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Football
Fall Practice Insider: Big News from Camp
By Brandon Castel

COLUMBUS — Although temperatures have cooled a little this week around the Ohio State practice facility, the action is just starting to heat up. There were a number of players nursing injuries after Saturday’s full-speed-ahead practice, and a number of young players stepped up to fill key spots on both sides of the ball.

Here’s in inside look at the Buckeyes practice from Tuesday afternoon at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.

1. Marcus Hall present but demoted. After the rumors over the weekend, Marcus Hall gave a little scare when he wasn't there for the start of practice Tuesday. It wasn’t long, however, before he came trotting out of the Woody a few minutes after we arrived. Although he was able to take part in practice, there’s something clearly going on with Hall, who was demoted to the third-team offense where he continued to play left tackle alongside classmate Sam Longo, who was at left guard. An Ohio State spokesperson told The Ozone Monday that the Buckeyes were considering a redshirt for Hall this season.

Junior Mike Adams was the first-team left tackle and senior Andrew Miller was second-team today. With Hall on the third-team, freshman Andrew Norwell moved up to become the second-team right tackle.

2. Nathan Williams out of action. Starting defensive end Nathan Williams was at practice today, but he was not in pads after injuring his left knee during practice Saturday at Ohio Stadium. Instead, the junior was relegated to shorts and had a thick strap/brace on his left knee. He seemed to be moving around pretty good and was doing a lot of stuff on the side, but senior Cam Heyward said he doesn't know when to expect Williams back. He is hoping sooner rather than later.

With Williams out, junior Solomon Thomas took his spot as the first-team Leo, but the Buckeyes also used redshirt freshman Adam Bellamy to help fill the void. Thomas played mostly on passing down with Bellamy replacing him on typical running downs. Some of that might have been due to the fact Melvin Fellows was out today. He was in pads, but spent the day working on his surgically reconstructed knee on the side doing what almost looked like pilates.

3. Finding a place for Christian Bryant. One of Hall’s high school teammates at Glenville, freshman Christian Bryant found himself in a new spot Tuesday. The undersized, but hard-hitting, cornerback had been getting limited reps with the third-team defense this fall, but found himself promoted to the second-team as the backup nickel, or Star, to Tyler Moeller. A big reason for that was the absence of Nate Oliver, who sat out with an injury, but some teammates could see it as a permanent fix.

Starting safety Jermale Hines, who played the Star position the last three years, said he took Bryant under his wing this week. Senior cornerback Chimdi Chekwa said he thinks Bryant is a corner at heart, but has what it takes to play Star and the staff is looking for a way to get him on the field.

4. Pryor’s good day spoiled by pair of errors. Terrelle Pryor had excellent command throwing the football today. He proved he can now make all the throws a quarterback should, connecting on deep balls, slants, out routes and swing passes. He was on the money, fitting balls into tight spaces and throwing it up where only his guys could get it. Some of that was negated by two bad turnovers during the scrimmage portion of practice.

The first was a fumble where Pryor took off running and may have knocked the ball out of his own hand with his knee. Either way, he wasn't carrying the ball with the kind of security Jim Tressel looks wants and defensive tackle John Simon recovered the fumble. Pryor’s other turnover was a bad handoff to tailback Brandon Saine that led to another fumble recovery for the defense.

5. Yellow caution day at camp. It was hard to tell what was more prevalent at camp Tuesday, Scarlet or yellow. Along with Nathan Williams, Nate Oliver and Melvin Fellows, there were a number of other key Buckeyes wearing yellow no-contact jerseys. Some were doing rehab on the side, including tailback Carlos Hyde, who could be seen dragging a weight sled up and down the far sideline. Others doing work on the side in their yellow jerseys included wideout James Jackson, fullback James Georgiades, safety Chad Hagan and defensive back Adam Griffin. Starting safety Orhian Johnson was also out with a yellow jersey Tuesday as he was icing his left calf.

Sophomore C.J. Barnett replaced Johnson on the first-team defense while redshirt sophomore cornerback Travis Howard continued to play with the ones in place of senior Devon Torrence, who has been out with a minor hamstring injury. Torrence said he expects to return to practice Wednesday, and the Buckeyes could also have linebacker Ross Homan, who was not wearing yellow but still did not participate in contact drills.

“He could have gone today, I’m sure,” linebacker Brian Rolle said.

6. Basil shows off the leg. After kicking early in practice, senior Devin Barclay found himself in a yellow jersey for the second half of practice, which left all the kicking to freshman Drew Basil. The Chillicothe native is coming off an impressive performance in the kick scrimmage and he may have all but wrapped up the long-range kicking role Tuesday. After missing from 57 yards, Basil lined up and knocked down field goal tries from 50 and 56 yards despite attempts by coach Tressel to ice the kicker by calling a timeout.

7. High Praise for Big Hank. Anyone watching freshman Johnathan Hankins this fall can see the kid is a player. Weighing well over 300 pounds, Hankins has slowly been working his way up the depth chart by pushing people around in practice. Tuesday it was backup center Corey Linsley who got shoved five yards into the backfield on one occasion. Hankins was so dominant going against the second-team offensive line that they were forced to double-team him a lot.

After practice, senior Cam Heyward heaped some incredible high praise on the newbie, “He’s going to be the next big thing around here,” said Heyward, who even went as far as to compare him to former Buckeye great and No. 1 overall NFL draft pick "Big Daddy" Dan Wilkinson.

8. Corey Browns impressing. It was hard enough when all they shared was their names, but the Corey Browns are making things even tougher on coaches and teammates with their play. One a defensive back and the other a corner, both have been making a big impression during this fall camp. The cornerback, nicknamed “Corey Black” by his teammates, even stepped in and played with the first-team defense Tuesday when Chekwa left with a tight hamstring.

The other Corey Brown, nicknamed “Philly Brown,” was once again one of the more impressive playmakers on the OSU offense. Working with the second-team offense, the true freshman was targeted a number of times today, particularly by backup Joe Bauserman who seemed to be looking for him on every play. They even called a reverse for him that picked up 11 yards, and it looks like the kid might seriously be pushing Chris Fields and Grant Schwartz for the No. 4 receiver spot.

9. Other freshmen looking good. While Basil, Hankins and Brown were the top three standouts Tuesday amongst the freshmen, they weren’t the only ones impressive. Defensive lineman Darryl Baldwin had a very nice day playing defensive end with the second and third-team defenses, and the same can be said for J.T. Moore, who slid up to be the No. 2 Leo with Williams out. Linebacker Brian Rolle singled out freshman Scott McVey for his fine play, saying he always knows what he's doing and he's always in the right place.

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