For our ongoing coverage of Hate Week 2009, the Buckeye Battle Cry had the unusual opportunity to converse with the enemy. Steve W. was nice enough to participate and share his thoughts with us allowing us insight into the mind of your typical, reasonably well informed*, TTUN fan. Enjoy!
The Buckeye Battle Cry: It’s that time of year again! How excited are you to watch a new chapter in the Greatest Rivalry In Sports being written?
Steve W.: Both excited and not excited. After the start of this season, I was certainly hoping for bowl eligibility, now that prospect seems faint. (TTUN’s) best prospect for a win this Saturday is for OSU to come out flat and for (TTUN) to play their best game of the year. This seems unlikely. Plus, I have more important things to be excited about right now, with the birth of my firstborn son right around the corner. I will be taking my wife to a baby shower on Saturday, and I’m not sure how I’ll be able to watch the game.
tBBC: Congrats on the upcoming blessing! Other than Brandon Graham (TTUN’s star Defensive Lineman), who are the players we should know about going into the game?
Steve: On Defense, if you are looking for respectability, the list is short. The D-line is this defense’s strength, and that is not quite purely a Brandon Graham effect. Mike Martin is a sophomore and future first day draft choice. He will help BG get some pressure. Craig Roh also is a highly touted freshman playing in a hybrid DL/LB position. Good protection should bottle him up, and as he’s a bit undersized he can be exploited, but with his talents, I think he would have still gotten playing time on a more dominant defensive line, just not a starting position. In his new role Stevie Brown has been decent, especially at helping stop the run and he has also been a reasonably sure tackler. However, covering a slot receiver is still not one of his strengths. Donovan Warren, in my opinion has been misused this season. He is the only legitimate cover corner on the team, but has been recently deployed as more of a safety, because while depth at corner is non-existent depth at safety is even worse. Warren is both responsible enough to not get beat deep and athletic enough to make a ball hawking pick. If Pryor doesn’t throw to his side of the field, he is almost assured to not have any INTs. (If you care, here is more information about (TTUN)’s problems on defense — Part 1 and Part 2. To summarize, (TTUN) has been recruiting PSU sized classes on defense and suffering attrition worse than Alabama. For Part 2 especially, only nerds need apply.)
(Ed: Careful with those links, you’ll be stepping into MGoBlog. Venture with care.)
Now if you are looking for things…shall we say…other than respectability, you have a few other names to be looking for. (TTUN) has been playing two walk-ons extensively. Jordan Kovacs is at best a slower clone of Stevie Brown. Expect one of your WRs to find their way behind him on a long pass where he has deep responsibility. As he is slower than Brown, Kovacs won’t make a TD saving tackle inside the 10. Let me say this for all to hear as clearly as possible: Kovacs will get beaten deep at least once for a TD. Obi Ezeh is a senior LB who should be pretty good. He’s been starting for nearly 3 seasons now. He has recently lost his starting job to another walk-on, Kevin Leach (who is a walk on for a reason) who is a bit undersized to play the MLB position. Leach really began to get PT starting with the Illinois game when they had to be “faster” to stop that spread running attack, but Ezeh has been quite “blockable” all season, and I have seen him put on roller skates plenty of times this season. They have been experimenting with other (younger) options at LB recently which gives me some hope for next season and yet some fear for the remainder of this one.
On Offense, there is mostly respectability. Tate Forcier has been a very freshman quarterback, but a very good freshman quarterback. His passing stats are on par with some of the best true freshman QBs in recent NCAA history. He has a decent arm and decent wheels, and sometimes he tries to make miracles happen when he shouldn’t. All in all, I think he is the QB of the future. Denard Robinson doesn’t tie his shoelaces (in case you hadn’t heard) and neither does he really feel comfortable throwing the ball. If he gains more than 15 yards on a single play on Saturday, your Defense screwed up. Brandon Minor is the best RB on this team, and if he could stay healthy, would probably be on the short list for All American. He should average 4 or 5 ypc, even against your defense. Carlos Brown plays lightning to Minor’s thunder. If Brown is in the game for short yardage Saturday, expect him to scamper around the edge or get stopped in the middle. The OL has been respectable, but is missing David Molk at the Center spot. There will be some difficulties in protection. The receivers (Greg Matthews and Darryl Stonum to name two of them) are not spectacular, though Stonum is a threat on KO returns, and will not be further mentioned here.
tBBC: How do you think Rich Rod will attack this powerful Buckeye defense?
