High Hopes
The fans came out in force on a beautiful spring Saturday and they weren’t disappointed.
Hoping to see signs of improvement in phenom Terrelle Pryor’s passing game, the sophomore-to-be delighted the crowd with two long touchdown strikes in the span of a half minute on the way to 191 first half passing yards.
If you weren’t lucky enough to be at the game, you’ve no doubt read plenty of recaps by now, so I’ll spare you some of the details, but from my (most excellent) vantage point, he looked very sharp throwing the ball. There were many times when he could have tucked the ball and taken off for big yardage, but instead kept his eyes downfield and delivered a strike.
Taurian Washington turned in his second consecutive solid spring performance, hauling in four receptions for 92 yards, including a 44 yard touchdown catch over Chimdi Chekwa to put Gray up 10-0. After a successful onside kick gave the ball back to Gray, Pryor hooked up with Ray Small on a 42 yard catch and run down the opposite sideline on 3rd and 10 to move the score to 17-0.
Pryor looked so good throwing the ball (13-18, 191 and the two touchdowns) that Tressel opted to keep him out of the game when he was supposed to return for the fourth quarter.
So, on that front, things are looking good. Give the young man fall camp and some more time to work on his mechanics and reads and we could witness the return of a potent passing game after taking last season off.
Other notable performances came out of Brandon Saine, Tyler Moeller and Brian Rolle. Saine backed up some of the praise he’d received coming out of spring practice by ripping off 48 yards on back-to-back-to-back carries to start the second half. Moeller was absolutely everywhere on the afternoon, most notably tracking down Marcus Williams from behind to save what would have been an 83 yard touchdown scamper. Tweener in size or not, he has to be on the field as often as possible this fall. Rolle’s in the same boat as Moeller. He led both squads with 11 tackles, including eight solos and delivered several noteworthy hits.
It was a little difficult to grade the play of the lines on the afternoon. The defenses did combine for 10 sacks on the day, but with several guys playing outside of where they would normally line up, I’m not trying to read too much into that. I do know that some of Saine’s finest running came off the shoulder of Boren, so on that front, things are looking good.
On to the draft. Seven Buckeyes were taken in the NFL draft Saturday and Sunday, including four on the first day. The seven led the Big Ten conference and there were surprises in each direction. The Saints snatched up Jenkins with the 14th pick and both Wells (31st to Arizona) and Laurinaitis (35th to St. Louis) slid a bit, but Robiskie (36th to Cleveland) and Hartline (108th to Miami) were taken sooner than we anticipated.
The other players taken were Donald Washington (102nd to Kansas City) and Marcus Freeman (154th to Chicago). Not surprisingly, not a single offensive lineman was drafted, leaving Boone, Rehring and Person to scramble for free agent deals or playing time outside the country (Boone did sign with the 49ers). Not that anyone is counting, but only two Buckeye offensive linemen have been drafted in the last three years, and none sooner than the sixth round.
I would have to say the most shocking news on Saturday was the Pryor to Washington play made the Sportcenter’s top ten! They like us, they really really like us(just kidding) it’s the Bucks against the world!
the ray small one should have been on sportscenter. those moves were sick. is the ghost serious this time?
Bollman sucks. The lack of offensive linemen to the NFL proves that in itself.
Didn’t Browning look awesome Saturday? Some things never change!
the line will be fine this year. you have to remember they were split squad. browning will be at guard and give the d-line some credit it will be the best d line they go against all year.
I definitely remember seeing Andy Miller getting ABUSED two plays in a row and a couple other times.
I tend to disagree on who made that play on Marcus Williams. Although Moeller did barely catch up with him from behind, from my vantage in 14A, the real stop came from Anderson Russell, who closed very quickly on both Moeller and Williams, coming in from a bad angle to boot. I had no idea he could move that quickly. I like that he was out there with the return team; even if he isn’t the one to take the kick-off, he still would be a nasty blocker for whomever takes the return. I just hope it’s not Flash Thomas. I came away from that game extremely unimpressed with him. 3 dropped return balls? And several more dropped passes.
