Impact of Buckeye Injuries to Cameron Brown, Blake Haubeil

The Buckeyes have been dealt two fairly significant blows early in the season. Thankfully, one of them doesn't appear to be serious.

Ohio State suffered two injuries on Saturday in the win over Penn State that are particularly notable. Junior cornerback Cameron Brown suffered an Achilles injury that will cost him the rest of the season, while senior kicker Blake Haubeil is ailed by a groin injury.

Brown's injury is significant because of Ohio State's lack of veteran depth at that position. With Brown out for the remainder of the season, Ohio State only has four cornerbacks on the roster that aren't true freshmen: redshirt junior captain Shaun Wade, junior Sevyn Banks, senior Marcus Williamson and redshirt sophomore Tyreke Johnson. Brown's absence will certainly be felt.

“It’s very costly," said Ryan Day on Tuesday. "Cam came with experience this season and in a position that we couldn’t afford to lose anyone, so to lose Cam it’s a significant hit. Obviously we hope he gets a healthy procedure and a healthy recovery, but we really feel bad for Cam and his family.”

Cam Brown was carted off the field on Saturday night after injuring his Achilles tendon

While the Buckeyes will certainly miss him, defense coordinator and secondary coach Kerry Coombs emphasized how important it is for everyone to be ready to slide in - and that's exactly what they've been training to do.

“I think anytime you lose good players it's going to affect you and the next players have to step up," said Coombs. "The whole next-man-up thing is no joke and especially this year, I think we have been training our guys since June for the possibility of having to be able to play suddenly and I think that that is really important to prepare them for that."

"We had that same situation Saturday before the game where all of a sudden you are going to be thrust in a role and the team is going to be dependent on you, so you're gonna have to step up and fill in. In the secondary room right now, it's all hands on deck. Everybody has to understand that their role might change slightly from this week's game, it might change for the next five week's games and you better be prepared to play more than one position in the back end because there is gonna be moving parts as you go through a season like this.”

Meanwhile, senior kicker Blake Haubeil is considered day-to-day with a groin injury. While his injury is far less severe than Cam Brown's, it's definitely impactful. 

Haubeil's career has been remarkable because it's been rather unremarkable ... most casual college football fans only know the name of their team's kicker if there has been an issue. How much more reliable could you ask a kicker to be? All Haubeil's done is connect on 131-of-131 career PAT attempts and he only missed two field goals all year in 2019 (both early in the year). He was a perfect 5-for-5 last year in the Big Ten Championship game against Wisconsin and in the CFP Semifinal vs. Clemson.

Haubeil lines up a short field goal at Beaver Stadium on October 31, 2020

But that didn't mean that Coach Day wasn't frustrated by the two short misses against Penn State, one of which came off Haubeil's right foot from inside 30 yards.

“Just ridiculous,” Day said regarding the missed field goals. “Those are chip shots.”

When Haubeil was removed from the game on Saturday, walk-on Dominic DiMaccio took his place. Freshman kicker Jake Seibert could also be available if Haubeil can't kick this weekend.

“Jake's definitely an option,” Day said Tuesday. “He came here for a reason. Especially now with the rule where this year really doesn't count (for eligibility purposes), he's definitely an option.”

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