FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[bushman]

The Bucks took the sword deeper than I thought.  The sweater vest needs a new defensive coordinator.  They have good players .  The defense didn't show up against Fla. or LSU.  Now USC.  How many times do you have to get hit by the same train before you change tracks?  I know give Tressel another 3 mill that should work.

[Dr. Acula]

The best word to describe OSU is predictable.  For the most part they're going to be in their base 4-3 and not do anything too fancy.  I'm no football coach, but I'm guessing that's not the most complex look to scheme against.  Tressel's loyalty is going to get him more grief...whether it's loyalty to his coordinators or his QB if he chooses to stick w/ him.  There were people here (Columbus) screaming for Pryor to start and Heacock to be gone BEFORE last night.  That camp just got a lot more vocal.

JK, good point on the emotion of the coaches.  VK basically took over the old Coach Monty role.  I used to think "there's no way Monty can talk on Sundays."  OSU appears to be lacking that type of guy.  They're very business like.    

[cufan]

I thought the defense for OSU played pretty well in the first half.  In the second half it seemed like they were on the field the entire half.  I am sick of this offense.  They pull Pryor out when its 2nd and 20 and run option with Boekman?  The big difference i  this game was defenses know exactly what OSU is going to do and we have no idea what USC was going to do.  Our below average play calling can work in the Big Ten but it is clearly not the answer when we battle top ten teams....Please, please hire a hot shot young O Coord. to bring the offense to the millennium.

[JK]

This quote from Mark Sanchez on fosports.com proves my point beautifully about the defense being predictable:

Consider USC's first score, a 35-yard pass (on first down) from Mark Sanchez to fullback Stanley Havili, who had sprinted free down the sideline. "We've run that play against that look at least five or six times," said Sanchez. "They gave us the same look we practiced and prepared for, and we hit it just like we did in practice. Nothing changed. We didn't have to do anything extra."

I've had a little more time to think about it, and before we get back to OAC football (which usually happens on Monday or Tuesday of this off week), let me say this:

Ohio State clearly has tendencies.  All teams do, but Ohio State, especially on defense, has serious tendencies and they seem unwilling to do anything about it.  Those of us who played and/or coached know that tendencies are what you gameplan around and what give you the ability to know when nd where to attack.  USC's second TD, the one to the TE, reminded me a lot of LSU's second TD last year in the NC game.  How do you think USC knew to run that play?  The tendency that they saw on film from that LSU game (and I would suspect others as well, though nothing jumps out in my mind).  Base coverages, basic blitzes and stunts and the unfailing stubborness to stick with something, even when it clearly isn't working.  It all adds up to 41-14, 35-17, and 35-3.

As for the offense, the play calling is conservative, but I don't think as bad as the defense.  I thought the O moved the ball pretty well against USC in the first half and moved the ball OK in all the losses the last few years, but when the team you are playiing against has a 2 TD lead at the half, they have nothing to lose on D and can gamble a bit to make plays because even if they get burned once, they still are up at least one score and have faith that their O can get the score back against that basic defense.

As for the O-line being unathletic, I don't know about that.  ALex Boone is a great athlete, and by all accounts Jim Cordle and Bryant Browning are too.  I know next to nothing about Person (the RG).  The only OSU OL I have seen that seems unathletic is Rehring (the LG).  If you watch the line play, Person is always the one pulling (a pretty glaring offensive tendency).

I don't know.  The frustrating thing is it seems no one is being held accountable.  Like someone mentioned, Tressel (who I love) always explains things away.  Buckeye fans have been apt to let him do that, but I think, pretty soon, they are going to demand some accountability.

By the way, if the Bucks do part ways with Jim Heacock, who do they hire as DC?  Luke Fickell would appear to be the next in line, but I don't know if he's the answer.  He's never coached anywhere other than OSU.  Would it be more of the same, or would he change things up because he's a young guy, and the younger guys seem more willing to adapt?!?!?!?

[reality check]

Let's talk McDaniels into coming to Columbus to step in at OC.  Brady's hurt anyways.

Then there's that other college team in Columbus (purple and black) that has a pretty good defensive coach at the controls now.  Bickel over Fickell.

Problems solved and D-III gets more love.   

[seadog2]

As much as it hurts and it hurts a lot, i've got to say it. The answer to the question of what is a Buckeye? The answer at this point surely is A USELESS NUT! The trunk might be strong, but there seems to be a growing infection in the limbs. I think the guy with the chain saw is afraid to use it and cut them off. In all fairness though, if I was making that kind of money, I would want to stick around myself. Tressel needs to break the bonds and start kicking a--, instead of shaking his head about all the foul ups. Moving the ball to the 4 and end up with a 30 yd FG sure does not say much for keeping you head in the game. Thank heaven we have the Raiders to enjoy!

[HScoach]

JK,

Great post.  I agree 100% with everything you said.

Predictability will beat you when playing someone near the same talent level as you.  Do that against a team that has the same or better talent and you're dead.  Period. 

