Julian Fleming persevered through shoulder injuries to become reliable Ohio State receiver

The throw hit Julian Fleming in stride.

It was late in Ohio State’s dramatic comeback at Notre Dame last month, the Buckeyes left with little margin for error on a fourth-and-7, when he ran a crossing route over the middle.

Without having to alter his steps, Fleming brought in the pass from quarterback Kyle McCord and extended a few more yards to reach the Irish’s 32-yard line, moving the chains for a first down with less than a minute left.

The catch continued a drive that would reach the end zone in the final second with a last effort by Chip Trayanum, a game-winning series that preserved the Buckeyes’ unbeaten season.

To Fleming, his clutch catch was a blur.

“I knew what route I was running,” he said, “and everything fell into place after that.”

It was still a big moment for Fleming, a senior who has fought through injuries, including multiple shoulder surgeries, to become one of Ohio State’s most reliable pass catchers in a tale of perseverance.

Developing grit

Fleming learned to value hard work growing up in rural Pennsylvania.

By the time he was 8 years old, he spent his summers and weekends helping out at his grandfather’s nursery in Elysburg.

He loaded trees onto 18-wheelers and cut firewood. He learned to drive a tractor to carry the trees out from the farm.

“I don’t want to say it wasn’t fun,” Fleming said, “but it was challenging sometimes.”

Mick Fleming spent countless hours building up the business. When the landscaping company was in its infancy, he dug out trees by hand.

It hurt his back, but he couldn’t yet afford all the equipment for a skid steer. Those were the stories that Fleming heard at a young age as he observed his grit.

Both his grandfather and his mother, Betsy, a counselor at a juvenile treatment center, showed him a strong work ethic.

“They’ve always been really resilient,” Fleming said. “When stuff doesn’t go their way, it doesn’t go their way, but they never quit on what they’re doing. They instilled that in me.”

They also shaped his athletic background.

Mick coached basketball at Southern Columbia Area High School and introduced Julian to various sports during their summers together. Betsy was a record-setting distance runner on the track-and-field team and played field hockey in a career that continued at West Chester.

Through high school, Julian was also a multi-sport athlete, playing basketball and running sprints in track in addition to football. On the AAU basketball circuit, he once played against Zion Williamson, a future star at Duke who was later the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft in 2019.

Williamson was even then physically imposing.

“I always thought I was big until I played against some of those kids,” Fleming said.

He also participated in baseball until the eighth grade. A hard-throwing pitcher, he tore a shoulder, among the series of shoulder injuries, prompting him to give up the sport.

But his future quickly appeared most promising in football.

That’s because Michigan offered him a scholarship after he caught 36 passes for 956 yards and 13 touchdowns as a freshman at Southern Columbia.

Though the Tigers are in the second-smallest enrollment classification in Pennsylvania, they’re also Class 2A powerhouse and reached the championship game in 2016, allowing Fleming to get the attention of recruiters.

It still caught him by surprise. Fleming had just turned 16.

“I was like, this can't be real,” he said, “and it ended up being real and bunch more came.”

Fleming emerged as the top wide receiver in his recruiting class for 2020 in the composite rankings compiled by 247Sports with opportunities to join any blue blood in the nation.

He went with Ohio State and was one of the earliest blue-chip recruits to commit to the Buckeyes following Brian Hartline’s elevation to full-time wide receivers coach in late 2018.

Fleming remembers being swayed on a visit when Hartline left his meeting room in order to allow him to ask candid questions to the other receivers, a group that then included Terry McLaurin, Parris Campbell and Johnnie Dixon, among others.

“I feel like I got the real recruiting spiel,” Fleming said, “and the real spiel from the players as well.”

Some receivers in his class at Ohio State were quicker to make an impact, such as Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who became a star in the slot and was drafted in the first round of the NFL draft in April.

It took Smith-Njigba’s hamstring injury last season for Fleming to step in as a starter. He finished the year with 54 receptions for 533 yards and six touchdowns. Through six games this fall, he has caught 16 passes for 162 yards.

Shoulder issues limited him early, resulting in frequent dislocations.

Fleming underwent a procedure on his left shoulder after his freshman season, followed by another this past season on his right shoulder.

He refers to his shoulders as bionic shoulders following the labrum surgeries.

“They’re good to go,” Fleming said. “They’re 110%. They’ve been amazing.”

The ups and downs have given Fleming a deeper perspective and an appreciation for his health. Injuries never sidelined him in high school. But he missed two last season and five as a sophomore in 2021.

“That was something different,” he said, “having to be on the sideline and not being able to be active in practices or anything like that. But cherish every opportunity and every moment. That’s something that stuck with me ever since.”

Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Follow him on Facebook and X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. He can also be contacted at jkaufman@dispatch.com.

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State football WR Julian Fleming persevered through injuries