It has been more than three months since Ohio went full speed on the gridiron.
That will change Friday when the Bobcats compete in their first scrimmage of the spring.
Coming off the opening six days of spring practice, Ohio will compete in the first of two scrimmages this month before the annual spring game caps off the spring season April 21.
Now going through his fifth spring with the Bobcats, even redshirt senior tight end Jordan Thompson is not exactly sure what to expect.
“They haven’t really told us much. I’ve heard that we might run 70 plays tomorrow,” Thompson said. “We’ve got four different offenses running right now, so I think the goal tomorrow is to get a lot of guys in and see how guys react in game situations.”
With four different offensive units, Thompson said he expects the scrimmage to be broken down into seven-play intervals in which the different squads would rotate in and out.
For every position except the quarterback, players will be taking live hits for the first time since the 24-23 win against Utah State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl last December.
Even though the team has had six full days of spring practice, Thompson said everything changes when the defense starts coming full speed.
“It’s a little different when the defense is coming at you 100 miles an hour,” Thompson said. “When we practice, no one is supposed to be on the ground and you’re not cutting or anything like that.”
As opposed to normal practice sessions when the coaches are often yelling out instructions, Thompson said the coaching staff will likely take a more hands-off approach to the scrimmage.
Instead, they will likely sit back and watch as players battle for the right to move up the depth chart.
Many of these battles will take place at the offensive line, wide receiver, linebacker and running back positions. The Bobcats will be forced to replace a total of seven starters from last year’s team.
Redshirt junior and offensive lineman John Prior is just one of the players who will be fighting for a starting position during Friday’s scrimmage.
“Just like every year, you’re not going to be handed a spot,” Prior said. “You’ve got to fight for it. Each and every one of us know it and it’s making us push even harder.”
Although Thompson said that the coaches do emphasize the spring scrimmages, he said it is not necessarily a make-or-break situation.
“These are times when you can definitely separate yourself from the rest of the field as a guy fighting for a position,” Thompson said. “At the same time, there’s always fall camp. I don’t want to say this is everything, but it’s definitely a pretty big deal when the coaches are deciding the depth chart going into fall camp.
“They’ll go and look at this film. If there’s a guy practicing with the fours that shows he can handle the offense, next week he’ll probably get work with the twos or threes.”
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