Tressel Somewhat Mum on Berry
Little known fact: Oz took place in Orlando and theinmates were all busted buying marijuana
Ken Gordon caught up with Tressel to get his thoughts on Berry’s arrest and it was what you’d expect out of Tressel when he’s still trying to get his head around the situation:
“(I) probably won’t know (if Berry will report) until early this week, when we get a little early indication as to really what we’re facing, as opposed to hearsay. I don’t have much information yet.”
“Obviously, anytime guys get into situations that you’d rather not have them in, it’s disappointing. But before you take too many opinions in your own mind, you find out what the story is and what’s going to be the future of it.”
Much was also made of the fact that Berry was listed at 5-8 in his arrest report, though Ohio State lists the incoming recruit at 5-11. While it’s true that height numbers are routinely inflated during both recruiting and college ball, it’s worth pointing out that Berry’s height (and weight) information may have came from his (two year-old) driver’s license and he’s grown the two to three inches since then. At any rate, look to the NFL combine in three to five years before we get a true indicator of his size.
It’s still uknown whether defensive back Devon Torrence will play minor league ball again this summer or stay in Columbus and work out with the team. In the above linked Gordon piece (props for being able to focus on something other than Berry right now), he has Tressel down as pretty much encouraging Torrence to do whatever is right for himself. Which is, the complete opposite of what my selfish-ass would do in the same situation. But that’s why JT is trusted with the lives of young men and I am not.
A record 8,162 graduates received their diplomas at Ohio State’s 388th commencement yesterday. Real, non-gridiron hero John Glenn gave the address, and Malcolm Jenkins must have had an early peak at his speech calling for dedication in the face of risk as he pulled an all-nighter studying last week before taking his final exam and boarding a plane to New Orleans for workouts with the Saints.
The proliferation of spread-like offenses means the Buckeyes have been working more nickel or star looks over the last couple of seasons and Duane Long offers up what an Ohio State 3-3-5 might look like. If you like seeing Hines and Moeller on the field at the same time, it will be music to your ears eyes.
There are more rumblings out of Gainesville concerning the migration of the Gators away from Urban’s spread to a more pro-style offense. Tebow’s backup is suited for it as are incoming recruits who might be scared away from all of the talk about Tebow becoming a fullback at the next level. While most of that talk is in fun and I believe he will be able to play quarterback in the NFL, there’s no question as to whether you attend USC or Florida if you’re a top pro-style quarterback with plans of making it past college with your game.
The 3-3-5 D will be nice for a change of pace. But you only need to look as far as scUM last season to see that it isnt a whole game set. Granted, they were playing kids that couldn’t hack it a D2 schools at the time, but you get my point. It could give USC some fits tho, with them breaking in a new QB and all. I think if we can bring consistent, disguised pressure off the edge, we will rattle them and put their Offense in a frenzy. Pryor will get his, but our D needs to make sure that their stable of RB’s dont get loose like last year. Not too worried about the passing game, that part of the game is our secondary’s to lose.
i hate, hate, HATE the 3-3-5, it’s an excuse for d coordinators to go full out into prevent defense and it basically gives all control of the line of scrimmage to the offense unless you’ve got the best DTs ever, which we totally don’t as of now.
the only time the 3-3-5 is appropriate is against a team with virtually no running game. it sucks, it’s passive defense (unless you blitz your DBs in which case why are you in the 3-3-5 in the first place), and you better hope your safeties can tackle because they’re going to be doing a LOT of it
bup bup bup, I actually like the 3-3-5(especially on NCAA 2009 for PS3). The reason why is because I have felt for the last few years we have had some great DB’s but they rarely get put in to man to man coverage. You can blitz your LB’s from this package as well as Safeties. There are so many different things you can do with it.
We need the 3-3-5 to matchup against teams with superior athleticism, not to beat the usual suspects(bums) in the b10. Of course it would be silly to run the 3-3-5 against say, Wisconsin.
It has become quite apparent in the 4 years that it is time to try something different. Einstein said the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, or something like that. I fail to see the reasoning in shooting down the idea of trying something new, especially when what you’ve done before isn’t working.
