'Hold on, let me call you back': How Bijan Robinson rebutted Ohio State for Texas thanks to a Stan Drayton phone call
The camera pans to Bijan Robinson. He’s on his phone with the team who selected one of the draft’s top prospects to lead a franchise in the coming years. His beloved family is by his side. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is on the Kansas City stage, and Robinson, who always has a smile on his face, is tearing up.
“…in the 2023 NFL draft…”
Robinson stands. He knows the moment he’s waited for since he ran into the Arizona high school record books has arrived. Goodell, over the chorus of boos, continues.
“…select Bijan Robinson. Running back.”
“Ohio State.”
In a separate reality, that’s the scene that could have unfolded on Thursday night. Robinson, after taking official visits during the summer of 2019 to Ohio State, USC, and Texas, eventually offered a silent commitment to the Buckeyes. But after hours of prayer on the subject, plus efforts from then-Texas running backs coach Stan Drayton, Robinson chose the Longhorns when it came time for his commitment to become public.
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“A lot of prayer just asking God to show me the right team,” Robinson said about the process in October of 2021. “I knew Texas was the perfect place for me, but there was just a lot of people in my ear about Ohio State. It was so tempting to try to go there. All the recruiting was towards Ohio State. It was going to be fun to join a team like that. All those things are really cool, but I just knew God had a bigger plan for me here at Texas. I just knew that was why I had to switch and come here.”
Following a tremendous career at Texas that included unanimous All-America honors, the 2022 Doak Walker Award, Lamborghini deals, and the fourth-most rushing yards in program history, Robinson looked back and saw he made the right choice in August of 2019.
“People always tell me ‘you could have left,’ or ‘you could have transferred,’ or ‘you could have been…’” Robinson said on December 19. “So many different things. I always tell them that’s not what God has for me, and I know that it’s so much bigger here. I know everything is planned the right way in my footsteps here, and I can’t change that.”
If it weren’t for a well-timed phone call by Drayton, Robinson may not have joined the company of Ricky, Earl, or Cedric — three players who, like Bijan, need only their first name to be identified. Rather, he could have been among Buckeye greats like Archie Griffin, JK Dobbins, Ezekiel Elliott, and Eddie George.
Ahead of a Longhorn road game during the 2018 season, Drayton was in the Texas team hotel preparing for the upcoming contest. Former director of recruiting Bryan Carrington walked over to Drayton and showed him some of Robinson’s highlights. Right away, Drayton was enamored.
“The highlight reel is unbelievable,” Drayton, now the head coach at Temple, told Inside Texas on December 21. “Not only that, the highlight reel just goes on forever and ever and ever. The kid is making explosive play after explosive play. He’s making people miss. He’s just doing some incredible things. Immediately, I’m like ‘wow, this is a special player.’”
Drayton got into contact with Robinson via FaceTime. The two made a connection, one of many Robinson had made with some of the top schools around the country. In addition to interest from home-state schools Arizona and Arizona State, USC, Ohio State, Michigan, and Alabama were among the schools that sought Robinson’s services.
Eventually, Drayton went to see Robinson play for Tucson (Ariz.) Salpointe Catholic, coached by Dennis Bene. The performance Robinson put on was part of his illustrious 7036-yard career that included 103 touchdowns, according to MaxPreps.
“I actually look up into the stands, and I see his grandmother,” Drayton recalled. “I just pointed at her and said ‘hey, I’m coming after your grandson. He’s ridiculous.’”
At this point, Drayton and former Texas head coach Tom Herman are in a bit of a balancing act when it comes to recruiting running backs. The Longhorns were after in-state prospects Zach Evans and Jase McClellan, plus national blue-chippers like Robinson, MarShawn Lloyd, and Kendall Milton. In each recruitment, Drayton and Herman were going toe-to-toe with teams with better track records over the previous few years.
As Robinson narrowed his selections, the Longhorns continued to make the cut. Robinson took three official visits in June of 2019. He visited Columbus, Ohio on June 14, Los Angeles on June 17, and finished with a trip to Austin on June 21.
“He loves what Texas has to offer,” Drayton said. “Before walking out of there, he and his family kind of tells me ‘be ready coach. I think I’m going to end up playing for you.’ I’m excited. I’m ready to call other prospects and let them know ‘I think I’ve got my back and I’m done.’”
The fight for the five-star rusher would not be that easy. Ohio State had commitments at the time from quarterback Jack Miller and safety Lathan Ransom. Both were Arizonans and Ransom, a Texas target himself at one point, was a Salpointe teammate.
Robinson, Miller, and Ransom, plus other Buckeye pledges, traveled to Atlanta not long after Robinson’s official visits for the Rivals Five-Star Challenge. Those Buckeyes in attendance put the full-court press on Robinson.
