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Best Buckeye Defense Ever?

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Just to throw another thought into the mix about this year's D.

We've lost our D coordinator for 2 years running. First Dantonio, now Snyder ... don't underestimate coaching changes when factoring how good/bad a team will be. There may be no drop off in performance, they may be better (or worse) ... hard to tell. But there is always an adjustment period to go through.
 
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FookMichiganTGJ said:
id say 2005 is the best linebacker corps of all time...2 aa for sure and who know maybe 3 in schelgal/d'andrea steps it up
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I don't see Carpenter making first-team AA. Not saying that he's not deserving, but Hawk gets a lot of the press and with Greenway and Hodge at Iowa and Brooks at Virginia, it'll be hard to do. Carp will make a lot of 2nd and 3rd team AA lists, though. Schlegel is a very good MLB, but he's not AA caliber, and who knows if D'Andrea can even stay healthy for a whole season.
 
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Just for the records...

1) This is NOT a prediction on my part. It never was. Hence, my use of the word "could". Simply posing an interesting question.

2) I am too young to know anything about the '73 team, but they sound amazing. Would love to have seen them.

3) If this D played to their full potential and a couple of kids really rise to the occasion, I wouldn't put ANY limits on them. Especially with our O coming on (hopefully).
 
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RugbyBuck said:
A better question would be whether they could be the best in recent history. Even as old as I am (feel), I was only four in 1973. Certainly 2005 COULD be better than 1996 or 2002.
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COULD be better? I guess so. I still stand by my opinion that 2002 was better than 2005 will be. I think 1996 was better, too. But COULD be.. ok.. you got me. 2005 COULD be better than 2002.
 
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Ok, since he's saying could be, here's what would have to happen for the '05 version to be better:

Youboty has a repeat of this year, and is at least equal to Chris Gamble was in '02 (good luck). Tyler Everett does better than Dustin Fox did in '02 (he did get beat quite a bit, especially against Illinois and Purdue, but he made some key INTs as well).

Whitner and Salley cancel out Doss and Nickey. This could be very doable, as I think Whitner and Salley, tho not as good as Doss are both much better than Nickey. With a good year, these guys could both be 1st-2nd round picks. Another key is that someone has to step up at the nickelback spot. Will Allen made some enormous plays from that position in 2002, and someone else will have to be able to duplicate that.

The LBs look better really. Hawk is better than Cie Grant was, Carpenter is better than Pugac was, and Schlegal will be a little worse than Wilhelm, but not enough to take away the advantage the entire LB corps has over the 2002 version. It really is all about Schlegal though, we saw how the 2003 team struggled without a true MLB.

The DL is the stretch, but Kudla is very good when healthy. I don't know who actually thought Will Smith was going to be the monster that he became, but maybe Kudla or Richardson are ready to break out. The DTs are probably pretty even between these two teams, but the DEs is where the problems arise. They'll need a really big year!!

So there you have it, I'd say that the secondary is better for '02 (though really close) the LBs are better for '05 (by a decent margin) and the DL is better for '02 (by a fairly sizable margin).
 
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best D ever? statistically, there is NO WAY, because, due to the offensive evolution that has taken place, it would be darn near impossible to only allow 5 points per game, which was what the '73 D allowed... now, the '96 D only allowed 8.9 points per game, and that SHOULD have been good enough to win a National Title, except the O forgot to show up in game #12, and that is where the '02 squad has it's advantage... at any rate, i can't see the '05 D holding opponents to under 10 PPG-- offenses are simply too sophisticated at this point... now: the '02 D held their opponents to around 13 PPG, which, while statistically is nearly a full TD worse than the '96 D, you have to remember that the '96 O was laying the WOOD to people, throwing up 70 points twice in the first two games-- the D isn't on the field very much when you score on your first TEN possessions, which would indicate that the '96 D, while compiling those impressive numbers, weren't doing nearly as much actual, on-field defending... so i have to conclude that the '02 D, while not statistically as impressive as the '96 squad, was the better overall unit, for the simple fact that when the O didn't show up (Penn State, Purdue) the D won the game seemingly by themselves- IU '96 notwithstanding (i loved it when we tore down their goalpost!)... of course NUUUUUGE and Groomy helped out a LOT... (damn Groom was a good punter- remember that 70 yarder against the Nittany Lions?)

so does the '05 D have a chance to be the best D ever at Ohio State? yes, but only if they manage not only to go undefeated and win a National Championship, but to actually outscore the opponent a time or two when the O is struggling...

i hope that ramble made sense...
 
