Young Buckeyes linemen sense opportunity

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg

Of all the positions to play and all the teams to play for, offensive line at Ohio State seems like a recipe for a redshirt.

But incoming Buckeyes freshmen like Jack Mewhort have new hope to see the field early in their careers. The team is getting a lot younger in 2009, and the offensive line loses three starters. One of the returning starters, center Mike Brewster, earned the job as a true freshman.

"[Line coach Jim] Bollman told all the linemen in our class that we have to come in with the mentality that we're going to compete," Mewhort said. "If I do get in there and get some reps, that's going to be great."

Ohio State's strong recruiting at the line positions the last few years could result in three sophomore starters — Brewster and tackles J.B. Shugarts and Mike Adams — this fall. Mewhort, an ESPNU 150 selection, and Marcus Hall both are candidates to crack the two-deep as true freshmen.

"I don't know if I'm comparable to Michael Brewster," Mewhort said. "He's a great football player. But I look at him and saw him play, that's exciting to see. I'm going to have to get a lot better at what I do in order to get to that position."

As one of four early enrollees, Mewhort feels like he has a head start on the competition. He's still adjusting to the 6 a.m. workouts four times a week but has blended in well with his new teammates.

The team's shift toward younger players is obvious to Mewhort, who lives a floor above quarterback Terrelle Pryor and has seen the rising sophomore take on a greater leadership role.

"It's really exciting, especially with Terrelle running the show," Mewhort said. "We had a 7-on-7 [last week], and just watching him take control, you can tell he wants to lead this team. He's pulling people aside, telling people where to go. You can just tell he's a natural leader."

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Buckeyes make it 5 straight over TTUN

The Seniors have had some ups and downs this season. That said, they are now the first class to play part to beat Michigan 5 consecutive times… a feat heretofore unaccomplished.  Further, they left no doubt by turning 4 unanswered touchdowns to blast Michigan en route to the 3rd biggest margin of victory for the Buckeyes in the series’ history.  The 35 point difference in the 42-7 victory surpasses the 1934 result for third all-time (behind 38pts in 1935 (38-0) and 36pts in 1968 (50-14)).  While Michigan State did us no favor in helping secure the Buckeyes the automatic bid from the Big Ten to the Rose Bowl, the Buckeyes may be in a good position for an at-large berth in the BCS.

The game didn’t exactly play out like I had anticipated a Buckeye rout being.  Indeed, Ohio State’s offense had been unable to sustain drives in the first half.  Beanie kicked off the scoring with a 59 yard rushing touchdown in the first quarter on a 1 play drive.  On Ohio State’s next drive, Beanie converted a 3rd and 1 and Jake Ballard caught a ball on 3rd and 4 to give the Buckeyes a new set of downs.  After Ballard’s catch, and with the Buckeyes behind down and distance at 2nd and 12, Pryor found Brian Hartline deep for a 53 yard touchdown pass.  Two Michigan drives later, Brandon Minor and company had thrashed through our defense on a 14 play 65 yard drive to cut the margin to a single touchdown.  That’s how it stood at intermission with Michigan receiving the ball.  The Wolverines, 20.5 point dogs entering the game, couldn’t feasibly ask for more going to intermission against a team that outmatched them badly at every position.  Even better yet, they would be getting the ball to start the second half.

Fortunately, the second half is where the rout kicked into full gear.  Though the Wolverines’ first drive of the second half moved the chains 4 times, the offense stalled and a Zoltan Mesko punt eventually pinned the Buckeyes within their own 10.  The Buckeyes wasted no time in getting out of the shadow of their own end zone.  A pitch left to Beanie moved the Buckeyes 42 yards to near midfield.  The next play, a Boom Herron scamper, principally behind Alex Boone, put the Buckeyes in the end zone.  The two big plays were shade of Beanie and Pittman in 2006.  A Nathan Williams’ penalty was pivotal on Michigan’s next drive.  Though the roughing the kicker penalty extended Michigan’s drive, it appears that Nathan Williams actually succeeded in roughing up the punter.  Hell, if you’re going to get the penalty, it’s best to do some damage… in for a penny, in for a pound.  After exchanging punts, Michigan’s next drive ended with a low, line drive punt from Mesko that was returned 80 yards by the recently reinstated Ray Small to the Michigan 8 yard line.  Terrelle Pryor found Brian Robiskie in the end zone on the first play from scrimmage for a 28-7 lead.  After a 4 and out and short punt, Dane Sanzenbacher’s 35 yard catch and Boom Herron’s 19 yard touchdown run eventually pushed the lead to 35-7.  Michigan fumbled the kickoff return, allowing The Todd some playing time.  The Todd wasted little time, finding Brian Hartline in the end zone, setting up the final margin at 42-7.

The regular season fell short of expectations, but the Buckeyes did finish out strong.  The 42-7 demolition of Michigan gives the graduating redshirt seniors like Marcus Freeman and Nader Abdallah 5 gold pants over the Wolvereenies and a share of a Big Ten title, their 4th straight.  It also guarantees the Buckeyes their 4th straight 10 win season.  Empirically, this senior class will go down as one of the most successful in program history.

Offense

Terrelle Pryor clearly didn’t have his best game, and this was most evident in the first half.  Pryor began the game with a nice 3rd down conversion, but threw a very errant pass to Stevie Brown that was almost returned for six.  As it was, the Buckeye defense held and KC Lopata missed a field goal.  Curiously enough, I think that very same exchange is from the game script last week for the Wolvereenies against Northwestern.

Pryor struggled with making pre-snap reads.  On one 3rd down play in particular, Pryor failed to even acknowledge a defender who was lined up on the line of scrimmage pre-snap.  As it unfolded, said defender — name escapes me — came from Pryor’s blindside unimpeded and sacked Pryor.  3 of Ohio State’s 8 first half drives ended in Pryor sacks by Brandon Graham, Brandon Harrison and Tim Jamison respectively.  The first drive was Pryor’s interception and the last of those 8 drives was a QB sneak to take the Bucks into the intermission.  2 of the remaining drives were touchdown scores.  Naturally, the number of sacks Pryor took this game — a staggering total of 8, 3 by Tim Jamison — showed up in Pryor’s rushing total for the game.  He finished with -7 rushing yards total for the game.

Elsewhere, Pryor struggled with putting the right amount of air on his passes.  With the way that the Buckeyes’ pass protection held up and with how open our receivers were getting against a not-so-good secondary, it was clear that Todd Boeckman would’ve thrived in this year’s Ohio State-Michigan matchup where he struggled so mightily last year.  More than a few passes looked like wounded ducks; more than a few where misthrown, costing the Buckeyes a deep gain and probable touchdown.  The Buckeyes have the benefit of playing in a January bowl game this year and I’m hopeful that this can get ironed out before then.

Beanie and Boom Herron played a leading role in opening things up for the Buckeyes offense this game.  Indeed, with Headcase Pryor on display as opposed to Road Game Warrior Pryor, their performance was necessary.  Beanie ran for 134 yards on just 15 carries, having been sidelined early in the second half for an undisclosed injury probably related to being upended on a rushing play in the first half.  That said, his 134 yards was good enough to make him just the sixth Buckeye to have back-to-back 1000 yard rushing seasons in the program’s history.  Further, it’s his 3rd straight Michigan game where he had a long touchdown scamper, no doubt etching his place in Buckeye lore as one of the all-time great Wolverine killers.  Beanie also passed Keith Byars for 4th all-time in Buckeye rushing on the touchdown play in question.  Boom may have just announced himself and his intentions to be the next great Buckeye back this game as well, shades of Beanie in 2006.  Boom finished the game with two touchdowns and 80 yards on 8 carries.  Should Beanie go pro after this season, the Buckeye ground game looks to be just fine.  Elsewhere, the rout got so bad that the Buckeyes put in Marcus Williams, a walk-on from Ironton, OH, at the end of the game.  He is, by my account, the Buckeyes’ 5th string tailback and proof positive that the Buckeye staff really did their best to empty their bench and spread around some playing time.

Pryor didn’t exactly have the greatest day passing (5/13, 120 yards, 2 TDs 1 INT), but I thought the receiver corp — to a man — played outstanding this game.  Jake Ballard’s drop of what should’ve been a touchdown that was, by the grace of God, not ruled an interception is the only chink in what was otherwise a stellar performance all around.  Brian Hartline led all performers with 2 catches for 71 yards.  Both of his catches were touchdowns.  Brian Robiskie got on the scoreboard in 10 minutes into the third quarter, finishing with 2 catches and 54 yards.  Dane Sanzenbacher (2/49) had two memorable grabs, his first good for a first down and his second coming on the play that Pryor miraculously kept alive.  It eventually resulted in Boom Herron’s second touchdown run.  Jake Ballard had one grab, which set up a first down and, two plays later, Hartline was in the end zone.  Maurice Wells rounds out the performance of the receivers, catching a screen from The Todd for no gain in garbage time.

I’d be remiss without mentioning the offensive line, but their performance was streaky.  Bryant Browning didn’t help things any.  Michael Brewster didn’t have a much better game than he had against Illinois.  They were facing the strength of Michigan’s defense and were eaten up on some plays.  Beanie’s touchdown run came from some good blocking, but even better playcalling to catch Michigan overloading on Alex Boone.  Boone, to his credit, was the best player on the line today.  Jim Cordle was responsible in large part for Beanie and Boom’s big gains on the Buckeyes’ first drive of the second half.  Fortunately, the Buckeyes have a month and a half to smooth out whatever needs fixin’ on their unit.  I don’t know who we’ll get in a bowl game (likely candidates include: Alabama, Florida, Georgia Tech, Georgia, among others…), but whoever it is will probably eat up our offensive line if they don’t improve over the break.

