Spring practice appears to be over at Ohio State.
The Big Ten announced on Friday that it is extending its suspension of all organized team activities through at least May 4, which means the Buckeyes are unlikely to resume spring practices, which were scheduled to run through April 11.
The Big Ten's moratorium on all on-campus recruiting visits and off-campus recruiting travel also remains in place for the foreseeable future.
Ohio State held three spring practices before its spring break, during which the Big Ten suspended all organized team activities through April 6. As the coronavirus outbreak continues to increase, though, it became clear that Ohio State would not be able to return to the practice field any time soon.
At this time, it is unclear whether the NCAA will allow college football teams to begin preseason camp early or schedule any additional practices in order to make up for the loss of spring practices. Right now, it's uncertain when Ohio State will even allow its student-athletes to return to campus and begin using team facilities again.
Ohio State coach Ryan Day said earlier this week that he would like to see a model considered that would allow teams to have NFL-style organized team activities (OTAs) before the start of fall camp to make up for lost practice time. He acknowledged, though, that it's too early to know whether that will be a realistic possibility.
“Until we kind of know what the parameters are, it's hard to create anything,” Day said Wednesday. “Maybe it's having 10 guys work together in the building at once and they leave and another 10 come in. I'm not sure how that's all going to look, so it's hard to come up with a model until we know exactly what we're dealing with. But I think there are some things like that out there that are definitely worth conversation.”
Day said he thought the Buckeyes “got a lot in” during the three spring practices that they did have, but they “were just getting started,” so they're going to have to make up for lost time whenever they able to train together as a team again.
“Certainly very disappointed we weren’t able to get out there and develop the young guys, but then also enhance our scheme on both sides of the ball,” Day said. “So we’re just gonna have to do a great job of that this summer.”
Ohio State's season is scheduled to begin against Bowling Green at Ohio Stadium on Sept. 5.
