2004 Buckeye Player Rankings

[JohnnyCockfight]

Highlighted are some of the various rankings make by Phil Steele in his 2004 College Preview.

Preseason Offensive All-American Team (1st-4th teams):
K Mike Nugent -- 1st Teamer! (no one else on the 4 teams though)

Zwick #52 rated QB in the land;
Ross #24 rated RB, also a Heisman "darkhorse" (didn't make top 26);
Hanby #15 rated TE;
Santonio Holmes #46 WR (ya messed up there Steeley);
Brandon Joe #20 FB;
Mangold #16 C;
No Buckeyes made top 60 Guards;
Sims #19 T;
Nugent #1 K;

On Defense, AJ Hawk made Steele's 2nd Team AA, and Schlegel made the 3rd Team AA.

Fraser #6 DE;
Pitcock #17 DT;
Schlegel #5 & Kerr #45 ILB;
Hawk #4, D'Andrea #33, & Carpenter #34 OLB;
Fox #28 & EJ Underwood #57 CBs;
Salley #12 FS;
Whitner #19 SS;
No Buckeyes got mentioned for P, PR, or KR (duh).

Maybe the most interesting ranking, other than the Santonio butcher-job, was that of D'Andrea (ahead of Carpenter) at OUTSIDE linebacker. The "experts" haven't forgotten the promise this young man showed coming out of high school, and we have an absolute wealth of talent at ILB. It's going to be extremely interesting to see how the coaches get all that linebacker talent in the games.

If I'm not mistaken, Mr. Rea at BSB reported that when asked about moving Reggie Smith to the D-line for this year (at the Fiesta Bowl), the coaches said they had no such plans to move anyone (The O-Zone's depth chart has Smith on the line however). Hawk, Schlegel, Carpenter, D'Andrea, Kerr, Matthews, Freeman, Smith, Luken...am I missing anyone? That's a helluva lot of talent.

Oh yeah, Steele got this one right:

Ohio State Linebackers: #1 in the country as a unit

 

[jenkinswoody]

Hell with the supposed lack of talent- we'll be lucky to field a team this yea

One thing that I dont understand (well I would disagree with most of his rankings) is how can Kerr be so low. He was all Big Ten for lords sake. Its not that I pimping the guy or anything, but why the general lack of respect (most buckeye boards included). Is it that most feel that he was on a shitty defense so he was able to clean up a lot of messes or what?

 

[LordJeffBuck]

Phil Steele is primarily a handicapper; he makes his money off of selling winners to bettors, not by ranking players.