It’s time for the public to get its first look at the 2022 Ohio State football team.
Ohio Stadium will be open to fans and Big Ten Network will be televising as the Buckeyes take the field at noon Saturday for their 2022 spring game, which will serve as the last of 15 practices for Ohio State this spring but the first time – and the last time until the Sept. 3 season opener against Notre Dame – the Buckeyes will compete in front of fans at Ohio Stadium this year.
As we prepare to watch this year’s battle of Scarlet and Gray – which will really be an offense vs. defense scrimmage with a yet-to-be-announced scoring format – we share some final thoughts, questions and predictions about what we’ll see in the Shoe this afternoon.
Final Thoughts
Tackling is good
Personally, I enjoy the spring game even when it is glorified touch football. But football is meant to be played with players being tackled to the ground. So I was pleasantly surprised when we learned Thursday that the Buckeyes will be tackling for a majority of Saturday’s scrimmage, save for the first couple of series, which will be played with a “thud” format.
That probably means a short day of work for established stars like TreVeyon Henderson and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, but that’s fine. Those guys don’t have anything to prove in a spring game. The real intrigue of the spring game, at least for us beat writers, is the opportunity to evaluate the younger players that we haven’t seen play much or at all in real games – and those evaluations become far more real when ballcarriers have to actually break tackles and defenders have to actually make tackles.
– Dan Hope
Day’s decision to tackle a deliberate one
Ohio State’s head coach has made no shortage of changes this offseason, especially on the defensive side, and his decision to feature live tackling in Saturday’s spring game should not be overlooked among them. It would have been easy enough for Day to maintain the status quo, playing with thud contact as he’s done in each of his past two spring games as head coach of the Buckeyes. But in switching things up this year, Day seems to be sending a message that Ohio State has a different mindset heading into 2022.
Defensive lapses and a lack of consistency in the run game are two areas of improvement for Ohio State coming off of its 2021 season, and perhaps a heightened level of physicality – even in the spring game – is a means to address those things early in the offseason.
– Griffin Strom
We’re going to see a lot of passing
As Griffin and Dan both alluded, there’s lots of excitement around the fact that Saturday will be everything goes tackling wise, except for the quarterback of course.
But with the offensive line depth thin for Saturday, and with Ryan Day not likely to want to beat his running backs up too much, you’re going to see the combination of C.J. Stroud, Devin Brown and Kyle McCord have plenty of opportunities to air it out during the spring game.
– Garrick Hodge
Don't take this too seriously
I love the spring game. I look forward to it every year and I would probably watch every second of this fake football game even if I wasn't being paid to. But it's important to realize that almost none of this matters in the grand scheme of things. This is just one more bullet point in a long run of spring practices.
So resist the urge to make any sort of long-term projection based on what you see today because historically speaking, it's probably going to be wrong. Just sit back and enjoy it for what it is. It ain't that serious.
– Kevin Harrish
Questions
What will we learn about the defense today?
We shouldn’t get our hopes up for learning too much about Ohio State’s new defensive scheme today, as Ryan Day said the scheme will be “very, very basic” for the spring game, but I still think we’ll learn something, at least in regards to what the base defense will look like this year.
Jim Knowles certainly isn‘t going to send his players out into the Shoe to run plays that they haven’t been practicing, and they haven’t been practicing plays that they don’t intend to use in real games this fall. So while there will surely be plenty of wrinkles to come that we won’t see on Saturday, we will be able to infer that whatever Ohio State uses as its primary defensive alignment in the spring game will also be what it plans to use as its base defense going forward.
Because the teams have been split up by offense and defense rather than by a draft, the spring game should also give us an idea of how the depth chart stacks up at each position – at least as of right now – as we get a look at the first-, second- and third-team units over the course of the game.
– Dan Hope
Which true freshman stands out?
