Ohio State coach Ryan Day on Monday said the Buckeyes’ upcoming spring football game will include tackling.
When the annual intrasquad scrimmage begins with the first-team offense against the first-team defense, the Buckeyes will be in "thud" instead of full contact. The pace allows defensive players to wrap up the ball carriers, but not bring them to the turf.
“For some of the guys who have played a lot of football, we’ll be doing that,” Day said.
As the Buckeyes move further down the depth chart to rotate more inexperienced players, they will transition to live tackling, a format that mirrors the script from recent years.
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“After a few drives, we’ll get right into, and we’ll be tackling,” Day said. “The quarterbacks will not be live, but everybody else will, and it’ll look like a normal spring game.”
The Buckeyes kept a spring game this year rather than hold a scaled-back version. Before an announcement last week, they had planned a spring showcase. As part of their national championship run last season, they played a school-record 16 games.
The spring game is scheduled to begin Saturday at noon at Ohio Stadium.
Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Email him at jkaufman@dispatch.com and follow along on
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