After a historic 2015 draft class, Ohio State finds itself with a roster a pessimist would call depleted and optimist would call inexperienced. There will be at least one new starter in eight of the team's nine units, with quarterback being the lone exception.
Comparatively, there are very few expectations for the upcoming season, which should be a nice change of pace for both the team as well as the fans after a 2015 campaign that could never have lived up to the hype.
Of course, this means there are plenty of question marks. In fact, there are likely more question marks than sure things regarding this young Buckeye squad. Here are a few big ones.
Who Will Carry the Ball?
Ohio State returns a grand total of 132 rushing yards from its 2015 backfield.
Replacing a top-5 pick in the NFL Draft is no easy task, but Ohio State will have to do it in 2016. Last season, Ezekiel Elliott rarely left the field for the Buckeyes, especially in meaningful moments (and for good reason, I might add). He accounted for 77.1 percent of the total rushing yardage from running backs and received 77.2 percent of the carries.
Ohio state returns a grand total of 132 rushing yards from its 2015 backfield.
The remainder of the yardage and carries were split between Braxton Miller, Curtis Samuel, Bri'onte Dunn, Jalin Marshall and Warren Ball. With Miller and Marshall in the NFL, Ball's transfer and Dunn's dismissal, the only returning player with experience as a tailback is Samuel, who spent most of 2015 as a wide receiver.
The Buckeyes will need to replace more than just yardage, however. Elliott was perhaps the best blocking running back in the country, and was a threat in the receiving game as well, amassing 206 yards as the team's fifth leading receiver.
The burden of replacing Elliott will fall heavily on the youth. Redshirt freshman Mike Weber appears to be the favorite to earn the starting spot, and true freshmen tailbacks Antonio Williams and Demario McCall will likely see action as well.
Dontre Wilson, who spent both the 2015 and 2014 seasons as a full-time wide receiver, will also bear some of the load. The former five-star tailback out of DeSoto, Texas was part of Ohio State's vaunted 2013 recruiting class and has not quite lived up to the enormous hype, as he was too small to make much of an impact out of the backfield his freshman season and struggled to find his way onto the field as a receiver the next two seasons due in part to injuries. Now, as one of the team's few seniors, a bigger and stronger Wilson has been taking snaps from the backfield in practice and will look to add much needed experience to a young position group.
Where Samuel and Wilson will line up in the fall, be it receiver or tailback, remains to be seen. But with Meyer's offensive history, the speedy duo could be used similarly to how Chris Rainey and Jeff Demps were utilized in Florida, where the speedsters led the offense to 457 yards a game.
Defensive Line Shuffle?
The Buckeye defensive line lost perhaps the best player in college football as well as a defensive tackle taken in the third round of the NFL Draft and somehow, it's not the position group with the most question marks.
Tyquan Lewis returns as a starter at one of the defensive end spots while redshirt sophomore Sam Hubbard joins him on the opposite side. Both are proven talents and have played many meaningful snaps for the Buckeyes. Behind them is a arsenal of talent, even if unproven. Jalyn Holmes, Jonathan Cooper and Nick Bosa will likely see playing time at the defensive end spot this season.
On the inside, things are a little more interesting. Michael Hill and Tracy Sprinkle are the team's top defensive tackles, and they have just one career start between them. Behind them is even more inexperience. Davon Hamilton, Jashon Cornell, Robert Landers and Dre'Mont Jones are all taking practice reps with the second and third teams, and it's thought that Bosa may first break into the rotation at tackle before he gets any meaningful snaps at end.
New Look Secondary?
There is just one returning starter in the Ohio State secondary. Safeties Vonn Bell and Tyvis Powell declared for the NFL Draft along with cornerback Eli Apple, leaving junior cornerback Gareon Conley as the most experienced member of the Buckeye secondary entering the 2016 season.
Conley has just one year of experience as a starter, but cornerbacks coach Kerry Coombs said in January that he's ready to "take over the room" as a leader – a good sign for a youthful position group.
Opposite of Conley, sophomores Marshon Lattimore and Denzel Ward are each practicing with the first team defense, with the former appearing to be a slight favorite to earn the starting spot. Whoever gets the nod will be inexperienced. Neither have played meaningful minutes, as Lattimore's career has been plagued by nagging injuries thus far and Ward was used primarily on special teams in 2015.
With the departures of Bell and Powell, many looked to Cam Burrows and Erick Smith to fill the roles, but it's been Damon Webb and Malik Hooker who have emerged as the likely starters. Though Webb played extensively as the team's primary nickelback option, neither have played meaningful minutes at safety in their Buckeye careers.
It's not just the players in the secondary that are a question mark in 2016, it's the scheme. Ohio State brought in co-defensive coordinator Greg Schiano to replace the departed Chris Ash, and he will be implementing his take on Ohio State's 4-3 defense. While drastic changes are not expected, the extent to which he alters the team's scheme remains to be seen.
Who Will Catch the Ball?
Ohio State's top receiver heading into the 2016 season has caught exactly one pass in his college career.
Despite the fact that half of the team's four scholarship seniors play receiver (Corey Smith and Dontre Wilson), Ohio State's receiving corps is full of unproven players. For many of them, 2016 means do or die time.
Guys like Johnnie Dixon, James Clark, Terry McLaurin and Parris Campbell will need to emerge as reliable options this season or they risk being passed by younger guys like Austin Mack, K.J. Hill, Torrance Gibson or Binjimen Victor. Someone will emerge from this pack, there's simply too much talent on the roster for nobody to step up, it's just a question of who it will be.
Ohio State's top receiver heading into the 2016 season has caught exactly one pass in his college career.
In the meantime, the Buckeyes do have some stability at the top of the depth chart with Brown and Smith. Although Brown has few meaningful snaps in his Buckeye career and has just one career reception to his name, he is the unquestioned No. 1 receiver heading into 2016 and is back to the form he was in before breaking his leg in 2015. Smith, who was granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA after also breaking his leg in 2015, will provide much needed experience to a young group.
With the question marks at the receiver position and offensive line guru Ed Warinner calling the plays, the tight end position is expected to be more of a focal point this season as well. It also remains to be seen how whether Curtis Samuel and Dontre Wilson will see more action as receivers, as they have the past two seasons, or as tailbacks helping replace Ezekiel Elliott by committee.
Who Will Emerge as Leaders?
J.T. Barrett is the unquestioned leader of this team, and junior linebacker Raekwon McMillan as well as senior offensive lineman Pat Elflein have taken command of the locker-room as well. The three are Ohio State's 2016 captains – the fewest number of captains ever during Urban Meyer's tenure in Columbus. They'll lead, but they can't command a roster of over 100 players alone.
The team is incredibly young and veteran leadership is simply non-existent – there are only four scholarship seniors on the roster. Given that, younger players will have to take command earlier than usual.
The coaches raved about Barrett's leadership from before he was even enrolled at Ohio State – you don't have to be a veteran to make an impact. It will be exciting to see who emerges from this young crop of players.
We mentioned the running backs, the wide receivers, the defensive line and the secondary, but we just as easily could have brought up the two new starters at linebacker, the three new starters on the offensive line and the unproven tight ends.
The TL;DR on this article is this – there are question marks all over the field for the Buckeyes, except at the quarterback position. This situation is almost exactly opposite of where the Buckeyes were at this point last year, but sometimes having no expectations is fun – ask 2014.
