Ohio State hit the practice field early at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center on Tuesday morning for its first spring workout of 2017.
Media was allowed to watch the first hour of practice, which featured mostly positional drills, but there were a few noteworthy observations to be made. Offensive observations can be seen here.
As far as the defense goes, here are a couple of notes:
- Early enrollee numbers for Ohio State's defensive players: Jeffrey Okudah (No. 1), Barron Browning (No. 5), Kendall Sheffield (No. 10), Isaiah Pryor (No. 14), Marcus Williamson (No. 21), Shaun Wade (No. 24).
- Okudah, Browning and Wade do not look like players who should still be in high school. Wade and Okudah are extremely tall and long and stood out among the cornerbacks. I had to do a couple of double-takes to make sure it was Browning in the white No. 5 jersey and not Raekwon McMillan.
- The first-team defensive line looked as expected: Sam Hubbard, Dre'Mont Jones, Mike Hill and Tyquan Lewis. As far as I could tell, the second-team defensive line was Nick Bosa, Robert Landers, Davon Hamilton and Jalyn Holmes. Tracy Sprinkle was off working to the side as he continues to rehab from injury.
- Chris Worley was running with the first team at middle linebacker. Jerome Baker and Dante Booker were flanking him at the outside. It was difficult to tell who the second-team linebackers are at this point.
- The two first-team safeties were Damon Webb and Erick Smith. Jordan Fuller and Jahsen Wint were running with the second team while Pryor was repping with the third team.
- The two first-team cornerbacks were Denzel Ward and Damon Arnette. It looked like Wade, Okudah, Josh Norwood and Rodjay Burns were all rotating with the second team at cornerback.
- Arnette had a pretty strong day in coverage on some of Ohio State's wide receivers in the brief viewing window we had. He played very physically at the line in press coverage.
- Wayne Davis appears to have moved from cornerback to safety.
- A couple of potential first-round picks were back at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center fresh off an appearance at the NFL Combine. Malik Hooker and Gareon Conley both took in Tuesday morning's workout.
