The biggest challenge of the 2022 season is here when No. 2 Ohio State heads to state college to take on No. 13 Penn State. The Buckeyes have one last chance to promote being the best team in the country before the first College Football Playoff rankings are released Tuesday night.
If the Scarlet and Gray are to continue dominating the competition, they’ll have to sacrifice a number of players. Ohio State released its availability report Saturday morning, three hours before kickoff, and 15 Buckeyes will be unavailable against the Nittany Lions.
Including the junior Jaxon Smith-Njigba. The wide receiver will miss his fifth game of the season due to an ongoing hamstring injury he sustained in Week 1 against Notre Dame. Since that game, Smith-Njigba has attempted to play again twice — against Toledo in mid-September and against Iowa last week — but only played in the first half of each game. Last week against the Hawkeyes, Smith-Njigba appeared to re-injure himself while running a route but was head coach ryan day said after the game that the receiver simply counted on a pitch.
It might be true that Smith-Njigba was on a pitch count for last week’s game, but it’s now clear he also picked up an injury. As has been the case for much of the season, his return timeline is uncertain.
The other name to watch for in this week’s availability report is Cornerback Cameron Brown. The senior will miss his second straight game this year and fourth overall.
NOT AVAILABLE
EN Omari Abor
WR Kamryn Babb
cb Cameron Brown
WR Caleb Burton
RB TC Caffey
WR Cleveland Corban
CB Lloyd McFarquhar
LB Mitchell Melton
LB Teradia Mitchell
LB Jalen Pace
RB Evan Pryor
LS Bradley Robinson
TE Joe Royer
WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba
S Kurt Williams
GAME TIME DECISIONS
N / A
What it means for the state of Ohio
Of course, losing Smith-Njigba again is a hard blow for the Buckeyes. If he’s healthy, Smith-Njigba is in contention for the top wide receiver in the country. Unfortunately, Scarlet and Gray didn’t have him available for most of the season as he only played 60 snaps this year.
Luckily for Ohio State, the Buckeyes found other ways to get the ball moving through the air. quarterback CJ Stroud has a plethora of weapons to throw the ball including Emeka Egbuka, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Julian Fleming. This has allowed the Scarlet and Gray to remain a top 15 passing attack even without the influence of Smith-Njigba.
Except for Brown, who will likely be replaced JK Johnson again with Jordan Hancock — also recently returned from injury — is also rotating in the opposite direction Denzel Burkethe other outages were expected or players not expected to have much impact.