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S Anderson Russell (official thread)

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OmahaBeef;984627; said:
My favorite play of his (maybe only because I may not be the most observant fan, and was watching in the stadium so I didn't have the advantage of instant replay) was the tackle he made on Wisc's RB down near the endzone. I always love it when DBs can tackle running backs, especially in critical situations. (And if I remember right, he actually hit him and knocked him backwards.)
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defensive backs should ALWAYS be able to tackle the tailback.... if not, they're playing for the wrong school. i say this with a straight face.
 
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Ohio State Insider: Russell tries to show off bravado, but it's intercepted by teammates
by Doug Lesmerises
Tuesday September 02, 2008

COLUMBUS -- Despite posting a shutout, Ohio State's defense once against didn't win the turnover battle for the Buckeyes in Saturday's 43-0 win over Youngstown State, with each team getting one.

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OSU photo
OSU cornerback Anderson Russell.

Ohio State's biggest missed opportunity came when cornerback Shaun Lane jumped a route and dropped what might have been an interception return for a touchdown. Safety Anderson Russell, who earned a reputation last season for dropping interceptions himself, was there to share the grief with Lane.
"Oh man, I let him have it," Russell said. "Because everybody is making fun of me based off last year. Anybody drops one, I'm right there to say something about it."

But as four reporters interviewed Russell on Tuesday, linebackers Marcus Freeman and James Laurinaitis arrived to pose questions themselves, aiming to force Russell to remember his past. Laurinaitis grilled Russell about his comments two years ago, when Laurinaitis had five interceptions.

"You kept saying over and over, I think week by week, 'James, they throw the ball right to you, no wonder you get interceptions,'" Laurinaitis said, TV microphone in hand. "Having experienced the same things, yet having dropped those, what goes through your mind in situations like that?"

"You got lucky," Russell said. "All the ones they threw you were lollipops. I got bullets."

Then they all laughed. Oh, the joys of a shutout.
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Ohio State Insider: Russell tries to show off bravado, but it's intercepted by teammates - Ohio State Buckeyes Football, Basketball, News, Blogs and Photos - cleveland.com
 
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Dispatch

In the spotlight

Saturday, October 4, 2008 3:01 AM
By Tim May


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
ANDERSON RUSSELL

FS, OHIO STATE

Going against a team that likes to fire a power running game at a defense might be fun for linebackers, but for safeties it presents an exercise in impulse control.
So it will be for Ohio State free safety Anderson Russell tonight at Wisconsin. The Badgers run the ball almost twice as much as they throw it. That can make their passing game more lethal if the safeties start creeping forward to stop the run or bite on play-action fakes.
"A lot of times when guys get beat on play-action, it's because of bad eye control," Russell said.
By that, he didn't mean a defender gets cross-eyed, he just reacts to what he thinks is coming -- a run -- rather than what he sees. OSU defenders have had trouble with that in recent big games.

Continued...........
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Ohio State football: Russell puts Texas TD in past
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
By Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

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FRED SQUILLANTEDispatch
Anderson Russell

Anderson Russell has a new look. He took the initiative in the fight with his receding hairline and attacked it with a razor.

"Y'all got to get used to it," the Ohio State senior safety said yesterday.

It's not as if he is trying to go incognito because of his last play of last season, when he went for an interception instead of a tackle while defending Texas receiver Quan Cosby.

Cosby grabbed the pass from Colt McCoy and ran into the end zone on a 26-yard play with 16 seconds left to win the Fiesta Bowl for the Longhorns.

"It's something that happens," Russell said. "You're going to get beat (sometimes) if you play DB. So it's over and done with. On to this year."

But it's not forgotten. Some Ohio State fans were mad because the coaching staff put Russell in man-to-man coverage in the first place; others were mad because Russell didn't just make the tackle.

Russell said the trick was to turn it into a teaching moment.

Safety Kurt Coleman said: "That night, I sat down with (Russell) and said, 'Hey, it could have happened to anybody.' He was kind of discouraged at first, as anybody else would with everybody kind of pointing the finger at him.

"I told him we're a team, and we win or lose as a team. I think as the weeks went by, he just forgot about it."

Russell gained support from an even higher authority about the jeopardy that comes with playing the last line of defense.

The Pittsburgh Steelers faced a situation similar to Russell's in the Super Bowl when Arizona's Larry Fitzgerald beat them for a touchdown to give the Cardinals the lead with 2:37 remaining. The Steelers came back to win, causing some to forget about Fitzgerald's play.

But Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau remembers it well. When he visited Ohio State last week, he told the players the secret for getting over such a play.

