2009 tOSU Offense Discussion

[Taosman]

Scrimmage was s-c-r-i-p-t-e-d! Don't read too much into any group performance. But some individuals stood out.
Homan was back and played terrific!
Cam Heyward. Storm Klein. Gibson and Williams.
TP didn't throw any interceptions. Controlled the game.
The running game looks better than last year. Herron, Saine and Hall all looked good.
Ballard (TE)caught a TD pass.

 

[bucksn'boobs]

It looks like TP may be developing some chemistry with both Ballard and T. Washington.

I'd love to see us throw to Ballard more...open up other areas of the field.

Scrimmage was s-c-r-i-p-t-e-d! Don't read too much into any group performance. But some individuals stood out.
Homan was back and played terrific!
Cam Heyward. Storm Klein. Gibson and Williams.
TP didn't throw any interceptions. Controlled the game.
The running game looks better than last year. Herron, Saine and Hall all looked good.
Ballard (TE)caught a TD pass.

 

[Jaxbuck]

Scrimmage was s-c-r-i-p-t-e-d! Don't read too much into any group performance. But some individuals stood out.
Homan was back and played terrific!
Cam Heyward. Storm Klein. Gibson and Williams.
TP didn't throw any interceptions. Controlled the game.
The running game looks better than last year. Herron, Saine and Hall all looked good.
Ballard (TE)caught a TD pass.

It looks like the two 5* book end tackles from the Block O can't beat out a converted TE and a converted guard for starting jobs after a full year in the program. That's a little concerning to me.

 

[NextBuck]

What is Berry doing? Heard Hall is looking better? Any analysis on both?

 

[jwinslow]

It looks like the two 5* book end tackles from the Block O can't beat out a converted TE and a converted guard for starting jobs after a full year in the program. That's a little concerning to me.

I thought Shugarts outplayed Miller today. Adams and Shugarts don't belong in the same sentence in terms of realizing their talent, particularly given their contrast in mentality out there.

 

[Jaxbuck]

I thought Shugarts outplayed Miller today. Adams and Shugarts don't belong in the same sentence in terms of realizing their talent, particularly given their contrast in mentality out there.

Good to hear on JB I guess but the fact he came into the day behind him is still disconcerting. I know Duane says be patient on Adams but 3rd string?

Was the sack total inflated or was the OL getting worked?

 

[jwinslow]

I missed the first 45 min (not sure how much was warmups) with a 10 am appointment, but Shugarts didn't get worked very often, I'd say the opposite. Certain units had more trouble than others. Pryor & Guiton both held the ball too long during scripted plays (75% of it? more?).

OSU also has 2.5-3 waves of legitimate pass rushers in the front 7, whereas they probably only have 1-1.5 units of ready blockers. Thomas, Rose & Bell are 3rd teamers going against Josh Kerr and others.

I've got a lengthy post coming shortly

 

[jwinslow]

Some of my thoughts from today (more tomorrow)

Guys who stood out (not counting the usual strong play by Heyward, Gibson, Boom, etc)

Jordan Hall - great vision, strength, looked like an i-formation veteran. Berry was solid but hall was special.

Simon/Goebel - the reason why DT is not a major target in this class. Both were physical and disruptive all day, 2nd team dts all day. Will anchor this d for 3 years starting next year.

Shugarts - won or drew even on 2/3 of his battles against tough comp, Williams, heyward, gibson. Rotated with miller, but osu has found their left tackle imo.

Mewhort - borens replacement at lg most of the day and looked good doing it. Can contribute this year.

Longo - for a kid labeled by many as a project, he held his own out there with the 2s and threes. Keith wells was consistently outdueled by Sam. Looks and plays the part. He should redshirt, but he will contribute here at osu.

Worthington - a force out there, getting pressure from both DT and his 3-4 de positions. Building on his upswing from last fall.

Osu used 3 safeties often today. Russell moved up to the star position with Hines back deep at safety, often as the deep man.

Homan played early on today at lb with no green jersey. Later on sweat took his spot with the 1s when they ran a base D.

Thomas started with the 3s, was too good there and was moved up with the 2s, where he was still solid.
Cordle was solid at rt. No one will confuse him with jb, but he gives them a fairly steady, consistent veteran out there. He wasn't perfect, but he might be more effective on the perimeter than inside. I feel a lot better about rt after today. Still concerned with USC, but Cordle is not just at rt by default.


There was a big dropoff at lt, lg when shugarts / mewhort were replaced by miller / Moses. Individually miller did alright, but together the d was able to dial up the blitz from that side.


