Ohio State Football: Who Could Be the Buckeyes' Next Breakout Player in 2012?

The exciting part of college football is the never-ending stream of new names and new faces that move into the spotlight every year.

For the Buckeyes last year, players like Braxton Miller and Ryan Shazier emerged as new stars of the future.

With a new coaching staff comes a new opportunity for different players to emerge as big names at Ohio State.

The question is, who could the next Ryan Shazier be next season?

One guy that could be the next breakout player is more or less someone who had a great second half to the 2011 season: DB Bradley Roby.

Roby emerged very quickly in his first full season as a redshirt freshman as a very physical corner with amazing athleticism. With Dominic Clarke kicked off the team and the next players below Roby on the depth chart being either hardly experienced or true freshmen, he will need to come up big. The ability is certainly there for Roby and he will have the opportunity to start again from day one under Urban Meyer.

Another player that could breakout that is already on the roster is the guy who had arguably the play of the year for the Buckeyes in 2011: Devin Smith.

The speedy wideout had 14 catches last year, which put him in a three-way tie for the team lead in receptions (you read that right).

Ohio State should have a much better passing attack than it had last season where it finished just No. 114 in passing offense.

Smith has the wheels to be a major weapon in the new spread attack Meyer wants to use and will run with the track team this year to continue to improve his speed. Whether or not he will be used in the Percy Harvin role as a RB/WR hybrid or if that will be junior Corey Brown remains to be seen, but he does know how to make big plays after reeling in a late touchdown reception to help the Buckeyes upset Wisconsin in the final minute of play.

In reality, though, we know so little about how Ohio State could look because Urban Meyer has not been able to have a practice with his new team and won't until March.

There could be more freshmen sensations with a top-five recruiting class loaded with star players on the way. With a team that doesn't have much to play for due to a bowl ban outside of dishing out some revenge for some of their losses from last year, this is where the Buckeyes can find their leaders of the future.

That's what makes college football so unpredictable and so special every year.

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