Even though the NCAA adopted a new rule this year allowing players to participate in up to four games and still redshirt, Ohio State coach Urban Meyer contended – as he did throughout his seven-year tenure coaching the Buckeyes – that the team would not redshirt players who it felt should be on the field this year.
“If they’re ready to play, they’re going to play,” Meyer said in October.
With just one game left to play this season, Ohio State has held mostly true to that claim.
Even though there aren’t many freshmen who have seen a large amount of playing time for the Buckeyes on offense or defense this year – and therefore, they could have gotten away with redshirting nearly all of them – nearly half of Ohio State’s scholarship true freshmen have burned their redshirt eligibility for this season.