Guiton looks like a freshman who holds the ball a little too long, and doesn't always out it in the right spot, but he throws a good ball. Give him a few years to mature and you'll have a solid qb. Did a good job getting outside the pocket when he kept his composure.


Heyward got nicked up but it did not sound or appear serious from the sideline treatment and trainer demeanor.

Pryor had about 4-5 passes dropped or dislodged by a big hit during the catch.

He was also dramatically better after they seemed to go live (playcalling, pryor still had the black shirt) and away from scripted plays. He led a long td drive primarily thru the air on the first non-scripted drive.

Jordan Hall also picked up a few nice blitzes. I didn't key on him all day, so I don't know if this happened every time, but when I watched, he looks very ready to contribute this year.

Hall has not lost hardly any of his quicks despite adding a lot of size. Even better, he uses his cuts to get upfield in a hurry. He does not dance. This was largely against the 2nd/3rd teams, but that was a pretty strong run D on everyone else. Some of his best runs were turning -1 or 1 yd gains into 4.

I'll have the full play writeup (post 11:15, it started at 10:30) later on, but he had a tremendous 30 yard gallop up the gut, got to the second level, ran through the tackler, (stiff arm / juke combo) and angled to the sidelines for another 25 yards, until Newsome could shove him out.

Boom was Boom, tough short yardage, turns 2 yards into 5... had a couple nice 5-8 yd runs back to back.I missed the first 45 min, so I may have missed more of his action, but he looked like the steady, quality RB that he has been this past year.



Saine had a really nice swing pass for 8 yards with a nice kickout block from someone (Cordle? didn't jot that down). As a runner he hit the hole a little harder today than some of his tentative carries since his injury, but only had an alright day.

One guy who I should add to my original list is Jermil Martin. OSU has had a few FBs over the years that logged carries by default, but he had a few nice runs out there. He has better athleticism and vision than people give him credit for... had a very nice 8 yard run through multiple tacklers where he should have been stopped short for no more than 1. Fought through tacklers for the first 4, and then as they began to slow him down, he dove under them for the last 3-4.

Not a star, but ran better than I expected...

They had 3 traditional offensive teams, and then a hodge-podge 3rd/4th team for navy sets, which they ran about half as often as the other teams.

Rocco Pentello & Ryan Schuck rotated as the QB, Pentello took reps at RB with schuck at QB too. This went against primarily the first team D, and got destroyed almost every time for 0 or negative yardage.

Rocco took some wicked hits all day long, but near the end of practice fought through traffic up the gut, broke free, bounced outside and beat Coleman to the corner for a 30 yd td. the stadium gave their applause (125-200 media & family in attendance?).

To clarify, I'd estimate the percentages at 1st team 35% 2nd team 25% 3rd team 25% navy offense 10% 5% warmup

Pryor's TD pass to Ballard was on the first unscripted series, or at least that was my understanding.

Pryor would complete 1/2 or 1/3 of his passes in the scripted series... but hit about 4-5 nice passes on the unscripted drive.

Remember the old option right, step back and throw by Troy? Pryor hit Posey on a 15-20 yd strike over the middle from that look.


OSU looked downfield at times, but was not successful in hooking up. Carter broke free a few times, but was over thrown. Pryor over threw one, under threw another. Pryor threw intermediate passes well, not great on short and long stuf


OSU used a number of shovel passes today, with virtually no success.

In the scripted plays, Pryor still took a little too long to get rid of the ball. He goes through his progressions better this year, he just needs to let it loose a little more. Of course, the black jersey and some of the limitations hold him back a bit.

As far as evaluating something like this, it varies. You can get a good read for individual matchups, like watching the difference between Mewhort and Moses at LG, or Shugarts and Adams at LT. You can't draw wide-sweeping conclusions about certain plays, like Berry's performance.

He had some very nice 2 yard runs out there, where he made a man miss in the backfield, got upfield quickly and made the most out of it. He has room to improve no doubt, but he held his own out there. He was also running primarily with the 2s & 3s, where the defense is even more dominant against the offense.

Sanzenbacher does not look healthy yet, though he played regularly.


Pettrey had a good day when I watched. Converted about 3 of 4 or 4 of 5 when I watched. He nailed a 57 yarder which hit the south stands 10+ yards beyond the uprights.


Guiton had a tough day. Not trying to suggest otherwise with my earlier post, but you can see the talent is there. Once the game slows down and Sic works with him on the little things, he can help OSU.

