The final interview session before game week has come and gone.
On Tuesday, Ohio State beat reporters gathered at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center to speak with offensive coordinator Brian Hartline and wide receivers Marvin Harrison Jr., Emeka Egbuka and Julian Fleming. The media also met with special teams coach Parker Fleming, punter Jesse Mirco and long snapper John Ferlmann.
The wide receiver and specialist double feature served as the final media availability of the Buckeyes' preseason camp. Reporters will not return to the Woody until a press conference with Ryan Day on Aug. 29, where the Ohio State head coach will preview the team's season opener at Indiana on Sept. 2.
Ohio State's wide receivers make up one of the best position rooms in America. As that room’s coach, Hartline said he trusts each of his players to make plays when called upon but looks to Harrison, Egbuka, Fleming and team captain Xavier Johnson to lead the room at the start of the season.
Although Johnson could not attend interviews because of class, Harrison, Egbuka and Fleming praised the veteran pass-catcher for his leadership this offseason, with all three receivers agreeing that Ohio State's Block O award couldn't have gone to a better person or player. Additionally, Harrison raved about Carnell Tate, who he believes is "at a better point than I was going into my sophomore year," Egbuka broke down the development of Brandon Inniss and Bryson Rodgers and Julian Fleming discussed his health before 2023.
As for the specialists, Parker Fleming talked about the kicker competition between Jayden Fielding and Parker Lewis and broke down who will return kicks and punts for the Buckeyes this year. Meanwhile, Mirco shared how he has taken on a leadership role in the offseason, and Ferlmann explained how he has adjusted to life as a Buckeye after his lone season at Arizona State.
Below are videos from each of their press conferences and bullet-point recaps of what each Ohio State player and their coach said after the team's practice session.
Brian Hartline
- Hartline said he is "learning from the best" when it comes to his new role as offensive coordinator under head coach Ryan Day and with offensive line coach Justin Frye, program assistants Joe Philbin and Todd Fitch and the rest of the staff. "I am surrounded by elite people and elite coaches. Every day is an opportunity to learn something new."
- On Xavier Johnson being named Ohio State's Block O recipient: "I could not think of a better person than for X to get that award. I know he has made an impact on our room, and I have seen that. I am sure he made an impact on the running back room when he was in there. He impacts those on special teams... Can't say enough about the gentlemen who impact others."
- In the spring, Hartline said Ohio State's wide receiver room was six or seven players deep. However, Hartline declined to put a new number on that closer to the season. "I am very, very, very pleased. Not to put a number on it – I could, but to sit here and think about that – we are very healthy in the receiver room. I trust these guys."
- Hartline said Carnell Tate has "done a great job" since he became a Buckeye in January. "As a football player, he is very mature. When you give that mature tag to a football player, it says a lot. His ability to take meetings to the field. His ability to correct mistakes in one try. His ability to hold himself accountable to mistakes. ... I am really proud of him." He later added that Tate has been "very, very impressive."
- Hartline said Inniss hasn't skipped a beat since he arrived on campus in June. "I've been very impressed with him." Hartline doesn't love to compare his receivers to others, yet he compared Inniss to former Ohio State wide receiver Chris Olave in the way that he wants to learn and asks questions. "He's done a phenomenal job, and he's gonna help us a lot this year."
- Hartline called his influence on the offense a "joint effort" between him and Day. Hartline said he wants to have his opinion heard in offensive meetings: With more responsibility comes more requirements. I need to make sure I am ready to provide insightful information and not just fill the air."
- Hartline said Ohio State's offensive linemen have impressed him with their "unselfishness." Hartline said that that position room is "chasing consistency" in order to change "their level of greatness" ahead of 2023. He thinks the offensive line will be ready for the Buckeyes' Week 1 matchup against Indiana.
- When asked what he looks for in receivers at the high school level, Hartline said, "It's my secret. I can't tell you that." He laughed and said that Ohio State has no secret, but they develop their wide receivers at a high level.
Marvin Harrison Jr.
- On Julian Fleming: “He’s just continued to work hard, continued to put in my work outside of practice in his free time. Taking care of his body, getting extra passes on the Monarch (jugs machine). Just whatever he can do to get ready for this season.”
