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.
Yesterday, I was having a sip of the good stuff at the virtual water cooler when Tom stopped by to ask if we had any hand sanitizer. I told him that we did not but that simply washing your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds would keep him safe. “Eh…I’m not really a soap guy,” he said. “That’s…uh…disturbing,” I said as I took a few steps backward.
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.)
Zach Harrison came to Ohio State from nearby Lewis Center, Ohio where he was a 5-star prospect and the No. 4 defensive end in the nation. Ranked the No. 12 prospect in the 2019 class overall, Harrison signed with Ohio State over offers from Michigan, Penn State, Alabama, and every other school in the nation with scholarship capabilities.
So where does Chase Young think Zach Harrison is, compared to the end of his own freshman year? “Zach, I think he’s ahead of me just because I think he’s developing a lot faster.”
Ohio State tried really hard this week not to give me much to gripe about. For much of the game I didn’t have a whole lot of complaints. But I’m nothing if not persistent, so I stuck with it and found plenty of things to be angry about despite the ultimate 73-14 win over the Maryland Terrapins. Let’s get to what made me want to spray passersby with the hose.
COLUMBUS — Ohio State came into the Maryland game knowing that they would be down not one, but two of their starting defensive ends. Senior defensive end Jonathon Cooper has missed the majority of the games this season due to injury, and with junior defensive end Chase Young’s future up in the air, the Ohio State Rushmen had to figure out a way to make up…
One game into their careers, close to half of Ohio State’s 2019 recruiting class has already started to make their mark on the field.
The best thing about college football is the constant rejuvenation of talent and experience. It’s a conveyor belt of new names and new faces making big plays all over the country, and it will be no different for the Buckeyes in Ohio Stadium tomorrow afternoon. And I’m not even talking about Justin Fields (1)…
