Why is this news?: Turning Ohio State recruits into stars, Braxton Miller's shoulder injury not typical

"In 2012, Ohio State started no Meyer recruits (obviously, it was his first year). In 2013, the number went up to one. This year, 12 prospects Meyer personally recruited are expected to start for the Buckeyes. That's more than half of the team."

-Ari Wasserman, Cleveland Plain Dealer

For the first couple of seasons at Ohio State, head coach Urban Meyer led his team to undefeated regular seasons en route to a 24-0 record. The first year, Meyer didn't have very many of his own recruits out on the football field. As the seasons continue going by, and as Meyer enters his third season as head coach, more players that Meyer recruited will be seeing the field.

While there was nothing wrong with the players Ohio State was equipped with, coach Meyer is getting closer to having a fully loaded offense and defense where the players are his recruits alone. This year, as mentioned above, more than half of the team's starters are recruits that coach Meyer specifically recruited for his designed offense and for their fit on the defensive side of the ball. This season, we'll get a good look at what the future of Ohio State will be (if we hadn't already gotten enough of a glimpse) and will be a good testing ground for coach Meyer to look at the players he brought in to Columbus.

"Having an injury from throwing a single pass without any contact during a comeback from a labral repair, that would be unusual."

-Dr. Orr Limpisvasti, via Doug Lesmerises, Cleveland Plain Dealer

Doug Lesmerises had a chance to talk with Dr. Orr Limpisvasti, an orthopaedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist at the Kerlin-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in California about Braxton Miller's right shoulder injury. Dr. Limpisvasti was a bit surprised to see that Miller suffered a non-contact injury, as you can see above. He even went as far as to say that the injury was "not typical" in nature.

What's even scarier, is that the surgery has a 10-15% failure rate, meaning Miller's first go-around fit in that 10-15% range. For second surgeries, it's even harder and longer to heal, so if anyone was hoping for some miracle return this season, don't bet on it.  "The sweeping statement is it's never not a big deal," Dr. Limpisvasti said. "He may still do very well and get back and have terrific arm function. But that's two labral surgeries in six months in an elite quarterback in his throwing arm. So he's going to be asking a lot of it. And it's going to make it that much harder from a rehab standpoint to get the same outcome."

"I didn't want to play quarterback. I was starting at two positions and I was going to go from that to third-string quarterback? He said, ‘I'm grooming you for your senior year.' I'm like, ‘I thought you and I decided I wasn't going to play quarterback.'"

-Tom Matte, via Rob Oller, The Columbus Dispatch

Rob Oller over at The Dispatch interviewed former Ohio State quarterback Tom Matte which provided some interesting answers. The above quote is from the question asking if Woody Hayes actually took Matte aside at halftime during a game against Duke to practice his snaps.

Matte gave a pretty funny answer (in addition to the above quote) where he says it was because he would purposely fumble snaps in spring practice so that he didn't have to play quarterback. The reasoning was Matte was already playing two other positions, halfback and cornerback. After starting quarterback Jerry Fields suffered a shoulder injury, Matte was given the go-ahead for the rest of the game against Duke.

"It appears at least two position battles remain unsettled on the offensive line for the Buckeyes based on the depth chart Meyer released on Wednesday afternoon."

-Austin Ward, ESPN.com

In case you missed the depth chart being released today, there were plenty of ORs being tossed in at the positions, especially on the offensive line. It isn't too much of a surprise, as the battles have been constant since spring practice began and now it appears it will continue into the season with neither Billy Price nor Joel Hale pulling ahead at left guard or Jacoby Boren or Alabama transfer Chad Lindsay solidifying themselves as the anchor in the middle.

Depending on how the current starters perform in the game against Navy, this could all change. Perhaps the actual competition will prove to be motivation enough to pull ahead of their teammates. If not, it's not a terrible thing to have, given perspective. I take it as the competition is tight, and regardless of who is starting at the end of the season, there's a good chance they'll be starting for a reason.

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