Vo. 1, No. 46

This week in Ohio State football, we got to watch Ohio State football.

Well, practice anyway. That’s better than nothing, right?

Judging by the overflow crowd of paying customers, that is the case.

We learned lots of things as the Buckeyes got to work for 2026, but one thing stood out the most to me through the first three days.

Day One felt more like Day Five as far as intensity.

The Buckeyes weren’t in pads, but they were still going after each other pretty good.

And on Day 3 when the pads went on, they were not holding back. There were guys on the ground on the first team rep, a zone run to the left, so these dudes were not messing around.

I discussed this on multiple videos for Buckeye Insiders with Tom Orr and Tony Gerdeman (check those out here), but it bears repeating and exploring…

Is it just my perception?

Maybe, but some other people agreed, and sometimes it’s good to trust one’s eyes in this day and age when groupthink is overwhelming

Does it mean anything?

If true, I would say yes. Lack of physicality was a big and legitimate knock on Ohio State for the last few years, and it felt like Ryan Day was trying to fight that perception since the Michigan loss in 2021.

Sometimes — many times? — it felt like a losing battle, but they did beat up Michigan last season… then lost the line of scrimmage against Indiana and Miami (Fla.).

Does that mean it was all for nothing?

I don’t think so.

Beating Michigan always means something, and doing it the way they did was a little sweeter than just rerunning the 2018 game plan might have been.

Indiana and Miami were matchup games. Sometimes you lose those and it doesn’t have to be an existential crisis that requires starting over.

The Hoosiers and Hurricanes also had great lines on both sides of the ball, so something had to give.

(Aside: I also think the game plans were a disaster in both games, most likely because Brian Hartline was never cut out to be an offensive coordinator in the first place, but certainly because he wasn’t putting his whole focus on that job once he got the South Florida gig.)

Some might lament Ohio State going back to Man Ball after Day revolutionized the Buckeyes’ passing game, but the spread era — and maybe Ohio State’s Golden Age of Passing (2018-22) — was a blip in the long history of football.

New-age losers and nerds on the internet tried to tell us that was the way things were going to be forever, but they were wrong all along.

The effectiveness of the spread was heavily dependent on the state of defensive personnel. Once defenses responded by getting smaller and more athletic, the spread was dead, especially since NFL teams struggle to develop elite quarterbacks with any consistency now.

The spread’s influence will remain as long as offensive coaches remember they don’t HAVE TO play in a phone booth ALL the time, but balance is king, and that will continue to be the case moving forward.

Of course, getting to balance might require different things depending on what a team has been good at recently.

For some, that means improving the passing game.

For Ohio State, that means getting better on the line of scrimmage — no matter what it takes, and no matter how long.

How do I know?

Well, look at Indiana and Miami last year…

(I guess as another aside… I don’t think this is wishful thinking on my part or projecting what I want to see. I looked at Day’s efforts to get more physical since the end of 2021 with a jaundiced eye. I see better than I hear, and it has looked different. Now they just need to do what they were doing last year — but better.)

After the first day, I wrote a story for the Associated Press about how Ryan Day’s worries reflect where the Buckeyes stand as a program.

The offensive line and the secondary are big areas of focus, of course, because the OL wasn’t good enough last year and the secondary lost three starters, including the best player in the country and a three-year starter at CB.

Day also mentioned reserve receivers, tight end depth and the pecking order at running back.

Those struck me as good problems to have, especially when the running back room includes a guy who ran for over 1,000 yards last season.

That said, what’s going on at running back seems… intriguing.

Bo Jackson was the aforementioned 1,000-yard rusher, but fellow sophomore Isaiah West was one of the stars of the offseason if you listen to the coaching staff.

Jackson reportedly got a nice payday to stay in Scarlet and Gray, but that also might be cause for the coaching staff to hold him to a higher standard this fall (understandably so).

West got the first reps with the first team Thursday and Friday, and Jackson seemed to have no interest in entertaining questions about the depth chart after practice Friday.

Then Jackson got the first reps with the first team on Saturday, but there appears to be a lot to sort out at that position, so stay tuned…

In regards to the receiver, hearing fans remark at how big Jeremiah Smith is when they get to see him in person was funny, but transfer Devin McCuin stole the show on Friday.

He made a couple of contested long catches and looked both quick and strong. He’s not just a tiny slot receiver. He might be No. 2 when the season starts if he can overtake senior Brandon Inniss.

The secondary was also a center of attention all three days as they messed around with the cornerback rotation and at nickel.

Of note, we saw Jermaine Mathews Jr., a returning starter at CB, work some at nickel, but so was true freshman Jay Timmons, a 247Sports Composite 5-star recruit from Pennsylvania.

One thing that seems certain is Devin Sanchez will replace Davison Igbinosun at one outside corner spot.Jeff Gilbert took a closer look at Sanchez’s situation over at PressProsMagazine.com:

Saturday we got to talk to Julian Sayin, who is unfortunately pretty good at not saying much in interviews but shared a few nuggets this time around.

I wrote about him for The Associated Press, too:

Speaking of quarterbacks, Ohio State got another potential QB of the future Saturday when class of 2028 five-star Christopher Vargas verbally committed, and there was a flash of nostalgia when the university announced J.T. Barrett is among the players from multiple sports who will be inducted into the Ohio State Varsity O Athletics Hall of Fame later this year.

(Are we getting old, or what?)

Ohio State practiced Sunday, but it was not open to the public or anyone else.

In fact, I would not expect any more practices to be open this preseason, but we will have interviews on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday so you can look for information to come out from those.

You can also find my thoughts on what’s going in with the team and other topics at both Buckeye Insiders and BuckeyeSports.com plus regular features at PressProsMagazine.com plus trending news at MensJournal.com.

Always feel free to drop me an email if you have any comments or questions, too!

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