The Buckeye Battle Cry will be counting down the Top 25 players of the past decade all spring/summer. Every Monday through May and June, Jim will be announcing a new player. Starting in July, we will be announcing new additions on Monday and Thursday. Our #1 player will be presented on Monday, August 30th. Three days later, the 2010 season officially begins.
Nate Clements (1999-2000)
Clements is a player that is hurt by the fact that he just barely made it into the decade we are looking at.
Also hurting him are the teams he started on,which had the worst back to back seasons at Ohio State in two decades.
Despite these setbacks, Clements was undoubtedly one of the most talented players to wear the scarlet and gray over the past ten years, and a key player that helped establish Ohio State as a factory for first round cornerbacks.
Clements was named First Team All-Big Ten during his junior year in 2000, after which he declared for the draft. He was drafted 21st overall by the Buffalo Bills in the 2001 NFL draft.
A large part of Clements story over the past decade has been his NFL career. He was selected to the Pro Bowl in 2004, and in 2007 he signed what was at the time the largest contract ever for a defensive player in the NFL.
For his All-Big Ten season in 2000, his elite level of talent, and for representing Ohio State so well in the NFL for almost a decade, Nate Clements checks in at number twenty-three on our countdown.
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