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Five for Friday: Predictions for Ohio State’s Second Half

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1. Ohio State is going to win out (through the regular season).
The Buckeyes are going to be favored in every game the rest of the regular season, so it would follow that they are also going to win those games. Michigan is always THE game, but next week’s game against Penn State has been circled for a while. Every returning player on this team knows how they felt walking off of the field in Happy Valley last season. They didn’t take the Nittany Lions seriously enough and a special teams collapse cost them a victory. The offense and the defense are intent on not letting the kicking game decide this one. The Michigan game isn’t going to be pretty or easy, but the Buckeye offense should be versatile and physical enough to find the points they need to secure the win.

2. The Buckeye offense is still going to have some rough moments.
After a big win next week against Penn State, it would be understandable for the Ohio State offense to have a down week at Iowa. Kinnick Stadium can be a difficult place to play and the Hawkeye defense is basic, but very good at what they do. We also know what Michigan State’s defense has been capable of against the Buckeyes under Urban Meyer, and we don’t even need to mention the difficulty that Michigan’s defense will pose at the end of the season. You can’t expect 600 yards of total offense against good defenses, but you should still be able to expect 34 points when you absolutely have to have them.

Entire article: https://theozone.net/2017/10/five-friday-predictions-ohio-states-second-half/
 
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Just sayin': Here's an O-Zone series that you may want to follow:

100 Days To Football*

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This is the first in a series of 100 daily posts, a Countdown to College Football. (Sort of.)

We have good news and we have bad news.

Since you’re probably an Ohio State fan, and therefore someone who grumbles about 12-2 seasons, we’ll start with the bad news.

Spring football is now over in Columbus. We are now entering college football’s version of the Valley of Death.

But fear not, because this bleak period won’t last forever. Yes, football* will be back in just 100 days!

“What’s with the asterisk?” you might be asking, pessimistic as always.

Okay, so technically, no one is going to be playing football in 100 days.

But we’re 100 days from the conclusion of Big Ten Media Days in Chicago. And once coaches finish talking about “Taking it one day at a time” the season itself is practically here.

Each day until then, we’ll count down the 100 greatest Buckeyes of The Ozone era (1996-present).

We’ll also preview one of the 100 most exciting games on this fall’s college football schedule and one of the 100 things we’re most looking forward to this fall.

Finally, we’ll examine one of this fall’s 100 biggest personnel matchups.

Greatest Buckeyes Of The Ozone Era
#100 Dane Sanzenbacher

Sanzenbacher was an undersized wide receiver from Toledo who put up 1,879 receiving yards and 19 touchdowns in his career.

His best season was his senior year of 2010. Sanzenbacher had 55 catches for 948 yards and 11 touchdowns that year, including a four touchdown day in a blowout win over Eastern Michigan.

Sanzenbacher played four seasons in the NFL, racking up 449 yards and three touchdowns for the Chicago Bears and Cincinnati Bengals.

Best Games This Fall

#100 Iowa State at Iowa, September 8

This annual intrastate grudge match has a history of crazy upsets.

Dubbed ¡El Assico! for its occasionally… uhhh… inconsistent quality of play, Iowa’s 44-41 overtime win in 2017 is a major outlier in the series.

Scores of 20-17, 9-6, 17-5, and 15-13 are more the norm.

This year’s matchup pits an up-and-coming Iowa State team against a group of Hawkeyes that could challenge for the Big Ten West title.

There’s a pretty good chance that ISU coach Matt Campbell will be coaching in a more upscale college football neighborhood this time next year, meaning this could be close to the high-water mark for the series.
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Matchup To Watch

#100 Noah Furbush, MICH LB vs. Mike Weber

We’ll start with the showdown between a Michigan linebacker from Ohio and an Ohio State running back from Michigan.

The Game pretty much always comes down to which team runs the ball better. The team that has rushed for more yards per carry on the Saturday after Thanksgiving has won the Ohio State/Michigan game every year since 2002. So yeah, it’s going to be pretty important.

Furbush is a Kenton, Ohio native. If Michigan’s defensive line can tie up the OSU offensive line, then Furbush and his fellow linebackers have a shot to corral the Detroit native Weber.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it?

The Buckeyes have owned the line of scrimmage for 16 years now, and thus they’ve owned the series, too.

Entire article: https://theozone.net/2018/04/100-days-football/
 
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Five for Friday: Predicting OSU’s Leading TD Scorers | Ohio State Football

We are now embarking on a new era in Ohio State football. One where a Buckeye quarterback isn’t necessarily the first option inside the 10-yard line.

Maybe.

With J.T. Barrett’s departure, I got to thinking about what this was going to mean for touchdown production in 2018. We all know that Dwayne Haskins won’t be running the ball like Barrett between the 20s, but what happens inside the red zone?

In the Urban Meyer era, Ohio State quarterbacks have scored an average of 13 touchdowns per year. The high mark was 18 in 2013 with Braxton Miller, and the low mark was 10 with J.T. Barrett and Joe Burrow in 2016. Keep in mind that with Miller — and Barrett in his younger days — not all of those touchdowns came inside the red zone.

