2010 tOSU Special Teams Discussion

[fourteenandoh]

I was wondering that the entire game. OSU seems to always kick between the hashes. Maybe that is JT's way of minimizing the mistake of kicking OOB. I don't know. I'd be telling Basil to kick nowhere but between the numbers and the sideline. If he hits his target, the returner has less room to maneuver and the sideline is an extra defender. If he kicks OOB, well no biggie. The returner was probably going to get to the 40 anyways. At least they have to go 60 yards for a TD instead of housing it.

Seemed like every Wisconsin kickoff was outside the hashes.

that is the adjustment they have made since getting gashed by ASU. it has worked very well for them ever sense, so i don't see why we shouldn't give it a try.

i tend to agree with you that kicking the ball out of bounds isn't a death sentence for this team. if he kicks it outside maybe one out of every five will go out of bounds. if you average that out, it may only cost you 5 yards per kick. if it keeps you from giving up a TD, that is worth it in my book.

 

[jlb1705]

I've been disappointed with Basil's kicking all around. Wasn't he the kicker for the two blocked FGs too? I understand that he's been brought in to try the really long ones, and those kicks have to be lower to get distance, but still...

I know he's young, but more consistency on kickoffs is crucial. Placement, hangtime, depth - you never know what you're going to get. At this point I'm at a little bit of disbelief that he's still out there. For as important as JT believes special teams are (and he's been proven right over the last ten games) I'm surprised that there isn't at least a walk-on or somebody around who can boot a ball to the other end of the field a little bit better - at least for the time being while Basil gets a little more ready.

Let's hope that this is a bit of a Nugent/Huston situation. Both of those guys were horrible in their first year of kicking duties when they were splitting time, but after that they grew into a couple pretty damn good kickers.

 

[LitlBuck]

This team should be able to cover kickoffs period. I do not like the idea of taking the chance of kicking the ball between the
numbers and the sidelines. I think if our kicker was accurate enough they probably would be doing that but to give the opposing team the ball on the 40 yard line just because we can't cover kicks is ridiculous for a major college football team. I also wonder how many guys, due to injury, were not on the kickoff team this past Saturday. Dorian Bell, for one, did not make the trip and I am sure there were a couple others who did not make the trip.

 

[gracelhink]

Lane integrity works as one connected 'unit'...they should be bending lanes and squeezing together as one...lane integrity does not refer to only 2-gapping. What you are seeing on Saturdays is a group of guys busting it down field without taking the proper angles or fits. Getting off blocks on the kickoff team is secondary to space management...some spots are designated fits with the goal of getting blocked in the contact zone. When you see a return straight up the gut, those fits were obviously bad...

Anyone else notice that JT could have save a lot of time in his press conference if he would have told this reporter, "Just go to BuckeyePlanet website and read what OSUGrad diagnosed about our kickoff coverage. He can explain to you what happened Saturday night."
But instead JT reiterated what Grad expained to BP Sunday. . .

REPORTER: Jim, on the kick coverage, when you went back and looked at it, was the breakdown Saturday similar to the issues that you guys have had earlier in the year and what else can you do to address the kick coverage at this point?

COACH TRESSEL: Well, there aren't any other issues, other than being in your lane and taking on blockers and everyone being where they're supposed to be. So, yeah, they're the exact same. What can you do? You can try to grow to understand that it just takes one guy -- we always talk as a kickoff return team, make them be perfect because if there's only one guy off, you have a chance. If you have a guy that can find that seam. You know, we had -- we had probably two or three problems on that first kick. I don't know that our number 10 guy folded and hit the crease with the velocity he should have. Our Number -- I guess it would have been seven or eight guy went around the block. Our number five guy got grabbed and tackled. I mean, there were a lot of things that were a part of that, but the bottom line is that when you're covering kicks, there's no excuses, they don't care if you get pushed in the back, grabbed, held, thought you should have gone around it, thought the ball was going here or there, you have to fit. And just like when you're playing defense, you have to fit. Kickoff, you have to fit from 70 yards away. Defense you have to fit from the line of scrimmage. We just didn't fit. But that's really nothing new as to when you err on kickoff return, it's because of poor fit, and when you fit it up right, you usually can get them on the ground normally in relation to the depth and height of your kick. Sometimes you may say, I've got the 29 yard line, that's too far. The kick landed on the 12, that's pretty good. The kick landed on the three, we want them right around the 21. If you let some creases happen, I think the average start after we kicked off for them was the 44 yard line because they had one at the zero and then the other ones after that. But our consistency with our fits and our consistency with our kicks, I mean, you guys have been there, haven't been what we need.

