Ohio State Spring Practice Insider: Buckeyes Open Defense Of National Title

COLUMBUS — The Ohio State football team was back on the field Monday as spring practice has officially opened for the Buckeyes. The long playoff run in January pushed the normal starting time of spring camp back by a couple of weeks.

Head coach Ryan Day has promised a less physical spring this year so that his team has enough time to recover from last year. On day one, the Buckeyes were just in helmets as they went through individual and team drills. Pads aren’t permitted this early in practice yet anyway, so this part was nothing new.

The first hour of Monday’s practice was open to the media. Most eyes were on the quarterback competition between redshirt freshman Julian Sayin, redshirt sophomore Lincoln Kienholz, and true freshman Tavien St. Clair.

A week ago, Day said that the plan was to roll the quarterbacks and have them get equal reps this spring. That was the case on Monday, though it was usually Sayin repping first, then Kienholz, then St. Clair.

It was a little jarring to see just three quarterbacks out there working. Ideally, the Buckeyes have four scholarship quarterbacks and two or three walk-on quarterbacks. Today, it was just Sayin, Kienholz, and St. Clair getting the reps.

A Shake Up On The Offensive Line

The Buckeyes lost four starting offensive linemen from last year’s team, but return four players with starting experience and added two starters from other teams in the transfer portal.

This being practice No. 1, plenty will change throughout the next month, but for today, this was the two-deep on the offensive line.

Left Tackle: Austin Siereveld/Carter Lowe
Left Guard: Luke Montgomery/Jake Cook
Center: Carson Hinzman/Joshua Padilla
Right Guard: Tegra Tshabola/Devontae Armstrong
Right Tackle: Ian Moore/Deontae Armstrong

As was mentioned on the Buckeye Huddle message board a little over a week ago, our intel had Siereveld opening at left tackle this spring. Don’t get too hung up on transfers Ethan Onianwa and Phillip Daniels not yet being in the two-deep. This was just the first hour of the first practice. Transfers generally have to work their way into the lineup.

True freshman Carter Lowe is listed at 341 pounds but he didn’t look like it today. He moved well and looks like a left tackle should look. Ryan Day mentioned back in December that he could end up at guard or tackle, but it looks like the initial question of where he’ll start has been answered.

Onianwa is listed at 6-foot-6 and 357 pounds, but he looked lighter than that today.

Secondary Notes

The first-team safeties today were juniors Caleb Downs and Malik Hartford. That’s not necessarily the interesting part. The noteworthy part of that is that the safeties were all playing both positions. Downs and Hartford both rotated at free safety and strong safety. Then so did the second unit safeties Jaylen McClain and Leroy Roker.

The first-team cornerbacks were senior Davison Igbinosun and junior Jermaine Mathews. The second-teamers were sophomore Aaron Scott and true freshman Devin Sanchez. The nickels were fifth-year senior Lorenzo Styles, Jr., and redshirt freshmen Bryce West and Miles Lockhart, in that order.

Emptying The Notebook

+ Transfer running back CJ Donaldson checks in at 6-foot-2 and 230 pounds and he certainly looks it. He is noticeably the biggest running back on the roster. He was repping with the twos behind sophomore James Peoples.

+ Freshman receiver Quincy Porter looks like the next big-time X receiver at Ohio State. Listed at 6-foot-4 and 196 pounds, Porter is a big target who moves well in his routes and after the catch. He was repping behind Jeremiah Smith and David Adolph.

+ Senior CJ Hicks was with the twos and then the ones during defensive line drills. He has moved from linebacker to defensive end.

+ The linebacker depth chart looked like this early on: Mike – Arvell Reese/Payton Pierce/Riley Pettijohn; Will – Sonny Styles/Garrett Stover/TJ Alford.

+ Players returning punts today: Brandon Inniss, Carnell Tate, Bryson Rodgers, Mylan Graham, Jeremiah Smith, Caleb Downs, James Peoples, Quincy Porter.

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