A.J. Ouellette, a walk-on, spearheaded a walk-off win in his debut with the Ohio University Bobcats.
As improbable stories go, this one is tough to top.
Consider that Ouellette — who is poised to make his regular-season debut with the Saskatchewan Roughriders — wasn’t expected to see any action on offence entering an Aug. 30, 2014 NCAA Division I football game at Kent State.
“On the depth chart, A.J. is behind two seniors, two juniors and a redshirt,” recalls current Bobcats Head Coach Tim Albin, who was the team’s offensive co-ordinator and running backs coach from 2005 to 2018.
“A.J. makes the trip and gets on the bus because he starts on all four special teams, but he’s technically fifth on the depth chart.”
It was not a surprising spot for someone who had joined the Ohio team as a non-scholarship player just a few weeks earlier.
“So we’re in the Kent State game and it’s a tight game,” Albin continues. “It’s tied at halftime and we’ve got zero turnovers.”
That was a prelude to a mistake-plagued second half at Dix Stadium in Kent, Ohio.
“My starter fumbled on the first two series, so I pulled him,” Albin recounts. “I’d had enough of that.
“Papi (White, who would have been the next man up) is hurt, so I’m down to the third guy.
“The first series, he fumbles. We’ve got three possessions and three fumbles.
“I said, ‘The fourth guy’s got to go in,’ so the fourth guy fumbles. Four fumbles in four possessions!”
Albin had seen enough.
“The game is tied up and we get the ball back with three and a half minutes left,” he says. “We need a drive to win the game and we’ve got 75 yards to go.
“I said, ‘OK, A.J.’s going in.’ The passing game co-ordinator is right next to me. He looks at me and says, ‘Coach, he’s a freshman.’
“Coach (Frank) Solich says, ‘You’re doing what?’ I said, ‘Coach, these other guys have fumbled the ball and we’re going to go win this game. A.J.’s going in. You guys have to make me not do it. That’s what I think.’
“They said, ‘OK, if that’s what you think, that’s what we’re doing.’ A.J. trots out there on to that field.”
The possession began with a 13-yard completion. Then came the A.J. Show.
“I can remember it as if it were yesterday,” Albin says. “He looked like (former Miami Dolphins fullback) Larry Csonka, running over guys.”
Ouellette carried the ball six times in a span of seven game-changing plays.
The first two handoffs produced gains of nine and 13 yards. The final carry was a strategic four-yarder that positioned the football in the middle of the field for the placekicker.
With time expiring, Josiah Yazdani kicked a 44-yard field goal.
“We won the game 17-14,” Albin recalls, “and a legend — a star — is born.”
At least at the university level.
Ouellette was already a massive star in his hometown of Covington, Ohio (population: 2,500).
While representing Covington High School, Ouellette excelled in football, track and field and wrestling. Although he competed at the state-championship level in the latter two sports, football was his forte.
“I think he was the kicker and the holder,” Albin jokes. “He did it all.”
Over four seasons with the Covington Buccaneers, Ouellette amassed 5,475 rushing yards, 7,498 all-purpose yards, 99 touchdowns and 672 points.
He rushed for 2,434 yards and (get this) 46 TDs as a junior and followed up with 2,533 yards and 42 majors as a senior.
“I got A.J.’s film in December of his senior year,” Albin says.
Ohio Bobcats Head Coach Tim Albin
“I actually got the film from Jimmy Burrow — Joe Burrow’s dad. Jimmy Burrow was my neighbour. Joe learned how to throw the ball in my backyard.
“Jimmy says, ‘This kid, you need to look at him.’ I did, and I just told Jimmy, ‘He’s a good player, but we’ve got two committed.’ ”
Two other running backs from the graduating class of 2014 were already ticketed for Ohio. The timing, it seemed, was not going to work from the Bobcats’ perspective.
“I thought, ‘This kid looks good. Someone’s going to offer him,’ ” Albin says. “He wasn’t going to be sitting there in January.”
There were overtures from other schools — most of which were in Division II or III — and Ouellette made the rounds of official visits, the number of which was capped at the time.
The final scheduled visit necessitated a three-hour drive, during which Austin James Ouellette was accompanied by his parents (Phil and Jody).
When the Ouellettes arrived at the appointed destination, at the designated time, the “official visit” did not unfold as envisioned.
“Nobody was there, so the lady behind the desk showed me around the campus,” says A.J., who can chuckle about it now. “That kind of took (the lustre) away — and then she started talking about how good the soccer team is.
“I was like, ‘I get that you guys are really good at the sport, but I’m not here for soccer.’
“I was a little angry on my drive home. It was three hours of, ‘What did you talk about?’ I said, ‘Well, they’ve got a good soccer team …’ ”
Yet, the drive back to Covington proved to be productive. A.J. had a number for Dwayne Dixon, who was then the Bobcats’ wide receivers coach, and reached out to him from the comfort of a passenger seat.
“Shortly after that, Coach Albin called me up and set up an official visit,” Ouellette says. “It was my last one.
“I pretty much committed there. I don’t know if I told anyone, but I thought, ‘This is where I’m going to be.’
“I loved Coach Solich and I loved Coach Albin. I knew that was the college I wanted to go to so, at that point, it was, ‘I want to walk on. Tell me what I have to do to figure out all the financial stuff and try to pay for college.’
“I showed up the same day everybody else showed up and went to work like I wasn’t a walk-on. By the end of training camp, they gave me a scholarship.”
Someone had left the team, as it turned out, so a scholarship was suddenly available for, and awarded to, Ouellette.
In 10 games as a freshman, he scored an equal number of touchdowns — seven along the ground and three via receptions. Despite being buried on the depth chart to begin the season, he rushed for a team-high 785 yards (155 of which were produced in one game).