Denlinger played a lot more TE (#2 TE with 1s) than DT (sparingly).
Larimore was in the starting 4 with the 1s.

I don't remember seeing stoneburner out there.

Adams was consistently with the 3s at LT, and Sam Longo saw as much time if not more in the 2 hours I watched.

Adams at 3rd team is disappointing, but what I saw today was a testament to a fine job by Bollman in recent years. Not just the obvious guys like Brewster and shugarts. Mewhort has not seen a single fall game, even from the sidelines, and yet he held his own against strong, veteran 1st team dl. Bollman took heat from message boards over longo, but he was a very sharp pickup.

Cordle and Browning have both improved despite switching positions. That doesn't even count the best lineman, who was likely bound for Columbus originally before a late move by Bo Schem... or youngsters like Hall & Linsley.

Say what you want about the offensive schemes (which are JT's), but he's improved the talent and play of this ol considerably.

What is holding adams back is the mental side of things. He has the talent to play here, you could see flashes of it today... Driving his man backwards 7 yards on one play, and locking onto Keith wells on the next. Not enough of that today, unfortunately.

Not every recruit is ready to dominate after a year in college. Write adams off at your own peril.

Will it happen this fall? Maybe not. But he can play here.

not saying you are, just warning others against doing so given the disappointment and negative reports that will be flowing in. I get caught up in his potential like others, and find myself wondering what is wrong a month before his 2nd season. It's easy to lose perspective when that much talent is involved.

I'd have to go back and look, but bollman has recruited more talent up front in 2 years as he has in the previous 5.

Boren, Shugarts and Brewster are special. Mewhort was strong out there as a pup, and longo showed out pretty well. That doesn't even involve the talented monstrosities that are adams and hall, or a tough kid like linsley.


P.s. Linsley took some snaps early on at left guard.

They were experimenting, Linsley isn't near the first team. It was just interesting to see him out there. The pecking order was Mewhort, then Moses... with a lil Linsley sprinkled in. Obviously Boren goes to the front of that group soon.

A couple of random observations... first about a few items already touched upon:

The new ribbon banner looks great but isnt' overboard. It runs between the C-deck installed lights.

The new north displays are a nice upgrade. To the left of the new scoreboard (which is unfinished but looks good) are the retired numbers... except this time they are done with 3D lettering which look great in the sunlight. To the right are the national championships.


Pryor was out there coaching the whole time he was on the sidelines, working especially with Kenny Guiton.


Kirk Barton was down on the sidelines coaching up the linemen

I took down a lot more notes, but may not process those until tonight or tomorrow.

 

[NextBuck]

Wow so a lot of rave reviews about Hall. Any thoughts on his potential this year? I'd love to see the trio of Boom, Saine, and Hall with Berry become a unit that can show USC that they arent the only ones with super depth.

 

[jwinslow]

I think he'll have a hard time unseating Saine with only 1 game of experience (particularly given Saine's blocking ability), but he could easily steal Berry's role as the breakout candidate at RB. From what I saw today, I want a large dose of Boom as my starter, and sprinkle in 2-5 carries a game for each Saine and Berry. Saine is doing better, but I think Hall outplayed him today. Jordan showed better vision and set up his runs nicely. Saine is running harder this year but not a whole lot better yet (strictly going by today's performance). Jordan may be small in stature, but with his added size he ran like a redshirt freshman or sophomore back, not a guy many pegged as an athlete or slot receiver. He ran through a handful of tacklers for 1-3 extra yards, and broke a few others.

 

[generaladm]

Did you see any option looks with Pryor and Hall together? Were TP and JH even on the field at the same time?

 

[jwinslow]

No, Hall was with the 2nd & 3rd team, same with Berry. Guiton ran an option look or two, not many. I'm not sure if Pryor ran any actual option runs, but he may have during the first 45 min. The option pass to posey was the only one that comes to mind.

 

[OregonBuckeye]

Good stuff, jwinslow. Did you notice anything about Marcus Hall? Is he repping strictly at RT? With J.B. sliding over to LT, is Marcus in line to make the two-deep ?

 

[jwinslow]

I believe Marcus was a 2nd/3rd team RT. I can't recall off-hand (without my notebook, which is in the car) who he was switching with... LT was Shugarts/Miller (1st/2nd switching), Adams/Longo (3rd).

 

[OregonBuckeye]

Sounds like it might've been Josh Kerr. Tress mentioned Kerr got some reps at tackle.