As Ohio State lined up to begin its scrimmage during Friday's practice at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, Chase Young and Tyreke Smith took their positions on each side of the line. Young, a potential All-American, and Smith, an up-and-coming edge rusher, flanked a pair of fellow defensive ends lined up as interior pass rushers in Larry Johnson's vaunted Rushmen package.
Jonathon Cooper, the only rising senior among the team's defensive ends, was one of the them. Beside him, with his hand in the turf propping himself up, lined up Zach Harrison. As an early enrollee into Ohio State, the scarily athletic 6-foot-6, 255-pounder should have spent his Friday morning in class like the rest of the classmates he grew up with at Olentangy Orange.