How Gabe Powers and Ohio State football’s intriguing second-year talents can kick-start their careers

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Gabe Powers used Ohio State football’s scrimmage last Saturday to make sure no one had forgotten him.

Multiple times during a red zone period early in the scrimmage, the redshirt freshman linebacker broke up passes from Kyle McCord and Devin Brown. Powers looked more than comfortable in the middle of the defense. He was disruptive. He was in charge.

No surprise there. Former top-100 prospect, in his second year in the program and second in Knowles’ system. This spring is precisely when a player like Powers should begin knocking on the door of a bigger role.

“He’s smart,” senior linebacker Steele Chambers said. “You see flashes of him making just insane plays.”

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Right now, though, Powers is knocking on a brick wall manned by Chambers, Tommy Eichenberg and Cody Simon. He is the Buckeyes’ Mike linebacker of the future, and that future might be a year away in terms of a starting job.

Powers said he prepared for the patience and discipline he must now exhibit through what his Marysville High School program called “The Process.”

“My dad coached me all the way through, and he told me you’ve got to work for everything you earn,” Powers said. “You aren’t promised nothing when you get here. So I didn’t come in expecting I’m going to be all this. I know I’ve got to work my way, and so I’ve been working my way.”

Powers has company in the patience and discipline camp this spring. He lines up next to former top-10 prospect C.J. Hicks with the second-string defense. Defensive end Kenyatta Jackson is flashing his pass-rush potential with that same group.

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Safety Sonny Styles, entrusted with early snaps in last year’s Peach Bowl playoff semifinal against Georgia, has also run mostly with the 2s. Throw safety Kye Stokes and cornerback Jyaire Brown as well on that list of second-year players who keep impressing.

Ohio State needs its own process, then, to determine when a highly talented young player is positioned to jump up and possibly overtake a veteran. Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said it has one. It merely asks them to start at second string and attack it until second string can’t contain them anymore.

“You have to show that, No. 1, you can dominate with the 2s, right?” Knowles said. “Start there. OK, you show us you can dominate with the 2s. Now we can start to mix you with the 1s, and you show you hold your own with the 1s. Now it’s up to me to create more positions and opportunities for you.

“But you’ve got to win. You got to kick a-- with the 2s first. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s win all those reps first.”

Powers’ first defensive rep in a game in 2023 will be the first of his OSU career. He did play twice on special teams last season, against Toledo and Wisconsin.

Yet he said he still came into the spring with considerably more confidence. Some of that is the trust he and Hicks, his roommate, have built playing next to each other with the 2s.

He also saw a path to following in Eichenberg’s footsteps. Eichenberg came out of 2021 having ceded the starting snaps to Simon. Then he surged into 2022 as a run-stopping force and played his way to second team All-America recognition.

Powers can envision himself in that role. Steadily, the Buckeyes are beginning to see it too.

“He’s establishing that respect from his teammates,” Knowles said of Powers. “We’re encouraging him to compete. He’s getting better with his hands and his feet.

“He’s improving — and expectations are high for him, so I’m staying after him.”

When Powers and these other promising second-year talents start kicking you-know-what, Knowles may have a good problem on his hands.

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