Football
The-Ozone Note and Quotebook - Spring Football Wrap up
By John PorentasLooking Forward: Spring football is a time for looking at the next season, a time for looking at new players who may be involved in practices for the first time, a time for looking at players who are vying for positions vacated by players who have used up their eligibility.
Joe Daniels Ohio State quarterbacks coach Joe Daniels did plenty of that this spring, but mostly to look for a backup. Troy Smith is back in 2006, and is the undisputed number one quarterback. Daniels spent plenty of time looking at Justin Zwick, Todd Boeckman and Robby Schoenhoft this spring. All three of those quarterbacks are big, strong, athletic quarterbacks, but do not possess the running skills of Troy Smith. When Smith finishes his Buckeye career next fall, however, the Buckeyes will have another quarterback on their roster, incoming freshman Antonio Henton, and Daniels said that as far as his native abilities go, Henton is very similar to Smith.
"The young man we have coming in from Georgia is along those lines," said Daniels.
"The only thing that we feel, and it's hard to find, is if we're going to look for somebody like that, then he still needs to throw the ball. He really needs to throw the ball well.
"I think there are a whole bunch of guys that are really really good athletes that are high school quarterbacks, but then when you combine the ability to run and the ability to really throw the ball like Troy, that list gets real small real quick.
"We think we found one in Antonio Henton."
Awesome Finale: Spring practice is concluded by the spring game, an event that sometimes lacks fireworks as a contest, but is always of interest for those who want to see the newest Buckeyes in a game-like situation.
That game-like situation was of special interest to the coaching staff as well this season. OSU's staff wanted to see just how some of the many younger players involved would react when the lights are on and there is a game-day feeling in the air. The game is held in Ohio Stadium, in game-day uniforms, and a crowd is on hand. This season, the game-like conditions were about as close as they could have been with a crowd of between 65,000 and 70,000 turning out in Ohio Stadium to make it look almost like a regular-season football game.
"I came out of the tunnel and it looked like a game, a regular game," said freshman wide receiver Brian Hartline.
"Your view is partially obscured from there, and from what we could see as we came out, it looked like the stadium was packed.
"It was a lot of fun. The fans made it maybe more than what it should have been, but that's good. It made it more of a game-like situation. I think the coaches like that.
"It kind of weeds out what's true and what's not true. Practice is practice, a scrimmage is still a scrimmage, and the spring game, you throw on the game jerseys, you take it like a game, have that team dinner before hand, that gives you a feel for it," Hartline said.
Todd Boeckman Even more seasoned players like quarterback Todd Boeckman were impressed with the environment for the spring game this year.
"Anytime you get in Ohio Stadium you get that rush. It's just a great atmosphere and great place to play a football game. I'm just excited to be out there," he said.
No Knuckleheads : Running back Maurice Wells got the majority of the reps with the first team this spring which will serve both him and the Buckeyes well next fall. In reality though, Wells got those reps because of the hamstring injury to Antonio Pittman that kept him out of most of spring drills. According to running backs coach Dick Tressel, Wells is going to have to be mentally prepared for the reality that it will be Pittman, not Wells, who will be the number one tailback when fall camp convenes despite Wells' status this spring.
Antonio Pittman "Mo is really going to have a maturity," said Tressel.
"In the fall, Pittman is the tailback. That means that Mo Wells has got to have the maturity and the patience that when his opportunity is there, he does it (performs well). Sometimes that's harder coming out of the bullpen.
"He's going to have to know that Antonio Pittman is here, and he gained 1300+ yards, and those coaches aren't complete knuckleheads, they're going to give him the ball too."
Also in the mix at tailback next fall is highly regarded freshman Chris Wells as well as talented Eric Haw. According to Wells, Pittman has done his part to make the impending competition at tailback next fall a competition that will be based on team goals, not individual goals.
"Pitt has always treated me like a big brother. He's always been comfortable with me and has been teaching me along the way, showing me what to do and how to do it. Eric too. Those guys are great leaders," said Chris Wells.
Heat of the Moment: The starting quarterbacks for the respective teams in the spring game, Troy Smith and Justin Zwick, each wore black, no-contact jerseys. Zwick, however, was rather rudely and unceremoniously spun to the ground on a sack by senior defensive end Jay Richardson, thus blowing up the notion that the black jersey would prevent a lot of contact on the two quarterbacks.
Jay Richardson On the play, Richardson arrived in the backfield at Zwick as a defensive end normally would, except he wasn't wearing a helmet, which is, of course, altogether unusual in a full contact, live scrimmage. According to Richardson, it was the missing helmet that kind of caused him to take out a little frustration on Zwick.
"The rules get a little fuzzy about the jerseys," said Richardson.
"Technically I'm not supposed to knock him down but in the heat of the battle you don't always think of that kind of stuff.
"My helmet got ripped off and you get a little crazy out there sometimes, so once I got to Zwick I really wasn't thinking about not hitting."
The rest, as they say, is history, and so was Zwick.
Consorting with the Enemy: In case you are wondering what the OSU coaching staff does in the spring before and after spring practice sessions, the answer is that they do a lot of visiting and a lot of hosting.
OSU's coaching staff traveled to a number of college campuses and NFL camps to consult with various coaches about the latest developments in the game. They also have hosted a number of college and NFL coaches at OSU in an exchange of information that would make the kind of people who guard trade and industrial secrets simply cringe. The coaching fraternity, however, has an odd outlook on how know-how is shared and essentially is unprotected.
Joe Daniels "Coaches are crazy. We do it. I don't know why," said OSU quarterbacks coach Joe Daniels.
"We've been to colleges and pro teams and coaches are very, very, very willing to share, and not like half of it, they'll sit down and tell you the whole thing. I just think that's the nature of the profession," said Daniels.
As you might expect, certain teams are known for certain things, perhaps the spread offense, blitzing defenses, or exceptional special teams play. When visiting coaches go to those places, naturally that is what is talked about, but according to Daniels, when people visit OSU, it really isn't so much any one facet of the game they are focused on, but rather what seems to be OSU's rather unique ability to incorporate so many different things into their game plan. On offense, for instance, OSU can line up with five wide receivers and no backs; no wide receivers, two tight ends, and three backs, and any formation in between. That, according to Daniels, leaves visiting coaches amazed.
"One of the things that they're interested in is how we do so many different things formation-wise. A lot of people have seen what we've done and they say 'We didn't think you could do that (be so diversified)."' said Daniels.
"They say that they're a spread team and that's what they do.
"I tell them that we'll never be just spread. We want to play a tight end at times, we want to play a fullback at times, we want to create some problems for the defense to do those things, yet we still want to be able to go four-wide or whatever we want to do," Daniels said.
OSU has entertained a number of college and pro coaches this spring, and has done a little traveling.
"We've gone to West Virginia, Clemson, the Atlanta Falcons, we've had some coaches up to visit with us from some pro teams," Daniels said.
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