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2006 Spring Practice/Game Thread

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Dispatch

4/13/06

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Hartline, Robiskie not playing around

Second-year receivers keeping pedal to metal in quest for jobs

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

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</IMG> </TD></TR><TR><TD class=credit width=200>NEAL C . LAURON | DISPATCH </TD></TR><TR><TD class=cutline width=200>Brian Robiskie fights for yardage against San Diego State after his only catch of the 2005 season. </TD></TR><TR><TD align=middle>
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The competition for playing time among Ohio State receivers is all about the life of Brians at the moment.

But for Brian Hartline and Brian Robiskie, spring practice is no Monty Python-like spoof of college football. It’s serious business.

"I am making a point to use this spring to try to propel myself into this year," said Robiskie, son of Cleveland Browns assistant coach Terry Robiskie. "I took it upon myself to come out in the very first practice and try to just make an impression upon the coaches and have them give me as much time as I can get on the field."

It’s the same for Hartline, who like Robiskie knows spots are up for grabs in the receiver rotation as the Buckeyes reshuffle the deck after the early departure of top receiver Santonio Holmes to the NFL.

Juniors Ted Ginn Jr. and Anthony Gonzalez and senior Roy Hall lead the way, but the competition is fierce to be the next man off the bench.

That’s why last Saturday, Hartline and Robiskie hardly cracked smiles after excelling during the Buckeyes’ jersey scrimmage.

"Every day is big, really, when you’re in the position I’m in," said Hartline, whose five catches led all receivers. "You have to make sure you’re consistent, you do your job, and make a play here and there."

Recognition is the key at this point in the last two weeks of spring practice for the 6-foot-3 receivers, and quarterback Troy Smith has noticed both of them.

"Robiskie is the kind of guy who will sit and do hours and hours of film study," Smith said. "And it pays off when he’s out there on the field with the decisions that he makes. He also has some of the best hands on the field. He can shift his body in different angles, different positions, and reach out with his long arms and make those catches that you need.

"Hartline is tough. I don’t think he gets enough credit sometimes for the things that he does, because he will dip his shoulder (going for the extra yard) and he’ll do some things that a receiver is not supposed to do. He’ll split defenders, make a guy miss, and he has deceptive speed, too."

One difference between the two is that Robiskie played some as a freshman last year while Hartline was redshirted to save the year of eligibility. That was not Hartline’s plan, even though he had suffered a severely broken leg during his senior year at GlenOak High School in Canton.

"Last year was kind of rough," Hartline said. "You’d be surprised sometimes how redshirting is even harder mentally than anything else, because everyone is a competitor, and if you know you can’t compete (for playing time), then you’re already beat."

His intensity waned for several weeks, he said, "But then I started to notice that I really wasn’t ready. I kept getting into the weight room and learning the system, and that’s gotten me to where I am now. The redshirting was the best thing for me."

Robiskie, on the other hand, beat the odds. In what was considered a deep pool of talent at receiver during last preseason camp, he found a mind-set that helped him gain attention.

"I tried to think, ‘I’ve got to come in like all the spots are open. I’m trying to come in and get my position on the field,’ " Robiskie said. "I just tried to take that mind-set like I’m taking right now. I’m just trying to come in and make that same impression."

Gonzalez likes them both.

"Brian Hartline I can kind of empathize with more, because I went through pretty much the same thing," said Gonzalez, who also was redshirted. "It’s not easy redshirting. It’s tough.

"But he’s doing a really good job, his attitude is great, he’s been working real hard, and in the (scrimmage Saturday) you guys saw what we see all the time."

[email protected]
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CPD

4/14/06

COLLEGE FOOTBALL
OSU's defense looks healthy at linebacker


Friday, April 14, 2006

Doug Lesmerises
Plain Dealer Reporter

Columbus- Linebackers coach Luke Fickell claims he really doesn't know right now.

"There are legitimately six or seven guys that, come Day One, could truly be starters," Fickell said Thursday.

So goes the spring competition to fill Ohio State's three holes at linebacker, with John Kerr, Marcus Freeman and James Laurinaitis the first group for the moment. Curtis Terry, Ross Homan, Larry Grant and the injury-plagued Mike D'Andrea are presumably the others still in the starting mix.

But if there was one linebacker you'd want to bet your paycheck will start against Northern Illinois on Sept. 2, go with the player who might have shared the field with A.J. Hawk, Bobby Carpenter and Anthony Schlegel at times last season if he'd been healthy.

