Eleven Warriors

A smattering of practice updates from both the MSM and our well-placed scout, Connie Tressel. Actually, Connie's not on the payroll. Or is she?

• The big news is that Robiskie is nursing a shoulder injury. If you recall, he was held out of spring drills with something similar, but he should be ready for the opener.
• Beanie is looking great -- amazing shape and no lingering injury signs. Saine and Rasta Wells are getting the bulk of the reps behind Beanie leaving Boom out of the shuffle for now.
• Curtis Terry is now seeing more time on defense than he is at fullback. Tight end Brandon Smith has been getting looks at fullback and it appears that the staff still hasn't decided which way to go with this.
• Some of the freshman are already showing added bulk from their high school days, most notably Mike Adams and Jake Stoneburner. Speaking of Adams, his recovery is proceeding and he may be ready for live action next week.
• Folks like to talk about Flash Thomas' speed, but DeVier Posey may be the team's 2nd-fastest player behind Saine. Speaking of Posey, he's putting additional heat on Small for playing time right out of the gate. Ditto for Sanzenbacher and Washington.
• The defense is all-business. No jawing, just domination of the offense. Washington is looking fantastic in coverage and Chekwa is showing the year of experience under his belt. Right now, Andre Amos is getting the bulk of the nickel work, but Torrence is lurking.
• Thad Gibson is blowing things up from the end position. Rehring claims he's the fastest guy off the ball he's seen in Columbus since the Fresh Prince.
• Cordle and Boone have new Ice-Ice, Baby haircuts. I'm not a huge fan, but I'm old and cantankerous. Nicknames the lineman call each other have also come out. Boren is "White Lightning", Cordle is "Purple Rain", Mitchum is "Flash" and Boone is "Dark Thunder". Ah, kids...
• Pryor is picking things up quickly, but still has a lot to learn. He's adjusting to the speed of the college game and figuring out that even his athleticism may not be able to bail him out if he holds onto the ball for too long.
• Bauserman is running with the 2nd team offense and the 2nd team offensive line looks to be: Miller, Mitchum, Moses, Smith and Shuggarts.
• With all of the linebackers present, there's some scuttlebutt about a 2-5 hybrid making situational appearances this season.
• NFL scouts love the WHAC. About 30 were on hand one day earlier in the week.

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Bad omens keep popping up for the Trojans. First, it was Sanchez's knee injury, then the team was hit with a jock itch epidemic and now Joe McKnight gets a dorm room door slammed on his right hand.

USC held their night scrimmage earlier in the week and the defense looks to have the edge out there as well as the offense struggled to score.

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The SEC may be king according to SI's Great Conference Debate, but it's the Big Ten that's taken the lead on Mandel's Conference Showdown on DonorsChoose.org. As of right now, fans of the Big Ten have more than doubled the giving of the 2nd place SEC and when you consider the MAC is in 3rd place, the Midwest is really representing with their hearts, if not their team speed. Where you at, Big 12?

To help keep you one step ahead of your Buckeye brethren when it comes to sporting the finest in Buckeye memorabilia, we're going to take a weekly dive into eBay to see what gems we can unearth.

In the interest of disclosure, we're biting this idea from the talented author of mvictors.com. One difference is that he's posted a few Buckeye items including this impressive letter to a man and his grandson written by one Wayne Woodrow Hayes whereas we have no intention of posting anything pro-Go-Blow.

Keeping with the Woody theme, this poster features a sweet caricature of the man himself complete with a king's crown.

This beauty will only be available for bidding through Friday afternoon so stake your claim before it's too late. A word of caution, you might have to outbid the balance of the 11W bank account, aka $23.60, because I've got my eyes on this puppy.

How 'bout that robe complete with Buckeye leaves? Somebody out there needs to mass produce a similar model so I can wear it every casual Friday during the season. Priceless.

We're counting down the weeks until kickoff by profiling a different Big Ten team each week. Today, the Wisconsin Badgers are up.

To me, this is the scariest game for Ohio St. in 2008. Right now, all the attention is on SoCal and rightfully so, however, it is the game in Madison that could decide the Buckeye's destiny.

COACHING: Bret Bielema is entering his third season and is looking to improve upon his 21-5 start to his coaching career. With another round of OOC cupcakes and their toughest games at home, don't be surprised to see Whisky play in their fifth straight January bowl game.

OFFENSE: While much has been made of Ohio State's 18 returning starters, Wisconsin returns 17 starters, including 8 on offense. Allan Evridge, a senior transfer from Kansas St. looks to have a leg up in the competition to replace Tyler Donovan at QB. Evridge, saw limited action last year, but started 6 games for Kansas St, in 2005.

