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Football
Redshirt Could Benefit Hall, OSU Down the Road
By Brandon Castel

COLUMBUS — Make no mistake about it, the Buckeyes could use Marcus Hall in 2010.

Marcus Hall
Photo by Dan Harker

They are rated No. 2 in the country in nearly every preseason poll and having a 6-foot-5, 300-pound offensive tackle with a nine games under his belt is exactly the kind of depth elite college football teams need in order to make it all the way to the BCS National Title game.

Unfortunately for Jim Tressel and the Ohio State coaching staff, that’s no longer an option. After weeks of speculation, the university officially announced that the sophomore out of Cleveland Glenville would take a redshirt for the upcoming season because of academic issues.

“It’s disappointing, but it is what it is,” Tressel said after Saturday’s jersey scrimmage.

“Any time you have somebody in your two-deep that you won’t have—it’s like losing (linebacker) Andrew Sweat last year—it hurts you.”

Hall will be allowed to practice with the team throughout the 2010 season—which means he has not been ruled academically ineligible by Ohio State or the NCAA—but the next time he steps on the field in a live a game with the Buckeyes will be Sept. 3, 2011 in the season-opener against Akron.

It was a tough blow for Hall, who played in nine games as a freshman last season, not to mention the Buckeyes, who were expecting him to provide depth at both tackle positions this season.

Along with being the primary backup to starter J.B. Shugarts at right tackle, Hall has recently asked the coaching staff for a chance to compete with upperclassmen Mike Adams and Andrew Miller for the vacant starting spot on the left side of the offensive line.

Instead, he will spend the year working on the scout team, trying to get guys like Cameron Heyward, Nathan Williams and Solomon Thomas better for the upcoming game.

“I think he is doing a great job with it,” said senior Bryant Browning, one of Hall's closest friends on the team dating back to their days at Glenville.

“I know he is most serious about his schoolwork and knows he has to focus on that first. If not, he won’t be able to play college football.”

That’s the cold, harsh reality of being a student-athlete, but if Hall can regain good academic standing at Ohio State, redshirting would leave him with three more years of eligibility beginning in 2011.

“We’re going to be positive about it, and the upside is that he’s going to have a fifth year, which you like for offensive linemen,” Tressel said.

“But it won’t help us in 2010 and we’re most interested in 2010.”

That might be so, but coaches like Tressel cannot succeed at big-time college programs like Ohio State without keeping one eye on the future. Tressel’s philosophy has always been such that if a player can help the team win now, then he’s going to play. However, a mandated redshirt in 2010 could help stabilize the future of the offensive line in 2011 and beyond, especially if Hall sees it as an opportunity to mature, both on and off the field.

“I know he is working hard on it and doing extra studying and stuff like that to catch back up,” Browning said. 

“He knows that he always has another year to get better, learn more, be an overall better player and be a leader. I think he is up for it.”

If he is, the Buckeyes could be looking at their best string of offensive lines during the Tressel era. Although they will lose Browning and fellow seniors Justin Boren and Andrew Miller after this season, the Buckeyes return current juniors Adams, Brewster and Shugarts in 2011.

If Hall can’t find a way to work himself into the starting lineup next season, redshirting in 2010 will still allow him two years as a starter after Shugarts and Adams are both gone. More importantly, it could give the Buckeyes a formidable offensive line in 2012 that includes not only Hall, but classmates Corey Linsley a center and Jack Mewhort at guard, along with freshman tackle Andrew Norwell.

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