Steve: Ok, just in case you didn’t know, Rich Rod is a spread-to-run guy, so his idea is to spread things out, try to use some misdirection and put his athletes in favorable one-on-one match-ups. If they stuck with Minor and gave him 35 carries, they might actually find some success on the ground, or at least enough success to make you put 8 in the box to stop him. Then Tate can spread the ball around to the receivers. If (TTUN) sees any success this year it will look like this: Minor gets a pile of carries and this causes an OSU safety to come down in the box to stop him. The (TTUN) receivers are cured of the dropsies that they have had a mild case of this season and Matthews, Stonum, Roundtree, and Koger (and Odoms if he’s healthy) all have big days.
tBBC: How do you see The Game turning out this year?
Steve: Have you heard that Basketball Season started? (TTUN) should be pretty good this season. They beat the tar out of Northern (TTUN). What? This is supposed to be about football? Remember Eric, I still own you in the paint. (Hey, I’ve got to get my shots in when I can! :P)
(Eric: You may have me down low, but I can still shoot over you.)
See the PSU game, the Illinois game, and the Wisconsin game. (TTUN) “fights hard” and maybe even gets an early lead. That lead evaporates and this game turns into a rout in the 2nd half.
On a related note, as I may miss much of the game this year, does anyone want to DVR it for me and edit out all OSU scoring drives in the 2nd half? Thanks in advance.
tBBC: What do you think of the rumors coming out of the program that claim that Tate Forcier will be transferring at the end of the season?
Steve: I haven’t heard them. Somehow I think they are full of shit.
And now I have proof.
tBBC: Given what Rich Rod has achieved so far this season, how long do you expect he will remain at TTUN?
Steve: Winning cures everything. And I expect Rich to win sooner rather than later. I don’t see any reason to rush him out of town. Remember, this is the same school that gave Tommy Amaker 6 years. When the Big House gets empty, then the writing will be on the wall. I think that there has been progress on Offense, and on Defense, the problem is too little talent (see links above) combined with three DCs in 3 seasons.
I think that a hasty firing is the worst thing that could happen at this point. At the minimum, if I’m the AD, I give him 3 more years of struggling. Next season should be better. After all, there won’t be a freshman QB (unless Devin Gardner (Ed: TTUN’s current verbal QB commit) beats out Forcier and Robinson), the backup RBs have been getting snaps and have done a decent job, and the Receivers should get one year older and more mature, therefore the offense will improve. And, I mean (please God) the defense can’t get any worse, can it? Please? Bueller? Is anyone there? Bueller?
tBBC: If you were the AD and had the opportunity to hire a new coach right now, who would you choose?
Steve: I think that Les Miles makes lots of sense. I know, this ship has sailed recently, but I think that it does work out well. While Brian Kelly was rumored to be “not an option” then, I think it would be hard to argue with his success. I would also think about a NFL defensive guru type (think Rex Ryan, but a DC not an HC).
tBBC: Given the success Joe Tiller had at Purdue (decent, but unspectacular) using a similar offensive style, do you think Rich Rod will do better? If he can’t have the sort of success that TTUN’s fans want, will he switch to a style that has been shown to be more successful in the Big Ten?
Steve: Rich Rod won’t switch styles on a fundamental level. He made that pretty clear last season when his QB options were a statuesque QB with a cannon and a so-so (walk-on) athlete with a pea shooter, and chose to run his offense making these two options seem *almost* equal.
I’m not sure there is a systemic parallel between Rich Rod and Tiller. Ok, both were “spread” guys, but the similarity ends there. Rich Rod’s offense isn’t “Basketball on grass” like Tiller’s was. In any case, I really DO think that Rich Rod will do better. It won’t look exactly like his WV offenses, there will be some tweaks in my opinion.
- There will always be a bit of a “bruising” back like Minor in complement to a Steve Slaton type. But he will still be generally deployed in this spread offense fashion.
- There will also be a prototypical big NFL type receiver, where there was none at WV. Matthews and Stonum are all the sort of guy that they will keep.
- I’m not sure Pat White will ever fully show up at (TTUN). I think that this means that Denard will become a slot receiver or a tailback eventually. Big Ten defenses won’t be fooled by a QB that runs 70% of the time.
- Rich Rod will begin recruiting FB/TE types like Owen Schmitt (who walked on at WV). All of the decent walk on prospects will go to B10 schools who appreciate their talents and offer them scholarships out of High Schools.
The last thing that will bring stability to the program is a DC who stays for more than a year. Greg Robinson will stick around for a few years (at least) before trying his hand at coaching again or moving to an NFL gig.
Many thanks, Steve! Hope you manage to find some time to catch the game on Saturday!
*For a TTUN fan, of course.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
