COLUMBUS — It’s not every day that the media gets to see a full Buckeye football practice. But when it happens, there’s always a ton of things to report on. For Ohio State’s eleventh spring practice of the year, there was nothing but action.
For instance, fifth-year senior cornerback Damon Arnette and junior wide receiver Jaylen Harris got into a fight halfway through practice.
Both players had their helmets off after a play. It appeared that Harris threw a punch and yelled something after Arnette slammed C.J. Saunders into the turf, possibly a little after the play was over.
Harris’ punch missed and then Arnette struck a punch on the side of Harris’ head.
From that point on, Harris missed the rest of practice and was holding his head at times, kneeling on the sidelines. His helmet was taken away from him as well. Harris didn’t appear to be seriously injured, but he did not go back out on the field.
Harris and Arnette made up a few minutes later and were talking calmly. They even shared a side hug before parting ways and moving on.
Arnette seemed fired up throughout the whole practice, giving guys on the offense a hard time after plays. On one carry by redshirt freshman running back Master Teague, Arnette was slapping at the ball well after Teague had gone out of bounds.
The energy was flowing on both sides of the ball, however.
Buckeye head coach Ryan Day liked the energy that his team had, and wasn’t upset about the fight, but he likes it only in moderation and only at this point in the spring when it’s not going to cost them.
“I like the fact that they’re going after it,” he said. “If you don’t have any kind of scuffles then maybe you don’t have the right team. If you have too many then it starts to get reckless. I think if you have one or two every now and again I think it’s good. I never want it to get too over-the-top, but when you’re competing, you know football is a violent game so emotions get high.”
Fights happen every year and every camp can get testy, and it’s better to get it out of their system now than down the road.
“As we start getting closer to preseason, we have to play with emotion, we can’t let emotion play with us otherwise it’s going to cost us 15 in a game,” Day said. “So while we’re trying to create energy and create that environment I think it’s a good thing. If it starts to get over-the-top and get reckless then we’ll put a stop to it, but as we get closer to the preseason that stuff will start to calm down a bit.”
Wow! This article reads very bad for… Jaylen Harris. Just about got his ass knocked out. Then had to sit out the rest of practice holding the side of his head. Yikes.
As in the movie, “Remember the Titans,” following a fight during practice, the coach reprimanded them and said the key is to “channel that energy.”