COLUMBUS, Ohio -- One of six true freshmen who are regular parts of Ohio State's kick coverage team, Devan Bogard loves being on the unit coaches refer to as the piranhas because as assistant Kerry Coombs said, they can't be sharks because they're too young and too small.

“They're midgets,” Coombs said. “I wouldn't want to jump in a pool of piranhas myself. … They're gonna be factors in games, and that's important.”

It's not just on kick coverage where the freshmen come into play for the undefeated, No. 8-ranked Buckeyes (6-0, 2-0 Big Ten). Bogard, in the mix as a backup safety as well as a special teams starter, knows the freshmen have to be ready on a team thinned by player departures during the coaching transition and the three scholarships per season Ohio State is being docked by the NCAA.

For a team coming off an impressive 63-38 win over Nebraska that jumped them into the top 10, that will come into focus even more over the next month with the news announced Monday. Senior starting linebacker and captain Etienne Sabino is out for at least three games after breaking his right fibula against Nebraska and having surgery. Freshman Josh Perry replaced Sabino on Saturday and looks like the guy who will continue to do that.

“You've got to have someone else you can depend on,” Bogard said. “You can't just sit on the sideline and let your brothers go into war and you're not going to help out. You've got to be ready, and you've got to be trusted.”

As good as the Buckeyes are at their best, this is the time of year when their lack of depth could become an issue.

“Everywhere across the country, by game six there are injuries,” running backs and tight ends coach Tim Hinton said. “Those extra bodies all add up, and you can never have enough depth.”

Ohio State's other injuries so far, at running back and safety, happened at positions where veterans were ready. But there are eight true freshmen in the two-deep, and Meyer admitted he is feeling the effects of a roster that has just 76 scholarship players who are part of the team right now, when the NCAA limit is 85.

“We are definitely feeling the issues of a scholarship reduction, absolutely we are,” Meyer said. “Any time there is transition of a coaching staff, there is transition of players and we're feeling that in a big way. When we lost a couple of (defensive) linemen, that hurt us bad. It doesn't show up until someone gets a turf toe or someone has an issue, then it really starts to surface, and we're at that point right now.”

In the second game of the season, true freshmen Noah Spence, Adolphus Washington and Tommy Schutt got major snaps on the defensive line when both Nathan Williams and Michael Bennett were out of the lineup. Now Williams and Bennett are back and the freshmen have vanished for the most part, with Meyer believing that at a school like Ohio State, you shouldn't be forced to play freshmen at that position.

But at linebacker right now, they have little choice in their base defense, Meyer ticking off true freshmen as possible subs for Sabino, whose loss he called a “tremendous blow.”

“Josh Perry has to step up. He has all the talent. David Perkins is a guy that's helping us on kickoff but should be further ahead. Jamal Marcus should be further ahead. Camren Williams played a little bit,” Meyer said. “They're all good kids. They come from good people, good families, and they have talent. So we've just got to accelerate their growth.”

Against Indiana on Saturday, however, Meyer said the Buckeyes should be in their nickel defense a lot. That would help, leaving senior Storm Klein and sophomore Ryan Shazier as the two linebackers in the game.

On the offensive line, the Buckeyes would face a similar issue with an injury, because young untested backups are on the second team. Center Corey Linsley said he has noticed the depth isn't what is typical at Ohio State.

“We have a lot of young guys on the twos who were on the threes, or maybe the on the twos, last year and really kind of sat back and were like, “I got this guy in front of me, that guy's in front of me, I'm not going to try that hard right now. I'll try when I'm going to play,'” Linsley said.

“But I think Coach Meyer is going to expose them from here on out, because we can't have that depth issue anywhere. Because at some point during the season, it's going to get exposed on the field.”

Meyer said he sees the depth problem most on special teams. Perry missed a block that allowed a blocked punt against UAB and led Meyer to say he was going to put more veterans on special teams. But when the Buckeyes were kicking their last extra point after a final touchdown against Nebraska, he couldn't believe he had to have two starting offensive linemen, Jack Mewhort and Andrew Norwell, still out there.

“That shouldn't happen. That's wrong, and that's where the young linemen have to step up and go play,” Meyer said. “That's not right.”

So the piranhas will be ready to cover kicks on Saturday. And some of the OSU freshmen may have to be ready in case they are called on to do more.