Donovan Jackson is “ready to roll” for Ohio State’s third game of the season against Marshall.
Ryan Day said Tuesday that he expects Jackson to be full-go for Saturday’s game against the Thundering Herd (Noon, FOX) after missing the Buckeyes’ first two games of the year with an injury, provided that Jackson has another full week of practice after going through a full week of practice during the bye week last week.
“As long as we have a good week of practice, he'll be ready to go for Saturday,” Day said.
Day said that Ohio State will look to get Austin Siereveld continued playing time based on how he performed filling in for Jackson in the Buckeyes’ first two games, but said Tegra Tshabola remains the Buckeyes’ starting right guard.
“We're going to try to find ways to get Austin in the game because we feel like he's earned that opportunity. How it shakes out this week, we'll see, but right now Tegra is the starting right guard,” Day said.
Day believes Jackson’s return to the lineup will allow the offensive line to build more cohesiveness and take another step forward as Ohio State builds upon its 56-0 win over Western Michigan, in which the Buckeyes had 683 total yards of offense, including 273 rushing yards.
“I just think this solidifies everything up front,” Day said. “Seth (McLaughlin) has done a very, very good job of communicating across the board. He brings a certain level of experience and stability in there with the communication. Now you add Donovan into it, that's two guys with a lot of experience. They're good communicators. They're very sharp. I think just overall, everyone's going to be on the same page even more and allow guys to communicate well because that's important. Everything up front is about communication. So the more these guys can communicate and get everybody on the same page, the better we can execute.”
