Welcome to the hardest part of the summer for members of the Ohio State football team.
The Buckeyes started two-a-days Saturday morning at its offsite campground at Ackerman Field. The coaching staff, of course, brought a certain fire that made last week's practices look like walk-throughs.
For example, during the stretching portion of practice open to the media, head coach Urban Meyer was among of chorus of voices barking at the players to "do it right" over and over. By their tone, you would've thought they'd just fumbled the football ball on the goal line in the national championship. It was that kind of day.
Notes:
- Ezekiel Elliott missed Saturday morning's practice after undergoing wrist surgery, according to a cleveland.com report. He's expected to return some time late next week.
- Senior quarterback Braxton Miller threw the football during warmups and off to the side with Devin Smith, but it looks like Meyer and Co. are still easing him back into a practice and bigger workload. Miller, who had shoulder surgery in February, was limited much of last week as a precautionary measure.
- Warren Ball was out of his boot this morning. The redshirt sophomore running back suffered a foot injury earlier this summer.
- Ball, linebacker Trey Johnson and cornerback Marshon Lattimore spent at least the first 30 minutes of practice jogging around the field and doing exercises with head strength and conditioning coach Mickey Marotti. All three were limited during the portion of the session open to the media.
- So was redshirt freshman defensive lineman Michael Hill, who spent time off to the side on a stationary bike.
- Meyer spent some of the stretching period talking to J.T. Barrett, Rod Smith and Jeff Heuerman.
- During offensive line drills, junior left tackle Taylor Decker repetitively shouted "I appreciate you coach" to offensive line coach Ed Warinner. The drill, according to Warinner, was intended to save their legs in preparation for the rest of a long day.
