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Football
Friday Practice Insider: Knee-Jerk Reaction
By Brandon Castel

COLUMBUS — Watching Terrelle Pryor hobble off the field after throwing a pass during red zone drills, I could only imagine what was going through the mind of Jim Tressel and his staff. Only two months removed from minor knee surgery, Pryor was stretching out his knee and walking gingerly as he made his way over to former quarterbacks coach Joe Daniels.

It was a nightmare scenario for Buckeye fans, but it appears to have been nothing more than a scare.

After kneeling next to Daniels for a short while, Pryor got up and walked away without a limp. He didn't seem to lose any balance in his knee during the tripod exercise and was even jumping off it during the one-leg hops.

It still wouldn’t surprise me if he was wearing some kind of protective sleeve for tomorrow’s kick scrimmage at Ohio Stadium just in case (he wasn't wearing anything today).

Here are the rest of my observations from inside Friday’s spring football practice.

1.Passing grade. Outside of the scare, it was a pretty typical practice for TP. He made some really good passes, including a few to Dane Sanzenbacher during the scrimmage, and some ugly ones. The one thing I noticed today was that he seemed to be floating his passes on the corner routes. Just about everything he threw to the corner of the end zone was long.

2. Looking for depth at DT. As I mentioned in my other post, Connor Smith was back at offensive line today. Instead it was Evan Blankenship getting the chance to try on the defensive line for size. The junior offensive lineman got a few reps on the third team defense and spent the day with Jim Heacock and the d-line. This tells me it's about more than just trying to find a place for Connor Smith. Although neither Smith nor Blankenship is EVER going to play on the o-line, it's clear the Buckeyes would clearly like to find a little more depth at the nose tackle position, at least until Jonathan Hankins arrives.

3. Fields and Schwartz making plays. There might not be a more exciting portion of practice than watching the receivers and cornerbacks face off in the one-on-one drills. It was a bit lopsided with Chimdi Chekwa and Travis Howard both out with injuries, but there’s no question the receivers got the better of the corners Friday (which is pretty typical of these drills). DeVier Posey had a solid showing as usual, but the star of the show was Chris Fields. The redshirt freshman has been having a strong spring (albeit through six practices) and he was borderline uncontainable during Friday’s drill. He made the catch of the day by pull down a ball over the head of corner Donnie Evege that probably would have hit Evege in the facemask if Fields hadn’t ripped it away. But it didn’t really matter who was covering him. He burned Devon Torrence, Corey Brown and Dominic Clarke on separate occasions. The other guy who stood out was Grant Schwartz, who continues to catch just about everything that is thrown his way.

4. Torrence and Brown struggle. If Fields was the MVP of the drill, the least valuable player award would have to come down to Devon Torrence edging out Corey Brown by a slight margin. Both guys got burned frequently. Torrence also had a few blatant pass interferences that drew some criticism from coach Taver Johnson. Brown also had a couple of nice plays and spent a lot of time talking things over with Johnson. Dominic Clarke also had a tough day.

5. Another good day for Donnie. Yesterday I reported that Donnie Evege had a great day playing corner with the first team defense and that continued on Friday. He made a couple of nice plays during the scrimmage, but also held his own during the one-on-ones with the wide receiver.With Brown and Clarke struggling a little bit and Travis Howard sidelined by injury, it seems with each passing day his putting distance between himself and the rest of the corners for that No. 3 spot.

6. Etienne Sabino is looking much more comfortable this spring. Just ask linebackers coach Luke Fickell.He has always had the athleticism to play linebacker at Ohio State, but it seems like he is finally starting to understand the defensive scheme, which has lead to him reacting now instead of hesitating. Although he is a junior this year, it’s almost unfair to say ‘finally’ considering he still only 19 years old. He had a good whack on tailback Boom Herron Friday and seems to fly around out there now that he knows where he is going. There’s a long way to go before the start of the season, but Sabino is definitely out in front to replace Austin Spitler as the third starting linebacker.

7. Sweat getting close. If Andrew Sweat had his way, he would be back in practice already. It has only been five and a half months since his ACL surgery, but already Sweat is petitioning to get back on the field. He was wearing a yellow non-contact jersey Friday, but Fickell said he jumped out there for some live action in practice the other day and now thinks he is ready to go. The medical staff is unlikely to clear him for another two to four weeks (typically 6-7 month recovery time for ACL surgeries), but Fickell said Sweat will definitely be back for the start of fall practice. Sweat is the one guy who could really make things interesting at the linebacker spot because he can play all three positions.

8. Nathan Williams impressing. The guy who I thought really had a good day was defensive end Nathan Williams. It was only shells and shorts, but he looked especially active today as the first-team LEO. He was using his hands and tossing guys around. He got into the backfield a lot during the scrimmage and batted a couple balls down. He had a handful of pressures and while Jim Heacock called it an open competition between Williams and Solomon Thomas, it’s hard to think it won’t be Williams who replaces Thad Gibson in the starting lineup this fall; especially after watching him Friday.

9. Tyler Moeller must be doing pretty well. It dawned on me Friday watching Tyler Moeller play safety with the second-team defense that he must be doing really well with his recovery from a severe head injury. He isn't participating in any hitting drills, but he's out there for all the scrimmages. There's a lot of hitting going on and I would imagine if there was any concern of the head right now they wouldn't have him out there. He hasn’t yet shown himself to be the impact player we saw last spring—although he did have a pick yesterday—but let’s give him a little time. He is playing a new position—at least different from last year—and he is coming off a gruesome injury that cost him all of last season. I still think he will get a chance to play the star position come fall practice.

10. Keith Wells back with twos. Yesterday I reported that Keith Wells was primarily working with the third-team defensive Thursday with redshirt freshman Melvin Fellows getting more reps with the twos. Wells was back with the second group on Friday, however. He beat tight Reid Fragel badly on one play and batted down a pass from Joe Bauserman. This will probably be an ongoing battle between Wells and Fellows, but what it tells me is that Cam Heyward is going to play a lot of strongside defensive end this year unless one of these two emerges as a dependable backup.

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