Defense

There are lots of superlative to spread around for this defense.  Minus one drive, and the early stretches of the second half, the Buckeye defense absolutely dominated the Wolverines offense.  Granted, the Wolverines offense isn’t very good… at all… but a domination is always nice.  Michigan’s first 5 drives were 3 and outs.  It didn’t get too much better as Michigan finished an absolutely obscene 1-17… let me repeat that: 1-17 on 3rd down conversions this game.  Yes, that’s a 3rd down conversion rate of ~6%.  Michigan finished with 198 yards of total offense, though most of it came in the second and third quarters.  Michigan had only 28 first quarter yards and 17 fourth quarter yards.  That’s domination, holmes.  Michigan did thrive in the second and third quarters, largely because of two factors.  First, Nick Sheridan, for a stretch, made the Buckeyes pay for selling out on the screen.   Sheridan’s pump fakes drew the defense to the screen, opening up the deep option for some big gains.  Second, Brandon Minor pounded the Buckeyes for a period, finishing with over 77 yards on 14 carries and Michigan’s lone touchdown.  Curiously enough, I don’t remember Minor’s number being called after Michigan’s second drive of the second half.  In lieu of the punishing Minor, Rodriguez went with freshman Michael Shaw.  I was more than happy he did, but still don’t know why he did.  If it was an injury to Minor, I don’t remember seeing it.

Most of my remarks will be glowing accordingly.  The defensive line shined today.  The trio of Heyward, Abdallah and Worthington rocked Michigan’s offensive line, creating all sorts of havoc for Nick Sheridan.  The trio finished with 17 tackles and 4 TFLs.  Heyward (6 tackles, 1 solo) tallied the lone sack of the group.  Abdallah (5 tackles, 1 solo) had two TFLs on the game.  It seems like this group — and Abdallah in particular — have really put it together in recent weeks.  The coming out party seems to have been the Purdue game.  Granted, this unit did wear out in the final minutes against Penn State, but they seem to be playing at a much better level than they were to begin the season.  Abdallah, of course, gets to take 5 gold pants with him as he finishes his Buckeye career.  Nathan Williams also almost had a safety in the 4th quarter.

James Laurinaitis had your usual ho-hum 10+ tackle day, finishing with 12 tackles (4 solo).  It was just another day at the office for the former Butkus and Nagurski Award winner.  He also had one sack on the day, good for a 4 yard loss.  Marcus Freeman joined Laurinaitis in the party, contributing 7 assisted tackles.  Further, he also registered 2.5 TFLs and had a fumble recovery on the Odoms special teams boner in the first quarter.  Both Laurinaitis and Freeman were everywhere today.  With only so much tackles to go around, Ross Homan was the odd man out.  He only had 2 tackles on the day.

The secondary is crucial to stopping a spread offense team.  Often times, they find themselves isolated, in space, and being responsible for a play from the offense going for no gain, or for 40 yards.  They were up to the task today, though.  Kurt Coleman led all players in the secondary (and was 2nd on the team for the day) with 10 tackles (5 solo).  1.5 of those were TFLs good for a loss of -7 yards.  Malcolm Jenkins contributed 5 tackles (1 solo).  His one pass break-up, pictured to the right, was a necessary one.  It came on a 3rd and 7 on the Wolverines’ 2nd drive of the 3rd quarter.  Jenkins was actually beat on this play (zone coverage that Mathews outran) and had to make up ground to prevent what would’ve been a big gain, a certain first down and probable touchdown.  A lot of the tackles were taken up by the front 7, but a few other notables got in on the action.  With Jermale Hines sidelined this game, Tyler Moeller saw plenty of action at the “star” position, viz, nickelback.  He had 3 assisted tackles, with one of those being a TFL.  Donald Washington and Anderson Russell both had 3 tackles.  Shaun Lane had two tackles and forced a fumble on special teams.  Chimdi Chekwa had 2 solo tackles.  Again, kudos all around.

Miscellany

• The Buckeyes win 5 straight in this series for the first time ever.  The longest consecutive win streak for either side is Michigan’s 9 consecutive victories (1901-09).  I think we can pull that off.
• I’m not a fan at all of either team, anywhere, allowing its players to go to midfield and jaw and shove the opposing team.  As Gabby noted, it wasn’t that ridiculous this game, but it did get a little bit nasty in Louisville.  These things are tinderboxes, so why risk getting a player suspended?
• On a similar note, the chippiness this game was something I haven’t seen since 1997.  Laurinaitis got into it with Michigan’s center in the second half.  Malcolm Jenkins threw down a guy on Michigan’s first drive.  Again: this was really, really tense.
• The margin of victory for Ohio State was third best in series’ history.  There was a point in the game when The Todd was in there where I thought we could set the record.
• The pushing and shoving by one of those Michigan players (Charles Stewart) and the coaching staff was an absolutely strange sight to see.  Just surreal, I don’t recall ever seeing that before.
• The attendance was 4th largest in Ohio Stadium history.

• This senior class has won 43 games and lost only 7.  The 43 victories is tied for most over a 4 year stretch.  A victory in the Bowl Game would make them, empirically, the best senior class in program history.
• The tone for this game was set in a place where I wouldn’t have thought to predict it: special teams.  Every hit on special teams for Michigan’s hapless return team seemed to be bone-jarring.  Further, Nathan Williams’ roughing the punter penalty seemed to do damage to Michigan’s best offensive player.  It may have been responsible for the usually outstanding Mesko’s low, line-drive punt to Ray Small, which set up the 80 yard return.
• Bucknuts has pictures… lotsandlotsa pictures.  A lot of them are from the Senior Day festivities and are worth looking at.

• William Gholston, cousin of Vernon Gholston, was apparently in attendance.  I’m still trying to gather information about what other recruits were in attendance.
• It’s fun to pick on Michigan now, but I still think Rodriguez will get Michigan back to some kind of national prominence.  I’ve been saying that all along, though I definitely won’t go so far as to EEEEEE BARWIS and predict offenses consecutive national championships and offenses that score 50pts a game.  That said, this game showed to me how really behind the curve Michigan is.  They’re further behind the curve than I could’ve imagined.  They’ll get better next year — they almost have to by default — but there’s still a long way to go.  As we saw today, getting the right quarterback for Michigan, and one that they’re expecting to get, is necessary.  But it’s going to be hard.  Michigan fans are expecting that Michigan’s lore will get them a better recruit at the position, that is: a Pat White without the noodle arm.  Yet, a Pat White w/o the noodle arm might be hard to get as he might be wanting a more conventional offense so he can end up in the NFL… and might end up going to a place like Ohio State and becoming the first freshman quarterback to beat Michigan in the program’s history.  I’m sure when Rodriguez finally gets that quarterback, he’ll work wonders with him.  That said, it’s going to be a hard get for Michigan on the recruiting trail.
• JB Shugarts saw the field at right tackle.  Andrew Sweat also saw some action at linebacker.
• The nature of the blowout allowed the seniors to go out on top with token gestures.  Laurinaitis led the team in tackles, Boone was the best lineman on the day, Todd got a touchdown pass, and Robiskie had a touchdown grab.  The only thing missing in terms of the symbolic-ness was a Maurice Wells touchdown.
• Yes, this is a rebuilding year for Michigan, but at least this game went a long way in telling those 1991 and 1993 games to suck it.  Welcome to the 1990s, Michigan.

Fun w/ Pictures: How Firm Thy Friendship…

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Buckeyes clear their last pre-Michigan obstacle, 30-20

It took the Buckeyes awhile to finally put the game away, but a 4th quarter touchdown drive to pad the 2nd half lead to 17 was eventually the game sealer in Ohio State’s 30-20 victory today in Champaign.  With it, the Buckeyes exact some much needed revenge on the Zookers for last season’s upset in Columbus and add to the woes this season for the Illini.  The Illini, last year’s Rose Bowl representative from the Big Ten, is now 5-6 and a road loss to Northwestern away from becoming the first Big Ten team to play in the Rose Bowl one year and finish under .500 the next (Michigan 1965).

Turnovers were the story of the day for the Illini.  Juice’s first play from the Illini’s first drive from scrimmage resulted in a fumble and Terrelle Pryor rushing touchdown.  Later, Malcolm Jenkins blocked his second punt of the season, which was good for a safety and 9-7 lead.  The ensuing short kickoff set up the Buckeyes at the Illini’s 3 yard line and the Buckeyes made good for yet another score — this one on the ground by Beanie.  Later, a certain scoring drive for the Illini was ended by a Kurt Coleman interception.  The ensuing Ohio State drive ended with a Dane Sanzenbacher touchdown.  After taking a 23-7 lead (later a 23-13 halftime lead), the Illini were unable to play catchup.

But controlling for those mistakes, our defense was absolutely torched by big plays in this game.  Juice Williams had 193 yards throwing and two TDs (1 INT), though more than one of those TDs and 50 of those yards came on Ohio State’s obligatory garbage time touchdown drive on defense.  The Illini’s production on the ground was even more embarrassing.  The Illini used a balanced rushing attack from Juice and the two tailbacks (Dufrene and Ford) to rack up 214 yards rushing.  In total, the Illini outgained the Buckeyes 455 to 354.  Still, the Buckeyes won were it counted most, I guess.

