Football: 5 Ohio State players to watch in Buckeyes spring game

Casey Smith
Thu, 13 Apr 2023 00:47:16 +0000
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Ohio State first-year safety Sonny Styles (20) tackles the Iowa ball carrier during the then-No. 2 Ohio State 54-10 win over Iowa Oct.22, 2o22, in Columbus. Credit: Zachary Rilley | Photo Editor

Saturday will give Buckeye Nation their first look at the 2023 Ohio State football team.

There are plenty of new faces, storylines and position battles following the Buckeyes’ 15 spring practices.

Coming off a season in which Ohio State went 11-2 and missed out on a national championship berth by just one point, it will also have to deal with replacing quarterback C.J. Stroud, wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and tackles Paris Johnson Jr. and Dawand Jones, among others.

As fans pack Ohio Stadium for the first time in 2023, here are five Buckeyes to keep an eye on in the spring game.

Carnell Tate

One NFL scout texted ESPN NFL Draft analyst Jordan Reid and said watching junior wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. go through Ohio State’s Pro Day workouts was like, “window shopping at a Lamborghini dealership for the model that doesn’t come out until next year.”

This is what Saturday feels like when talking about freshman wide receiver Carnell Tate.

A four-star recruit out of high school, according to 247Sports, Tate has shown flashes in his first spring as an early enrollee, needing just five practices before losing his Black Stripe March 25.

Head coach Ryan Day said there’s “a lot” to be impressed with about Tate.

“The first thing is just his maturity when he came here,” Day said. “The feedback we’re getting from academics, the nutritionist, strength and conditioning, position coaches, player development, everyone has such great things to say about Carnell off the field.”

Day said Tate’s ability to take care of business off the field translates to on-field success.

“On the field, just making a lot of plays,” Day said. “Has to pick up a lot of offense. For a young player, he’s got a pretty mature route tree, does a nice job at the line of scrimmage, catches the ball strong, makes plays. All really encouraging signs.”

Offensive coordinator Brian Hartline said the Buckeyes’ receivers room is “a good six, seven deep right now,” and Tate might be in the mix, but there’s a veteran contingency of Harrison, juniors Emeka Egbuka and Jayden Ballard, senior Julian Fleming and graduate Xavier Johnson that will likely assume most of the pass-catching duties.

With Harrison and Egbuka likely to enter the 2024 NFL Draft — though Hartline tweeted Feb. 1 he thinks the Buckeyes have three first-round picks currently on the roster — this will be Tate’s year to show that he is worthy of joining that next wave of Buckeye great receivers.

“He’s being well-detailed,” Hartline said. “He’s doing a pretty good job taking meetings to the field. We talk about techniques. We talk about the details of every play, and he’s pretty consistent on hitting those. Probably the best thing he’s done is just the ability to make a mistake, correct it and then move on from it. He very rarely has repeated mistakes, and that’s usually a pretty good sign of a good player.”

Jelani Thurman

It won’t be hard to miss freshman tight end Jelani Thurman Saturday.

Standing 6-foot-6 and weighing 253 pounds, Thurman has stood out, showing his physical contested catch abilities in spring practices.

Day said Thurman has “embraced” the “developmental” nature of the tight end position, looking up to veterans like seniors Cade Stover, Joe Royer and Gee Scott Jr.

“He’s got a lot of potential,” Day said. “To think about a guy that we’ve had, at that age, come in with this much talent, I don’t know if we’ve had one since I’ve been here.”

247Sports’ national recruiting analyst Gabe Brooks wrote that Thurman had “great height” with an “elite frame and a large catch radius.”

“Varied snaps flexed out, attached, and as an H-back. Owns the body to stay personnel-flexible for the long run,” Brooks said. “Generally catches the ball away from his body and shows above-average plucking ability. Dangerous in contested situations as a ball winner whose physical tools overwhelm defenders. Multi-sport athlete who plays basketball and transfers that functional athleticism to the gridiron. Shows encouraging conviction as a blocker.”

However, it is not just his physical abilities that make Thurman such a threat.

Tight ends coach Keenan Bailey said April 5 Thurman’s best traits are “his off-the-field habits.”

“Jelani and Carnell Tate are two of the first guys in here every day,” Bailey said. “I go into my office at the end of the night and Jelani’s in there with our GA Sean Binckes, who’s one heck of a coach, and they’re going over tomorrow’s script, or they’re watching film, learning new things.”

Thurman may see action in his first year in Columbus behind Stover, Royer and Scott, but expect his role to increase after next season.