As a junior in 2015, he gained another 691 yards in 13 games.
Then came an abbreviated 2016 season.
In the opener against Texas State, Ouellette opened up with a 40-yard run.
“The very next play was an outside zone,” he says. “I put my foot in the ground and just felt it give, so I went down.
“I tried to stay in for the next play. It was a pitch to the outside and any other running back across the country would have scored, because it was wide open.
“I tried to put my foot in the ground and get north and my foot just gave out. I just looked for someone to hit and then fell. I just sat there and called the trainers.
“It’s funny. Ryan Bohn was the athletic trainer and he came out and I said, ‘My foot’s broken.’ He said, ‘Don’t be a wimp. Your foot’s not broken.’
“We go get X-rays and he comes back and says, ‘Your foot’s not broken. You just tore three ligaments.’ ”
Such was the abrupt conclusion to his third season with the Bobcats.
“The only upside was that I’d never used a redshirt, so I got to use the redshirt and I wasn’t technically going to miss the season (eligibility-wise),” Ouellette notes.
“My mindset was to attack it the way I would attack the playbook or the weight room. I attacked training.
“Luckily, Ryan had an amazing surgeon connection in Indianapolis. It was the Colts’ foot and ankle doctor who did my surgery.
“They said that if I’d had that injury 10 years ago, I would have been done playing football. Luckily, they had a way to fix it.”
After that, it was all up to Ouellette, who emerged better than ever after collaborating with Bohn on a recuperative regimen.
“I didn’t miss any meeting time or anything,” Ouellette says. “I made sure I got all my rehab stuff done between class and practice and all that.
“I kind of transitioned into a coach. I got to spend a little more time with the coaches on the sideline, trying to see how everything developed.
“I even had the headset on for half a drive until some words were said. They said, ‘You’re not allowed to listen in!’
“Mindset-wise, I knew that I couldn’t be the one who was down. Everyone was bummed for me, but I knew I had two great seasons left.”
Did he ever.
Ouellette rushed for 1,006 yards as a junior before elevating that total to 1,306 while classified as a redshirt senior with the Nathan Rourke-quarterbacked Bobcats.
Some of Ouellette’s contributions transcended statistics.
“As a player in his time here at Ohio, he was always a great teammate,” Albin says from Athens, Ohio. “A.J. always said, ‘Do you need a ride? I’ll come get you.’
“I don’t know if he ever went to a bar or a club. He’s not into that. With his goals and all the things that he did outside the facility, the choices he made were geared toward getting the maximum benefit from all the hard work in the weight room.
“You’re going to do the things to take full advantage of that — eating, sleeping, hydrating.”
That ultra-disciplined approach has not changed.
“A.J. understands that, right now in his life, his body is his earning power,” Albin says.
“You can see it in how he plays and in his style of running and his physique.”
Albin also raves about Ouellette’s attributes as a leader.
“That does not mean that he was everybody’s buddy, because he was not,” the Bobcats’ fourth-year head coach says.
“If you’re a true leader, leadership is not a popularity contest. As Nick Saban says, ‘If you want to be popular, go sell ice cream.’
“A.J. would do it the right way. If someone needed help or had the wrong shirt on or the wrong socks or if they were on their cell phone during meetings, he wouldn’t just stand up and cause a big scene.
“He’d pull them to the side and say, ‘This is not what we do,’ and explain why. That means you’re not always the most popular guy, but you’re a great teammate.
“A.J. was great at it with how he was able to be a leader but do it with a servant mentality and not in a dictator-type way.”
Beyond university, Ouellette would not allow adverse circumstances to dictate his decisions or, ultimately, his fortunes.
Despite a sparkling performance at his Pro Day in March of 2019, he was bypassed in the NFL Draft. He subsequently tried out for the New Orleans Saints, Cleveland Browns, Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs before signing with the Toronto Argonauts.
He dressed for three CFL regular-season games with the 2019 Argonauts. After COVID-19 washed away the following season, he appeared in six more contests with Toronto in 2021. The rest of the season was spent on the injured list or the practice roster.
Undaunted, he began to evoke images of his time at Covington High School and Ohio University.
He rushed for two touchdowns to help the Argonauts edge the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 24-23 in the 109th Grey Cup game, which was played at Mosaic Stadium on Nov. 20, 2022.
At the very same facility, he reached the 1,000-yard milestone along the ground for the first time as a professional. In so doing, he helped the Argonauts defeat the Roughriders 29-26 on Oct. 21.
Ouellette finished the 2023 regular season with 1,009 rushing yards, an average of 5.7 yards per carry, and eight TDs along the ground.
He added 16 receptions for 163 yards and two more majors en route to being named an East Division All-Star for the second season in succession.
Those credentials made Ouellette a coveted commodity as the 2024 free-agency period loomed.
Right out of the gate, the Roughriders made an aggressive pitch for Ouellette. He was quickly and suitably enticed. A two-year contract was announced on Feb. 13.
Wearing No. 45, which he also donned with great distinction at Ohio, the 5-foot-9, 210-pounder is to make his first regular-season appearance in green and white when the Roughriders visit the Edmonton Elks on Saturday (2 p.m., TSN, CKRM).
“Your fan base is going to love him,” Albin says. “He loves kids. He’s going to be a great ambassador for your organization.”
A marquee player, in more ways than one.
“It’s a straight-line frickin’ movie, I promise you,” Albin says of Ouellette’s story. “It’s legit book-worthy.”
Right, A.J.?
“I’m hoping I keep adding some chapters to it,” Ouellette says with a smile while savouring his new surroundings in Saskatchewan. “This is a great chapter, too.”