He's the player Fickell calls the most athletic linebacker on the team, a player who will have sophomore eligibility in the fall with nearly the experience of a senior, considering he enrolled early for spring practice in 2004.

Go with Freeman, penciled in as the starter at Hawk's old weakside linebacker spot.

"He runs as well as anybody, he has all the tools in the world, and he really knows the defense," Fickell said. "He needs to have a huge impact. He needs to be one of the true leaders."

Freeman was red-shirted last season after developing an infection following arthroscopic knee surgery after the season opener. But it didn't feel like a red-shirt year. Freeman was part of the travel squad and worked with the second-team defense in practice. By the middle of the year, Freeman was ready to play, if needed.

"You're lucky to have a kid like that who gets hurt and still stays involved," Fickell said.

Freeman wasn't needed. So with three games left, the Buckeye coaches decided to hold out the former Parade All-American from the Dayton suburb of Huber Heights and retain his year of eligibility.

He's ready now.

"I love the game of football," Freeman said after Saturday's jersey scrimmage. "Sitting out last year was tough - you've got to be disciplined and try to make yourself better. Now that I can play again, it's a feeling I love to have."

If Freeman was healthy last season, especially against teams like Texas, the Buckeyes might have gone with three down linemen and four linebackers on certain downs. Without Freeman, safety Donte Whitner stepped into that role as a big hitter who could also cover on passing downs.

Fickell said a four-linebacker set isn't planned this fall, not when he believes the experienced line to be the strength of the defense.

"You're not going to even think about taking a defensive lineman off the field," Fickell said. "We're just trying to be simple right now, to let them play and find out who can find the ball, who can play with discipline, and who you can count on."

Rotating six or seven linebackers in and out of games on a regular basis, like the Buckeyes did on the defensive line last year, is an idea Fickell said is being considered, though rotations are far less common with linebackers than they are with linemen. More likely is determining three starters to count on, with Freeman more than likely one of them.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

[email protected], 216-999-4479
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Cincy

4/14/06

OSU: Who's on defense?

BY JON SPENCER | THE (MANSFIELD) NEWS JOURNAL

<!--ARTICLE BODY TEXT-->COLUMBUS - If Ohio State's first football scrimmage of the spring is any indication, a printed roster will be more coveted than a prime parking space at the annual Scarlet and Gray game April 22.

Three of the defensive standouts were guys who might be confused for members of a witness-protection program: Anderson Russell, Alex Barrow and Andre Amos. And those are just the strange faces whose first names start with "A."

One of the elder statesmen on that side of the ball is third-year sophomore linebacker Marcus Freeman. He didn't even play last season because of an injury.

A big thing is we're all coming in together," said Freeman, speaking for a kiddie corps expected to fill most of the nine vacancies on defense. "We're all going to be young and inexperienced, so we'll have to lean on one another."

Surprisingly, the new-look, no-name defense upstaged a veteran offense in Saturday's scrimmage, forcing five turnovers to win back the scarlet jerseys for the first time in three years. The 69-68 outcome was decided when a 58-yard field goal attempt by first-team kicker Ryan Pretorius was blocked on the final play.

"I thought the hitting and enthusiasm (on defense) was good," coach Jim Tressel said. "But real confidence happens over time. ... These kids want to be good and uphold the tradition of excellent Ohio State defense."

It won't be easy. The Buckeyes led the nation in run defense last season and ranked fifth in total defense en route to a share of the Big Ten title.

Gone from that starting unit is the entire back seven, led by All-America linebacker A.J. Hawk and safeties Nate Salley and Donte Whitner. Tackle tandem Quinn Pitcock and David Patterson are the only holdovers.

"The opportunity is there," Vernon Gholston, a sophomore end, said. "You don't like to lose nine guys; you'd like to have some experience in there, but the talent is still here to roll right through with a new group."

Barrow, a sophomore end, on Saturday recovered a fumble caused when veteran end Jay Richardson hit quarterback Troy Smith. The line applied a good pass rush, benefiting from the absence up front of offensive starters Doug Datish and Kirk Barton.

"We're all fighting for spots and trying to get in good with the coaches," Barrow said. "We got fired up, maybe too fired up sometimes. (The defensive was flagged for excessive celebration after cornerback Mike Roberts leveled wideout Brian Hartline.) But it was good to see us compete."

Russell, a redshirt freshman listed behind Jamario O'Neal at strong safety, stripped freshman tailback Chris Wells of the ball and recovered the fumble.

Amos, a redshirt freshman cornerback, made one of the two interceptions.

