The Ohio State football team has been getting ready to face Miami in the Cotton Bowl for the last few weeks. These past three weeks have been about diagnosing what went wrong against Indiana in the Big En Championship and creating a game plan to make sure that it doesn't happen again.
Against the Hurricanes, the Buckeyes are hoping to execute better on the offensive side of the ball, especially in the red zone. Against Miami, the Ohio State Buckeyes will be forced to block at a better level than they did against the Hoosiers. They will have to do that without one of their starters.
Both teams have released their initial availability report before the Cotton Bowl is played on Wednesday night. Ohio State will be without one starting offensive lineman and will be without another key depth piece at the receiver position.
Ohio State football team releases first availability report for Cotton Bowl
Ohio State will likely be without Tegra Tshabola for this game. Tshabola is officially listed as doubtful, although Day mentioned he would likely be out for a few weeks. Without him in the lineup, the Buckeyes would likely lean on Gabe VanSickle to be the starting right guard.
Receiver Quincy Porter is among those listed out for the Buckeyes. Porter has had some issues staying healthy this season, although he has shown flashes of being a really good receiver when he has been able to see the field. Being without him is not ideal for this first game of the CFP.
The good news is that Ohio State is mostly healthy for this game. They have been mostly healthy all season long. Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate have missed some time due to injury late in the season, but both of them will be good to go for the Cotton Bowl.
Ohio State is hoping to stay mostly healthy throughout this run, just as they did during last year's run.