Buckeyes Balanced Down the Stretch

[MondayAMGenius]

Is anyone as surprised as I am about the following Individual Rankings for Passing and Rushing?

*** 2005 NCAA Division IA Football Passing Statistics ***
(Complete through Saturday, October 29th)

From The Sports Network

P A S S I N G E F F I C I E N C Y
(Minimum 15 attempts per game)

Rank Player G Att Comp CPct Int Yds TD Rating
1. Brian Brohm, Louisville 7 216 150 69.44 3 2102 14 169.8
2. Marcus Vick, Virginia Tech 8 158 109 68.99 5 1534 11 167.2
3. Matt Leinart, Southern California 8 258 169 65.50 6 2512 19 166.9
4. Justin Holland, Colorado St. 8 237 152 64.14 8 2281 20 166.1
5. Drew Olson, UCLA 8 257 173 67.32 3 2167 23 165.3
6. Drew Stanton, Michigan St. 8 243 162 66.67 7 2284 18 164.3
7. Vince Young, Texas 8 190 120 63.16 8 1835 16 163.7
8. Brady Quinn, Notre Dame 7 266 175 65.79 4 2352 20 161.9
9. Phil Horvath, Northern Ill. 8 222 156 70.27 8 1886 17 159.7
10. Omar Jacobs, Bowling Green 7 244 149 61.07 5 2097 20 156.2
11. D.J. Shockley, Georgia 7 164 95 57.93 4 1538 12 156.0
12. Troy Smith, Ohio St. 7 139 83 59.71 3 1265 10 155.6
13. Cody Hodges, Texas Tech 8 376 256 68.09 8 3094 25 154.9
14. Darrell Hackney, UAB 7 245 163 66.53 5 2144 13 153.5
15. Paul Pinegar, Fresno St. 7 171 112 65.50 4 1367 13 153.1
16. Kellen Clemens, Oregon 8 289 185 64.01 4 2406 19 152.9
17. Colt Brennan, Hawaii 8 346 239 69.08 9 2777 22 152.3
18. Drew Tate, Iowa 8 196 126 64.29 4 1634 13 152.1
19. John Stocco, Wisconsin 9 213 130 61.03 7 1858 15 151.0

*** 2005 NCAA Division IA Football Rushing Statistics ***
(Complete through Saturday, October 29td)

From The Sports Network

R U S H I N G

Rank Player G Car Net TD Avg Ydspgm
1. DeAngelo Williams, Memphis 7 195 1309 12 6.71 187.00
2. Jerome Harrison, Washington St. 8 206 1310 12 6.36 163.75
3. Laurence Maroney, Minnesota 8 233 1260 9 5.41 157.50
4. Garrett Wolfe, Northern Ill. 6 135 856 7 6.34 142.67
5. Brian Calhoun, Wisconsin 9 254 1218 19 4.80 135.33
6. Tyrell Sutton, Northwestern 8 167 1020 14 6.11 127.50
7. Chris Barclay, Wake Forest 8 176 998 9 5.67 124.75
8. Brandon Murphy, Miami (Ohio) 8 197 994 9 5.05 124.25
9. Yvenson Bernard, Oregon St. 8 209 990 12 4.74 123.75
10. DonTrell Moore, New Mexico 9 222 1085 12 4.89 120.56
11. Kalvin McRae, Ohio 8 159 937 5 5.89 117.13
12. Michael Bush, Louisville 7 148 813 18 5.49 116.14
13. Riley, Western Mich. 6 153 684 5 4.47 114.00
14. Reggie Bush, Southern California 8 111 909 10 8.19 113.63
15. Brad Smith, Missouri 8 156 903 9 5.79 112.88
16. Antonio Pittman, Ohio St. 8 159 882 2 5.55 110.25
17. Marshawn Lynch, California 6 110 653 4 5.94 108.83
18. Albert Young, Iowa 8 151 868 5 5.75 108.50

Sure, we've played a couple of softer teams recently but if you would have told me we have the 12th ranked passer and the 16th ranked rusher in the nation after 8 games I would have thought hell froze over.