Offense

Terrelle Pryor had an outstanding game, though most of his production came on the ground.  His 13 carries for 110 yards was good for second best on the team, behind you know who.  Further, like the Northwestern game the week before, his big plays were absolute backbreakers for Illinois’ defense.  His touchdown run came on 3rd and goal at the one.  His 20yd touchdown throw to Dane Sanzenbacher on the Buckeyes’ 4th offensive series came on 3rd and 5.  Lastly, on the Buckeyes’ first series of the second half, Terrelle Pryor gained 18 yards and a first down on 3rd and 13.

Of course, there’s not a lot to read into the Buckeye passing game because the Buckeyes ran 52 times, allowing Pryor only 10 passing plays.  The casual Buckeye fan would see that disparity and assume only the most banal, stubborn playcalling — an observation without a lot of validity.  What made the rushing game work was some creative misdirection and playcalling by the coaching staff.  The second down call near the goal line on the Buckeyes’ first scoring drive was a shotgun QB off-tackle run with Beanie as lead blocker.  The eventual touchdown was a misdirection fake dive to Boom Herron (I believe) that set up Pryor’s bootleg and walk into the end zone.  Further, the QB draws were an uncommon wrinkle in the Buckeyes’ rushing attack and we saw them a lot this game.  The end result: a lot of rushing plays that worked precisely because the Illini hadn’t seen them before.  It doesn’t hurt to have a guy who runs like a gazelle for a tailback and a guy who runs like an armoured personnel carrier for a tailback.

Also helping the Buckeye rushing attack: the offensive line.  The offensive line didn’t dominate this game, but it did much more than it did against Northwestern the week earlier.  Instead of piling up yards in spite of the offensive line, Beanie was the beneficiary of some blocking up front with Alex Boone looking to be most productive member of that unit.  The running lanes were definitely there, but I still saw some things that worried me.  For the first game this season (perhaps with Penn State as an exception), it seems Michael Brewster was pushed around a lot this game by the Illini’s tackles.  Brewster had been a reliable and consistent performer on the line this season after having been thrown into the mix following the USC game.  He is a freshman and I’m sure that it’ll be learning experience in the long run.  But for this game, it seems like players like fellow freshman Corey Liuget got the better of him.  Steve Rehring has also been slow to pull on plays.

Beanie was exceptional this game, though his fumble to end the Buckeyes’ first drive of the game cost Ohio State at least 3 points and came at a time when most of us were sick to our stomach over the performance of the defense.  Earlier that drive, though, his hurdling of Donsay Hardeman was nothing short of divine.  As it was, he played a leading role in adding to Ohio State’s outstanding 305 yards rushing on the game with 24 carries, 143 yards and a touchdown.  Boom Herron, while not quite Beanie, came in when it looked like Beanie may have tweaked his hammie (oh please no).  He doesn’t have that “Jim Brown incarnate” quality to him, but Boom added 29 yards rushing and showed why Ohio State’s rushing attack should be in good hands should Beanie choose to go pro after this season.

Pryor completed 6 of what was only 10 passing attempts on the game, good for 49 yards.  Ergo, there’s not a lot of superlative to hand out to the receivers.  Hartline was the busiest when his end-arounds are also considered.  He did have a drop, though.  Dane Sanzenbacher led all receivers with 2 catches for 22 yards and a touchdown.  20 of those 22 came on the touchdown reception.  He also took more shots this game, and I’m sure he can’t wait until the Michigan game is over in order to use the month-long layoff to unscramble his brains.

Defense

There had to have been over 20 missed tackles by the Buckeyes this game, and a lot of that was responsible for extended Illinois drives and even touchdowns.  It was far and away the most frustrating element to the defensive performance this game because there was still pressure exerted on Juice Williams (or the backup McGee) by the defensive line.  Yet, the defensive line itself appears to be a mixed bag.  I think they did a great job in getting penetration to take away the interior on rushing plays.  Where rushing yards were piled up on the read option  from the snap — and there were lots of them — the responsibility mostly appeared to be missed tackles or over pursuit by the linebackers and defensive backs.  Further, some of the bigger plays by Dufrene, the Illini’s leading rusher on the game, came in the first drive where the Buckeyes looked totally confused (sigh…) by the no-huddle hurry-up stuff by the Illini.  In terms of Xs and Os, the interior of that line did its job in defending the read option and forcing Juice to keep it.  Heyward led all players in that unit with 7 tackles (2 solo).  Nader Abdallah didn’t have a huge game, but I thought he played well (2 asst tackles and a fumble recovery).

That said, pass rushing still leaves a lot to be desired and that’s where I think the defensive line struggled the most this game.  Juice Williams was sacked only twice, with one of those being a split sack by Worthington and Laurinaitis.  In passing situations, the defensive line was unable to get to Juice with a 4 man rush.  Where they were able to get to him or force him out of the pocket, they were unable to tackle him.  I hate to say it, but in these situations, the defensive line looked… yes… slow.

I don’t know what to make of the linebackers’ performance, collectively at least.  Laurinaitis was second on the team with 8 tackles (5 solo, including the shared sack with Worthington).  He also stripped one of the Illini tailbacks (Jason Ford, I think), though that ball was recovered by another Illinois player on their first drive of the second half.  In short, Laurinaitis had yet another of his workman-type effort games.  The guy gets dogged on by other Big Ten fans, and sometimes by our own fanbase for falling short of AJ Hawk-level expectations, but Laurinaitis is always working, always thinking and always doing.  I’m not sure what to make of the performance of Freeman and Homan.  Freeman was third on the team with 8 tackles (4 solo), but it seems that missed tackles haunted him.  I wonder how much he’s really hindered by his bum ankle.  He did force the Juice fumble in the first quarter, though.  Homan (2 tackles, 1 solo) only had his name called once, but it was off a delicious Juice sack for an 8 yard loss.  It wasn’t necessarily Homan’s spectacular play there, but just a great playcall by Heacock.  Heacock sent both Laurinaitis and Homan on a blitz, with only Illinois’ center there to pick his poison.  He went with the award winning linebacker, giving Homan a clear shot on Juice.

The secondary certainly got a workout with all the missed tackles.  Kurt Coleman, strong safety, led all defenders with 11 tackles (6 solo) and came up with the fortuitous interception to end what was otherwise a very promising drive for the Illini.  Tyler Moeller certainly caught the eye filling in for the injured Jermale Hines at nickelback.  His 7 tackles (5 solo) were good for 4th best on the day for the defense.  Further, he came on more than a few blitzes, finishing with two TFLs.  Moreover, while Freeman actually jarred the ball loose, Moeller gets the stat for the forced fumble in the first quarter (see above picture).  Elsewhere, Malcolm Jenkins showed that, in spite of just 2 tackles on the day, his 3 pass breakups and blocked punt will underscore why he probably won’t regret coming back for his senior year.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

• I hate Michigan.  I hate Michigan with every aching muscle in this tired body of mine.  That is the real enemy; this is the primary objective.  With Illinois out of the way, I now have 6.5 days left in this all too short week to explore the depths of my soul and fully grasp, as a guy who now owns a blog, the menacing specter that the very existence of this haunting, holistic apparition that we label “Michigan” poses to my very essence… to my very being.
• It’s odd that we haven’t called on Nathan Williams or Thaddeus Gibson much the past two games.  Instead, Abdallah, Heyward and even Worthington have been getting the recognition in that unit.
• For the second straight week, the Pasch-Ware coverage of an Ohio State game has been somewhat frustrating.  Most importantly, I don’t care to watch some low income nobody among the Illini fanbase cooking some kind of “food” contraption while a costly holding penalty gets called on an Ohio State lineman and I don’t get to hear who it was.
• On the topic of Ware, his “Ware It Out” segment on the BCS was also cause for consternation… at least when you consider how he comes off in his comments to be overly critical of Ohio State getting any kind of perceived preferential treatment over Utah or Boise State in at-large selections.  True, it would not be fair for Ohio State to get any kind preferential treatment by virtue of marquee value or travel considerations because that would corroborate my observation that the BCS is a glorified country club.  But in the same breath, while Andre Ware doesn’t want Ohio State getting that preferential treatment, he also wants the Big 12 and the SEC to get 3 teams in each?  He did say that.  There’s two ways to interpret that, and Andre Ware is free to own up to any one of them: A) Andre Ware is against Ohio State getting an at-large bid [fair enough] and is couching this viewpoint in an inconsistent logic or B) Andre Ware is an idiot.
• We’ll all have to watch to see what comes from the Beanie and Abdallah injuries.  We’ll watch with baited breath if Beanie pulled a hammie while I think Abdallah went down with a cramp.  His injury didn’t look too serious.
• The Illini certainly were chippy this game.  More importantly, they still lost.  Suck it, Vontae Davis.
• On Beanie, part of me really wishes he would go pro after this season.  It’s not for fear that his injury problems might hurt us next year and throw off our offense, just that with how fragile the big backs are in the NFL, I’d hate to think him feeling he had to come back would result in another injury that could compromise his draft stock or, worse yet, his career.  If he decides to go pro after this season and secure his money, I don’t think any Buckeye fan would blame him.  I certainly wouldn’t.  Instead, I’d fondly remember one of the best tailbacks of my generation and one of the all-time greats in Ohio State history.
• I’m hoping the Illini were taking notes on how the game ended.  More importantly, an important conference road win doesn’t have to be celebrated with by a flag-planting ceremony at midfield.  Did you see that, Ron Zook?  I’m hoping you did.
• With Penn State winning today against Indiana, the Buckeyes can hope for no greater than a shared conference crown.  Either Penn State or Michigan State will finish the season with only one conference loss.
• Illinois finishes up next week at Evanston… a game that Mike Kafka may not make on account of a concussion suffered against Michigan today.  A loss would make them bowl ineligible.
• More news and notes to be found here.  Such as: Dane Sanzenbacher’s TD catch was the first of the season and only the second of his career.  The first of his career came against Youngstown State last year, his first career game.

