Spring Game
Only in Ohio
would we refer a scrimmage played in a blizzard as the Spring Game. It wasn’t a game and it certainly wasn’t
spring. It was a very controlled scrimmage in very
bad weather in front of very crazy fans.
It was also an excuse to tailgate.
Tailgaters need practice too.
Anybody can move a picnic near a stadium in good weather and call it a
tailgate. To tailgate in these
conditions requires something extra. It
requires a lot of equipment and the ability to locate said equipment on short
notice.(If you have seen my garage and attic you know
what I’m talking about) It requires the
ability to adjust to climatic quirks -
ditch the sunscreen and break out the hand warmers! The good news is that there was no sign of
Karen Holbrook and her beer Nazis. Though they may have hit upon the ultimate anti-drinking solution –
no porta johns. Eliminating
access to restrooms may just be the thing to curtail drinking. Of course this will
impact our teetotling brethren as well, but who really cares.
Sunshine
may have been in short supply, but certainly optimism was not. Not since 1998 have we heard such brazen talk about the pursuit of a national
championship. Even Tress alluded to it.
Do we have cause for such optimism or is this just the talk of people
crazy enough to tailgate in a snowstorm?
Let’s take a look.
Pluses
Returning players:
Ted Ginn, Linebackers, Yobouty, Troy Smith,
Holmes.
Momentum from last season: Anytime we finish with back-to-back wins it
means two very important things have happened, we beat the weasels and won a
bowl game. Makes for a
great winter for fans and players alike.
Coaching staff: Tressel has proven he can manage the close games and win big games and
most importantly he owns Lloyd
Carr.
Schedule: Lots of opportunity to gain national recognition in the Texas game. Iowa is at home.
We don’t play Wisconsin or Purdue. Only
4 road games.
Minuses
Players lost: Nuge,
Kyle Andrews. Dustin Fox, Simon Fraser
Schedule: Three potential top ten teams with TX, UM and Iowa.
Must play weasels , Minnesota
and the Brittany Lions on the road.
Opener with Miami should not
be a snoozer with #1 QB on the shelf. Minnesota,
in that covered parking lot they call a stadium, could be tough. Brittany Lions may have found an offense to
go with what has been a pretty good defense.
Questions from last year:
OK, the 2004 buckeyes improved down the stretch,
still they did lose 4 games. They lost
to Northwestern for crying out loud. Iowa
humiliated them. Let’s not forget, we
faced some real problems last year.
Though we finished strong, we still lost to Purdue in the next to last
game.
Coaching staff: Lost
Mark Snyder, who, after seeming to struggle in his first year as DC, hit his
stride in the last 2 games. We lost Mel
Tucker who was our # 2 guy on D. Couple
that with the loss of Coach Dantonio the season before and we have a pretty green
defensive staff. Certainly this is just
a cost of success, but it is a concern.
The promotion of Heacock was necessary to steady the ship and certainly
well deserved. I don’t think there is
any argument that our all-time best D-lines have come under his tutelage. Some of that may be recruiting, but Coach
Heacock needs to get some of the credit.
On offense the jury is still out on Bollman. I give the coaches all the credit in the
world for the adjustments they made to take advantage of what we could do (Troy
and Teddy) and get away from that which we could not do (play power football). Two questions remain: 1. What the hell took them so long? 2. Was
it a move made out of desperation or will we continue to see it as the main
means of attack. If we see a return to Earle Bruce football we are doomed. Hopefully, it has been recognized that the
main asset of this team is speed. Much
like the option football of the wishbone and veer, and the off-tackle belly series,
which preceded that, the spread is a way
to attack on a broad front. Just like Generals Hayes and Patton. We spread threats like Holmes, Ginn, Troy,
and Pittman across the width of the field.
Marcel Frost at TE, Roy Hall at H-back.
Nobody can match up with that.
This could well mean the demise of Tressel-ball. Maybe just a redefinition: Great defense, excellent kicking game, and
blitzkrieg offense. Could it be?
Overall I like what I have seen, read, and heard of the 2005
Buckeyes. The O-line seems likely to be more effective. The running back situation cannot help but be
better, though I don’t see it as a strength at this
point. If we do more hand-offs from the
spread this could change. That type of
attack seem much more suited to the running backs we will have this fall than
does the isolation and counter trey. The
QB situation is a little puzzling. While
Troy’s performance against the
weasels gets him a lifetime spot in our hearts, I’m not quite ready to anoint
him as the new Rex Kern. It took half a
season and an injury to Zwick for Troy
to win the job. Before his glorious day
last November 20th, he had some pretty mediocre games and in fact his
performance in the Purdue game a week prior, might have been seen as back
sliding. It sure would have been nice to
see him cap it all with a good game in the Alamo Bowl. But that didn’t happen. I’m hopeful that November 20th was
just a prelude to his greatness, but you’ll have to excuse me if I want to see
just a little more proof. At the very
least we seem to have some depth at this position. One other word of caution is that it will be
interesting to see how things go in the red zone. First of all, the 35 yard line no longer
means an automatic 3 points. Though Josh
Huston’s returns helps greatly, we might actually miss a field goal for the
first time in 3 years. I know Nuge wasn’t really perfect, but he will certainly be the
most missed of the departing seniors.
Long snapper, Kyle Andrews may be #2 on that list. The other red zone concern is that many teams with the spread
offense struggle near the goal line because they have no real tight end or at
least no real idea on how to use one.
Defense looks great on paper. Seems like we have a wealth
of talent on the D-line.
The linebackers look awesome. Did their speed just completely undo the Okie
State Cowboys or what? That was a Cowboy
team, which played OU dead even and should have beaten the Long Horns last
year. I know Vince Young had fun against
the weasel defense in Pasadena, but
he is in for a whole different experience when he tries to run against Messrs
Hawk and Carpenter. I’ll withhold
further comment on that juicy little game until we get a bit closer. The return Yobouty, Salley and Whitner is a
nice way to start in the secondary. I’m
going to trust that we can come up with the second corner, though as much time
as we spend in the nickel we really need two more.
.
Other than my weekly rants against Karen Holbrook, I try to
stay away from preaching in this forum.
I’m going to make an exception here to vent some of my anger toward
alleged Buckeye “Fans” who boo Buckeyes in Ohio Stadium. They are neither Buckeyes nor fans. Justin Zwick
was booed on several occasions during the spring game. Why? What did Justin do to deserve that kind
of treatment? Just because he doesn’t
live up to expectations do we turn on him?
Last year, after he lost his job he keeps his mouth shut. When Troy
screws up, Justin, on an injured leg,
leads the Bucks to victory in the Alamo Bowl. Yeah that is the kind of kid we should
boo. What must recruits think when they
hear this crap? These cretins must have
no understanding whatsoever how hard these kids work all year. It embarrasses and infuriates me. This is the same treatment received by Steve
Bellasari and it is just plain wrong. Please
join me in telling these loser-idiots to shut the hell up because they are
embarrassing our program. In my book
they rank right there
with weasels and Karen Holbrook.