Ohio State’s safety depth has taken another hit.
Freshman safety Jantzen Dunn’s first season as a Buckeye has ended early as he suffered a “long-term” injury against Rutgers, Ryan Day said Thursday.
Day said he is disappointed for Dunn, who he felt was improving quickly, and that Dunn will have a long road to recovery ahead of him, but he believes Dunn will have a bright future at Ohio State.
“That was tough to see because he was really coming on as a young guy, and so he’s gonna have to work through a long-term recovery on that,” Day said. “So it’s gonna be hard on him, but we’re gonna try to get some of the guys who have been through the same thing before to try to help him in that area and support him as he works through that rehab.
“I thought that he had done a good job the week before, he had a good week of practices, he was starting to come on as a young guy. I think he’s got a very bright future ahead of him. Disappointed for him that he’s gonna have to go through this, but he’ll come out of the back end of this and he’ll get stronger for it. Probably doesn’t see that right now and it’s hard, but unfortunately that’s this game and this is life. He’s gonna have a lot of great days as a Buckeye, but this week has not been a great week for him. He’s gonna have to recover and really grind every day to get stronger and then we’ll get him back on the field. But yeah, certainly a loss and feel for him.”
Dunn suffered the injury on Ohio State’s second kickoff of last weekend's game against Rutgers, after which he had to be helped off the field with an apparent knee injury. Day did not specify on Thursday what exact injury Dunn had suffered.
Because Dunn played in only two games prior to his injury, he remains eligible to take a redshirt this year, leaving him still with four years of eligibility at Ohio State going into the 2022 season.
While Dunn had only played nine defensive snaps this season, all in the fourth quarter of Ohio State's 59-7 win over Akron, he had begun to establish himself on special teams as a member of the kickoff coverage unit for each of the last two games.
He becomes the third Ohio State safety to go down with a long-term injury this season, joining Jaylen Johnson and Josh Proctor, who were both already out for the season after Johnson tore his ACL in preseason camp and Proctor suffered a leg fracture against Oregon.
