Emptying the notebook after busy week of Buckeyes coverage

COLUMBUS — Ohio State can see the talent on hand now half-way through training camp.

Now the Buckeyes are going through the process of truly identifying how all of the elite puzzle pieces fit together heading into the final two weeks of camp before the regular season begins.

It’s time for the Buckeyes to nail down their identity and who they want to be this fall. The upcoming scrimmage on Saturday will help determine that.

“I said to the staff: By Saturday, we need to have our identity etched in stone with where we’re at,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said Monday. “And we say all the time, you had your fast balls and changeups and curveballs. We have to know where the fastballs are and then continue to get better at that changeups of curveballs.”

Lettermen Row spent the last four days inside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center talking with Day on Monday, the Buckeyes offensive line on Tuesday, the tight ends on Wednesday and the defensive line Thursday.

After four full days in the building for media interview sessions, it’s time to unload the notebook with four big lessons learned from this week — two weeks before kickoff at Indiana.

Let’s dive in.

Evan Pryor keeps gaining steam for Buckeyes

Ohio State coach Ryan Day didn’t offer many thoughts on the Buckeyes scrimmage from last weekend, but when asked about how it went, he did single out a couple of Ohio State players who impressed. The first of Day’s compliments went to third-year running back Evan Pryor, who is quietly putting together a really nice month of camp.

Day said it was good to see Pryor get his legs back under him and taking contact again, especially after his devastating preseason knee injury last August. Pryor has worked to get back on the field and become a threat in the Buckeyes offense, and he could be on his way to doing so. In open viewing periods so far this camp season, Pryor has been used as a pass-catching back from the backfield, a wrinkle of the offense that the Buckeyes scrapped last season. He is pushing for playing time as an explosive home-run hitter.

Larry Johnson will continue defensive line rotations this season

Ryan Day has mentioned that the top defensive linemen on the Buckeyes roster will need to carry the water for this team in the upcoming season. He talked about a potential pairing down of the defensive line rotation compared to years past.

But legendary defensive line coach Larry Johnson didn’t seem so sure that the Buckeyes will be cutting down a rotation that at times felt too deep last year, putting the best players on the sideline for critical moments in big games. Johnson doesn’t plan on moving from a deep defensive line rotation. He believes in keeping his best players ready for the entire season.

“When you say my philosophy is to rotate a lot the guys, it’s based on the game, number of plays, things that evolve in the game,” Johnson said. “You can’t go into a game and play a guy 90 plays and try to play a 15-game schedule. You can’t do that. He’ll burn out at the end. He’ll look good in the beginning and then burn out.”

Johnson has a plan. Day has a preference. Where does that leave the Buckeyes with two weeks until that rotational philosophy becomes a reality in game situations?

Gee Scott Jr. feels like ‘best version’ of himself

Ohio State tight ends coach Keenan Bailey has three senior tight ends on the roster to work with. They’ll be the top three options for Bailey and the Buckeyes at the position entering the season. All three were ‘gold’ this offseason in the workout program. That trio includes Gee Scott Jr., who Bailey said is ‘the best version of himself’ entering this season.

What exactly does that mean for the former top-100 wide receiver and veteran Buckeyes tight end?

“Continually coming in here every day and trying to bring out the best version of myself daily,” Scott Jr. said. “I feel like oftentimes, it’s easy to look ahead to a long season that you have, or at long camp that you have or whatever season of the year you’re in, and look too far ahead. And I think I kind of just took the mindset of approaching each day as an individual itself, and winning that day. And over time, you get further ahead, you look back over time, you say, ‘wow, I’ve really built something.’ So I think it’s been a process of that.

“I don’t think I’m doing anything crazy spectacular. I think I’ve just shown up every day, and I’ve been consistent, and I’ve just shown the best version of myself.”

With the best version of Gee Scott, a healthy Joe Royer and a veteran presence like Cade Stover, the Ohio State tight ends enter this fall with huge expectations.

Buckeyes getting much-needed good-on-good work during camp

When last Friday’s Buckeyes practice was open to the media, Ohio State was split into scarlet and gray teams rather than first-team units and second-team units. Those splits are designed for the Buckeyes to earn more reps in short practice sessions, but they proved to yield mixed results as first-team defensive linemen were making it impossible for second-team offensive linemen to block.

But Day believes this work is helping Ohio State determine the depth chart — and it is, in fact, making them better during camp. Even if it looks like an uneven fight, the Buckeyes are learning from the second-team vs. first-team reps.

Oh, and there are plenty of good-on-good reps mixed into the equation during practice, as well.

“We get a ton of good-on-good work,” Day said. “Yeah. So you know, if you if you see a little bit of [second-team vs. first-team], that’s probably to find out if our second team guys can block, give them an opportunity to play against the first-team guys and see what that looks like. So we’ll go ones on twos, twos on ones some, but mostly the work is good.”

Ohio State needs the good-on-good work, especially with an inexperienced offensive line that will face tough tests this fall.

The post Emptying the notebook after busy week of Buckeyes coverage appeared first on On3.