The Rose Bowl is here.

Ohio State will be taking on Utah in The Granddaddy of Them All Saturday in Pasadena to end the 2021 season.

Which Ohio State players will make the biggest impact against the Utes? Both Ute Nation publisher Alex Markham and Scarlet and Gray managing editor Colin Gay give their picks ahead of Saturday's kickoff.

OG Matthew Jones

A versatile piece to the Ohio State offensive line, Matthew Jones allows the Buckeyes to move Thayer Munford of guard and to his more normal position: tackle.

With Nicholas Petit-Frere opting out of the Rose Bowl to prepare for the NFL Draft, the Buckeyes have had to shuffle their line. While it's a loaded group and Jones is rated as their No. 2 offensive lineman by Pro Football Focus, it’s still a less than ideal situation.

Jones arrived at Ohio State in 2018 and has five starts on his resume. He’s also filled in at center in 2021. He’ll be tasked with facing a young, but talented group of Utah defensive tackles, led by Pac-12 Defensive Freshman of the Year Junior Tafuna.

With the shifting around on the offensive line, Utah is expected to bring the pressure with their schemes early and often. If Jones can hold his own, that puts less pressure on Munford at left tackle.

Utah’s defensive tackles are deep and they don’t hesitate to rotate frequently as there’s not much drop-off in their two-deep.

QB C.J. Stroud

For obvious reasons, Utah better be ready for the 2021 Heisman finalist.

This season, C.J. Stroud led the No. 1 offense in the country, averaging 551.4 yards and 45.5 points per game. Where the Utes could potentially face issues is with Ohio State's passing game, which is ranked No. 5 in the country as the injury bug has absolutely hammered the secondary.

There are a lot of factors at play here that all lead back to watching Stroud: throwing to two new starting receivers, the elite Utah pass rush, and Utah having to give snaps to some inexperienced corners.

Come Saturday, it’ll be an entertaining chess match between Stroud and the Utah defense.

LB/TE Cade Stover

Consider this a more broad one with the whole linebacker group, but I threw Cade Stover’s name at the top because of his unique path to the position.

The Ohio State tight end has been practicing at linebacker for the Buckeyes during practices ahead of Saturday's game where he played one snap in a goal-line situation against Michigan in the final game of the regular season.

A one-time Rivals100 four-star linebacker, Stover definitely brings experience, but he’s bounced from linebacker to defensive end, and now back to linebacker at least for the time being.

Utah will stack Ohio State with a three-headed monster at tight end with Brant Kuithe, Cole Fotheringham, and Dalton Kincaid.

Both Kuithe and Kincaid are dynamic big-play threats who are elite receivers that are threats to bust a big play at any moment. They’re both Utah’s most effective weapons in their passing game. Fotheringham has proven to be a dependable safety blanket for Rising to move the sticks.

This entire linebackers unit will have its hands full.

DT Taron Vincent

Starting at defensive tackle really doesn’t mean much in a Larry Johnson defensive line.

In 2021, the defensive line coach had a growing rotation of options, any of which could start on any given week. It just so happened that in the final regular season game of the 2021 season against Michigan, it could be a preview of the two starting defensive tackles in 2022: Jerron Cage and Taron Vincent.

But while Vincent started, redshirt senior defensive tackle Haskell Garrett — a former All-American and All-Big Ten team member — played more snaps. Makes sense, given the 62 tackles, 13.5 tackles-for-loss and two defensive touchdowns in his five-year career with the Buckeyes.

Even then, the Buckeyes struggled mightily with run fits against Michigan’s offensive line, gouging the middle of Ohio State’s defensive line for 297 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns, averaging over seven yards per touch.

Heading into the Rose Bowl against Utah, a team with the same run-heavy offense that Michigan used against Ohio State to keep it out of the Big Ten title game, the Buckeyes will be without Garrett as a safety net.

It will come down to players like Cage or even freshman Tyleik Williams.

But Vincent will be vital.

Coming in as the No. 1 defensive tackle prospect in the 2018 class, Vincent had high expectations coming in, but played only periodically early on, playing 258 snaps through his first three seasons after missing 2019 with a torn labrum.

He took on a much bigger role in 2021, answering 317 snaps with 17 tackles, 3.5 tackles-for-loss, including 0.5 sacks, and two quarterback hits.

Coming in as the Maxwell Club’s first ever national high school defensive player of the year award out of IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida in 2018, his collegiate numbers really haven’t lived up to that expectation.

That perception could start to shift with a big performance in the Rose Bowl, ahead of a likely prominent role in the 2022 defense.

OT Thayer Munford

Even after a sub-optimal performance against Michigan to end the regular season, Nicholas Petit-Frere was still Ohio State’s main man at left tackle.

Before the six hurries and eight pressures he allowed against the Wolverines, the redshirt junior allowed 16 hurries and 18 pressures through the first 11 games of the season, including five games where he allowed none of each. In that span, he also allowed only one pressure and one quarterback sack.

So as Ohio State begins to plan for 2022, it will have to fill Petit-Frere’s shoes against Utah in the Rose Bowl.

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day confirmed the plan to fill Petit-Frere’s spot Monday at the Disneyland Welcome Event: move Thayer Munford back to his natural position at left tackle and plug in Matthew Jones — the sixth-man on the line, who showed his versatility at both guard spots all season long — as the starting guard.

While the overall fix in 2022 will likely be Paris Johnson Jr. at tackle, playing his natural position, the position he was recruited for, but a position he’s only played seven snaps at through his two years in college, Munford will return to the position he played for 2,318 snaps between 2018-20 before moving to left guard this past season.

Munford moved to left tackle at points during games against Rutgers, Indiana, Nebraska, Purdue and Michigan, playing 79 snaps at the position in 2021.

It won’t be that dramatic of a transition for the redshirt senior heading into his final game with Ohio State, especially with three weeks of bowl prep. However, Munford will still have to adjust to the rushing ability of outside linebacker Devin Lloyd and defensive end Mike Tafua on the outside.

If Munford wants to go to the NFL as an offensive tackle, this last test could prove to be vital, taking on the best rushing team in the Pac-12.

WR Julian Fleming

Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave are gone, both off to the NFL.

C.J. Stroud still leads an offense that’s pass-based with a hint of a successful run game at its best.

Who will he throw to?

The attention will obviously be drawn to sophomore wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who led the team in both catches (80) and receiving yards (1,259), averaging nearly 105 receiving yards per game.

Stroud will need somewhere else to throw.

It could be to either of the freshmen Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka, who both showed flashes of their potential throughout their first seasons with the Buckeyes.

Or it could be a guy who is still waiting his turn.

Julian Fleming: the nation’s No. 1 wide receiver in the 2020 class, a player who has brought in seven catches in each of his first two seasons with Ohio State and has played primarily special teams, a player who recorded his first touchdown reception against Michigan State.

But he has just as much potential as anyone to make something happen.

Fleming, a former five-star 6-foot-2, 205-pound receiver who recorded 77 touchdown receptions and 5,514 receiving yards at the high school level Pennsylvania, has his moment now to enter the running to gain Stroud’s trust ahead of 2022.

The moment seems set for a receiver not named Smith-Njigba to make an impact against Utah. And it seems like it’s Fleming’s time to shine.