College football: 'Boom' and 'Zoom' are keys in OSU run game
Published: Sunday, December 27, 2009
By John Kampf
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Ohio State has a decent recipe in mind for a successful offense against Oregon in the Rose Bowl.
It includes a Boom and a Zoom.
If the Buckeyes are going to have a chance to win against an Oregon defense that has been susceptible to giving up points in droves, the running game of hard-hitting Daniel "Boom" Herron and fleet-footed Brandon "Zoom" Saine will have to have a good game.
Saine enters the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day with 694 yards on the ground, averaging 5.3 yards per rush. Herron adds 558 yards per game with 4.0 yards per attempt. Those two, along with quarterback Terrelle Pryor and his 707 yards on the ground this season have OSU ranked 19th nationally in rushing.
When Beanie Wells entered the NFL draft after his junior season, there were plenty of questions about the running game. Herron and Saine, while not rushing for 1,000 yards individually as Wells did, combined for Wells-esque totals of 1,242 and 11 touchdowns while splitting the duties.
"At the beginning, I didn't really have any idea what was going to happen or which way the season was going to go," Saine said. "I just knew it was going to be a fun year, especially knowing the idea of me and Boom splitting a little bit of time. The way it worked out was really fun."
Saine (6-foot-1, 217-pounds), an all-Big Ten selection, had his best games in Week 5 against Indiana (113 yards on 17 carries) and Week 11 against Iowa (103 yards on 11 carries, including two touchdowns). He added an 84-yard, one touchdown performance in the final regular season game against Michigan.
Herron (5-10, 193) missed three games with injuries, which likely kept him from earning any all-conference honors, but still nearly rushed for 600 yards. He scored in six different games, with his high-water mark being a 32-carry, 97-yard performance in a Rose Bowl-clinching win in Week 10 against Iowa.
It's been an effective mixture, one which will get put to work again on New Year's Day.
"We're focused," Herron said. "(Controlling the clock) is something we like to do. That's what we always work on, so we'd definitely like to get the running game going.
"We have to get the running game going and try to control the game with the running game, make first downs and get big plays."