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Pre-Season Practice Reports - 2003

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I couldn't agree more about the D-line. Patterson is disruptive and they could not block him in one on one drills. He will be a force very soon on the defensive line IMO. I agree about Maupin. He is so big and surprisingly moves well. There are plenty of schools across the county where he wouldn't redshirt, but Ohio State has that luxury. I though Joel Penton looked good coming off the edge in drills and Pitcock is a load. Jay Richardson has some serious wheels. It's too bad Frost was dinged up, I wanted to see him in action. I didn't even mention Tim Anderson and Simon Fraser. The D-line is so deep it's ridiculous.

I was very impressed with Olivea. Smith tried to beat him to the outside four straight times during one on one drills but got nowhere...very impressive! Clarke and Bishop looked good from what I saw. Mangold and Sims are keepers.

Was the #50 running right along with Step, Doug Datish? If so, although he is not in the two deep at this point, he looks to be in tremendous shape. Hopefully he gets some PT this year. Step looked great.

I thought Krenzel was off today. My nephew, who is not a Krenzel fan, was gloating about how off he was. Troy Smith and Justin Zwick leave me very happy with the QB situation for years to come. I hope both stay no matter who starts. Boeckman has a good arm and was bigger than I expected. I agree about his delivery but I'm sure the coaches will tinker with it.

Jenkins has the best hands on the team hands down, pardon the pun. Carter showed me some things. If he can consistently show hands he should do some damage this year. Bam even held onto the ball a few times. I can't wait to see Santonio Holmes on the 30th. Roy Hall is BIG! Unbelievable depth.

I didn't watch the backs that closely but they didn't really stand out from what I saw. Guilford could be a good one in time. Parker runs hard and will be ok if the guys in front of him can't go for whatever reason. Didn't like seeing Schnittker limping towards the end of practice but I'm sure he'll be ok.

I got to see a lot of the DB's today(what's wrong with Gamble?) EJ Underwood looked great. He was very fluid. I'd like to see Youboty redshirt so he could get a little stronger. Fox was beaten a lot today. The only thing he could do to stop Jenkins was a shot to the jewels. Chris Gamble got a chuckle out of it. :biggrin: I like Mitchell and Salley. Tyler Everett looked pretty good as well. I wanted to check out Whitner but to no avail.

Sorry to ramble, those were just the things that stood out for me today. I took some pictures but the quality is not that good. I may post them at some point if I can figure out how.
 
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Hey all.

These posts alone make this board worth being around. As long as we're responsible about omitting information that would reasonably be considered sensitive, we're golden as far as I'm concerned.

Obviously none of us are interested in giving anyone an edge over the Buckeyes, but I just don't see how what we're posting now could be a problem. The answer isn't outlawing practice notes, just making sure they're self policed well.

Anyway, outstanding stuff. I'm just now starting to get really worked up for this season. A little later this year than normal (national championship hangover?), but welcome nonetheless.

I'm planning on posting overviews of the next game each week. Not much in the way of opinions, just statistical data on the opposing team, their tendancies, their top players, etc. That should invite some pretty interesting discussion. I mean, Reggie Williams vs. Chris Gamble? There's something that could get a few discussions going. Too bad we don't have a few Huskies and Wolf Packers over here. If any of you have had any good convos with any of those guys (or fans from other teams we face), don't be shy about a personal invite.
 
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"Fox was beaten a lot today. The only thing he could do to stop Jenkins was a shot to the jewels."

That was hillarious, IMO. Jenkins probably didn't think so.


As far as Troy Smith, he looks sharp, and does a great job of working the entire field. He has an excellent deep ball and isn't afraid to use it. That opens up the middle and shorter pattterns for him. However, I thought he struggled some near the goalline and had some poor decisions early in practice. You have got to love the potential, though. Zwick didn't get too many snaps today with the blue jersey on, but I'm not worried about our QB situation next year. The winner will be the most talented QB we've had at OSU in a while.
 
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Great info guys.

Would you guys say this has been an all camp thing with Fox or more of a bad day? I like the competitive streak the bag tag shows if he was getting torched all day.
 
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Great updates!

These are excellent insights that a) don't appear to give anything away, useful to opponents, and b) fulfill the hunger of those of us at a distance for something more than the typical stuff we get. I did notice that both Charles Babb (BNuts) and Mr. Ed (Ozone) are trying to give a little more detail. (Maybe its the competition :wink2: )
Actual games cannot start to soon. (Understatement of the calendar quarter).
Go Bucks!
 
