Ohio State Football: Injuries ravaging the Buckeye secondary

Going into the season-opener against Minnesota, the expected starters in the Ohio State football team’s secondary were Sevyn Banks, Cameron Brown, Marcus Williamson or Latham Ransom, and Josh Proctor. The Buckeyes were without both projected starters at corner, Banks, and Brown.

This forced Ohio State to play second and third-strings at corner the entire night. Both Denzel Burke and Ryan Watts saw most of the snaps at corner versus Minnesota, there was a lot of inexperience here since Burke is a true freshman while Watts is a redshirt freshman.

Injuries have already become a problem for the Buckeye secondary

Before Minnesota kicked off, we learned Brown did not travel with the team, it’s anyone’s best guess why. Under Ryan Day, there is no available injury reports or depth charts so Brown could be out for a multitude of reasons. He could just be right outside of 100% healthy off his Achilles injury, he could have a new injury, or could have COVID concerns like Harry Miller did. Who knows, hopefully Brown can return and start against Oregon.

Meanwhile, Banks was the projected number one corner for the Ohio State football team this year. He traveled with the team and even dressed, but did not start or see the field at all. Realistically, there’s no way Banks was leaped by almost the entire unit at cornerback. Some suggested Banks could have been in the “doghouse” with the coaching staff. However, it seems he’s dealing with an injury as well. Day was asked after the Minnesota victory if Banks could be ready to play soon, here’s his response,

"“Yeah, yeah I hope so. You know, we had Sevyn ready in an emergency role. We’re looking forward to getting those guys healthy to play next week.”"

This comment by Day certainly alludes both Brown and Banks are dealing with some injuries right now. The fact Day mentioned getting them ready for next week, there’s a good chance at least one plays versus Oregon.

While there were some surprise starters versus the Golden Gophers Thursday night, the safeties were not so surprising. Proctor started at free safety and he looked good most of the game. Ransom was the starter at slot corner, the position OSU now calls cover safety.

Ransom had a decent to solid performance, there is definitely a lot of potential there for him. Both Proctor and Ransom seemed to be a solid combination of starting safeties, but that could now unfortunately change.

Proctor left with what looked like a shoulder injury in the latter half of the Minnesota primetime season-opener. The injury did not look good, as it immediately looked like he was grabbing for his shoulder. The way Proctor tackled, it could possibly be a collarbone injury. He was helped to the locker room after the injury, which is never a good sign.

As mentioned, Day doesn’t really do injury reports. There will probably be uncertainty all week about Proctor’s health. It could be something devastating like a broken collarbone, or it could have simply been a stinger and he could be back for Oregon. Proctor was going to be a big factor this season, hopefully no major injury occurred to derail his season.

Clearly, there are many questions and concerns about the Ohio State secondary right now heading into their non-conference battle with Oregon. The Buckeyes simply cannot be without Banks, Brown, and Proctor next week without struggling against a good Oregon team. The Ohio State football team could be just fine if they could at least get one or two of the three injured Buckeyes back.

Getting healthy in the secondary will be one of Ohio State’s biggest priorities in the upcoming week.