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Buckeyes pound on some nerds, win 45-10

The Buckeyes put enough of a second-half beatdown of the Wildcats that would have Coach Harris pleased.  Unlike his Adams College Atoms, we did not have our asses whipped by a bunch of goddamn nerds.

That’s not to say that the 45-10 victory over Northwestern today was a cakewalk.  Far from it.  In fact, I’d go so far as to say that winning this game by such a comfortable margin was probably reducible to luck.  The Buckeyes found themselves behind down and distance often in this game.  1st and 10 became 2nd and 9 and eventually 3rd and 14-16.  Yet, the Buckeyes made good on 8 of 13 third down conversions in these incredible holes to put themselves in a position to win.  The Buckeyes struggled with Kafka’s running early into the game and the offensive line was lucky enough that Northwestern’s defensive line got more tired than they did.  The Beanie 55yd touchdown was, as Gabby indicated, the sexiest you will ever see awful offensive line play look.  The Buckeyes kept digging their own graves on offense, but somehow leaped out of them.  How this happened over and over again for the Buckeyes is probably best chalked up to luck, with some moderate doses of tactical brilliance.

The first drive of the game was a microcosm for some of the problems I’d see the rest of the game.  The Buckeyes didn’t pass on first down until 6 minutes left in the second quarter.  They didn’t start doing it in earnest until late in the second half.  But on that first drive, the predictable playcalling for Beanie created 3rd and 8 initially, where Pryor hooked up with Robiskie for a first down.  After moving the sticks, the Buckeyes found themselves at 3rd and 16 after two rushing plays, after which Hartline inexplicably popped open for a 44yd gain to the Northwestern 9.  The Buckeyes eventually took a 7-0 lead.

However, Northwestern took the ball right down the field for a touchdown of their own as a response.   It was during this drive that Northwestern’s offense looked like the Tim Tebow-led Gators from last year.  Yet, after some consternation of some poor tackling, lack of discipline (4 penalties) and the inability to contain Kafka that eventually resulted in knotting up the score at 7, things largely settled down.  Both sides exchanged punts afterwards, giving the Buckeyes the ball at their own 28 yard line.  The same execution issues haunted the Buckeyes again, but they came through on a 3rd and 10 with a 22yd pass to Rory Nicol.  After a Cordle false start, the Buckeyes went off left tackle again with Beanie.  It was looking to be a busted play again, but Beanie eluded a few tackles and was in the clear for his highlight 55yd TD run.  The only thing any offensive lineman did on that play was Alex Boone, who gave Beanie a little push right as he was breaking free.

Eric Peterman fumbled on the second play on Northwestern’s ensuing drive, setting up a Buckeye field goal to take a 17-7 lead.  Still, it looked like Beanie’s touchdown run had awoken the offense.  After Northwestern’s next drive ended in a punt, the Buckeyes began their next series at their own 10 yard line.  It was here that the playcalling was mixed up a bit for our amusement.  Terrelle Pryor threw deep for Robiskie on first down, to no avail.  After a 2 yard rush by Beanie, Terrelle Pryor hooked up with Dane Sanzenbacher on 3rd and 8 for 14 yards and a first down as Pryor kept the play alive.  After another incomplete first down pass and a 3 yard loss by Beanie, Terrelle Pryor scrambled 15 yards for a first down on 3rd and 13.  On the next two carries, Beanie gained 8 yards to set up a 3rd and a short 2 at midfield.  Alex Boone, however, wanted to show a Northwestern defender how manly he is, was flagged for unneccessary (and unbelievably idiotic) roughness to push the Buckeyes back to 3rd and 16.  Terrelle Pryor bailed out Boone by rushing for 21 yards and a first down.  The rest was academic.  Boom Herron took the next two carries for 18 yards.  Pryor capped off the play with a touchdown strike to Robiskie and take a 24-7 lead into intermission.

In the interest of brevity, I’ll move on to superlatives without going over much of the second half.  Suffice to say, things got a lot worse for Northwestern after the second half resumed.  The Buckeyes added 3 touchdowns while Northwestern could only take the second half kickoff for a field goal.  The Buckeyes won big, even experimenting with home run balls up 3 touchdowns in what I hope was a means to impress the Orange Bowl Committee members on hand to watch the Buckeyes play.

Offense

Terrelle Pryor looked fantastic this game.  His 9/14 197 yards and 3 TD performance isn’t a career best.  It’s not more yards than he had against Penn State and it’s not more touchdowns than he had against Troy.  However, the quality of his play was much better than any of those two games.  Andre Ware and Dave Pasch kept remarking during the game that this appeared to have been the game where Terrelle Pryor announced himself to the college football landscape.  It would be nice if it was, but I’ll shy away from that proclamation for now.  As it was, Terrelle Pryor improved on several facets of his game.

In previous games, Terrelle Pryor was a run first quarterback.  He became a one-read quarterback and eventually started going through progressions as a QB.  In this game, though, we saw even more field vision for Pryor.  Of course, Pryor had made it priority one to try to make a play with his arm and not rely on his feet.  It wouldn’t be fair to peg him as a run-first quarterback as such.  However, the difference we saw in this game looked to be one of scanning downfield while escaping pressure, rather than just staring downfield and hoping that someone would come into view.  No play better characterizes this than the Nicol touchdown in the final seconds of the third quarter.  Elsewhere, Pryor also made better, quicker decisions on when to run and when to keep looking downfield.  He also discovered how to throw the ball away as well, granted it came when he was 20 yards in the backfield with Corey Wootton right in his grill.  He can still work on his touch, but he is just a true freshman and this was the best possible response he could have to the Penn State game two weeks before.

Beanie was a monster this game in spite of his offensive line.  He struggled early  into the game as his offensive line was giving him no help, but he made a great individual effort.  Indeed, with the score knotted at 7-7 early into the second quarter, it seems his individual effort to turn a certain 4-5 yard loss into a 55 yard touchdown run was just the play to wake up the Buckeyes.  And let’s be frank too: that was ALL Beanie on that play.  Beanie ended up finishing with two touchdowns and 140 yards on 28 carries, good enough for a clip of 5 yards per carry.  Boom Herron and Terrelle Pryor both registered 6 carries, chipping in 38 yards and 33 yards respectively.  Herron also got the garbage time touchdown, the first such last second touchdown in a Buckeye rout since Brandon Saine’s run against Washington last year.

The offensive line deserves special attention here because, as I’ve mentioned earlier, Terrelle Pryor and Beanie succeeded in spite of the best efforts of their offensive line.  Now, they weren’t all-game awful as they were against USC, Purdue or Penn State, but it seems like they were the benefactors of the fact that Northwestern’s defensive line tired before they did.  Most of this was evident in run blocking, with pass protection not much of a problem for the Buckeyes.  Further, it seems to be the usual suspects.  Alex Boone’s unneccessary roughness penalty was not only unbelievably stupid, but it’s in the same spirit as his penalties against USC.  That is, it’s his ’senior leadership’ hurting the team, which, in this game, was atoned for by freshman abilities.  The irony wasn’t lost on me.  Further, Browning was a bit of a liability this game and Rehring didn’t create much room on the ground either.  I may have been more drawn to the Wootton-Browning matchup and thus didn’t get a good look at him, but I didn’t see much transgressions from Michael Brewster.  He certainly didn’t turn a 3rd and a short two at midfield to a 3rd and 16 with a dumb penalty.  Buckeye fans should still be weary of the direction of our offensive line, since we can’t feasibly expect to out-stamina Michigan at the end of November.

If the receivers were still upset behind closed doors about the direction of the passing game, they would really have nothing to complain about in this game.  Further, it’s not clear that Ray Small’s absence changed much in terms of personnel.  The veteran wide receivers got most of the touches from Pryor and, for the first time, it looked like Robiskie became Pryor’s favorite target in lieu of Sanzenbacher.  Robiskie’s 3 catches for 58 yards and two touchdowns stood out among the receivers, though Brian Hartline’s performance looks a bit better on paper (2 catches, 90 yards).  Other players got some love too.  Dane Sanzenbacher — whose lone fan among Buckeye bloggers is writing this post — had only one catch, but it was good for 14 yards and an important 3rd down conversion on an eventual touchdown drive.  Rory Nicol (2 catches, 28 yards and 1 TD) and Brandon Smith (1 catch, 7 yards) also got some action as well.  I’m not sure if they’ve been upset about the passing game as well, but having Pryor in the game is the only way the fullback and tight end see the ball.  Curiously enough, I don’t remember seeing DeVier Posey or Lamaar Thomas at any point in this game.

Defense

I’ll go ahead and say it: our defensive line looked outstanding this game.  The real eyecatcher among the unit was Nader Abdallah, who may have had the best game of his career.  The Beast from the Middle East had eight tackles (3 solo, 5 assisted), good for third on the team.  He also split a TFL, broke up two passes and registered a QB hit.  Abdallah’s dominance in the interior took away any chance of Stephon Simmons (14 carries, 39 yards) being a factor for Northwestern’s offense.  So, while Kafka got most of the carries (29 carries, 83 yards), he did so because he had to.  Elsewhere, Nathan Williams — true freshman — had back to back sacks early in the fourth quarter.  In fact, he was the one responsible for taking the Wildcats from the Buckeyes’ 12 yard line to the 39 yard line.  He’s also responsible for denying Kafka from finishing with 100 yards rushing on the game.  He eventually finished with 7 tackles (3 solo, 4 assisted), 2.5 TFLs good for a loss of 28 yards.  Cameron Heyward (3 tackles, 1 solo) forced a fumble on an 8 yard TFL that was recovered by Doug Worthington (4 tackles, 1 solo).  Dexter Larimore was active, but only had an assisted tackle. for his efforts.  I don’t know how much of this is an indication that our defensive line is finally ready to be a force or how much of it is reducible to Northwestern’s offensive line being not that good.  But with that said, I’ll take this performance and enjoy it.

