OSU Buckeyes

Jordan Hall watched most of Ohio State's 12-0 season from the sideline with mixed emotions.

"It was tough to watch and miss," Hall told ESPN.com. "I played in two and a half games or something. I was happy for my team, but I just wanted to be out there so bad."

The running back figured to be out there a lot for Ohio State after the team completed spring practice last April. New head coach Urban Meyer singled out Hall as one of few bright spots for an offense he called a "clown show." But Hall's fortunes turned in late June, when he cut his foot on a broken glass bottle strewn in the front yard of his residence.

The "freak accident" set off a series of setbacks for Hall, the Buckeyes' likely starting running back before his injury. After undergoing surgery, missing preseason camp and the first two games, Hall returned in Week 3 against Cal but suffered a partial tear of his PCL two weeks later at Michigan State. He sat out the rest of the season and received a medical hardship. This spring, the coaches moved Hall to the slotback role where Percy Harvin had shined in Meyer's spread offense, and Hall had a strong start to the session before being slowed by a hamstring injury.

"I just want to get out there," Hall said. "I had to miss a lot of time."

Hall is back to full strength this summer and looks forward to going through a full preseason in the offense. The slotback role is similar to what Hall played in high school, when he teamed with former Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor in Jeannette, Pa.

Hall also has slimmed down 10-12 pounds from his 2012 playing weight and checks in at 191 pounds, the lightest he has been since high school.

"I feel a lot better in and out of my cuts," said Hall, who had 653 rush yards, 197 receiving yards and 1,494 return yards in the 2010 and 2011 seasons. "Top-end and everything, it just feels better. I feel like I'm hitting a gear I never really hit before. I'm 100 percent healthy, so I feel like I’m ready to go."

Ohio State took no chances with Hall after the hamstring injury this spring, and Hall admits he wasn't completely ready when he returned to the field last season.

"I didn’t really get to do the summer conditioning, none of the summer training, none of that," he said. "I was just lifting upper body, running on the underwater treadmill a little bit and then I practiced Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the Cal week and then I played. I feel my leg just wasn't ready for competition, and that's what made me have my knee [injury]."

Hall looks forward to his first full preseason in the Meyer-led offense and recognizes the competition at his position will heat up. Chris Fields had a strong spring, and incoming freshmen Dontre Wilson and Jalin Marshall could fill the slotback role.

As a fifth-year senior who served as a co-captain before last season, Hall isn't concerned about re-proving himself to the coaches, especially Meyer.

"He's just always on me, [asking] if I'm catching, am I with the quarterbacks, am I doing my rehab," Hall said. "He's just making sure I’m ready to go. He has seen what I can do, and he says I can be a great player if I can stay healthy and do all the right things.

"Everyone's excited."

Hall's Twitter page contains the following words below his avatar: "This year I said it's all business." He has been through a lot Ohio State -- from off-field issues to moderate success to injuries -- and he wants to complete his comeback and be a part of another special season.

"I've just got tunnel vision," he said. "I'm not going to have any distractions. My only focus is football, really, and school. This is my last go-round, so I'm putting everything into it."

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Presented with perhaps an easy way out, Ohio State instead is reinforcing its emphasis on beefing up its schedule heading into the playoff era.

The move to a nine-game slate in the Big Ten means everybody in the league will have to be a bit choosier with its opponents outside the league, and for teams such as the Buckeyes who already had four squads lined up to fill slots in 2016, that also means casting one game aside.

It could have worked to cancel a series with Oklahoma, a home-and-home arrangement that starts with what figures to be a difficult road trip to visit the perennial power. That would have left three games which would seemingly be far more manageable in the Horseshoe against Bowling Green, Tulsa and Central Michigan ahead of conference play. But the Buckeyes instead kept the high-profile matchup intact with the Sooners, and according to the Columbus Dispatch on Tuesday, they have sent a letter to Central Michigan informing the program that its services are no longer required.

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith has made it clear recently that strength of schedule is a priority for him, particularly with its likely importance in determining playoff participants as college football shifts away from the Bowl Championship Series. He's recently added future meetings with Texas, TCU and Oregon, and the Buckeyes also have dates lined up with North Carolina, Cincinnati and Boston College as part of an effort to eventually play teams exclusively from the power conferences.

The Buckeyes aren't quite to that point yet. But Ohio State has proved again that the shift in approach for the Big Ten schedule won't change its approach to adding marquee games -- or keeping them.