Ohio State spring game offense observations: What Julian Sayin, Tavien St. Clair showed
Quick thoughts on what we saw from Ohio State's offense in Saturday's spring game.
COLUMBUS — Observations on Ohio State’s offense from Saturday’s spring game in Ohio Stadium.
• Star receiver Jeremiah Smith played only a handful of plays and made the game’s first reception, a quick throw into the flat. But this wasn’t the kind of game for Smith to shine, and he found himself on the bench quickly. Starting quarterback Julian Sayin played only three drives, and did so behind an offensive line that was missing a couple of starters and struggled to give him protection, particularly over the right side, where Carter Lowe struggled at tackle against just about anybody who was lined up across from him.
Sayin wasn’t able to be tackled, but he was “sacked” several times.
His best throw of the day came on an intermediate pass over the middle for the field to tight end Nate Roberts, who corralled the ball in traffic after Sayin put it through a tight window. Roberts appeared to injure his arm on the play. He remained on the sideline, but didn’t play another snap.
Sayin scored the game’s first touchdown on a scramble. He showed good quickness to elude pressure and get to the edge, but likely would’ve been tackled before crossing the goal line in a real game. Still, it was good to see some signs that he’s been working on his pocket movement, elusiveness and speed. All three showed up on the play.
• Backup quarterback Tavien St. Clair was aggressive, for better or worse. He was nearly intercepted a few times in the first half and lived to tell about it. His pedal-down posture led to some entertaining downfield throws, the best of which went for a touchdown to freshman receiver Chris Henry Jr. Henry beat freshman corner Jordan Thomas outside and caught the pass while back-pedaling into the end zone.
St. Clair should’ve had another touchdown to freshman Jerquaden Guilford, but the quarterback was slightly late on the throw, and the ball was a touch underthrown, which allowed freshman safety Blaine Bradford to break up the pass. St. Clair connected with reserve receiver David Adolph on a touch throw down the sideline in the third quarter, and with freshman receiver Brock Boyd, who made a nice sliding catch on the wet turf field.
Even given the few mistakes, you’d have to label St. Clair’s spring game impressive. Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith dialed up plays that allowed St. Clair to show off his arm strength and drive the ball down the field. St. Clair also showed some strong maneuverability, escaping what would’ve been a sack in the fourth quarter and outrunning a defensive line to the corner to pick up a first down.
• Ohio State was thin at running back with Bo Jackson and Isaiah West out all spring, and Legend Bey and Turbo Rogers picking up injuries in spring. Receiver Brennen Schram played some running back. Tight end Mason Williams got a carry in the second half (make of that what you will).
Of all the backs, freshman Favour Akih probably fared the best. There wasn’t a lot of rushing production, but Akih showed good vision on a few of his carries.
• Last year’s starting offensive tackles, Austin Siereveld and Phillip Daniels, have missed the second half of spring after undergoing what head coach Ryan Day called minor medical procedures. Both were at Saturday’s game. Siereveld got around on crutches.
With those two out, the starting offensive line was Ian Moore at left tackle, Luke Montgomery at left guard, Carson Hinzman at center, Gabe VanSickle at right guard and Carter Lowe at right tackle. Montgomery and Hinzman sat before halftime. Moore, VanSickle and Lowe played into the second half. Lowe struggled a lot. Moore struggled some. All of it meant that Sayin didn’t have a ton of time to throw.
That’s not necessarily a sign of things to come for the offensive line this fall, but it made for a rough Saturday at times.
The second team offensive line of left tackle Sam Greer, left guard Max Riley, center Mason Wilhelm, right guard Simon Lorentz, and right tackle Deontae Armstrong held up better against the second-team defense in front of St. Clair.
• Transfer kicker Connor Hawkins made his first field goal attempt, true from 46 yards. However, put out there at the end of the first half with the rain coming down hard, Hawkins missed wide left from 43 yards out. Hawkins made another field goal from 42 yards in the fourth quarter.
• Smith called the game from the sideline, and as of now intends to do so this season. Saturday provided a bit of a taste of what Smith, who was the offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers last year, will bring to the table as he takes over OSU’s offense.
With OSU light at running back, there was more throwing than running, but Smith called a fair amount of play-action, got the quarterbacks under center, and did some different things formationally — including using multiple tight end sets to create wide rushing surfaces that spread the defense out and created more gaps.
The full Smith impact won’t be felt until the fall, but he showed some hints of where things are headed in the spring game. We’ll dive more into that next week.
• Freshman quarterback Luke Fahey ran for a 61-yard touchdown on a scramble in the fourth quarter.
Smith catching the pass while running a slant was a beautiful thing. Can’t wait to see much more of that this season