REPORTER: It looked like that one guy, the number seven you were referring to, just got steered right out of his lane, I mean, is that accurate?

COACH TRESSEL: Uh-huh, yeah.

 

[Buckskin86]

Expect more changes on Ohio State's kickoff team: Ohio State Insider
Published: Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Doug Lesmerises, The Plain Dealer

Columbus -- What if there's a member of the Ohio State kickoff coverage team who knows what to do -- be disciplined, stay in your lane, get under control, take on blocks -- yet he hasn't fulfilled those duties and makes the same kind of mistakes two or three times? Might he find himself taken off the coverage unit?

"There's no doubt," said OSU assistant Paul Haynes, who is in charge of the kickoff coverage.

So, might there be some more personnel changes to OSU's kick coverage after giving up a second kickoff return for a touchdown this season against Wisconsin on Saturday?

"A little bit," Haynes said curtly.

The Buckeyes are one of five teams in the country to allow two kick returns for touchdowns. On those two returns, five of the OSU coverage guys, along with kicker Drew Basil, were the same, and five were different.

The five holdovers out there Saturday were senior safety Aaron Gant, redshirt freshman cornerback Dominic Clark, junior safety Nate Oliver, sophomore walk-on defensive back Nate Ebner and sophomore linebacker Jon Newsome.

The players out there for the Wisconsin return who weren't out for the Miami return were senior running back Brandon Saine, sophomore running back Jordan Hall, freshman running back Carlos Hyde, junior walk-on linebacker Tony Jackson and redshirt freshman safety Jamie Wood.

Injuries have played some role in the switches. Sophomore linebacker Dorian Bell, for instance, has often been the first man down on returns but he missed the Wisconsin game after suffering a concussion against Indiana. Other moves were made to get better, including putting three running backs out there.

OSU coach Jim Tressel doesn't believe the Buckeyes need to do anything different with their coverage scheme or strategy. He also said Newsome was "grabbed and tackled" on the play. So it will be more of the same, but maybe with a few different players.

"You can't go around a blocker. . . . You have to take on blockers square. As soon as you go around them, you think, well, I can go around them, I'm going to catch [the returner]," Tressel said. "Well, you're not going to catch him, not when you're going a million miles an hour that way and he's coming this way. It doesn't happen."

http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2010/10/expect_more_changes_on_ohio_st.html

 

[CalvinistBuck]

Brandon Castel's article about the coverage team leads to speculation that the Bucks may not have the best personnel for the job:

To make matters worse, the Buckeyes are also missing a number of key special teams contributors, including Bell (concussion), Donnie Evege (elbow) and Storm Klein. They also seem reluctant to use No. 3 cornerback Travis Howard because of injury concerns and linebacker Etienne Sabino, who starred on special teams last season, because they are attempting to redshirt him this season.

That leaves a kick coverage unit that includes three tailbacks in Brandon Saine, Jordan Hall and Carlos Hyde, two walk-ons in Nate Ebner and Tony Jackson and five reserve players with very little game experience in Clarke, Nate Oliver, Aaron Gant, Jamie Wood and Jonathan Newsome.

http://www.the-ozone.net/football/2010/Purdue/kickcoverage.html

Having three tailbacks and two walk-ons on the kick coverage team does not seem to be typical at tOSU.

 

[Buckskin86]

Rob Oller commentary: Special teams need new attitude
Saturday, October 23, 2010
By Rob Oller
The Columbus Dispatch

Ohio State still might be undefeated, ranked No.1 and on track for the national championship game if only the Buckeyes had pounded Wisconsin into powder during the time it took to read this sentence.

The Badgers opened last Saturday's game with a 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, a 12-second flash-point of momentum that they used to open a 21-0 lead on the way to an eventual 31-18 win in Camp Randall Stadium.

Common sense says the kick return to the house should not have happened, just as the kick and punt returns for touchdowns should not have happened against the University of Miami in Week 2.

Then again, what does common sense know? It might be guilty of allowing the miscues in the first place.

You will hear Ohio State's coaches explain that what caused the devastating kick returns - and as a result why OSU is ranked 92nd in kickoff coverage and 114th in punt return yardage allowed - were a series of mistakes in which certain players were cleared from lanes or overshot their gap responsibilities. Those are true and logical assessments. But logic will not solve the recurring issue that began to crop up last season and continues to plague the Buckeyes in 2010.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/sports/stories/2010/10/23/opinion.html?sid=101

 

[fourteenandoh]

Every kickoff has been to the outside toward the numbers today. Looks like we are finally making some adjustments. It seems to be working too. Their starting position still sucks, but at least there haven't been any disasters.

