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Photo Credit: Daniel Labbe - Plain Dealer

Late last week there were rumors that two Buckeyes weren’t showing up for camp due to academic reasons. This was confirmed when the team arrived Sunday at their hotel. Glenville’s Robert Rose and Ray Small both are currently absent from camp, and their future with the team is up in the air.

Eleven Warriors provides some insight into the current situation regarding the two Glenville products:

Small and Rose continue to exist at the intersection of rumor and curious statements. Rose was mum when pressed about his status last week and Small’s father, when reached Sunday, said Small’s history grade is in, but it’s waiting to post.

That’s fine and all, but the team is only holding open two spots and one of those is surely reserved for Moeller. It’s just a hunch, but the last spot should be Small’s. Assuming he makes the grade.

So at this point, it’s assumed that Small will return to the team. Given Small’s history of hanging out in Tress’ doghouse, one would have to question the contributions he will make with the team this year.

Small was a huge pickup for the Buckeyes coming out of Glenville High School. We heard plenty of great things about him, essentially proclaiming him to be Teddy Ginn Jr. 2.0. He was quite able to kick the tires and light the fires, they said. We’d already seen three kids come from Glenville and become Buckeye heroes in Troy Smith, Ted Ginn, and Donte Whitner. Why would Small be any different?

Small came to Ohio State in the same class as Rob Rose, also from Glenville. Both were four-star recruits and were expected to make a big impact with the team. What has happened since then has been disappointing.

We’ve seen flashes from Ray Small. He really does have speed, and is elusive in the open field – when running north and south. He tends to try to do too much at times and loses yardage whilst dancing back and forth. He does a lot of the same things that Ted Ginn did, but doesn’t do any of them as well. It may be due to the lack of other threats around him (Ginn did play as part of the filthiest three-headed monster at WR I can recall), but it seems that Small still doesn’t know how to use blocks effectively.

Small was placed on Phil Steele’s All-Big Ten Preseason Team (I bet he got a sweet patch for his letter jacket) as a return man. Everyone knows he’s got tons of potential. But, he’s always had potential. He has yet to produce anything but flashes of greatness. He’s got no consistency, and apparently no real discipline in the classroom. He’s got a loudmouth dad who seems to think his kid is entitled to anything and everything without the hard work required to earn it.

Ray Small will still be on the team this year because his potential is so great. Whether or not he deserves the spot is a question that I’m not sure I really want to answer, because well – I’d like to think he’s around for a reason.

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A few other notes:

- The Buckeyes have announced that their practice on August 24th will be free and open to the public.

-BTN has a 90-minute inside Buckeyes practice show airing tonight at 10 PM.  If only Comcast had BTN for free in DC…

- The loss of Rose should be something the team can recover from. The junior DE wasn’t projected to start. The defensive line is looking to be a position of depth for the Buckeyes this year and the loss shouldn’t be too great.

- The spot reserved for Moeller is in reference to LB Tyler Moeller who has recently been released from the hospital. He reportedly had a delayed-onset severe head injury after getting sucker punched at a bar in Florida a few weeks ago. The presumed starting SLB is not going to return to the team this year. This is terrible news and we hope him nothing but the best in his recovery.

Replacing Moeller should be either Sr. Austin Spitler, Jr. Brian Rolle or So. Etienne Sabino. Sabino was the #2 overall linebacking prospect in the 2008 class and is expected to be a huge contributor for the Bucks in the coming years (then again, so was Mike D’Andrea, so we’ll see how this goes).  With Moeller out (and me not knowing the rules involving injured players), Rose may see a return to the roster if he clears academically.

- Doug Lesmerises at The Plain Dealer has some interesting photos of the team reporting to camp. Terelle Pryor and Duron Carter brought flat-panel TVs with them.  Before we all start screaming recruiting violations, let’s take note and realize Pryor was carrying a Vizio, and Duron Carter’s dad has made a portion of money before in the past.

- Though the pictures of the Bucks coming to camp are fun, they’re nowhere near as fun as the pictures from Va Tech’s camp.  As the Continental would say, “Wowie-wee-wow!”

- Lastly, I say – REALLY, Oregon?