Yesterday for day 56, the readers got a twofer but for today you’re only going to get one but it’s a pretty good one player to highlight. For day 55, we’ll be highlighting a center who had an All Pro NFL career but made his bones in Columbus, Ohio.
Nick Mangold was wildly under recruited coming out of Archbishop Alter High School in Kettering, Ohio. While he wasn’t highly recruited, he still played in the 2002 U.S. Army All American Bowl. One of the reasons that I love Mangold because he was a pretty damn good high school wrestler.
Mangold played from 2002 to 2005 at the Ohio State University and received high praise from offensive line coach Jim Bollman. Bollman compared him to Rimington Trophy winner LeCharles Bentley, saying that he was on par to be a great as Bentley.
In Mangolds freshman season he appeared in eight games as a backup for Alex Stepanovich. The following season when Stepanovich when down with a knee injury in the Buckeyes second game against San Diego State, Mangold stepped in and finished the season as the starting center.
In 2004, Mangold anchored the Buckeyes offensive line. He earned All BIG Ten Conference Honorable Mention and was named Offensive Lineman of the Week seven times and Offensive Player of the Week when the Buckeyes played against Northwestern. In 2005, Mangold was named all BIG Ten and an All American. He capped off his career with forty five games played and thirty three started.
Mangold was drafted in 2006 by the New York Jets with the twenty ninth pick and played for the Jets from 2006 to 2016.
For tomorrow’s part of the countdown, we get to look at a Connecticut native that dominated the Big East and NFL when he was a pass rusher.