Former defensive end Nick Bosa arrives at a practice at the StubHub Center on Dec. 28 in Carson, Calif. Credit: Casey Cascaldo | Photo Editor

LOS ANGELES — For 10 games now, Ohio State has had to move on from junior defensive end Nick Bosa.

Coming off a first-team All-Big Ten season, Bosa started the year strong with four sacks in the first 10 quarters of the season, forcing a fumble with two fumble recoveries before going down with a core muscle injury in the third quarter against TCU.

Bosa then decided to drop out of school, focusing on the upcoming NFL Draft instead of returning to the Buckeyes.

He has not been seen at anything associated with Ohio State since the decision on October 16. On Friday, Bosa returned to practice at the StubHub Center in Carson, California not in a jersey, but in street clothes, to a team that was preparing for the Rose Bowl, to a team that continued to play in his absence.

With Bosa out, sophomore defensive end Chase Young became the next man up, taking over as the key weapon on the edge for the Buckeyes.

“I think I had a pretty good year. I think I showed the country what I can do,” Young said. “It would have helped if Nick was here, but he wasn’t.”

Young heads into the Rose Bowl with 32 tackles, 14.5 of which were for a loss, including 9.5 sacks. The tackles for loss and sacks were team highs, and good enough to earn him second-team All-Big Ten honors.

Even with the uptick in stats, Young said having Bosa would have made a big impact on his capabilities.

“If you have Nick on the other side, I think, with the first few games when we got double-teamed, he would have definitely given me a lot more one-on-ones,” Young said. “We could talk about what would happen if Nick could be here and stuff like that, but he wasn’t.”

In the middle, redshirt junior defensive tackle Dre’Mont Jones stepped up as well, coming into his final game as a Buckeye with 13 tackles for loss, including 8.5 sacks and first-team All-Big Ten honors.

Jones announced he will forgo his final season of eligibility to join Bosa and enter the NFL Draft. He said his decision to return to Ohio State in 2018 did not revolve around playing alongside Bosa.

“Nick has the name and popularity behind him, but I was happy to come back and play with [Jonathon Cooper] and Chase and [Davon Hamilton] and [Robert Landers] and the new freshmen coming in. It wasn’t about just Nick.”

Without the star of the line, without the player expected to go as one of the first picks in the draft, Ohio State still finished No. 6, still finished as Big Ten champions and No. 2 in sacks per game in the Big Ten.

Though the defensive line struggled at times to find an identity without a Bosa in the lineup for the first time in six years, by the time Bosa decided to come back and watch a practice, it was clear the team still went on and survived without him.