Ohio State Football: Players to Watch in Buckeyes' 2016 Spring Game

Ohio State's spring game is set to kick off on April 16 in Ohio Stadium, and a number of new faces will make their first legitimate appearances of their Buckeye careers.

With eight new starters needed on each side of the ball, head coach Urban Meyer is eager to see how his younger players react to playing in front of a big crowd.

"There's nothing like performing in front of 100,000 people and I watch that," Meyer said, according to Eric Seger of Eleven Warriors.

That six-figure fan projection is something Meyer hopes to see with a sunny, cloudless day in Columbus expected for the game. Ohio State's head man also hopes to see some growth from his young team, and he'll have a particularly close eye on the following players because they could end up playing huge roles for the 2016 season.

Bri'onte Dunn / Mike Weber

Jay LaPrete/Associated Press

Last year's offseason was dominated by the quarterback battle between Cardale Jones, J.T. Barrett and, before he moved to receiver, Braxton Miller.

This year, the running back competition has been one of the headlining storylines of the offseason.

The Buckeyes, of course, are replacing All-American running back Ezekiel Elliott, who paced the offense by eclipsing the 1,800-yard rushing mark in back-to-back seasons and racking up 41 rushing touchdowns from 2014-15.

Redshirt junior Bri'onte Dunn and redshirt freshman Mike Weber are neck-and-neck in the race to fill the void left by Elliott.

"Bri’onte and Mike are still fighting it out and the young guy [true freshman] (Antonio Williams) has done a decent job, but he’s not on the same level as Mike and Bri’onte. But no one has separated themselves," Meyer said, according to Jim Naveau of the Lima News.

Saturday will go a long way toward determining the pecking order of Ohio State's running back room.

Chris Worley

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Departed defensive end Joey Bosa might be the first former Buckeye off the board during the 2016 NFL draft, but linebacker Darron Lee could be the most important player Ohio State has to replace defensively.

Lee was a former dual-threat quarterback turned defensive back in his first year at Ohio State, but he bulked up and moved to a starting linebacker role as a redshirt freshman. He dominated there, reshaping the Buckeyes defense by giving it an element of speed it lacked in previous years.

Chris Worley is trying to maintain that speed and cement himself as a starter in the 2016 defense.

The redshirt junior is feeling pressure from redshirt freshman Jerome Baker, a similarly athletic linebacker who used to play offense (running back) in high school, per 247Sports.

"This year, it's me and Jerome at it," Worley said, according to Seger. "We have the same kind of relationship that me and Darron had. We're just going to go out there and try to make plays and help the team."

Austin Mack

Credit: 247Sports

Austin Mack has been the breakout star of Ohio State's 2016 offseason, and Ohio State fans will finally get a look at the standout wide receiver.

Rated as high 4-star wideout for the class of 2016, Mack graduated high school early to take part in winter conditioning and spring practice. He hasn't looked the part of a kid who should be getting ready for his senior prom, as he's impressed his teammates, quarterback and the coaching staff.

“[Mack] just plays hard, he plays fast," running backs coach Tony Alford said, according to D.J. Byrnes of Eleven Warriors. "He's hungry. He's not taking plays off. Even if he's wrong, he goes 100 mph. We can fix a mistake. Your effort is from within. He goes. He goes.”

The Buckeyes will need him to go as they work to replace their top three pass-catchers (Michael Thomas, Jalin Marshall and Braxton Miller) from a season ago.

Joe Burrow

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Dating back to the 2012 season, one of the most important roles on the team has been the backup quarterback.

In 2012, Kenny Guiton stepped in when Miller was knocked out of the Purdue game and led a miraculous overtime comeback to preserve Ohio State's perfect regular season. A year later, Guiton did the same when Miller suffered a knee injury and missed the Cal and Florida A&M games.

Of course, the 2014 season was the year of the backup quarterback for Ohio State, as second-stringers J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones orchestrated an improbable national title run.

The Buckeyes need to identify their new safety blanket at quarterback, and the coaching staff is honing in on redshirt freshman Joe Burrow.

"Extremely accurate with the ball for the most part and he seems to just have a knack of knowing where to go with it," co-offensive coordinator Tim Beck said of Burrow, via Seger.

It may not be a storyline that grabs national or even regional headlines, but the backup quarterback has been a key role for the Buckeyes during Meyer's tenure. And if history is any indication, Burrow will be vitally important to Ohio State in 2016.