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The 3 Biggest Unanswered Questions For Ohio State Football · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Wednesday, April third, I'm your host,
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  tom or the Akron game in one hundred and fifty days the game against Michigan
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  in two hundred and forty one days. The Ohio State football team will be
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  back on the practice field today inside the Boody Hayes Athletic Center for practice number
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  ten out of fifteen for the spring practice number fifteen. Of course, the
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  spring game coming up next Saturday, Saturday, April thirteenth, at noon,
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  game televised on Fox. I feel like I need to just keep saying that
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  until I believe it. National TV Spring Game. What a time to be
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  alive. Tickets available at Ohiostate Buckeyes dot com if you want to believe in
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  the long term forecast, it's looking pretty decent right now. We'll see whether
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  that holds, but it looks like no snow in the forecast, should be
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  pretty warm, so it should be a nice day out at Ohio Stadium.
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  So that spring game will be the end of spring football, with six practices
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  still to go before that end. At the end of that spring game,
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  I wanted to take a look at some of the unanswered questions right now with
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  the Ohio State football teams we're hoping to learn more about over the next six
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  practices, including that spring game. Going to bring in Tony Gurdiman if Bucky
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  Huddle dot Com do that, Tony, we have to start with the quarterbacks.
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  Everyone wants to know about the quarterbacks. Tony, we got to start
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  with the quarterbacks. It feels like we have more information than we did at
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  the start of the spring. I don't know if I've changed my opinion on
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  who's most likely to be the starting quarterback this fall, but that definitely feels
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  like that is the biggest unanswered question right now about this year's Ohio State team.
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  Yeah, if we had gone into and we did frankly talk about this
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  before spring, like not expecting anybody to be named the leader or anything like
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  that, and if you had said, well, nobody's going to be named
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  the leader by practice nine or ten, it's like that's not going to be
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  a surprise. So we have learned a lot more, but none of that
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  has changed what we thought we would see or would have seen last month.
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  So yeah, still rolling through and you know, really, I think the
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  most positive thing is when we saw them on Saturday, they both looked pretty
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  good. And in terms of Will Howard and Devin Brown, Lincoln Keenold started
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  the scrimmage portion with the two best throwers of the day and then Devin Brown
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  eventually caught him. But uh, just the fact that they were they both
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  looked like they could do this, and you know, one practice, one
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  glimpse. There's still thirty more practices to go. But what we didn't see
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  was this guy just can't do it. This guy can and so the waiting
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  is still the still pretty even. So I think, you know, we'll
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  see more, see how it goes. I am, I'm with you.
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  My opinion of what is going to be the case at the at the end
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  of spring is the same as what I thought it would be at this point
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  going into spring, which is no leader. Still everything is an open competition,
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  no reason to put one person ahead of the other. And now is
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  as well as they've played, as even as things have been. I think
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  that is also healthy because the coaches can say one thing like oh, it's
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  all completely open, but the players know like, oh no, Will Howard
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  has been fantastic, much more better than Devin Brown, or Devin Brown has
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  been lights out better than Will Howard. From what we've seen, what we've
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  heard like that, it seems pretty even, So the players would believe,
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  the quarterbacks themselves would believe that it's even. And then Lincoln Keenoles has been
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  doing well from what we've seen, so he still got this opportunity to continue
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  to compete as well. There's no reason for him to just pack up and
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  just watch. Yeah, And I think that's broadly those three guys. I
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  would have probably expected those three guys to be still in an open competition leaving
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  the spring. Keen Hoole's obviously someone who we've heard so many good things about
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  from the coaching staff, even during that first year where he enrolled late and
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  did not well, didn't enroll late, didn't enroll early. How about that
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  he enrolled on time, but you know, was very clearly physically not quite
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  ready to play at the big ten level. And so now going into the
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  second year, you figured, Okay, he's probably going to take another step
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  and be a part of that competition, and whether or not he wins the
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  job, he's a legitimate part of that competition at this point of the spring,
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  and it seems like that's where he is. What's intriguing to me is
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  a name that we were not talking about really at all until January. Julian
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  Sayan, who enrolled at Alabama for about fifteen minutes and then transferred to Ohio
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  State. He's maybe I'm not expecting him to win the starting job. I
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  want to be clear on that. I don't think he's going to win the
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  starting job. I think the biggest surprise to me of the spring is that
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  Juliansane is maybe a little bit more of this conversation at this point in the
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  spring than I would have thought. Yeah, you're hearing his name more than
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  you normally would hear of a freshman in spring, which is it's one of
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  those it's an indicator of the future more than an indicator of the present,
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  I think is a good way to put it, like this is something you
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  take note and you let that seed grow, but don't expect a tree this
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  year. And I think it's a good sign for him for the future that
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  you're seeing somebody who is able to process. And on Saturday he threw some
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  had some nice passes. He operates well, flings the ball, just slings
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  it and throws it quickly. All great things that you want to see moving
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  the ball, moving the ball downfield, but still just a true freshman.