I don’t know why, but it seemed like our linebackers were slow today.  James Laurinaitis was his usual active self this game, leading all Buckeyes with 11 tackles.  Yet, only two of those were solo, but still indicative of Laurinaitis being active and around the ball.  He even had an interception late in the second half as the game was already decided.  Still, it seemed that when Kafka was able to elude the defensive line, or when he found a receiver open in the middle, our linebackers were not up to the task.  Ross Homan’s 8 tackle (2 solo) and Marcus Freeman’s 5 tackle (2 solo) performance don’t appear to be real good proxies for that, though.  Both also had a TFL.  I guess I would need to rewatch the game to make sense of what I thought I saw.

Similarly, it seems like the performance of the secondary was a mixed bag.  Kurt Coleman had 7 tackles (5 solo) and Anderson Russell was second on the team with 9 tackles (5 solo).  Anderson Russell even had the presence of mind to get in bounds to recover the Peterman fumble in the second quarter.  Still, both had costly penalties leveled against them.  Jenkins and Hines may have been the best performers on the defense.  Hines had 5 solo tackles (6 total) while Jenkins forced the Peterman fumble, eventually finishing with 7 tackles (3 solo).  Still, if the treatment of the secondary seems all too brief, it’s just that the defensive line — especially Abdallah — was the biggest story on the defense today.

Miscellany

• Jim Tressel put on his Barry Switzer hat at some point after the 3rd quarter intermission.  I’m sure there’ll be questions about that too, such as A) why go for a fake punt while up 3 touchdowns? B) Why keep throwing 40-50 yards into the end zone while up 3 touchdowns late in the 4th quarter?
• Jim Tressel’s grimace at Boom Herron’s last second touchdown seems odd.  The only reason I can think he did that was to try to allay Pat Fitzgerald from powerbombing him after the final gun.  After all, why was Jim Tressel upset that he scored that touchdown when he called the damn play? I’m sure he could’ve told them to kneel if he wanted.  That is, unless Jim Tressel just sent out his second team offense on to the field with no directions.
• Lamaar Thomas didn’t seem too particularly fast returning kicks, but I like the attention he shows to making sure he has a firm grip on the football.  For freshmen kick returners, that’s a problem.
• We really should throw more on first downs earlier into the game since it’s just too obvious for everyone involved what the playcall would be otherwise.  This would be fine if we could block, but we can’t.  Alabama can get away with predictable playcalling by virtue of their offensive line.  We can’t.
• The Orange Bowl as a destination for the Buckeyes? Wouldn’t we get some crappy ACC Champion then? Coooooool.

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Tuesday Tid-Bits

As everyone raced to the polls today and is awaiting the election results, here are some “tid-bits” going around the blog universe:

• Rumor has it “Dick Rod” is losing another highly regarded player in “star” running back, Sam McGuffie. Interestingly enough, this rumor was found on a pro-Michigan blog, so there may actually be some validity to it. Good job scUM, your really doing your best to represent the pride and tradition of the Maize and Blue. Oh yeah, did I mention how much I love the fact that the Wolverines aren’t going to be in a bowl this year?

• Speaking of Rich Rod, you gotta love Justin Boren’s Halloween costume. The more and more I hear and see about this guys, the more I love him. He is going to be the best (yeah, I said it) offensive lineman on our team next year and will give a Beanie-less running game the big boost it will need, most likely starting on the right side of Michael Brewster.

• Northwestern QB CJ Bacher, will play this week ,if he is fully healed. If not, Mike Kafka will go for the Wildcats, making his second consecutive start. Kafka ran for 217 yards against Minnesota last week, setting the Big Ten record for rushing yards by a quarterback in a single game.

• In an unofficial scrimmage in Oxford, against the Miami (OH) Redhawks, word is the basketball Buckeyes got a “whooping”. Dallas Lauderdale, who reportedly was looking like the teams most improved player, featured a minor setback with a shoulder injury, and BJ Mullens apparently was not looking like a lottery pick, to say the least. One good thing to note, Jeremie Simmons ran the point and looks like the guy who will start the year in that slot. At least PJ Hill won’t be running the show!

• Back to Football…..Malcolm Jenkins was named one of 13 finalists for the Thorpe Award, given to the nation’s best defensive back. Jenkins is one of three candidates from the Big Ten, the other two being MSU’s Otis Wiley, and Illinois’ Vontae Davis.

• Last, but not least here are the latest Bowl Projections from ESPN. Bruce Feldman isn’t showing the Bucks much love, putting them in the Outback Bowl against South Carolina. Mark Schlabach, on the other hand, thinks we will win out, earning a trip to the Rose Bowl in a rematch against USC. What do you think will be the Buckeyes’ fate?

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What to Watch for – Week 10

Well, life goes on.  Apparently there was some objection to the tone of the synopsis post about the Penn State game, which apparently was indicative of cliffjumping.  In my defense, any perception of that is solely that of the reader, and not the author.  Lest we forget that we shouldn’t conflate exasperation with suicidal tendencies.  There’s plenty of other reasons to jump off the cliff, literally speaking.  These would include problems at work, home, living in Alabama, the sense of powerlessness in light of domineering discourses that subjectify us, the inability to find motivation to deal with the banalities of Western life and, first and foremost, the inevitable realization that any understanding of humanity or consciouness — that is: being, as such — is epiphenomenal and ultimately an emergent and (so far) unknowable phenomenon contingent on the action and reaction of mindless, physical particles.  The inevitable realization that all consciousness, thought, emotion and even behavior is a stochastic phenomenon in a universe governed by the very chaos of these random energy reactions might lead people to abandon hope in the Enlightenment metanarrative.  The ol’ alma mater dropping a decision on the gridiron should not, however.

I did have a post ready for yesterday on the Bollman situation.  I put up the poll question for this week precisely because of the awful performance of the offensive line against Penn State and how Bollman has become the least popular person in Ohio at the moment.  I was curious to see what the vote of confidence was in Bollman across the board, viz, that his departure would be the only way to address the offensive line problems.  To be honest, I like seeing a good split and that not everyone is rushing to 86 him.  On the post I had planned, in short, was thinking about the Bollman situation and wondering if the offensive line problems are overdetermined, and thus not entirely his fault.  Entering the season, I thought Bollman, moreso than Jim Heacock, had identified the nature of the problem: recruiting.  The Buckeyes had probably come to the realization that they reached on in-state lineman prospects in order to secure an easier comitment and that they were now suffering the consequences for it.  This would explain Steve Rehring and, to some extent, Bryant Browning.  This would explain Kirk Barton’s productivity albeit relatively low ceiling, and also account for how a true freshman (Michael Brewster, 5-star Bollman project) has probably been the most consistent performer on the line this season.  There’s also some idiosyncratic personnel issues and, try as he might, Jim Bollman can’t police Alex Boone from being the Wilt Chamberlain of Beer and force him to put in the necessary off-the-field effort for the likes of a USC.  Further, the offensive line… indeed the defensive line as well… indeed, the whole team for the most part… just look tired.  Conditioning, of course, is Lichter’s responsibility and not Bollman’s, per se.  If the conditioning is affecting their jump out of the gates, that’d be more Lichter’s responsiblity as “Director of Football Performance” dealing Bollman a smaller hand.  In trying to prepare this post, and revealing it here, I wasn’t suggesting that Bollman is blame free or that our frustrations with him are totally misguided.  Rather, I was just curious if, though the offensive line debacles reflect very poorly on him, the said debacles aren’t entirely his fault.  Of course, there’s some discrepant evidence I couldn’t explain, such as Ben Person falling well short of expectations and the ghosts of Connor Smith and Kyle Mitchum (two former Army All-Americans).  I wasn’t pretending to have all the answers, just trying to rephrase the question.  In light of that, though, I thought against running that post… even though I think I just did.

Anyways, on to the regular Wednesday features.  With the Ohio State football program suspended for a week (formally called a bye week), there’ll be lots of college football to watch.  So what’s on?

Tuesday

• Houston @ Marshall (ESPN or ESPN2, one of those… I forget, 8:00PM ET).  Apparently Houston has the third most explosive offense in the NCAA when using the proxy of yards per game.  You wouldn’t know that, though, from watching this game and watching Marshall jump out to a 30-3 lead late in the 3rd quarter.  After 3 quarters of this sleeping pill, I yawned and tuned into Greg Oden’s pro debut in that pseudo-sport called the NBA¹.  The only redeeming quality of this game was watching that Houston wide receiver shatter his leg running into an equipment cart in the end zone.  Nice (attempt at) a catch, blanco niño.  But too bad your ass got saaaaaaaaaat.

Thursday

• South Florida @ Cincinnati (ESPN, 7:30PM ET).  Big East football. Thursday night. Chris Spielman and that cue ball will probably be in the booth.  Yep, sounds familiar.

