There aren’t many 6-foot-4 240-pound linebackers who run in the 4.5s, so if you can find one, you better make it count. Ohio State signed one such linebacker in the 2017 recruiting class in Baron Browning, out of Fort Worth, Texas. Browning played in 12 games as a true freshman last season for the Buckeyes, picking…
Urban Meyer and his offensive coordinators have said on a number of occasions that the positives of a competitive quarterback battle is that everybody comes through it having improved significantly. With no returning starter at the position for the Buckeyes, improvement would be ideal. So where did those improvements occur…
No story can be told of Ohio State linebacker Justin Hilliard without first going into his injuries as a Buckeye. Arms and legs have both been through the ringer for Hilliard during his first two years, but now it is time for him to begin telling the rest of his story. That process began last year, where Hilliard was able to…
Nine of the 10 Ohio State football assistant coaches met with reporters on Wednesday to put a cap on spring football and take a look forward to the coming months for the Buckeyes. Has a decision been made at quarterback? Why was Isaiah Prince back at right tackle in the spring game? How tough is it to…
Normally, when a football team loses its only returning starter at linebacker to injury, the tension tightens and coaches begin to lose what little sleep they regularly subsist on. Thanks to the depth of the Ohio State linebackers, however, the Buckeye football coaches are more excited than worried about the possibilities.
With starting middle linebacker Tuf Borland out until around September for the Buckeyes, sophomore Baron Browning and fourth-year junior Justin Hilliard have stepped in to replace him. The competition this spring is significant because it is very likely that one of them will be the starter when Ohio State opens the…
There are many benefits to having veteran players on a college football team. They have experienced the highs and lows, and they understand what it takes to get through both. They know the plays, they know their assignments, and they have been developed over a number of years. The Buckeyes have that exact…
Ohio State has created a new college football standard with the cornerback rotation they have used the last two seasons. In 2016, Mashon Lattimore, Gareon Conley, and Denzel Ward finally accomplished what then-coach Kerry Coombs had been trying to get done for years. Last season, Ward and a new pair of…
The Ohio State football team was 9-0 last season when Tuf Borland started, and 3-2 when he didn’t. That could just be coincidence, of course. Borland didn’t start at middle linebacker last year until the fourth game of the season. He was then replaced in the starting lineup for games against Penn State and Iowa…
The desire to have fresh legs in the fourth quarter — and in November — has been the reason there has been so much rotation in the Ohio State football program the last few years. Cornerbacks have done it, receivers have done it, and the Buckeye defensive ends have certainly done it as well. The last two seasons…
Justin Hilliard came to Ohio State from Cincinnati St. Xavier and he brought along with him hefty expectations. As a 5-star prospect, Hilliard was supposed to fall right into the lineage of Buckeye linebacker greats. Injuries knocked him clear of that path pretty early on, however. Multiple biceps injuries over the years…
