COLUMBUS, Ohio — With two weeks to go until its season opener against Virginia Tech, Ohio State officially finds itself at the midway point of fall camp. Hell Week for the Buckeyes is over, and players have moved out of their hotel as Urban Meyer has his squad fully focused on the Hokies.
But even as OSU has moved on from the training camp portion of practice and is now in game-prep mode, several questions the Buckeyes must answer still remain. Most notably, Meyer still hasn't settled on a starting quarterback for the season—or at least isn't willing to reveal whether or not he has publicly.
With all that—and much more—in mind, let's take a look at where Ohio State stands following its second week of fall camp.
Competition Ongoing
Meyer said in the spring (months before the competition fully formed) that he'd like to know who his starting quarterback was by the midway point of fall camp.
But now that it's here, Meyer has changed his tune a bit, insisting that no final decision has been made about who the Buckeyes' starting signal-caller for the 2015 season will be.
"They're both doing good," Meyer said with a wry smile when asked about the ongoing quarterback competition between J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones. "I try to be as honest as I can. They're neck and neck."
The fourth-year Ohio State head coach has previously said that he won't be revealing whether Barrett or Jones has won the starting job in advance of the Buckeyes' battle with the Hokies, and doesn't plan on deviating from that plan.
He did, however, reveal that one quarterback had pulled ahead of the other in his mind at one point last week—only to have the other even the score at a Saturday scrimmage.
"I really thought in my mind two days ago that one guy was starting to move ahead of the other," Meyer said after the scrimmage. "And guess what today is? They're back to [even]."
Meyer may not know—or be willing to publicly admit—who his starting quarterback will be yet, but that won't slow the countdown ticking toward Ohio State's matchup with Virginia Tech. With the Hokies having handed the defending national champions their lone loss a season ago, the Buckeyes are preparing for their season opener, even as their starting signal-caller remains unclear.
"We actually started a little bit earlier, obviously, because we open up with them and we have a lot of respect for who they are and they beat us," Meyer said of the Hokies. "Over half our practice will be devoted to Virginia Tech now."
Budding Battles
While Ohio State's quarterback competition has garnered the most attention—and rightfully so—it isn't the only battle that's still ongoing in Columbus.
Although the Buckeyes are set as far as starters are concerned at most positions, some spots still remain open. One of the still-undecided position battles is one that wasn't even expected to be a competition this summer, as Duke transfer Jack Willoughby has surprisingly given incumbent Sean Nuernberger a run for his money at kicker.
According to Meyer, a big reason for that was a strong practice performance from the former Blue Devil, which included two successful 60-yard field-goal attempts with the Buckeyes head coach hovering over him.
"Back to back. I've never seen that before," Meyer said of Willoughby's consecutive long field goals. "If you said, 'Who's kicking right now?' I can't answer that question."
Willoughby served as Duke's kickoff specialist during the 2014 season, averaging 62.78 yards on his 73 kickoff attempts. As a freshman, Nuernberger was Ohio State's starting kicker throughout the Buckeyes' run to the national title, making 13 of his 20 field-goal attempts with a long of 49 yards, while also making all 89 of his extra-point tries.
Aside from quarterback and kicker, however, the only other positions Meyer said he has concerns about are his offensive and defensive lines. Starters have been established at all spots on both units, but the three-time national champion coach said he's still unsure of the depth that each possess.
With suspensions to Corey Smith, Dontre Wilson and Jalin Marshall for the season opener, wide receiver could also be viewed as somewhat of an issue for the Buckeyes, at least for the first game of the year. But between Michael Thomas, Noah Brown, Curtis Samuel, Parris Campbell, Terry McLaurin, Johnnie Dixon and Torrance Gibson, Meyer believes he has enough bodies at wideout to get by.
And then there's Braxton Miller.
Braxton Watch
Having entered fall camp as one of Ohio State's most talked-about players, the hype for Miller has seemed to die down. The realities of Miller's move from quarterback to wide receiver have seemed to set in, as it's now clear that he'll have to do more than change his number to adjust to his new position.
But while hamstring issues have hampered Miller—he sat out Saturday's scrimmage—through the first two weeks of camp, Meyer still has high hopes for the two-time Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year. As he continues to adjust to his increased running load, Miller still has a chance to be one of the Buckeyes' starting H-backs against the Hokies, according to Meyer.
"My plan is to get him ready to do that," Meyer said. "I'm not ready to say [he's the starter]. I want him to be."
In order to do that, Miller will have to continue to develop the routine of being a wide receiver, which includes getting a play rather than giving it, taking a split and executing. The fifth-year senior has made progress when it comes to doing just that, but still must continue to prepare his body to adequately play his new role, which requires significantly more running than his last one.
Still, much like Meyer's impending decision at quarterback, the countdown for the season opener won't be slowing down any time soon.
"Braxton's life has not been spent running, running, running. Wide receivers basically put on track shoes and run for two hours," Meyer said. "So his body—next week's a big week for Braxton."
How Miller performs in the coming week could determine the size of his role in the Buckeyes' 2015 season.
Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Big Ten lead writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes were obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of CFBStats.com. Recruiting rankings courtesy of 247Sports.
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