Eleven Warriors

Sticking with today's theme of technical troubles, I ran across this 404 page on NCAA.com of all places.

For those not wearing pocket protectors or just finding their way to the internet, 404 is of course the error code returned when a page (or image or other asset) cannot be found on the server. The pages sites use to handle this can be informative, clever, funny or just downright strange -- there are even galleries of some of the finer examples out there.

And here is the staid NCAA with Adam Morrison on their 404 page.

On the ground.

Most likely crying.

Awesome.

I'll give a similar disclaimer as Jason - with the site being down I was forced to put this together in the wee hours of this morning so sorry if my eye boogers cause any grumattikul errors or lack of wit.

Anyway, it seemed like a good time to catch up on a few recent hoops happenings since I know many of you tune out to that side of OSU athletics until closer to tip off.

On the recruiting front, Matta recently picked up two more recruits for the already stacked 2010 class in the form of Lenzelle Smith Jr., a 6'3" guard out of Chicago and Jordan Sibert, another 6'3" guard hailing from Cincinnati Princeton.

Smith is rated the #3 junior in Illinois and chose OSU over Illinois, Kentucky, Virginia and Marquette. He averaged 14 points and 7 boards per game last year leading his Class 4A team to a state runner up finish.

Sibert saw his stock rise with a strong AAU campaign for the All-Ohio Red juggernaut featuring fellow 2010 Buckeye recruit Jared Sullinger and now finds himself listed as the 18th best overall prospect by Rivals and 3rd best shooting guard.

The 2010 class now stands at five members, three are five stars (Sibert, Sullinger, DeShaun Thomas) with Smith (4) and 6'5 Cameron Wright (3) out of Cleveland. Matta's next target is fellow AAU All-Ohio Red stud Adreian Payne, a 6'9" baseliner from Dayton. He's like Hansel, he's so hot right now. (Am I supposed to believe I'm the only one who thinks Zoolander deserved a Oscar?)

Draft Express posted their top 5 Big Ten pro prospects. Not so surprisingly, Evan Turner holds down the #2 spot though I was definitely shocked to see David Lighty in the #3 hole.

OSU recently unveiled the Schott's new fancy scoreboard and a 970 foot LED board ringing the rowdy confines of the suite level. Bob Baptist also has the details on the new practice gym set to be built on to the west side of the Schott.

Apologies for the rather meager post this morning, but work is still owning me and the site was down for a good 6 hours or so from late afternoon on. Naturally, we suspect hackers that are out to stymie the program and its propaganda-makers, particularly these guys or this guy -- we're not sure yet (but the FBI is on it). Though to be fair, the 2nd suspect thinks an Etch A Sketch is the computer that knocked off Kasparov, so he does have some coverage there.

Of course, on the football front, big news out of practice as Tressel took over some of the offensive line coaching duties and allegedly did some very uncharacteristic yelling and getting in guys' faces. Good. This is one of the many changes he's put into place since the waxing at USC and you have to start to wonder about Bollman's future. I don't know about you, but if my boss came over and started doing my work for me because of quality concerns, I'd be polishing up the old resume.

We're hearing that practices are more intense than they've been in quite some time at the WHAC. And folks are looking good. We believe this, because our practice source doles out superlatives like he does $100 bills. Here's what he had to say:

Practice was very intense. The older offensive linemen didn't participate in it much, but there was a pretty strong circle drill featuring the younger fellows. All the running backs participated, but didn't do much. Beanie looked fine, if a bit uncomfortable with the one big shoe, but no one so much as touched him in practice, so it's hard to judge whether he's really game-ready. Robiskie practiced extensively, so I'm not sure a hurt shoulder really excuses his non-attempt at that Pryor toss on Saturday. That's a real mystery to me. Most of the session was comprised of work on the perimeter - throws to wideouts, coverage schemes, etc. There was very little between-the-tackles work, and what there was wasn't at full go.

As for Pryor, he just looked fabulous. He threw lots of outs, some fades - a wide variety of throws he'll need in a game, so maybe they're opening the playbook a bit more for him. Tressel was in his ear almost the whole practice, yelling at him to "keep [your] feet," stay perpendicular to the line of scrimmage, always be in a good mechanical position to get rid of the ball, etc. I think his mechanics have come a long, long way from preseason. He's smooth, conversational with the other guys, and looks comfortable out there. Some of the guys are really taking to him. Pryor and Tressel seem to be developing a good rapport.

