Ohio State fans and media members who cover the Buckeyes got to watch the team practice for the second day in a row on Friday as the team held its second of 25 practices to begin preseason camp.
For the second day in a row, Ohio State split its roster into two squads for team drills, though there were some personnel changes between the squads from Thursday to Friday. Most notably, Julian Sayin and Lincoln Kienholz switched offenses, meaning Sayin was throwing to the likes of Jeremiah Smith, Brandon Inniss and Mylan Graham while Kienholz’s receivers included Carnell Tate and Bryson Rodgers.
As was the case on Thursday, there wasn’t a runaway winner of the day between the two quarterbacks. Sayin had the more efficient day on Friday, showing composure in the pocket and making smart decisions with the ball, but the vast majority of his throws in Friday’s practice were short throws. Kienholz operated with a similar script and had a few misfires, including one near-interception for which he had to run a lap around the field, but had the highlight pass of the day for a second straight practice when he connected with Carnell Tate in the left rear corner of the end zone for a touchdown during 7-on-7 drills.
Two days into preseason camp, my overall view on the quarterback competition remains the same as it was going in. It’s fair to call Sayin the presumptive frontrunner, but I still believe there’s a real competition between him and Kienholz – especially after Kienholz was named an Iron Buckeye on Friday. Neither quarterback has delivered a wow moment yet in camp, but they also haven’t made many glaring mistakes.
We’ll see if either quarterback makes a bigger move on Saturday, the last practice that will be open to fans before the Buckeyes move things behind closed doors. In the meantime, here’s some more observations from Friday’s practice session.
Turbo up to speed quickly
On Thursday, we highlighted Beau Atkinson and Epi Sitanilei as two of the standouts of Ohio State’s opening practice. Another summer enrollee was perhaps the player who caught my eye the most on Friday.
Anthony “Turbo” Rogers wasn’t on campus for spring practices, but that hasn’t slowed him down in his first two practices of preseason camp. The four-star freshman running back broke off multiple long runs on Friday, demonstrating the speed and agility that made him a top-100 overall prospect in his class.
Friday was a good day in general for the running backs, as James Peoples, CJ Donaldson, Sam Dixon and Bo Jackson each had their moments, too. Peoples and Donaldson were the first running backs in the order for their respective squads and continue to look the part of OSU’s top two running backs this season, but Jackson, Rogers and Dixon are all making their case for Carlos Locklyn to expand his rotation beyond just the top two.
Granted, it’s hard to fully evaluate running backs in unpadded practices during the first two days of camp, as they aren’t being tackled. But the early signs are promising for Ohio State to have a deep running back room in 2025, with two true freshmen in Jackson and now Rogers already pushing for immediate playing time.
Downs continues to move around
As he did on Thursday, star safety Caleb Downs continued to line up in multiple positions on Ohio State’s defense. On some series, Downs lined up at nickelback with Jaylen McClain and Leroy Roker III manning the safety spots (Malik Hartford and Faheem Delane were the top safeties on the other field during team drills). On other series, Downs moved back to free safety alongside McClain with Lorenzo Styles Jr. manning the nickel spot.
Downs played both roles for the Buckeyes last season as he and Jordan Hancock proved to be interchangeable between the nickel and free safety positions in the second half of last year, and new Ohio State defensive coordinator Matt Patricia is looking at using Downs in a similar fashion this year to take advantage of Downs’ versatility and create roles for other defensive backs around him.
“Caleb is such a versatile player that now you can do that. You can move him into some different spots to give those other guys a chance to get on the field in those roles,” Patricia said Friday. “He's such a good communicator, just to kind of let everybody know we have words that settle everything down. Even though I may be lined up in something that may look like a certain position, it may not be that position, but the communication tells everybody what it is. And that's critical.”
Regardless of where Downs lines up, he consistently stands out as one of the best players on the field when he’s on the field. His highlights on Friday included a near-interception pass breakup against Sayin in 7-on-7 when he broke on a pass perfectly from the nickel spot.
More observations
- Eddrick Houston did not participate in drills but was present for Friday’s practice, walking around the field in a knee brace with a slight limp after leaving Thursday’s practice due to injury.
- With Houston out, Will Smith Jr. and Tywone Malone lined up at defensive tackle with the starters during many of the “teach” periods where the full defense was together on Friday. Kayden McDonald and Jason Moore also repped with the starters on their respective split squads on Friday, with Moore breaking up a Kienholz pass in the backfield for one of the day’s defensive highlights.
- Tight end Jelani Thurman, a frequent open practice standout in recent years, made one of the day’s best catches when he adjusted in midair to catch a downfield pass over the middle thrown slightly behind him by fourth-string quarterback Eli Brickhandler.
- Walk-on cornerback Brenton “Inky” Jones suffered an apparent shoulder injury while making a pass breakup on a deep ball.
- Rodgers went down briefly with an apparent injury after making a pair of back-to-back catches from Kienholz, but returned to practice just a few minutes later.
- Freshman defensive tackle Maxwell Roy was not seen at practice for a second straight day.
- Downs, Smith, Rodgers, Tate, Inniss and Graham all took reps at punt returner on Friday.