Was it Russell? Due to obligations that day and travel on Sunday, I have yet to see the game on film.
Agree with Flash — let’s hope it’s the nerves and he can get that settled down before Navy rolls in.
It was a sloppy play, Bucks89 is right that Moeller lost contain, and Williams kind of pinballed around in a traffic jam of tacklers and then bounced to the outside, almost surprised that he was still standing, and took off. You could definitely see the difference between walk-on speed and recruit speed, however. He gave it a good try and made it about 75 yards before getting taken down. Moeller was in main pursuit most of the way and ended up getting a hand on Williams, but Russell came tearing in from the right and overtook both of them. It was more of a combined effort, but A-Russ definitely turned on the wheels.
didn’t see several dropped passes but I did see the return balls. He’ll be fine. It was windy back there so that may have been a factor.
Boone not getting drafted shows what happens when you get wasted and act a fool.
On the flipside, Harvin getting drafted after popping on a drug test for the old tree!
drinking and dui’s are more of a concern i guess. Boone has issues and needs to grow up.
The reason Moeller ran so hard to catch Marcus Williams is because it was his lack of contain on the initial hit that allowed the runner to get free in the first place. Go back and look at the replay and you’ll see what I mean. But give him credit for showing that speed that we all knew he had coming out of high school. That just makes it all the more impressive that Saine was able to outrun Moeller to the corner on one of his big runs to start the 2nd half. We’re definitely in good shape at the RB position in my opinion.
Also, has anyone noticed that we seem to be going small on defense with Gibson and Thomas at DE and Moeller and Rolle at LB? I wonder if that is intentional, just trying to get more speed into the line-up.
I noticed that as well, but I’m not sure I’d call Thomas small. He was looking pretty big, and he moves that big body real fast. Whatever his listed weight was on the program, I doubt it was up to date. I thought we were getting good penetration from the pass rushers, but the center of the line held up fairly well, and Pryor could simply step up into the pocket to avoid the rush. Adams looked soft and was getting shoved around pretty easily.
Moeller looked good. The silver bullets are back. We have lots of speed on defense. Moeller, Hines, Sabino, Rolle all those guys run well and can hit. Combined that with Thad Gibson rushing the qb and I think we will funk some teams up this year.
DB’s looked good too. I like the attitude on this team they are working hard and you can tell they are out for some respect.
If Pryor puts up big passing numbers like that all year he’ll win the heisman. Best sign of the day was when he threw the ball away. I can’t remember him doing that all last year. This goes with out saying but if they beat USC they should run the table.
Taurian Washington has got to be on the field in September.
Latest news we have heard is that the starting rotation will be Posey, Small and Sanzenbacher.. with Taurian and Thomas in the mix as well.. We’ve got a lot of talent in receivers right now, young as well so the key is to rotate them effectly to keep them fresh and coming up with big plays..
Yeah, something that is overlooked is that Posey was also VERY good in the game on Saturday. No TDs, but very productive, and he just kept getting open and catching balls from Bauserman.
Posey didn’t scream superstar to me in the Spring game, but I did think he did alright. I don’t think he is the answer at return man. His first few steps are just too slow. Once he gets up to speed, I doubt there are many who can catch up with him, but at this point he takes to long to get moving and the gunners will get to him too quickly. Ray Small is the best option for the punt return, and I think B-Saine could make a splash at kick returner. Flash Thomas should not be there, after the drops he did.
Isn’t Chris Carter’s kid a frosh too?
Think he redshirts?
If Pryor throws like this in the fall, they may have to cancel college football.
Did anyone see Adam Homan up close. My son and i were on the 23 yard line behind the Gray bench. Adam Homan is a beast. He made a nice catch and run. I can see him in shot gun formation blocking for TP or rolling out for a pass. What is wrong with Dane – why didn’t he dress?
Minor sprain in his ankle I believe?
Why couldn’t the players stop and sign autographs after the game. I know they are tired but this is about the only time ever that the average fan gets to see these guys up close. A few guys stuck around. You know TP isn’t signing anything.