P.J. Hill is back for more and if he can stay away from injury, he may challenge Beanie for the conference rushing title. Hill has rushed for 2,781 yards in his first two years on campus and will have 4 returning linemen to run behind. Hill sat out 2+ games with injury last year, but still managed 14 touchdowns and 5.9 yards per carry.

Three of Whisky's top four receivers return, including all-conference TE Travis Beckum, who lead the Badgers with 75 catches for 982 yards and 6 touchdowns. Kyle Jefferson, a 6'5" Glenville product, will try to improve upon his 15.8 yards a catch average.

As mentioned Wisconsin will have 4 starters returning on the offensive line. The running game will be there and the 105 combined starts of this unit will allow the new QB time to get acclimated to the pace of play.

DEFENSE: While the defense may have slipped a bit in 2007, allowing 30+ points in 6 of their games, they return 9 starters and 13 of their top 16 tacklers. Wisconsin brings the wood and this defense, combined with a drunken home crowd at night, has me a bit nervous for October 4th.

Jonathan Casillias (96), DeAndre Levy (70) and Elijah Hodge (67), were the top three tacklers from a year ago and all return to their respective linebacker positions.

Matt Shaughnessy lead Wisconsin with 13 TFL last year and will lead two other returning starters on the D-Line. Six of their top 8 linemen are back, looking to continue the Badger's recent line success. FS Shane Carter lead the Big Ten with 7 picks last year an will be joined again by SS Aubrey Pleasant and CB Allen Langford in the secondary.

KEY GAME: The Ohio State game happens to fall in the middle of Wisconsin's key stretch. The Badgers go to Fresno St. on October 13th for a 9:30 central time kick, a game they desperately tried to get out of. After a bye week, Whisky opens up Big Ten play at Michigan, followed by home games against Ohio St. and PSU.

BEST-CASE: Wisconsin is going to have a good year. You know they have hopes of an upset Oct. 4th and if that happens, they could have the inside track for the conference title. Their OOC schedule also includes home games against Akron and Marshall to open up and mighty Cal-Poly to finish off the season. After their opening B10 stretch, their last six games are winnable; at Iowa, MSU and Indiana, with home games against Illinois and Minnesota.

WORST-CASE: If QB play becomes inconsistent and defenses can shut down the run, Wisconsin could lose 2 or 3 of their first 4 games. Their defense is going to keep them in games if the offense struggles, but even if they lose 1 of their last 6, the worst case should be another 9-4 record for Bret and his team.

I don't have to remind Buckeye fans what happened last time OSU played in Camp Randell Stadium. That game is going to be the highlight of the Big Ten season, with the potential of another low scoring defensive battle. Wisconsin's success hinges on the play of their QB, the Badgers should see a lot of 8 or 9 men fronts and if the QB can't throw the ball, fans in Madison may see this team fall below their expectations.

With college football approaching a $2B industry, Forbes has dug into compensation and performance to try to determine the best (and worst) coaching values. The formula they used is pretty straight-forward (though the bonus points for BCS wins isn't exactly spelled out):

To measure bang for the buck, we developed a metric that compares a coach’s 2007 salary with his team’s performance over the past three years. Bonus points were awarded for winning any of the five prestigious Bowl Championship Series (BCS) bowl games. A score of 120 means that the coach achieved 20% more victories per dollar of pay than the average coach.

Despite the two big game losses, Tressel still came out on top of their rankings -- mostly due to the fact that he's only the 9th-highest paid coach in BCS football:

But the best bargain was Ohio State’s Jim Tressel, who scored a 122. Tressel has led the Buckeyes to the last two national championship games (losing to Florida in 2007 and Louisiana State in 2008) and was paid $2.6 million last season, less than eight of his peers.

The worst coach for the buck, according to Forbes, is also a Big Ten coach (and rightfully one that's on the hottest seat in the conference):

The most overpaid coach is Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, who made $3.4 million last year despite lackluster results on the field, for a score of 71. Just how lopsided is Ferentz’s deal? During the last three years he’s pocketed $10 million, including a record $4.7 million in 2006, but has led the Hawkeyes to just a 19-18 record.

Mike Riley, Jim Grobe, Pete Carroll and Frank Beamer round out the top five, while Greg Robinson of Syracuse, Charlie Weis, Ralph Friedgen and Al Groh round out their bottom five.

Despite the 20 returning starters and NFL talent oozing from virtually every position, there still remains a lingering doubt about one particular unit: the interior of the defensive line.