- Harrison had higher praise than perhaps anyone for freshman wideout Carnell Tate, who he said is better than he was going into his sophomore 2022 campaign when he was a finalist for the Biletnikoff Trophy. “He’s amazing. Handles his business, he’s always in the right spot, catches the ball, runs great routes. I’m excited to see what his career looks like. I think he’ll be one of the best receivers to ever come through Ohio State.”
- Having worked in the slot position this offseason, Harrison feels he can bring some of the success the Buckeyes have enjoyed in that role from the likes of Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Emeka Egbuka and Garrett Wilson, among others. He added the position is also called upon to block a lot in the run game, something he feels he does well.
- On how a receiver can improve at getting yards after the catch: “Game reps. It’s hard to do it at practice, you catch the ball and get tagged off, you can only do so much. But I think yards after catch is definitely more of a mindset thing, not letting the first person tackle you.”
- Looking at Xavier Johnson’s story, how he walked on and has fought through injury and moved positions without complaint, Harrison feels he was the ideal recipient of the team’s “Block O” jersey: “I think X is the perfect example for what you want an Ohio State player to be.”
- Harrison feels that Emeka Egbuka will have more “explosiveness” in 2023 now that he’s fully healthy, as his running mate dealt with injuries behind the scenes in 2022.
Emeka Egbuka
- On Carnell Tate: “I think it’s just consistency. He doesn’t have too many missed assignments. He does everything right, catches the ball and get open. He does what you need him to time and time again. He’s consistent with it and has handled coming in to a new offense to a high level play with grace. He did it at a more efficient level than I did. Marvin and I, we did a pretty good job of taking accountability of learning the playbook, but Carnell has done it at such a high level and he’s so smart. Carnell is the first in the room to let you know if you had a drop that day, he talks a lot of trash and it gets us going. We have that element competitive going in that wide receiver room.”
- On what’s better for him in 2023 compared to last season: “I’m healthier. There were a couple games last year you just had to power through. But this is football, so you’re never going to be 100 percent. But my body’s feeling good again and I’m just excited to play.”
- On Ohio State’s quarterbacks: “They’re different quarterbacks and the more confidence that I have in them is going to come with experience. Nobody thought C.J. Stroud was C.J. Stroud his sophomore year, and I feel like it’s going to be a similar case now. Whatever people may be saying, we know what we have here in this building. We’re always going to have a great quarterback at Ohio State, there’s no ifs, ands or buts about it. We’re excited to play and get more experience with whoever is named.
- On if two quarterbacks playing in the same game would be distracting: “Football is going to be football regardless. We still have our assignments on plays and we’re expected to operate on a high level and execute at a high level. That’s the standard at Ohio State and the standard in the zone six wide receiver room. We feel confident with anyone behind center.”
- On OSU’s ceiling for 2023: “At the end of the day, we’re just going to grind. We’re going to work as hard as we can and study our plays, treat every opponent with respect and come out with our hair on fire. At the end of the year we’ll look up and we’re gonna see where we’re at.”
- On Bryson Rodgers: “Bryson, he’s one of the smaller dudes in the room which is OK, he’s a freshman. He’s young and will get that strength up and build more muscle mass, but he’s super quick and super shifty. We have this Michael Thomas board in the wide receiver room that tracks our targets, catches, drops, all that kinds of stuff. I think Bryson at the end of fall camp had a 90% completion rate when targeted. That’s the highest I’ve seen since I’ve been here. If that was a national stat, he’d be No. 1 in that category. Good things happen when the ball comes his way.”
- On Brandon Inniss: “He came in the last of those four receivers and he’s picking up the offense extremely fast and is a joy to be around. He’s a great competitor and he and Carnell go back and forth a lot which is fun to be around. Brandon is a huge playmaker, he goes up and attacks the ball and he’s strong and confident. He just balls and tries his hardest, there’s never a half-hearted rep with him.”
Julian Fleming
- Fleming said that he’s had two shoulder surgeries, one after his freshman year and one after last season.
- Coming from a small football town where he was part of a Wing-T offense in high school, Fleming has had to learn how to play the wide receiver position throughout his career at Ohio State. “Definitely a big learning curve but now I feel confident with everything.”
- On how he’s developed as a leader: “I really felt like my first two years I couldn’t develop as a leader that much based off my injuries, I wasn’t contributing the way I wanted to. But the past two years I feel like I’ve started to grow into that leadership role, excel at it.”