GA. Buckeye,
Regarding autographs, I don’t think it’s a situation where the players don’t want to do this, it’s just hard to pull off with the huge demand. Further, I imagine that they mostly give autographs when the athletic department says it’s time to do so.
Based on autograph “sessions” I’ve been to the past few years, it’s a mess. The demand is so high that they could sit there for 5 hours and still have a line. Unfortunately, it brings out the worst in many people. If you aren’t willing to literally push other people and cut in line, you’ll be lucky to get a handful of autographs during a 90 minute period. Also, many autograph seekers don’t speak to the players, not even to say thanks. They stare at them blankly and quickly move on to the next guy.
Given this, it doesn’t surprise me that autograph sessions are few and far between at OSU.
Agreed, I went to one back while I was a student, and just got lucky to get in the right line for Tressel, Troy Smith, and Gonzalez. I said thanks a lot, and got the “cool black guy” handshake from Smith. Really impressed me, he seemed to enjoy the moment and wasn’t stuck up about it at all.
But it was a giant mess to organize, with a lot of fans pressing and cutting.
I have asked this before and I am not really looking for a serious answer, but I gotta ask it again?? WTF is Bollman still here??? His offensive lines suck, have sucked and the lack of O-lineman drafted in a few years tells the tale. What does JT know/ see or not know/see that keeps this man at OSU??? I have been scratching my head in amazement since the 2006 NC game showing???
Maybe he has pictures of JT with a goat or something??
Cant answer that, but I think Tress would probably point to all the rushing yards, good ol’ JT, always finds the silver lining.
I know the line was split up a bit, but I didn’t see much improvement at all, I realize we have a stud D, but there were way too many free runs at the QB. We have to get the TE involved in the passing game if this is how the line is gonna play.
My highlight of the day: Got my pic taken with Brutus, that dude is a beast!
Any news on Joyner??
question: does tressel have a precident of firing major coordinators? honestly, i just think he is loyal to “his guys” to a fault.
oh yes, I agree… sigh!
Does it say anything that Luke Fickell our D-Coord (yes I admit he had the luxury of having TP as his QB) managed to find the endzone as the Gray head coach but Bollman as the Scarlet head coach could not? I personally thought the scarlet team had the better recievers with Posey, Flash, Schawtz, and Crawford, and better lines on O and D.
I don’t think so. Sadly I think THE factor was TP. I though the O-Line going into this year had several question marks to begin with; there were soem O-line injuries and what talent was dressed was split between two teams. I figured that Grey would win on one or two TP-induced big running plays. I was sort of right about big plays but drastically wrong on how they came about. My bad.
I think in order for Tress to realize we need a change at OC will be the time when our offense plays so bad that the fans will be consistently booing. This is Buckeye country and we Buckeye fans expect a lot out of our teams year in and year out but if we still win games even if its a 10-2 season and if we still have consistency at that like 07-08 and 08-09 then Bollman sadly stays. Now if I was the HC at OSU I would have a high profile OC who is downright nasty and plays very aggressive offensive football. I would not allow for defenders to freely harass my QB or shut down plays before they even get going. I believe in a high powered offense and the ability to bring players into a program and tell them you WILL catch this ball and score a TD. It comes down to the points, who has the most points at the end of the day wins the game where as Tress has a style of even if the game is 3-2, we still won because of defense and the punt game.
you would do nothing because you don’t know what you are talking about.
Just to show you how busy Tress is, my uncle flew in from Georgia for the Spring Game and I had to drop him off at the airport for a flight to Atlanta Sunday…. who was on his flight……The Vest himself…..the day after the game…..my uncle didn’t want to be nosey so he didn’t ask him why, but Tress said he was headed to somewhere in Florida (I can’t remember where…..think my uncle said it was Fort Myers) ……..hopefully in search of the next Beanie Wells (minus the injury bug).
Maybe to talk w/ Joyner :D
The bollman-offensiveline discussion is nothing more than nature vs. nurture.
