COLUMBUS – Urban Meyer opens spring football practice at Ohio State with holes to fill in his depth chart, but the cupboard is a long way from being as bare as it was a year ago.
In his sixth season as Buckeye head football coach, Meyer will have 15 returning starters – eight on offense and seven on defense – but will be missing a significant number of players who declared early for the NFL Draft.
Six players, including three starters in the secondary, decided to leave after the Fiesta Bowl loss to Clemson, not quite the exodus Meyer witnessed after the 2015 season – when only a half-dozen starters returned — but enough to leave his pantry less than fully-stocked.
There will be 43 lettermen who will return to the indoor practice field at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center Tuesday morning for the first of 14 practices prior to the LiFE Sports Spring Game, presented by Nationwide (Sat., April 15, 12:30 p.m. Ohio Stadium).
Dates to remember:
March 7 – Start of Spring Practice
April 15 – Spring Game
August 31 – Ohio State at Indiana (season opener)
Four highly regarded defensive backs are among the nine recruits from the 2017 signing class who have enrolled in school for the spring semester and a fifth defensive back, junior college transfer Kendall Sheffield, will enroll for the second session of the semester and take part in spring drills.
Meyer is also welcoming and working with three new coaches: offensive coordinator/tight ends coach Kevin Wilson, quarterbacks coach Ryan Day, and linebackers coach Bill Davis, while Greg Schiano has taken over as the sole defensive coordinator following the departure of Luke Fickell for Cincinnati.
Meyer has the most wins of any coach in FBS history after his first 15 seasons, 165, and with just 29 losses, has the highest winning percentage of all active coaches.