Also, compared with last year, we are now ranked 52nd nationally for over all offense compared to 108th when we entered the UMich game.

The defensive rankings are 3rd in the rush and 53rd in the pass.

Also, we've not lost a superstar player to injury and we face a bye/Illini week to synchronize our offense even more.

For me, these numbers make you think:

1. How amazing would it be if we started the season better on offense(maybe next year)
2. It's obvious that 400 yard passing games are not as valuable as splitting 220 rush and 220 pass.
3. How good is Troy Smith?
4. Our lower ranking covering the pass is due to jumping the run game so much. Do we tinker with that?? IMO no, the defense hasn't been responsible for a loss yet this season.
5. The national sports world isn't talking much about us. They see it as MSU gave us a victory, we survived Minny. Penn State is getting most of the attention, which is fine with me.

Jump in here. I'm pretty pumped for the rest of the season. 55-03 next week. GO BUCKS!!

[UGABuck]

We lost to the good team teams and we beat the bad teams. I can't get too excited about that.

With reagrd to the remaining schedule, I am excited about the NW game because they are an interesting matchup. And the scUM game will be tough. If we win those games I'll call this a good team and I'll go to whatever bowl we make.

[Zurp]

Originally Posted by MondayAMGenius

1. How amazing would it be if we started the season better on offense(maybe next year)

We can say "if" until we [censored] our drawers, but it won't do us any good.

Originally Posted by MondayAMGenius

3. How good is Troy Smith?

Better than most, not better than all. I was really impressed with him this past game. I remember one pass might have been intercepted. One or two others were underthrown. Other than that, I think they were all thrown to the right receiver at the right time. I was extra-impressed with his 2nd TD pass to Holmes. The way he stopped his pass, gave himself extra time and drew the defense toward him and found Holmes wide open - beautiful.

Originally Posted by MondayAMGenius

4. Our lower ranking covering the pass is due to jumping the run game so much. Do we tinker with that?? IMO no, the defense hasn't been responsible for a loss yet this season.

I think the answer is no - we don't tinker. The big passing teams tend to get some big plays against Ohio State, but not enough to win games. Ohio State needs to continue to stop the "small plays".

[Taosman]

Take your pick,

Troy Smith,

or

Cody Hodges, Texas Tech ?

I think most Buckeye fans would LOVE to have Cody Hodges!

We have a running game, now. Imagine what Cody Hodges would do with our WRs!

[Dryden]

Originally Posted by Taosman

I think most Buckeye fans would LOVE to have Cody Hodges!

We have a running game, now. Imagine what Cody Hodges would do with our WRs!

Hell no! Another product of the Mike Leach system.

Of Sonny Cumbie, BJ Symons, Kliff Kingsbury, Josh Heupel, and Tim Couch, name which ones are trigger men for NFL offenses; which one of the above do you want on this OSU team?

Nada, zero, zilch.

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

Bingo, Dry.

[timBUCK2]

I would have been thrilled with a $500 poorer Troy Smith

[MondayAMGenius]

Originally Posted by UGABuck

We lost to the good team teams and we beat the bad teams. I can't get too excited about that.

With reagrd to the remaining schedule, I am excited about the NW game because they are an interesting matchup.

I can see your points, (you're a realist) but offer that we were beaten by 2 very good teams (so far) and beat 2 (Iowa and MSU) teams that easily had the potential to outscore our sluggish offense.

I don't think of us as a top 5 team so far this season, in fact, depending on which week you'd ask me, I might think we deserve lower ranking than we got.

But now we're seeing an offense blossom late in the year to compliment our defense. It's fun to watch offense again.

I hate to repeat myself from other forums, but I still say that a decent offensive coordinator would have this offense in the top 20-30 rank. And bring more consistency week to week.

