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QB Justin Zwick (B1G Champion, National Champion)

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DDN

4/2/06

Zwick still No. 2

If senior-to-be Justin Zwick remains the second-string quarterback, the Buckeyes may go into the 2007 season with their starter having taken few live snaps.

But Tressel said he won't put a younger player ahead of Zwick just to build for the future.

"If what's best for the team is for Justin to have the second-most reps, we have to do that," he said. "We've got 18 seniors. This is it for them. They care about '07, but not like they do about '06."
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slickman said:
I think the '07 sched looks really easy with Syracuse as our big OOC game, iirc.
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The tentative '07 OOC schedule has Akron as our annual MAC opponent, and the "big" game is at Washington (the remaining half of the home-and-home from the game in 2003). The agreement with Syracuse has disappeared from the official dept site and from nationalchamps.net's site too. That means there are still 1 or 2 games yet to be inked.

The Big-10 schedule has OSU at Minnesota, at Purdue, at Penn State, and at Michigan next year. OSU misses Indiana and Iowa in the rotation for both the '07 and '08 seasons.

Incidentally, the USC games ('08 and '09) and the Miami, Fla games ('10 and '11) still appear in future schedules lists. The series against Virginia Tech, and the travel date to Washington State have been pulled though.
 
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Buckeyes27 said:
Deleted nonsense
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I disagree. Don't forget, he played when our oline was not at its strongest, played through injury and preserved an important redshirt for us, and has by all accounts kept a good attitude. I would be entirely comfortable with him in the game at any time. Not sure what having his "mind switched around" means, but I don't see problems handing pressure, and I'm proud he's a Buckeye.
 
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Hilarious how some people are outraged over the conduct of certain players who are or were on the team, and yet here's a guy who goes to class, works hard on and off the field, handles a demotion without transferring and is Academic All-American material, and yet he gets bashed repeatedly by some of these same people because he wasn't quite the second coming of Otto Graham that he was overhyped to be coming out of high school. No one could ever have lived up to all the hype that was thrust upon him as a 16 and 17 year old kid...no one. Everyone seems to agree that it is a priviledge to get a scholarship to and play for Ohio State, and yet here's a guy who works hard and leads the team in seeing it that way, despite his adversity, and people basically want him to quit. What a joke.
 
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Bucklion said:
here's a guy who goes to class, works hard on and off the field, handles a demotion without transferring and is Academic All-American material, and yet he gets bashed repeatedly by some of these same people because he wasn't quite the second coming of Otto Graham that he was overhyped to be coming out of high school. No one could ever have lived up to all the hype that was thrust upon him as a 16 and 17 year old kid...no one.
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I don't know that it is fair to JZ, or his talents, to say that he did not live up to the hype. 2/3 rds of all "big time" college prospects will fail to live up to the hype. That's just the way the game works. Unfortunately for JZ, much of it was not his own doing. He was behind Krenzel and McMullen for two seasons, then when he finally did inherit the reigns, he was stuck breaking in an entirely new offense: backs, receivers, lines, everything. There was never a consistent offensive philosophy, so if JZ even had any particular talents, nothing appeared to be tailored for him to exploit them. Finally, when things really started clicking for him at the end of 2004, well, forget the fact that he wasn't the second coming of Otto Graham, he wasn't the first coming of Troy Smith.

Zwick has handled his situation very well and is an asset to the team. He's a fifth year senior with starting experience and significant playing time under his belt, and no matter what happens from here on out, he's cemented his place as a Buckeye with his performance in the Alamo Bowl, both playing on one hamstring and delivering a hit (from the QB position!!!) that would've made Jack Tatum proud.
 
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Dryden said:
Zwick has handled his situation very well and is an asset to the team. He's a fifth year senior with starting experience and significant playing time under his belt, and no matter what happens from here on out, he's cemented his place as a Buckeye with his performance in the Alamo Bowl, both playing on one hamstring and delivering a hit (from the QB position!!!) that would've made Jack Tatum proud.
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I don't remember that. :p
 
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Dryden said:
I don't know that it is fair to JZ, or his talents, to say that he did not live up to the hype. 2/3 rds of all "big time" college prospects will fail to live up to the hype. That's just the way the game works. Unfortunately for JZ, much of it was not his own doing. He was behind Krenzel and McMullen for two seasons, then when he finally did inherit the reigns, he was stuck breaking in an entirely new offense: backs, receivers, lines, everything. There was never a consistent offensive philosophy, so if JZ even had any particular talents, nothing appeared to be tailored for him to exploit them. Finally, when things really started clicking for him at the end of 2004, well, forget the fact that he wasn't the second coming of Otto Graham, he wasn't the first coming of Troy Smith.

Zwick has handled his situation very well and is an asset to the team. He's a fifth year senior with starting experience and significant playing time under his belt, and no matter what happens from here on out, he's cemented his place as a Buckeye with his performance in the Alamo Bowl, both playing on one hamstring and delivering a hit (from the QB position!!!) that would've made Jack Tatum proud.
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Having family in Massillon, I don't think there's any question he didn't live up to the hype, believe me. Now, I didn't say it was all his fault that he didn't....there's a huge difference, and quite the opposite, I said he handled it all very well. You correctly point out some reasons that were out of his control. Troy Smith is clearly the starter, and has thrived during stretches of his tenure. That was in no way what was expected to happen when Zwick arrived on campus. Saying he didn't live up to the hype isn't necessarily a knock on him, it's a knock on the people who decided to annoint him as something that arguably no Ohio State QB has ever been.
 
