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DB Jamario O'Neal (official thread)

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Mansfield

4/25

Jamario O'Neal not playing like a freshman
By Jon Spencer
News Journal

<!-- ARTICLE BODYTEXT --> <!--ARTICLE TEXT--> COLUMBUS -- Technically, he's still a freshman, but from the moment he strapped on a helmet this spring Ohio State strong safety Jamario O'Neal felt more like a veteran in the defensive backfield.
"This was the time here I did a lot of learning and, yeah, I feel a lot more comfortable ... knowing what I need to do," the former Mansfield Senior star said.
"It's a comfort level. If you're on the field and you're thinking, then you're not playing fast. If you're comfortable and know what you're doing, you're going to make plays."
Like the pass he picked off with 1:23 left to seal the Scarlet's 12-0 victory before 63,649 in Saturday's spring game. His 34-yard runback after the pick showed why the Buckeyes are also trying him out as a kick returner to complement Ted Ginn Jr."My adrenaline was pumped the whole game," O'Neal said. "The crowd really got me into it."
He might have been too eager to please on the one kickoff he fielded, fumbling the ball at his own 35 after a 20-yard return. Scarlet teammate Derek Harden recovered.
"There's little things I have to work on," O'Neal said. "I did a lot of returns at Glenville (where he finished high school), but I'm a little rusty. It's OK. I know (special teams coach Darrell) Hazell is going to work out (the rustiness)."
O'Neal had a tighter squeeze on the football after his interception and might have tightened his grip on a starting job with that statement play.
"I'm not saying I've got a job locked down because there's always guys behind you working hard, but I think I improved from last year to this year," O'Neal said. "I study my playbook and try to get everything done that the coaches ask."
A converted cornerback, O'Neal is penciled in as a Donte Whitner's replacement at strong safety after playing primarily on special teams last season.
"I think the reason they moved me to safety is because they saw in drills that I could tackle," O'Neal said. "The transition from corner to safety was never a big deal to me because I'm going to try to make a play wherever I am."
He hopes he can live up to the standard set by the NFL-bound Whitner, another Glenville product.
"Donte stayed in the film room so much," said O'Neal, son of Walter Jefferson of Mansfield. "I think that's what separated him from most of the other DBs. He knew what was going to happen before it happened.
"I'm taking it a step at a time and I'm trying to watch more film."

[email protected] 419-521-7239
 
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Link

A matter of safety
O'Neal had hand (and feet) in win
By JON SPENCER
For The Advocate

COLUMBUS -- Jamario O'Neal isn't taking his demotion sitting down.
O'Neal was listed first at strong safety on Ohio State's two-deep roster all spring and into fall camp until apparently losing the job late to fifth-year senior Brandon Mitchell.
Mitchell had a team-high 10 tackles and a sack in the opening 35-12 win over Northern Illinois. Rather than sulk about his predicament, O'Neal made the most of his opportunities.
The 6-foot-1, 190-pound sophomore had a sack, a solo tackle on kickoff coverage and returned two kickoffs for 48 yards. One of them was a 31-yarder that put the Buckeyes near midfield and looked like it would lead to a score until freshman Chris Wells fumbled inside the 5-yard line."I feel like if you're making plays and doing things asked of you, the coaches have no choice but to look at you and say, 'This guy's a player I want to have on the field,'" O'Neal said. "I just try to go out there and make things happen."
O'Neal replaced injured senior Roy Hall (ankle) in Ohio State's "diamond" kickoff return formation. To discourage teams from kicking short and away from the dangerous Ted Ginn Jr., the Buckeyes put two other return specialists on the wings in front of Ginn.
As one of Ginn's wing men, O'Neal may have made it tough for Hall to get his job back.
"I knew going into the game I had to make things happen because teams want to keep the ball out of Teddy's hands," O'Neal said. "Once I get on the field I have to do everything right when I'm out there."
O'Neal didn't think he did anything wrong in losing his starting spot to Mitchell.
"Being that 'Mitch' is a senior, he's paid his dues," O'Neal said. "The guys in there right now have earned it. It's really like a bunch of guys rotating in and out. It's not really about who's starting.
"It's competitive, but we're out there to have fun. Regardless of who's on the field, there's plays being made."
The Buckeyes unveiled an entirely new starting secondary against Northern Illinois, with sophomore Malcolm Jenkins and senior Antonio Smith at the corners and sophomore Nick Patterson starting alongside Mitchell at free safety.
The top backups include O'Neal, redshirt freshmen Anderson Russell and Donald Washington and true freshman Kurt Coleman.
NIU tailback Garrett Wolfe gave the Buckeyes fits, rushing for 171 yards and adding another 114 yards on five receptions. But the Huskies were kept out of the end zone until Wolfe scored on a 4-yard pass in the fourth quarter.
"We felt we didn't have anything to prove because we knew what we had," O'Neal said about the nine new starters on defense. "We know we have to go out and play hard every down but it's not like we were thinking, 'We have to play good because people are doubting us.' We know we're young, but we weren't thinking about that."
Like the rest of the Buckeyes, O'Neal quickly turned his thoughts to Saturday's prime-time showdown against No. 3 Texas in Austin. The former high school track star knows OSU will be in more of a footrace this week.
"It's going to be a big game for a young group," he said on behalf of the defense, "but I think we'll be focused. We just have to multiply it times 10."
 
