Being out of the great state of Ohio, I deem it unnecessary to travel and attend the Spring Game and usually stick to newspaper clippings and reports from buddies who attend it.  This year I noticed my cable company finally picked up the Big Ten network, so I scoured their listings for the Spring Game.  Fortunately, i was able to catch the game (albeit 1 1/2 weeks late).  So without further adieu, let's discuss my initial reactions.

Everything this year depends upon Terelle Pryor.  We really need to see if he is as good as everyone projected him to be coming out of High School.  In particular everyone worries about his throwing ability and how far it has progressed.  I must say after his first shot put pass early in the game I was really scared.  After that, he seemed to calm down a bit and make some nice throws.  He didn't make any real running attempts which must be a result of the coaching staff telling him that he had to pass.   He showed some good decision making and some zip on the ball.   I still feel this is a work in progress and we'll all have to wait until an actual game scenario. 

Filling in all the skilled poisitions on offense remains a big challenge as well.  Granted Beanie Wells was out part of the last few seasons and we have had to rely on the backups to fill the voids, he is still a big void to fill up.  Heron played extremely well and showed some quickness and decision making which make him the hands on favorite for starting tailback.  He was playing on the scarlet team opposing Pryor, so this is good news.  He'll be even better when he and Pryor are in the backfield together.   Saine showed some excellent speed up the middle and appeared to be the same player we had during his freshman year before his string of injuries.  Thankfully there is no Mo' Wells to waste space as a backup.  In addition, we have an incoming Freshman from Florida, Berry,  who should push for some playing time.  I think we are oing to be fine at running back.

Our main problem on offense the last few years is speed at the receiver position.   We haven't had any big play receivers in a while.  While Robiskie and Hartline were great route runners, they never really burned anyone for big plays.  Ray Small is critical to our success on offense this year.  He has the great speed and great ability to make big plays.  He also has demonstrated great ability to not keep his head in the game.  He looked both brilliant and boneheaded during the game.  The starting job is his to lose this year and if he loses it early expect him to be a nonfactor.  Taurian Washington was the recipient of many passes from Pryor.  He appears to be a lock to replace Hartline in the slot position next year.  He ran the slant extremely well and even made Chekwa look like a chump on a downfield play.  Devier Posey and Lamarr Thomas also had decent games, but were also on the scarlet team and didn't get many opportunities to display their ability.  Thomas appears to be the favorite again on kickoff and punt returns.  In addition, Duron Carter will be making his debut as a buckeye in the fall.  They say he has his father's (Chris Carter) gifted hands.

The O'line was greatly depleted for the game with many players sidelined due to injuries.   While, this group is young, they are deep and talented.  There were some large holes for the running backs a few times during the game and pass protection seemed OK throughout the game.

Everyone has been saying the strength of the team this year is the defensive line.   They are experienced and deep.  I really didn't see anything impressive out of these guys, but it was a scrimmage, so we'll need to wait for the season.  The linebacking core looked pretty good.  Spitler had a great day and was making some monster hits.  We always recruit well at LB and I look for Sabino and newcomer Bell to have a large affect at this position. The secondary really has me worried.  Chekwa is our best DB and he was getting lit up.  Anderson Russell had a few good hits, but no one else really impressed me.  My impressions are this is going to be worrisome throughout the season.  Teams are going to be able to score on us this year as a result. 

Overall, I feel this is a reloading err.... rebuilding year.  The schedule is favorable for us to make a good run until the last quarter of the year.  With any luck we'll have 1 loss going into the PSU game.  I don't think we'll have enough offense to keep up with SC this year again.  That game will come down to how much pressure our D Line will be able to put on the new SC QB.  Offense will be up to the TP show.  Will he be able to carry this team when needed is the million dollar question.

Technorati Tags: Backfield, Backups, Big Ten Network, Big Void, Buddies, Cable Company, Freshman Year, Game Scenario, Heron, Incoming Freshman, Initial Reactions, Newspaper Clippings, Playing Time, Quickness, Spring Game, State Of Ohio, Tailback, Terelle Pryor, Work In Progress, Worries

PSU was just demolished by USC in the Rose Bowl a few moments ago.   The alleged second best Bowl Game was a joke.   SC showed itself to be the best team in the country.   I don't think anyone out ther could have beat them today.  Shocking that Oregon State was able to pull it off.   In general, the PAC 10 is looking stronger than expected.

Big12 has been struggling so far and it just appears that nobody in the Big12 can play any defense.   With each Big10 team playing tough in the other Bowl games, I still see Ohio State as an excellent matchup with Texas.   I have a feeling that if we can punch them hard with our "D", the game will work itself out for us.   The Defense has been playing well of late.  

Rumor has it that both Boeckman and Pryor will be in the backfield at the same time.  That should be enough to throw any Defense off tilt.  Considering Boeckman plays well with Robo and Hartline and Pryor has eyes for Sanzenbacher, somebody should be open.   A nearly healthy Wells will add to the confusion.