That, and the word is Small really was dinged up last week and it wasn't anything disciplinary. Guess I missed on that one

We thought we'd bring in the Gopher bloggers that have been running some smack on the Buckeyes for a better part of the last week to get their perspective on what it would take for Minnesota to pull out a victory in Columbus this weekend. PJS from The Daily Gopher was kind enough to provide these five keys.

Hey Ohio State fans, I know you're a littly grumpy. After all, the lowly Gophers of Minnesota think they might be able to come into the 'Shoe and win the Big Ten opener. So, instead of outright predicting a Minnesota win, I'll instead play nice and give you a handful of keys to victory Saturday for the maroon and gold.

1) Poise Under Pressure: This includes everything from staying calm during tough situations to not letting the crowd noise impact the offensive line. Sophomore quarterback Adam Weber, who has been nearly perfect in four games, needs to make quick, decisive reads. He needs to look off safeties and not keep his eyes glued on one receiver (Eric Decker). Through four non-conference games last year, the Gophers had turned the ball over 13 times. Through the 4-0 start in 2008, the Gophers have turned the ball over just twice!

2) Establish DeLeon Eskridge: E-Ridge, as we call him at TDG, is a freshman running back out of St. Paul who was rushed into a starting role after Duane Bennett went down for the season. Eskridge has stepped in to some success, despite a beleagured offensive line. While many think the spread coast offense Minnesota runs is pass-heavy, it's actually ball-control oriented. Through four games, the Gophers have attempted runs 155 times, mostly all out of the shotgun. Weber has passed just 110 times. So, getting E-Ridge off to a nice start is paramount to victory. Against FAU last week, E-Ridge carried the ball 19 times for 79 yards and added 6 catches for 61. And the week before that, in his first real significant action as a college player, E-Ridge ran 24 times for 119 yards and three touchdowns.

3) Defensive Opportunism: The biggest difference between this year and last for the Gophers has been on the defensive side of the ball. Instead of operating like an extra permeable sieve, the Gophers have been relatively stout. Tim Brewster's influx of JUCO athleticism on defense has paid immediate dividends in the way of increased pressure on quarterbacks, a better secondary and in the creation of turnovers. The defense has forced 13 turnovers in four games, and the Gophers have capitalized by scoring nine touchdowns off of these turnovers. If the Gophers are to win, they need to make Pryor look like a freshman. Some names to look for: Big Play Traye Simmons has two interceptions. And linebacker Simoni Lawrence, the type of athletic linebacker Minnesota hasn't had in a quite some time, single-handedly took over a posession against FAU last week with a blitz and sack from the edge and then a 50 yard interception return.

4) Beyond Eric Decker: Tim Brewster has a tendency to say tremendous a lot, and he likes to shower his players with superlatives. But when he says Eric Decker is one of the best receivers in the country, he's not exaggerating. The junior multi-sport athlete has caught 32 balls for 454 yards through four games and scored four touchdowns. The problem is, no one behind Decker has emerged as a true number two threat for Adam Weber. Weber's only interception this year came when he locked on Decker in the red zone and tried to force him the ball. Offensive coordinator Mike Dunbar has been creative in finding ways to get Decker the ball despite the attention paid to him by opposing defenses. But if Decker is to have the type of day the Gophers need to pull the upset, Weber will need one of his other receivers--Ralph Spry, Ben Kuznia, Brandon Green or tight end Jack Simmons--to step up. Through four games, Minnesota's second leading pass-catcher is Duane Bennett. And he only played in the first two games. That has to change.

5) Coaching: This is, by far, the biggest game in Tim Brewster's coaching career. A win will catapult the Gophers into the national spotlight and make them a chic pick to compete for the Big Ten title. A close loss will help Brewster make the argument this team is improving. A blowout loss will make the fair-weather Gophers fanbase take two steps back. How will Brewster respond if the game is tight? He has been routinely aggressive, going for fourth down conversions and not settling for field goals. Will this continue in a big game? How will he handle time management? And, perhaps most importantly, will he and his staff be able to put the right gameplan in place to frustrate Pryor and move the ball against the OSU defense? Minnesota fans still have many questions about Tim Brewster. He has a chance to answer some of them Saturday.