Freshman linebacker Ross Homan, an early enrollee, had the other, both thrown by Rob Schoenhoft. Homan and fellow linebacker Larry Grant, the junior-college defensive player of the year out of Community College of San Francisco, made an impression on Smith.

"It's the presence he brings to the field," Smith said of the 6-foot-3, 225-pound Grant. "He has a linebacker's attitude that I think we're going to need. Ross shows glimpses of (Hawk)."

Freeman, John Kerr and James Laurinatis started at linebacker in the scrimmage, but Homan, Grant, Curtis Terry, Chad Hoobler and Austin Spitler were part of the rotation. It might take such depth to offset the loss of Hawk, Bobby Carpenter and Anthony Schlegel.

"I don't think you can compare us to last year's group by any means," said Freeman. "We're not trying to be them, because we can't. We just want to jell as a defense as much as we can."

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Starting over<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=6 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=storytext bgColor=#eeeeee>This spring, Ohio State is unveiling a defense that lost nine starters with a combined 206 career starts:

Starters lost: DT Marcus Green (21 career starts), DE Mike Kudla (18), LB A.J. Hawk (37), LB Bobby Carpenter (26), LB Anthony Schlegel (19), FS Nate Salley (32), CB Ashton Youboty (22), SS Donte Whitner (17), CB Tyler Everett (14)

Starters back: DT Quinn Pitcock (24), DT David Patterson (12)

Note: Also back are four part-time starters - DE Jay Richardson (6), LB James Laurinatis (1), CB Malcolm Jenkins (6), DB Brandon Mitchell (8)
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Canton

4/14/06

OSU reloads at LB

Friday, April 14, 2006


<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>[FONT=Verdana, Times New Roman, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]By Todd Porter REPOSITORY SPORTS WRITER[/FONT]


COLUMBUS - Full-ride football scholarship offers trickled in. When it was time for junior college linebacker Larry Grant to make a choice, he had a half-dozen schools courting his services.

He could have left the City College of San Francisco and played in a warm climate such as Florida. But the junior college linebacker chose Ohio State.
Grant doesn’t lie. It wasn’t academics, Coach Jim Tressel or the smell of the Olentangy River that attracted him to Columbus.

“It’s Linebacker University ... and the situation with them losing three starting linebackers, that was the biggest part of my decision,” Grant said Thursday after one of the Buckeyes’ spring football practices. “It’s a lot of pressure because that’s six big shoes to fill.”

Linebacker is one of Ohio State’s biggest question marks going into the 2006 season. Despite losing Lombardi Award winner A.J. Hawk and linebackers Bobby Carpenter and Anthony Schlegel (all are expected to be first-day NFL Draft picks), oddsmakers have the Buckeyes as preseason favorites to win the national title.

So there must be a reason why OSU linebacker coach Luke Fickell laughed and smiled as he yucked it up with writers Thursday.

Fickell believes the linebackers are just fine. In fact, Ohio State may be deeper at the position than it was a year ago.

But can the Buckeyes replace Hawk, Carpenter and Schlegel?

“Most of the guys were here with them,” Fickell said. “I don’t think you ever try to fill their shoes or anything like that. You have to be who you are.
“That’s what I stress to them. We’ll take what they do best and go with it.

We’re not set in what we do. There may be some things we would do with A.J. Hawk or Bobby Carpenter or Anthony Schlegel that we may not do with these guys. We’ll work on what they do best.”

Fickell has a linebacker rotation that could be as deep as eight. The spring depth chart has John Kerr starting in the middle with Marcus Freeman and James Laurinaitis outside. Whether or not Mike D’Andrea can return from knee surgery could change that depth chart in the fall.

But freshman Ross Homan, Grant, Chad Hoobler and Austin Spitler will be in the mix, as well.

The Buckeyes’ scripted intrasquad scrimmage today is thought to be the most significant scrimmage of the spring season, a day when guys can make an impact on the depth chart. April 22 is the Scarlet-Gray game, which is more window dressing on the end of the spring season.

There are times when OSU removes a lineman in favor of a linebacker and plays a 3-4 defense.

“We’re trying to be simple and figure our who the real players are,” Fickell said. “Our strength of this team will still be the defensive front. You don’t think about taking a defensive lineman off the field, if they are who they are.”

Homan, who is a true freshman and enrolled early out of Coldwater High School, has been the biggest surprise of the spring season on defense.
“People talk about him playing at a little Division IV high school, but that doesn’t matter,” Fickell said. “We’re really deep at linebacker. ... We have seven guys I feel could start from day one. We’ll see how things progress.”

