EUGENE - Someone asked Jeremiah Masoli on Friday how he was able to pick up the whole spread-option thing so quickly.
"I've been running the option for a while, since high school - it's nothing new,'' Masoli said. "Guys are just smarter and bigger.''
They don't come a whole lot smarter and bigger than Ohio State's defensive front, which will pose a unique challenge to the Ducks' option game in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, an option game that Masoli has guided to near perfection in recent weeks.
The Buckeyes are giving up a mere 2.7 yards per rush this season, thanks to a fairly fearsome defensive front, the strongest in Columbus since Will Smith & Co. in 2003. It's the biggest hope of OSU fans, having a dominant defensive line, to end the team's three-game bowl losing streak - a loss to Oregon would tie the school record of four in a row.
"They're a big, physical D-line,'' Masoli said. "Their D-ends are really tall, really big - they look to get after you, real physical. So we'll have our work cut out for us.''
Ohio State coach Jim Tressel has talked about the difficulty of replicating Oregon's speed during the Buckeyes' Rose Bowl practices, but the Ducks have a similar problem: They don't have any dead ringers for Ohio State defensive players.
"That's one thing you can't really simulate,'' Helfrich said. "We can't simulate their front. We don't have those guys. Anywhere. We can't simulate their linebackers and their safeties. We don't have those guys.
"We just have to rely on what we've done so far and our level of execution to overcome those things.''
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