As we noted yesterday, the biggest news from this week's presser came in the form of Tressel saying Beanie is currently listed as probable after looking better than expected in Monday's workout.

Yesterday Beanie ran every snap he was asked to run, looked to me better than I thought he might look, says he feels wonderful. So you don't know exactly who the cast of characters will be, but I think we've got a pretty good indication of what we feel like each of our people can do and that's helpful.

Pressed on the issue of this possibly being the same "day to day" song and dance we've heard before, Tressel clarified:

No, I'm calling him probable. How about that?

That's certainly good news to Buckeye fans but part of me still has some doubt. As we discussed yesterday, I'm having a hard time thinking it wouldn't be best for him to sit out Saturday anyway with eyes on being closer to 100% at Wisconsin but conversely I think it's a great idea to get him in there with Pryor a week before the showdown in Camp Randall. Obvious benefits include creating some continuity between Beanie and TP, getting a feel for what plays might be best suited for that tandem and also to see how Beanie looks before putting all our eggs in his basket leading up to that tough road tilt.

Finally, on the Beanie front, Tressel's spin was that the pain/issue was just as much as adjusting to a more protective cleat than it was adjusting to the injury:

What they've said, what the training report said today is that they feel as if it's to the point now that it's just a comfort in the rebuilt shoe more than a comfort in the injury, and so when you're used to wearing those little streamlined, Mo, what do they call those fast things you used to wear? (Mo Hall: "Speed TDs") Speed TDs, and all of a sudden you're in a hiking boot, you've got to get used to that.

Tressel also reacted as you'd expect to the boos directed at Boeckman (or Tressel pending your viewpoint) before breaking down the planned participation for practice snaps which, also as you'd expect, show Pryor is the clear starter. Of course, he also noted that few seasons go by where a team doesn't need at least a secondary contribution from the backup:

Well, the thing we talked about yesterday is that many times in a conference race, a team that's going to be the champion is probably going to end up with more than one quarterback making a difference and what that percentage will be, who knows. Terrelle took probably -- I think we took 15 snaps yesterday, Terrelle took 10 of them with the group. Today we'll probably have, I don't know, 60, 70 snaps, and he'll take 45 of them, that type of thing. But Todd's going to work like crazy and keep getting better and if I knew for sure how it was going to unfold -- but, you know, unless there's just something unusual at practice this week or whatever, if the game were today, Terrelle would start it and we'd go with the flow.

Tressel also awkwardly discussed what I think is an admission that maybe some guys got playing time based on evaluations but maybe those evaluations were incorrect and/or other players might have stepped up to earn more time while also citing injuries as obvious reasons for personnel shifts:

You never know how things are going to go and that's why you always try to live by that old adage of you don't start from where you left off, you start over and you handle what happens as you start over and injuries happen. That's just part of the -- last year, I think the same five linemen might have started all 13 games or however many we played and that's unusual and there have been years before that that, man, it didn't seem like the same five were ever starting. So when injuries occur and that's part of the deal and hopefully you've been evaluating closely what guys have been doing throughout the course of the preseason and so forth, and you make decisions based upon, I think this is best for the team and we've all had those things and we said, whoops, maybe that wasn't the best decision and you change gears.

Senator Speak 101, right there. Dude is a magician.

In discussing Pryor, the Vest offered up some encouraging comments. When asked about TP's decision making compared to a veteran, the response was favorable:

The thing that's best about his decision making is that when he errs he knows exactly why. Sometimes I've had guys come off the field and say, why did you throw it there? I don't know. And he's not that way. He knows where everyone is. He's got a great ability to keep his head up, a calmness about him to see, and he had one throw that probably shouldn't have thrown and he knew the minute he let go of it.

