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Vo. 1, No. 12
This week in Ohio State football, the conversation was more reminiscent of late August than the middle of November.
I referenced this in a story about the running backs for Press Pros this week, and it’s worth reiterating.
Yes, we have our assumptions about the Buckeyes, but there are also two position groups where things are just still unsettled.
The running backs and the offensive line are not disappointments or failures…yet.
Maybe their best days are still ahead of them, but for sure development remains a major theme for both.
After finally rewatching the game Thursday morning, my main takeaway was the running backs were even better than I thought, and the offensive line was.. about what I thought (a mixed bag with some guys in and out of the lineup).
Every running back had a moment or two in which he broke a tackle or made a man miss and got more yards than were blocked. Purdue’s defense line isn’t much to write home about, but I was impressed with a couple of their linebackers. They threw a lot at Ohio State and were able to gum things up at times, but the backs were not deterred.
The offensive line’s questions are as much about health as anything, but they could get healthy in time for the home stretch. Tegra Tshabola had some rough moments, but he did finish strong with a few nice run blocks on Ohio State’s final scoring drive.
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Ryan Day also had an all-time soliloquy in response to a question about how the undefeated defending national champions can improve.
“Well, the first thing is that everybody has to understand, players, coaches, everybody, how exact, how on point we have to be. And that's every week.
And the teams that we're playing now, and the teams that we're playing in the future, we gotta be good. And that's gonna take great energy. It's gonna take great finish. It's gonna take great focus.
I mean, it's gonna take everything we got to get there. And so it's one thing to say, ‘OK, we've done X, Y, and Z up until this point,’ but that means absolutely nothing, like zero. We've done nothing.
So I understand everyone's gonna talk about those things, but none of that has anything to do with what we're doing moving forward. So if we think that has anything to do with this weekend or where we're going, then we're dead wrong. So we have to make sure we all understand that.
And it's my job to make sure I remind the team, the players and coaches included, how good we gotta be. And so that's really more of the message than anything. I think the good news is we have a chance and that's good.
And we said this from the beginning, we wanna be the first [Ohio State] team ever to be back to back. And that's a tall task. It's easy to say, it's another thing to do.
And so we're in the middle of it right now, but got a lot of work to do and we gotta continue to stay focused on what matters.”
WHEW.
That was on point. I wish I hadn’t already written about how Day was reminding me of mid-week Nick Saban earlier this season because that was as Saban “Trust the process/it takes what it takes” as anyone can ever be. Just replace the slight West Virginia drawl with New England earnestness and you’ve got the exact same thing.
Listening to that again before uploading it to YouTube, I was struck by just how locked in Day was. He came across sincere, like he wasn’t just saying what it seems like a coach should be saying and hoping everyone goes along with it.
Sometimes I have felt that way listening to him in the past, but maybe it’s just a matter of perception of a coach who had not taken a team to the top vs. one who has.
That was better than an old Jim Tressel filibuster, too, though I am pretty sure I’ve heard JT hit some of those same notes about not really accomplishing anything through nine games no matter how many nice things people are saying about your team.
What to know about UCLA
In case you missed it, I already had a full post about the Bruins earlier this week.
Of course it would be great if you went back and read the whole thing, shared it with every Buckeye fan you know and encouraged them to subscribe so they don’t miss the next edition of Cus Words Sports, but just in case here’s a summary:
UCLA is bad at football, except they have a pretty dangerous quarterback in Nico Iamaleava. I will be interested to see how Ohio State deals with a major dual threat — especially with Michigan’s Bryce Underwood on tap in two weeks — but the Bruins offense is pretty limited overall.
According to numbers from CollegeFootballData.com, the UCLA defense is not good at anything but preventing explosive plays, where they rank fourth in the country overall. That goes for both run defense (20th) and pass defense (18th).
They have been a lot worse against the run than the pass, so this should be a chance for Ohio State to continue getting reps for those young backs and build confidence.
What else is going on in Buckeye land?
Ohio State is still No. 1 in the College Football Playoff rankings, and the recruiting class continues to grow.
This week the Buckeyes got commitments from Emanuel Ruffin and Legend Bey.
Ruffin is a four-star defensive tackle prospect from Alabama who was previously committed to Colorado. Pulling DTs out of the South is traditionally no easy task, so this is a noteworthy development for Larry Johnson.
Aside from having an amazing name, Bey is seen as a unique prospect who plays quarterback in high school but will be an offensive skill player of some sort for the Buckeyes. He has been clocked at 10.23 in the 100-meters, which is…. Very very fast.
He is from Texas and previously committed to Tennessee.
Day also had some interesting comments on how they are approaching recruiting these days after a summer seen as being a little slow.
I will have more thoughts on this around signing day or some other time, but it seems like they are both getting more involved with pre-signing name/image/likeness payments (keeping up with the Joneses) and looking to load up on developmental prospects who are more of a long term play. That seems like the way to go in both regards.
For now, though, there are still games to play. Enjoy Saturday night at Ohio Stadium if you’re going, and be sure to look for some postgame thoughts… maybe Sunday morning.
(Also don’t forget to click those ads when you see them. I’ll get a little compensation, and you don’t have to buy anything!)
Thanks for reading!