The-Ozone, Ohio State Football, Wrestling, Softball, Basketball, Hockey, Baseball and More

Football
Secondary Youth a bit of a Myth
By John Porentas

OSU safeties coach Paul Haynes and corner backs coach Taver Johnson have an interesting assignment. They must rebuild an OSU secondary that is returning a ton of veterans. The irony in that statement is not lost on Haynes who says that perceptions about a youth movement in the OSU secondary are not exactly accurate.

"Everybody talks about how young we are, but we're not. Really there's going to be one new face back there. We're not as young as people say," said Haynes.

The perception that OSU is rebuilding the defensive backfield comes mostly from the fact that the two starting corners of a season ago, Malcolm Jenkins and Donald Washington, have now departed and are awaiting the NFL draft. What people are ignoring is how much experience is coming back.

For starters, there are a number of...well,,,starters coming back. Both starting safeties return in the persons of Kurt Coleman and Anderson Russell. Just as importantly, both of OSU's "Star" position players, Jermale Hines and Tyler Moeller, return for a second season. As OSU Head Coach Jim Tressel is fond of pointing out, the Buckeyes play as much nickel and dime package as they do base defense, and having both Hines and Moeller back is huge for OSU.

Much was made last season about OSU's ability to put three cover corners on the field that could be trusted. Granted, Jenkins and Hines were two of those corners, but the third one was Chimdi Chekwa, and Chekwa returns this season. He is now a seasoned player who not only played in nickel and dime situations but had a starting role not only while Washington sat out a two-game suspension last season but quietly throughout the year. Chekwa started all but two games last season, Wisconsin and Penn State, as OSU started their nickel package in every other game.

That leaves OSU looking for just one new player and a host of talent from which to find him. The current favorite for the starting spot opposite Chekwa in the base defense is Andre Amos, and he too is not exactly a greenhorn. Amos is a fifth-year senior who was penciled in as a starter ahead of Washington two years ago when a major knee injury ended his season. Last year he was hampered by a pectorals injury and was also limited. Amos has been on the field during his career as both a corner and special teams player. He may be a "new face" but he is a new face that has seen his share of action.

The rebuilding job that the Buckeyes have in the defensive backfield is not so much for starters in the base defense, but for that third cover corner. The luxury of manning up at three spots in the secondary allowed the OSU defense to be more aggressive, and more effective, as the season wore on last year, and the OSU coaching staff would like to be able to do that again.

"We have the talented players that would allow us to do that. We just need someone to step up and show he can play consistently on the outside," said cornerbacks coach Taver Johnson when asked if OSU could get back to putting three cover corners on the field this season.

The Buckeyes have a wealth of talented candidates for that third cover corner position. Junior Devon Torrence has settled in at corner after starting his career as a receiver and is a likely candidate for that spot as is talented redshirt freshman Travis Howard. Also in the mix is freshman James Jackson who moved over to corner from wide receiver this spring.

"He played on both sides in high school so we weren't afraid at all to test him out. He wanted to do that as well. ," said Johnson who said that Jackson actually met with OSU Head Coach Jim Tressel to suggest the move to defense.

While the Buckeyes have plenty of experience returning to the defensive backfield they are spending some time this spring looking at young players. A minor injury to Kurt Coleman (ankle) and an injury to Aaron Gant (knee requiring arthoscopic surgery this week) has given additional reps to some young safety candidates. A name that kept popping up as a young player who is standing out this spring is Orhian Johnson at safety.

"Orhian is doing real well," said Coleman.

"He's a tall safety. He's very lanky and he can cover a lot of ground and he plays the ball very well. Right now it's the mental aspect. He doesn't know the full defense but he's such a versatile player that he can make plays without knowing it. Once he gets that down I can see him rotating in during the season. We need that in case something happens so somebody can step right in."

Haynes, who coaches the safeties, is also high on what he has seen out of Johnson thus far.

"He has playmaking ability which is the instinct part of football," said Haynes.

"Now it's just matter of learning the terminology and getting comfortable with the terminology and just playing, but you don't have to tell him a lot as far as football because he understands football.

"He was a high school quarterback so he learned the game. His size and range, I don't know if you lined Orhian up in a 40 how fast he'll be, but he plays fast and he'll cover a lot of ground. He can catch the football and he' not afraid to tackle and hit. He's coming along real well."

At corner, a number of people talked about freshman C. J. Barnett as a player to watch.

"C. J. Barnett can step in and make a big impact," said Coleman,

"He's looking very good. He's picked up the game very quickly and right now he's just fine tuning what he needs to do. As a freshman he's looking better than I did when I first came in. He's got a lot of confidence."

"C. J. is doing a good job," added Johnson.

"He's still learning his body a little bit because he is 6-0, maybe 6-1, so he has to bend his body a little bit because he has to move a little quicker now than he had to in high school. I think he's coming along really good learning our system."

Practice Notes:

* Arm Report: Terrelle Pryor was throwing well in drills yesterday and showed no sign of a sore arm. Pryor had his arm iced the day of the kick scrimmage.

* Sorting out the Corners: It's starting to look more and more like Andre Amos is winning the job at corner opposite Chimdi. Amos was with the ones today in 7 on 7 and 11 on 11. His position coach, Taver Johnson, also indicated that he is now in the drivers seat.
"He's hungry. That's what we need to be," said Johnson.
"Anytime you're a senior every day is your last. He'll never go through spring practice again, never have another practice number eight."

* Back in Action: Kurt Coleman was back practicing after sitting out the early part of spring practice. After practice he said he had rolled an ankle but that it is fine now and he should be able to participate in the rest of spring practice including the jersey scrimmage.
"I was out there today to test my ankle and see how it feels. It feels good so I told them I'm ready to go," said Coleman.
* Making Progress: Lawrence Wilson seems to be doing more and more and is getting more and more contact reps.
* Red Face and Veins in his Neck: Jim Heacock showed a lot of "fire" today when he was not satisfied with some of the things he saw. he really lit up some of his players during the last period of practice when the felt they were not performing up to snuff. I would not want to be on that guy's bad side.
* Tough Yards: The Buckeyes practiced coming off the goal line in 11 on 11. Brandon Saine took the reps at tailback with the first unit and ran with authority. It was ones vs ones, two vs twos, etc. It was very physical up front by they did not tackle to the ground.
* Still Gimpy: Robert Rose is still very gimpy and wasn't able to do much.

* Old face, New Position: Chimdi Chekwa is the lone returner at corner this year, but says he is actually at a new position,.

"I'm going to be playing the boundary corner," Chekwa said.

"Last year I played the field corner. This year I'm moving to boundary Travis and Andre and Devon, all those guys are rotating at the field corner."

Chekwa is looking forward to the change.

"The boundary corner is the short side of the field, the field is the big side.

"You typically want your more physical corner at the boundary because that's where teams like to run the ball, particularly in the Big Ten. They like to pound the ball into the boundary USC likes to pound the ball into the boundary too. You usually want your tougher and stronger cornerback playing the boundary

"I love coming up on the run. I was excited to play the boundary this year."

* One Handed Grabs: The Buckeyes conducted a passing drill in which the receivers were expected to make a one-handed catch of the football. All the passes were 25 to 35 yards downfield. In the time that we watched, we saw one dropped pass. Just as impressive was the guy throwing the passes, OSU wide receivers coach Darrell Hazell. Hazell's passes were all tight spirals and right on the money making it easier for the receivers to make the catch.

Return to the-Ozone Columns and Features

Return to the-OZone Front Page