[jimotis4heisman]

Originally Posted by Dryden

Hell no! Another product of the Mike Leach system.

Of Sonny Cumbie, BJ Symons, Kliff Kingsbury, Josh Heupel, and Tim Couch, name which ones are trigger men for NFL offenses; which one of the above do you want on this OSU team?

Nada, zero, zilch.

we havent had qbs lighting up the nfl lately. hoying for a season, and tupa as a punter.

[LordJeffBuck]

Originally Posted by MondayAMGenius

I hate to repeat myself from other forums, but I still say that a decent offensive coordinator would have this offense in the top 20-30 rank. And bring more consistency week to week.

Dead horse, won't happen, and who cares? Just win, baby, and everything will be just fine by me, even if the final score is 9-7 in favor of the good guys.

[Bucklion]

Originally Posted by jimotis4heisman

we havent had qbs lighting up the nfl lately. hoying for a season, and tupa as a punter.

To me, the NFL means nothing...it's about who can do what your coach and teammates need you to do for the team you are leading...in college. That's why CK was the man around here, and Bellisari wasn't...leadership, and knowing what you need to do, and doing it well, and not doing anything outside the scope of your team. I personally don't rag on Texas Tech QBs, but they would be pretty much useless to us, because JT would never run that type of offense. We're more likely to succeed with a Brent Basanez, but like Smith, he can be inconsistent too (not so much this year, but look at his gawd-awful numbers from last year). I think a guy like Smith is good for us...I just wish he was SMith all the time.

[Pheasant]

Originally Posted by MondayAMGenius

I can see your points, (you're a realist) but offer that we were beaten by 2 very good teams (so far) and beat 2 (Iowa and MSU) teams that easily had the potential to outscore our sluggish offense.

I don't think of us as a top 5 team so far this season, in fact, depending on which week you'd ask me, I might think we deserve lower ranking than we got.

But now we're seeing an offense blossom late in the year to compliment our defense. It's fun to watch offense again.

I hate to repeat myself from other forums, but I still say that a decent offensive coordinator would have this offense in the top 20-30 rank. And bring more consistency week to week.

The top 10 teams in the country in total offense this year have a combined 55-23 record.
Top 10 in total defense are a combined 63-14. I think Tressel has the right focus.

[Dryden]

Originally Posted by jimotis4heisman

we havent had qbs lighting up the nfl lately. hoying for a season, and tupa as a punter.

Right, but the point is that TT is hardly QB-U. Cody Hodges is the sixth product in Mike Leach's system. Just because some gunslinger can pass for 4,000 or 5,000 yards in Leach's system does not mean he is suitable for running JT's. If all it were about was 'raw' talent, McMullen would've started in 2001 after the debacle at UCLA and Krenzel would have never seen the field.

It's apples and oranges. You can't just pick up a TT QB and place him in OSU's offense and expect him to produce similarly as he would under Mike Leach.

Troy has started a grand total of 11 games and seen some action in parts of two or three others. Only now does he have the equivilent of one full season under his belt, so let's not be so quick to throw him under the bus just yet.

[LordJeffBuck]

Originally Posted by jimotis4heisman

we havent had qbs lighting up the nfl lately. hoying for a season, and tupa as a punter.

While I agree that no OSU has ever "lit up" the NFL, Mike Tomczak was a valuable back-up for 16 years (16,089 yards passing, 88 TD's, 106 Int's); and all of the following have seen some NFL action: Bobby Hoying (7 seasons, 2544 yds); Tom Tupa (18 seasons, 3,430 yds); Kent Graham (9 seasons, 7,801 yds); Joe Germaine (6 seasons); Craig Krenzel (2 seasons, active); Scott McMullen (1 season); and Jim Karsatos (drafted, injured reserve). Not to mention, Art Schlichter....

[Taosman]

My point is Hodges can read a zone defense and hit his receivers in stride! Chew on that for a while.