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"I like the competitive streak the bag tag shows if he was getting torched all day."

In his defense, it was clearly accidental.

As far as Fox, I don't think anyone can say. I can't. As far as I know, only 2 practices have been open to the public. Both practices i've been to, he's been getting beaten pretty often, but you can't tell too much from 2 practices. Monday was worst than the week before, but both days he looked pretty bad. I don't want to break down his game, that seems like the kinda stuff I got in trouble with before, but i'm worried. At this point, i'm really hoping he's just had a couple rough days. I'm also hoping EJ is ready if not, because UW has two excellent recievers and a star QB. If Fox isn't ready, they'll hurt us.
 
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I noticed a lot of the same about Fox yesterday. But I'm not yet ready to write him off. A lot of the drills I noticed he was getting beaten in were designed to be weighted in favor of the offense, i.e. one-on-one from the 10 yard line, or seven-on-seven in the red zone (no DL pressure on the QB). Don't forget that Fox was going up against Jenkins everytime. Last Monday Gamble did a good job shutting down Jenkins in some drills, but then again, Fox is no Gamble (but who is?).

In the 10 yard line drill, I'd say the WR caught the ball at least 3/4 of the time, with most of the drops due to a misthrow rather than coverage. Mitchell, Allen, and Underwood were the three that I can remember breaking up a pass in that one.

As far as the DB's go, I agree Mitchell and Salley are really going to push each other for the starting spot opposite Allen. Everett is right there also, but Mitchell and Salley are really making statements with their hitting as well as their coverage skills. Salley really layed a nice one on John Hollins over the middle. As crazy as it sounds, I'm less worried about the safeties than the linebackers at this point.

Pitcock went off about halfway thru with what looked like a slight limp. I didn't see him return. Probably nothing serious.

BJ Shankers booted some decent balls in punt rushing drills. He's still a little slow in getting the ball off, but he didn't get any blocked and the shanks are really getting less frequent. Next year is going to be interesting though. Without any kind of rush or even any coverage, Huston was shanking 40-50% off to the right. Walkon Bryan Pierce actually looked decent when he punted a few, so maybe he will work hard this year and try and take over in 04.

Holmes, Hiley, Jenkins, and Carter were those catching punts. Gamble caught a few, but nothing in contact. Gamble, Holmes, Mo Hall, Hiley, and Tony Gonzales were working on kick returns.

I've read that BJ is working hard to get his holding duties perfected, but yesterday Nuge actually worked with Zwick for awhile, throwing him both good and bad snaps to try and get them down quickly. I just hope one of the two knows what they're doing with the holding duties, or else Nuge isn't going to be automatic this year.
 
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Clarity- Sure will, but I don't have your e-mail. I also sent you a private message over at Bucknuts that you should check sometime. I think it's outdated by now, though.




"As crazy as it sounds, I'm less worried about the safeties than the linebackers at this point."

Honestly, me too. Specifically MLB. Hawk will be a great WILL, and Reynolds is a solid SAM. We just don't have a MIKE yet, and that's generally your leading tackler. I just remember Pugac playing when Wilhelm got hurt in 2001, and our D look much worse. As soon as Wilhelm came back, we did very well. Pugac is undersized and not fast enough, I just don't think he can get the job done. D'andrea has looked good, but i'm not sold yet. Allen was basically a starter last year as much as he played, so he's set, and the winner of Salley and Mitchell will be very good for us IMO. If D'andrea steps up at really excells at MLB, our defense could be as good as last years, and quite possibly better against the pass.
 
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Thanks again for all the reports...

I tend to agree that we need one of the guys playing the MIKE to step up... however with the reports on Fox, I'm also concerned with one of our corner spots... I hope he steps up, or EJ steps up... If we can shore up those two positions the D looks fine.

I'm not concerned with the O (assumeing the RB's get healthy, and the return of MoC sure wouldn't hurt either...).
 
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I haven't seen (or heard) enough of D'Andrea this fall to gauge whether he is ready to start in the middle. I know he really stepped it up in the spring, but there really hasn't been much said about him for the vast majority of fall practice, other than that he took some reps with the 1's on Monday.

Carpenter had that eye injury, limiting his progress in the spring. But he's looked real good both times I've seen practice. If D'Andrea is at Carpenter's level at this point, I think we'll be fine. At this point I'd be comfortable with Reynolds in the middle. I hope D'Andrea has progressed from the spring to the point where he can be counted on in the middle, because let's face it, Pagac is not, and will never be, the answer.
 
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