Players to Watch
Tate Martell, QB
The departure of J.T. Barrett is going to be felt by the Buckeyes offense. Say what you will about Barrett’s overall ability as a quarterback, he was a prolific star for Ohio State throughout his career and a terrific leader for the unit. Now, he’s gone though. And that leaves a battle this offseason for the starting job.
Sophomore Dwayne Haskins and junior Joe Burrow appear to be the two guys at the top of the race for the Buckeyes. Having said that, the guy to watch is redshirt freshman Tate Martell. Meyer has said that Martell, the No. 2 ranked dual-threat quarterback in the 2017 recruiting class, will have a chance to compete.
While he doesn’t have the practice reps or relative experience of Haskins and Burrows, the Bishop Gorman High School product has a tremendous amount of talent. On Saturday, it’ll be fascinating to see if he can be on the level of his quarterback competition, or even surpass their performances, and how that will ultimately affect the race for the starting position.
Jeffrey Okudah, CB
A theme for all three of the players that are highlighted here is replacing star-caliber talent from a year ago, as we saw with Martell at quarterback. Switching sides of the ball, the defense for Ohio State lost a tremendous amount of talent. The Buckeyes, in recent years, have been a factory for high-level defensive backs, and they’re losing another in projected 2018 first-round pick Denzel Ward.
Ward’s replacement is projected to be one Jeffrey Okudah on the outside. Playing down on the depth chart as a freshman last season, Okudah appeared in 14 games, but his impact was little felt. He recorded just 13 solo tackles on the season in addition to one pass breakup and no interceptions.
There are obviously massive shoes to fill for the rising sophomore, and he’ll certainly have a great deal to prove right away. While Meyer is a great offensive mind, the bread-and-butter of Ohio State in recent years has been elite defense stepping up. They’ll need players like Okudah to be ready to take up that onus in 2018.
Baron Browning, LB
The Buckeyes defense has also seen numerous high-caliber linebackers depart in recent years, from Raekwon McMillan going to the 2017 NFL Draft, to Chris Worley and Jerome Baker departing after last season. Replacing Worley in the middle, however, is going to be the most intriguing prospect for OSU given their current situation.
Rising redshirt sophomore Tuf Borland seems to have that spot locked down in terms of what we’ve seen. But what’s interesting is that Borland will miss Saturday’s spring game due to injury. That leaves the opportunity for a player like Baron Browning — the No. 1 outside linebacker in the 2017 recruiting class — to potentially make this linebacker corps much more interesting.
Browning is expected to compete for a starting job on the outside as a true sophomore in 2018. Having said that, there’s a chance that he could see some time in the middle with Borland out of action on Saturday. If Browning impresses in any work there, that could make for an intriguing discussion in the coaches’ room about getting the best players on the field with these linebackers. At the very least, though, it’ll be interesting to see how Browning performs on the outside in itself when he’s slotted there.