- “There’s no growth without adversity, so just going through certain things and not having things go my way has definitely made me stronger as a person.”
- Fleming felt “100 percent” going into summer workouts and feels fully healthy currently. It’s been his top focus this offseason.
- There’s been an impetus in the wide receiver room to go the extra step in helping the new quarterback adjust to the offense, Fleming said. If that’s getting open a second earlier, if that’s running your route a second faster, if that’s making a 50/50 catch — a 50/50 catch should be 70/30 in our receiver room. So that’s how we look at everything.”
- On how he’d describe his career to this point: “Rocky. A couple bumps and bruises here and there, a couple injuries that sidelined me. But it’s been great.”
- “There were definitely some issues with my shoulders and I dislocated them a bunch of different times you probably never knew about, but it just kind of happened. You pop it back in and you keep going. So hopefully with some screws and everything going on in there, that’ll stay in place and we’ll be good to go.”
Parker Fleming
- Fleming on Ferlmann: "He's done a great job coming in and working really hard. He put his head down and got to work. He's got some game experience under his belt, playing last year – different school, but he did a really nice job there. We're looking forward to the season getting started."
- Fleming on Ohio State's kicker competition: "We have two guys who can get it done, two guys who have done a really great job this camp. We want to make sure we finalize it the right way so we have the best guy going to kick the ball."
- Fleming said he doesn't have a timeline set for when he would want to decide a kicker. "We just want to make sure that when we do make a decision we feel good about it." Fleming added that he believes Ohio State has "two capable guys" and that the Buckeyes want to use them "to the best of their ability."
- When asked who will return punts for Ohio State, Fleming said Egbuka will "be back there to start." He then said the Buckeyes have "a bunch of guys" who could return punts at a high level this season. Fleming said Harrison has still worked as a punt returner to improve his ball-tracking skills and remain ready if Ohio State ever needed him in that role.
- On who will return kicks, Fleming said, "We have two guys that we really like who have done it." He then named Egbuka, Johnson and TreVeyon Henderson as players who have returned kicks in the past. "There's a bunch of guys that can rotate back there. We are gonna find the hot hand and get it rolling."
- On Xavier Johnson: "A better guy couldn't have got it. Since I have come back here, he's been one of those guys... he was a guy that might not have started on a unit, but he played every unit because he could play each position. He learned the whole system and he plays so hard and so aware." Fleming said he will show two plays for the rest of his career that involve Johnson – his touchdown catch against Notre Dame and his subsequent tackle on special teams.
Jesse Mirco
- On being a veteran: “Honestly it feels pretty similar (to the year before). Just because you played games doesn’t really change much else. Each week is different and I’m going to treat it as if it’s the first. Obviously being the only left from the last couple years of starters is a little bit different but we have a lot of guys ready to step up and take their places.”
- On new long snapper John Ferlmann: “John’s been great. I was pretty lucky with Bradley the last couple years so for John to take over and keep it going has been nice. We spend all day together in this building and he’s been here since spring so we’ve had hundreds and hundreds of reps together.”
John Ferlmann
- On coming to Ohio State: “It was pretty fast. I hit the portal, and the same day I get a text from coach (Parker) Fleming. We conversed back and forth, we set up a call and it moved on from there. Every knows Ohio State and what they’re about, they’re a blueblood. It’s easy to fall in love with as a recruit, especially coming from a Pac-12 school, I kind of wanted to go play competitive football, especially in the Big Ten.”
- On working with the specialists: “Jesse Mirco comes in ready to work every day, he’s a pro, just great to geet feedback from. With the other guys too, Parker Lewis and Jayden Fielding, they’re two amazing kickers. Every day, you’re with the best.”
- On the kicker competition between Lewis and Fielding: “It’s close. Every single day they’ve definitely gotten better. It’s been a gradual increase. After the practice they had recently, it’s up in the air. I’m glad I’m not the coach.”
- On the biggest adjustment: “The weather. The first day here I had to buy some pants, buy some sweaters. Definitely the seriousness and the reverence for the game here. There’s a punishment if you’re late. Everyone is on you and you have to do the right things. Everyone is held accountable here, and that’s something they do differently here.”
- On Fleming’s pitch: “The pitch here was come be great. You accomplished some things at Arizona State, come build on that, come out here and play for the Buckeyes and see what happens.”