Tressel’s recipe for success has been a strong defense, flawless special teams and an offense that doesn’t lose games. However, the Buckeyes return most of the offense, including Troy Smith, so perhaps there is more room for error on the defensive side of the football.

The new linebacking corps isn’t completely inexperienced. D’Andrea as more highly touted than Hawk and Carpenter when all three came to Ohio State together out of high school. Injuries have slowed D’Andrea’s career, if not put it in danger.

Kerr started at Indiana before he transferred to Ohio State and was assigned to bench duty the last two years. Freeman saw some action a year ago. Grant played in the JUCO championship game. Laurinaitis played most of the Michigan game when Carpenter left with a broken ankle in the first series.

“They feel a sense of urgency,” Fickell said. “They see guys leave and they see it as a light at the end of the tunnel. ... I see light at the end of the tunnel.”


BUCKEYES North Canton Hoover graduate Curt Lukens, a safety, will likely have limited action the rest of the spring. A recurring shoulder injury cropped up Thursday and he missed some practice time. His status for today’s scrimmage and next weekend’s Scarlet-Gray game is unknown. ... Grant on adapting to Columbus: “It’s a lot colder out here than in the Bay Area.” ... Hawk stayed in Columbus to train for the NFL Draft and is still taking classes at Ohio State. He will graduate following spring quarter. ... Hawk recently got engaged to Lauren Quinn, the sister of Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn. Reach Repository sports writer Todd Porter at (330) 580-8340 or e-mail: [email protected].



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bucknuts44820 said:
Rivals.com$

4/14/06

Coverage of the 9th day of spring practice by Adam Jardy.
Click to expand...

It's actually not a premium article, so here it is.

Adam Jardy
BuckeyeSports.com Staff Writer
<SCRIPT language=javascript> if (bIEWindowBrowser) document.write("<div id=outercontainer style='height:220px;'>"); else document.write("<div id=outercontainer>"); document.write("<div id=contentcontainer style='font-size: " + fontsizes[currentsize] + "pt;'>");</SCRIPT>With warmer weather on their side, the Buckeyes continued their preparing for the Scarlet & Gray Game that will signal the end of spring practices.

<!--Start Image--><SCRIPT language=Javascript>document.write(insertImage('/IMAGES/Player/photo/DANDREA_MIKE150.JPG', '', 0, 220, 150, 1, 'Mike D\'Andrea\'s future on the field remains cloudy.', '', 1144971964000, '', 1014, 'Align=Left'));</SCRIPT><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=158 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=152>
DANDREA_MIKE150.JPG
</TD><TD width=6 rowSpan=3>
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</TD></TR><TR><TD height=3>
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</TD></TR><TR><TD align=middle>Mike D'Andrea's future on the field remains cloudy.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- End Image-->Ohio State linebackers coach Luke Fickell said the coaching staff has put in three-quarters of the defensive gameplan, but said they are still learning which players can best execute it.

"We're always going to be optimistic at this point, but we really think we've got a lot of young kids that are going to play hard and run around," he said. "They've just got to get some experience."

Fickell is tasked with perhaps the most difficult task of the OSU coaching staff. With Lombardi Trophy winner A.J. Hawk, Bobby Carpenter and Anthony Schlegel all graduating, Fickell has a core of young linebackers vying for starting roles.

He listed three starters – John Kerr , James Laurinaitis and Marcus Freeman – but cautioned that that could change before the season opener.

"At linebacker we feel really good with our numbers," he said. "I think you've got seven guys that could possibly start day one."

A name not mentioned as a starter is senior Mike D'Andrea , who is being held out of spring practices as he continues to battle to get healthy. After a separated shoulder kept him out of the final three games during his sophomore season, D'Andrea missed the final eight games of his junior season with a knee injury. He was granted one more year of eligibility after not appearing in any games during last season.

Kerr is hoping to get back to the form that saw him lead Indiana as a freshman in 2002, when he finished with 114 total tackles. He sat out a year after transferring to OSU, then played on mostly special teams for the previous two seasons.

Now, in his final season, he hopes to finish his collegiate career just like it started.

"This is where I've always wanted to be," he said. "Growing up as a youngster, everybody wants to play for Ohio State who grows up in Ohio."

Laurinaitis has the most game experience among the younger linebackers, having played in almost all of the final two games for OSU last season. In addition to his starting three, Fickell singled out junior college transfer Larry Grant as well as juniors Chad Hoobler and Curtis Terry as having had impressive spring practices.

