• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!

Game Thread Ohio State 45, Michigan State 7 (Oct. 18)

Dispatch
Michigan State football
Ringer answers call to carry ball
Spartans lean heavily on workhorse running back
Thursday, October 16, 2008 3:28 AM
By Bill Rabinowitz


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
1016_msu_ringer_sp_10-16-08_C1_VKBK8RJ.jpg
Rashaun Rucker | Mcclatchy
Javon Ringer has at least 25 carries in each of Michigan State's seven games, topping out at 44 vs. Indiana.


Javon Ringer laughed at the suggestion. As if it were possible for him to concede that the burden of carrying the football so much is too great.
Sure, it's rare for any running back to say he is overworked. It's practically part of a runner's genes.
But there are extremes, and what Michigan State has asked of Ringer is almost unprecedented.
Entering Saturday's game against Ohio State, Ringer has 247 carries in seven games. No other Football Bowl Subdivision runner has more than 179 carries. Ringer has run at least 25 times in all seven of Michigan State's games, with a high of 44 against Indiana.
Ringer has an outside shot at the NCAA season record for carries set last year by Central Florida's Kevin Smith, who had 450.
"I'm really thankful that coach D (Mark Dantonio) trusts me with the ball in my hands," he said. "I'm never going to tell him not to give me the ball."
Asked whether there was ever a time he'd rather be a decoy, Ringer laughed.
"The only time I'm like, 'This is ridiculous,' is when everybody's down in the box and it's almost impossible to run," he said.
But even then, he's more than willing to stick his nose in the pile and get what he can.
Cont...
 
Upvote 0
Dispatch
Always a Buckeye
Big brother vs. little brother

Wednesday, October 15, 2008 10:35 AM
By Drew Norman


For the Columbus Dispatch
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/sports/stories/2008/norman_bio.html My younger brother Tony is my best friend. Plain and simple. He has been my best friend since the day he was born. We are the oldest grandchildren on my mother's side of the family and the youngest on my father's.
Growing up, we lived in a neighborhood in which there lived no one close to us in age. Because of these circumstances, all we really had was each other, but that's all we needed. For as long as I can remember, we were virtually inseparable. We had to have made life simple on my mom and dad, because wherever I was, Tony was.
We did everything as a team. If I was Michael Jordan, Barry Sanders, Batman, Ice Man, Greg Maddux, Jerome Bettis, or Brett "the Hitman" Hart, you could bet that he was Scottie Pippen, Bo Jackson, Robin, Maverick, Tom Glavine, Reggie Brooks, or Shawn "the Heartbreak Kid" Michaels. We were always a team.
Then, at some point, things changed. Instead of being teammates, we became competitors. We found that it was more fun to play against each other than it was to play against the "imaginary" team. Everything became a competition. Whatever one of us did, the other had to do it better. We found a way to make everything a game.

Cont..
 
Upvote 0
Paint me optimistic, but Ringer and the other MSU RBs haven't put much of a dent in this OSU D the last 2-3 years. Ringer, against basically this same defense a year ago, ran 18 times for 49 yards (2.7yds/carry, long of 10 yards) and 0 TDs. Caulcrick's numbers the year before that we almost identical (15 rushes, 45 yards, 0 TDs, 3.0 yds/carry, long of 10 yards). With our DBs (Jenkins and Chekwa in particular) playing as well as they did last week against Purdue, we really can sell out to stop the 40+ carries Ringer will get in this game. Against that run, we also have a D-Line coming off their best game of the season and heat-seeking run stopper Ross Homan will get a whole lot more time in at LB since we won't be in a nickle quite so much. Ringer might get 100 yds against us, but it's gonna be in 2 yard increments.

The story of this game is going to be about how our offense does against their defense. Whoever wins that battle is going to win this game, IMO. If our O plays like they did last weekend, we lose this game barring a shutdown performance by our D. Dantonio always plays us tough. We better show up this weekend.
 
Upvote 0
I'd like to say you're right too, I just don't know if Tressel has the confidence in his OL. Maybe I don't have to confidence. I do think tOSU can make plays and make the plays to win this game, just don't feel the offense has been fluid or consistent enough to "open up" the playbook. Hell, I'd fuckin love to see it, and have the Bucks score over 30, but I don't feel like the OL or WRs have been consistent. Beanie is mostly consistent, except for some injuries, and Tressel goes to him because he'll make the play. I love Beanie, but he can't be the only component actually stepping up, and hopefully in hindsight we can say that Tressel finally opened up the playbook this week. We know the MSU D isn't as good as it was last year, so hopefully Tressel will exploit some of the weaknesses, but even against Minny, who had a bad pass D, we mostly ran on them; and although it worked, it's just the fact that we didn't hit on a weakness. We didn't exactly have to pass, but we just didn't pass that much.

All in all, I'm optimistic for this game, just hoping it isn't as sloppy. If the play is crisp and it's a tough defensive game, I'll be glad to watch, but if it's just sloppy like last week, it will be dissapointing. As Kirk Herbstreit said on a local Atlanta radio show earlier this week, "after watching the Red River Rivalry, flipping to Ohio State v. Purdue was like watching Junior Varsity". Damn.
 
Upvote 0
MililaniBuckeye;1294569; said:
I'd like to say I get the feeling Tressel is going to open up the offense Saturday...key words being "I'd like to say".

