SB Nation - Kirk Barton

What should the mentality on the line be?

Sam @ WWAHT — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:00:23 -0000

In this blogger's opinion, the thing holding back the Ohio State football team from competing against the better teams it has faced the last couple years has been the play of the offensive line. Lord knows I've written enough about it the last couple months, and that all my prognostications about the upcoming season - the optimistic ones at least - come with a single, glaring caveat: that the play of the offensive line must improve. A lot. There are many different reasons people have tossed out for line's struggles: conditioning, scheme, "heart" (or whatever you want to call it), but also, the line's "attitude".

Chris Spielman has long been one of my favorite Buckeyes to watch, but also to listen to. Last year, in the Ohio game, he acted as sideline reporter for the ESPN braodcast. As Ohio State got consistently manhandled in the trenches, he said watching the line was like watching a pillow fight. And it's true; against even the patsiest of patsies on the schedule, Ohio State's line alternated between good and not-so-good for four frustrating quarters. The next day on his radio show, Spielman said the line was "playing pattycake", and he contrasted it with the USC line, which, in his words, doesn't "play nice".

Were this criticism to come from anyone but Spielman, I'd take it with a grain of salt; I tend to ignore explanations that don't boil down to technique, philosophy and scheme, because I feel like I don't learn anything from them. They just feel like newspaper column fodder for Scout/Rivals types to get all fired up about. But since it was Spielman, this criticism was different. The old cliché states that football is a mental game, and, never having actually played it, but having watched it for years, I'd have to agree. But what exactly is the menality went want in our offensive line? Alex Boone spent three years trying to get this line fired up, and not doing a very good job, it seems. Kirk Barton, for three years, did an adequate job, but in two of his teams' biggest games - the twin national title beatdowns - he, and the rest of unit, looked lost. For Barton, it's especially odd, considering he held talented Texas pass rusher Bryan Robison and Michigan's Lamarr Woodley, in check for the two other "big games" of 2006. Now, I already told you where leadership on this line will likely come from; Boren and Brewster seem to have it in spades. The question is, what sort of mentality should the coaches seek to foster? It seems that ALEX BOONE RAGE, the aggressive, take-no-prisoners 'tude the left tackle tried to bring to the '06 and '07 lines largely fizzled out in '08, and it makes you wonder if the transition from Barton to Boone as the group spokesman had anything to do with it. With talk of Boren fighting his own teammates in practice, it seems that the attitude at the top won't be changing all that much. If that's the case, how much of a change can we expect? We now know that position shuffling is still taking place; Cordle has moved back inside apparently, with Shugarts and Adams holding down the two tackle spots for now; so it's clear that coaches didn't feel they had a cohesive unit, at least in its spring practice iteration. I, for one, expect the line to be better than it was in 2008 - there's nowhere to go but up - but I just can't be too sure where the ceiling is.

Am I reading too much into all of this? Thoughts?

Bucknotes would probably die choking

Sam @ WWAHT — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:00:20 -0000

Ed. note: this morning, the width parameters on the youtube embeds were messed up; they should be fixed now. The reason for this is that when SBN's space-age blog technology previews stories for us, it's previews them in the "wide view' format, which you can change to at any time over on the left panel. Apologies all around. I probably should actually check the site sometime before my lunch break.

Oh yeah? Oh yeah?! Well I scored a hat trick in floor hockey in my middle school gym class! Beat that, Duron Carter!

Bucknuts.com - Lichter: ‘Pryor Is The Fastest Player On The Team’ ($)
Ha. No. Pryor did not, I repeat, not run a 4.33. He is a physical freak, but ya gotta understand, that puts him in the Taylor Mays range of athleticism going into his sophomore year. If he really did this, and his throwing motion is genuinely better, then you won't be able to quantify his unstoppable-ness by the end of the year

Michigan WR Justin Feagin dismissed from team | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press
Another player bolts from Michigan, but this time not of his own volition. Dismissed for the ever-so-vague "violation of team rules", scuttlebutt on the Michigan rivals board says he was stealing from a teammate's locker. Again, it's scuttlebutt, and it's Rivals, so take it with many grains of salt. Feagin was considered an emergency quarterback this year, and was getting his time in at slot receiver (which Michigan has like 87 of, apparently).

