Ohio State Football: Spring Game Position Battles to Watch

Saturday marks the first Ohio State spring game (or as it's currently known, the LiFE Sports Spring Game) under Urban Meyer—and Meyer has his work cut out for him. The Buckeyes went 6-7 in a scandal-ridden 2011 season, and are ineligible for the postseason this year. No need to rehash the "why" in all that, but suffice it to say there's some rebuilding to be done. Here's where.

Running back

Urban Meyer's not really a feature-back kind of coach, so we're not looking at a situation where one guy gets 90 percent of the carries or so in the fall. That's good because there is a glut of talent at tailback this year, from incumbents Jordan Hall and Carlos Hyde to superstar recruits Rod Smith (a sophomore-to-be) and early enrollee Bri'onte Dunn.

Meyer's general modus operandi is to foment competition at every turn, so while Hall looks like the clear starter, that second spot on this depth chart (and all the carries that go with it) is going to be coveted by all three other backs. A big showing on Saturday could propel one of the three into a clear second spot.

Middle linebacker

Storm Klein is the returning starter here, but his 45 tackles in all of the 2011 season are remarkably troublesome. Curtis Grant moved into the starting role when Klein was hampered with injuries early in the spring session, but Grant is knicked up as well. The closer both guys can get to 100 percent by this Saturday, the better we can get a sense of where the battle for this spot is. Physically, Grant is there, but it's just a matter of how far along he is in terms of learning the defense.

Wide receiver

Ohio State has numbers here at wideout in terms of depth, but not in terms of production; Philly Brown is probably the top wideout on the team, but he logged only 14 catches last year—and that just so happened to tie for the team lead. Evan Spencer, Verlon Reed and Devin Smith will also factor in here, and there's really no shortage of youth on the outside, so how this rotation shapes up by Saturday (and then by September) is anybody's guess.

One wild card here: Keep an eye out for TE Jake Stoneburner; Meyer has been experimenting with splitting Stoneburner out wide. That's not ideal in all scenarios, but it does create some tantalizing mismatches. Ohio State's going to be throwing the ball a lot on Saturday—Meyer said so himself—so he'll be looking for things that work. Stoneburner at split end might be one of them.