It’s not really a secret, but the bulk of the players who line up for the majority of the snaps Saturday during Ohio State’s spring game won’t be the same ones who are on the field much on Saturdays in the fall.
But that doesn’t mean Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer sees spring games as meaningless or unimportant.
“The thing that spring games give you at a place like Ohio State is the crowd,” Meyer said Monday afternoon. “A lot of times you’ll see a guy out there (at practice) that plays with no one around him and plays well, then he goes into the crowd and locks up. And that’s real.”
Ohio State players like Taylor Decker, Joey Bosa, Darron Lee — they’ve played in front of large crowds before. They’ve got all the experience necessary in that department. The big stage doesn’t have much of an effect on how they play the game.
“The thing that spring games give you at a place like Ohio State is the crowd. A lot of times you’ll see a guy out there [at practice] that plays with no one around him and plays well, then he goes into the crowd and locks up. And that’s real.”– Urban Meyer
For younger players, though, guys like Noah Brown, Parris Campbell, Sam Hubbard and Gareon Conley — all of whom have been mentioned numerous times this spring by members of the Buckeyes coaching staff — it’s an opportunity to show they belong out there come September when the games actually mean something.
“There’s a bunch of guys who are going to play for us, I can’t wait to see the reaction,” Meyer said. “I like the way we — I love the way we do it. We have like a game atmosphere.”
The majority of the spring game won’t resemble the same team Ohio State will trot out onto the field when the 2015 season begins. It’s certainly not a time to panic if the Buckeyes don’t look like the defending national champions when they’re on the field on Saturday.
But it will give the fans a good look at what the future of Ohio State football looks like. And it also provides a platform for some players to showcase their talents and make a push for playing time next season.
“I can’t say it’s going to be pleasant all the time because you’re going to have some young guys in there that aren’t ready to play yet, but we’re going to throw them out there so they can play in front of a crowd,” Meyer said. “So that’s the built in advantage that you have here at Ohio State. I love looking in a kid’s eye and seeing how they’re reacting.”
Meyer said Thursday on the Big Ten East spring coaches teleconference guys like Decker, Bosa, Joshua Perry, Adolphus Washington and others — veterans for the Buckeyes who will be starters next season — will still play in Saturday’s spring game, but not to expect much from them.
They’ll be on the field for the first two series of the game and that will be it. Then, it’ll be onto the younger guys and time for Meyer and Co. to really evaluate what he’s got inside his program.
“Some of these guys, the first time is going to be this weekend,” Meyer said. “I can’t wait to see how they react.”
