Most Improved Player

[OSU5NC]

Who's the most improved Ohio State player from last year to this year? Notice that I'm not saying from the beginning of the season, because that'd obviously be Ted Ginn Jr. in a walk.

My selection would be FS Nate Salley. He had major problems in coverage last year, but was good against the run and could really hit. He missed a few key tackles as well, especially in AA. This year, he's improved dramatically, especially in coverage. He even notched 2 interceptions. This guy is good enough to go pro now (2nd-3rd round?), but hopefully he'll stay and have a great senior year. I was calling for him to benched in favor of Brandon Mitchell for most of the offseason, and I'm glad that he has stepped up and proven me wrong.

[brutus2002]

Offense=Tony Gonzales

Defense=Ashton Youboty

[osugrad21]

Mike Kudla & Troy Smith

[CleveBucks]

Simon Fraser (since last year) or the entire Offensive Line (since the Iowa game). Kudla has also taken great strides. If he can stay healthy next year he'll be a force. D'Andrea was coming along well until the injury.

[LoKyBuckeye]

I'll go out on a limb and say Kyle Turano. It wasn't easy replacing Sander... Turano was a Little shaky and inconsistent in the start of the season. towards the end of the season he was booming punts and had good placement.

[chuck_jax]

Schlegal. At the beginning of the season, he wasn't in position. Now he's making a lot of tackles. I'd say he's getting the job done.

[BTownBuck]

Ditto Schlegel. He is an animal out there, whereas, I thought he was a bust early on.

[coastalbuck]

I vote for the entire O line. What a change since the beginning of the year. Wow! Better in all areas, run block, pass block, off the ball, and getting down field to make blocks.

[BuckeyeTrail]

quinn pitcock. i rewatched the game on my DVR and he totally dominated his man all game long. that was the big difference in the game. they couldn't get any push up front whatsoever and zwick had all day and could easily step up in the pocket and throw the ball wherever he wanted. the cowboys, on the other hand, were constantly getting the interior of their line pushed way back and woods had nowhere to go and was rarely in a position to make a good throw.

obviously everyone remembers the 5 yd loss he had on morency and the fake FG stop, but it was much more than that. the carpenter INT was caused by pitcock beating his man and bearing down on woods for the sack, for example. for those of you that taped the game, go back and solely watch the trench fight on each play. it was complete and utter domination on our part, on both sides.

the biggest question mark coming into the year was how well our young linemen would perform. i personally felt that the d-line was terrible (by buckeye standards) for most of the year, but they were great in The Game and even better against oOSU. I am VERY excited about 2005 because I know that we will be strong in the trenches. whereas i was cautiously optimistic about this year because i had no idea what we had up front.

[OilerBuck]

Bobby Carpenter

[brutus2002]

Nice list of players guys I cannot argue about any of those choices. This is hard because everytime someone else picks a player i'm thinking crap I never thought of him.

[NJ-Buckeye]

Bobby Carpenter
but if this offensive line that came out of nowhere vs scUM and Ok St is for real... I'd have to go that way...

[rweber9]

This is tough.

On offense, Anthony Gonzalez did really well at the end of the year. A lot of those young offensive linemen improved a lot from last year. How about Steve Rehring?

Turano did a great job - OSU led the Big Ten in net punting this year, even without BJ or Groom

On defense, Ashton was great against Michigan. Pitcock was pretty good. So was Salley, but every third down, he'd look to the crowd and wave his hands for noise, and subsequently was not prepared for many plays.

All the linebackers were good, and I might even say Hawk on defense. This year I think he was the better than the Big Kat, Diggs, J. Cooper ever was.

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http://www.sportslibrary.tripod.com

[BB73]

Within the general O-line category, I'll pick Downing specifically.

[spraguezilla]

Put me in the Schlegal camp. I have been waiting to see what all the fuss was about with Anthony and he proved what kind of player he can be with that Bowl performance. I guess after he spent a full year on the practice squad I figured there wouldn't be much of a learning curve and he would come in and pick up where he left off at Air Force. It had to have been hard to come in and be an instant difference maker after switching schools, switching conferences, & not being able to play in a game in over a year. Great Job Anthony.