Offensively, I thought Tressel did fine with the play calling and mixing things up in the first half.  The defense on the other hand is terribly predictable.  The OSU defense since the departure of Dantonio is only dominant when they have the better talent. 

The only games in the last few years that I thought OSU really broke their tendancies is against Michigan.  I appreciate that Tressel truely "gets" the Meatchicken rivarly, but I wish they put a little more of the urgency into the other games.



I know it isn't the big time, but during my HS playing and coaching days we ran an offense that was a little odd.  We ran an unbalanced veer offense that either pulls/traps with the guards or veer blocks on 99% of our running plays.   It created great angles and was deadly even though we were typically a little undersized on the line of scrimmage.   

TE   LG    C    RG    T    T                    SE
            QB                        FL

       RB         RB

Great linebackers are taught to read the guards and that was 100% true against our offense.  The way to stop our offense was to blitz whichever LB was over the guard that pulled.  If the right guard pull to the right, it meant we were trapping to the right C-gap or running sweep and the LB reading that guard needed to instantly blitz to the C-gap on that side. 

If the right guard pulled to the left (behind the center), then we were trapping to the short side.  Meaning the LB over the RG needed to blitz over the short side A-gap.  If the left guard pulled to the right (behind the center) than it was an inside trap and the LB over him needed to blitz the strong A-gap.  If the LG pulled to the left then it was either a toss sweep or a bootleg and the LB needed to come off the edge hard.

If the guard base blocked, then it was a veer dive play with some kind of option read off of it meaning the LB's needed to scrape to the outside.

Now we did a ton of play action fakes and ball hiding crap with the RB's and flankers and lined up in multiple formations with the backs (I, split, offset-I, wishbone, fullhouse, one-back, shutgun, etc), but the line blocking up front was always the same.  Always the same.  Play after play.

At least it was always the same until we faced the 2 other really good teams in the NBC at the time (West Branch and Louisville).  Then we'd "sucker pull" the backside guard away from the point of attack and base block with everyone else because we knew the great LB's would read the guards and they'd take themselves completely out of the cut-back lane. 

We'd run our normal offense the first couple few series to see if they were reading the guards like they were supposed to or whether the D was just stunting randomly to be disruptive.  Once we knew what the LB's were doing, we'd sucker pull a guard whenever we really needed a big play to keep the chains moving as the RB would know that the backside LB is gone and to look for the cutback.   Once the LB's had been suckered a few times and burnt by it, we could go back to our normal stuff because their instinctive blitz at the first step of the guard would be broken and they'd be the 1 step slow that made the play still work as designed.

The other major tendancy was to run either a FB dive with TB option when in the I formation, or to run a FB lead ISO play.  Either way the FB took the LB's to the play.  Springfield usually read the FB so we'd counter trap them to death to break that tendacy.

We'd always start each game running our normal stuff and would only break our tendacies if the other team was good enough to stop us.  If we could win running the same 5 plays from the same formation with the same blocking schemes we'd do it.    But against the really good teams we knew we had to break the scout or we were dead. 



All that said to simply ask how in the world can OSU be so predictable year after year?

[bushman]

How about romeo he is a defensive genius.

[frank uible]

hscoach: Looks a lot like the offense Leo Strang ran at Massillon in the late 50s and early 60s.

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

HS Coach,

That is the very close to the base formation I ran in HS (1986-1989) in DeKalb, IL.  We didn't do as much trapping and pulling though.

The formation you outlined below is what we would call RIP, except we didn't use split backs, we had a FB directly behind the QB and the RB would be behind the G.

[seventiesraider]

Did anybody stay for the whole JV game today. It was 0-0 at the half and I had family crap to do so I bailed along with Kevin and headed out. It was evident that the statement that I made about JCU's recruiting class was true. The loaded very good today and Mount, for once, not so much.

I was actually there to support my former 100 meters sprinter Ryan Brodie who was #28 for John Carroll. He had a couple of nice short runs before the half, but got stuffed at the line a couple of times as well. None of the QB's for Mount impressed. Saw some talent at RB. Carroll held their own for as long as I watched. The Mount kicking game that I'm not used to seeing at the Varsity level, was awful in the JV game

[seadog2]

I was ther for the whole game and you are right about not seeing to much from the raiders side. Some of the guys on JCU looked pretty big for freshman, but it did not matter. MUC won 7-3. Raiders only played half the freshman squad, the rest will play against Ashland tomorrow.

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

I found a YouTube link to MUC Video Highlights on Ric's site.

MTU YouTube

[HScoach]

I was there for the whole thing and the both O-lines were completely dominated.  Mount's worse than JCU's, but both were bad.

[JK]

Let's talk McDaniels into coming to Columbus to step in at OC.  Brady's hurt anyways.

Then there's that other college team in Columbus (purple and black) that has a pretty good defensive coach at the controls now.  Bickel over Fickell.

Problems solved and D-III gets more love.   

You seem pretty willing to give my Head Coach away, reality.  Thanks...