3-2-1: Welcome to the 2019 season

COLUMBUS, Ohio – We are rolling out a new feature here called the 3-2-1 and the plan is for this to be a weekly piece, 52 weeks a year.

The premise is simple enough, we will take a look at three things we learned this week, ask two questions and make one prediction.

The topics can go anywhere from football to basketball to recruiting to more.

We also want to thank the crew over at Hague Water Conditioning for being the presenting sponsor of this new column. Check out their latest special and let them know that you saw them over at BuckeyeGrove.com.

1 - Injury news will be hard to come by

For all the talk of how Ryan Day is looking to maintain most of the systems already put in place by Urban Meyer during his seven-year coaching tenure with the Buckeyes, don't look for injury news to follow the same old procedure.

Under Meyer, injuries would be discussed but not disclosed and due to medial regulations, were often spoken about in very vague terms due to medical confidentiality laws.

Day is going to take it a step further and is just not going to discuss them. That on the surface was something that we saw during the spring and the summer. But that message was hammered home earlier this week when it was announced that a school provided depth chart will not come out until Fridays and additionally there would be a list provided with players that were not expected to play. That does not mean that there would be any clarification between an injury and say, a suspension. That might create some more confusion if that is not really worked out, not that anyone is looking for any suspensions to be handed down, but we know that they do happen during the course of the season.

Some players may not be listed on the list and still won't play and that will just be chalked up to a coaches' decision.

Day told the media on Tuesday that the decision came about after discussions with the administration and medical personnel and that the medical personnel actually pushed for a 'no-talk' mandate.

This really is almost a 180 (degrees) from earlier talk that started in the Big Ten in 2018 about a uniform injury report being released. in 2019, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said that no such report would be released and now it will be up to the next Big Ten commissioner, Kevin Warren, to decide if he wants to revisit this as a conference-wide move.

We can see pluses and minuses when it comes to releasing injury information and severity. Obviously with the spread of legalized sports wagering, there is going to be more demand for information, but even on a smaller basis of just covering the team, it really thrusts everyone into a lot of sourced reports on injuries and weighing the decision if announcing it and potentially drawing the ire of the coaching staff is worth it or not.

This will be an interesting development to keep an eye on as time goes on to see how this directive evolves as the season progresses.

2 - Depth, depth and more depth

This Ohio State team may have some areas where it is short on playing experience but you will be hard-pressed to see many positions where the Buckeyes don't have more than a pair and a spare who are talented enough to play.

Of course now comes the question of who will play and how do you get enough playing time to some of the younger players to keep them involved and out of the transfer portal without stunting the growth of your first-teamers.

Obviously, the goal is to win games now. Ohio State is a program that plays for today, of course it can keep an eye on tomorrow but this historically is not a program that rebuilds.

The potential of eight offensive linemen playing, rolling linebackers and players in the secondary, a deep rotation at receiver, crazy depth on the interior defensive line to go with a solid rotation on the edge, and the list goes on.

The most interesting study will be on the offensive line, positions where you do not normally see players rolling in and rolling out. The Buckeyes through the years have been maybe six or just a little deeper than that on the line and now there is talk about eight players having earned the right for playing time and who knows how much deeper things could go with true freshman Harry Miller and fourth-year junior Gavin Cupp both getting talked about at a high level.

Jonah Jackson, Branden Bowen and Josh Alabi are all in their final years of eligibility and Thayer Munford will be draft-eligible after this season, so there is a definite need to get some of the younger guys out there with seven players entering the season either as a true freshman or redshirt freshman, but it will be a curious thing to see how Day, Greg Studrawa and the rest of the offensive coaches handle a rotation there and on a larger level at several other key positions.

3 - Looking west

Our Marc Givler just got back from a trip to the Golden State to check out a couple of Ohio State commits for the class of 2020 plus several other targets over the next couple of seasons.

California has been ripe for the picking as of late with a down USC and UCLA and really no team in the Pac-12 just dominating the league or recruiting in the area.

The Buckeyes under Urban Meyer did a good job through the years in identifying areas where there might be weakness within a region and pounced and landed at a good clip. That was well illustrated by a strong run in the state of Texas just a few years ago and now carries over into California this season.

If you are an Ohio State fan, you want to see Clay Helton turn things around a little bit at USC and to put these Meyer-to-USC rumors to rest. Nobody may know how many games Helton needs to win to keep the buzzards off his porch but if Meyer ends up at USC as some would like to say that he will, the cherry-picking of the state will stop.

For now, the Buckeyes are in good shape with the 2020 class, especially if a decision is made soon on quarterback C.J. Stroud as the Buckeyes continue to strongly consider adding a second quarterback to the class to join Jack Miller. As long as the west coast remains in a bit of a malaise, look for Ohio State to make another strong push in 2021.

1 -Just how much will the coaches take the wrapper off of Justin Fields?

There is the question of how much will he play in games where Ohio State is a four-touchdown favorite and the second question of how much will they allow Fields to go out there and do Fields-like things with his legs.

As mentioned before, the goal is to win games now but the Buckeyes also have very little proven depth behind Fields, a quarterback who in his own right is still rather unproven, especially within the Ohio State system.

Day said earlier this week that they have to go into every game prepared to win it in the fourth quarter, but with respect to Day, this does not feel like a game where Ohio State is going to have to worry about any late-game heroics.

FAU is a team that was susceptible to the run last year and fortunately for the Buckeyes, this game will be a strong coming out party for the junior campaign of J.K. Dobbins, but will Fields have the second most carries on the team or will they look to let Dobbins do the running and keep Fields to playing more of a role as a distributor?

2 - To the top of the charts, with a bullet?

Fans are just fascinated by the 'bullet position' for the Buckeyes and what it will mean, how it will change the rotation of other position players on defense and most importantly, will it make a huge difference?

Brendon White has secured himself in that top spot for the position and we learned earlier this week that it will be an interesting rotation between he and Pete Werner depending on the personnel on the field.

FAU's best offensive weapon may be its tight end, but the Owls also may be a better running team than passing team, which would lead to Werner being out there.

There is no question that expectations are high this year for a defense that underperformed last season but will week one allow everyone see this bullet position they have been clamoring for and more importantly, will the average fan really notice a difference?

This is not an indictment of the class as a whole but rather the fact that the Buckeyes don't need to rush a lot of these class of 2019 players along.

With the new redshirt rule in place and players getting four games to play before a fifth game would remove the redshirt, the coaching staff is not in a position where they could burn a year of eligibility with a bad decision on Saturday.

With that being said, there are about half a dozen players that seem to be shoo-ins to play on Saturday and then maybe one or two more could get in on special units.

Zach Harrison, Garrett Wilson, Harry Miller are the first three that come to mind as players who will see some playing action for sure but add to that one of the freshmen running backs, likely Marcus Crowley, potentially seeing some 4th quarter action. Add to that a guy like Cade Stover who could be very impactful on special teams and then you are already sitting at five players.

Who could be the next guy? Receiver Jameson Williams is a speedster that could maybe get a look as a gunner on special teams or a versatile player like Craig Young could work his way into the rotation at some point as well for special units.

The point being, with a class of 17 players in 2019, we expect a good amount of them based on where things stand today seem to be strong candidates to redshirt once things are all said and done.