Big Ten media days primer - Big Ten - ESPN
Of course, what we're all excited for this week is the Big Ten's annual media hurly-burly in Chicago, starting on Monday. The coaches will address the media starting at 11, and Tuesday will be the time for one-on-one interviews, in which hopefully enough fluff piece material will be gathered to last us until exactly noon on September 5th. I will, of course, not be there. I mean, Fallout 3 won't beat itself for the sixth time, people. Gotta keep my priorities in order, after all.

Deaf fan sues Ohio State to get captions at games
Okay, I'm all for equal rights and accommodating the needs of the disabled, but does this strike anyone else as a money-grab? I mean, Ohio State's PR guy said this in response:

"The bottom line is, had the individual called us, we would have taken action."

However, in the Litigation Nation, someone smelled cheddar to be made, and now the university has to deal with this. Hopefully a settlement can reached, the fairly simple changes can be made, and it'll be forgotten about in a year.

Is commitment 10 right around the corner? (Blogging the Buckeyes)
Chad Hagan, a linebacker/safety hybrid-type guy person I discussed in the last recruiting update, will probably commit to Ohio State soon; K/P Will Hagerup will probably be deciding shortly thereafter. Question: do we really need another kicker, with Ben Buchanan already in the fold, and Drew Basil in the same class as Hagerup?

BuckeyeXtra - Overseas tour touches Tressel
.... in the naughty bits! Alright, seriously: it's fluff, but it's also a nice read about Tress's experience on the Coaches' Tour of the Middle East with Mack Brown, Neuheisel, Nutt, Grobe, Tubbs and Crockett. Fine, Tubberville was there, but Sonny Crockett wasn't. He was in my heart:

If you're wondering where I fit into all of this, I'm not Tubbs or Crockett, I'm the creepy balding dude (Jan Hammer) grooving on my keytar in a dark room, wishing he actually was on Miami Vice and not making bad techno music.

Hey, Doug: Doug Lesmerises answers your Ohio State questions - cleveland.com

Of interest:

Can you assure us OSU fans that Jim Tressel is every bit as good a coach as Florida's Urban Meyer, Alabama's Nick Saban, Oklahoma's Bob Stoops, USC's Pete Carroll and Notre Dame's Charlie Weis? -- Tom O'Malley, Cleveland

For this, Tom O'Malley from Cleveland, you're on notice. Enjoy the company.

Three of the coaches listed have exactly as many BCS titles as Tressel; Saban, Carroll and Stoops each have one - and Stoops won his in 2000, Saban won it all in 2003, and then Carroll did it in 2004. In other words, everyone but Urban Meyer - in my mind, the college football's reigning tyrannical madman - won their last title within two years of Tressel's last. Stoops is the second most egregious guy on this list; he's lost five straight BCS bowl games, and three national titles in that span. That however, is a distant second to the dumbfounding Charlie Weis name-drop. Ahem:

The bitcheraciousness of Charlie Weis' "gameplanning" (and I use that term loosely) knows no bounds

Inside-Outside is Sick of The Tebow - Black Shoe Diaries
The guys at BSD are rather humble about their team next year, but this caught my eye:

People will argue that I’m overlooking the losses on the o-line, which is fair, but you can never tell how good an o-line is going to be anyway. Ohio State’s completely let them down last year despite returning what I think was the entire unit [...]

