Football
Wednesday Practice Report
By Brandon Castel

As most of you know by now, Ohio State held its kick scrimmage today. We were allowed to watch practice at the Shoe before the kick scrimmage and things were very physical. We actually got to watch the Hoot-N-Holler drill today and it was pretty intense (more on that later).

The big news of the day was that linebacker Ross Homan went down with (yet another) injury. It happened during the 11-on-11 portion of practice and Homan had to be helped off the field with what looked like a leg/foot injury (he was replaced by Andrew Sweat). He was walking around on the sideline but did not participate in the scrimmage. Punter Jon Thoma said afterward that Homan told him he was fine but felt like taking it easy during the scrimmage.

To start with, here's a quick rundown of the status of a few players:

• Guard Justin Boren was in shorts and shoulder pads. He was wearing a sleeve on his right knee and he was doing some rehab stuff on the sideline. He seemed to be walking around fine and I have a feeling he WILL play against Navy, but maybe not more than a few series.
• Linebacker Austin Spitler was in shorts with no pads. He did warm-ups with the linebackers but did not participate in practice. After practice, kicker Aaron Pettrey said that Spitler told him he was feeling better already but could miss a couple days and should be back for the opener.
• Tailback Jaamal Berry was in shorts and no pads. No status update there. Tight end Jake Stoneburner was in pads and shorts and the same goes for defensive end Melvin Fellows.

Pre-scrimmage practice report:

• With Boren out of practice, the Buckeyes did some shuffling on the offensive line. I'm sure they have used other combination this week, but today's first-team line was LT Shugarts LG A.Miller C Brewster RG Browning RT Cordle.
• The second group up front offensively was LT Adams LG Moses C Mewhort RG C.Smith RT Kerr and the third group went LT Longo LG Linsley C Sika RG Blankenship RT M.Hall
• Both Ray Small and Rob Rose participated fully in practice. Small worked with Taurian Washington on the second-team offense while DeVier Posey and Dane Sanzenbacher worked with the ones. Washington also got some reps with the ones when they went with three wide receivers. Rose worked at defensive end with the third group on defense.
• Defensively, Devon Torrence was working with the first group today in a secondary that also included Kurt Coleman, Anderson Russell and Chimdi Chekwa. Homan and Brian Rolle were the linebackers with the first group with Jermale Hines playing the star. The first unit up front was Thad Gibson, Cam Heyward, Doug Worthington and Dexter Larimore. That should be the starting four for the season opener.
• Andre Amos was with the second group today at corner opposite Travis Howard. Nate Oliver and Orhian Johnson were the safeties. The second group of linebackers was Storm Klein, Etienne Sabino and Andrew Sweat (before Homan went down) with the freshman trio of Whiting, Bell and Newsome working at linebacker with the third group.
• Adam Homan was the first-team fullback and fellow freshman Reid Fragel got some action on the goal line.

Hoot-N-Holler:

I have been covering OSU football for five years and today was a first for me. Whether it was a mistake by the coaching staff, or a gift from above, we were able to witness the infamous Hoot-N-Holler drill live and in person.

It was as physical (and loud) as advertised, which wasn't surprising, but I was a little shocked that offense seemed to dominate the drill. That almost never happens in practice when the linemen are involved, but that was clearly the case today as the defense did not get a stop until the fifth go-around.

In their defense, there were only three players going on defense today, and according to Doug Lesmerises of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, there is was a fourth defender (a safety) in the video on Youtube. Boom Herron had a few nice runs with Brewster and Cordle blocking for him and Brandon Saine broke some nice tackles, but the score of the day belonged to Jordan Hall. The freshman juked two defenders out of their shoes with a silky-smooth spin move before waltzing into the end zone.

The defense did start to pick things up towards the end of the drill and it all started with John Simon. The freshman defensive tackle was too much for any of the offensive linemen to handle. This is a big kid who takes up space and he did a good job of beating his man to stuff a handful of runs.

Kick scrimmage notes:

• The most exciting play of the day (easily) belonged to sophomore Lamaar Thomas, who took the opening kickoff (from four yards deep in the end zone) 95 yards before being caught at the nine yard line.
• Kudos to Devon Torrence, who took a heck of an angle to come from the opposite side of the field to make the the touchdown-saving tackle.
• Ray Small did most of the punt returning for the Scarlet team with Posey getting most of the reps for the Gray team. Torrence and Sanzenbacher also got a few punt return opportunities for Gray and the same goes for Jordan Hall and Duron Carter on Scarlet. Outside of Flash, it was not a great day for the return men. Maybe it was the rain, but Posey, Small and Anderson Russell each muffed a return, although Posey managed to recover his.
• Speaking of Carter, the freshman made one of the biggest plays of the day and it didn’t involve his hands one bit. Crazy as it might sound, the freshman wideout came away with the hit of the day after popping Devon Torrence for a two-yard loss on a punt return.
• My favorite play of the day was the fake punt by the Gray squad where safety Kurt Coleman threw a perfect spiral to freshman Corey Brown for a 20-yard pickup. Coleman was all smiles and it was a nice haul-in for Brown.

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