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  So I think just be happy for Buckey fans. Just be happy that you're
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  hearing his name. And one of the other reasons you're hearing his name is
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  because he's a true freshman. You're like, wow. It's not like wow,
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  he's better than everybody else. It's wow, he's a true freshman and
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  he's doing this. So keep that in mind. It's the true freshman aspect
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  that is the more impressive thing than necessarily just his level of play. All
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  right, So there it is. We've handled the first question that every fan
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  probably wants to know about. Now let's talk about the first thing most coaching
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  staffs are going to want to talk about, and that is the offensive line.
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  And the line last year, this time last year was you know,
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  all the all the red sirens were going off and they were still looking in
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  the portal because they there was like open concern, bordering on panic from the
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  coaching staff this time last year. Very much not the case. This year.
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  Feels like there's a lot a lot higher level of comfort with the offensive
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  line. They don't know who the best five is, Tony, but it
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  feels like they at least know whoever the best five is, it's going to
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  be a pretty good best five. And now it's just a matter of,
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  you know, does one of the centers kick over to guard, does one
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  of the tackles kick inside of guard? Do they you know who's playing right
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  who's starting at center, who's playing right tackle. It feels like we're maybe
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  inching a little closer to having better answers on all of that stuff, But
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  they're also you know that the whole right side of that offensive line is still,
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  to one degree or another a little bit of an open question. Yeah
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  it is. And in choosing and finding that best five, this year,
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  you've got a pool of like eight maybe, and last year at this time
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  choosing the best five, you had a pool of about three. So mathematically
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  things are much better this year. Your options are much greater, The talent
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  is better, the experience is better because everybody that was here last year is
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  back this year. They're all better. And I know we've talked about Josh
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  Fryar moving to guard, and he's gotten some reps there, but not he's
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  mode vastly the vast majority of his time is spent at right tackle. I
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  don't think you can move Friar without bringing somebody else in because I don't know
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  that there's somebody else right now that can play tackle as well as Friar,
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  and I think they can find some sort of accommodation or an option that will
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  play guard well enough. And we still have not seen the movement of Carson
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  Hinsman or Seth McLaughlan to guard, and that may happen next week as they
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  try to find more looks and get more stuff on tape and more scenarios played
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  out for all of these guys. But I don't see Friar going anywhere unless
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  it would take the right kind of tackle out in the portal. And I
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  don't know that how many of them are out there that are going to be
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  better than Josh Fryar, and not just better than Josh Fryar, but able
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  to fit into the system, fit into the room, fit into the culture,
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  and not make bad waves because doing that on the offensive line, you
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  have to be very very careful about who you bring in, and Seth MC
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  of them fit in. Jonah Jackson fit in and made things better. So
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  I think right now just that right guard position is the biggest question and they're
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  rolling some guys in there, and I wonder, I wonder if they even
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  need to know or want to know who that guy is going to be the
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  spring or is it more of just we just wanted to see as much as
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  we can see from as many different people as we can see. I think
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  they're probably at a level of comfort where I mean, sure, if you
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  know who it is great, But as long as there are at a level
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  of comfort where they think someone here can do this, they're probably going to
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  be comfortable with that. And it feels like that's where they are. I
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  know that we've talked about them going into the portal and trying to pull someone
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  else out. It feels like the bar for the caliber of player you would
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  have to pull out of there to represent a significant upgrade this year, it's
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  just so much higher than it was this time last year. And that's you
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  know, that's bad news in that help is not necessarily, to paraphrase a
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  high Street legend, help is not necessarily on the way. But it's good
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  news in that you're feeling much more comfortable about where things are overall there,
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  and you know, by the end of last year and we're gonna set the
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  Cotton Bowl. Aside. By the end of last year, that offensive line