I even suggested the 3-4 to Tress the other day, but he told me to be patient, and then called me “tiger”.
i dunno, i don’t really buy the “superior athleticism” argument, and to be honest i think if you’ve got a terrific cover corner (like we did last year), the 3-3-5 essentially takes his skeelz out of the equation in favor of making most of the DBs proto-safeties.
and again, pretty much any team with any semblance of a running game will trash a 3-3-5. hell, OSU has done it over and over itself. i really don’t know what team on our schedule anyone expects the 3-3-5 to give us an advantage over, except maybe michigan or purdue.
also in the past four years we’ve had defenses that ranged from “very good” to “excellent.” even if you’re talking about our performance in Big Games, the common thread in almost all of those games was our O and D-lines getting completely destroyed. i don’t know what subtracting a man would make the situation any better on the d-line.
Our defense was completely confused against UF and LSU not to mention USC last year. We Finally showed up in the Fiesta bowl, but its obvious we struggle against top level competition because of an athletic disadvantage.
OSU defensive coaches have forgotten more football than you and I will EVER know, they’re not working to institute this scheme for no reason, we have to find a way to counter speedier offenses.
I think in the Texas game, even though the D gave up a ton of points, the line looked very promissing. I believe they will get pressure on USC and that the line will be able to contain the run. With the talent they have I doubt anyone will stop their run. I honestly feel that USC is scarry, but I worry more about the game in Happy Valley.
Also, I know lately people do citicize Tressel a lot for being conservative, not winning the big game, etc, but how nice is it to know that we have one of the classiest coaches who has ever walked the sideline. Not just at Ohio State, ever. He has had the success of Nick Saban and Steve Spurrier, but he’s done it the right way. He’s not an ego maniac, he doesn’t bend the rules, and he cares about his players and fans. I’ve heard so many examples of times he’s written letters to kids or people who were sick. I know other coaches do this too, but I just am thrilled to have a coach like Tressel leading this team.
Classiest coach ever??? Ohio State led the conference in recruiting violations last season. Tressel was tied to a booster who paid a highly touted recruit at YSU and again linked to a rainmaker in the Clarett controversy. The duplicitous “senator” talks a great game but has dirtier hands than any other coach in the conference.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=1920867
NO WAY!!! tell me more
Looks like the PSU/Michigan trolls don’t have anything better to do this morning — PSU fans must be taking some time off from trying to convince themselves that their team is still relevant to college football and not just a shell of a program that puts together a good season once every five years, and Michigan fans must be taking a break from trying to figure out how they will actually beat a MAC school this fall.
Wow, moron, that was the university as a whole and the football program was on the low end of that. When you support 36 athletic programs and most other Big Ten schools support between 16-21 you’re bound to lead the league in recruiting violations.
And way to use words like ‘linked’ and ‘tied to’ as if your coach up in Ann Arbor (is a whore) is the patron saint of all that is high and holy. I mean after all his divorce from West Virginia is certainly going to be used as the model for how to leave one coaching job for another.
There have never been allegations of Tressel doing anything dirty. In the day in age where ESPN reports any information they have both valid or not, and the NCAA is always looking to nail a coach for sending text messages to a player, this man has never been accused of anything. The whole Maurice Clarrett fiasco neverpanned out either. People try to nail them, but nothing has every had any validity.
B, what’s your favorite school? I want to go out and do Google searches for violations that your school may have committed back in maybe 2003 or 2004.
Ohio State has the largest AD of any school in the country. No one has more teams than them. The violations ranged from minor to ridiculous and were all self-reported. Try again.
JT gave me two free tickets to the UM game last year because I wrote him a letter offering to help out former DB Antonio Smith. He has a degree in Mech. Engineering and I work in a firm in NJ. Smith did sign as a FA with the Colts (he was cut), but Antonio called me to thank me for thinking of him. Tressel wrote me back and offer to “help out” if I ever needed tickets. My seats were on the 50 yard line, 4 rows behind the UM bench. Class ladies and gentlemen, class
Awesome story. What’s that mailing address again?
All by e-mail my friend. If I gave it to you, I would have to kill you. Seriously though, who does that? I mean I didn’t offer Smith a kidney, just an interview. I didn’t know where we would be sitting until the day of the game after I picked up the tickets from will-call. My sister and I called everyone we know screaming “We are on the freakin’ 50 yard line!
