FIESTA BOWL
Tall order for OSU
Saturday, December 31, 2005 Doug Lesmerises
Plain Dealer Reporter
Tempe, Ariz.
-- Freshman cornerback Malcolm Jenkins knew he was hurt, and he would find out later he had partially torn a ligament in his right knee. With senior defensive back Tyler Everett still recovering from a strained neck and the secondary short on bodies, Jenkins went back into Ohio State's 40-2 victory against Illinois and played through the pain.
Jenkins is back again, ready to play in Monday's Fiesta Bowl after sitting out the last two games of the regular season. Everett, who started those games against Northwestern and Michigan, is ready to go. Cornerback Ashton Youboty and safety Donte Whitner are pondering leaving school early for the NFL, Whitner expecting to announce his decision next week. They're here for now.
With a healthy, experienced crew, the Ohio State secondary is as fully prepared as it has been all season. Maybe they can stand on each other's shoulders.
With 6-5 Jeff Samardzija and 6-5 Maurice Stovall, Notre Dame offers the tallest and most talented pair of receivers Ohio State has faced this season. The worry for the Buckeyes shouldn't be that they can't cover the two of them. It's that they might cover them perfectly, and it won't be enough.
"There are times you can be covered, but having a few inches on the guy pretty much equals being not covered," Samardzija said. "It comes down to the guy that makes the play when the guy's on his hip, when great defense still turns into catches. Plays like that really determine games."
Samardzija caught 71 passes for 1,190 yards and 15 touchdowns this season. A junior who also is a star pitcher for Notre Dame's baseball team, he had to win a starting job in the fall then became one of three finalists for the Biletnikoff Award as the nation's best receiver.
"For him to not win that was puzzling to me," Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn said. "With all the catches he's made for this team to bring us out of tough situations, it truly is confusing."
Stovall, a senior, caught 60 passes for 1,023 yards and 11 touchdowns.
It's not that the Buckeyes haven't defended tall receivers this season.
Michigan State's 6-6 Matt Trannon was held to three catches for 18 yards. Indiana's 6-7 James Hardy caught two passes for 27 yards.
We just never had two 6-3-plus guys together, so that's the difference," Youboty said. "But each time all year, we came out doing [well]."
Fans may remember the big catches in the Minnesota game though, when Youboty was in position several times and had Gophers go over him for big gains.
"There have been plenty of times when they played the deep ball exceptionally well," Samardzija said. "Their good plays don't get talked about as much as the bad ones."
The pressure on their tiptoes will be constant this game. Notre Dame knows how Ohio State slams the door on the run. With Quinn and the No. 4 passing offense in the country, the Irish have learned how to take smart risks.
"It seems like the quarterback has a lot of confidence in them to go up and get the ball, in one-on-one coverage, or sometimes I've seen them double-covered and they throw it anyway, and they go up and get it," Jenkins said. "Sometimes [on defense] you're in perfect position, but you just don't make the play. So we practice that a lot so we can minimize how many times that happens."
They do it by throwing up jump balls in practice, the same drills the Irish are doing offensively. Stovall and Samardzija study film to learn how to adjust their bodies with the ball in the air. The Buckeyes watch their film and see the secret to stopping big receivers is to hit them at the line of scrimmage before they start their patterns.
Film also showed Ohio State how Notre Dame likes to find a weakness and exploit it, like when the Irish picked on the same cornerback all game in their most recent victory over Stanford.
"Our whole unit is so competitive, I don't think they'll be able to pick on anybody," Youboty said.
The one thing the Buckeyes can't do before the game is grow. Youboty (6-1), Everett (5-11) and Jenkins (6-1) will have to suffice at this size. They're all back in one piece. Ohio State just hopes those pieces are big enough.
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