The start of Ohio State’s highly anticipated season is here. The 2024 Buckeyes opened camp on Thursday in front of a host of fans outside of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. Head coach Ryan Day began the summer by splitting the team in half, using both fields to get his five quarterbacks as many reps as possible.
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Here are a five notable observations from opening day.
Quarterbacks look OK, but still too early to tell about the starter
For the second straight year, Ohio State has a quarterback battle going entering August, and while it was possible to work out a depth chart at some positions, Ohio State’s split-field practice made it hard to gauge whether any quarterback was operating in a first-team role.Will Howard and Devin Brown each spent time throwing to the top receiver group and the reserves.
Day said he plans to run split-field sessions for the first four practices of camp before getting things rotated down more at quarterback. While he’s doing that, it’ll be hard to see whether one quarterback has an edge. Still, it seemed neither passer really stood out over the other. Brown and Howard both had OK days, with a mix of missed throws and impressive ones.
It is obvious, though, that Howard is feeling more settled in the offense after the spring and summer. He has always had good pocket presence, as he should at 6 foot 4, but he sat comfortable in the pocket on Thursday.
It’s going to take a little bit of time before we see a gap between Howard and Brown, especially when Ohio State is splitting fields and doesn’t have pads on. Day hopes to have the quarterback battle finished sooner rather than later, but he’s not going to force anything.
“I’m hoping it happens in the first week to 10 days, but that’s the same thing as last year, I’d like for it to happen, but it didn’t,” Day said. “We will see how it shakes out. We will need them all, but we’d like to have it done in the first couple weeks.”
Carson Hinzman wasn’t out there. What else happened up front?
The first day of camp began with a major absence, as Hinzman was not on the field for practice. The third-year offensive lineman came to the first day of camp sick, Day said, and the trainers decided to sit him. Day is confident Hinzman will be back on the field for the second day of practice on Friday.
Ohio State enters camp with major questions on the right side of the line, and Hinzman is expected to battle for the starting spot at right guard with Tegra Tshabola. Without Hinzman on the field, Tshabola was the focus at right guard, and he looked bigger than he did during the spring. At 6 foot 6 and 327 pounds, he looks like an NFL offensive lineman. Day has been pleased with Tshabola this offseason, but that spot is far from solidified.
“The first thing is you have to show what you’re doing and that’s the first level of learning, do you know what you’re doing? He’s done that,” Day said. “The second thing is how to do it. That’s the technique, the calls, and there’s so much that comes with how to do your job. Then can you do it consistently? Tegra has shown he can do it. … We’re going to wear teams down in the fourth quarter, and if that’s our goal then we have to be able to do that up front. If he can consistently show he can do that, he’ll find himself in games.”
During the split-field sessions, Tshabola played alongside right tackle Josh Fryar. On the other field, Ohio State had Josh Simmons at left tackle with Donovan Jackson at left guard and Alabama transfer Seth McLaughlin at center.
It’s hard to judge the offensive line without pads on, but Simmons and Jackson looked like they were working well together. Returning both is a major positive for a unit that is going to look new basically across the board.
Simmons is going to get a lot of focus because of his struggles in the past, but his athleticism gives him tools no other tackle on the roster has. Day said Simmons had a great offseason and is “light-years away” from where he was a year ago. “He positioned himself, with a good summer, to be the best version of himself,” Day said.
Wide receivers came ready to play
At some schools, replacing a player like Marvin Harrison Jr. would be the top storyline entering camp. Not at Ohio State.
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It won’t be as simple as sliding another receiver in to make up for the Heisman Trophy finalist and Biletnikoff Award winner, but the Buckeyes are loaded at receiver. The starters on Thursday were the expected trio of Emeka Egbuka, Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate, and they were terrific. Egbuka and Smith dropped a pass early in the practice, but once things got going they didn’t miss a step.
Smith made a tremendous jumping catch over corner Calvin Simpson-Hunt on a pass from Howard. Those catches have become increasingly common, and he looks like a completely different person than when he arrived in December. He showed up to camp at 6 foot 3 and 213 pounds after a strong offseason.
Day is still trying to tamp down expectations for Smith, but it’s hard to ignore how special he looks.
“He had a great offseason, did some things some freshmen haven’t done before in terms of recognition,” Day said. “We’re excited that he’s out there every day.”
Tate was the receiver that stood out the most, though. He showed flashes of how special he could be last year, and he picked right back up with it on Thursday.
Early in practice, he made a nice jumping catch across the middle. Then in 7-on-7 he made an acrobatic catch on a ball that Howard put a bit too much loft on, got hit in the air and still came down with the ball.
“The limit for Carnell is through the roof,” Day said. “He’s not somebody you typically hear, but you feel him out there. … He showed last year he could do it. He’s going to have to be a major contributor for our offense this year.”
Outside the top three, five-star receiver Brandon Inniss looked good in the slot. He didn’t catch a lot downfield, but he made some nice catches in traffic and caught some screens, looking quick on his cuts. We’ll need to see Inniss with the pads on, but he can be a force in the slot if he can stay healthy.
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No other school could lose a guy like Harrison and come back with the talent Ohio State has right now.
Some linebacker rotation early
There weren’t a lot of eye-catching plays by the linebackers, a byproduct of a practice without pads, but the rotations were interesting.
Camp began with Sonny Styles taking reps with the starters alongside Cody Simon. That moved C.J. Hicks to a backup spot, working with Gabe Powers with the second-team unit.
In the last two years, fans have been begging for Hicks to get more snaps. That’s a reasonable request considering Hicks was a five-star and the No. 1 linebacker in the 2022 class, but before people panic early, Hicks did rotate in with Simon when the Buckeyes went to 7-on-7 and in team periods.
It looks like Ohio State is continuing to figure out how it wants to rotate at linebacker, but Hicks is going to be part of the plan going forward.
One depth observation: Arvell Reese is huge. He enters camp listed at 6 foot 4 and 238 pounds, and you could see and hear him when he was on the practice field. With some more reps and experience, it’s going to be hard to keep a player of his build off the field.
Running back group has talent and questions
TreVeyon Henderson had a huge smile on his face as he took the field for the first day of camp, and for good reason. The third-year running back is entering a big year and is paired with one of the best backs in the country, Quinshon Judkins.
We know the explosiveness Henderson can bring, but Judkins also looked good on Thursday in a practice with no tackling. His patience, ability to get skinny through holes and acceleration were impressive. I look forward to seeing them both in pads again as we get deeper into August.
There are some questions behind them, though:he only other running backs are freshmen Sam Williams-Dixon and James Peoples. Ohio State was going to lean on walk-on T.C. Caffey, but he tore his ACL in the offseason and is out for the year.
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In an ideal world, Ohio State won’t need to rely on the young running backs, but in reality somebody will have to step up as the third running back.
While that sorts itself out, Judkins and Henderson look to be as explosive as everybody expected.
(Photo of Devin Brown: Adam Cairns / Columbus Dispatch / USA Today)
Cameron Teague is a Staff Writer for The Athletic covering the Ohio State Buckeyes. Before joining The Athletic, he worked as a features writer for The Columbus Dispatch and a beat writer covering Louisville football for the Courier Journal. He’s a graduate of Bowling Green State University. Follow Cameron on Twitter @cj_teague