They should be good this year. The rotation is a grizzled group that's been on campus for what seems like a decade. But still, the visions of Hester pounding the ball away in the BCS game and various other teams (Penn State, for one) running by this front to put hats on the backers has us and many others thinking that the play of this unit will make or break redemption aspirations.

Defensive coordinator Jim Heacock has heard the chatter and isn't having any of that:

"I read and hear a lot about our inside guys and not getting many (sacks), but if you look over the years, inside guys aren't going to get as many as outside guys. That's a fact. Whether we want to believe it or not, that's the truth.

"For these guys, because they heard so much negative about their sack production, you can look back over the years and look back at the Ryan Picketts of the world, how many sacks did he have when he played? [He had eight in 37 career games, three in his final year.] And he was a first-round draft choice. And you go on and on.

"In our defensive scheme, we really try to control the line of scrimmage and let our linebackers run. We ask our defensive line to do a good job of keeping people off the linebackers and let them run, and that's what we've been good at. Sometimes that doesn't equate to great pass rush. I think they're going to be better there ... I know they're going to be better there this year."

I know Heacock just has his guys' backs and that's what any good coach would do, but give us idiots on the interwebs a little bit of credit. It's doubtful any knowledgeable fan expects Gholston sack numbers out of a tackle, but eat up that run and yes, take on that fullback as well, so the linebackers really are free to run.

It's good to know Heacock is there for his guys, but who's out there clamoring for more sacks? Just taking on a double-team every now and then is fine for the interior troops.

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Would the Buckeyes be ranked #1 if the preseason poll had come out today? That's the question Tim May is asking and the answer is... doubt it. Look, this has to be the first time in recorded history that a team returned 90% of its starters from a championship game appearance and was not considered the favorite going into the next season.

If the Buckeyes had won just one of those two MNC games, they'd be a comfortable #1 heading into this season. The scenario would either be a rebuilding team winning it all before coming back for another run or a team that had won a title, then lost in the title game during the following, said rebuilding year. The markings of a dynasty. Instead, any top billing in the polls will have to be earned on the field and key injuries to teams ranked ahead of them will do little to sway voters' opinions about the team.

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Devon Lyons is looking to snag playing time for the Mountaineers, but so far it's been somewhat of a struggle (to his credit, he's only had 5 practices with the team). We make it a point to pull for Buckeye transfers regardless of where they end up, but it gets tough when they take a shot at the program:

"Mountaineers work harder than any team in the country. You can quote me on that. We do a lot more running than we did at Ohio State. I just feel they want it more here."

Ouch.

(Via OH.DEL.ICIO.US)

er.. I-O?

This is how we do it at Burger Kings in the Buckeye State, boys. Subcommandante Wayne surely approves and you might want to avoid fast food in Xenia for a good long time.

The suspensions of Donald Washington and Jamario O'Neal for the first two games of the season will see Chimdi Chekwa's playing time skyrocket for those games, but what about some of the other defensive backs -- who looks to benefit the most in these OOC games?

With Chekwa, the nickel, moving into Washington's spot, there's an open race for that 5th defensive back for those first two games. Both Youngstown State and Ohio University figure to see plenty of third-and-longs, so valuable playing time will be available from the first series of the game instead of just mop-up time at the end when the Buckeyes have a big lead.

The player with perhaps the slight edge in that race would be redshirt junior Andre Amos. The 6-1 corner from Middletown (home of Cris Carter and Todd Bell) saw extensive playing time as a freshman in 2006, pushing future starter and all-conference selection Antonio Smith for the starting job.

Expectations were high for Amos heading into 2007 before he suffered an ACL tear in the spring. The injury and subsequent recovery gave Donald Washington a chance to snare the starting spot opposite Jenkins with Chekwa sliding into the nickel spot. With both players returning in 2008, Amos found himself relegated to backup duties, but the suspensions have opened a window for him.

Another player that could see playing time is Devon Torrence. Torrence, of course, came to Ohio State as a wideout last season, but was moved to cornerback at the start of fall camp due to the talented crowd at the receiver position.

With 4.4ish speed and a 36-inch vertical, Torrence was actually the 12th-rated defensive back prospect in the nation coming out of high school. He saw some time on special teams last season and may figure to make the jump to the other side of the ball relatively easy.

I figure Amos will be the primary beneficiary of the depleted secondary in the first two weeks, but Torrence is fun to track. Did I miss anyone? Who do you see getting the nickel snaps against Youngstown State and OU?

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If you haven't already made it over to OHD to check out Vico's magnus opus, the Terrelle Pryor BKAB feature is up. All 23 glorious pages. I'm sure he's conscious of it, but he's about 80% of the way to a book deal with this one.

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Sean from ATO takes a closer look at the penalty issue. A lot of data and some insightful conclusions.