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Tackling needs to improve…

O’Neil looks like an athlete but his tackling needs to improve. He missed a couple of tackles on Wolfe that sprang big plays. On one of Wolfe’s big runs in the 4th Q he was put on his back by a blocker down field. I hate to judge a guy based on limited situations. I am sure the coaches have seen hundreds of situations and will address as needed.
 
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BrianO said:
O’Neil looks like an athlete but his tackling needs to improve. He missed a couple of tackles on Wolfe that sprang big plays. On one of Wolfe’s big runs in the 4th Q he was put on his back by a blocker down field. I hate to judge a guy based on limited situations. I am sure the coaches have seen hundreds of situations and will address as needed.
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I saw that at the game to and all I could think about he's lucky to be a 2nd teamer being juked out like that on an open field tackle.
 
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akronbuck said:
I saw that at the game to and all I could think about he's lucky to be a 2nd teamer being juked out like that on an open field tackle.
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I agree. He should be focusing on the hips instead of the shoulders.......In all honesty though, Wolfe has the tendency to make many good defensive backs look stupid. He could be the best back we see all season, honestly.

The kid is budding with talent, his technique is a bit lacking at the moment. With more meaningful reps he'll continue to get better. Keep in mind, you cannot teach athleticism.
 
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daddyphatsacs said:
I agree. He should be focusing on the hips instead of the shoulders.......In all honesty though, Wolfe has the tendency to make many good defensive backs look stupid. He could be the best back we see all season, honestly.

The kid is budding with talent, his technique is a bit lacking at the moment. With more meaningful reps he'll continue to get better. Keep in mind, you cannot teach athleticism.
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thxs, I hate to point out a bad play from any OSU player but, thats what the coaches and players will be on him about big time . His first tackle in the OSU/TEXAS game.:osu: might make him feel ok
 
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daddyphatsacs said:
I agree. He should be focusing on the hips instead of the shoulders.......In all honesty though, Wolfe has the tendency to make many good defensive backs look stupid. He could be the best back we see all season, honestly.

The kid is budding with talent, his technique is a bit lacking at the moment. With more meaningful reps he'll continue to get better. Keep in mind, you cannot teach athleticism.
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he reminds me of Donte Whitner during his soph season... the talent is definitely there, but the mental aspect needs to catch up...
 
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O'neal needs to be in the game on pure speed and athletic ability. Texas has a lot of great athletes and we can't go in there defensively the way we played against NIU. Wolfe absolutely shredded the defense in the open field. Whoever is #23 (Patterson?) got burned a couple times by Wolfe. We need more speed in the defensive secondary and O'neal can bring that.
 
