies of catching a ball. From the end of 2017 to the beginning of 2018 season McLaurin catches over 3,000 footballs. He created drills to simulate real football. Using tackling dummies to create obstructions and contact as a defender would in a real game. The truth of the matter is sometimes the only way to improve something is to commit to doing it everyday. Whether catching footballs, training our minds, exercising, writing, reading. It’s not that complex. The complexity often lies in our inability to face the truth. McLaurin could have been tempted to focus on the doubters, could have defended his abilities and blamed others for his lack of targets and touchdowns. 

Instead the summer before his breakout season we find McLaurin doing what he had always done on his rise. Alone catching footballs in the dark. A catcher of a football needs to be good at catching a football. A salesmen needs to be good at sales. A writer needs to be good at writing. How does a catcher of a football get good at catching a football? He catches a football thousands of times. How does a sales rep get good at selling. She sits down with customers and sells. How does a writer get good at writing? They write words on a page.

This is the essence of deployment. We know what to do. we just don’t do it. When a leader experiences discipline drift their life will go in a direction they don’t want. Constantly frustrated with a lack of progress. Frustrated the circumstances aren’t changing. Unable to recognize the circumstances aren’t changing because they are still the same receiver who isn’t in the top fifteen in their conference. They’re the same sales rep buried in the middle of the pack and not getting the leads. They are the same aspiring writer with no book. Their abilities have not changed, yet they remain frustrated that their circumstances - playing time, income, opportunities, have not changed either. And their abilities have not changed because they have not changed the conditions that are leading to discipline drift in their craft. They must deploy a plan. 

Year 5

The fall of 2018 is when the world began to see McLaurin could catch a football. It was clear to him in the summer of 2013 though. He just needed to deploy his plan for improving his abilities. In his final season at Ohio State McLaurin played in 12 games and caught 11 touchdowns. He racked up 701 receiving yards. His 11 touchdowns ranked fourth in the Big Ten and he led the conference in receiving yards per reception with 20 yards. He helped lead the Buckeyes to a 13-1 season and a conference championship. The conditions around where his abilities stacked up with the best in the country had changed. They had changed because of his deployment in the dark. The unseen hours doing boring catching drills alone.

In the spring of 2019 McLaurin was drafted by the Washington Commanders in the third round (76th overall). He was the 12th receiver taken in the draft that year. A few years removed from being the 12th best receiver in the Ohio State receivers room. .

“To see what they’ve done with me in two weeks of camp in the summer, it just gets me excited about where I can be in 4-5 years.”

After entering the NFL McLaurin made an impact right away. No more scout team reps, though we can imagine he wouldn’t have shied away from that role. In his rookie campaign he caught 58 passes for 919 yards. He was named to the PFWA All-Rookie Team. The next season he was unanimously selected as team captain by his peers. He caught 1,118 yards in his second season. In three seasons in the NFL he has caught just three less touchdowns (16) than he did in five years at Ohio State (19). That is the power of deployment. The compounding returns on a deployed plan will ultimately allow an individual to perform at a higher level in more hostile and difficult environments than they previously were able to in the past. Consider the weightlifter who used to struggle lifting 185 lbs on the bench press and through months of deploying their plan they now are able to lift more reps at 200 than they used to be able to do at a lighter weight. 

The Rise of Terry McLaurin is not just a showcase of great fortune and luck. It is the supreme case study of the power of fighting discipline drift. It should be the image of what can happen when an individual confronts discipline drift on a daily, weekly and yearly basis. What powerful things can happen when you stay committed to doing the work you know you need to do? The work you set out to do, that you know will unlock opportunities should you hone your craft.