Buckeyes Resume Spring Practice – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/22/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
March 22, 2016
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Howl about we start off a recap of Day 3 of Ohio State’s 2016 spring drills with an update on the Buckeyes’ spring theme of being in the land of the wolves? The giant scoreboard scene of a hot breath-breathing wolf had the added dimension today of a recent tasty meal on its chops, because clearly that wolf was hungry.
So are these Buckeyes. The members of the team returned from their spring break locales — some went to Florida but most players went home or did something with their family — ready to practice and head coach Urban Meyer did not appear to have any issues with their first practice back off the break.
“We ran them pretty good yesterday,” Meyer said. “They were good today.”
Meyer and staff worked the players through about a 2:15 minute practice in shoulder pads and Buckeye gear shorts. Afterward, he met with the media and responded to a variety of questions.
Regarding a question on comments attributed to him last week about taking spring practices to Florida, Meyer said: “I didn’t make comments. Someone asked me a question of would we look into it. We look into everything, but I can’t see taking spring break away from the players.”
On getting the most out of the spring practices, he said the coaches put pressure on the players now.
“There are some guys who haven’t done a whole lot who are going to have to play,” Meyer said. “So we try to put as much pressure on the players now because it’s not fair to put pressure on them in October. I hope there was more pressure on them [today] in their first padded practice than there is next fall in front of 110,000. But that’s our job; to make it very stressful. There are a lot of great athletes who don’t respond to stress very well.”
In other words, he wants to find out now who among this Buckeye pack can take the heat.
On some of the draft eligible players who Meyer keeps getting questions about, he said Cardale Jones and Braxton Miller were the two wild cards.
“They’re the ones who don’t have enough tape,” Meyer said. “We get asked about them quite a bit and I’m very proud when most of them [the scouts] come in afterward and they say they are not only tremendous players but their interviews are over the top … their knowledge of football and their understanding of fundamentals. And that’s a credit to our assistant coaches and coach Marotti.”
Meyer was also made mention of two weeks ago when Roger Goodell and Troy Vincent spoke to the team, Vincent said the Ohio State players “are ready for the NFL.”
Some additional thoughts from Meyer from Tuesday …
- Dontre Wilson has a sore foot but he’ll be full speed next week.
- Meyer expects both Wilson and fellow H-back Curtis Samuel to get significant carries this year.
- Demetrious Knox practiced with the first offensive line unit because of an illness to Evan Lisle.
- Meyer is looking forward to seeing RS freshman quarterback Joe Burrow perform during the scrimmage on Saturday.
- Safety Malik Hooker had a good day today and the staff feels good about cornerbacks Gareon Conley, Marshon Lattimore and Denzel Ward.
The Buckeyes are off on Wednesday and return to the practice field Thursday morning.