That was not technically the entire unit; Kirk Barton headed up a fairly solid unit in 2007, and many have pointed to the loss of his leadership and charisma as part of the line's struggles in 2008. He was a solid right tackle for years at Ohio State, but I never thought he'd be quite that important to us. Did you? If you're looking for leadership of Barton's caliber on this year's line, look to the surnames that begin with B's: Brewster and Boren both have similar levels of fire and tenacity, and Brewster has a good year of experience under his belt - and the growing respect of his teammates that naturally comes with it . Have I mentioned that I'm particularly excited to see those two mowing down opposing interiors this fall? Because I am.

The Top 10 SEC-Big Ten Games of the Last Decade: No. 1

cocknfire — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:30:13 -0000

Before we get to the Top SEC-Big Ten Game of the Last Decade, let's take a moment to run back through Nos. 2-10, as selected by Team Speed Kills and The Rivalry, Esq.

#2 -- Michigan v Alabama, 2000 Orange Bowl
#3 -- LSU v Illinois, 2002 Sugar Bowl
#4 -- Michigan v Florida, 2008 Capital One Bowl
#5 -- South Carolina v Ohio State, 2002 Outback Bowl
#6 -- Iowa v LSU, 2005 Capital One Bowl
#7 -- Georgia v Purdue, 2000 Outback Bowl
#8 -- Michigan State v Florida, 2000 Citrus Bowl
#9 -- Florida v Iowa, 2006 Outback Bowl
#10 -- Wisconsin v Arkansas, 2007 Capital One Bowl

And now, without further ado, the No. 1 game between the SEC and the Big Ten of the past decade is:

Florida v Ohio State, 2007 BCS National Championship Game

The game was so good, they made a movie about it.

Before we get started, a note about what I'm sure will be a controversial pick in some corners. We should point out that the first person to suggest that this game be included in the list was one of the Big Ten fans among us. And ranking this No. 1 will be defended fully at the end of the post, so read before you begin bashing away.

I. The Build Up: Florida Will Die in the Desert

Nobody gave the Florida Gators a chance of winning this game, at least in the initial rounds of commentary that started soon after the BCS selections were announced Dec. 3. After all, the Ohio St. Buckeyes had clobbered Texas, 24-7 in Austin; defeated every other team except Illinois and Michigan by at least three TDs; and held off the Wolverines in the most anticipated game of the year.

To many, Florida didn't belong, or at least not any more than Michigan. Several Wolverine-boosters noted that Big Blue had lost to Ohio State by a field goal -- conveniently omitting that no one who watched the game really thought the game was that close -- and had won every other game.

Meanwhile, Florida had excelled at winning tight games, sometimes in the most unlikely of circumstances. The fingertips of Jarvis Moss were all that stood between the Gators and a loss to South Carolina. Florida beat Tennessee by one and a subpar Georgia by a TD. Their loss? A 10-point defeat at the hands of Auburn, which would end the season ranked in the Top 10 but was not undefeated Ohio State.

Some took to calling the Michigan-Ohio State game "the true national championship," convinced that Ohio State's crowning in the official event in Glendale was a mere formality.

Sam, of SB Nation's Ohio State blog We Will Always Have Tempe, was among those anticipating an Ohio State blowout.

I remember all the hype building up to this game. This was prior to my days a latte sipping hippie writing a blog, so I was just a run-of-the-mill Buckeye fan who got his opinions from sports radio, the WWL, and the latest Scout and Rivals board argument. You know, a moron. Anyway, I expected us to blow out Florida. After all, they barely beat Vanderbilt!

Even Florida fans, like Year2, had doubts about whether their faith in the Gators, Urban Meyer and Chris Leak was well-placed.

I think I can speak for many Florida fans when I tell you that my heart said Florida would win, but my head had its doubts. We all knew that Ohio State hadn't played a defense like Florida's, but Florida hadn't played many offenses that were as good as OSU's regular season squad was.

Ohio State's vaunted offense, remember, included Heisman Trophy Winner Troy Smith. Florida's quarterback was Chris Leak. This did not inspire universal confidence among Gator fans.

