Astute readers of Eleven Warriors dot com will remember that I, Johnny Ginter, coined the nickname "El Guapo" for Ohio State running back Carlos Hyde. I took a lot of really unjustified pride in that, and was even more excited when Hyde started using it as his Twitter handle.
That was fun and cool, but what you might not know is that I tried something similar with Ray Small, not realizing that if you want to get credit for giving a player a nickname, make sure that said player doesn't suck and isn't a pretty significant dingus. So Ray "The Ghost" Small never really took off, despite a very clear connection to his inability to make an impact on the field despite some very impressive spring game performances (get it, he's a ghost because he disappears and then only reappears when not as many people are looking? You're all Philistines).
Anyway, Small was just one of many wideouts who flamed out after some intriguing showcases in April, and at this point it's become an inside joke among Ohio State fans that how a player, especially a wide receiver, plays in the spring game essentially means nothing because we can be all but certain that they'll fade away in a few months once games start being prohibitively expensive for most of the families at said glorified practice played under Whose Line Is It Anyway scoring rules.
As it turns out, under Urban Meyer, that may be a bit of a misnomer. Since his first spring game in 2012, if you see a player being a frequent and favored target of the quarterbacks, you can bet semi-decent money on the idea that they could be a huge factor in the upcoming season.
In that 2012 spring game, for instance, Philly Brown was the leading receiver for the Scarlet team. Brown and Braxton Miller hooked up seven times for 90 yards during the scrimmage, and that ended up being predictive of a season where Philly had more yards receiving than anyone else on the team (over 50 yards more than Devin Smith), and more total receptions than anyone else on the team (literally twice as many as the next closest guy, again Devin Smith).
While Philly didn't have as great a spring game in 2013 as he did in 2012, Devin Smith did, and went on to be the team's second leading receiver again later on that year. Evan Spencer also had a great 2013 spring game, and was neck and neck with Smith for "bad dude you don't want to mess with, particularly if you play for the Alabama Crimson Tide."
The 2014 version of what amounts to Urban Meyer structuring a pseudo-game around an inappropriately high stakes kicking contest was pretty lethargic and boring, but guess what? Ol' Mike Thomas was back from a year of redshirting to kick everyone's ass, which he did and then promptly led the team in receptions during the following season.
2015 was a bit of an aberration as Corey Smith made the most noise out of everyone with 174 yards (!!!) receiving, and in 2016 we probably should've gotten the hint when no one really stood out in the passing game, except for Terry McLaurin somehow.
So what we can take from this is a few things: one, if Ohio State has proven playmakers at wideout that both the offensive staff and the quarterbacks trust, you're going to see them show out in about a week. And two, look to see who J.T. Barrett targets the most. While the spring game is pretty silly on the face of it, Urban Meyer appears to take it as deadly seriously as he takes literally everything else in his life, and if you don't think it's a chance for him to work on this...
“Our deep ball percentage is the best it’s been since we've been here last week. We're charting everything,” Meyer said on Tuesday. “J.T. and the boys are doing a really good job. We didn't catch all of them but as far as accuracy, it was almost 90 percent. That's what we're looking for.”
...you are sorely mistaken.
For a fanbase hoping and praying for playmakers to step up in a position group that was sorely lacking them last year, contrary to popular belief the spring game might be the perfect chance to see if they've found some. Ray Small no longer defines the passing game in April, and that's a good thing in so, so many ways.
