Ohio State football: Day looking for players to step up in wake of injuries

Oct. 22—Ohio State football coach Ryan Day confirmed Tuesday his team will have a new left tackle the rest of the season.

Josh Simmons suffered a season-ending knee injury in Ohio State’s loss to Oregon on Oct. 12.

The junior had been one of the Buckeyes’ best blockers, but Day said they plan to move forward with junior Zen Michalski the rest of the season.

“Thought he stepped up and did a nice job in the Oregon game,” Day said Tuesday when he met the media for the first time in preparation for Ohio State’s homecoming game against Nebraska on Saturday. “He’s a veteran guy who’s played a lot of football here in the program. Not as much in games, but he goes against really good players every day in practice. So I think he was able to go into that game in a big environment and build confidence coming out of it.”

The coaching staff also will consider contingency plans, such as moving guard Donovan Jackson or Tegra Tshabola to tackle and inserting Austin Siereveld at guard, and take a look at different options in practice.

“We will rotate guys too, but that’s pretty normal anyways,” Day said. “We’ll have three groups in there, and then even when we’re going against the scout team or ones versus twos, you have the first group, and then you have the second group. So those guys are all getting reps, but we will roll guys, too.”

The 6-foot-6, 319-pound Michalski was a four-star prospect in the class of 2021 coming out of Floyds Knob, Ind.

He took a redshirt in 2021 and lettered the past two seasons, when he also earned Academic All-Big Ten recognition.

Day said the Buckeyes will also be without No. 2 tight end Will Kacmarek for an extended period of time, though he did not identify the senior’s injury.

While senior Gee Scott Jr. is the team’s No. 1 tight end, Kacmarek was carving out a role as one of the team’s better blockers at…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/ohio-state-football-day-looking-010600120.html

Author : Journal-News, Hamilton, Ohio

Publish date : 2024-10-23 01:06:00

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