Just before the game, if you were watching, you could sense something happening. The assembled experts began to hedge their bets a little bit, saying that the game might be "closer than the experts expect." (This was an odd statement for some of them, since they were the experts who had deemed Florida such a large underdog.)

Part of this was likely because Michigan's secondary was obliterated by Southern Cal in the Rose Bowl a week before Ohio State and Florida played in Glendale. Suddenly, the cachet of defeating Michigan through the air back in November was dropping.

So the stage was set: A win by Ohio State, either close or by a large margin. If Florida won, it would be in a tight game.

The one thing everyone could rule out was Florida winning in a rout. That just wasn't their style.

II. The Game: Following the Script, and Then ...

The first play seemed to confirm what everyone thought: Florida, there are some lovely parting gifts for you in the locker room. Ted Ginn caught the opening kickoff at the Ohio State 7 and didn't stop running until the Buckeyes were up 7-0.

Sam: When Ted Ginn took the opening kick-off back for a touchdown, I leapt out of my chair and yelled "OVER!" I didn't realize then how right I was.

Ohio State would score just once more in the game, on an 18-yard Antonio Pittman rush in the second quarter. Florida would score many, many times.

Year2: After Ted Ginn's opening kickoff return, my stomach sank. After the Gators responded by driving right back down the field and scoring, my heart leaped. When Florida stopped Ohio State on fourth down and scored 13 quick points in the final 3 minutes of the half, no one I was watching the game with could believe it all really happened.

Sam: It was obvious in the first couple series that Ohio State could not consistently protect Troy Smith or open holes for Antonio Pittman. With that, it was over. With no running game to speak of, Jarvis Moss and Derrick Harvey abused Ohio State tackles Alex Boone and Kirk Barton, and Ohio State couldn't get anything going. For the first time in my life, I turned off the game.

Florida led 34-14 at the half. Troy Smith, who had just weeks before been proclaimed the best player in the game, was under nearly constant pressure. But no Gator fan was too confident. After all, they still had Chris Leak.

Year 2: We were cautiously optimistic as halftime wore on, glad for the 20 point lead but scared of Bad Chris Leak. Good Chris Leak definitely played the first half, but Bad Chris Leak had a habit of showing up in the third quarter of games and nearly blowing them. He almost lost the SEC title game by himself (thank goodness for Percy Harvin).

A funny thing happened though. Bad Chris never showed up. The offense played it safe until Tim Tebow put it away for good early in the fourth quarter. And the defense. Oh my, did the defense come ready to play that day. It was by far the best they'd played all season. It was a game that made me feel good for some of the maligned guys on the team too, from Leak finally putting a full game together under Urban Meyer, to Chris "Mr. 4-13" Hetland nailing both his field goals, to converted receiver CB Reggie Lewis getting an interception.

Tim Tebow, just beginning to write his legend, would rush for a TD in the fourth quarter to bring the final score to 41-14. Had it not been for Boise State shocking Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl a week earlier in the same stadium, it might have been the most surprising game of the 2006-07 bowl season.

Leak was 25-of-36 for 213 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions. Tebow threw for one score and rushed for another. Also scoring on the ground were DeShawn Wynn and Percy Harvin.

Smith imploded along with his offensive line, going 4-of-14 for 35 yards, a pick and a fumble. He was sacked five times, part of an abysmal performance by the Buckeyes front that ended with Ohio State netting just 47 yards on the ground, including Pittman's 62-yard performance.

III. The Fallout: ESS EEE SEE Speed and Its Discontents

Immediately, the experts began searching for the reasons they were so wrong. One excuse emerged from a theme that had been touched on before the game: Ohio State hadn't played football in 51 days, and somehow forgot how to. That Florida had gone 36 days since its last game was apparently irrelevant, so we must assume that the magic day on which you become "rusty" lies somewhere between 36 and 51.