So, class by your standards is giving a wealthy booster tickets on the 50 yard line for offering to help a former player? Wonder what he offers the boosters who “help” the current players?
HOOKERS, PROBABLY. AND WEED.
i also heard he hooked up troy smith with a little cambodian boy to record House for him on mondays. troy “ironically” named the kid tivo. he’s dead now.
If I were a wealthy booster, I would have a suite and would not need tickets gratis. Boosters who offer to help current players, get the boot.
B, still waiting to hear what school you root for! Until then, your points are irrelevant.
Well Clearly this student wasn’t an idiot, he got an engineering degree. It’s no different than offering someone a job who came from a certain fraternity or club. Football is something to put on the resume, and people who were coaches or higher ups with a frat will lok kindly on those who help their kids out. There’s nothing illegal about that.
I read an email from a co-worker about this story about Tressel.
There was a guy who taught 7th grade or 8th grade in Georgia, and he was a die hard Michigan fan. I guess on the first day of school this kid came in who was from Columbus originally and he said from the first day they argued and the kid was pretty smart. Anyway, the kid was having trouble in other classes and it was more from not working than anything else so the teacher sent Tressel a letter telling him how this kid was a huge buckeye fan and they are in Georgia and he loved Michigan but they both had to argue with SEC fans all the time. Anyway, in the middle of September, Tressel writes a letter back to the teacher and then one to the student telling him thanks for pulling for the buckeyes and how important it is for him to concentrate on his school work and maybe one day he’ll play for OSU too. He also told him he’d be checking back in with the teacher from time to time to make sure he was staying on task. This was the middle of the season and he did for this one ki.
Now, imagine how many times he gets requests like this a year, and how many he must respond to. That is Class
Great photo of Jenkins from yesterday here:
http://twitpic.com/7glnw
(via @PatKindig)
noice
Congrats Malcolm! Now go knock ‘em dead in NO.
We need to institute the 3-3-5 to deal with offenses with superior athleticism. We will not use this against teams like Wisky or any of the other b10 usual suspects as we are vastly more talented and can virtually tell these guys what we are going to run and dare them to stop it.
What is wrong with versatility? I fail to see the reasoning in completely shooting down a new scheme out of fear of change alone. It has become quite obvious over the past 4 seasons it is time to try something new. I even suggested the 3-4 to Tress the other day, but he told me to be patient, and called me “Tiger”.
It’s funny that this topic has come up, because I was listening to Tressel’s press conference from the week after the USC debacle last year. Tress is of the disposition that the more you can do, the less you can do well. There’s some truth to that. He cited the fact that in 2002, Ohio State ran off-tackle 256 times. He said that the most successful football teams are the ones that are predictable, but you can’t stop what they do.
The reason USC is able to do a variety of things successfully on offense is because they literally have the best players the country can offer. Yet, there has come a time each season where a lowly nobody from the Pac-10 beats them because they don’t have one thing they can fall back on when things are not firing on all cylinders. They don’t have a bread-and-butter style, other than we’ll run sweep plays and beat you with speed or go long and we’ll beat you with speed.
Tressel doesn’t lose to nobody-teams. He hasn’t assembled the right mix of people…he’s been short on QBs and O-linemen for 3 years. This could be the start of something good. I really think that 4th quarter against Texas showed the offense’s versitility, and though it came up short, there was a lot of “hey, we don’t have to fold and die like the last 2 years…we can win this ballgame.” And they almost did.
If the defense can force USC into some bad situations, and not miss assignments, it’ll be a good game. They will not be able to hang with Terrelle Pryor – I’m convinced of that. We’ll see if the other guys want to step up and play hard, but we know that #2 is not coming to lose.
Exactly what is going to stop USC from tearing up a 3-man front with a power running game? We don’t even have a reasonable facsimile of adefensive tackle good enough to play nose-guard in the 3-3-5
this is what i’m saying, they will stuff the ball down our throats if we try the 3-3-5 against them.
It’d be ten times worse than last year. Joe McKnight would go for 600 yards in his first three runs. This is a horrible idea.
He’d doing a fruity little dance on St. John’s while Dex Larimore is screaming “run play! run play!”
the other thing is that we’re going to have some great DEs this year. why take them out of the equation?
