Ohio State opened up practice to the media for the second time during preseason camp on Friday, and its offensive tackle depth chart looked very different this time around than it did on the first day of practice.
Jimmy Simmons, who began camp running as the third-team right tackle, lined up with the starters at left tackle on Friday. That’s yet another sign that the San Diego State transfer, who drew praise from Ryan Day on Wednesday and had his black stripe removed Thursday, is trending toward being one of Ohio State’s starting offensive tackles in his first year as a Buckeye.
“I can tell you that we're very excited about Jimmy Simmons,” Day said Wednesday. “He's off to a great start.”
Josh Fryar, who was in line to be the starting left tackle entering camp, spent Friday’s practice working as the first-team right tackle. Day said Wednesday that the offensive tackles had been moving between sides, suggesting that Ohio State is at least considering the possibility of moving Fryar back to right tackle – the position he started a game at last year against Indiana – while moving Simmons, who played right tackle for San Diego State last year but has the physical traits of a prototypical left tackle, to the blind side.
“We've been moving some guys around to figure out what the right mixture and combination is going to be,” Day said. “We're trying to figure out what is the best mixture of right and left.”
Tegra Tshabola, who began camp at right tackle after practicing there throughout the spring, was also at left tackle Friday with the second-team offensive line. George Fitzpatrick also took some second-team reps at LT while Luke Montgomery and Zen Michalski – who opened camp as the first-team right tackle – split second-team snaps on the right side.
At center, where Day said Wednesday that the battle has “heated up” between Carson Hinzman and Victor Cutler Jr., Hinzman continued to take the majority of first-team reps Friday while Cutler and Jakob James both had snaps as the second-team center.
Austin Siereveld and Enokk Vimahi practiced as the second-team guards behind Donovan Jackson and Matt Jones.
Quarterback battle remains tight
One sequence Friday served as the perfect microcosm of Ohio State’s quarterback competition.
With the Buckeyes split into two teams for some full-squad work, Devin Brown aired a beautiful deep ball downfield for a long completion to Jayden Ballard over Ryan Turner, one of his best throws of the day.
Almost immediately following that play, Kyle McCord sensed pressure coming from the edge, climbed in the pocket and slung a gorgeous deep ball while off-balance that would have caught Julian Fleming in stride if not for a great play by Denzel Burke to break it up.
The neck-and-neck nature of McCord and Brown’s battle isn’t just conveyed in the words of Day. It’s showing up on the practice field.
“It’s a good battle. It’s back and forth for sure,” Day said Wednesday.
McCord’s pocket presence is a trait that stood out during the team’s training session. He was able to maneuver to multiple different spots behind his offensive line to elude rushers and find Ballard for a big gain on a crossing route one play.
Pretty soon thereafter, Brown found his own big gain on a crossing route to Emeka Egbuka.
Brown showed his edge in athleticism, rattling off a couple of nice runs, though McCord found solid gains on scrambles of his own.
No indication as to a leader was given in how they were deployed Friday, either. Brown worked behind the first-team offensive line during the first set of split-team periods in Friday’s practice, but it was McCord with the first-string blockers during the second set of split-team periods that ended practice.
Eight days into camp, the battle between the two quarterbacks remains very close. Their best chance yet for one of them to gain separation could come during the team’s scrimmage Saturday, which Day emphasized the importance of earlier in the week.
“This week is a defining week for us for sure, and I think coming out of the weekend, we'll have more of an idea of where we're at,” Day said.
Reese moves to defensive end
With Omari Abor out for “at least a couple of months” after undergoing surgery earlier this week, Ohio State’s defensive end depth looked as though it could be a bit thin. To combat that, the Buckeyes appear to have moved one of their freshman defenders to the defensive line.
Arvell Reese, who began camp practicing as a linebacker after enrolling this summer, spent the entirety of Friday’s practice with the defensive line and mixed in for reps on the edge with the backup units during team drills.
