When Ohio State landed Caleb Downs in the transfer portal, they landed one of the best pure athletes in the country.
Initially, Caleb Downs had a real possibility that he would be playing on offense and at least seeing some snaps. Ohio State had an injury and a transfer at the position that left them with just freshman running backs James Peoples and Sam Williams-Dixon behind the two-headed monster of Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson.
“Where it goes, we’ll see, you never know. We’re just trying to build contingency plans,” Day said back in June.
Downs was taking in meetings with the running backs and it was a possibility, legit. Since then, both freshman running backs have seen time early in the season and have looked the part.
The likelihood that Downs sees time on offense is now next to none and head coach Ryan Day confirmed as much on Tuesday and said that Downs would only be used in an emergency situation.
“Right now we’re focused on Caleb being the best safety in America,” Day said. “Our depth is going to be tested all year, so he’ll be involved if need be, but for now he’s focused on safety.”
So far this season, Downs has seven tackles (TFL) and a half sack to his credit. The Buckeyes have played Akron and Western Michigan, so there should be a nice jump in his stats once he is playing full games as competition gets tougher.
Last season at Alabama, Downs was a freshman All-American and the Buckeyes are expecting a ton out of him in his first year in Columbus.
The bottom line is that Ohio State needs a healthy Downs to get to where they want to go. The safety duo of Downs and Lathan Ransom is not one that the Buckeyes could easily replace.