Saturday

• Northwestern @ Minnesota (ESPN2, 12:00PM ET).  Minnesota is one Penn State national title game, one Ohio State loss, and 4 wins away from… gulp… a trip to Pasadena!  I hold no ill will towards Minnesota, so I think it’s kind of cool to see them in this position.  That is, I think it would be cooler if they didn’t change their uniforms to the NIKE’s Bitch Template ™ of uniforms.   Their last set of uniforms under Glen Mason was just so classic.  I’m sure Gopher fans don’t mind aesthetics like I do.  I don’t have much of an interest in who wins this game, other than seeing Northwestern play Vanderbilt in the Outback Bowl.  Oh, and since this is a noon kickoff, and because Northwestern is involved, I think I’m declaring a Pam Alert ™.  I have to be one of a handful of college football fans on the planet that doesn’t hate Pam Ward, but most everyone else I know does.
• Wisconsin @ Michigan State (ESPN, 12:00PM ET).  Two Big Ten games at the noon slot on the ESPN Family of Networks.  Nice. Niiiiiice.  Feels like home and it makes the Southerners down here change the channel.  The more inclined they are to turn off the television, the greater the probability (albeit infinitesimally small) of them picking up a book and reading it.  Good. Goooooood.
• Central Michigan @ Indiana (BTN, 12:00PM ET).  Wait, what happened here.  Is Central Michigan now a Big Ten team or did Indiana get relegated to the MAC?
• Air Force @ Army (ESPNU, 12:00PM ET).  Though Navy has the in-road to yet another successful defense of an outright Commander-in-Chief trophy, it’s service academy football and thus you must watch it.  Communist.
• Michigan @ Purdue (BTN, 12:00PM ET).  PILLOW FIGHT!! Loser gets last place in the Big Ten.
• Pittsburgh @ Notre Dame (NBC, 2:30PM ET).  See, this is the kind of filth that the FCC should be keeping us from watching.
• Florida @ Georgia (Jacksonville) (The SEC Network, 3:30PM ET).  I’m not sure if The Game Formerly Known as the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party but Now Known as The Love Love Love Share Share Share Festival of Good Sportsmanship and Teetotaling because the SEC Doesn’t Want to Own Up to the Fact that Alcoholism is the Only Means of Coming to Grips with the Brutality of the Southern Condition is the least interesting mid-season rivalry game in college football.  Georgia tried to spruce things up by doing some kind of celebration thingie in the end zone after scoring their first touchdown last year.  This, of course, made The Urban Meyer upset that they would do this to The Urban Meyer’s team.  A pox on them, The Urban Meyer declared in his biography, (The) Urban’s Way.  This egregious affront to The Urban Meyer’s sensibilities shan’t be forgotten by The Urban Meyer.  It shan’t!
• Iowa State @ Oklahoma State (ABC, 3:30PM ET).  Wait wait wait… there’s an Iowa State football team?  Again, I’ll be rooting for Oklahoma State.  Their defensive coordinator created Antonio Smith and their head coach yells at women, he’s 40² and he can take it.
• Florida State @ Georgia Tech (ABC, 3:30PM ET).  Hoo-ray! Paul Johnson on national television.  Paul Johnson is the only redeeming value the ACC has.  That said, his arrival at Georgia Tech coincides with the Ramblin’ Wreck’s putrid new uniforms.  I think they’re going for the LSU/Dallas Cowboys wear-white-at-home chic.  Pass.  Oh, and Georgia Tech’s home loss to Virginia set up the 5-3 Cavaliers… yes, 5 wins and 3 losses, to win the Whatever-It’s-Called Division and play upstart… yes: upstart… Florida State out of the Whatever-the-Other-One-is-Called Division in the ACC Title Game. Hmmm.
• Oregon @ California (ABC, 3:30PM ET).  I think ABC owes us some kind of explanation for why non-USC Pac-10 games continue to be televised at this time slot.
• Brigham Young @ Colorado State (The MTN, 6:00PM ET).  In preparation for this football game, Brigham Young’s football team has been having nightly cookie and punch fellowships, playing charades and putting together a play about how much Colorado State can ruin family life.  From what I’ve been told, Elder Max Hall’s performance was exquisite.
• Washington @ USC (probably Fox Sports LA, 6:30PM ET).  Assume crash position, Husky fans.
• Tennessee @ South Carolina (ESPN2, 7:00PM ET).  South Carolina’s defensive line and Tennessee’s secondary notwithstanding, I don’t see how these two teams are anything other than cellar-dwellars in the Big Ten.
• Texas @ Texas Tech (ABC, 8:00PM ET).  I think Lubbock, Texas is hosting its first Gameday ever, but that still won’t make me that interested in watching this game.  That said, Will Muschamp, the Longhorns’ defensive coordinator, reminds me of Will Forte’s impersonation of former Georgia Senator Zell Miller.  I can’t find any of the Zell Miller impersonations on the intertubes, so feel free to share if you can find one.
• Nebraska @ Oklahoma (ESPN, 8:00PM ET).  I’m more tempted to watch this game than Texas-Texas Tech.  Yet, whenever I watch a game with Oklahoma playing, I have to hit the mute button.  Their fight song is far and away the most annoying in college football (and it’s basically ripped off from Yale’s Boola-Boola cheer) and Oklahoma’s band plays it after EVERY SINGLE PLAY. Ugh.

Sunday

• East Carolina @ UCF (ESPN, 8:15PM ET).  Why is UCF playing on Sunday now?

1. Any sport where Derek Fisher is considered an “athlete” can’t be genuine.
2. Yes, I know he’s 41 now…

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Ohio State’s Monster.com Posting: "Will Pay Top Euro for Offensive Coordinator!"

I’m sick…physically ill. If I have to watch the 2008 edition of the Ohio State offense again, I might just vomit all over the computer screen and then hit send, and that will be my article for next week.

WHEW! That felt good to get off my chest. Almost like a good ol’ verbal teaspoon of Pepto-Bismol for the tummy. As a matter of fact, it felt so good, I think I’m gonna drink myself a whole verbal bottle full…

Explain to me, the “common man,” who doesn’t know the true intellect of football, how you can go count ‘em…one…two…three college football games during a singular season without scoring an offensive touchdown?!?!

Better yet, explain to me, the “ignorant fan,” the following numbers out of 120 Division I college football teams…

- 95th in the NCAA in passing offense

- 24th in the NCAA in rushing offense (mind you, this is what Ohio State does AT LEAST 75 percent of the time)

- 67th in the NCAA in scoring offense

- 95th in the NCAA in total offense

- 41st in the NCAA in third down efficiency

- 99th in the country in sacks allowed

Now for the greatest riddle of all: If an offense can’t throw the football, can’t convert third downs, and can’t protect the quarterback…how does it score???

Ah…but it’s a trick question, because if you are THE Ohio State University, you don’t know what the end zone is unless you are the defense and special teams! Because it’s become perfectly clear that this offense can’t find it.

Jim Bollman should be fired IMMEDIATELY…IMMEDIATELY. And they should scour the country to find an assistant coach to try to teach this offensive line how to friggin’ block!

Chris Wells, your preseason All-American tailback, your workhorse…22 carries, 55 yards for a grand whopping total of 2.5 yards per carry! The offensive line got no push, there were no holes, no cutback lanes, nothing…

Alex Boone (6′8″, 316), Bryant Browning (6′4″, 312), Ben Person (6′4″, 323), Steve Rehring (6′7″, 335), Jim Cordle (6′4″, 300), Michael Brewster (6′5″, 295)…Not one player under 295, and you’re gonna try and tell me that you can’t make a hole?

This isn’t just about Penn State: it’s about Ohio, Troy, and USC too. The only thing consistent about this unit all year has been its inconsistencies. When Michael Brewster, a true freshman, is your best offensive lineman among four-year starters and multi-year starting seniors…there is a big problem.

And don’t tell me that the reason OSU can’t run the football is because the Buckeyes aren’t a threat to throw the ball deep. It’s garbage.

Navy leads the nation in rushing annually, and everyone from the opposing head coach to Lil’ Tommy the 10-year-old popcorn vendor in section 146 ZZZ knows it’s coming. But the Naval Academy offensive line, (which by the way, probably AVERAGES about 275 pounds per lineman), are tough, hard-nosed, and disciplined. They know their assignments and they execute them, and they carry out their game plan.

Oh…game plan? Almost forgot! Leads me to my next dose of Pepto…

An offensive coordinator for Ohio State…I think the time has come for the alumni association, the board of trustees, and the fanbase to rise up together and DEMAND one. And NO…I don’t mean a “co-offensive coordinator” like Jim Bollman claims to be. And NO…I don’t mean bringing in some coordinator who is a puppeteer for Jim Tressel.

I’m talking a full-blown, independent, young, energetic, filled with new ideas, offensive coordinator that Jim Tressel can have a good working relationship with.

Because I, along with the rest of BuckeyeNation, am sick to death of an offense that used to have explosive weapons all over the field (Terry Glenn, Eddie George, David Boston, Joey Galloway, Teddy Ginn, Rickey Dudley, Maurice Clarett etc….etc….etc….) and has potential now with DeVier Posey, Lamaar Thomas, Terrelle Pryor, Chris Wells, Brian Robiskie etc….being wasted in the philosophy of “Tresselball.”

This is an offense where our offensive coordinator thinks the most important play in football is the punt! Wrong, Mr. Tressel: The most important play in football is the play that gets you first downs, moves the damn chains, and gets you into the end zone! That’s the most important play in football!

I know I’m angry right now. I also know that this isn’t a nonsensical rant. These are well thought-out sentiments that are being expressed with the hint of “Tresselballitis” that is rumbling from the pit of my stomach.

It may not seem like it from this article, but I’m an Ohio State fan and a Jim Tressel fan. I think he is an excellent leader of young men. I think he is centered as an individual, wise, and offers a great father figure to the players. But I think we are coming to some dead ends as a program.