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OSU5NC said:
Youboty has a repeat of this year, and is at least equal to Chris Gamble was in '02 (good luck). Tyler Everett does better than Dustin Fox did in '02 (he did get beat quite a bit, especially against Illinois and Purdue, but he made some key INTs as well).
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I pretty much can agree with most of OSU5NC's post, except for the excerpts I've bolded. Youboty is already as good as Gamble was in '02, so no "good luck" needed. As for Fox getting "beat quite a bit", the only game I saw him get beat where he wasn't either injured or coming off an injury was The Game this past season...he let Edwards get by him twice for long gains, including that bomb TD that momentarily put them back in it. Our secondary should be as good as '02's overall, with our LB corps being a bit better than '02's, and our DL being just under '02's.
 
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Zurp said:
COULD be better? I guess so. I still stand by my opinion that 2002 was better than 2005 will be. I think 1996 was better, too. But COULD be.. ok.. you got me. 2005 COULD be better than 2002.
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Tressel COULD decide to start Youboty at center. Hawk COULD decide to just play in the band. Nate Salley COULD decide to entire the NBA draft. 2005 defence COULD be better than 2002.

Bottom line, I think in my 16 years of religiously following the Buckeyes, the best defenses that I've ever seen have been recent:

#1: 2002
#2: 1996
#3: 2003
#4: 1998

I think if 2005's defense ends up being mentioned in the same breath as any of those, we'll have a very happy fall. And, we COULD especially enjoy the Rose Bowl.
 
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if ginn played corner, then yes, this defense could be the best ever.

you'd have ginn and youboty at corner. disgusting. our d-line is pretty good, but not great. a few teams, like the wisconsins, have the horses to push us around. but with 2 sweet corners, if any team was having success on the ground against us we could just put 8-9 in the box and totally stomp that out. we would be able to blitz a lot more and cause all kinds of havoc.

but, alas, it appears that ginn will only play offense. a lot of people like to hate on fox, but everett is going to have a tough time and teams are going to pick on him a lot. and even though youboty played well in The Game, that was just one game and i am not sold on him yet (i think it's funny how people are always quick to point out that troy just had one good game, yet they annoint ashton as this "lock-down" corner because he had a couple nice plays against michigan).

i think we can get through the season undefeated with everett at corner, but if we are going to have any chance at beating usc, we are going to need ginn doing everything. the weather in southern california is temperate and dry, the best conditions that a 2-way player could ask for.

there are 3 possible situations with everett at corner:

1) he plays great and i happily admit i was wrong, and we dominate.

2) he plays ok, then gets exposed in a close game sometime during the big ten season, ruining our title chances.

3) he struggles early, but we still manage to win. however, it's enough of a concern that tressel is forced to put ginn at cb (as he was forced to do with gamble). the defense takes off and we turn into Silver Fucking Bullets that not even leinart, urban meyer or all those other fuckers will be able to deal with. we'll win every game 17-0.

i'll be happy with 1 and 3. in my opinion, 2 and 3 are most likely. I want 3. I realize i am in the minority, as everybody is so starved for offense and highlights they want to keep teddy where he's at. i want more. i salivate at the thought of a dominating defense that has people going home in body bags.

i like salley, but his tackling worries me. i still picture that missed tackle on braylon in the 03 game. i think he's one of the players that we fans tend to overrate. i really hope he steps up big this year.
 
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