Ohio State has been in training camp for about 10 days now as they prepare to chase a national title during the 2024-2025 college football season.<\/p>\n
While most positions on the roster are fairly set, there are still a number of position battles going on, and the team still has work to do to get where they want to be come August 31st\u2019s opener against Akron.<\/p>\n
A big step towards getting there happened on Saturday, as the team underwent it\u2019s first scrimmage of training camp, which is usually when you start to see separation between those in position battles, as well as which units are ahead of others.<\/p>\n
Sources around the WHAC have been fairly tight-lipped during camp thus far, but Lettermen Row <\/em>was able to get a few tidbits out of some folks to provide what we\u2019re hearing regarding the biggest day of Ohio State pre-season camp to date.<\/p>\n In speaking with multiple sources about Saturday\u2019s scrimmage, a common thread when talking about the offense is that Kansas State transfer Will Howard<\/a><\/strong> continues to look like \u201cthe guy\u201d for Ohio State.<\/p>\n Three separate sources praised Howard\u2019s play on Saturday, and all three agreed they would be surprised if Ryan Day<\/a><\/strong> did not name him as the starter sooner versus later (Day is scheduled to speak with the media on Thursday).<\/p>\n I\u2019m told Howard was making throws all over the field on Saturday, and that his athleticism and ability to run were really apparent and can be a weapon that Ohio State has been missing in their offense since Justin Fields<\/a><\/strong> roamed the sidelines\u2014not that Howard is as fast or athletic as Fields, just that you can see OSU use the quarterback in the run game more than they have with CJ Stroud<\/a><\/strong> and Kyle McCord<\/a><\/strong> the past two season.<\/p>\n He\u2019s got to prove it when it matters, in real games, but the way Howard has ascended in camp is really encouraging for the Buckeyes\u2019 season prospects.<\/p>\n In speaking with a couple of people on Saturday and Sunday, it seems that Ohio State has the perfect storm of personnel and events to get it\u2019s running game back on track.<\/p>\n It appears that having two incredibly talented backs in TreVeyon Henderson<\/a><\/strong> and Quinshon Judkins<\/a><\/strong> doesn\u2019t hurt, but that combined with Chip Kelly<\/a><\/strong> and Carlos Locklyn<\/a><\/strong> working very closely together with Justin Frye<\/a><\/strong> and Tim Drevno<\/a><\/strong> to \u201cchange the running game\u201d has made a noticeable difference.<\/p>\n I have consistently heard from people who have watched practice how the running game is vastly improved and noticeably different, in a good way, and that seems to have been apparent once again on Saturday during the scrimmage.<\/p>\n I reported on Sunday morning<\/a> that I heard that second year wideout Bryson Rodgers<\/a><\/strong> had a nice day on Saturday, inclusive of scoring a touchdown in the scrimmage.<\/p>\n On Sunday, I also heard great things about Jeremiah Smith<\/a><\/strong>. It\u2019s no surprise to hear that the freshman sensation had a good day on Saturday, but its certainly noteworthy. One thing that was good to hear about Smith was how good he was blocking on the edge during the scrimmage\u2014we knew he could catch it and run, but to hear he is not only willing, but strong in run blocking was a big positive.<\/p>\n Two others who got praise, not necessarily for Saturday, but for the camps they are having thus far, were Brandon Inniss<\/a><\/strong> and Jayden Ballard<\/a><\/strong>. It seems like Ohio State\u2019s depth at receiver is shaping up nicely behind Emeka Egbuka<\/a><\/strong> and Carnell Tate<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n A number of offensive linemen missed practice late last week with what Day called a \u201cfunky virus\u201d<\/a>. While this wasn\u2019t expected to be a long term deal, there was some concern with a few I spoke with about how it would impact some position battles on the line, as well as if it could spread to other groups.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t have definite head counts on who was and wasn\u2019t there on Saturday, but I am told that most, if not all, of the group was back, including Carson Hinzman<\/a><\/strong>, who is in a battle for the right guard position with Tegra Tshabola<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n Unrelated to health, it seems that battle at right guard is really competitive. I continue to get almost split thoughts from sources as to which player is going to win that job.<\/p>\n The defensive back room has been calling itself \u201cBIA\u201d, for \u201cBest In America\u201d since the second decade of this century, when the program was seemingly churning out first round picks every year.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been up and down for BIA over the last handful of years at times, but it seems like the 2024 version of the unit may actually be the best in America.<\/p>\n I have probably spoken to six or seven different people who have seen the team so far during camp and all of them have praised the secondary. That includes a few people I spoke to about Saturday\u2019s scrimmage, as the praise on BIA continued to be sky high.<\/p>\n One source said flat out, \u201cthey are the consensus best unit on the team and it\u2019s not really a debate\u201d.<\/p>\n In speaking with two different sources, it appears that Saturday\u2019s scrimmage was very physical and played with a lot of emotion. This led to some \u201cchippiness\u201d amongst teammates and players and coaches at time.<\/p>\n Fear not, though, this is nothing to worry about, and was considered by both sources to be \u201chealthy competitiveness\u201d between all those involved.<\/p>\n It appears the team is going really hard and the coaching staff is pushing them really hard thus far in camp, with Chip Kelly reportedly leading that charge in a big way on the offensive side of the ball. \u201cThis team has a different fire to it versus past teams that Ryan has had here,\u201d one source said. \u201cI can\u2019t fully describe it, it\u2019s just different in the attitude they bring every single day\u201d.<\/p>\n The post Gleitman\u2019s Goods: Buzz from Ohio State\u2019s first scrimmage<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ohio State has been in training camp for about 10 days now as they prepare…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65315"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65348,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65315\/revisions\/65348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Will Howard continues to look like QB1 for Ohio State<\/h2>\n
The running game looks to be back<\/h2>\n
Wide receivers earn high marks<\/h2>\n
Offensive line seems to be healthy again<\/h2>\n
BIA is actually going to be Best In America<\/h2>\n
Things got a bit chippy out there<\/h2>\n