Ohio States defensive linemen working on dropping back into coverage and intercepting passes. pic.twitter.com/VTbBLgDF6B
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) August 11, 2023
Reese often lined up in a two-point stance, suggesting he could be a candidate to play the Jack position as a hybrid outside linebacker – a logical fit for his skill set at 6-foot-3 and 235 pounds with a history of playing both linebacker and rushing off the edge. With the frame to continue growing, Reese’s future could be brightest on the edge, and he has a more likely path to playing time there than he does at linebacker, where he would be likely to have at least six players in front of him on the depth chart this season (Tommy Eichenberg, Steele Chambers, C.J. Hicks, Cody Simon, Gabe Powers and Reid Carrico).
While JT Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer are in line to start at defensive end and Kenyatta Jackson Jr. and Caden Curry are in line to be their top backups, Ohio State’s only other currently healthy scholarship defensive ends are Mitchell Melton – who is also expected to play more Jack than traditional DE – and Joshua Mickens, who like Reese is a true freshman who enrolled this summer.
Williams and Williams absent, Hall injured
Two key players who share a last name were absent from Friday’s practice.
Running back Miyan Williams, Ohio State’s leading rusher in 2022, was not seen on the practice field Friday. Defensive tackle Tyleik Williams, who has been recovering from a knee injury he suffered during the opening day of practice, was also not seen at Friday’s session.
While the reason behind Miyan Williams’ absence was undisclosed, Day said Wednesday that Abor was the only player who had suffered a long-term injury in camp to that point.
Defensive tackle Mike Hall Jr. also went down with an injury of his own after planting his left leg during a rep in pass rush one-on-ones. A trainer came to stretch Hall out, who initially wasn’t putting weight on the injured appendage, but he was eventually able to walk, then jog and sprint on it once again. He went through non-contact drills later in practice, but did not participate in any full-speed action for the rest of the day.
Freshman wide receiver Noah Rogers received some attention from a trainer after laying out for a tough catch on the sideline, but he was able to return to action a few minutes later.
Safeties Sonny Styles and Malik Hartford were both seen sporting shoulder braces and lime-green pinnies, but still appeared to be full participants in practice.
Additional notes
- Much like the only previous practice that was open to the media in preseason camp, Friday’s practice consisted of only 12 periods and featured two separate groups of offensive and defensive players going head-to-head in split-team work for most of the practice’s full-speed periods. Ohio State is not expected to open any more preseason practices to the media, including its two scrimmages, the first of which will be held Saturday.
- Friday’s practice was open to the media because the Big Ten Network was in attendance for its annual stop at Ohio State as part of its preseason camp tour. A special from Friday’s practice featuring practice footage as well as interviews with Brown, McCord, Eichenberg and Chambers is scheduled to premiere on the network at 5 p.m. Friday with re-airs at 7 p.m., 9 p.m. and 11 p.m.
- Egbuka, Marvin Harrison Jr., Ballard and Brandon Inniss worked as punt returners during the special teams portion of Friday’s practice.
- Graduate assistant Mike Sollenne’s voice came through almost as strong as that of offensive line coach Justin Frye’s while the offensive linemen were working. He’s helped bolster the coaching efforts of that position group.
Ohio States offensive linemen getting some spirited coaching today from Mike Sollenne and Justin Frye. pic.twitter.com/3NSbedlng6
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) August 11, 2023
- Prior to his injury, Hall was a one-man wrecking crew along the defensive line in split-team drills, recording multiple tackles for loss. Jackson also stood out, picking up a sack off a fantastic speed rush before collapsing the pocket with a classic bull rush off the end on an ensuing play.
- The coaching staff allowed the play to continue after Jackson got home on freshman quarterback Lincoln Kienholz, who was forced to throw off-balance. The pass was intercepted by freshman cornerback Calvin Simpson-Hunt. Kienholz got the better of Simpson-Hunt earlier in practice, though, completing a long touchdown pass up the sideline over the defensive back to walk-on wide receiver David Adolph.
- Montgomery showed some promising early signs in Friday’s practice, walling up Tuimoloau on a pass play. He later split two pass rush one-on-one reps with Jackson, losing one and winning the other.
- Following a series of poor execution from a group of mostly backups on offense in which they failed to complete multiple screen passes, Egbuka gave an impassioned speech to the group imploring them to be better. “In two and a half weeks, we’ve got to go beat somebody at their place,” he said, referencing the season opener against Indiana.