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lvbuckeye said:
all the speed in the world doesn't do you a lick of good when you're playing out of position and leaving your feet...
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Or having the perfect plays called against your defense. NIU had four or five plays where they were the exactly correct calls for our defensive alignment. Not to mention that NIU turned out to be a pretty good blocking team.

The defense will improve markedly by this weekend...
 
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MililaniBuckeye said:
Or having the perfect plays called against your defense. NIU had four or five plays where they were the exactly correct calls for our defensive alignment. Not to mention that NIU turned out to be a pretty good blocking team.

The defense will improve markedly by this weekend...
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i agree with you, but i'm not talking about the team, i'm talking specifically about Jam-O...
 
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CPD

O'Neal leaps at second chance


Monday, October 02, 2006Doug Lesmerises
Plain Dealer Reporter
Columbus -- In the days before Ohio State started preseason camp in August, sophomore safety Jamario O'Neal made his personal expectations clear.
"As far as me being a starter, not to sound cocky, but I feel like it's expected of me," O'Neal said then. "Most guys are like, You're going to start at Ohio State?' To me, that's what I should be doing."
It didn't happen. If there was one player on the nearly all-new defense who didn't earn a starting job when people expected him to, it was O'Neal.
http://ads.cleveland.com/RealMedia/...w.cleveland.com/xml/story/s2/s2osf/@StoryAd?x "There were some times I was kind of down," O'Neal said, "but the coaches told me stay up and do what you're doing and everything will pay off."
Senior Brandon Mitchell and sophomore Nick Patterson were the starting safeties out of camp, with freshman Anderson Russell quickly claiming Patterson's job by the second game of the year. O'Neal remained the odd man out, though he did see action as Ohio State regularly rotated its backups into games.
Standing in a tunnel underneath Kinnick Stadium on Saturday night after Ohio State's 38-17 win over Iowa, O'Neal was a starter again.
Russell is out for the season with a right knee injury, a diagnosis a school spokesman confirmed again Sunday while declining to give more specific information. An under-the-radar recruit who impressed with his speed and play-making, Russell was injured covering the kickoff that followed Ohio State's opening touchdown in the first quarter Saturday night.
The injury is the first major one suffered by Ohio State this season. Linebacker Mike D'Andrea was lost for good during the preseason, but he'd been injured previously and the Buckeyes weren't counting on him. No. 3 receiver Roy Hall sat out the first two games with an ankle injury, but Brian Robiskie, who was earning more playing time anyway, stepped right in.
This is the first full-time starter the nation's No. 1 team will be forced to do without.
"It's a shame because [Russell] is a great kid and a great player and really doing a fine job at safety," coach Jim Tressel said. "Someone is going to have to step up for us to keep moving on
As Russell was carried off the field, the call went out to O'Neal, who was ranked 31st among the nation's top recruits out of Glenville High in 2005 by rivals.com.
"I didn't know what was up, and then I saw Anderson lying down and I thought, I've got to get in,' " O'Neal said. "My heart was beating fast and . . . it was kind of breathtaking. The first series, I had to get all the jitters out, but as the game continued I got more relaxed and more confident."
On his third play, O'Neal hedged up as receiver Herb Grigsby broke deep down the sideline and quarterback Drew Tate connected for a 31-yard gain on third down. From then on, as the Buckeyes intercepted three Tate passes, O'Neal started to find his way.
"I wouldn't say there's pressure on me, it's just my turn to step up," he said.
O'Neal was slowed at the start at camp after having his wisdom teeth removed. But he also admitted he didn't make the plays in practice that the rest of the Buckeyes have been making every game. Ohio State's three picks Saturday gave them 11 on the season.
"I was tackling in practice, but it's just [that I wasn't] picking up the ball and making plays on the ball," O'Neal said. "That's what the coaches want -- they don't just want guys who can make tackles, they want the ball. And that's what I have to work on."
 
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