I’ve been told on many occasions by people “in the know” that Jim Tressel won’t give up play calling duties. Well, I think it’s time for the people above him to make him do just that. If Jim Tressel can’t understand that, is he really still right for this program any more?

A coach has to be willing to adapt. A coach has to be willing to change. If you can’t do that, you risk your program becoming stale. Yes, Ohio State is Jim Tressel’s football program, but he still answers to alumni, to board members, and to you, the fan—and it’s about time we start demanding some change.

There is absolutely no reason this team should be as inept as they are offensively. None…N-O! N-E!…zero, zilch, nada…This team has talent across the board to get inventive, creative, and become explosive.

Ohio State has the talent offensively to be just as prolific as the Texas Techs, Missouris, Oklahoma States, Oregons and Illinois of the world. None of them have “recruited” to the level of Ohio State, so why are they outperforming us?!?!?

Bottom line, stop wasting this team’s offensive talent. Fire Bollman, who can’t motivate this offensive line to block, and open up the world’s largest athletic department budget to hire an offensive coordinator that can help find an offense that, excluding ‘06-’07, has been absent for the past 10 years.

Hell, at least get us into the Top 50 in most offensive categories (I know we’re not like Ohio State or anything). Let’s see what we can do…if that isn’t asking too much.

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Pryor fumble gives the game away

Well, all good things must come to an end.  The Buckeyes haven’t lost to Penn State in Columbus since Penn State joined the Big Ten.  With Pryor’s disastrous fumble, Penn State took the lead with 6 and a half minutes left in the 4th quarter and held on to win.  They even scored more than 10 points too in the 13-6 win.  It’s been a good season so far for Penn State.  They’ve gotten over their Madison demons, finally beat Michigan for the first time in 10 years and, now, have won in Columbus for the first time in 8 tries.

What was most disappointing about the loss is the same litany of mistakes that keep occurring time after time when the Buckeyes play a top quality opponent.  In this game, the Buckeyes struggled with open field tackling.  The Nittany Lions were able to turn sure sacks into at least incompletion, TFLs into positive (if minimal) yardage, and minimal yardage into big gains.  The Buckeyes struggled, often, in tackling Clark and Royster, which may not have mattered in the aggregate, but certainly changed the dynamic of the game circumstantially.  Further, our offensive line, generally speaking, played about as bad a game as you can play.  The Gators, Tigers, Trojans… even the Boilermakers… all split their rush ends wide to success every time on passing situations.  Every time.  The Buckeyes NEVER pick this up.  The same mistakes. Over, and over… and over and over and over.

And still, in spite of the offensive line’s inability to move the ball forward on the ground and in spite of the problems with open field tackling, the Buckeyes were in a prime position to win the game in the 4th quarter.  The usually reliable Kevin Kelly missed a tying field goal wide right with 12 minutes left in the 4th.  Later, the Buckeyes were driving, 3rd and a short 1, approaching Penn State’s territory.  The playcall was predictable: a QB sneak.  All Pryor had to do was plow forward behind his offensive line for a first down.  Instead, he bounced it outside.  To be fair, I think he had the right idea.  By bouncing it outside, he had one man to beat, who had a questionable angle on him, and could’ve picked up huge yardage and perhaps a backbreaking TD.  That is, he had the right idea until the defender took a lunge at the ball and poked it out.  A frantic scramble later, Penn State had the ball within the Ohio State 40 and cashed it in for 6 with 6 minutes left.  Down 10-6, the Buckeyes picked up some yards, but were unable to get past their own 30 on a 3rd down play.  The Buckeyes punted, forced a FG to make it a full touchdown deficit with a minute left and Ohio State out of timeouts.  Eventually, Pryor found the Penn State secondary in the end zone to seal the game for the Nittany Lions.

Though not part of my frustrations, the Nittany Lions were another top notch opponent (the kind we usually lose to) who managed to play a conference road game and not turn the ball over.  Hell, they didn’t even get penalized.  In spite of the Buckeye defense holding firm and the Nittany Lion offense struggling to keep drives alive, Penn State played about as well as you can in this game and put themselves in a position to win in the 4th quarter.  Unlike the Buckeyes, they capitalized on it.

Offense

First and foremost, the offensive line is the biggest reason Ohio State didn’t win this game.  They created virtually nothing for Beanie (23 carries, 55 yards), and Penn State’s front four is too good for Beanie to handle by his lonesome.  Again, it’s the same damn mistakes that get repeated over, and over, and over.  Bryant Browning in particular stood out as the worst offender as the Buckeye offensive line again showed their total inability to deal with a wide-split rush end.  From what I first watched, Alex Boone played well.  Michael Brewster, even, was at times manhandled and overpowered in the trenches.  The worst part is: I don’t think there’s anything that can be fixed.  The Buckeyes are thin at tackle with the recent injuries to Adams and Shugarts.  You probably have to pick your poison among Rehring, Person and (I guess) Browning, who showed shades of his USC-game self.  Further, they look poorly conditioned and… yes… slow.  I guess we’ll just have to deal with this offensive line for the rest of 2008.  But again, the Buckeye defense held the most explosive offense in the Big Ten to 13 points and we didn’t win.  Even worse, this is the second straight home game where the offense wasn’t able to score a touchdown.  The offensive line was the major culprit here.

Sadly, Terrelle Pryor showed that he is indeed a true freshman and that these type of errors we saw come with the territory.  The big no-no was obviously the fumble, which put the Buckeyes in an enormous hole from which they weren’t able to recover.  Again, I think he had the right idea, but has got to have a better grip on that football.  After all, even if he bounces out but gets stopped at the line of scrimmage and doesn’t pick up the TD, the Buckeyes could still punt and flip field position on the Lions.  The no-no was the fumble, not the decision to bounce it outside.  Pryor, to his credit, did put up better passing numbers.  On the game, Pryor went 16/24 for 226 yards.  This itself is a step in the right direction.  However, Pryor still needs a LOT of work in the passing department.  He telegraphed more than a few of his passes, allowing Bowman to deflect one of them to break it up.  He’s a little impatient with his reads and again holds the ball a little longer than he should in order to be absolutely certain of his decision.  The most frustrating of Pryor’s passes were not the ones that he held for too long, but the ones he floated way too much.  The consensus on Pryor coming out of high school was that his deep ball was fine and his short passes were good, but his intermediate passes were his weakness.  More than a few Pryor passes had way too much air underneath them, which was probably most prominent in the Buckeye drive following Penn State’s TD where Robiskie was wide open for a huge gain to put the Buckeyes in Penn State territory and keep the drive alive.  Sadly, because the pass fluttered, two Penn State defenders were able to make up ground and break it up.  Regrettably, there’s no real reason to think this problem will disappear any time this season.  This comes with having a freshman QB.  I’m sure people will start clamoring for Todd Boeckman.  But given our offensive line, Peyton Manning couldn’t do any better.

The receivers got a better workout today than they had in most games under the helm of Terrelle Pryor.  Dane Sanzenbacher led all receivers with 6 grabs for 82 yards, going a long way to vindicate my hype in him.  I’m aware I appear to be the only one who thinks Sanzenbacher is legit.  Indeed, there’s much more interest in getting Posey and Thomas more snaps on offense.  That said, he gets open more than anyone else in that receiver corp.  Brian Robiskie had 4 grabs for 56 yards, playing a big role in the last minute drive to tie the game up at the half.  Curious in his absence for most of the game, Hartline had one catch for 15 yards.  That one catch came in the final minutes of the game.

Defense

The defensive line appeared to be streaky in this game.  At times, they were a force from all sides.  Then, on more than some occassions, they were being pushed around easily.  In the first half, they were mostly brilliant.  Herein, Thaddeus Gibson lead the way, finishing with 5 tackles (3 solo) and a sack.  Still, in the first half, the Nittany Lions were able to toss to Evan Royster and plow ahead for eight yards.  Where Ohio State was saved — even in spite of some curious 3-man rushes by the Nittany Lions — was the lack of a rhythm from the Daryll Clark-led Nittany Lions.  Penn State would be able to drive the field before sputtering, sometimes in light of pressure from Thaddeus Gibson, eventually killing the drive.  In doing so, however, they were able to flip field position often.  In the second half, especially in the 4th quarter, the Nittany Lions offense overwhelmed the Buckeye front four.  The TD following the Pryor fumble was mostly the byproduct of power running by Royster and excellent blocking Penn State’s offensive line.  Royster finished with 77 yards on 22 carries, good for 3.5 yards per carry.  Doug Worthington and Cam Heyward both finished with 6 tackles.  For both, only one was solo.

To be honest, I’m not sure what to make of the performance of the linebackers.  I’m inclined to think of their performance a little critically.  Marcus Freeman stands out as a guy whose inability to wrap up and tackle on spot resulted in some saving grace for the Penn State offense.  Further, he had a gift wrapped INT and probable pick six on Penn State’s first FG drive that sailed through his hands.  As it was, he finished with 6 tackles, and only one of them solo.  This is probably a proxy for Freeman’s aforementioned problems in tackling.  Laurinaitis had 12 tackles, only two of them solo.  This was good enough to lead all Buckeyes.  I can’t remember offhand, but I think he was the one that came through on the blitz but overshot Clark, resulting in a first down scramble for Clark.  Homan 3 tackles, one solo (seeing a pattern here?).  One of his tackles was a nice one, though.

