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Past and Present Collide Tonight: OSU vs. Virginia Tech

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Large Father's picture
September 7, 2015 at 1:57pm
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Tressels, Fickells and Urbans,

There are two recent images of Ohio State football that I'm having trouble reconciling.  

The first is Zeke Elliott hoisting the National Championship trophy from the podium just after beating Oregon and he is surrounded by teammates that are juniors or younger.  Every time I see that image, I think the Buckeyes have suddenly become a college football machine...powerful, defiant, finely tuned...and absolutely loaded for many years to come.

The second image is Michael Bennett displaying the number "53" on his jersey after a herculean sack early in the Big Ten Championship Game against Wisconsin that set the tone for a dominant performance from the entire team.  He wore that jersey number in honor of his walk-on defensive line teammate, Kosta Karageorge, who had committed suicide just a little over a week prior.  Here was Michael Bennett's quote on wearing Kosta's number: "That meant a lot to me to be able to give the glory to him after every play. In the game it was more just trying to let people focus on him rather than me. If I made a play, I wanted people to immediately think about Kosta because they see his number and I want the announcers to talk about Kosta. He's the important part.  I'm a guy playing football, but he changed a lot of people's lives."

Urban spoke on leadership to a small group from my company this offseason.  It was fascinating.  He described his approach for creating a culture of deep personal accountability ingrained in every person involved with the Ohio State football program.  It focuses on the power of the unit - that people will do extraordinary things when they have an emotional connection and unwavering commitment to their small group.  

If you watched "Scarlet and Gray Days - Inside Ohio State Training Camp" on BTN recently (which is very well done BTW, BTN) Urban continually harps on "nine units strong."  There are nine different units between offense, defense and special teams with an assistant coach for each unit.  It's very simple and extremely powerful.  If you need proof just watch this -http://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-football/2015/04/52645/video-oh... Be sure to watch the portions from Larry Johnson and Ed Warinner.  (Context on Warinner's championship ring presentation to Darryl Baldwin...Darryl's dad passed away when Darryl was 10 years old.)

In juxtaposition to all of that, football is a very raw and brutal game.  Urban also creates a culture of relentless expectation and performance.  One episode of "Scarlet and Gray Days" shows the circle drill tradition.  It's a barbaric, gladiator-style competition with just two players going head-to-head and surrounded by all their teammates.  You either win or you lose....and everyone is watching.  It's that simple.

So now it is Christmas morning; we'll see what we have tonight in primetime against Virginia Tech.  I like our chances if we see some of these things:

 - An efficient passing game despite graduating two top receivers from last year, losing another to injury and having three suspended for the opener.  If the starter is JT, I think OSU can have success passing to the TE and H-back...and maybe RB.  If any of the young, inexperienced WRs step up (Parris Campbell, James Clark, Johnnie Dixon and/or Terry McLaurin), then the Bucks will be in really good shape.

 - Braxton as part of the game plan.  I love the move to H-back; hopefully, he has learned the position and can be effective early in the year.  My biggest concern is his blocking - something that fuels the Buckeyes offensive success with big, explosive plays.

 - An effective running game even though I expect Virginia Tech to sell-out to stop the run.  This is still the same VA Tech team that stymied OSU with the bear front defense last season.  The Bucks won't be fooled by that look this year, but Virginia Tech will still most likely find a way to have a numbers advantage at the line of scrimmage.  They do have the highest paid defensive assistant coach in the country, so he better be pretty good at his job.

 - A dominant defensive line despite three new starters with Joey Bosa's one-game suspension.  I do think if anyone can have these guys ready to play, it's Larry Johnson.  Many of these guys have had little to no game experience, so it's hard to tell what we have.  I think Adolphus is ready to disrupt the middle...and OSU will find a way to pressure from the outside with Darron Lee, possibly Sam Hubbard...and even possibly Josh Perry playing some DE.  
    
It all starts tonight. 

I'll be rooting on these players who are sons, grandsons, teammates, brothers...and hopefully champions.  

Touchdowns:  Zeke, Zeke, Braxton, Braxton, Curtis Samuel, Nick Vannett
 
OSU 42 Virginia Tech 14

Go Bucks!  Beat Virginia Tech!  Josh Perry for Heisman! 

Large Father

Mod Edit: This post is so good, the title was edited, hopefully, to attract more readers. Very well written, Large Father!  

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