Was the talent not there or the coaching? One would think that a talented, even if rough or poorly coached offensive lineman would get drafted. We haven’t had the drafts out of our O-line for the last 3 or 4 years.
I’d like to see tressel hire a specific O-line coach, rather than have bollman do that job in addition to offensive coordinating, but I think this year and next will be the first years Bollman has had offensive line talent that’s even remotely comparable to 2002.
think about it, 4 offensive linemen that were on the roster for 2002 eventually ended up getting drafted, compared to just 2 since then – Barton, and Datish.
See what Bollman does this year, with young, but seemingly talented linemen.
Mangold got drafted and is doing pretty well Josh
he was the backup center on that team.
So, scholarship LB Tyler Moeller caught walk-on Marcus Williams…
Where’s my Whoopie Cushion?
With respect to the O-Line, maybe Fickell should be coaching the O-Line AND the Linebackers. There’s nothing wrong with those guys; recruiting, development, performance, the whole nine yards.
we need to beat their asses bad…..
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-dufresne-usc-ucla26-2009apr26,0,1752352.column
I’ve heard that argument about SoCal fans before: there’s just too much going on for them to be huge into sports.
But after living in Chicago for a while — a city with damn near as much to do (save the weather) — there’s no doubt that some towns just have better sports fans and LA isn’t one of them.
But after living in Chicago for a while — a city with damn near as much to do (save the weather) — there’s no doubt that some towns just have better sports fans and LA isn’t one of them.
Hear hear. Los Angelinos are the worst sports fans on the planet. Citing my experience is certainly not a definitive proof, but USC football fans of today were UCLA basketball fans of yesterday (Jim Harrick era). Carroll obviously has them at a high level. But if they ever regress back to Paul Hackett levels, watch the fanfare around USC football vanish.
Classic USC. No one doubts that they have an amazing (maybe corrupt) program. But what they lack is a loyal fan base. The moniker “University of Spoiled Children” is not without merit. These kids don’t care about college football. Before Carroll was there, USC football was a joke and was barely watched. Even throughout the Cooper struggles, OSU fans stayed faithful. Husker fans show the same loyalty. So to deflect attention away from the lack of a loyal fan base, a shmucky LA sports writer trying to meet a deadline plays to up to a So-Cal stereotype and bashes the rest of the country. They say California is slowly slipping into the Pacific Ocean. Slip faster, me says.
Yep. And Corp’s line about there being a beach is hilarious. Like fans can’t go to the beach the other 364 days a year.
Aaron Corp has proved nothing… shut your mouth till you win 1 game dickweed.
Unfortunately, I think he’ll get win 2 against us. I was at the spring game, and while i was encouraged, i think our year to win will be 2010, not 2009. We have a lot of good players with potential, but only Pryor is scratching greatness right now. I think USC will be more experienced, in spite of their personnel losses, and it would take a 2006 Rose Bowl Vince Young effort out of Pryor to pull out the victory. Possible, but I wouldn’t expect it at this point.
Thaddeus Maximus needs to lay the smacketh down on his candy ass!
In the mortal words of Maynard James Keenan to all residents of LA: “I have a suggestion to keep you all occupied….learn to swim….learn to swim…..learn to swim…..see you down in Arizone Bay”
Or Arizona, for those who put merit in grammar
G-damn, they are the worst! They need a wake-up call, hopefully delivered by one Terrelle Pryor.
I really, really don’t care what Aaron Corp thinks, for the following reasons
1) He’s roughly my age, which means he’s probably full of it
2) He looks like Matt Damon in Team America
3) Dude has thrown four college passes
and lastly, I think he was just having some fun. Let him alone. This is no more inflammatory than Ray Small’s comment last year.
