Ryan Day announces lengthy list of Ohio State players out for spring practice

Ryan Day announced a lengthy list of Ohio State players who will miss spring practice during a press conference on Wednesday.

Whether they’re recovering for surgery or previous injury ailments, Day listed off some stars that the Buckeyes will be relying on heavily in 2023.

Ohio State players out for spring practice, per Ryan Day:

• WR Julian Fleming
• WR Emeka Egbuka
• LB Tommy Eichenberg
• RB Tre’Veyon Henderson
• LB Mitchell Melton
• S Kourt Williams II
• RB Evan Pryor

As you can see, there’s some huge contributors missing spring practice, especially on the offensive side of the football. For new offensive coordinator Brian Hartline, hopefully it doesn’t impede his progress as the Buckeyes prepare for another Big Ten title chase.

Joel Klatt gives prime reason Ryan Day promoted Brian Hartline to Ohio State OC

Meanwhile, the Ohio State Buckeyes will go into 2023 with a new offensive coordinator: Brian Hartline.

Head coach Ryan Day promoted his wide receivers coach to a bigger role on staff, opening up new possibilities for Ohio State. FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt pointed out a prime reason why Day reportedly relinquished calling plays and handed them to Hartline, who is one of the program’s best resources as a recruiter and developer of wide receivers.

By doing this, Day and Ohio State could set themselves up for a better shot at winning a national title, according to Klatt.

“I don’t believe that this is just a title,” Klatt said on his podcast. “I do believe that this is more along the lines of Ryan Day starting to evolve in his career and move away from being the play caller potentially. And give Brian Hartline that opportunity to grow as a play caller and teach him and mentor him and grow him as a play caller. Now, why would Ryan Day do that? 

“Well, first and foremost, you have to understand that’s a tough decision for a guy like Day because he’s the lead play caller, one of the best play callers in all of college football. It gives him an advantage right? And anytime you have an advantage as a programmer or a coach, boy, you hold on to that with white knuckles.” 

Klatt went on to say this could be the necessary move needed to put Ohio State over the top.

“So this is a big moment for Ryan Day,” Klatt said. “And yet, it’s something that I feel like he thinks is necessary. Well, let me run through some of the reasons why he might think that. First and foremost in modern college football, let’s just call it the last 20 years, 25 years, it is exceedingly rare to crown a national champion, whose offensive plays are called by the head coach. In fact, in 25 years I can only count one. Jimbo Fisher called the offensive plays for Florida State and Jameis Winston when they won the national championship. 

“Outside of that Chip (Kelly) came close with Oregon. Gus Malzahn came close and by the way that game it was gonna be either Florida State or Auburn, so we were going to have one that year. You gotta go back to like the guy who really did it was Tom Osborne. Tom Osborne was his own offensive coordinator basically his entire career he won those three titles in the 90s.”

On3’s Nick Kosko contributed to this article.