Mitchell Melton will miss his second straight season after suffering an injury in the spring game.
The third-year defensive end is expected to miss the entire 2022 season after suffering a torn ACL in the spring game, Ryan Day confirmed on Friday.
Before the injury, Melton was making progress toward earning a potential role in Ohio State’s defensive end rotation this year. After starting his Ohio State career at linebacker, Melton moved into Larry Johnson’s position group this spring and was named by coaches as a candidate to play the hybrid linebacker/defensive end Jack position that Knowles is adding to Ohio State’s defense.
Unfortunately for Melton, that momentum screeched to a halt in the second quarter of the spring game when he went down with a lower-body injury and had to be helped back to the locker room. Since then, Ohio State has determined that injury is one that will sideline him for the rest of the year, marking the second straight year that Melton has suffered a season-ending injury during the spring.
Now a redshirt sophomore at Ohio State, Melton has yet to play a defensive snap for the Buckeyes. He played special teams snaps in the Buckeyes’ 2020 season opener against Nebraska as a true freshman, but has not appeared in a regular-season game yet.While Melton’s injury is a hit to Ohio State’s depth up front, the Buckeyes still have eight scholarship defensive ends who are expected to be available play this fall. The quintet of Zach Harrison, J.T.
Sawyer, Jean-Baptiste and Curry are the likely candidates to play most of the snaps at the Jack position with Melton sidelined.