Based on this thread, he was a walkon by May 6th. I'm not sure when Ohio learned which players would eventually fail to qualify, but I doubt they knew for sure that early.
As for the approach of awarding so many scholarships to walkons, I like it. I feel as if each year the quality of walkons in the program gets better. Some schools use walkons primarily for practice fodder, but I feel like at Ohio every player gets the same coaching, and has a chance to make it. Players that started as walkons who are likely to contribute this year are:
OL - Zach Adams, Seth Everhart, Bubba Williams
TE - Devin Saunders
QB - JD Sprague
RB - AJ Ouellette, Bo Hardy
WR - Kawmae Sawyer, Ian Dixon, Randy Stites
DL - none
LB - Cody Grillot, Chad Moore, Travis Daugherty
DB - Mike Terpin, Devin Jones, Blake Scipio
Other - Josiah Yazdani, Miles Chapman
That's a lot of players, and is not complete - there will no doubt be other walkons that get some playing time before the year is up. But, the list alone doesn't fully represent their contribution. The walkons come in knowing they have to prove themselves, and therefore they come in expecting to have to out-work the scholarship athletes. That, in turn pushes the scholarship athletes to work harder themselves, and makes the entire team get better.
Note that Ohio has had some very good walkons over the years. When I say the program is "getting better" it is because the impact of the group now seems to be across the board, affecting nearly every position, whereas in the past there were typically a few walkons that were really good, but a lot of the walkons were buried deeply on the depth chart.
Last Edited: 8/25/2014 11:47:49 AM by L.C.