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Football
Two Missing as Buckeyes Report for Camp
By Brandon Castel

COLUMBUS — One by one the 2010 Buckeyes filed into the team hotel Thursday for the unofficial start of fall camp.

Ohio State won’t actually hit the practice field until Friday, but players were required to check in a day early and report to the Woody Hayes Athletic Center for the first round of meetings.

There were a number of new faces in the group as the 2010 freshman class joined the returning group of Buckeyes who are coming off their Rose Bowl win over Oregon. Among the newbies was massive defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins, but freshman tailback Roderick Smith was nowhere to be found.

An Ohio State spokesperson confirmed that Smith had not reported to camp with the rest of the team because of logistical issues, but was expected on campus later on Thursday or even Friday. Also missing from the group was tight end Nic DiLillo.

The redshirt sophomore out of Madison, Ohio was expected to compete for the No. 3 tight end spot this fall behind Jake Stoneburner and Reid Fragel, but a university spokesperson said DiLillo would not be a part of Ohio State’s 105-man roster during fall camp.

That would leave the door open for a possible return to the roster in the future, but it’s rare to see a scholarship player return to the roster following camp after being left off the 29 pre-season practices.

As for those players who did make it to camp, some carried flat-screen TV’s, others computer monitors and in some cases even video game systems.

“Guys bring X-Box’s, they bring their TV’s, mini-fridges. Guys bring everything,” said senior Justin Boren, who enters his last camp as a collegiate football player.

“It’s definitely an exciting day for me. Everything you do as a senior seems like your last. Your last camp, last season-opener, last time playing in the Shoe. It just goes so quick, you have to appreciate every day and try to get better.”

All Boren needed for his last camp was his phone, his laptop computer and some boating magazines, which makes him one of the more simple guys on the team. A few admitted to bringing books, but most are hoping to avoid the electronics “black-out” that was issued by the coaches during last fall camp.

“I hope not,” Boren said of the black-out.

“I’m going to do what I can as a senior to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

With those boating magazines as a backup plan, Boren might change his mind after the first week or so of camp of living with assigned roommate Corey Linsley.

“Corey brought X-Box, so I’ve got a feeling half the team’s going to be in my room playing whatever they play,” Boren said of the redshirt freshman from Youngstown Boardman.

“I don’t play video games, so I don’t even know what they play on those things.”

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