Garrett Recovery a Team Effort: Haskell Garrett’s recovery from a gunshot wound to the face has been borderline miraculous. The OSU defensive tackle healed well enough and fast enough to be declared medically cleared to play in the season-opener against Nebraska. Garrett deserves a lot of credit for the turnaround, but OSU Head Coach Ryan Day says so do a lot of other people.
“Everybody gets a bit of credit,” said Day. “The medical personnel were on it from the jump. Then the training personnel made sure he was ready to play even though he was not allowed any contact. It was a team effort but Haskell gets the most credit.”
“It was everybody,” said Garrett. “Buckeye Nation, the coaches, my teammates. Mostly the coaches, Coach Day and Coach J and Coach Coombs.
“I’m blessed to be able to play another down another day.”
Haskell told reporters that he underwent one surgery and a bone graft to repair the injury. He also lost five teeth which have not yet been replaced. As a result he is on a mostly-liquid diet consisting of protein shakes and a little soft food.
Day says Running Game Was Solid: The Buckeyes didn’t exactly light it up on the ground against Nebraska but Ryan Day is nowhere near ready to panic. “I thought they (running backs) were solid,” said Day. “They were just OK early on but got better as the game went on.”
Day said Nebraska presented some defensive fronts that were unexpected so that took some adjusting, but once the adjustments were made things improved.
The running game was bolstered by the brief performance of Steele Chambers who seemed to bring a spark that was needed despite getting only four carries in the game.
“He ran hard,” said Day. “He finished his runs and had good pad level. He flashed a little.”
Stepping Up the Competition: Nebraska was no slouch of a season opener, but things get tougher this week for the Buckeyes when they travel to Happy Valley to take on Penn State.
“Its all hands on deck, this is a big game for us,” said Day. “I think they are well-coached and talented, good in all three phases.”
“They’re always going to play hungry when they play us, but even more this time because of what happened to them in their opener.”
Penn State lost their season-opener on the road at Indiana in an overtime game with a controversial finish.
Negative Attempts?: When the running game sputtered early in the game against Nebraska quarterback Justin Fields made up for it some by running the ball a bit more than normal. It was effective, but not something the Buckeyes want to become the norm. Hits on Fields as a runner put him at injury risk, something that center Josh Meyer doesn’t want to see.
“I’d like Justin to get hit negative times the rest of the season,” said Meyers.
Meyers said that the injury risk isn’t limited to the tackle itself. Last year there was some hanky-panky on the bottom of the pile aimed at Fields. Meyers says he and his fellow offensive linemen are out to make sure there is no repeat of that this year.
“If he does pull it down and run we’re going to be there right away to keep him safe,” said Meyers. “It’s not something we are told to do but we’re sure as hell going to do it because it happened last season.”
Upside to Delayed Season: The delayed season has affected most positions adversely. Tackling is sloppy, line play is not crisp and timing is not great in the running game. One aspect that may have benefitted, however, is the passing game, where passers and receivers have had a lot of time to work on being on the same page.
“Overall having the extended off-season gave us time to work on everything,” said OSU slot receiver Garrett Wilson.
That was especially helpful to Wilson who was moving from an outside receiver position to the inside slot position.
“Every week I work on being in the slot,” said Wilson. “I can get favorable matchups there.”
Wilson is a slot receiver but also lines up at the outside position from time to time.
“I love being able to play inside and outside,” said Wilson. “I put a big emphasis on being versatile.
Nice to read the kudos for Steele Chambers as he really flashed.
Jaxon Smith-Enjigba should be Smith-Enigma bc it’s a complete mystery how he was able to control his body in the manner he did for his 1st career TD catch! So looking forward to watching him the rest of this season and the NEXT1 or 2 more YEARS before he exits to the NFL.