But the other reason given for Ohio State's loss was the story that has since become a long-running theme of college football analysis with no signs of letting up: ESS EEE SEE SPEED!!!! This was not well received by Buckeye fans -- or fans of any other conference, for that matter.

Sam: The difference between the two teams in this game was not speed, and it was not athleticism. Ohio State had just as many athletes as Florida and a similar level of talent. ...

The national perception that the south has an iron grip on any and all "speed" and the north has a lockdown on slow, clunky, unathletic corn-fed Baby Hueys would rear its head once again as a result of this game's outcome. Anyone who watched would see that the only discernible speed difference was on the lines, and it's accepted fact that the SEC routinely churns out the best defensive linemen. This game, however, gave ESS EEE SEE fans a whole new bravado, in which their players were of a superior master race of athletes the likes of which simply are not seen in other conferences. While these people are generally seen for what they are (morons, like I was), it won't stop the media from repeating the meme every time a big game happens between a Big 10 and SEC team. You have this game to thank for that these days.

The SEC speed argument has been had over and over, but for knowledgeable fans of the conference, it has always been line speed that has defined the league's advantage. Yes, there are those who think that "SEC speed" means the conference's wide receivers and running backs can dash like cheetahs past the lumbering tortoises of the Big Ten. And that is the sense in which too many shallow commentators wield the term.

Wrong or not, though, the fact that the notion of SEC speed has lingered with us over three years shows the impact of this game. No one remembers that, a week before the clash in the desert, Wisconsin defeated Arkansas in the Capital One Bowl and Penn State largely shut down Tennessee's running game in the Outback Bowl to win 20-10.

When Ohio State badly lost the next national championship game to another SEC team, this one 38-24 to LSU in New Orleans, the theory of SEC speed was cemented in the national consciousness.

For Florida fans, the why of the 2007 game was not quite so important: They won. After the turmoil of the Zook Era, it seemed like the glory of the Spurrier years was finally returning.

Year2: It was the perfect game on the perfect night. I can't imagine asking for a better way to end a season.

Two years later, Florida would win its second national title under Urban Meyer, and now sets its sights on a third.

But the Gators should know better than anyone else how quickly assumed national championships can evaporate.

Poll

Which SEC-Big Ten game do you think was the best of the past decade?

Florida v Ohio State, 2007 BCS National Championship Game

104 votes

Michigan v Alabama, 2000 Orange Bowl

9 votes

LSU v Illinois, 2002 Sugar Bowl

4 votes

Michigan v Florida, 2008 Capital One Bowl

10 votes

South Carolina v Ohio State, 2002 Outback Bowl

7 votes

Iowa v LSU, 2005 Capital One Bowl

10 votes

Georgia v Purdue, 2000 Outback Bowl

2 votes

Michigan State v Florida, 2000 Citrus Bowl

0 votes

Florida v Iowa, 2006 Outback Bowl

0 votes

Wisconsin v Arkansas, 2007 Capital One Bowl

2 votes

Another (Please explain in the comments)

6 votes

154 votes | Poll has closed

The Rivalry's Guide to Beating Ohio State

grahamfiller10 — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:56:01 -0000

This should read like a Billy Mays infomercial:

FOR ALL YOU BIG 10 COACHES: TIRED OF GETTING BLOWN OUT IN COLUMBUS? TIRED OF BEING STIFF-ARMED BY ANOTHER 5 STAR BUCKEYE RECRUIT? TIRED OF WATCHING JIM TRESSEL SMILE AND TALK ABOUT HOW YOU "PLAYED HARD" AFTER HIS TEAM MERCY KILLED YOURS BY FOUR TOUCHDOWNS?

Then read this article, written by THE RIVALRY ESQ, and maybe you can keep it competitive against the Scarlet and Gray this year!

Because frankly, the Buck's have been dominant ever since Tressel's system got rolling during the national championship season in '02. Boasting a 47-9 in-conference record and five conference titles (shared and solo), it's been quite a bitch to play OSU lately. [ed note: PSU fans, I know you smashed them last year, that was a helpful learning tool for making this list.]