With Kerr as the only established veteran the coaching staff is counting on to play this fall, several of the younger linebackers are catching the eye of Fickell. It has also affected his coaching approach.

"I think the approach changed a little bit in the sense of what you do," he said. "I think you've really, really got to start them out slow and try and find out who you think can play and not just the guys who know the defense, but the guys that can play football when th
 
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Dispatch

4/16/06

A busy week ahead



The Buckeyes will practice five times this week, culminating in the spring game at 1:05 p.m. Saturday in Ohio Stadium. Included in the schedule is the annual three-day coaches clinic conducted by Tressel and his staff, which begins Thursday.
Four dots for the ‘ I ’



Ten practices have reinforced the belief the Buckeyes are loaded at tailback. For example, while junior starter Antonio Pittman (1,331 yards last season) is being held out of contact as he recovers from a hamstring injury, sophomores Maurice Wells and Erik Haw and freshman Chris "Beanie" Wells combined for 231 yards on 45 carries in the jersey scrimmage eight days ago.

But can all four stay involved this fall?

"I think there’s enough room for everybody to play," Maurice Wells said. Quarterback Troy Smith said he’s not surprised by their rise. "All the guys that we recruited were obviously blue-chip guys that when they get a chance to get in there and get some carries, they can all assert themselves," Smith said.
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Dispatch

4/16/06

OSU FOOTBALL

Short on experience, linebackers play with fire

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

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In the land of Ohio State linebackers, Bigfoot has come and gone, and is headed for the NFL.

Lombardi Award winner A.J. Hawk is a likely top-10 pick on draft day. There’s a chance Bobby Carpenter will go in the first round, too, and Anthony Schlegel probably will be picked before the seven rounds are finished.

Talk about big shoes to fill.

"The linebackers have been the core of the defense the past three years," John Kerr said. "When things got bad, the linebackers stepped it up and started killing people."

Kerr, a senior-to-be, is among those expected to step up now for the Buckeyes. So are sophomores Marcus Freeman and James Laurinaitis. With a week remaining in spring practices, they have emerged as the first string in what could be a stampede of linebackers.

"We feel really good with our numbers," linebackers coach Luke Fickell said. "I think you’ve got seven guys who could possibly start on day one. But I think we see a lot of that throughout the whole defense, a lot of names (that fans) don’t know about that are really stepping up.

"They really feel a sense of urgency in seeing those guys leave. They’re not taking it as a negative, they’re seeing it as a light at the end of the tunnel."
The bright light is playing time, something the backups saw very little of last season as Hawk, Carpenter and Schlegel ruled OSU’s defensive midfield.

Laurinaitis played extensively in the final two games after Carpenter suffered a broken leg against Michigan.

So much inexperience has made this spring an especially intense time for the linebackers.

"We’re always going to be optimistic at this time of the year, but we really think we’ve got a lot of young kids that are going to play hard, are going to run around," Fickell said. "They’ve got to get some experience, but that attitude is what you really like to see."

It is definitely a mixed bag of players.

Kerr started four years ago as a freshman at Indiana. He sat out a year after transferring, then missed another year for disciplinary reasons.

Freeman was expected to contribute last year before a minor knee injury, followed by a post-surgery infection, caused him to take a redshirt season.

Among the mix in the second group are junior Curtis Terry, who has played extensively on special teams; freshman Ross Homan, who enrolled early to get a head start this spring after leading Coldwater to the Division IV state title; and City College of San Francisco transfer Larry Grant, considered the top junior-college defender in the nation last year. They are being challenged by junior Chad Hoobler and redshirt freshman Austin Spitler.

Not listed among the contenders at the moment is senior Mike D’Andrea, whose status won’t be clear until midsummer or later. The starter in the middle early in 2004 is still feeling the effects of trying to return too early from knee surgery that season. He is taking it easy through spring in the hopes that he finally heals completely.

"When he’s healthy he can help this football team," Fickell said. "But he’s got to be healthy for himself first, and that’s definitely a wait-and-see."

So maybe the Buckeyes will have D’Andrea’s experience in the fall and maybe they won’t. What they will have, said one of the newcomers, is athletic ability.

"There’s a lot of speed," Grant said. "But that’s what I expected before I came here, to see a lot of speed at linebacker."

Even though there are no returning starters, Fickell points to his linebackers’ situational experience — Grant playing in a junior-college championship game, for instance, and Kerr’s playing time at Indiana.

"There is some experience, and there is some maturity that I think we’ve really got to thrive on," Fickell said.

