1998 Spring Football Notes #3 – Ohio State Buckeyes
4/11/1998 12:00:00 AM | Football
April 11, 1998
Columbus, Ohio – The Ohio State Buckeyes capped their first seven days of spring football practice with some scrimmage action on the grass fields outside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center Friday. Coach John Cooper than gave the team the rest of the weekend off to enjoy the holidays.
“The scrimmage went allright,” Cooper said prior to leaving for a Continental flight with his son to go see the Master’s golf tournament. “It was our first time with real game-type situations, so we worked on things like goal line and moving the ball in. It’s hard to single players out at this time because so many are getting better and better. Jerry Westbrooks got a lot of work [at tailback] today and so did both young quarterbacks [Austin Moherman and David Priestley]. We are seven days into the spring and we just keep plugging along. The guys are all working hard.”
Spring Notes
*Henry Fleming was joined on the sidelines by offensive tackle Eric Smith. Smith, like Fleming, has a left ankle sprain (suffered in Thursdays practice). Trainers are hopeful both will be practicing on Monday.
*Also expected back on Monday is juco linebacker James Cotton. He missed Friday’s scrimmage while nursing a fractured rib, also incurred in Thursday’s practice.
*Westbrooks displayed both speed and power, bursting up the middle vs. the first team for about a 30-yard gain and breaking several tackles on another play.
*Michael Wiley, Boston, Derek Combs and Reggie Germany also displayed “homerun” speed on various plays.
*Katzenmoyer looked dominant. On successive plays midway through the scrimmage he leveled Wiley behind the line of scrimmage and then “touch” sacked Mark Garcia for another major loss.
*All the receivers were catching passes but the most impressive might of been Germany’s reception of a Joe Germaine bullet and then splitting two DBs with raw speed and scoring a touchdown.
*Paul Breed has been moved to right tackle. “He’s a load…we just need to teach him who to block [within the various and changing defensive schemes],” said Cooper.
