Midseason report: Ohio State Buckeyes
October 16, 2008 9:00 AM
Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg
OHIO STATE (6-1, 3-0 Big Ten)
Few teams have gone through as much drama and change as Ohio State in the first half of the season. Star running back Chris "Beanie" Wells went down in the opener, and the saga regarding America's most famous toe began. Wells went from probable to doubtful to out of the mega matchup at USC, and Ohio State once again stumbled in the national spotlight. Next came a quarterback change, as Terrelle Pryor, the nation's No. 1 recruit, became the first freshman to start under center for the Buckeyes since 1978. The Pryor-Wells backfield added a new element to the offense, but repeated struggles in the passing game have increased frustration among players. Almost forgotten is the fact Ohio State still has a shot at winning an unprecedented third consecutive outright Big Ten title.
Offensive MVP -- It hasn't been a great season for this unit, but Wells is doing his part. Ohio State hasn't lost a game with Wells, who averages 119.8 rush yards and a whopping 6.7 yards a carry in limited action. When Wells hurt his toe, most knew the Buckeyes had lost their best player, but they also lost their best on-field leader. Wells generates confidence among his teammates and has helped Pryor with his transition into the starting role.
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Ohio State football: The interception stats that the OSU coaches love
Posted by [URL="http://blog.cleveland.com/sports/about.html"][EMAIL="[email protected]"]Doug Lesmerises[/EMAIL][/URL] October 16, 2008 10:00AM
Marvin Fong/ The Plain DealerWhen Terrelle Pryor does this, the ball usually doesn't wind up with the other team.
Ohio State offensive coordinator Jim Bollman didn't much like our sack stat, that the Buckeyes have given up 19 already this season in seven games after giving up 19 all last season in 13 games.
He didn't find it to be a particularly valuable assessment of the offensive line play.
"No, you have to look at all those things, how they happened, the type of route they're running," Bollman said. "I'm not saying we don't have to improve our protection. We have to improve our protection, that's fine. But that's a lot of varience in there, the type of passes being thrown and the things that happened to cause some of those deals."
It sounds to me like some of that unspoken variance includes a freshman quarterback learning to read defenses and figure out when to get rid of the ball, but Bollman didn't say that specifically. But I'll stand in my belief that the increased sacks is some fair reflection on the line.
On now to the stat that Jim Tressel on Tuesday and then Bollman on Wednesday did want to talk about.
Interceptions.
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Ohio State football: Shugarts and Adams both done for the season
Posted by [URL="http://blog.cleveland.com/sports/about.html"][EMAIL="[email protected]"]Doug Lesmerises[/EMAIL][/URL] October 16, 2008 15:29PM
D.L.J.B. Shugarts, left, and Mike Adams, right, are out for the year while Mike Brewster, center, is in the starting lineup for a long while.
Three five-star freshmen offensive linemen.
One starter.
Two season-ending injuries.
It's been a strange season for the best Ohio State offensive line class in years, with Ohio's Mike Adams, Texas's J.B. Shugarts and Florida's Mike Brewster, the best high school offensive linemen in their states, all figuring they'd have a shot to play this season.
Adams and Brewster, both projected as tackles, seemed to have the best opportunity to play, primarily because there was an obvious opening. Right tackle Kirk Barton had graduated, the only vacated spot on the line, and the coaches made it clear the competition was open.
"Coach tells me all the time I'll get a good shot at it," Adams told me in late January.
"I'm sure if I'm Mike Adams I'm thinking, 'I'm taking that spot over,'" Tressel said later.
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Article published Thursday, October 16, 2008
The End Zone: Few style points so far for Buckeyes
But so far the Buckeyes and Jim Tressel have been about as exciting as the afternoon programming on NPR.
( ASSOCIATED PRESS )
By MATT MARKEY
BLADE SPORTS WRITER
Football doesn?t have frumpy judges scoring it like gymnastics does, but there are definitely style points involved, and Ohio State hasn?t impressed its fans or the poll voters enough to earn any. Although the Buckeyes have been winning, they appear to have stagnated outside the top 10 because they lack ?whelm? ? Ohio State hasn?t overwhelmed anybody.
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Ohio State football: Buckeyes falling short in the red zone
by Doug Lesmerises Friday October 17, 2008, 4:17 PM
Marvin Fong/ The Plain DealerHolder Jon Thoma, left, and kicker Ryan Pretorius celebrate a field goal against Purdue. The Buckeyes would like to see a little less of these two inside the red zone.
One aspect of Ohio State offense that didn't show up quite as much against Purdue was the Buckeyes' inefficiency in the red zone. That was because Ohio State only reached inside the 20 twice against Purdue - and not surprisingly, the Buckeyes kicked field goals both times.
Red zone field goals. Not the kind of category in which a team wants to dominate, but since the start of the season, no one has been kicking field goals inside the 20-yard line like the Buckeyes.
"We have to hammer it in the endzone to score in the red zone," tight end Jake Ballard said after the Purdue win. "We can't settle for field goals."
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It's been a long-running joke that the 11-member Big Ten Conference can't count. But in football these days, there's really only one Big Ten team that matters anyway.
Getty ImagesIf Big Ten teams fail to stop stellar Buckeyes quarterback Terrelle Pryor during his freshman season, when will they?
There's a lot at stake Saturday in Columbus, Ohio, when Penn State meets Ohio State. This isn't just this season's de facto Big Ten title game. This will reveal whether, for the first time in the conference's history, this has truly become a one-team league.
Ohio State has won two straight undisputed Big Ten titles. No league team has ever won three. The Buckeyes also won in 2005, but shared that title with the Nittany Lions, who won the head-to-head meeting. If the 10th-ranked Buckeyes get by No. 3 Penn State, a few potential land mines remain – at Northwestern, at Illinois – but no games where Ohio State won't be the clear favorite. And from there, of course, phenom quarterback Terrelle Pryor has three more years of eligibility remaining. So if anyone is going to stop the Buckeyes – anyone in the Big Ten, anyway – it may have to be now.
It's in the league's best interest that Penn State does, and not simply because the undefeated Nittany Lions have the better shot at reaching the national-title game.
Leagues ruled by a sole superpower generally aren't good leagues. Having one powerhouse that pushes around the pack is bad for a conference's image, and maybe even for business. Take the Atlantic Coast and Big East conferences, which, for a large stretch of recent history, were respectively dominated by Florida State and Miami. The Seminoles won 12 ACC titles in the 14 seasons from 1992 to 2005. The Hurricanes, who moved to the ACC for the 2004 season, lost one Big East game in its final four seasons of membership.
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jimotis4heisman;1298609; said:
