Real Pod Wednesdays - The Impact of Evan Pryor’s Injury and Standouts from Week Two of Preseason Camp

The Impact of Evan Pryor’s Injury and Standouts from Week Two of Preseason Camp

08/17/22 • 57 min

Two weeks into preseason camp, it’s becoming more clear which Ohio State players could be trending toward breakout years and where the Buckeyes still have concerns as the season draws closer.

Running back depth emerged as a concern this week when Evan Pryor suffered a season-ending knee injury in practice, and that’s where we begin this week’s show. Is there reason to worry about Ohio State having only three scholarship running backs, and do the Buckeyes need to move someone else to running back for additional depth?

While Ohio State might still have the nation’s best one-two punch at running back in TreVeyon Henderson and Miyan Williams, Pryor’s injury increases the importance of Dallan Hayden’s readiness, and we believe Kaleb Brown and Xavier Johnson – not Steele Chambers and Chip Trayanum – could be candidates to take snaps at running back if needed.

About 14 minutes into the show, we shift the conversation to everything else we learned from watching a full practice last week and talking to Kevin Wilson, Larry Johnson and their tight ends and defensive linemen this week. Among the topics we covered:

15:10: Cornerback depth concerns and walk-on Lloyd McFarquhar taking advantage of his opportunity
18:18: Tommy Eichenberg standing out in practice and whether that will translate to three-down success
21:20: Julian Fleming and Emeka Egbuka both making their case as they battle for starting spot
26:00: Cade Stover’s noticeable improvement as a pass-catcher
32:47: Defense making life more difficult for Ohio State’s offense on the practice field
35:14: Whether Kevin Wilson’s comments about the short-yardage run game are reason to worry
38:53: The depth of Ohio State’s defensive line and why J.T. Tuimoloau could be the unidentified “alpha dog”
46:55: Why Mike Hall is a player to watch even though he’s third on the nose tackle depth chart

Finally (beginning at 48:04), we talk about the six players Ohio State chose to be captains – Kamryn Babb, C.J. Stroud, Cade Stover, Tommy Eichenberg, Tyler Friday and Kourt Williams – and which players each of us were surprised to not see on the captain list.

Two weeks into preseason camp, it’s becoming more clear which Ohio State players could be trending toward breakout years and where the Buckeyes still have concerns as the season draws closer.

15:10: Cornerback depth concerns and walk-on Lloyd McFarquhar taking advantage of his opportunity
18:18: Tommy Eichenberg standing out in practice and whether that will translate to three-down success
21:20: Julian Fleming and Emeka Egbuka both making their case as they battle for starting spot
26:00: Cade Stover’s noticeable improvement as a pass-catcher
32:47: Defense making life more difficult for Ohio State’s offense on the practice field
35:14: Whether Kevin Wilson’s comments about the short-yardage run game are reason to worry
38:53: The depth of Ohio State’s defensive line and why J.T. Tuimoloau could be the unidentified “alpha dog”
46:55: Why Mike Hall is a player to watch even though he’s third on the nose tackle depth chart

Previous Episode

Takeaways from the First Week of Preseason Camp

Preseason camp is in full swing at Ohio State, and we’ve had plenty of access to the Buckeyes over the past week as a result.

After watching a portion of the first two practices and attending four interview sessions at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center over the past week, we reconvene on this week’s Real Pod Wednesdays to discuss the biggest things we learned from the first six days of camp.

We start by talking about what we heard during Jim Knowles’ interview session on Tuesday, when he made several eyebrow-raising comments. Should Ohio State fans be worried about the Buckeyes’ cornerback depth? Knowles said only 25% of his defense has been installed so far; is that a cause for concern? And is Knowles setting expectations too high by saying the Buckeyes should have a top-five defense?

Following about 25 minutes of conversation about the defense, we shift our attention to the offense and discuss what we heard during offensive line and running back interviews. We also highlight a few players who seem to be building momentum so far in camp – including Tyler Friday and Julian Fleming – and discuss our favorite “Dayisms” from Ryan Day’s first press conferences of the preseason.

Later in the show, we discuss the pros and cons of CBS and NBC replacing ESPN as Big Ten TV partners (41:00), our favorite outfits from hotel check-in (58:07) and what the past week of wins both on the recruiting trail and on the court mean for the present and future of Ohio State men’s basketball (59:58).

Next Episode

Ranking Ohio State’s Regular-Season Games by Our Confidence the Buckeyes Will Win

With just one week to go until the first game week, it’s time to look ahead at the season as a whole and make some predictions about how Ohio State’s 2022 season will play out.

To start things off on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays, Dan and Griffin each rank Ohio State’s 12 regular-season games from the game we’re most confident the Buckeyes will win to the game we believe is most likely to be an upset. While we agree on which five games we’re most confident Ohio State will win, our lists diverge from there, as Dan is more confident than Griffin about wins over Michigan and Notre Dame while he sees Michigan State and Iowa as bigger threats than Griffin does.

Beginning at the 29:42 mark, we make some additional predictions for Ohio State’s 2022 season, including:

What Ohio State’s record for the season will be
Whether C.J. Stroud will win the Heisman Trophy and if Jaxon Smith-Njigba will join him in New York
Which Buckeyes will earn first-team All-American and first-team All-Big Ten honors
Why we believe Marvin Harrison Jr. will be Ohio State’s second-most productive receiver and Emeka Egbuka will be Ohio State’s third-most productive receiver
Why Tommy Eichenberg and Ronnie Hickman are our defensive MVP selections
Who we think will lead the Buckeyes in tackles, sacks and interceptions
Why we believe Ohio State will have the No. 1 offense in the country but won’t have a top-five defense

In the final segment of the show (49:16), we talk about our takeaways from Ryan Day and Jim Knowles’ Monday press conference and what Gene Smith had to say after the Big Ten announced its new TV deal last week. We’re not expecting to see Chip Trayanum play at running back unless necessitated by further injuries, but we do believe a divisionless Big Ten and College Football Playoff expansion could both happen within the next couple of years.