Reid Carrico, C.J. Hicks and Gabe Powers were all ranked among the top five players from Ohio and top-10 linebackers in their respective recruiting classes, yet all of them played the same number of defensive snaps for the Buckeyes last season: Zero.
After playing in all three phases of the game as the star players for their respective Ohio high schools – Archbishop Alter (Hicks), Ironton (Carrico) and Marysville (Powers) – each of them arrived at Ohio State with aspirations of making immediate impacts for the school they’ve always dreamed of playing for. Instead, they spent all of last season watching from the sidelines as Tommy Eichenberg and Steele Chambers played the vast majority of snaps at linebacker.