Ryan Day confirms running back TC Caffey out for year, everyone else healthy for training camp
INDIANAPOLIS — Ohio State head coach Ryan Day confirmed Tuesday at Big Ten Media Days that running back TC Caffey is out for the season. Everyone else is healthy going into training camp, though, according to Day.
Caffey was spotted at the Special Skills Football Invitational at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center earlier this month wearing a knee brace.
After spring ball, Caffey was expected to be RB5 for the Buckeyes in 2024. Now that he’s sidelined, the Buckeyes are down to their four scholarship running backs: Ole Miss transfer Quinshon Judkins, returning senior TreVeyon Henderson and true freshmen James Peoples and Sam Williams-Dixon.
Then, of course, there’s All-American safety Caleb Downs, who Day said last month can play some running back, if need be. It’s something Day and Downs talked about in his recruitment, both when he was a high school prospect and when he was a transfer portal target.
“At the time, that was more about Caleb,” Day said Tuesday regarding his June remarks. “In recruiting, I watched him play against Buford in a high school game, one of the best games I’ve ever seen — he was on both sides of the ball, he was returning kicks, he was running the ball. And I was like, ‘This guy can play running back at Ohio State. Like now.’
“So he has the ability. Now, do we want to put that all on his plate right away? I think he has interest in doing it. I think he’d like to do some returning. I think we want to get him started with safety and go from there.”
Day continued: “Since we lost TC for the year, it’s something that we have to make sure that we’re on top of and building contingency plans. I don’t think we have to sound the alarm just yet, but it’s good to have things down the road that we can go to if we need to.”
Although Chase Brecht is the only other listed running back on the roster, Day noted Ohio State has a couple of non-scholarship options at the position.
“We’ll kind of see what we have. Mick’s had some good feedback on those guys,” Day said in reference to Ohio State strength and conditioning coach Mick Marotti.
“You know, we didn’t really know who TC was going into that year a couple years ago. He actually filled a need for us and had a touchdown in that [Toledo] game. Hopefully, we can get a little bit of that there and get some carries out of that. If not, yeah, we’ll have to figure out what a contingency plan might be.”
Day was calling back to Caffey’s 49-yard touchdown run early in the 2022 season, the first of two straight years Ohio State was bit by the injury bug.
If the Buckeyes go down with it again, they’ll have to get crafty. Regardless, Ohio State’s true freshman duo will have to play this season.
Beyond them on the depth chart, the Buckeyes will have to pick between using a walk-on, Downs or a receiver like Brandon Inniss or Emeka Egbuka
“You have to be creative I guess if you got that far down the road,” Day emphasized.
Ohio State hopes it doesn’t have to go down that road in a season that could go as long as 17 games in 2024.
