COLUMBUS — Zero point zero. 

For former Ohio State receiver Reggie Germany, the grade-point average from his final college report card stuck with him like two scarlet numbers.

His straight F’s as a senior in the fall of 2000 — the result of skipping classes entirely as he began dreaming of NFL riches — made him ineligible for the Buckeyes’ bowl game, a face of the ills of big-time college athletics, and a national punchline. 

“That left a nasty taste in my mouth,” Germany said. 

Nasty enough that the story hardly ends here. 

Those in attendance at Ohio State’s fall-semester commencement ceremony last month might have recognized a familiar old name. 

Nearly two decades after assuring his mother he would get his degree, there was Germany — in a black cap, gown, tassel, and all — among the 3,000 or so newly minted graduates making good on the promise. 

Now 37 and an assistant football coach at Ohio Dominican University, Germany returned to school two years ago as part of Ohio State’s Degree Completion Program for former scholarship athletes. 

He graduated with a degree in sociology. His GPA this time around: 3.5. 

From the graduation-day crowd at Value City Arena, Germany’s mother, Jeannette — in town from his native St. Louis — watched the ceremony through tears. Also there was his wife, Keah, and his two children: Jaelyn Johnson — a freshman at Ohio State who aspires to be a neurosurgeon — and 2-year-old Raelee Germany. 

A third serendipitously arrived hours later. 

Just after receiving his diploma, Germany looked to the stands for his family, only to notice they were missing. He texted Keah. 

“I think my water just broke,” she replied. 

Germany, too, left the ceremony and joined the race to the hospital. The next morning, a healthy Reginald Lee Germany, Jr., was born. 

“My son must have heard my name being called and thought, ‘Well, I want to congratulate you too dad,’ ” Germany said with a laugh. “It was a great 24 hours.

He called the degree a highlight of his life. 

“For me, it was, ‘Is the 0.0 going to be my legacy that I leave behind?’ ” Germany said. “I knew I was better than that, and raising kids, you’ve got to make sure you live by example. I wanted to make sure I led by example and was not just blowing a lot of smoke into the air about what I’m doing. Now I have the rest of my life ahead of me to do big things.”

Germany is the latest in a line of Ohio State athletes who left school with unfinished academic business, only to return later in life for a second crack at their diploma. In all, 173 athletes — from recent graduates to 76-year-old former Buckeyes and Cleveland Browns star lineman Dick Schafrath — have graduated through the 22-year-old degree completion program. 

In exchange for community service, ex-scholarship players who have exhausted their athletic eligibility receive up to 45 hours of free tuition and aid from the school’s academic support staff.  

Germany is grateful for the assist — even as he wishes it was not necessary. 

Looking back, Germany said he banked his future almost entirely on a career in the NFL. 

He came to Ohio State in 1997 as a high-profile recruit and enjoyed early success. Germany played as a freshman, then caught four touchdown passes the next year on a Buckeyes team that spent most of the fall atop the polls. Over four seasons, he had 80 receptions for 1,268 yards. 

By his final year in 2000, the speedy Germany had one foot out the door. 

“I didn't go to any classes,” he said. 

“I was spending my time focusing on getting myself prepared for the NFL draft. A lot of it had to do with my immaturity at the time.”

He also had few people to call him on it. 

Today an Ohio State athlete could not simply fall off the academic map without notice. 

The football program alone has three academic counselors and a cadre of class checkers, similar to the well-intentioned spies deployed by Jim Tressel. 

The former Buckeyes coach had a roster of “academic encouragers” — mostly retired teachers and coaches who patrolled campus to ensure players were in class. 

In the 1990s, none of that existed. 

Such responsibility fell upon coach John Cooper, his assistants, and a lone aide. John Macko now heads the degree completion program, but at the time, he alone was the academic counselor responsible for football and eight other sports. 

“We used to have to do all of that ourselves,” Cooper said in a phone interview last week, “and there’s not enough hours in the day to coach and recruit and make sure everyone is going to class.”

Steadily, the Ohio State program steered off the rails, the players increasingly seen by the public as mercenaries clocking in at a football factory. 

In 1998, star linebacker Andy Katzenmoyer regained his eligibility with a summer course load of music, golf, and AIDS awareness. Two years later, 23 players dropped below the minimum 2.0 GPA required for eligibility, according to U.S. News and World Report. 

One of them was Germany, who was ruled ineligible for the Outback Bowl against South Carolina. 

Of the 0.0 GPA, Cooper said, “Yeah, I was shocked.” He was fired after the season. 

Germany achieved his NFL dream when he was selected by the Buffalo Bills in the seventh round of the 2001 draft. But he lasted only one healthy year in the league. 

As the years passed and Germany developed a personal training business in Columbus, the way he left Ohio State began to eat at him. 

In 2013, he decided he had to go back. Never mind that he would have to pay part of his tuition because he had more than a year to make up. Or that he had a family and a full-time job as the wide receivers coach at Ohio Dominican, where former Buckeyes assistant Bill Conley led the successful Division II program. (Conley resigned Friday after negotiations for a contract extension broke down.)

Germany was determined to rewrite his story. 

“It was a lot harder now than it was back then,” he said of balancing work, school, and family. “But my mindset is a lot different now than it was then. That’s what it boiled down to. My mind was set on a goal, and the goal was to get my degree. Just like it was to give myself a chance to play in the NFL, and I’ve had the chance to do both.”

Now a coach himself, he shares his hard-earned wisdom with his players. He said every one of his receivers who left Ohio Dominican the past three years has done so with a degree. 

“I was in their shoes not long ago,” said Germany, who hopes to remain in coaching. “For me to share my experiences and how to manage time and energy during the football season, now I understand how to do that, and do it at a pretty high level.”

Germany, meanwhile, is thankful for the support and encouragement from Ohio State, including from those he once frustrated most. Save for his mother, perhaps no one was prouder on graduation day than Macko. 

“I was just beyond words to see a guy like Reggie who I’ve known since he was 17 to go the scenic route of academics to get that diploma,” Macko said. “It’s very rewarding. I’m just tickled.”

Cooper, too, said he is happy for Germany. 

“That’s what it’s all about when you sit in that living room with mom,” he said. “It’s fantastic. I wish he had been eligible for that last game. But it’s great that he came back.”

Germany had to. No good story ends with a punchline. 

“Maybe a lot of the negative talk of the 0.0 can go away a little,” Germany said. “Now the doors are wide open.”

Contact David Briggs at: dbriggs@theblade.com, 419-724-6084 or on Twitter @DBriggsBlade.

First Published January 10, 2016, 8:56 a.m.