{"id":36,"date":"2016-08-13T18:57:26","date_gmt":"2016-08-13T22:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordoncollegefootball.com\/?p=36"},"modified":"2016-08-28T16:14:26","modified_gmt":"2016-08-28T20:14:26","slug":"raekwon-mcmillan-the-ohio-state-linebacking-corps-new-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2016\/08\/13\/raekwon-mcmillan-the-ohio-state-linebacking-corps-new-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"Raekwon McMillan: The Ohio State Linebacking Corps\u2019 New Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com\/sports\/m-footbl\/osu-m-footbl-body.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Ohio State<\/strong><\/a> football comes into the 2016 season needing to replace a lot. They lost a total of 16 regular starters on both sides of the football, the most of any Power Five school. A record 12 of them were drafted by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nfl.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>NFL<\/strong><\/a> teams. As such, questions abound as to whether the Buckeyes can maintain the elite level of play that has defined <strong>Urban Meyer<\/strong>\u2018s four years in <strong>Columbus<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3>Raekwon McMillan: The Ohio State Linebacking Corps\u2019 New Leader<\/h3>\n<p>On defense, eight starters from last season\u2019s 12-1 campaign have departed. Two of those players, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/darron-lee-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Darron Lee<\/strong><\/a> and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/joshua-perry-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Joshua Perry<\/strong><\/a>, comprised one of the most fearsome linebacking corps in college football.\u00a0The unit combined for 290 tackles, 9.5 sacks, 13 tackles for loss and ten pass breakups in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>But one remains, and it will be up to him to provide on-field leadership for a team short on experience.<\/p>\n<p>His name is Raekwon McMillan.<\/p>\n<h3>From High School Phenom to Big Ten Stalwart<\/h3>\n<p>The junior linebacker enters 2016 having regularly contributed during both of his previous two seasons. As a true freshman, he appeared in all 15 games for the eventual national champions. He ended up finishing sixth on the team with seven tackles for loss. Last year, he led the Buckeyes with 119 tackles and finished second to only cornerback\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/gareon-conley-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Gareon Conley<\/strong><\/a> with four pass breakups.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/2016\/08\/10\/raekwon-mcmillan-ohio-state-linebacking\/\" target=\"_self\">Click here to read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>COLUMBUS, OH &#8211; OCTOBER 10: Raekwon McMillan #5 of the Ohio State Buckeyes in action against the Maryland Terrapins during a game at Ohio Stadium on October 10, 2015 in Columbus, Ohio. The Buckeyes defeated the Terrapins 49-28. (Photo by Joe Robbins\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ohio State football comes into the 2016 season needing to replace a lot. They lost a total of 16 regular starters on both sides of the football, the most of any Power Five school. A record 12 of them were drafted by NFL teams. As such, questions abound as to whether the Buckeyes can maintain [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":37,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[73,74],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","tag-ohio-state-buckeyes","tag-raekwon-mcmillan"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}