Ohio State Football: How the Linebackers Became a Problem for the Buckeyes

In last Saturday’s 52-49 win over Indiana, after Ohio State moved starting fullback Zach Boren to linebacker, he also led the team in tackles.

That is a massive red flag and it’s incredibly surprising that it happened to a school that produced such great linebackers as A.J. Hawk, Bobby Carpenter and James Laurinaitis.

How exactly did this problem come up?

Flash back to 2009, when Ohio State started Brian Rolle and Ross Homan, who were as good of a combination at linebacker as the Buckeyes have had in some time.

That year, OSU recruited four linebackers: Boren (who moved to FB), Jordan Whiting, Storm Klein and Dorian Bell. They added David Durham and Jamel Turner in 2010, then signed Ryan Shazier, Curtis Grant and Conner Crowell in 2011.

Heading into Saturday’s game against Purdue, four of those players have since left the school for various reasons, and only three have started games.

Now while it’s true that not everyone you recruit will turn out to be a star, getting only three starters out of the last ten linebackers signed, not including the 2012 freshmen linebackers, is just bad in several different ways.

Grant and Crowell aren’t quite ready for the big-time yet, with Grant struggling to learn the position and Crowell continuing to fight injury issues.

Continue reading at Bleacher Report – Big Ten Football