COLUMBUS – The cancellation of last week’s game vs. Illinois has left a lot of people wondering which Ohio State players tested positive.
The availability report this week gives some hints, though drawing any firm conclusions is problematic since players that are not available could have that status due to injury or other factors not necessarily related to the COVID outbreak on the football team.
That said, the number of unavailable players this week certainly leads to the conclusion that COVID had a large impact on this report.
Additionally, this report usually issues on Friday, but was issued this week on Saturday. The presumption is that the OSU coaching staff did not want to give the MSU coaching staff the information in time for them to make plans on how to exploit all the missing players.
The report indicates that a total of 23 players will be unavailable on Saturday.
Ohio State will be without half of its starters on the offensive line with left tackle Thayer Munford, right tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere and center Josh Myers out. Backup Paris Johnson Jr. will also be unavailable.
On defense, the Buckeyes will be without linebacker Tuf Borland, junior safety Josh Proctor, and defensive lineman Tyler Friday.
Below is the availability report as released by Ohio State.
Ohio State at Michigan State – Dec. 5, 2020; Spartan Stadium, East Lansing, Mich.
Please note: individuals listed as unavailable this week may be unavailable because of injury, rehabilitation because of an injury or illness.
Game-Time Decision
N/A
Unavailable
- WR Kamryn Babb
- LB Tuf Borland
- CB Cam Brown
- WR Mookie Cooper
- DL Jacolbe Cowan
- DL Aaron Cox
- RB Marcus Crowley
- DE Tyler Friday
- TE Patrick Gurd
- WR Jaylen Harris
- OL Paris Johnson, Jr.
- DB Cam Kittle
- QB Jagger Laroe
- LS Roen McCullough
- OL Thayer Munford
- OL Josh Myers
- OL Nicholas Petit-Frere
- DE Noah Potter
- SAF Josh Proctor
- TE Joe Royer
- WR Gee Scott
- DB Alec Taylor
- SAF Kourt Williams
that reallllly sucks with OL..plays to Sparty’s strength and already a weakness for OSU–pass protection….and as horrible as msu is on offense they lead the conference with 40+ yard pass plays with plays to OSU’s weakness–this could be tighter than expected.