Spring camp is less about veteran stars making significant strides than it is an important development phase for the Buckeyes’ young players. Ohio State’s true freshmen, in particular, have a chance to make a splash during their first impression to Buckeye fans at the Shoe, and perhaps even steal the show in general. That’s what Jack Sawyer did a year ago, when the first-year pass rusher raised eyebrows and expectations with a four-sack performance in the scrimmage. Emeka Egbuka and Marvin Harrison Jr. did something similar with their own seven-catch efforts last spring, setting the tone for how Ohio State fans have viewed them ever since.
Kye Stokes and Caden Curry, the two true freshmen to have shed their black stripes prior to the spring game, are among the top candidates to make an impact on the field. On offense, Devin Brown and Kyion Grayes could do the same, if their Student Appreciation Day performances are any indication.
– Griffin Strom
Can Devin Brown dazzle the crowd?
During student appreciation day, Devin Brown showcased why he was such a highly billed quarterback, fitting throws into a tight window and completing passes on the run. He also had freshman moments, as he fumbled two snaps in that same practice. On Saturday, when he’s in front of the largest crowd he’s ever played in front of, will the talent of Brown emerge? Or will it still be evident he has plenty of more freshman kinks to work out?
– Garrick Hodge
Which quarterback will Ohio State land?
Like I said, trying to take anything serious away from this game is a mostly fruitless exercise, but one thing that will make a drastic impact on Ohio State's future is the future quarterback the Buckeyes land.
It's looking like it's going to come down to Dylan Raiola or Jadyn Davis (both of whom could be considered the top quarterback in the 2024 class, depending on who you ask), and they're both visiting today, and we might be on commit watch for at least one of them.
So keep that in mind as you watch the game today.
– Kevin Harrish
Predictions
Kyle McCord reminds us why he was a five-star recruit
There’s a lot of excitement within the Ohio State fanbase for Brown’s spring game debut, and rightfully so. Brown is a gifted passer who will be a very real contender for the starting quarterback job next year, and Saturday will be our first opportunity to watch him throw the ball in Ohio Stadium. The hype surrounding Brown’s future will only grow if he makes a good first impression in the Shoe today.
But amid Stroud’s rise to stardom and Brown’s arrival, McCord sometimes feels like the forgotten man in Ohio State’s quarterback room. And that really shouldn’t be the case for a five-star recruit who won Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors in his only start last season.
McCord was arguably the most impressive passer in last year’s spring game, and now that he has a year of experience under his belt, he should only be sharper this year. On a day where he could end up taking the most reps of any Ohio State quarterback, I think McCord reminds us all of his potential to become the Buckeyes’ next star QB after Stroud.
– Dan Hope
Jim Knowles will throw in a curveball or two
Day may have said the Ohio State defense will be “very basic” on Saturday, preferring to focus on fundamentals in this year’s spring game, but I’m not totally convinced that new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles will keep things completely vanilla. The Buckeyes won’t tip their hand by any means in terms of what they have planned to surprise or confuse Notre Dame Week 1, but I don’t think Ohio State’s base 4-2-5 look is all we’ll see as Knowles’ highly-anticipated new defense is unveiled – at least in part – on Saturday.
– Griffin Strom
Ohio State will land at least one commitment
There’s no insider trading here, as I’m just basing this prediction on the fact there’s a number of guys that theoretically pull the trigger this weekend.
There’s a plethora of recruits expected to be on campus this weekend, and by the end of the day Sunday, I predict Ohio State will add another commitment to either the 2023 or 2024 recruiting class.
– Garrick Hodge
A walk-on will wow
I don't know specifically who it will be, but if previous spring games are any indication, at least one walk-on is going to have a chance to shine late in the second half today.
Last year it was walk-on quarterback Jagger LaRoe leading an absolutely perfect two-minute drill and honestly looking like the most polished quarterback of the group. I can't tell you who it's going to be this year, but someone's going to make some plays and have folks wondering why they're not on scholarship.
– Kevin Harrish
