The last week of spring football has arrived in the state of Ohio.
The state of Ohio is training four times this week, culminating in the spring game at noon on Saturday, and on Monday the Buckeyes opened the Woody Hayes Athletics Center for the third time this spring for the media to cover after the first six periods of practice look. On a cool, cloudy morning in Columbus, the Buckeyes practiced completely outdoors on Monday, which gave us a different perspective to practice from our first few trips to the WHAC earlier this spring, when we practiced indoors.
While position fights continue at quarterback, along the offensive line and elsewhere, here’s something I saw when I watched the Buckeyes go through practice on Monday morning:
Repetition cycle continues at quarter
Watching the quarterbacks is always the first thing for a media member to observe the Ohio football practice this spring, but since last week things have not changed much in that regard as the Buckeyes continue to keep their representatives as even as possible. to be divided between CJ. Stroud, Jack Miller and Kyle McCord.
In the last practice period that the media could see, the state of Ohio conducted ‘half-line’ exercises with two groups of attacking and defensive players simultaneously on the field, with only three attacking lineouts on the field for each group, with the three backs standing between rotate the two groups so that each of them can get twice as many throw-representatives during the period as they would otherwise do.
During an 11-man offensive practice in the third practice period, Stroud took representatives with the first team’s offensive line and receivers, while Miller was at the second unit and McCord with the third. During the fourth period, part of the exercise went into the red zone, but Miller led the order, while Stroud was second and McCord third.
While McCord stayed at the end of the order on Monday, there were definitely moments that showed why the true first-year student should not be counted out in the quarterback competition. The two best throws I saw during the open portion of the practice were some deep fitting deep balls from McCord to Chris Olave and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. He also passed 3-for-3 in the practice session with a red zone, with a knockout work to Jeremy Ruckert and Steele Chambers (although Chambers was left wide open).
Miller passed 3-for-6 in the red zone, with the throw to Garrett Wilson and one to Marvin Harrison Jr., while Stroud gave 2-for-3 with one pass to Wilson and Harrison.
On the defensive side, Ryan Watts and Tyreke Johnson were among the cornerbacks recognized during the practice in the red zone with pass interruptions. At the last practice match before the media was introduced, McCord was intercepted by co-writer Reid Carrico.
Fryar, Wypler in the first team
Colin Hass-Hill wrote last week about how sophomores Josh Fryar and Luke Wypler both compete to start working on the domestic offensive line, and Monday’s practice showed that it was not just lip service. Both were on Monday with the attacking line of the first team, with Fryar on the left guard and Wypler in the middle, along with the left attack Thayer Munford, the right guard Paris Johnson Jr. and Dawand Jones, who was the first team’s right tackle in place. of Nicholas Petit-Frere, who was not seen Monday at the rehearsal. (Ryan Day said after the practice that Petit-Frere’s absence would be a ‘short-term’ situation.)
The first team’s wide receiver consists of Olave and Wilson on the outside with Jaxon Smith-Njigba in the lock.
The fullbacks still spun through the teams, but with Master Teague training only in a limited capacity, Miyan Williams led the run order on Monday, followed by third-year Steele Chambers and third-year Marcus Crowley, followed by freshmen TreVeyon Henderson and Evan. Pryor.
Monday’s attacking two-man squad consisted of Enokk Vimahi on the left handle, Jack Jamieson on the left guard, Matthew Jones in the middle, Ryan Jacoby on guard and Grant Toutant on the right. Harrison and Jameson Williamson jumped into the locker room with the second-team offense at the wide receiver with Emeka Egbuka.
The third team’s attack line consisted of Zen Michalski on the left handle, Trey Leroux on the left guard, Jakob James in the middle, Zach Stevenson on the right guard and Ben Christman on the right hand.
Excerpts from practice
Below you can see some short excerpts from the Ohio State practice on Monday, with offensive lineouts working on their side move and catching backs who just fit from the backfield.
Backs in the state of Ohio worked to get passions out of the backfield: pic.twitter.com/oeTXJmlxSj
– Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) 12 April 2021