Scott Pingel, a football coach at Christian Brothers College in St. Louis, has worked with plenty of highly-recruited players who’ve walked through the hallways of his high school. He’s interacted with and gotten to know many teenage athletes in his day.
Ohio State redshirt sophomore wide receiver Kamryn Babb, who graduated from Christian Brothers College in 2018, will have a place in Pingel’s heart forever.
“Kam is probably the best young man I've ever met in my life,” Pingel said last fall.
Pingel extolled Babb’s humbleness and kindness. He heaped praise on his former star wideout that would make even the proudest high school coaches blush. He mentioned the resilience of Babb. For the past two years, those within Ohio State’s program have seen those qualities up close. Yet they haven’t seen the skills that made Babb a star for Pingel’s team.
Injury luck hasn’t been on his side, and that’s putting it mildly.
Babb has suffered season-ending injuries each of the past three years, and he hasn’t played a snap at Ohio State due to them. The 6-foot, 197-pound wideout suffered his first ACL tear as a Buckeye in June of 2018, causing him to miss the entirety of his freshman season. In March of 2019, he suffered another ACL tear that kept him out for the duration of his redshirt freshman year. Those injuries came after a torn ACL ended his senior season at Christian Brothers College prematurely.
Babb, though, hasn’t given in. He hasn’t quit or succumbed to some of the worst injury luck of any player on the team in recent years.
Now a redshirt sophomore who has yet to be healthy enough to play a snap in college, he could make his long-awaited Ohio State debut this fall and begin writing his bounce-back story.
“Kam Babb has been through just an amazing couple years here,” Ryan Day said on 97.1’s Buckeye Roundtable on Monday. “We're hopeful that he's going to be able to play for us this season. He's done such a great job and kept such a great attitude. He's gone through several of these ACLs. He could be an amazing story one day. So really proud of the work he's done.”
Just getting on the field this fall, after dealing with devastating knee injuries each of the past three years, would have to be viewed as a win for Babb. It’s becoming more and more likely to actually happen.
Babb’s progress in his latest recovery first showed up when Mickey Marotti honored him as one of eight players who improved the most throughout winter workouts. At the time, Marotti said he was fully participating in the workouts.
He has managed to remain healthy throughout an unconventional offseason and now is only three and a half weeks away from the season kicking off.
Whether he can earn a spot in Brian Hartline’s wide receiver rotation, which was depleted by the losses of K.J. Hill, Austin Mack and Binjimen Victor to graduation, remains an unknown. It's not getting ruled out, though. If you remember, he was a highly-sought target who ranked as the No. 73 overall prospect and 13th-best wide receiver in the 2018 recruiting cycle. His natural ability isn't out of place, even in a talent-rich position room.
In all likelihood, had he somehow stayed healthy in college, he’d be a frontrunner to start this fall. That didn't happen, however, so he's taking the long road to reach his ultimate goals.
“I think Kam Babb is a special individual,” Hartline said on Tuesday. “Any time he's around the team or in the room or on the field, he's going to bring a dynamic that is special. I think that he's a great young man, a great football player, an even better young man. I think that we're blessed to have him here. Great to see him out there catching footballs, making plays.
“I'm very excited to see what his future holds.”