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  was pretty good. Josh Fryer played really well last year towards the end of
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  the year. Josh Shimmons made big leaps last year. And you know,
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  now you've got Luke Montgomery, who they like a lot. They've got taker
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  Ship Bowler, who you like a lot. You've got You've added Seth McLaughlin
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  at the center position. You've got Carson Hinsman, who was the starter for
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  you last year. You only need two of those four guys to fill those
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  two spots there at center and right guards. I think they're probably feeling pretty
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  good, but you always, you always keep your options open. Another spot,
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  Tony, this is this was one where there's complete turnover among the starters
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  for the most part. We're gonna put a little asterisk there. Tommy Eikenberg,
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  Steel Chambers, the two starting linebackers last year, both left. You
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  do have Cody Simon back. Cody Simon with some extensive starting experience. He
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  feels like he's one of the guys. But then how is the rest of
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  the lineup gonna lot shake out? There's so much talent there. You got
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  c J. Hicks, you got Gay Powers, you got Sunny Styles,
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  you have two linebacker positions unless you have three, which they'll sometimes have three.
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  It just feels like, coming away from that scrimmage, or well,
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  not quite a scrimmage, coming away from the practice let's say last Saturday with
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  some extended seven on seven and eleven on eleven, I think I'm walking away
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  from that again feeling like boy, it feels like the answers at linebacker are
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  there and it's just a matter of which ones they want to choose. Yeah,
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  And honestly, I don't think they need to choose just too. I
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  think one thing that we did not see from Saturday is enough of CJ.
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  Hicks as a linebacker stopping to run. He stood out because of his blitzing,
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  which has never been an issue. It's the other stuff that has been
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  the bigger question mark with CJ Hicks. So until we see that for sure,
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  I think there's still be questions. But it is pretty amazing that you
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  do lose two three years starters and you're potentially replacing them with Cody Simon's fifteen
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  career starts, Sunny styles twelve career starts, and somebody with the ability of
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  c J. Hicks and let's not sell gay power short either or RFL reees.
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  So I think there's some inexperience. But also I would never call Sunny
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  Styles inexperienced. I would never call Cody Simon inexperienced. He's been Ohio State
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  starting middle linebacker before and everybody's pretty confident in him. But I still think
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  there are questions about that will linebacker because we need to see it from C.
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  J. Hicks. It's a new position for Sunny Styles, so there's
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  plenty of reason for excitement, but I also think there's some reason for hey,
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  let's just you know, well, we'll see and we don't know for
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  sure what's going to happen. There will be some outstanding plays. I guarantee
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  that we know that will be will happen. But what about the the mundane,
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  the everyday play. What will that look like? Yeah, it feels
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  like when we hear coaches talk about what do they need to improve or what
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  does this guy need to do better? So often you hear the word consistency
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  and it's like that's boring. Say something more exciting than that, and but
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  that's you know, what is what does the wide receiver need to do better.
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  Well, he needs to block better. What does the tight end need
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  to do better? He needs to block better? What does a linebacker need
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  to do? He needs to be more consistent. It's like, well,
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  these are all very boring answers, and yet it does feel like that determines
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  a lot of how things go on the field for your team in the fall.
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  So we will continue to follow all of these, all of these storylines
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  as well as all of the other ones. A lot of intriguing stories elsewhere
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  on the team in terms of second team guys and where things are young guys
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  on the uh, on the rise. Jeremiah Smith there, I said his
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  name. Now we have Now it's officially a podcast. I said Jeremiah Smith's
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  name. Uh. But lots of intriguing storylines to follow all spring long with
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  us at buckey Huddle dot Com. A lot of recruiting stuff happening as well,
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  for recruits committing over the last weekend, more visits coming up. It
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  should be a busy weekend for the spring game much more. You're gonna want
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  to follow all of it with us at bucke Huddle dot com. Tony Kevin
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  and I covering the team, mark on recruiting our whole team of exce's and
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  oh's gurus, making you a smarter football fan, all at Buckeye huddle dot
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  com. Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
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  We'll talk to you tomorrow