Billy Mays, a Pennsylvania native, supports this article.

So what should your team be doing to prepare for a trip into Columbus or a visit from the Buckeyes? I compiled a general list of concepts...

Stop the Run

Easier said than done. Just to name a few solid offensive linemen that have excelled in Columbus the last seven years: Doug Datish, Kirk Barton, TJ Downing, Alex Boone, Rob Sims, Nick Mangold, Alex Stepanovich. These talented linemen, combined with NFL caliber backs, make stopping the bread and butter off-tackle run plays next to impossible. Terrelle Pryor's scrambling won't help either.

But, just like Penn State proved in 2008, the devastating running attack can be stopped. Two basic ideas:

Attack the guards. As WeWillAlwaysHaveTempe pointed out, guard play has been shaky last few years. Numerous times in 2008, the talented Penn State frontline beat the middle three of the OSU offensive line and made a play or disrupted things for a linebacker to clean up the running back.
Don't allow your linebackers to be intimidated: During the 2007 Illini upset in Columbus, J Lehman had 12 tackles, flying everywhere from his LB spot. In 2008, Navarro Bowman and the entire PSU linebacking corps made decisive tackles on Wells, the opposite of whatever Michigan State's defenders tried during the stiff-arm fest that happened in East Lansing. It doesn't hurt to put five defenders at the line of scrimmage, a formation that Illinois used with some success in '07.

The running game was held to 90 ypg in the Buckeye's nine in-conference losses since 2002, a telling statistic. The ability to slow the run will make Pryor have to look downfield, a preferable option to being pounded by the relentless rushing attack. And there is no Michael Jenkins or Santonio Holmes on the 2009 roster, a downfield threat you absolutely must account for.

Mix Up Your Offense and Generally Avoid Downfield Throws

Your not going to score a lot on the Bucks during Big 10 play. From 2005-2007, the Buck's allowed the least ppg each year in-conference, using a "bend but don't break" scheme featuring four down linemen, NFL caliber linebackers, and some talented defensive backs. No one has really had sustained success against this defense, but it certainly helps to do the following:

Move your quarterback out of the pocket. It doesn't matter if it's a modified rollout or a scramble. The Illinois upset in 2007 showed a confused Buckeye defense lacking confidence in defending the movement of Juice Williams. When Penn State had any success throwing the ball in 2008, it was on rollout runs or throws. Hell, if you want to go back to 2004, Brett Basanez's scrambling helped light up the (admittedly weak) OSU defense for 444 total yards. Not since Michigan '06 and Michigan '03 has a Big 10 team with a straight dropback based offense put up big points on Tressel. And this year, there won't be a dropback offense talented enough to score 30...Look what happened when MSU and their vanilla O got smashed last year.
Throw short and mid range passes effectively. Michigan did it with slants in '03, Illinois and Penn State did it with screens in '07 and '08. If you can hit the seams in front of the safeties or get seven yards on a screen, you avoid having to force the ball downfield against the likes of Malcolm Jenkins, Ashton Youboty, Nate Salley, etc.

Pray for Inopportune, Game Changing Turnovers...Or Cause Them

Troy Smith's headstand sack/fumble, TP's '08 fumble, Boeckman's three picks against Illinois. See a pattern here? There's a big, season altering distinction between giving Ohio State trouble (Wisconsin, 2008) and finishing the job (Penn State, 2008). Case in point - When Pryor ran in for the game winning touchdown against the Badgers, the previously solid UW defense was out of position and disorganized. When Pryor had the ball popped out while scrambling on third and one against PSU, Mark Rubin was broke down in position to make a play.

Here is Law Buck's 2009 Spring Preview of Ohio State, predicting an 11-1 record and an undefeated in-conference slate...Wow...11-1? I just don't see them losing to Navy, I'm sorry.

Here is BSD telling you OSU is overrated...