Buy Photo Former Ohio State quarterback Stan Jackson acknowledges the crowd during introductions for last week’s charity basketball game, part of a doubleheader sponsored by the Mansfield News Journal. Jackson, an analyst for the Big Ten Network, teamed with other OSU football alums.(Photo: Walt Butler/News Journal)Buy Photo Refrain from suggesting the sky is falling on the Ohio State football program when you’re in the presence of former defensive backs Tyler Everett and Antonio Smith. They know differently. So what if OSU is losing 16 starters, most of them to the NFL? Everett was part of a better secondary that left en masse after the 2005 season, along with the linebacker firm of Hawk, Carpenter & Schlegel and significant pieces on offense like center Nick Mangold and receiver Santonio Holmes. Instead of buckling in 2006, the Buckeyes made it all the way to the national championship game unscathed before running into the Florida Gators and Urban Meyer, who, as luck would have it, oversees the renovations going on now in Columbus. So what if you don’t know much about replacement parts like Mike Weber, Jamarco Jones, Noah Brown, Damon Webb and Chris Worley? Smith arrived at Ohio State as an unheralded walk-on and left an All-American. Trust them. The Buckeyes will be fine. “Urban’s great at recruiting, and they’ve got some young guys who can play,” said Everett, who now runs a gym in Plain City after playing for four teams in the NFL. “It’s just that the young guys will have to take what they learned from the guys leaving and instill that into the team we have now.” Remember this: When the Buckeyes won the national championship in 2014 under Meyer, they didn’t lose a single player early to the NFL…
Continue Reading: ‘Rebuild’ not in ex-Buckeyes’ vocabulary
