Georgia native Steele Chambers gearing up for 'really fun' homecoming CFP matchup

ATLANTA — While Ohio State players and coaches were flying into the Peach State to reconvene for the College Football Playoff semifinal following a Christmas break, fourth-year linebacker Steele Chambers was getting some much-needed time at home with his dog.

Chambers, a native of nearby Roswell, Georgia, spent time with his family and his two-year-old Husky before arriving to the team hotel for Peach Bowl and CFP festivities this week.

During the week of the biggest game of the season for Ohio State, a chance to play for a national title, Steele Chambers feels right at home — because he is at home. And he’ll have a chance to play in front of friends and family on Saturday night in Atlanta.

“It’s been fun,” Chambers said. “I live like 25 minutes away. It’s just been really nice having a close proximity to home, just having a lot of people from my family being able to come out to the game. They usually can’t. It’s just been nice. I try to show everyone around. … My dog is pretty close. That will be fun to see him whenever the game is over. I think it’s just really nice being able to come home, play in a place that’s familiar to me before I got into college.

“I think that will be really fun.”

Steele Chambers starred at Blessed Trinity Catholic and became the No. 23 player in the state of Georgia and a top-300 player in the country.

He has played with and against plenty of current Georgia players during his time at the high school level, at camps, in games and in other sports.

Now Chambers will help the Buckeyes try to take down the home-state Bulldogs — and he’ll be staring down some familiar faces when he is doing it.

“I mean, we’ve always just played with or against each other, like, whenever we were little, like in baseball, football, whatever it may be, but I mean, it’s crazy,” Chambers said. “Just looking back and knowing that I spent a lot of my time with those guys, now we’re going up against them. I think that’s just really cool experience.”

Steele Chambers has never played in Mercedes-Benz Stadium. He hasn’t had a chance to play Georgia in his college career. But that all changes Saturday night at 8 p.m. Family and friends have reached out in droves to be able to go watch him play, something he passed off to other family to assist with while he prepares to try winning a national title.

For now, he just wants to focus on beating Georgia and be able to go home after the game — to see his dog.