Understandably, this has me wondering how things are going to shake out when it comes to scoring touchdowns. Rather than wonder quietly to myself, I thought I’d do like I do when I’m on public transportation — just talk it out to no one in particular.

So here’s my predicted leaderboard for the Buckeyes this year, as well as a targeted touchdown number for each.

1. Mike Weber
J.T. Barrett led the Buckeyes with 12 touchdowns last season, but right behind him with 10 was Mike Weber in limited touches. Weber scored a touchdown every 10 carries last season, but that average should drop this year with increased touches. His overall number of touchdowns, however, will rise, especially if he is now the short-yardage choice for Urban Meyer. Prediction: 12

2. J.K. Dobbins
Mike Weber expects to get carries in short-yardage situations, but that doesn’t mean J.K. Dobbins is going to be treated like a precious flower. He is still going to be involved in every single area on the football field. He has worked on his strength and his wind. The former will help his goal-line numbers and the latter will help his home run totals. Prediction: 11

3. Austin Mack
Austin Mack only scored twice last season while splitting snaps with Binjimen Victor at the X receiver position, so including him in the No. 3 spot here seems pretty foolish. However, I am expecting continual growth from Mack, and I think he will become a legitimate red zone option. It also doesn’t hurt that his roommate is Dwayne Haskins, which is the main reason I’ve got him No. 3 here. Prediction: 7

5. Dwayne Haskins
A leopard can’t completely change his spots, so Urban Meyer is still going to run the quarterback at the goal line. You know this. I know this. And Dwayne Haskins knows this. He is preparing for this. At 6-foot-3 and 218 pounds, he’s about nine pounds shy of Eddie George’s listed height and weight back in college, so he’s got usable size. Does he have the necessary drive? They’ve worked on that and will continue to work on it. We’ll find out in September. Prediction: 6
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Bonus: Tate Martell
Tate Martell is going to be involved and he is going to score, that’s just what he does. I originally didn’t have him on my list, but to think he’s not going to score at least three touchdowns seems odd to me. Prediction: 3

Entire article: https://theozone.net/2018/06/predicting-scorers-ohio-state-football/

The O-Zone can't count, they skipped #4.
 
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Ohio State Football Predictions with a Twist

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*As you read and notice the odd formatting… think of the photo clue above and see if that helps to bring it all together. Oh, and do me a favor, if you’re reading on your phone, turn it sideways (landscape-style) to make this work*

2018 Ohio State Football Predictions
Oh, I miss football. The spring game has
Come and gone, but
let’s not let the fat lady
sing her song. Let’s predict how
Ohio’s team will fare in 2018 and
praise their offseason work.

And with that, we begin! Victory
songs on campus are bound
to be heard after Oregon State, the
Alma mater of S-Jax. But like
Mater in the Cars movies, OSU’s D will have them in reverse.
raise a hand if you think the Bucks win that one. Yep, me too.
While the timing of it is odd,

our second game is against Rutgers. The players’
hearts will be in this game, so they’ll avoid looking at TCU.
rebounding from a loss to Rutgers would be tough. Still, the
thrill of the “non-con” games is surely the Horned Frogs.
with a clash they’ll battle, but OSU fans will cheer with
joy at the result. Three games down, three Buckeye wins,
which brings us to Tulane. I’m not scared to
death of this one and I’d probably be
alone if I said the Green Wave will win. They won’t. That’s four.

can you believe it? Another white out awaits in Happy Valley.
still, the defense suffocates PSU, like Ohio humidity on a
Summer’s day. With that game won, Ohio State turns on the
heat and cruises to victories over Indy, Minny, and Purdue
or, at the very least, does enough to win each contest.
winter’s weather will be kicking in by November, but the
cold will do little to save the next three teams. In fact,
the ugly weather may increase touches for Weber and Dobbins.

seasons have shown that leaning on the rush helps open the
pass. Now rolling, OSU beats Nebraska, Sparty, and Maryland.

Entire article: https://theozone.net/2018/06/ohio-state-predictions-with-a-twist/
 
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Five Keys to an Ohio State National Title

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We are a mere three days away from fall camp starting. I tend to get a little excited every year but this year seems different. The Buckeyes lost a bunch of big name players, but there just seems to be up-and-coming five-star after up-and-coming five-star ready to step in.

Take a look at the defensive line where Ohio State lost five experienced players in Sam Hubbard, Tyquan Lewis, Jalyn Holmes, Tracy Sprinkle, and Michael Hill. Is there anyone out there who has any doubt the defensive line will dominate even with these massive losses?

Offensively, you have so much talent on this team that guys like Demario McCall and C.J. Saunders will struggle to see the field. At running back, the Buckeyes have two big time players in J.K. Dobbins and Mike Weber and they still have Master Teague and Brian Snead waiting in the wings.

With all of the excitement building around this team, I wanted to take a look at the five things that must happen for this team to win a national title.

Dwayne Haskins Limits Mistakes
This Buckeye offense has enough talent to compete with any defense in the nation. There is no reason why it would ever cross your mind for this team to lay a goose egg in a playoff game. With that said, one of the keys for this offense to consistently score a lot of points against good and bad teams will be if Dwayne Haskins can take care of the ball.

