On the most recent episode of the Buckeye Breakdown Podcast, I interviewed Delaware Gazette's Dillon Davis about Spring Ball and the expectations for Saturday's Spring Game.
Ohio State's spring ball session has come to a close, and it is a wonderful time of the year for the players and the coaches as they get prepared to break for a couple of months before things get serious at the end of July.
On the most recent episode of the Buckeye Breakdown Podcast, we go outside of the show's orbit and bring in our first guest of the program, Dillon Davis of the Delaware Gazette.
Davis is a longtime member of the Buckeyes' beat and has been boots-on-the-ground for every single one of Ohio State's Spring practices.
The conversation is a long one, as we dive into several topics about what the players on this team have shown over the past four weeks of practice.
The first topic of conversation was the state of the Buckeyes' offense. Head Coach Ryan Day took yet another major risk this offseason by hiring a former NFL coach to be his next coordinator. Last season, he did it with Matt Patricia, and it simply could not have worked out any better.
This year, he does it with Arthur Smith on the offensive side of the ball, and the truth is that this is a major risk. Smith comes to the table as a very average NFL coordinator, where he really only succeeded when he had Derrick Henry carrying the football for him in Tennessee.
He has very clearly brought an expectation of physicality to the Buckeyes' offense, and that is going to be the expectation in Columbus going forward.
One of the areas where he is going to need to do his best work is at the receiver position, with guys other than Jeremiah Smith.
We pretty much all know what Smith is, but there are major question marks behind him. One guy who has taken advantage of his first few opportunities is UTSA transfer Devin McCuin. McCuin has elite runaway speed and could pose a serious threat as the perfect complement to Smith underneath.
We went into great detail on the offensive side of the football, position by position, but we flipped it over to defense and talked broadly about the group. The side of the football has its work cut out for it. They are replacing a draft pick at every level of the defense, including four potential first-round picks.
The guy who has the most weight on his shoulders is defensive back Devin Sanchez. Sanchez has all of the hype in the world, and he just needs to show that he has what it takes to be the next lockdown defensive back in Columbus.
To finish the show, we discuss a couple of players to watch for during Saturday's Spring Game, and then we shut it down. If you haven't already, subscribe to the channel and make sure you are tapped in for whenever we drop the latest coverage of your Buckeyes.
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