And even more encouraging words on Pryor's ability to work through his progressions:

He did a good -- someone asked over at the Quarterback Club, they said, are you going to throw it more to Brandon Smith and Rory Nicol late in the play like you did last week? And I said, well, the good news was those were checkdowns, it was no, no, no, checkdown. So he did that two particular times that I thought were excellent.

We already touched on his impressive ability to scramble while still surveying the receivers and Tressel certainly felt the same, especially on the first TD to Hartline:

Yeah, and he's got a lot of confidence in his feet to move him laterally, but yet still stay in a throwing position. So many times you see a quarterback start into a running mode and then he can no longer see or deliver as accurately, and he has an ability to stay perpendicular to the line of scrimmage and still keep his eyes up the field and I'm not sure he ran that play the whole week in practice. Now, he had run that play through preseason in a couple different formations that week in practice, but we were, what, second and 25 and then third and 15 or whatever it happened to be and we thought it was conceptually one that he really understood and he kept it alive and put it on the money.

On the injury front, Tressel noted Tyler Moeller will be back but Austin Spitler and Steve Rehring will not. Also, there was much speculation that Ray Small must've found his way back to the doghouse after barely seeing the field versus Troy but Tressel indicated Small was "banged" and he'll be fine.

Hopefully, I summarized all the useful parts but if you want the full transcript, you can find it here.

Most of you have probably seen the NBC/Fox joint-venture Hulu by now. If you haven't, I'm not sure what's holding you back. Where else on the web can you catch the A-Team, Springer and countless other movies and television shows -- all free?

They also feature some sports footage including classic NHL and NBA. From a Buckeye perspective, they have the full LSU game, which I'm sure everyone's dying to watch again and this Fields of Glory feature on Ohio Stadium:

With a great sense of pride and honor, we give this week's award to one of 11W's all-time favorite Buckeyes, Antoine Winfield. In his fifth season as a Viking and 10th overall, Winfield recorded only his 2nd career sack this past weekend.

His numbers were not staggering, registering only 2 tackles, however his sack on Jake Delhomme with just over a minute left in the half was a momentum changer. On a 3rd and 8, Winfield came on the corner blitz untouched, blasting Delhomme and jarring the ball loose, leading to his 19 yard touchdown jaunt to tie the score.

The Vikings held Carolina to just 204 yards of total offense and 3/11 on 3rd down, earning their first victory of the season in a 20-10 win.

The fumble recovery for six wasn't his only impact on the day as Winfield helped hold Steve Smith to just four catches. Smiling the whole time, too.

We'll have our usual presser recap out tomorrow morning but wanted to pass along that Tressel just said Beanie is probable for Saturday against Minnesota.

I'm not sure I think that's a good idea but I guess it's hard to really say without knowing what the injury is and what damage could be done leading him to possibly miss the bigger game at Wisconsin.

What do you think? Would you sit him one more week or do you think OSU needs Beanie this week to get past Tight End Tim's Gophers?

The depth chart for the Minnesota game is out and it looks like the switch at quarterback last weekend was merely the beginning of several much-needed changes.

In what will surely be perceived as good news from the fans that have desired a little more out of the Buckeye defensive front, senior Nader Abdallah has lost his starting job with Cam Heyward sliding over into his tackle position. Heyward has seen time at tackle the last two weeks, but this is the first time the position change has ever been formalized in any manner.

Heyward's vacated end spot is now in the hands of Thaddeus Gibson -- the the first pick in the spring game draft back in April. Gibson has always impressed in practice, but after making the move from linebacker to defensive end as a freshman, he got into a bit of trouble for a shouting match with a coach. He worked hard to get out of Tressel and Heacock's doghouse and saw significant special teams action as well as snaps at defensive end. Against Wisconsin last season, he had a sack and a forced fumble and observers could see his upside from outer space.

The early knock on Gibson this season had been some deficiencies in the run-stopping department, but considering the lackluster play of the defensive line out of the gates this season, that minor hang-up appears tolerable, to say the least. A decent drop coverage guy for an end as well as a fierce pass-rusher, he'll immediately improve the pressure the front is able to bring and he'll get a good test with the Gopher's Adam Weber this weekend.

Curtis Terry looks like he's finally found a home and will back Lawrence Wilson up, while Robert Rose is listed as Gibson's backup. Chekwa maintained his hold on a starting cornerback position over Donald Washington in what should be a cautionary tale to future players looking to get into a little somethin'-somethin'.