God bless the internet. Someone, somewhere has taken the time to jam a ton of great YouTube videos into a Buckeye football timeline. We present that someone's work below:

 

With all of the talk of exotic formations currently being considered by the staff, I couldn't help but start to daydream a little about using Beanie out of the backfield as a receiver this year.

While Saine would figure to be the receiving option of the two in the pony formation, the pistol will often times see Beanie as Boeckman's only backfield mate. Occasionally he'll be kept in to block on passing plays out of the set, but if the line is anywhere near as good as it's supposed to be, Bollman and Tressel should look to get the tank out into the flat.

Using Beanie in the flat would not only serve as a safety valve for four wide receiver sets, but it would also force defenses to respect his presence, opening up the middle of the field for guys like Hartline and Sanzenbacher to do their thing. Should Boeckman (or Pryor) need to go to him, he's a matchup problem for any type of defender he encounters. He'll simply outrace lineman, juke linebackers and destroy the face of any defensive back unfortunate enough to find himself in the vicinity. At the very least, he's a dump pass check-down on 3rd and 7 with excellent odds of converting.

Although I've never heard that Wells has stone hands, you'd think he did based on how often he's been thrown to during his stay in Columbus. In his two seasons at Ohio State, Wells has caught a grand total of seven passes. Last season was his breakout year when he caught five balls for 21 yards. Contrast that with the 278 touches he's come across via hand-off.

Tressel and Bollman are not exactly averse to throwing the ball to their backs. Saine caught 12 balls as a freshman last season, Pittman regularly put up respectable receiving numbers and Dirty Mo shined catching Krenzel balls in 2002.

Also, it wouldn't be asking too much to think that Beanie could improve significantly on his receiving numbers from last season. Eddie George caught 16 balls his junior year before setting a team mark* for receptions out of a back with 47 for 417 yards his senior season of 1995.

Showcasing his catching ability will only help Beanie's draft stock and if there's one common theme of the spreads, sons of spreads and grandsons of spread offenses that are spreading like wildfire in the college ranks, it's the notion of getting your best players the ball, regardless of how they get their hands on it.

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Some minor site tweaks: We cleaned up the sidebars a little so that only relevant information is displayed on interior pages (no worries -- the home page still has all of the flair). We also updated our football schedule pages and brought back the terminology page, so readers can more easily decipher some of the crap we spew. Oh, and all non-post pages (schedules, terminology, etc.) now allow comments, so if you're dying to get something off your mind about that noon kickoff, you have an outlet.

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Correction: In my Sanchez post on Sunday, I wrote that his injury was a major break for the Buckeyes following my conviction that the win is most important goal (you don't hear Obama saying he wishes the GOP would reanimate Abraham Lincoln so he could beat their best), but in light of the national perception of the program, we need a healthy Sanchez with no excuse avenues for Trojan fans or the media. I did 5,000 push-ups as punishment.

* I'm 99% sure on this.

As you can imagine, the weekend of your typical Trojan supporter has been dominated by Mark Sanchez injury chatter. After suffering a dislocated left knee cap during a drill Friday, he was evaluated and determined to have no ligament damage, which has somewhat calmed the frayed nerves on the Left Coast.

The episode has already taken many turns, at first starting off as something minor with hope that he'd be back on the practice field on Monday to discussions of him possibly missing the opener against Virginia to wondering if he'd be ready to go for the Ohio State game.

From what I understand, the recovery time needed for this type of injury varies greatly depending on the degree of injury and other factors (Conquest Chronicles explores the injury in more detail if you're curious). Based on other players that have suffered the same injury, he's looking at anywhere from two weeks to six weeks before he's ready to play again. You can bank on Sanchez being in superb physical condition, so that will help speed up his rehabilitation -- all but ensuring that he'll be back for the Buckeye game, if not at full-health, close enough to it to hit the field.

But his return for that game could create other potential problems for Pete Carroll. What if backup Mitch Mustain goes out and lights the Cavaliers up? He has a season of quality starts at Arkansas under his belt, so it's not like he's green and if Sanchez is only 90% after watching Mustain play well, Carroll could be left with a difficult decision to make. What if Sanchez does get the nod, but at less than 100%?

You never want to cheer on injury, but the first major break in this game has gone to the Buckeyes.

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The DTI Crew hit Media Day and scored some nuggets from the players. Our favorite: Beanie might be thinking of a Heisman pose for the Wolverines this season.

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I risk pointing this out for fear of giving our distinguished friends from up North something else to blame defeat on, but researchers have evidence that supports the fact that a contestant wearing red will garner more favorable calls than a contestant wearing blue. Blue fail.