INDIANAPOLIS — Ohio State football coach Ryan Day says “a majority” of the Buckeyes’ players have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
“We’ve left that up to the players. I feel like we’re in a pretty good place. The majority of our guys are vaccinated and a few more are continuing to get vaccinated,” Day said on Friday at the Big Ten football media days at Lucas Oil Stadium.
A vaccination played a role in which three players represented OSU at Big Ten media days. Wide receiver Chris Olave was scheduled to attend but stayed home because he was getting his second vaccination shot.
TALKING QUARTERBACKS: Ohio State will start preseason practice Aug. 3 but the name of the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback won’t be known until later. Maybe much later.
“I’m not going to put a date on it but you’d like to have it decided by the first two weeks of the preseason in a perfect world so you could get them the reps (repetitions) to be ready to play in the first game. I guess if you’re looking for a ballpark, it would be two weeks into camp,” Day said.
“I don’t know how this is going to work out. If I did I’d probably sleep a little bit better now. It’s even to me. We’ll see how these guys have changed these last few months. We’ll have a better idea once we start practicing,” he said.
TALKING RUNNING BACKS: Master Teague goes into preseason practice as OSU’s No. 1 running, Day said.
“He’s the incumbent coming in, for sure,” he said. “He’s got the biggest body of work and he has done a good job for us. I think he’s healthy going into preseason and we’ll go from there.”
“I think you can play three running backs. When you start getting more than that it’s hard. It’s a long season and these guys are going to have an opportunity to play. But I don’t think you can play more than three because then you can’t get yourself into a rhythm,” he said.
HOOKER RETURNS: Ohio State safety Marcus Hooker, who was suspended this spring after a second arrest for operating a vehicle while impaired, has been reinstated to the team, Day said.
Linebacker Palaie Gaoteote, a former 5-star recruit who transferred to OSU from USC, is currently paying for his classes while the NCAA examines what Day called an eligibility issue.
“We’ll probably find out in the next couple weeks,” Day said about Gaoteote.
LACHEY’S FUTURE BRIGHT: When Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz was asked about 6-6, 248-pound redshirt freshman tight end Luke Lachey, son of former Ohio State offensive lineman Jim Lachey he said, “He’s a young guy who is developing really quickly. He plays a position where we don’t have a lot of depth. We have a really quality tight end in Sam LaPorta. Luke has a great opportunity. We’re really counting on him to help our football team this year.
Lachey is listed as the No. 2 tight end on the Hawkeyes’ preseason depth chart.
RECRUITING LESSONS: Rutgers coach Greg Schiano thought he knew a lot about recruiting until he worked as an assistant coach at Ohio State for three years for Urban Meyer.
“It was a great experience working with Urban. I have said this before, I thought I was one of the hardest working recruiters in the business and when I worked for Urban I saw a guy that trumped me
for sure. So I stole some ideas from him, how to do things and the intensity that’s required at the upper level in recruiting,”Schiano said on Friday.
INDIANA RECEIVER CONFIDENT: When Indiana receiver Ty Fryfogle was asked if he is the best receiver in the Big Ten, he said, “I think I’m the best receiver in the country.”