"He told us how they don't really have a blame-oriented team, that they don't look at, 'Whose fault is that?' " Russell said. "They just try to learn from everything and try to make sure that doesn't happen again."
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BuckeyeXtra - The Columbus Dispatch : Ohio State football: Russell puts Texas TD in past
 
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Ohio State's Russell moves on from Fiesta loss - Big Ten - ESPN

Anderson Russell reacted like anyone would, burying his helmet in the grass at University of Phoenix Stadium. Several feet away, Texas offensive lineman Cedric Dockery knelt and raised his arms in triumph. The image provided all you needed to know about the deciding play of the 2009 Fiesta Bowl between Ohio State and Texas. But it didn't tell the entire story.

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Chris Williams/Icon SMI Anderson Russell is looking to go out on top in his senior season.

"You've got to move on," Russell said. "If you play DB, that's going to happen to you over the course of your career. You're going to get beat. You win some, lose some."

If ever a player were equipped to handle failure on the football field, Russell would be it. Most defensive backs hear the you-need-a-short-memory line from a coach or two along the way. Russell heard it from his dad, Kevin, a former defensive back with the Philadelphia Eagles.

From the moment he started playing football, Anderson knew there would be times an opposing receiver would get the best of him. And he knows Texas' Quan Cosby, who scored the game-winning 26-yard touchdown in the Fiesta Bowl with 16 seconds left, won't be the last one.

"What's done is done," he said. "Me and Cosby, we were battling the whole game, going back and forth, because he was on the boundary with me. I almost picked a pass off that last drive."

The fact that Russell can find positives in his Fiesta Bowl experience bodes well for Ohio State. Because there were positives. Lots of them. Until the final 30 seconds, Russell had been arguably the team's defensive MVP. He recorded nine tackles in the game with an interception, a forced fumble and a pass breakup.

"We should talk about the last play of the first half," defensive coordinator Jim Heacock said. "It's the same defense, it's the same player, and he gets an interception and he's the hero. But not too many people talk about that."

The focus remains on Cosby's touchdown, which was, in many ways, a cruel irony for Russell and the Buckeyes. For most of the game, Ohio State defenders put on a tackling clinic, repeatedly keeping Texas' receivers in front of them to prevent big plays.

The Buckeyes made Colt McCoy and the high-powered Texas offense have to work on every drive. Perhaps for that reason they stayed in man-to-man coverage on the decisive play, confident the tackle would be made. But Russell tried to jump Cosby's quick post route, missed the ball and missed Cosby, who raced untouched to the end zone.

"You come back and it's like, 'Man, we were right there. We could have shocked the world,'" Russell said. "Because nobody really gave us a chance going into that game. I was just happy for our team that we put ourselves in a position to be able to win.

"We had done a pretty good job of containing their offense during the course of the game. And then, that last play."

It took a few days for Russell to get over the loss, but he soon moved forward, thanks in part to his teammates.

"Anderson's handled it very, very well," Heacock said. "I don't think there's a guy in this complex or any place around our football program that for one second would say one word or think one thought about it being a one-man game. It's a team game. We had numerous chances that we could have gotten it done, and we didn't."

For that reason, Russell might be the most motivated player in the country heading into 2009. He seemed to get stronger as the season progressed last fall, recording his best games in Big Ten play against Minnesota (7 tackles, 2 forced fumbles, 1 fumble recovery), Penn State (9 tackles) and Northwestern (9 tackles, 1 fumble recovery). The Atlanta native enters his third season as a starter alongside Kurt Coleman, a second-team All-Big Ten safety in 2008.

"I love playing with that guy," Russell said. "We can combine to make the best safety tandem in the nation."

Coleman said Russell dealt with "a lot of people trying to give him some grief" after the Fiesta Bowl. But after the initial shock, Russell has been unfazed.

"I really want to go out on top and make it the best year I've ever had," Russell said. "Things started clicking for me toward the end of last year, just understanding the whole entire game. That's probably the most comfortable I've felt playing football. That's going to transfer over."
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Home For The Summer - Anderson Russell
Courtesy: OhioStateBuckeyes.com
Release: 07/09/2009

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Anderson Russell

Although he is a Buckeye through and through, senior safety Anderson Russell is proud to be from the South and the bustling city of Atlanta, Ga.

Q. How many people?

A. 3-4 million

Q. How long has your family lived there?

A. At least 80 years ? my granddad was born there

Q. Famous people from there?

A. Ludacris and T.I.

Q. Any historic event that happened there?

A. 1996 Summer Olympics

Q. What visitors need to see/do:

A. Go to ?The World of Coca-Cola?

Q. Most prominent industry/line of work?

A. It?s a major business center

Q. What you miss most about your hometown?

A. The cooking

Q. Biggest event/celebration each year:

A. The Beach Party in Decatur
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Home For The Summer - Anderson Russell - The Ohio State Buckeyes Official Athletics Site - OhioStateBuckeyes.com
 
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