There will be more players in the mix in fall camp when freshman recruits Thaddeus Gibson of Euclid, Tyler Moeller of Cincinnati Colerain and Mark Johnson of Los Angeles come aboard. With Homan and Grant, those five made up what was ranked as the No. 1 linebacker class in the country by Scout.com.

If nothing else, "It’s going to make our special teams a lot better," Fickell said.

So when the Ohio State linebackers take the field, youth — or youthful enthusiasm, at least — will be served, Kerr said.

"We just have to make sure what we lack in experience we make up for with passion, and passion can take care of a lot of things," Kerr said. "I’m not the tallest guy or the biggest guy, I just have a lot of passion to play, and that’s how you get good."

[email protected]
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Sunday, April 16, 2006
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Link

4/17

<!-- MAIN CONTENT --> <!-- LEADERBOARD AD -->
<!-- ARTICLE HEADLINE --><!--HEADLINE--> 'Fast' learners in OSU secondary
Nine of the 15 defensive backs on spring depth chart are sophomores or freshmen
By Jon Spencer
News Journal

<!-- ARTICLE BODYTEXT --> <!--ARTICLE TEXT--> COLUMBUS -- Tim Beckman and Paul Haynes have the shared responsibility of mentoring Ohio State's retooled defensive backfield this spring.
Most days they feel like track coaches.
"I think we'll be faster in the secondary than last year," said Haynes, putting a positive spin on the loss of last season's four primary starters, who are all likely NFL-bound. "The good thing about young guys is they don't know. They do exactly what you tell them. We've got to make it simple for them, so that they can just fly and not think."
Nine of the 15 defensive backs listed on the spring depth chart are sophomores or freshmen. Fortunately, they have a couple of excellent role models in brainy fifth-year seniors Brandon Mitchell and Antonio Smith.Mitchell, who owns a political science degree and has been in graduate school since last fall, has been a key reserve and part-time starter at safety and nickel back the past two seasons. His 57-yard interception for a touchdown sealed last year's 41-10 victory at Indiana.
Smith, a special teams dynamo for the Buckeyes, was put on scholarship this spring. The mechanical engineering major had been attending OSU on academic aid as a member of the Young Scholars program.
Both veterans are being counted on to provide heady leadership.
"It's funny ... I look to my left and right and don't see Nate (Salley) or Donte (Whitner) or Ashton (Youboty) or Tyler (Everett)," said Mitchell of last year's starting quartet. "I've been here four years, so it's me learning how to be a leader and the young guys learning the defense."
Smith is a study in perseverance, arriving from next door at Columbus Beechcroft and spending four years toiling on special teams before emerging this spring as a projected starter at cornerback.
"He brings grit to the group," Beckman said. "He didn't have the (scholarship) or eat at the training tables. I think the kids look at him as a guy who has earned what he got."
Smith grinned when jokingly referred to as a fifth-year overnight sensation.
"I have to give 110 percent, regardless of whether people have heard of me or not," he said. "I've got to personally grow. I feel like I have a responsibility to the team since I've been here so long. But (a starting job) is up for grabs. Everybody's out there competing. You can't leave your guard down."
The depth chart lists sophomores Malcolm Jenkins (corner), Jamario O'Neal of Mansfield (strong safety) and Nick Patterson (free safety) as the other starters, although the coaches expect Mitchell, redshirt freshman Anderson Russell and at least four others to vie for starting roles by the time the team reconvenes for preseason camp.
"They run extremely well, and with their physicalness and the stature of each one -- we've got some big kids back there -- this could be a special group," Beckman said. "It's up to them to take their game to the next level.
"We had some special guys last year who took it upon themselves to further their game, knowledge-wise, by studying film and how people were going to attack us. That group gave that (work ethic) to the young kids. They're doing all the little things that are going to make us a better secondary."
The secondary is learning at an accelerated pace. It has no choice. Awaiting OSU in the first month of the season are road games against defending national champion Texas and Iowa and a home date with reigning Big Ten co-champ Penn State.
"It's forcing us to get our act together really fast," said Mitchell, who hails from Atlanta. "It's obviously tough with a lot of young guys, but, hey, we've got to get ready."
Although the Buckeyes ranked fifth in total defense last season, the heralded starting secondary produced only four interceptions. So there's room for vast improvement in that area.
"Production is the key ... making plays," Haynes said. "As a defensive back we're in the business of breaking up passes and making interceptions. Nobody ever got drafted as a defensive back for making 1,000 tackles."
 
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