The Ohio State football team coached special needs athletes from throughout the state of Ohio on Friday as the annual Special Skills Football Invitational returned to the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
Players from every Ohio State position group were on the field to coach more than 150 athletes, and there were plenty of smiles to go around as the Buckeyes ran football drills and enjoyed a fun afternoon less than two weeks before the start of preseason camp.
Ohio State cornerback Cam Calhoun and defensive tackle Eddrick Houston throwing touchdown passes at the Special Skills Football Invitational at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. pic.twitter.com/0ZHPmNoAVk
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) July 24, 2026
“It's lovely just giving back to the community,” said Ohio State safety Earl Little Jr. “I think it's a dream come true for these guys to come out here on the Buckeye turf and have fun. ... Football is a fun sport. It brings a lot of people together. And it's just a great thing for these kids to be able to come out here and interact with us players, just have fun out here.”
Fifth-year senior center Carson Hinzman said he has volunteered at the Special Skills Football Invitational during every year of his Buckeye career, and he was impressed by what he saw from the campers as they went through blocking drills with Hinzman and some of Ohio State’s other offensive linemen.
“These guys give their all every single time they're out here,” Hinzman said. “They are absolutely crushing it right now. I mean, we got some guys that we gotta start looking at eligibility and see what they can do with some pads on. It's actually pretty cool, though. These guys, like I said, they're giving everything they got. And it's fun for them to be so excited to just be out here just to have a little fun on the field.”
Ohio State defensive tackle Eddrick Houston said he always tries to bring a smile to people’s faces no matter what he’s doing, so Friday’s camp was a perfect opportunity for Houston to share his fun-loving personality and bring joy to the participating athletes.
“I just love bringing a smile to people's face, that's just my thing. Just making sure they're happy, you never know what's going through that one smile might make their whole day, so you want to do that always,” Houston said.
Hunter Welcing was one of several Buckeyes who stayed after the camp to sign autographs and take pictures with every camper who wanted one. The new Buckeye tight end, who transferred to OSU in January after six years at Northwestern, said it’s important to him to give back and that he’s felt embraced by the Buckeye community since he arrived in Columbus.
“I think Columbus is really cool. I think they're very passionate about kind of the whole football scene, so it's been really awesome to kind of be supported by the community and also kind of see how much they care about the Buckeyes,” Welcing said.
Friday’s camp served as a bit of a reprieve from the intensity of summer workouts for the Buckeyes, which continued Friday morning before the Special Skills athletes took the field. That said, the Buckeyes are ready for their preparation for the season to ratchet up even more in less than two weeks when they take the field for their first practice of preseason camp on Aug. 6.
“That's a long, hard process that we've got to go through, but to make it a little fun for everybody, it's going to be great,” Houston said. “Man, after we fitted our helmets this week, I went straight out here and hit the sled just to give me a reminder of what it's like.”
Eleven Warriors also talked to Houston, Hinzman, Little and Welcing about how their offseasons have gone, their goals for the upcoming 2026 season and much more, and you can hear everything they had to say in the videos above.
