I have thoughts on both of those

1) RE: A. Jackson

I have no doubt that Jackson would be starting for us this season if he came to Ohio State as a freshman.  But he lost 2 years not learning our scheme, not learning our techniques, and not not competing for positions.  Meanwhile, much less talented guys Hamilton and Landers spent every day of those years in the weight room, in the film room, practicing the right technique the right way dozens of times a day.  And simple fact is that hard work and dedication get you better results in life than how many stars you have on your recruiting ranking page.  I'm sure Jackson is working hard now but he's 2 years behind and that's hard to make up.  I prefer to take the glass half full approach of applauding Landers and Hamilton for turning themselves from unheralded recruits into invaluable pieces of the 2019 team.

2) RE: Browning

It's just the depth chart.  Ohio State is going to play a base 5DB 2LB set with 1MLB and 1 OLB.  Malik Harrison is definitely the OLB no questions asked.  So if you want to compete for a starting job the only job availiable is MLB.  If he doesnt end up starting at MLB, I fully expect Browning to compete with Gant for starting OLB next season after Harrison goes pro.

Werner was the king of making the tackle on the RB after a 5 yard gain and then getting dragged another 5 yards down field for a nice 10 yard pickup by opposing offenses.

Same here I thought Hilliard and Browning would be the 2nd coming of Bobby Carpenter and AJ Hawk. But Hilliard's body seems to have betrayed him with injuries he never fully recovered from. And Browning last season showed a unique skill at always finding a blocker to get stuck to on any running play - offensive linemen, tights ends, fullbacks Browning always seems to find a way to find his guy and get blocked fully and completely... Maybe he's just really nice and wants to help his teammates get the tackle statistics?

Am I the only one who thought NPF had the most disappointing spring game of all the players? I thought he looked good coming off the ball on running plays. But on passing plays Cornell and Young ran straight past him, bull-rushed directly through him, and tackle-end stunts left him confused and blocking air while poor Fields was pressured into incomplete passes. Bowen had a tough first quarter at left guard, maybe jitters after a year off, but settled in well after that. To me he certainly looks like one of our top-5 o-Iinemen and his talents are better suited for tackle than guard. I view Bowen at RT as pretty much inevitable at this point, but it seems like I'm the only one???

Can you believe that it was just last year we were talking about a stacked QB room of Martell, Baldwin, and Dawn Mathis? Life comes at you fast.

If I'm Day I'm making the same decision he did. I'm just saying maybe it's consequences is all. Sometimes you just make a decision and live with the consequences.

I wonder how much of this has to do with Day deciding to get Justin Fields.  For those blaming the QBs, remember that they didnt "start" this, so to speak.  It all "started" when Ryan Day got Justin Fields in a transfer.  I wonder how much Day getting a completely unknown transfer made everyone else in the QB room start looking at each other and say "wait, if he got a transfer this year what's to say he won't get another transfer next year?  If he's not loyal to any of us in this room, why should we be loyal to him?"

I really do wonder if the QBs on the roster started to wonder if, even if they put in the time, if there would always just be another transfer to take the job from them?

I guess the days of winning the national championship with your 3rd string QB are over?

Fields' deep ball reminds me of Cardalle Jones; I like it a lot! In addition to the 98 yard touchdown, he had KJ hill for at least one more huge 40+ yard play but Hill just seemed to have lost sight of the ball. I think fields' stats would have been way higher if he had the 2nd team reps that Baldwin did. The 2nd team offensive line stoned the 2nd team defense's pass rush and kept a clean pocket for the QB. With the first team, Fields didn't have Munford on his blind side and freshman NPF got "welcomed to the big time, rookie" by just about every defensive end on our roster.

This class needed QB and o-line help and those are checked off already (but the more the merrier!) What it was lacking going into today was 2 good CBs and at least one top-250 DT. Glad to see we've got our first corner! The class is already rounding into good form!

This is the best story in sports.  Everyone is with you Ryan!

Not true at all. Great talents go to the NFL after 3 years. I bet Chase Young is gone after this year. Which would project T. Smith and Harrison to start in 2020 Then let's say Smith is gone to the draft after that year, which would open the door for him to start his redshirt freshman year. Of course that's if everything goes to plan, injuries or transfers could easily lead to being forced into playing his true freshman year.