One other surprise on the defensive side of the ball is Etienne Sabino officially listed as the #2 MLB behind Laurinaitis. Austin Spitler had held that spot for the first four games of the season, but Sabino is forcing his own action.

If Tressel's sarcastic answer after the Troy game about who the starting quarterback would be going forward left you confused (you're banned from reading this site if it did), Pryor is listed ahead of Boeckman as the team's starting quarterback. Ditto for center Mike Brewster, who is officially listed as the starter for the first time in his Buckeye career.

One curious note is the fact that Ray Small is still listed as the backup to Hartline, so maybe his punishment was only a one week thing. If there's any single game he's probably itching to get out there and play, it might be this Minnesota game as he was tattooed in that game way back in 2006 (and some would argue that hit has had lasting effects on him).

What's amazing when you look at the depth chart is how young the team actually is now that some changes have been made. For a group loaded with so many seniors, especially 5th-year guys, the starting 22 only features 8 of them. I'm still holding out hope that Posey makes his move as well and if he can crack the starting lineup by season's end, that's all the better.

After taking in Pryor's opening performance, I began to daydream about what a backfield would look like with Beanie Wells joining him in it. I've been dreaming of that option combo for about six months now and most of us are hoping to get to see that in action soon.

But when will Beanie be able to go again? Working under the assumption that it is turf toe, it's really hard to to pinpoint when he'll carry the ball again.

If you recall, Ross Homan went down due to turf toe in the Washington game last year and despite wanting to hit the field the following week, was held out the final 10 games of the season.

Besides describing the pain as feeling like he was stepping on nails every time he put some pressure on it and stating that he wasn't able to perform even at 50 percent, he had this to say about treatment:

"It wasn't like you could tape it up and just take some ibuprofen or some painkillers. It was constantly there. I just had to let it rest."

Homan may have had a more severe case of turf toe and some athletes are able to return to the field sooner. Darren McFadden came down with a bit of the funky toe last week against the Chiefs, but was still able to put up 14 carries yesterday while splitting time with Michael Bush.

It all depends on how much the ligament is damaged and seeing him crumple in pain when it happened and the fact that he wasn't on the field to play USC leads me to believe Beanie may have a more serious case of it. I think the current conventional wisdom is correct in that he most likely won't play against Minnesota, with Wisconsin being a real indicator of whether he'll be back this year or not. If he doesn't play against the Badgers, I'm afraid we may have witnessed his last rush of 2008.

If that were to be the case, the next question is whether the he'd be redshirted and I think that's a foregone conclusion. The redshirt costs the team and Beanie nothing -- he can still leave early for the NFL because he'll be three years removed from high school for next April's draft. He would be eligible for the redshirt based on the fact that he won't appear in more than 30 percent of the team's games and you leave him with the option of having two more years in Columbus in the extremely unlikely event he'd want to play two more. At this point, it would be all about creating more options for him and redshirting him does that.

A silver lining in his injury -- depending on how you want to look at this -- is that if he had not been injured, we probably would have had to wait a year to witness the full talents of the super-freak that is Terrelle Pryor. Todd certainly had his own moments, but there's no question Beanie made his job a hell of a lot easier.

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Other Monday bits:

• It's only one game, but if Pryor had the requisite number of attempts to qualify for the NCAA passing efficiency leaders, he'd check-in at fourth with a rating of 205.48. He will get better. And for a point of reference, Vince Young didn't get his first start until halfway through his redshirt freshman season.
• With or without Beanie, the Minnesota matchup may be closer than the 19-point line already floating around. Gopher bloggers are in full taunt mode saying that the Buckeyes are not very good and to bring on Ohio State. Minnesota fans are not normally this feisty so deep into September, but 4-0 starts will do that.
• WFNY took a good look at recruiting classes during the last handful of years and have concluded that maybe there is a talent gap between Ohio State and USC and some of the other elite schools. 2008 and the 2009 verbals are outstanding classes, but the Buckeyes have pulled in classes ranked 25th, 11th, 13th and 16th during the past 6 years.