Defending OSU

[Zurp]

I've allowed myself to get into believing and expecting the offense to kick-ass each of the last 2 years. I'm not going to do that this year. I may sound as if I'm being pessimistic. (Great - I can't even spell pessimistic.) I hope the bucks can impress me, though.

 

[jwinslow]

I've allowed myself to get into believing and expecting the offense to kick-ass each of the last 2 years. I'm not going to do that this year. I may sound as if I'm being pessimistic. (Great - I can't even spell pessimistic.) I hope the bucks can impress me, though.

What good reason did you have for thinking the 03 offense would be better than the 02 one without clarett, and I'm especially confused about expecting big things from a totally new 04 offense (other than holmes). I can understand being let down and expecting more, but was there a lot of hype for big-time offense in in the offseasons? (I didn't follow buckeye fans sites as quickly)

 

[Zurp]

I didn't follow Buckeye fan sites, either, so I don't know what hype there was. In 2002, the offense was good with Clarett, bad without him. When I found out he wasn't going to be there in 2003, I wasn't too worried. I had heard that Ross bulked up, and I thought that with more playing time, he'd be better than he was when he was a freshman (he showed signs of awesomeness during a couple games). Besides, Krenzel was going to have a year under his belt, and the O-line was all coming back. I thought that with the training and experience that they already had, they'd be pretty good. I thought the defense (who lost a lot of starters) would actually be the weaker of the two sides. Obviously, I was WAY off.

In 2004, I was thinking "good - they finally got rid of that awful O-line - they can rebuild it." I think they made huge improvements over the season, but they weren't half as good as I thought (or maybe hoped) they'd be at the begining of the season. Holmes had done well at the end of 2003, and I thought he would make a good go-to guy in 2004. And Roy Hall and Bam Childress had each gotten a lot of hype (or so I heard) coming in - it was their turn to show what they can do. Again, I had high hopes that Ross would finally show us he wants to play at the next level. Zwick was the only question I had.

I've proven time and time again that my predictions can be very wrong. But I feel that not enough is going to be fixed this off-season. I think it will be better than last year, but not "enough." Maybe I'm still used to Germaine/Boston/Wiley racking up a billion yards a game.

But I do believe that the offense is getting better, and will soon be racking up a billion yards a game. I just don't think so this year.

 

[jwinslow]

I agree that we will struggle again this year in some aspects. Here's how I see it:

QB: still not flawless, but we have a lot more big play capability with any of our 3 QBs than we did with CK. Especially if we use Smith, who can handle blitzes better, scramble a bit and find the open man or scramble thru the hole left by the blitzer.

RB: here is the HYPE to be worried about. Pittman sadly showed up this spring unmotivated and out of shape, lets hope someone gets on him and turns him around as he was a 5 YPC back last year and quite fast. He'll have to bulk up and learn to hold onto the ball, but both of those are somewhat easy to learn. I think most of it came down to being a true freshman in terms of body size.
Erik Haw could be our savior. He was a flashy back and the top rated super athlete by Emfinger. The guy can push Ginn in a foot race, and is bigger than pittman for handling the carries up the middle. He seems to have a pretty good attitude as he was always rallying the troops on the sidelines despite being a redshirt.
Maurice Wells is a very exciting HS RB (the best in FL) but we'll see if his small physique can handle the bruises of the big10 his first year. If Haw can handle the load, and Pittman can be consistent, expect Wells to redshirt IMO unless his small size is not an issue.

(Once Chris Wells arrives here, Haw/Pittman/MWells have another year, we should finally make teams afraid of our running game)

The wildcard here is that if the running game is lackluster, we could either opt for Troy Smith some of the time at RB (I think he could do it and bring a whole new dynamic to our offense) or just put him back at QB where he belongs IMO.

WR - No hype here, we have three studs that can put up serious yards. They had a lot of success in the games where they all played (Gonzo broke into the starting lineup against purdue? those next two games he had a big impact too).

TE - A little bit of hype, sort of. Roy Hall could be an interesting wildcard at TE. Ryan Hamby is a pretty good receiver that is underused, tho he LOVES to false start. Hopefully he can straighten that out and improve his blocking to become an all-big10 tight end like he can be.

OL - Get ready for a new era in OL as VLMarti said. I'm not 100% sure they'll be dominant quite yet, as exemplified by the goal line stand, but they sure have shown signs of improvement. Couple that with those that can fill in as substitutes or injury replacements, and we should have a solid bunch. Gosh its scary to think how good we'll be once we can pick and choose where Conner Smith, AAron Brown and Justin Boren go.

 

[crazybuckfan40]

BFS I agree with you on most of the breakdowns you gave. Just a couple of things.

The Qbs just need to make the plays they are capable of and get the ball to our playmakers and not make mistakes. That is why I like Smith better b/c Zwick sure had his fair share of mistakes in the games he started. Smith had is all in one game.

The Rb's I believe derserve some hype. You have to remember who Haw was running against in practice last year. He was running against our number 1 D and he impressed the coaches. Also Pittman can get his shit together we could have a 2 headed monster. Hopefully Mo Wells comes in ready to play. With our o-line making great strides we SHOULD have an improved running game.

I think the wildcard with our running game will be Hamby and how well he can seal the ends.

!00% agree with you on WR's

Te's still really skeptical. Hope that we can get some production.

o-line. We are tripping over our depth we have. Hopefully we can get 5 good ones out there that can step up and gel together and make this team go.

Also we have Teddy Ginn, so that will make it hard for teams to shut us down.

 

[Yertle]

For what it's worth:

QB: I really think Troy Smith is the ticket to greatness. I've read all of the threads and watched all of the games, so I'm well aware that he had mediocre stats against all opponents that don't rhyme with Bitchigan. However, call it a hunch, I just think he is the man behind center. This isn't a knock on JZ, and I haven't even seen TB wear a non-black jersey on the field, so take it with a grain of salt.

TB: Right now, this position deserves no hype in my book. Pittman is the only one with game experience, and admittedly, he was good. He hit some holes fast and hard, but he fumbled. He provided a spark of the bench at times, but he broke team rules and missed the MSU game. I'll be the biggest Haw supporter as soon as he shows me something on the field. Just like Zurp, I got way too caught up in the "Lydell gained 20 pounds and didn't lose a step" hype. I'm fairly disappointed that if it wasn't for J. Well's career-saving second half of his senior season, we'd have 6 years of mediocrity at this position. I mean, come on!!! This is OSU!!! I've transfered jobs twice, bought a new house, watched OSU reach the Final Four, and had 3 kids since the last time we had a solid running game for an entire season. I'm not holding my breath any more.

FB: Dionte Johnson is a man and a half. I didn't think anyone would ever rival Jamar Martin, but he may do it. He's a stud.

OL: I have to admit, the guy I'm excited to see is Rehring. We all heard about how he was a work-in-progress, and how he'll redshirt, and how he got a schollie just because of his ridiculous size. But, he didn't redshirt and became a regular on the field in jumbo formations. Not too shabby for a true freshman who's just a "project". He could be great very soon.

WR: Damn! It's good to be a Buckeye.

TE: Nicol, Hamby, and Hall? Sure, there's problems with each (Hamby can't remember snap counts as BFS pointed out, Nicol is young, and Hall is small), but I got to believe there's tons of talent there. My money's on Nicol as the cream of the crop.

With that being said, it's still Tressel at the helm. I don't think we'll see explosive offenses with JT calling the shots. It could be dominating, just not explosive.