COLUMBUS – The Buckeyes begin practice Thursday morning at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, with the opening game of the 2017 football season a little over a month away.
2017 Ohio State Football Schedule
Aug. 31 – at Indiana (8:00 p.m./ESPN)
Sept. 9 – Oklahoma (7:30 p.m./ABC)
Sept. 16 – Army (4:30 p.m./FOX)
Sept. 23 – UNLV
Sept. 30 – at Rutgers
Oct. 7 – Maryland (Homecoming) (3:30 or 4:00 p.m./TV TBA)
Oct. 14 – at Nebraska
Oct. 21 – Off
Oct. 28 – Penn State (3:30 p.m./FOX)
Nov. 4 – at Iowa
Nov. 11 – Michigan State
Nov. 18 – Illinois
Nov. 25 – at Michigan (Noon/FOX)
Dec. 2 – Big Ten Championship Game
It will be a more experienced Ohio State team that takes the field, perhaps one of the most significant differences between this team and the 2016 model.
“We were the youngest team in college football and this year we’re not,” head coach Urban Meyer pointed out at the Big Ten Conference’s annual media preview in Chicago.
Meyer returns 16 starters from last year’s 11-2 team; 16 seniors are on the roster, along with 24 juniors.
The traditional two-a-day football practices of yesteryear are a thing of the past for the Buckeyes and the other teams in college football.
The NCAA approved a plan this year that prevents teams from holding multiple practices with contact in a single day.
Officials are hoping the rule change reduces the head injuries that had become all too common this time of year.