Kid, just ask the most important question, "do you play Ohio State every year?" If the answer is "yes" then you'd be smart to pick a different school.

Every defense in all levels of football is dealing with thr problem of the slot wide receiver. Your only 3 options are 1) match him with a CB 2) match him with a LB 3) match him with a S We keep changing defensive coordinators who each have different ideas about which option to choose.

In the 1990s NFL, when offenses put 3 men on the field it was common for the starting strong safety to cover the slot receiver. The "bullet position" or "star position" or whatever it's called at a specific college just looks a heck of a lot like what strong safeties did every Sunday back in the day.

Thank God someone finally said it. I'm so tired of college coaches running a 4-2-5 acting like they invented the strong safety. "So we've got this crazy new position where a defensive back plays close to the line in the box and helps stop the run sometimes, blitz sometimes, and plays man coverage sometimes" .....so a strong safety? It's a 4-2-5 scheme with 3 safeties on the field 2 free and 1 strong got it chief.

Day says the QB battle is even and we don't have that much more spring practice to go. Should we be getting worried Fields isn't as good as advertised?

In general I get nervous if we have 2 weak classes at any position group back-to-back. I get especially concerned at DT and o-line since freshmen usually can't be effective starters at those positions.

When he committed, I honestly thought Hilliard was destined to become a star at Ohio State. I'm very sad for the guy that it looks like an awful run of bad injury fate will have him never starting for us.

We've been spoiled at Ohio State. You don't need 6 WRs you only need 4. Olave, G. Wilson, and J. Williams looks like a good starting trio on paper. Then you've got J. Gill who could make the transition like Jaylon Marshall. We haven't seen much from them, but Elijah Gardner and Jaylen Harris have been grinding away for the last 3 years. And what if our new coaching staff actually let a freshman or two on the field? Looks like a fine depth chart for me even with our recent departures.

Mike is the linebacker in the middle Sam is the linebacker on the "strong side" which is the side of the offensive line that the tight end is, assuming there offense has one tight end. Will is the weak-side linebacker which means the side of the field where there isn't a tight end. Simplistically, most running plays are up the middle right where the middle linebacker is. The offense has 5 offensive linemen and the defense uses 4 defensive linemen. So in a lot of running plays the offense sends its extra 5th offensive lineman to go block the middle linebacker so the running back doesn't get tackled by him. So traditionally, you want a big strong tank at Mike linebacker who can survive trading blows with 300lb offensive linemen and still get into car-crashes to tackle the running back. The Will linebacker, by contrast needs to be fast. Continuing our hypothetical running play, if 4 offensive linemen are blocking defensive linemen, the extra 5th offensive lineman is blocking the Mike, and the tight end is on the other side of the formation (where the SAM is) then that leaves no one left to block the Will - he's completely free. Therefore, the Will doesn't need to be as strong as the Mike because he's not being targeted to be blocked, but the Will starts further away from the running back than the Mike does, so the Will needs to be faster so he can quickly fly to where the running back is and make the tackle in time. In the NFL the Will linebacker will oftentimes be the linebacker with the most tackles in the team. So an ideal Mike linebacker might be 245lbs, run a 4.65 40 time, and lift 23 reps on the bench press. An ideal Will might be 225lbs, run a 4.47 40-time, and do 16 reps on the bench press This is, of course, a big oversimplification since offenses have running plays up the middle, to the flanks, sometimes they pass the ball to the running back, sometimes they throw the ball to wide receivers or even run the quarterback and the linebackers have different responsibilities in all of these cases. But the top job of linebackers is to stop the offense from just running the ball up the middle every play so the traits to stop that is the first thing coaches look for when choosing a Mike and Will.

Powderpuff Pete Werner at Mike linebacker is the funniest thing I've heard all day.

I have bad news for you, my friend. I haven't forgotten, I'm including 2012! 2012 yards per rush attempt - 3.6 2018 yards per rush attempt - 4.6 We thought we knew what bad was in 2012, then Bill Davis came to town and said "hold my beer.'

Linebackers get an F until they prove otherwise. We just watched the worst season of linebacker play in my lifetime - they don't get any benefit of the doubt. We need to see big changes!

Love this! Wish they had it when I was a student, so happy for this generation!