I envision another close low scoring contest here.   I've been watching the Big12 all year and they just don't play defense.

I just don't see Chohklahoma doing well against Florida, meaning we are stuck with that arrogant son of a gun Urban Meyer winning it again.  This will also leave us with the UT/OSU Bowl game as the best one of the season.  Hopefully we break this 2 year drought of not showing up for the bowl game.

Technorati Tags: Backfield, Big12, Boeckman, Bowl Game, Bowl Games, Confusion, Few Moments, Final Game, Hartline, Joke, Matchup With Texas, Ohio State, Oregon State, Pac 10, Psu, Rose Bowl, Son Of A Gun, Tilt, Urban Meyer, Year Drought

By far this was the best game the team played all year.   We had rhythm on offense and were dominant on defense.  I must say I was pleasantly surprised by our performance.   This by all appearances was the team we were supposed to have this year.
Pryor and Wells were impressive on offense.   They seemed to be in a better rhythm then when we saw them against Purdue.   The same play which burned us last year against Illinois seems to be our new bread and butter for Pryor/Wells combo.   Pryor has the option to hand the ball off to a cutting Wells or he can fake the opposite direction from Wells.   Pryor can then choose to run it himself or dump it to a short receiver.   It juked the MSU defense for most of the game.  I expect we'll see this against PSU.  Another encouraging sign happened early in the game when Wells reversed field and was running for a first down.   Pryor saw what he was doing and opted to block for him completing knocking the DB he was blocking on his back.   This kind of effort from a quarterback will go a long way with both sides of the ball and shows what type of player Pryor is.   I also have to mention the array of stiff arms that both Pryor and Wells displayed on Saturday.   I still don't think there's a defense that can stop these two (except of course what goes on in Terrelle's head).
The offense line seemed to finally be playing well together.   I had thought that Brewster was out for the game, but saw he had the start at center.   My rule of thumb is that I have to see something occur three times in a row for it to be legitimate, so we still have 2 more games to see if this is a trend or just a fluke.
The defense had another dominating performance.   Lauranitis was everywhere and played like the dominant player we expect him to be.   This was mainly due to the penetration the D line was able to get in the backfield.   Again, the jury is still out on the D line.   One more solid performance and we can say things are finally clicking for this group.   Jenkins and Chekwa had excellent games as well.  I just hope that Chekwa is back for next week's matchup.
PSU's strength is both of their lines and their receiving corp.   They just wear teams down by the second half and dominat in the final 2 quarters.   We always match up well with PSU and this year will be no exception.   I feel that the last 2 years the main difference was quarterback play.   We could always count on Morelli to do something incredibly stupid to help us win the game.   This year we don't have that luxury.   Daryll Clark is a smart QB and rarely makes mistakes.   At the same time, I don't think PSU has seen a strong defense all year, so pressuring Clark is key to victory here.   Their receiving corp is very fast, so we'll have our hands full guarding them.   Again, this game comes down to the trenches.   Whichever team controls the trenches, will win this game. 
I am really hoping that a trend is established in this game on both defense and offense which will propel us for the rest of the year.

Technorati Tags: Array, Backfield, Best Game, Bread And Butter, Bread Butter, D Line, Dominant Player, Dominating Performance, Fluke, Games, Msu Defense, Nbsp, Offense Line, Penetration, Purdue, Rhythm, Rule Of Thumb, Running, Signs Of Life, Stiff Arms, Three Times

After much thought (and the last few blogs), I remain convinced that the problems with the Buckeyes mainly stem from their O and D lines.   Over the last few years, this has seem to be the issue on all of the big games.   That said, Tressel has opted to rotate underclassmen into the O-line and has been experimenting (in part due to inuries, in part due to poor play).   It's hard to say right now whether we will reap the benefits of these changes this year.  

In the end, making Pryor the starting QB is the correct thing to do.  We needed a spark and a leader and it appears he is providing on both fronts.   There will be some bumps (hopefully minor) along the way, but the dividends will be huge (in possibly 1 year).   Pryor teamed with a healthy Wells will be an unstoppable duo in the backfield.   We should get use to the large yardage on the ground amassed by them.    Just think about it, in their respective recruiting years, both Pryor and Wells were the #1 recruits in the country and McDonald's all Americans.  The main question is whether we will develop a passing game.  Pryor has shown incredible arm strength so far, but needs to use it.   Additionally, we hear players (Wells in particular) ranting and raving about what he brings to the offense.   I don't recall comments like this from players regarding Boeckman.

It's apparent that the National media needs much convincing before they will back the Buckeyes.   This year may very well be lost.   If we can play well and beat Wiisconsin at Camp Randell that will go a long way to helping us.   Of course, with the National media gooing over Penn State, it would be nice to beat then at our place if they remain undefeated.

Technorati Tags: Arm Strength, Backfield, Big Games, Blogs, Buckeyes, Camp Randell, Dividends, Gooing, Lost, Mcdonald, Passing Game, Penn State, Qb