Every year following Ohio State spring football we recap what happened position by position. Who stepped up, who stepped back, what got fixed, and what didn’t? With 12 of the 15 spring practices cancelled due to the pandemic, however, essentially nothing happened, nothing got fixed, nobody stepped up, and no questions got answered.
Ohio State’s strength and conditioning staff, led by assistant athletic director for football sports performance Mickey Marotti, announced the recipients of its Most Improved Awards following the conclusion of winter conditioning workouts. The Buckeyes who were lauded for their work in the weight room where: QB Jagger LaRoe, QB J.P. Andrade, OL Ryan Jacoby, DE Javontae Jean-Baptiste…
Young was a 5-star prospect out of Maryland who was ranked as the No. 7 player overall in the 2017 class and the No. 2 weakside defensive end in the nation. (Who was No. 1, you ask? Jaelan Phillips, who ended up at UCLA and posted just 4.5 sacks in two years before retiring and then unretiring and transferring to Miami last year.)
Justin Fields is the highest-ranked quarterback recruit at Ohio State since Terrelle Pryor in 2008. As such, he carries with him immense expectations. To “make matters worse,” Dwayne Haskins had the greatest season for a quarterback in Ohio State history last year, which means if Fields falls short of Haskins in any area this season, there will be critics.
It is now July — or thereabouts — which means it is time to ramp up our 2019 Ohio State football preview topics. Up first, is our annual rankings of the Buckeyes’ Top 10 playmakers on both sides of the ball, beginning with the defense. Unlike the offense, which barely features enough skill players to fill out an “outsiders” ranking, the Buckeye…
Chase Young was forced to mature quickly as a sophomore last season. His life in a 3-man rotation at defensive end last year only lasted two and a half games. When Nick Bosa went down, Young had to step up.He ended up leading the Buckeyes with 15.5 tackles for loss and 10.5 sacks. Young was named a Second-Team All-Big Ten honoree by the conference’s coaches.
It’s not often a team can say goodbye to Nick Bosa and still feel pretty good about their defensive ends. That’s Ohio State’s situation, and it was made easier by the fact that Bosa was gone from game three on last year, which forced everybody to grow up a bit more quickly. Now, every defensive end who played from Game Four…
Another Ohio State spring game has come and gone, which means there are sweeping judgments to pass upon everyone and everything.This must be how mothers-in-law feel.The Gray Buckeyes put it on the Scarlet squad, running away with a 35-17 win.We saw Justin Fields and Matthew Baldwin compete on the field in front of a crowd for the first time, but they were hardly the entire story. We still learned some things about them, but we learned plenty of other things as well.
Every year, new Buckeyes emerge and climb the depth charts of the Ohio State offense and defense. It is a necessary progression which then allows the program to replace departed stars and reestablish any loss of depth. This year on the OSU defense, nine starters return from last season, which makes climbing the depth chart quite a…
Ohio State signed seven defensive linemen in the 2018 recruiting class. Four defensive ends and three defensive tackles. Four of the seven — ends Tyreke Smith and Tyler Friday and tackles Tommy Togiai and Taron Vincent — played decent minutes as freshmen last year. Ends Javontae Jean-Baptiste and Alex Williams redshirted, while tackle…
Javontae Jean-Baptiste came to Ohio State from Bergen Catholic High School in Oradell, New Jersey. He was the No. 16 outside linebacker in the nation and the No. 219 player in the 2018 class overall. He was also ranked the No. 6 player in the state. Jean-Baptiste signed with Ohio State over offers from Boston College, Nebraska…
