On Saturday, the 2016 Ohio State football team moved into their living quarters at the Hyatt in Columbus, just outside of the university, until all students move into campus on Aug. 20. On Sunday, the team hit the field for the first time this season officially inaugurating the fifth season under coach Urban Meyer.
As has been tradition in the program, the freshmen practice in the morning with the upperclassmen practicing in the afternoon. The freshmen will join the rest of the team in practice on Monday. The team will practice at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center until Wednesday when they will head over to the fields at Coffey Road until Aug. 20. OSU will be back at the WHAC on Aug. 22 for the rest of the season.
The Lantern was at the two practice sessions today taking in a few observations.
- Freshmen Michael Jordan (OL), Austin Mack (WR) and Antonio Williams (RB) practiced with the upperclassmen instead of the freshmen.
- New offensive line coach Greg Studrawa expects a lot out of his guys, including the freshmen
- Among others, senior H-back Dontre Wilson was working the speed option with redshirt junior quarterback J.T. Barrett. Meyer said at Big Ten Media Days that Wilson could be one of the guys in the backfield for OSU
- Freshman Nick Bosa looked sharp and polished despite recovering from ACL injury
- No clear cut first team in the four individual session the media watched
- Playing time will be tough to come by at wide receiver. Nine upperclassmen, including Mack and excluding H-backs, vying for playing time.
- Barrett and Burrow showed on-par, if not above average, velocity on throws 10-plus yards
