With Ohio State’s spring game fast approaching on Saturday, head coach Ryan Day laid out the plans for how the Buckeyes will operate during the intrasquad competition on Wednesday.
As was the case last season, Day said the spring game will pit the offense against the defense, allowing for easier distribution of reps. Day also noted that the first-team units will play to a thud, while the rest of the team will be live and tackle to the ground.
“We’re going to do Scarlet vs. Gray, but that will mostly be the offense against the defense so that we can rotate the way we need to rotate,” Day said. “We’re in pretty decent shape, but we want to make sure we have enough depth.
“The plan is to have ones vs. ones and twos vs. twos,” he continued. “The first couple of drives with the ones will be to a thud, but everything else will be live. So when the twos are out there, and after the first couple of drives with the ones, that’ll go right to live.”
Day noted that the scrimmage will follow similar beats to a game-like scenario, opting to play four quarters with potentially a running clock in the final frame. As is the norm with the spring game, the quarterbacks will also not be live.
While Day is hoping to spread reps across the roster, he’s also making sure the team’s injured players aren’t left in the fray.
The Buckeyes began the spring without wide receivers Emeka Egbuka and Julian Fleming, running backs TreVeyon Henderson and Evan Pryor, linebackers Tommy Eichenberg and Mitchell Melton, safety Kourt Williams and offensive lineman Jakob James, but also saw injuries to safety Ja’Had Carter, linebacker Steele Chambers and wide receiver Xavier Johnson as camp progressed.
“We’ll start off in the warm-ups with a 10-minute individual period,” Day said. “So the guys who won’t be participating in the game — like Tre won’t be in the game, same with Julian, Emeka, Tommy — those guys will all do individual drills for 10 minutes, just to get them moving around and get them going.
“For those guys, we’ll probably just have a list of guys who are flat-out out — the guys who are doing individual drills and then guys who are available to play in the game.”
In regard to new injury updates, Day said quarterback Devin Brown will be held out of the spring game after undergoing a procedure on his hand, while running back Miyan Williams will be limited to the thud drive.
As Ohio State hopes to spread out reps across the roster while also continuing its natural progression toward the fall on Saturday, Day emphasized that he’s expecting a productive day for the Buckeyes.
“The goal is to get these guys out there and be live and get them in front of a good crowd,” Day said. “It’s supposed to be a great day, I think we’re north of 50,000 seats sold so far, which mid-week is a pretty good number.
“It should be a great turnout and a great opportunity for our guys to play in front of a good crowd.”