Last year as a redshirt freshman, Haskins showed a tremendous amount of potential, but he also showed that he may be prone to a turnover here or there. I’m not sure anyone expects Haskins to throw less interceptions than J.T. Barrett did, but you have to take the good with the bad. As I wrote in June for my projection series, I expect Haskins to dominate, but throw 14 interceptions in the process.

The big questions become this — when does Haskins throw those 14 interceptions? Does the end result of taking so many chances take the Buckeye offense to a different level than we have seen in the past?

I am all for Haskins taking chances down the field in an effort to stretch the defense out a little. If a few of them turn into interceptions, so be it. There are very few teams on the schedule that have the guys in the secondary to out-athlete the Buckeye wide receivers. Get the ball down field and let your great wide receivers make a play over the defensive guys. One of my biggest complaints about Barrett was that he was afraid to take chances, especially down the field. I will take 14 interceptions if they don’t occur in high-pressure situations.

If Haskins is able to limit turnovers in key situations while maintaining his confidence to throw the ball, the Buckeyes should be able to move the ball at will on the ground. You can look at what Dobbins and Weber accomplished last year with the defense crowding the line and imagine how great they could be when the defense has to worry about covering the entire field.

Run the Damn Ball
Every single person reading this article can pinpoint one game in recent memory where the Buckeye coaching staff inexplicably forgot to run the ball. Think back to all of the running backs that have come through with Urban Meyer and there will always be at least one game that comes to mind. For me, it’s pretty simple. Hyde against Michigan State in the 2013 B1G Championship game. Zeke against Michigan State in 2015. Weber against Clemson in 2016. Dobbins against Oklahoma last year. In every one of those games, the Buckeyes had a great back that they should have relied on throughout the game and/or at critical points, but didn’t for some reason.

Fast-forward to this year, the Buckeyes have two studs in Dobbins and Weber. They also have three incredibly tough road games against good defenses with TCU, Penn State, and Michigan State. Additionally, you have an incredibly tough game against Michigan. The Buckeyes will need to trust the process and just feed them the ball to Dobbins and Weber to allow Haskins to feast on the defenses when they sneak up to take away the run.

Linebackers Return to Dominance
Just like the offensive line in State College back in 2016, you can pinpoint when the linebacker crew officially hit rock-bottom and it was in Des Moines, Iowa last season. Sure there were numerous warning signs leading up to that. They looked pretty bad against Oklahoma when guys like Dmitri Flowers streaked wide open, but you could just chalk that up to early season struggles. Numerous other times, they just weren’t what you expected a Buckeye linebacker crew to be.

The Buckeyes tried to make Chris Worley a middle linebacker and that didn’t work. They tried to give Dante Booker the reigns to take the next step and that failed. The staff expected Jerome Baker to be a dominant play-maker and that failed. By the end of the season, they shuffled some guys around and it all came together to be respectable. The Buckeye linebackers should not simply settle on “respectable”.

This season, a youth movement is coming to the linebacker corps. Super-talented guys like Baron Browning, Keandre Jones, Pete Werner, and Justin Hilliard will finally get their chance to step up. They join fellow youngsters Tuf Borland and Malik Harrison who got their feet wet last year. If those guys don’t cut it, freshmen like Teradja Mitchell and Dallas Gant will have no problem taking over.

Simply put, the Buckeye linebackers are set up to succeed this year. This unit is too talented as a group not to succeed. They have an extremely deep and talented defensive line in front of them to occupy bodies. Behind them is a talented defensive backfield. They have one of the most talented and experienced defensive coaching staffs the Buckeyes have ever seen. The talent is not only in their group, it is all around them. There is simply no reason to fail and all of these unproven youngsters need to step up.

Entire article: https://theozone.net/2018/07/five-keys-to-an-ohio-state-national-title/
 
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Comments on the above article:

Haskins has to be allowed to throw the ball without having to worry about the occasional pick. It’s going to happen. It just can’t be a bad pick that has no chance of completion.

Run the damn ball. Yes please, but play calling strategy is key. Not this three straight runs one series and 3 straight passes the next.

On the LBs...there is no doubt the talent is there. Put up or get out time for Davis.
 
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At LB Booker, Harrison and Borland all have quite a bit of game experience. I don't think the LB Corp is as inexperienced as some let on. Granted, Borland may not play early on but is expected to contribute sooner rather than later.I
My guess is that Booker and Harrison man the outside spots.
 
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scarletngray said:
At LB Booker, Harrison and Borland all have quite a bit of game experience. I don't think the LB Corp is as inexperienced as some let on. Granted, Borland may not play early on but is expected to contribute sooner rather than later.I
My guess is that Booker and Harrison man the outside spots.
Click to expand...

Linebacker is the key to the season IMO. Have to be physical and disciplined. Too much freelancing last year. They got sucked into the LOS too much and it left the middle of the field wide open for short passes on crossing,mess,and seam routes...heck Iowa was killing us with swing,wheel,and outlet passes to their FB...same with Oklahoma. Gotta he much more disciplined.
 
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