I love the story headline demeaning the topic of the story itself. “More to life than Spring football: an insiders peek to Spring football”. Maybe no one wanted to walk into a taping of “Gangland” and be seen near the colliseum if an actual game wasn’t on the line. Keep your heater on hand in case you need to pistol-whip your way out of the South Central Spring game.
i think you missed the best part…dufresne is writing about the spring game and then saying its non-story. if you go to the section dedicated to USC football (again, football is a total non-story in SoCal – obviously) you will see that the LATimes has written, on average, more than 1 story related to the Trojans football team EACH DAY for the last two weeks.
it must be sad for all these sports writers at the LATimes to be writing about such a non-story all the time. maybe thats why they are all going to unemployed before the end of the year.
oh please. its just like anywhere else. they think their custom is the greatest one ever. if the rose bowl or coliseum sold out for the spring game, dufresne would write some dumb piece talking up the local tradition accordingly.
dufresne and plachke are, however, *banned word* awful writers. (the latimes writers [and readers] are not the best and brightest the nation has to offer)
i live in SoCal and know lots of USC fans. they are the first to know exactly where every USC player went in the draft, who is leading the QB competition, how much tickets are for each game, where each of the players like to hang out, etc. there are a ton of USC blogs and message boards. they are into it. SoCal people are just…….lazy. im sure the trolls/flame will come out in full force if anyone reads this, but its true. the weather just mellows people the *banned word* out.
“They set up a playground bounce-house in the Coliseum’s peristyle end — presumably to keep preemie quarterback Matt Barkley occupied.”
HAHAHAHA
I guess you all didn’t read on to the second page to find the other quote: “In Los Angeles, we say there’s football and a thing called a life.”
Wow, 4 months of speculation, this is gonna suck.
Following Buckeyes trying out for NFL teams:
Boeckman – Bengals
Nicol – Redskins
Brandon Smith- going to Bears minicamp on tryout basis
Person – Lions
Rerhing – Bengals
Abdallah – Jaguars
So who’s gonna make it, who’s gonna sell cars?
I say Brandon Smith gets on with someone, and Abdallah also. Still not sure on the other 4, depends on team needs.
Hey! I sell cars…..but dont resent that statement one bit LOL
No offense Ski, everyone knows you are a true mack daddy.
More like a mack truck *flex*
How was the Spring Game Social?
Does anyone else think that JL caught a raw-deal going to Saint Louis? That could end his career before it ever gets started…..I’m still very irritated that the Giants passed on him…..picking a player that played football at North Carolina? come on……………….he is good I suppose, but they needed a LB, and got a sub-par one in rd. 2
Ski, I was bummed too, but with Spags as his coach he’ll be alright. Nicks was a decent pick, 2-3 years from now he’ll be a beast, but I still don’t understand why no trade was made, that would have let us draft JL. And as far as USC , I know two of their fans who are great, no trash talk, but very passionate. The 3rd one I know is a complete blockhead who tries to pull for UCLA basketball, which is like us pulling for scUM in anything.
Which according to buckeye-law, is punishable by death….or having to live out the rest of your life in ann arbor, not sure which is worse…..
I don’t give a left nut if anyone else thinks we can’t win that big game in September, Small is gonna have a huge game that night and it will only back up what he said last year. GO BUCKS!!!!
Im gonna go ahead and co-sign on this statement
I 2nd…all in favor?
And it never stops………Threet to ASU. Have you had enough yet Mr. Dickrod with the “shred” offense?
It’s been known for a while that Threet is gone.
There is no way in heck Dick Rod last more than two more years at scUM.
He is not a good coach and scUM fans will not be patient enough to wait the 5 or so years it will truly take to turn that garbage around.
From a selfish standpoint, Id love for him to stay, but for the sake of the B10, they need to get Les Miles.
Can I save this? For posterity?
Threet sucks who cares. Michigan is better without him. He wouldnt have started at UM even if Carr stayed or if there was a more traditional offense in place.
That will be huge if Les Miles comes to Ann Arbor, the rivalry itself will heat up without a game played just by him becoming the HC at Mechicken.
Anyone know if Todd Boeckman got signed yet? You’d have to think he’ll get a shot.
He has a tryout with the Bengals.
Scarlet and grey football is my true passion, but GD is stealing home one of the coolest things an athlete can do.