The only team I can see this working against is Purdue, or some other team that does not have any real between-the-tackles threat. Against everyone else, we’d get shredded. And come to think of it, didn’t Michigan use (or attempt to use) the 3-3-5 against Purdue last year? And didn’t they get shredded?
We have too much talent at DE and too little at DT for this to even begin approaching the realm of a feasible strategy.
How in the world does the 3-3-5 take DE’s out of the equation? If anything it makes their roles twice as important.
And when does USC EVER use a power running game? Lendale White is gone, and McKnight NEVER goes up the middle, he’ll suffer the same fate as R. Bush in the NFL because of that.
You put your most athletic players on the field in the 3-3-5 to limit a high powered offense’s big play ability, and that is EXACTLY how you beat USC, see Oregon St. last year. Dip and dunk football is not what Pete Carroll does, period. And forcing a rookie QB to make decisions against a defense blitzing from all directions is exactly what we want to happen.
Its not that we will use the 3-3-5 vs. everyone, thats obvious, its only there when we need it. I heard JT himself say you need to do all things well.
I don’t think Oregon State used the 3-3-5 against USC once last year, and definitely not to any degree that it affected the game.
USC scored on a 26 yard touchdown pass, a 29 yard touchdown pass, and a 14 yard pass against Oregon State. So much for limiting the big play.
“How in the world does the 3-3-5 take DE’s out of the equation?”
because it forces us to use guys like thad and nate williams in a non corner blitzing role, which is what they’re best at. the DEs are still present, but aren’t rushing blitzers like they might be used in a 4-3 or a 3-4.
and if you think USC won’t have the o-line or the RBs to run up the gut if they feel like it, you’re nuts. again, the 3-3-5 is passive defense. if you’re counting on us lying in wait for a mcknight off tackle or something, you’ve already conceded the intuitive to usc.
what i think we should do is go into an almost star alignment and have a dude like moeller be a constant blitz threat on the outside.
*initiative
We must agree to disagree, my good man. I don’t see the 3-3-5 as being “passive”, nor do I believe our super-stud DE’s will suffer in any way. I have seen the 3-3-5 help a less athletic team virtually shut down a more athletic team, and I think having the system, at least in the arsenal, could not hurt.
fair enough, and if we end up kicking ass with the 3-3-5 i’ll be the first to step up and say you were right buddy
I realize this link may be better suited on the Jamaal Berry posts, but here’s a good article about Florida’s real MVP. Notice UofF officials want to point out that most of these guys were recruited by Zook. So does Ron Zook get the 2 championship rings too? Anyway, here’s the link: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/college/gators/orl-sportsflorida-gators-lawyer-14061409jun14,0,22838.story
So when anyone points out that 19 of the 22 players on the ‘06 NC team were Zooks the Gator fans go on and on about what a terrible coach he was and couldn’t do what Meyer did with the same talent. But, when those same players screw up, now they are Zooks problem. They won with his players, but now take no blame for them. Sounds right.
Exactly
This is the story that prompted me to write to Tressel.
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/sports/stories/2007/04/18/smith_beechcroft.ART_ART_04-18-07_F3_H06DU9A.html
So the radio is talking about Jamal Berry’s myspace page that supposedly has the caption “loaded with guns and money” and has pictures of him with large amounts of money and guns. I have no verification of this, I only caught the tail end of it on the radio and was told the rest by a friend who heard the whole thing. Can anyone verify this?
Looks like some layout graphics:
http://www.myspace.com/95956247
Well that’s actually bullshit. It does have that as the layout, but so do 90% of other black males 16-24. Just saying. I’m actually impressed by his myspace page. seems like a good kid. seriously. he didn’t go all Iowa on us (http://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/images/admin/douglas_cash.jpg) and it has pics of him and his family, working out, and girlfriend. i’m actually relieved after seeing it.
it could be much much worse.
Yeah, it looks like those reports were much exagerated
The world wants to see you fail rather than succeed. #13 was more popular after the trouble than when he was destroying defenses. Hopefully he learns his lesson and we see him stiffarming b10 chumps on Saturdays.
B is back after a Buckeye gets in trouble or fails?? Who knew?? Where was these fool the day after OSU stomped Michigan last November… he talked smack for a week and then vanished. Now he makes a comeback, well I say the beating is gonna be worse this year B and you are welcome if you can add productive content….. otherwise Buzz off.