Ohio State held the first of its 25 fall camp practices Thursday morning at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, and with the media allowed to view the entire session, Buckeye Sports Bulletin had a chance to see how the Buckeyes are shaping out first-hand.
Starting with the offense, arguably the biggest question entering camp was at the quarterback position, which — during spring camp — was running a three-man competition for the starting role between redshirt sophomore Devin Brown, fifth-year transfer Will Howard and true freshman Julian Sayin.
While all three quarterbacks split reps evenly during the spring, it appeared to be Howard that was assuming many of the first-team reps, especially during the onset on 11-on-11 drills. Following Howard were both Brown and Sayin, while sophomore Lincoln Kienholz and true freshman Air Noland were practicing mostly with the backups.
It was a sluggish day for the Ohio State quarterbacks as a whole. Howard delivered some accurate throws during 11-on-11 and 7-on-7 periods and was arguably the most consistent of the five throwers on the day, but most of his completed passes were in the short to intermediate range. Sayin showed glimpses of his five-star talent, most notably delivering an accurate touch pass on a seam route to tight end Gee Scott towards the middle of practice, while Kienholz and Noland struggled at times, each throwing interceptions on back-to-back plays during the 11-on-11 period.
Another burning question for Ohio State’s offense entering fall camp was regarding the offensive line, a group that is still largely unclear after one practice as the team mixed and matched with different lineups.
It appeared the team split its starters on two separate fields, with likely starting left tackle Josh Simmons and left guard Donovan Jackson going with center Josh Padilla, right guard Luke Motgomery and right tackle George Fitzpatrick, while center Seth McLaughlin and right tackle Josh Fryar — both of which could very well start for Ohio State at those two positions this season — were joined on a separate field by Zen Michalski at left tackle, left guard Austin Sierevled at left guard and Tegra Tshabola at right guard.
Day touted Tshabola’s abilities and improved conditioning after practice, saying that he could play himself into some starting reps this season if he continues his upward trajectory.
Another thing of note on the offensive line was that redshirt sophomore Carson Hinzman — who has seen time at both center and right guard — did not practice due to an illness, but Ryan Day expects him to be back on Friday.
As for the offensive skill positions, TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins — to no surprise — split first-team reps at running back, although neither of them had any specific plays of note.
Wide receiver was a different story, with sophomore Carnell Tate stealing the show and arguably having the best outing of anyone on the offense. He made several highly-contested catches during the 11-on-11 and 7-on-7 periods, including one during the 7-on-7 period where he made a diving catch through contact.
Highly-coveted true freshman Jeremiah Smith had an overall strong performance despite dropping a wide-open pass during the beginning of practice.
Buckeye Sports Bulletin will be on hand for at least two more practices this fall and will continue to provide our offensive and defensive observations on the BuckeyeSports.com website, while also providing coverage on any news coming out of the several coach and player media availabilities offered this month.