 

[mendensa]

find some guys that will blow some people up and let them play. Having 3 RB's out there probably isn't the best idea. The KO team is entirely too soft. They allow themselves to get engaged and are relying/hoping for a call from the refs to throw a flag. They can't see them all guys.

It's been a long time since ST's have been this suspect @ OSU. I remember when you felt comfortable when we would line up for a FG. So confident you could almost get up and take a leak or get another beer from the frig b/c you just knew it was going in. Or confident the D would come onto the field w/ the opposing team needing 70+ yds to score a TD.

Last year I felt comfortable outside of 40 but not so much every time we lined up for a chip shot. This year I hold my breath every time we KO or line up for any type of ST play b/c you just don't know what you are going to get. I hope they can clean it up for the stretch run. They looked better today but Purdue didn't have much of a homerun threat back there either.

 

[fourteenandoh]

find some guys that will blow some people up and let them play. Having 3 RB's out there probably isn't the best idea. The KO team is entirely too soft. They allow themselves to get engaged and are relying/hoping for a call from the refs to throw a flag. They can't see them all guys.

It's been a long time since ST's have been this suspect @ OSU. I remember when you felt comfortable when we would line up for a FG. So confident you could almost get up and take a leak or get another beer from the frig b/c you just knew it was going in. Or confident the D would come onto the field w/ the opposing team needing 70+ yds to score a TD.

Last year I felt comfortable outside of 40 but not so much every time we lined up for a chip shot. This year I hold my breath every time we KO or line up for any type of ST play b/c you just don't know what you are going to get. I hope they can clean it up for the stretch run. They looked better today but Purdue didn't have much of a homerun threat back there either.

everyone tends to say that, and i agree to a certain extent. however, if you think back we have been susceptible to big plays in the kicking game since Tressel got here. There were signs of it last year as well. Iowa and Oregon come to mind. Even the NC game in '02 went to OT because of a huge punt return. I know everyone is going to give up a big play every now and then, but we seem to do it a bit more than most, and they always seem to be in huge situations.

 

[jwinslow]

There were signs of it last year as well. Iowa and Oregon come to mind.

Which is largely the same players. NOt a great example of 'since he got here'. The special teams have not been strong for a few years, but I don't think it's fair to say this has been a consistent problem all along.

Even the NC game in '02 went to OT because of a huge punt return

AJ Hawk had the PR dead to rights and got clipped blatantly. Meanwhile Groom was amazing.

 

[TheStoicPaisano]

^Was that the return Kudla got decleated?

I attribute a lot of this to injuries--not mentioned above, Domicone and Schwartz are two solid ST guys who've missed time, to the point of having Taylor Rice on the field two weeks ago.

This team carries 19 defensive backs and they are down to about eight healthy right now. It's mind-boggling.

 

[fourteenandoh]

Which is largely the same players. NOt a great example of 'since he got here'. The special teams have not been strong for a few years, but I don't think it's fair to say this has been a consistent problem all along.
AJ Hawk had the PR dead to rights and got clipped blatantly. Meanwhile Groom was amazing.

Don't get upset about it. You are probably right. I'm just trying to say that the sceme hasn't changed, only the players have. Our old ST with quality talent didn't give up many, but they gave up some. Now with lesser talent they are getting gashed. Tressel is known for tayloring his game plan to his personnel, and this case should be no different. In fact, they did change the game plan considerably this week.

 

[jwinslow]

Some of it is injuries but a lot is simply execution. The top 4 rbs have all seen time on coverage units, and two are starters. That is a troubling trend.

It will be interesting to see how the 2010 redshirts and 2011 class can help spark this unit. Can they find a Rolle, Lane, Welch in those classes?

 

[UpNorthBuckeye]

^Was that the return Kudla got decleated?

I attribute a lot of this to injuries--not mentioned above, Domicone and Schwartz are two solid ST guys who've missed time, to the point of having Taylor Rice on the field two weeks ago.

This team carries 19 defensive backs and they are down to about eight healthy right now. It's mind-boggling.

Yeah, it was Kudla. If I recall correctly, he was wearing a different number than what he wore the next three years.

After that hit, he had some kind of complications and almost died, lost a lot of weight and muscle.

Still don't know why Kudla didn't catch on somewhere in the NFL. Go back and watch the OSU-ND Fiesta Bowl ---- he was a monster.

I guess I should go look in Alumni and see what he is doing now.