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AJHawkfan said:
Kind of like those people who are annointing Chris Wells as the next Heisman Trophy winner before he ever steps foot on the field?
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Yes, like that. And like Jabba the Cook saying Powlus was going to win 4 Heismans. Why not let these kids play and learn the game at the college level before they make a run at AA as a junior? Is that a crime?
 
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Dispatch

4/19/06

OSU FOOTBALL

Experience could give Zwick edge in backup QB competition

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Ken Gordon
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

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Ohio State coaches will not look to the future or forget the past, and those factors are helping Justin Zwick in his fight to keep the backup quarterback job.

One of the intriguing stories of spring practice is which young quarterback, sophomore Todd Boeckman or redshirt freshman Rob Schoenhoft, might gain inside position for the 2007 starting job.

Zwick and starter Troy Smith are entering their final season. Might the Buckeyes be tempted to elevate Boeckman or Schoenhoft to No. 2 to better prepare them for next season?

"Never at the expense of the team," coach Jim Tressel said. "If what’s best for the team is for Justin to have the second-most reps, we have to do that, because we’ve got 18 seniors and this is it for them. They care about ’07, but not like they do ’06, so never at the expense of what’s going on in ’06.

"Now, I think you have to be fair on the reverse side. You can’t just say, ‘Well, Justin is a senior, so we’re going to let him have more reps,’ because if the team would be better if Todd had more or Robbie had more, you have to do what’s best there."

To translate, quarterbacks coach Joe Daniels put it like this: The competition for No. 2 is open, both to motivate the young players and to keep Zwick on his toes.

But if it’s a close race, Zwick’s game experience will give him the edge. The fifth-year senior has played in 17 games and started nine. Boeckman has played in three games, Schoenhoft none.

"Snaps are critical, there’s no question," Daniels said. "You can’t take away the things (Zwick has) done, the experience and the games he’s played. Boy, that counts an awful lot."

Daniels said Zwick has stayed positive, even after losing his starting job to Smith twice in two years. Zwick hurt a shoulder midway through 2004 and watched Smith play well before a suspension for taking money from a booster.

Zwick began last year as the starter, but Smith took over before the third game and had a stellar season.

"He’s disappointed, but he’s also intelligent enough to realize what’s going on," Daniels said. "It’s not that he accepts it, I don’t think any quarterback does, but he understands and his attitude has just been wonderful."

Zwick has not been available for comment this spring.

Boeckman is not your average third-year sophomore. A 2003 high-school graduate, he delayed his enrollment until January 2004, then redshirted that fall. He will turn 22 in June, and the fact that this is his third spring in the system has him feeling confident.

"I know I’m going to compete for the No. 2 job and I know Justin is, I know Robbie is," Boeckman said. "We all want to compete. If Troy ever goes down, which we hope (he) doesn’t, we’re going to have a guy in there that’s going to be able to run the offense like he can."

[email protected]
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Interesting post by Greg Biggins on the Rivals board

We have a rule in regards to the Elite 11 QB camp that we won’t ever lock in a QB to the final camp without seeing that player in person. We actually refer to that rule as the Justin Zwick rule in-house and here’s why. Zwick, who plays at Ohio State, was regarded by just about everyone as the top QB prospect in the nation and had 50 plus offers back in the spring of 2002.

This class also featured guys like Ben Olson, Vincent Young and Trent Edwards but Zwick had more offers than all of them. Zwick couldn’t make it to a NIKE camp that year but his film was pretty good and politically, we felt we needed to have him there since he was so ballyhooed. Well, to make a long story longer, Zwick came out and was easily the worst QB we’ve had at any of the Elite 11 camps. The guy just couldn’t play and I told some Ohio St fans/friends I know that if this guy ever played for you, you would be in trouble.

That same year, there was another QB in the MW that no one had heard much about, kids name was Troy Smith. At the NIKE camp at Michigan, Drew Stanton was the one everyone talked about before the camp but Smith out-threw him by a wide margin. Even though Smith was 6-0 and in no ones list of top 50 QBs nationally, we locked him in for the camp. Smith had a huge Elite 11 camp and would be offered later on by Ohio State. Everyone said there was no way Smith would go there because of Zwick but Smith had already seen Zwick, competed against him five days straight and knew he would beat him out which he eventually did and had Smith played in the entire Texas game last year, Ohio State likely would have played for the National Championship and not the Horns.

Young turned out pretty good as well and like Smith, he was overshadowed in the spring of his junior season by another in-state QB, Reggie McNeal. McNeal had more offers and when we did a NIKE camp in Texas, everyone said McNeal was hands down the top guy in the state over Young. I think if you followed those two players, it doesn’t take much to see the amount of offers the two had meant absolutely nothing to their college success.
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Biggins generally seems to know what he's talking about. He does have a couple inaccuracies (spring of 2001 instead of 2002, the fact that Young always seemed to be considered the #1 QB, not Zwick or McNeal).
 
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