It seemed like the safeties Anderson Russell (9 tackles, 3 solo… second on the team) and Kurt Coleman (7 tackles, 1 solo… seeing a trend?) were the liabilities in the Buckeye secondary.  On Penn State’s first field goal drive, one of the safeties (I think Russell) was caught looking in the backfield, opening up Graham Zug for 49 yards.  Donald Washington also found himself flagged for interference on a few occassions as well.  Of course, the unit as a whole appeared to perform really well when viewed in the aggregate.  After all, Penn State’s receiver corp (typically 3 wide sets) is among the most potent in college football, and the Buckeye defense held the Butler-Norwood-Williams trio to a total of 23 yards.  As a whole, Penn State only had 121 yards through the air.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

As it is, there’s two ways to look at this game.  First, it’s a great win for Penn State in what’s becoming a very special season for them.  They finally exorcised their Madison, Michigan and Columbus demons and probably won’t be seriously challenged until their January bowl game.  I’m sure partying has already commenced in Happy Valley.  Hell, they earned it.

Second, it’s a very disappointing loss for Ohio State.  Yes, Penn State is a top quality opponent, but a loss at home (and on homecoming no less) is nothing to take pride in.  Most importantly, though, it’s most troubling for me to see Ohio State continue to make the same mistakes against top tier opponents.  In an era of interactive video game stimulation that allows us to play dynasty modes where our programs of choice win every game 98-0, we’re still reminded that we can’t win them all.  However, I was holding out hope that the Buckeyes could learn from their mistakes and limitations as Nebraska did in the early-mid 1990s and become better for it.  This Penn State game seems to be proof positive that, well, we didn’t.  I’m not sure if and when we will, but it may not be this season (at least, the regular season).  In the offseason, the program should take a very stern look at the direction of our offensive lines and our strength and conditioning program.  Again: look at Alabama’s football team at the moment and look at ours and you’ll see the difference that conditioning and killer offensive lines can make.

Other thoughts during this game:

• Lamaar Thomas had 71 total yards on two kickoff returns.
• I don’t recall seeing Nathan Williams this game.
• Likewise, I don’t remember seeing the Buckeye Pistol this game either.

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Open Thread: Purdue

I had planned a What to Watch for feature for yesterday, and typed it all up.  However, Wordpress swallowed it and invited me to try again.  I didn’t feel like it, so here’s only the second post of the week.

Nevertheless, Purdue — home of the World’s Largest Drum — is up next and it’s cause for us to celebrate some of the better moments of the Purdue-OSU series in the past couple years.  A few days ago, I uploaded a Drive-Thru compilation of the Holy Buckeye game, perhaps the most celebrated in all the series.  It’s a toss-up between the 1968 or 2002 games for most celebrated in Ohio State lore, but the common denominator there is that the victory over Purdue paved the way for a national championship.  Today, I give necessary props to Ben Jones, my hero of the day¹ for November, 15 2003.  It is Purdue’s first visit to Columbus since that game.

So, here’s what I’m chewing on about the Purdue game.

• Dane Sanzenbacher, as you might have guessed, is out for the Purdue game after getting his brains scrambled by the Badgers.  Ray Small, though, is not a certain go for the Purdue game either.  This means DeVier Posey gets moved to second in the depth chart at split end and, potentially, Lamaar “Flash” Thomas gets moved to second in the slot.  Opportunities abound for the freshmen in a season that was supposed to be dominated by seniors.
• When Steve Rehring came back from injury after the USC debacle, the consensus seemed to be that he would be inserted back in at left guard, moving Cordle back to center and Michael Brewster back to the bench.  However, Brewster has established him as the center, an impressive feat in and of itself for a true freshman and one with no previous experience at center.  Now, Rehring, Browning and Person will be part of a three man rotation for the right side of the line.  To be honest, and though I was critical of him early on, I see no reason to shuffle Browning in and out of the game on offense since he’s become a solid performer.  So far, it looks like Rehring will be at right tackle and Browning and Person will exchange time at right guard.
• I’m finally getting my wish: with Boom Herron’s brains also being scrambled by the Badgers, Lamaar Thomas will take his kickoff return duties.  I’m getting ready to yell at him through the TV for carrying the ball like a loaf of bread (a problem all freshmen have), but I’m a bit surprised why he wasn’t in the mix earlier.  Technically, it’ll be a 3 man rotation on kickoffs, also including Mo Wells.
• Boom Herron should also be missed in the backfield.  I’m not sure who the no. 2 is on the depth chart, or at least most importantl, who would stand behind Pryor in the Buckeye Pistol.  Saine is now listed as no. 2 in the depth chart, so if he’s the guy, there’d be no time like the present to show that he’s not just a track player trying to play football.
• I’m convinced Purdue’s offensive line isn’t very good.  It’d be easy to throw stones on that regard, but the truth is that our defensive line is probably even worse.  The fact that only 50 percent of respondents to my totally scientifically valid poll question think that our defensive tackles can dominate against Purdue is both damning and depressing.  Our defensive line is among the worst in college football in the important dimensions of sacks (77th nationally) and TFLs (103rd) and our tackles constitute a large part of the problem.  I’ve touched in this in past game synopses here, but often times, our defensive tackles don’t even register a statistic.
• I know people have taken shots at our linebackers (specifically Laurinaitis) for being overrated.  Whatever kernel of truth there is to that is ultimately a function of how poorly the defensive line has been.  If you look at the past couple games, or even try to infer from statistics, you’ll see that the linebackers have been getting quite a workout.  The solution for the defense so far (on passing plays) has been to keep the deep options covered and force the underneath throw so Homan and Laurinaitis can jump it and end the play for minimal gain.  So far, so good.  It’s not a reliable solution to the problems on defense, but it’s working for now.
• On the flipside, I really like how well our offensive line is gelling.  I see consistent improvement across all players — probably sans Ben Person.  I see flashes of Alex Boone’s inner mean drunk, Browning becoming more well-rounded and a true freshman under center looking more and more like an upperclassman.  I feel confident we can the trenches while on offense.  Of course, I felt that way against Ohio too.  Hmmm.
• I really hope the staff takes a cybernetic approach to Terrelle Pryor, encouraging himself not to get too lost in the details for now.  Wisconsin really chewed him up for huge losses when he tried to do too much.
• On a recruiting note, Marlon Brown and Ra’shede Hageman will be in town for this game.  This represents the first official visit for the Buckeyes of the 2008 season.  Brown is definitely in the DO WANT category, and with each passing day, there’s more optimism that he would commit.

We should be around for this game.  Feel free to leave a comment.

1. I know my freshman roommate reads this still… I’m trying to see if he can pick up the reference here…

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Big Ten internal affairs for Week 6

Posted by ESPN.com’s Adam Rittenberg

It’s time to go inside five Big Ten teams preparing for the second round of league games.

Illinois: Head coach Ron Zook will increase his rotation on defense after the Illini dropped to last place in the Big Ten in points allowed (32 ppg). Linebackers Russell Ellington and Sam Carson and safety Donsay Hardeman all are expected to see more plays Saturday at Michigan (ABC, 3:30 p.m. ET). Zook has some versatility with Travon Bellamy, who can play both safety and cornerback. The coach attributed Illinois’ run-stopping struggles (182.5 ypg allowed) to the back half as the team tries to overcome the losses of All-American middle linebacker J Leman and talented safeties Kevin Mitchell and Justin Harrison. “I don’t foresee starting lineup changes,” Zook said, “but I do see guys that are going to be held accountable. … We’re going to play more guys and our job is to make sure we fix it.”

Michigan State: Defensive back Kendell Davis-Clark could be back soon after missing the last four games with a shoulder injury. Davis-Clark’s return presents some interesting decisions for head coach Mark Dantonio, who originally shifted Davis-Clark from cornerback to safety after Roderick Jenrette was asked to take a leave of absence from the team. Danny Fortener replaced Davis-Clark in the season opener at Cal and has performed well, ranking second on the team in tackles (29) with three pass break-ups and an interception. Davis-Clark, who started 11 games at cornerback last season, is listed behind Fortener on the depth chart for Saturday’s game against Iowa (ESPN2, noon ET).

Minnesota: The Gophers continue to list three players as possible starters at running back on this week’s depth chart, but head coach Tim Brewster acknowledged that freshman DeLeon Eskridge has taken the lead. Eskridge racked up a team-high 131 all-purpose yards in Minnesota’s league-opening loss to Ohio State last week. With five touchdowns, he’s already halfway to reaching Minnesota’s freshman record of 10 set by Laurence Maroney in 2003. Another freshman, Shady Salamon, and junior Jay Thomas also remain in the mix for playing time. “If you had to say one of three guys stepped out, you’d say DeLeon Eskridge,” Brewster said. “The other two guys will definitely continue to play some.”

Ohio State: Aside from left tackle Alex Boone, none of the spots on Ohio State’s offensive line are set in stone. True freshman Michael Brewster remains the starter at center, but Jim Cordle could move back over from guard if necessary. Cordle and a healthy Steve Rehring are listed as co-starters at left guard. Right tackle Bryant Browning also can play a guard spot, and Rehring is a possibility at tackle. Freshmen tackles J.B. Shugarts and Mike Adams also could be the mix at some point as much-needed competition increases up front.

Purdue: The Boilers’ spread offense is at its best with a large rotation of receivers, and they’re starting to see more playmakers emerge. Senior Desmond Tardy is listed as a starter on this week’s depth chart ahead of junior Keith Smith after catching 10 passes for 175 yards and a touchdown last week against Notre Dame. Purdue also has seen encouraging moments from junior college transfer Aaron Valentin. Head coach Joe Tiller wants to see more from his other juco wideout, Arsenio Curry, who brings excellent size (6-foot-4, 217 pounds) but has yet to catch a pass. Tight end remains a question mark, as starter Kyle Adams is doubtful for Saturday’s game against Penn State. Adams hasn’t played since he hurt his knee on the opening kickoff of the season opener.

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