After the signing day news conference last week, running backs coach Dick Tressel was a popular guy. When you're trying to replace Beanie Wells, there's a lot to discuss.
Brandon Saine is a player I get more questions about than almost anyone on the OSU roster, and he remains an intriguing package of a speed guy in a pretty big body. I haven't been counting on him in any of my projections because of his injury issues his first two years, but Tressel makes it clear he's right in the picture. Dan Herron wasn't discussed during my time with Tressel, but don't forget he starts as the No. 1 guy.
How important is it to have a guy like Carlos Hyde that can be your power tailback?
You need to have a guy like that because the defenses in the Big Ten are so good and so committed to defense. I think some places you can get away with it and feel like a guy is not going to get beat on. In the Big Ten, running backs are going to get beat on, and you better have somebody that you know they're going to get pounded and is going to be able to hold up. Look at Beanie in our '07 Michigan game. It's raining and we say we're going to pound the football and they know it's coming, but so ... we've got a guy who can handle it. You need to have that guy. It doesn't mean the other guys can't handle the pounding, but to have someone with the body to handle it, that's to your advantage.
Is Brandon Saine a tailback or some combination of a fullback and receiver out of the backfield? Where does he fit it?
Tailback. The fact of the matter was he had a great spring last spring, so we came into this fall, we have all these good tailbacks, how are we going to get them on the field? So he can do these other things, so maybe he's the guy you move around to do these other things. He had injury issues, so it all didn't happen for him and us. Fortunately, we get to regroup and have him in a position to move forward.
Are there just injuries with Brandon or is it anything else?
Brandon got hurt at bad times. Brandon pulled a hamstring like the second day of practice (in the preseason), so the three weeks he missed with a hamstring, it wasn't one practice a day, it was two practices a day. He missed so many practices it was hard to catch up, because he had other good guys there. Then he twists his ankle, no big deal but sort of luck of the football draw. Fortunately, he's a great kid and I don't think it'll have any carryover.
Will there be a 20-carry-a-game guy, or would you be just as happy if between Dan Herron and Saine and Hyde and Jaamal Berry, you have some combination of guys?
I think you need a couple guys that you can believe in. And to make that happen, you need to make sure you get them in positive times so they're with the good guys, making good plays and then kids believe in them. I think the decision on how many carries you're going to get them, you share the carries but as the season goes along you play it out.
What does fullback look like? Fullback for us a battle between kids competing with each other but also competing with what is the best way for the Buckeyes to move the football. Every time the fullback goes out there, they have to earn their way onto the field and also earn the situation on the field.
We're fortunate that, you mentioned Adam Homan was already (enrolled), and we have three young guys that are pretty good guys. So Jermil Martin won't be left on an island to sink or swim. It should be interesting.
Where does freshman Jordan Hall fit it?
Unfortunately because the guys from Florida (Hyde and Berry) are higher ink guys, Jordan doesn't get talked about quite as much. He's been in the shadows a little bit, so that makes it more exciting when people see this guy is a player. He's strong physically, he's an explosive young man that we know can do a variety of things. He's like a big bonus, that nobody is going to realize ... oh my goodness. We've had bonuses around here before. I think the last one I recruited was Laurinaitis.
Did you recruit running backs for this class assuming that Beanie would not be back?
Yeah, we had to be ready for that. The thing was, there were probably some decisions, and final decisions, made when he decided he was going to go (pro). You might have had trouble holding on to a couple of these guys if Beanie had said he was coming back. Only because more and more kids are keeping track of when they get a chance to play. I think they need to keep track of how soon they get to practice. With Beanie here, they wouldn't have gotten to practice. Now the ball is going to be passed around, and (they think) I can show what I can do and show what I need to work on. That's a positive deal.
