Does it really matter just who the Buckeyes put on the field? How many teams would be successful relying on walk-ons, back-ups and freshman in key roles? Yet, just three weeks into the season we’ve had:
- Walk on kicker Tyler Durbin (is that his name?) , who never previously even played in a football game, has been perfect on extra points and FG attempts
- Walk on long snapper Aaron Mawhirter made a surprise start and handled his duties flawlessly, avoiding having his (or rather, Liam MacCullough’s) name mentioned on national TV, and allowing a certain Aussie to have an award-winning punting performance
- (Former) walk on (and now captain) Joe Burger got game reps at LB in relief of an injured Dante Booker and got the job done
- Back-up Jerome Baker took over Booker’s starting LB job, and merely received B1G Defensive Player of the Week honors, garnering a Pick 6 in the process
- Back-ups Denzel Ward and FR Damon Arnette filled in for injured captain Gareon Conley at CB against the high-powered OU passing attack without any noticeable drop in performance (ok, as acknowledged in an article today, allowing one TD reception)
- When starting DT and emerging leader Tracy Sprinkle went down with an injury in the opener, with the position already depleted by graduation, a handful of back-up freshmen stepped up to help give the Buckeyes control of the line of scrimmage against OU
- rFR RB Mike Weber has handled business as a starter, averaging over a hundred yards per carry
- True FR OL Michael Jordan started from day one at LG, on an OL that is rapidly gelling into the unit needed to drive UFM’s offense
- True FR DE Nick Bosa, while having his reps limited as he recovers from an injury a year ago, has already shown glimpses that he is, well, a Bosa
- And KJ Hill, a player accidentally left off the depth chart due to the plethora of “starters” at WR, ended up scoring the Buckeyes’ first TD of the season.
Waiting in the wings, having had only mop-up duty against inferior completion:
- Back-up rFR Joe Burrow has an QB rating of 187, and has shown a bit of running ability
- Demario McCall looks to be the real deal at RB, having carried the ball at a 5.9 ypc clip and scored on a swing pass from the aforementioned Joe Burrow
- FR DB Rodjay Burns recorded a Pick 6 in his first college game
E + R = O, baby!
After a 2015 season where the coaching staff couldn’t settle on a starting QB, the OL seemed to take a step backwards despite losing only 1 starter from the year before, and black stripes seemed to be removed at a snail’s pace, the coaches seem to have the whole team prepared this year, and hungry… like wolves, perhaps. I just get the feeling that if sometime this season the team needed to depend on Erick Smith, or Demetrius Knox, or Bruce Bowen, or the down-roster DLs or WRs, they’d be ready, that this team has each others’ backs.
Sure, there are players who, because of leadership and/or elite skills, I’d hate to be missing when going up against the top teams during this season or post-season, among them Curtis Samuel, Mike Weber, Noah Brown, Pat Elflein, Malik Hooker and Raekwon McMillan. But perhaps only QB JT Barrett is irreplaceable, and even there the experience with one Cardale Jones in 2014 makes that questionable.
E + R = O
Go Bucks!
[yes, I know that everything here has been reported elsewhere, but as the articles piled up, I thought a summary would bring the whole into perspective]