I'd like to say that I get the feeling that we won't be burned by a TE in the red zone Saturday... key words being "I'd like to say".

Watched a few clips of MSU earier this season and saw them throw a pass to the TE for a TD and since then I've just had a bad feeling about that play. Bad memories of the LSU dink pass in the MNCG.

Either way, Mili... I hope you're right. It'd be nice to see them open it up.
 
Upvote 0
jmorbitz;1294590; said:
I'd like to say you're right too, I just don't know if Tressel has the confidence in his OL. Maybe I don't have to confidence.
I'm so tired of this crap.

Every game, every year.. theres "confidence" lacking somewhere and thats the reason we don't "open up the playbook".. ever think, this is the playbook?

JT does a great job of adjusting to personell, he's a jack of all trades.. I look for the offense to 'open up' at the bowl game/next season a la Troy Smith.
 
Upvote 0
Bleed S & G;1294748; said:
I'm so tired of this crap.

Every game, every year.. theres "confidence" lacking somewhere and thats the reason we don't "open up the playbook".. ever think, this is the playbook?

JT does a great job of adjusting to personell, he's a jack of all trades.. I look for the offense to 'open up' at the bowl game/next season a la Troy Smith.

I'm sick of the OL playing like shit. God forbid I think they can play better than what they've shown. Right now with TP and Beanie, we really don't need to pass. We've got two outstanding runners in backfield, but the OL isn't playing well so its nullified. I have the confidence that we don't need some half back toss fleaflicker hail mary hook and ladder shit, we should be able to line up and knock them on their ass, but we don't. And if we can't do that, why would we pull some other drastic plays? I'd like to know that the team could do either, but the team has had a hard time doing the fundamental stuff so far this year; getting stupid procedural penalties, the T's getting beat on the corner, WR dropping more balls an the DB's last year. I do feel that there is something brewing with TP, and all the frosh on the line and at the skill position, I think next year there will be a different look to the O. I do think that with the current O the team is somewhat limited in all that it can do, I do think that this is the playbook and that's what is somewhat disappointing. But I can still want to see something new, something the opposing D coordinator didn't see coming in his sleep. I just don't think they could pull it off, and that's why its painful to see the team having difficulty executing just this playbook.

Anyway, here's to a win no matter what it looks like. Just play hard.

:oh:
 
Upvote 0
something new

hopefully Tress has kept some things up his sleeve, a la the scUM game. I am hoping that he sees Dantonio as the strategic genius he is, and will have a couple moves and counter moves ready for MSU.

You know, reverses, halfback passes, direct snaps, tackle eligibles, new formations, etc.

It was this game a year ago that was the beginning of Todd Boeckman's slide, IMO. Two turnovers for TDs. Crazy.

Personally, I wanna see TP sling the ball around like a BYU QB this weekend!
 
Upvote 0
IMHO the single most important factor to getting a victory in east lansing saturday (aside from scoring more points) is an unmatched intensity on both sides of the ball that I haven't seen since the beginning of the YSU game.

Intensity

Intensity

Intensity



Can't wait for kickoff!!!



:oh:



jmorbitz
user_offline.gif

ESPN hates you.


Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 702
Points: 135.96
Bank: 0.00
Total Points: 135.96

reputation_goldstar.gif
reputation_goldstar.gif

reputation_green.gif
reputation_green.gif
reputation_green.gif
reputation_green.gif
reputation_green.gif
reputation_greenh.gif
reputation_greenh.gif
reputation_greenh.gif
reputation_greenh.gif
reputation_greenh.gif
reputation_greenh.gif
reputation_greenh.gif
reputation_greenh.gif
reputation_greenh.gif
reputation_greenh.gif
reputation_gold.gif
reputation_gold.gif
reputation_gold.gif



Quote:
Originally Posted by Bleed S & G
I'm so tired of this crap.

Every game, every year.. theres "confidence" lacking somewhere and thats the reason we don't "open up the playbook".. ever think, this is the playbook?

JT does a great job of adjusting to personell, he's a jack of all trades.. I look for the offense to 'open up' at the bowl game/next season a la Troy Smith.


I'm sick of the OL playing like shit. God forbid I think they can play better than what they've shown. Right now with TP and Beanie, we really don't need to pass. We've got two outstanding runners in backfield, but the OL isn't playing well so its nullified. I have the confidence that we don't need some half back toss fleaflicker hail mary hook and ladder shit, we should be able to line up and knock them on their ass, but we don't. And if we can't do that, why would we pull some other drastic plays? I'd like to know that the team could do either, but the team has had a hard time doing the fundamental stuff so far this year; getting stupid procedural penalties, the T's getting beat on the corner, WR dropping more balls an the DB's last year. I do feel that there is something brewing with TP, and all the frosh on the line and at the skill position, I think next year there will be a different look to the O. I do think that with the current O the team is somewhat limited in all that it can do, I do think that this is the playbook and that's what is somewhat disappointing. But I can still want to see something new, something the opposing D coordinator didn't see coming in his sleep. I just don't think they could pull it off, and that's why its painful to see the team having difficulty executing just this playbook.

Anyway, here's to a win no matter what it looks like. Just play hard.

:oh:



:io:
 
Upvote 0
Back
Top