CJ Stroud's Path To Becoming a Record-Setting Quarterback | Ohio State Football | The Journey

Growing Up my real name is Coleridge so c-l-e-r-i-d-g-e um and then my middle name is Bernard my last name is Stroud my name has been CJ since I've been probably born I grew up in Southern California about an hour Inland of LA our family consisted of of course myself his dad and then his two brothers and sister and then CJ's the baby of the family DJ had a great relationship with his father I use my best friend growing up taught me about good bad ugly sad he was always honest with me introduced me to Sports he played a basketball and baseball growing up and I played those two sports as well including football of course they would go to Las Vegas Florida all of those circuits and CJ would play and his dad would be with him and then in football he would be at every game he's always told me that I was special always tell me that I could be great and we meant the world I think it's one of the most important things to get your confidence from your father my dad always told me I was going to be better than him he used to always make me write out a check for a million dollars saying I was going to be the first first round draft pick in whatever sport I wanted to play [Music] CJ's dad and myself we married in 1997. but before I met him he had a substance abuse problem around 2011 is when he Revisited that substance abuse problem we decided to split up he just stopped showing up stop being around the house and stop taking me practice and then I got a phone call one day out of nowhere um and he and he called me he didn't tell me he was in jail I remember just the after end of that phone call I just I was angry I was mad at the world I was asking why I was hurt I felt like he betrayed me he really didn't care about me no more you really don't know the kind of person you're gonna tell you are tried and tested when your best friend is it basically not there anymore and now you're out there and all your friends dads are there but yours is not anymore that really tested CJ my dad loves sports I was like I'm gonna go against that I'm gonna do what he used to do and try to find my way in another way [Music] Southern California you have different Avenues and different things pulling you left and right I was just a kid at the time really didn't know what I was getting myself into I wasn't maybe always doing the right things and I had a couple life and death situations that woke me up from what I was doing when you have a calling on your life you can try to go any way you want but you're always going to go back to your original calling that's what happened with CJ and sports has always been an outlet for him my first practice at Snoop Dogg's All-Star team just having that youth football kind of like Brotherhood with some of the I call my best friends to this day show me a different way to live I can really take something positive and turn into something great which was for me Sports [Music] Recruiting my recruiting was definitely tough kids around Southern California were getting offers in the eighth grade and and I thought I should be one of them but I wasn't and I went to of course Rancho Cucamonga High School my junior year had a good season got some college offers first offer was from Colorado just kept going kept fighting kept calling kept stretching to be better and better I was scratching the crawling to get to the Elite 11 and I felt like they didn't want me this was something CJ had watched on TV since he was little the high school quarterbacks competition there's the greats that have gone through that program and most of them either went pro or competed at a high level College and it's hundreds of quarterbacks and they narrowed that down to 21. and then they narrowed down to 11 then they narrowed down to the MVP the winner of the competition I went to the regional capital I feel like I did really good but they offer Bryce invitation of course now he's at Bama each of those camps they picked other quarterbacks and not CJ went back to the drawing board worked harder then I went up to Oakland got denied again and I just kept putting hunger into me and I just kept fighting kept calling kept emailing kept doing whatever I could kept showing up I feel like I did really good and I remember the day of it was the last day they were sent invitations I think I was the last phone call and they invited me to the 11 to Dallas although it's over with I was like it's done they gave me they ain't messed up now they didn't gave me the opportunity he's out throwing kids that are that are hers they put them in seven on seven teams which was where he came in contact with Ohio State players I was on the team with G Scott Jr Julian Fleming he was throwing these dots everything on the money leading the team like this is just a seven on seven this is just a camp and he everything is just shining through and it's like wow like who is this guy like I've never I don't know who is this dude as I started kind of getting the groove going and started winning some seven on seven games it started to compete at a high level and I could probably really do this they named him the MVP of the elite 11. I didn't know I was going to win I'm not saying I was going to win the AVP right off red I just knew that I was going to show them some our team ended up winning the championship and at seven on seven and on the way home we're on the bus going to the airport and I'm like so like what are you thinking about bro and he's like I don't really have that like many big huge offers right now he's like I might stay in Cali I'm not sure I'm like you got to come to Ohio state with me like you got to come to Ohio state with me they call uh coach day and whoever they call heart line whatever the case may be you got to offer this kid you gotta offer this kid you gotta offer that kid and I was sitting there like listening like damn it's crazy they talking Ohio State about me Ohio State we didn't know a ton about CJ and then it started to pick up and we started to learn more about them and understand you know his Rancho Cucamonga and in the background and everything like that and and you saw somebody who had an edge to him coming in Ohio State Justin was here it was good for me to learn from him I just had to be a leaning hand to be a leading brother to him and try to follow him that taught me a lot as well but yeah just kept scratching the corn just to be a better quarterback each and every day big question here with so many pieces back is what's missing and that is Justin Fields you got three freshmen vying for that starting quarterback spot they didn't recruit me early on they didn't want me at first they wanted somebody else looked at it like a challenge was like man it's like another Elite 11 situation where they denied me they denied me but now I'm gonna go show them what's up here it's a passenger pass in his own cut for the touchdown great starts for CJ Stroud CJ came in right off the bat and got after it competed he was just so accurate he knew all the plays he was prepared so they named him the starter all of college football is waiting to see CJ Stroud can he fill the enormous shoes left behind by Justin field Stroud pulled it out over the middle intercepted it was tough first half I didn't play my best and I looked at my phone people telling me I can't wait to you uh transfer to Arkansas State I can't you should kill yourself all type of crazy stuff and I'm like you know what watch this Stroud delivers down the field caught Wilson touchdown bucks full throw from CJ Stroud that was kind of like my 2021 season Journey taking the good with the bad and just really looking myself in the mirror you're fine CJ you can do this and I feel like we end up having a good season CJ Stroud's fifth touchdown of the half for Ohio State impressive a lot of the stuff that I'm doing now is credited to my dad as time got on I started healing Tom Hill so I started for gaming with getting more so now me and my dad's relationship was a lot better I talked to him probably at least once a week try to fill them in on what's going on and he gives me advice and he tells me and I'm motivating him now to this day to try to make his life better he tells me in there that they watched me on TV one dude didn't think that one dude in the prison did think that he was really my dad he was like man that ain't your son dude he was like nah that's my son and so I called one day and I talked to the dude like yeah that's my pops bro like and they watched me on TV touchdown pass number six for CJ Stroud we've seen a Heisman performance or what last year went really well he played so amazing but then we did face a team up north finally now it's time to play the game because the Michigan Ohio State rivalry is a 365 day a year thing I knew that it was either us or them going for the Big Ten championship and the game had a lot riding on it drops down at the 39-yard line unfortunately we didn't win it wasn't because of lack of effort from CJ that's for sure but CJ said to me like we should have won like he takes all of the blame on himself for Ohio State bitter disappointment their streak of Big Ten championships will come to an end it was just tough licking your wounds and understanding like okay we lost this game and it's got to be another 365 until we got to play these dudes again and I definitely think when that game comes that'll be our motivation put Ohio State back on top if that's good ugly side if it looks bad it doesn't really matter we just want to win some of the goals I've been kind of speaking in fruition is of course beating the team of North one of the Big Ten Championship when The Hires me an astral championship hopefully after that everything will take care of itself [Applause]