Family of Ohio State Buckeyes cheer in Ohio Stadium during Ohio State-Nebraska game, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020. Ohio State won 52-17. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
Following a season in which the Buckeyes played in front of a mostly empty Ohio Stadium, the ’Shoe will be buzzing with life for Saturday’s spring game.
For the first time since Nov. 23, 2019, head coach Ryan Day’s squad will play in front of a home crowd — marking the first step toward a return to normalcy for the program. With the opportunity to play in front of the Buckeye faithful, junior defensive tackle Taron Vincent pointed to the excitement surrounding Saturday’s scrimmage.
“I’m really excited to just kinda get back to how things were,” Vincent said. “I know this pandemic really got people down about everything, just it’ll be good to see fans back in the ’Shoe.”
Throughout the 2020-21 campaign, Ohio Stadium’s capacity was limited to family and friends of athletes. However, Ohio State will host 19,180 fans for the spring game — with around 10,000 seats going to frontline workers. Tickets initially sold out in less than 24 hours after they went on sale Monday.
With the uptick in allotted seating, graduate defensive tackle Haskell Garrett said he is looking forward to seeing the Ohio State fan base back out in full force.
“Having your family in the stadium is awesome in itself but having the whole nation, Buckeye nation, having fans back in there so that they can experience what we experience is even more enticing,” Garrett said. “We’re just happy to have everybody back in there.”
Although the Buckeyes played in three home games last season, it will be the first time that the freshmen and sophomores on the team will experience Ohio Stadium with fans in attendance.
Fans are not the only aspect being reintroduced to Ohio Stadium Saturday as the athletic band, spirit squad and Brutus all return after a season-long hiatus.
With a more typical game-day experience awaiting the Buckeyes Saturday, defensive line coach Larry Johnson said he was excited for the underclassmen to get a taste of a normal Ohio Stadium experience.
“This is gonna be fun for our players,” Johnson said. “I know the young guys are excited about that. Just to be able to walk in and look around and see people instead of posters, that’s gonna be pretty cool.”
Saturday will provide an unfamiliar experience for the team’s underclassmen, and Day added that the experienced members of the team may undergo a readjustment phase to playing in front of a crowd.
“We had to adjust with no fans and then we kinda got used to that and now we have to adjust to having fans again,” Day said. “I know our guys love that, because they’re all showoffs, it’s what I call them.”
As the atmosphere will reflect a slight return to normalcy, the game likely will not.
Day said the plan is to split the team up for at least a half of football and then have a more controlled scrimmage atmosphere in the second half. He added that the coaching staff has not yet made a decision on whether they’ll tackle or just play to a thud.
On the field, Day said he hopes to see the strides his players have made since they started the spring practice process March 19.
“As we get into the spring game, things I wanna I see is just improvement, just continually getting better,” Day said. “I wish we had another 15 practices here in May, but we don’t.”
With the spring game serving as a trial run for Day’s squad, the third-year head coach said he’s thankful for the opportunity to finally have a somewhat normal game-day experience.
“Thank goodness that we’re able to get some people in the stands. Looking forward to having our guys play in front of a crowd and get back to some normalcy here,” Day said. “We’re hoping we can get a whole, packed house here when Oregon comes to town.”
