{"id":60489,"date":"2024-06-18T14:02:44","date_gmt":"2024-06-18T18:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=60489"},"modified":"2024-06-18T14:02:44","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T18:02:44","slug":"ryan-day-caleb-downs-running-back-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/06\/18\/ryan-day-caleb-downs-running-back-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Day Reveals a Surprising Potential Role for Star Transfer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ohio State head coach <strong>Ryan Day<\/strong> held an impromptu presser on Tuesday. In all, he addressed a number of questions from the local press. He and his staff have been working through concerns at wide receiver depth, the right side of the offensive line, and safety. However, he dropped a nugget that raised eyebrows around the room. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/06\/09\/ohio-states-transfer-portal-strategy-quality-over-quantity\/\" target=\"_self\">Star Alabama transfer<\/a> safety <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/caleb-downs-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Caleb Downs<\/a> has been sitting in on running back meetings and has participated in drills with the unit.<\/p>\n<p>Could Downs be utilized as a running back in a game this year?<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Running Back Caleb Downs?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere it goes I don\u2019t know that now, but he has the capability\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Ryan Day says that they have had Caleb Downs going through some of the running back drills to add depth. <\/p>\n<p>He said they pitched him some options in the spring. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lnotU4Z5N5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/lnotU4Z5N5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Adam King (@AdamKing10TV) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamKing10TV\/status\/1803115749214449861?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 18, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Ryan Day Reveals Caleb Downs Also Works Out With Running Backs<\/h2>\n<p>Downs was one of the top defenders in all of college football as a true freshman at Alabama last year. He was the Shaun Alexander National Freshman of the Year, the SEC Freshman of the Year, a First-Team All-SEC selection, and made PFF&#8217;s First-Team All-American team. His breakout performance marked the first time in Alabama&#8217;s storied history that a freshman led the way in tackles. He amassed 107 tackles, three-and-a-half tackles for loss, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, four pass breakups, and two interceptions.<\/p>\n<p>With <strong>Nick Saban<\/strong> retiring, Downs transferred north to Ohio State and is set to take over the safety position. However, the thought of Downs carrying the football is about as enticing as any.<\/p>\n<p>In his initial recruiting profile, <em>247Sports<\/em>&#8216; <strong>Andrew Ivins<\/strong> noted that Downs, &#8220;Could probably be a full-time running back at the Power Five level if he wanted to as he\u2019s difficult to bring down with the pigskin in his hands and knows how to find green grass.&#8221; As a senior in 2022, Downs ran the ball 57 times for 389 yards and 20 touchdowns. Yes, Downs scored 20 touchdowns off 57 rushing attempts.<\/p>\n<p>Will Ohio State do it? Probably not. However, Downs as a break-in-case-of-emergency weapon does move the needle. Ideally, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/treveyon-henderson-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">TreVeyon Henderson<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/quinshon-judkins-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Quinshon Judkins<\/a> can <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/04\/22\/despite-departures-ohio-state-running-backs-will-be-a-strength\/\" target=\"_self\">carry the load<\/a> with true freshmen <strong>James Peoples<\/strong> and <strong>Sam Williams-Dixon<\/strong> providing depth.<\/p>\n<p>Downs has been floated as a kick or punt returner by fans as well. Last year, Downs returned four punts and scored on one.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_60492\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-60492\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-60492\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/06\/USATSI_22695981_168400536_lowres-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"caleb downs running back\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/06\/USATSI_22695981_168400536_lowres-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/06\/USATSI_22695981_168400536_lowres-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/06\/USATSI_22695981_168400536_lowres-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/06\/USATSI_22695981_168400536_lowres-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/06\/USATSI_22695981_168400536_lowres-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/06\/USATSI_22695981_168400536_lowres-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/06\/USATSI_22695981_168400536_lowres-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-60492\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo courtesy: Adam Cairns\/Columbus Dispatch \/ USA TODAY NETWORK<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ohio State head coach Ryan Day held an impromptu presser on Tuesday. In all, he addressed a number of questions from the local press. He and his staff have been working through concerns at wide receiver depth, the right side of the offensive line, and safety. However, he dropped a nugget that raised eyebrows around [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":60492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_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":[5,2,17],"tags":[7983,33211,41,73,3348,33212],"class_list":["post-60489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-featured","category-news","tag-big-ten-football","tag-james-peoples","tag-nick-saban","tag-ohio-state-buckeyes","tag-ryan-day","tag-sam-williams-dixon"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60489","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\/4051"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}