Their influence wasn’t the only thing that had Robinson looking at Ohio State, as Tony Alford had worked hard, like Drayton, to be in the final group for Robinson.
“I would talk to Bijan bout relationships and people,” Bene told Inside Texas on December 6. “Obviously, at the very end it was Coach Alford from Ohio State and Coach Drayton from Texas.”
All the scarlet and gray in his proximity had an effect. So much so that just after the camp, Drayton received a call.
“I remembered the call that I get that Sunday,” Drayton said. “He goes, ‘hey coach, I just want to tell you I appreciate everything you’ve done for me. I think you’re an awesome man, but I’m going to go ahead and commit to Ohio State.’ Knowing Bijan, that was something that was well thought out. It was something that he’s probably not going to decommit from. He’s just that kind of a person.”
This was one of several tough punches for the Longhorns emanating from the Five-Star Challenge. Other prospects, notably Vernon Broughton, drifted away from the Longhorns and toward other schools in the event’s aftermath.
Plus, the sting was made worse by the fact that the Longhorns had put all their eggs into the Robinson basket. Evans released a top five in May during a recruitment with its own amount of twists and turns, and did not include a single in-state school.
“I sit there and I’m like, ‘you sure?’” Drayton said.
“‘Yeah coach, I’m sure.’”
“I tell you, I’m used to being rejected at times, but that one just hurt. Again, you just want to be around that guy.”
But time passed, and the shine from the weekend spent around Buckeye commits wore off.
Drayton and the rest of the Longhorn staff then attended their annual preseason coaches retreat before fall camp and Robinson’s scheduled announcement. Out of the blue, Drayton decides to contact Robinson.
“I text him, and he calls me back,” Drayton said. “I said ‘man, how are you doing? I wasn’t expecting for you to call me.’”
“He goes, ‘no, I saw your text. I just wanted to see how you were doing, coach.’”
“I said, ‘I’m doing good. I’ve got to admit, I really do believe I should be coaching you.’ I don’t know where that came from, but that was the next thing I said.”
“He goes, ‘coach, I really do, too. Hold on, let me call you back.’”
“That’s how the conversation went, and he hung up the phone. I go, wait a minute, what just happened right there? What just happened? He calls me back, he says ‘coach, I’ve been talking to my family. I think I made an emotional decision to go to Ohio State and I think the real decision is to come and play for Texas and play for you.’”
Bene can attest that when he was told that Robinson decided to commit to Ohio State, he knew something was off. Not only did it seem emotional, as Robinson noted with Drayton, but Bene could tell Robinson wasn’t fully into his choice.
“He had told me that, and I don’t know how convinced he was,” Bene said.
Robinson, who is proud of his Christian faith, undoubtedly prayed about the future. Bene believes that the time spent in prayer was when Robinson realized where he needed to go — somewhere where the coach recruiting him hardest had committed so much personal time and effort, and shared his values.
“I think it goes back to how important or how good the relationship and how comfortable he felt with Stan Drayton,” Bene said. “When Texas circled back around and then we visited about Texas, he said ‘coach, I prayed about it and thought about it.’ I think he felt really comfortable to then pull the trigger on Texas.”
Then on August 2, Robinson made his commitment to Texas public.
There were no further turns in the recruitment once Robinson announced his pledge to the Longhorns. Robinson turned in another outstanding season for the Lancers then signed with Texas in December of 2019. He enrolled in the summer of 2020 and began his illustrious college career.
Drayton would only coach him for two seasons, taking the Temple job after the 2021 campaign.
Though Drayton now lives in Philadelphia as head coach of the Owls, the two remain close. During his conversation with Inside Texas, Drayton joked he’d love to see Robinson get picked by the Eagles, something he knew would be to the chagrin of many Longhorn fans.
Of all the running backs Drayton has coached, a list that includes Robinson’s teammates Roschon Johnson and Keaontay Ingram, Buckeye greats Ezekiel Elliott and Carlos Hyde, Chicago Bears rookie standout Jordan Howard, and even Villanova’s Brian Westbrook, Robinson is in a company all his own.
“Bijan is Bijan,” Drayton said. “He brings a totally different skill set than all those other guys.”
If it weren’t for a well-timed phone call following a dogged, almost year-round effort, Robinson would be walking up to shake Goodell’s hand as a former Buckeye. Instead, Drayton made the call that helped bring Bijan to Texas.
“I’m just so happy that everything that’s going well for him is happening, because he really does deserve it,” Drayton said.
On Thursday, the camera will pan to Robinson in Kansas City.
“…in the 2023 NFL draft…”
And as he walks up to the stage. Robinson won’t yell ‘O-H.’
“select… Bijan Robinson. Running back. Texas”
He’ll flash a ‘Hook ‘Em’ as he begins his NFL career, and he’ll have a well-timed phone call to thank.