Davison Igbinosun

Sophomore cornerback Davison Igbinosun looks to be in contention for a starting job come Week 1 when the Buckeyes travel to Indiana Sept. 2.

The Union, New Jersey, native transferred to Ohio State from Ole Miss Jan. 31, coming off a freshman campaign in which he recorded 37 tackles with five pass breakups in 13 games. Igbinosun said in his first spring with the Buckeyes, he’s felt “very comfortable” and that it’s been a smooth transition to Columbus.

“Ohio State has been very easy,” Igbinosun said. “It feels like home. It feels like Jersey.”

Though the Buckeyes return cornerbacks juniors Denzel Burke and Jordan Hancock and sophomore Jyaire Brown, it was a weakness on defensive coordinator Jim Knowles’ defense a season ago.

In 110 targets in 2022, Ohio State’s cornerbacks combined to allow 60 receptions for 1,049 yards and nine touchdowns, while breaking up 11 passes, according to Pro Football Focus.

Secondary coach Tim Walton said Igbinosun’s length at 6-foot-2 will pay dividends when it comes to breaking up passes at the top of a route.

Walton said Igbinosun, who also lost his Black Stripe March 25, needs to “keep doing what he’s doing” to compete for a starting role.

“He’s learning. He’s putting the time in. He’s competing. He has a passion for the game,” Walton said. “He has a good skill set. We just keep practicing and keep applying it, man. Then what we’ll do, we’ll evaluate it at the end of the summer.”

Sonny Styles

Coming out of high school, sophomore safety Sonny Styles was a five-star recruit and the 12th-best prospect in the class of 2022, according to 247Sports.

Styles was projected as a first-round pick in the NFL Draft according to 247Sports’ Allen Trieu Aug. 13, 2021, with his play style compared to Arizona Cardinals linebacker Isaiah Simmons, who also stands 6-foot-4.

Knowles said Styles “establishes competition” with senior safety Lathan Ransom for the Bandit safety position — which is tasked with covering the boundary — but both will see the field.

However, Styles’ in-game role won’t be carved out until the fall.

“We want to go all the way through fall camp with him because in spring, you’re really working on the basics making sure that he and everyone else has a mastery of the base defense,” Knowles said. “Then when you get more ‘scheme-y’ as you go into camp, and if he or anyone else has proven themselves in the spring and the beginning of camp, now you can start to use more creativity to build a spot for him.”

The Pickerington, Ohio, native joined the Buckeyes’ program in summer 2022, getting involved in game play just three weeks into the season against Toledo.

After recording nine tackles and one for loss in 10 games last season, Ohio State safeties coach Perry Eliano said Styles still has untapped potential for 2023.

“The exciting thing is we haven’t really even scratched the surface of what he can be and I can see him being,” Eliano said. “There’s a huge ceiling, but the biggest thing I love about him is he’s focused, he’s humble and he’s locked into taking it one day at a time.”

Styles said he wants to continue to get better ahead of this season.

“I just want to show that I’m reliable and whatever you ask me to do, I can do it,” Styles said.

Carson Hinzman

With former center Luke Wypler off to the NFL, a big hole is left to anchor the middle of the Buckeyes’ line.

Sophomore offensive lineman Carson Hinzman stepped in and took a big portion of first-team repetitions in spring practice. Hinzman is in competition with senior offensive linemen Victor Cutler Jr., who transferred from Louisiana-Monroe Jan. 18, and Jakob James, who is currently injured during spring ball but will look to fight for the starting job when he returns.

Day said Friday Hinzman hasn’t solidified the starting center position just yet.

“I’d like to tell you yes. I don’t think we’re there yet,” Day said. “I think he’s done some good things. But to say that he’s earned a starting spot, I don’t think we’re there yet.”

Offensive line coach Justin Frye said Feb. 1 that in an offensive lineman’s first year, it is more about adjusting to the intensity of college football. He said by the end of Hinzman’s first year, he was working against the first-team defensive line.

“I’d keep him up a lot. He wasn’t always down on the scout team, he was up. He’d do some travel stuff,” Frye said. “And by the end of the bowl prep, you’d be using and watching clips of him versus our starting defense. That’s a true freshman doing that, like that’s the process you’ve been working and going through and is understanding, and then now you build strength and you build size.”

Frye said by a lineman’s second season at the collegiate level — which is where Hinzman currently is in his career — he “figures out” how to play his position and that the Spring Valley, Wisconsin, native has “progressively gotten better” as a “worker.”

“The best part about him is how he just wants to keep working,” Frye said. “That’s going to give him a shot to compete to get on the field.”