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Football
Scarlet and Gray Draft Yields Surprises
By John Porentas

You want to know who is standing out in OSU spring camp? Easy. Take a look at the draft results for the spring game.

The spring game draft has been a great predictor of performance in past seasons. Just last year a relatively unknown defensive end by the name of Thaddeus Gibson was the number one overall pick. Gibson went on to make quite a name for himself during the regular season. In 2003 the top pick was a sophomore kicker named Mike Nugent. He turned out to be pretty good too.

The format of draft requires the team picking first to open a position and take a player. The two teams then alternate picks at that position only until all the players are taken. When they are, the opposing team opens a position, takes a player, and the two teams again alternate picks until all the players at that position are taken. You can see the format in action in the-Ozone video now on our front page.

Only underclassmen are drafted. The seniors on the team are assigned to one of the two squads by the OSU coaching staff and it is the seniors who then actually conduct the draft.

Because of the format two factors come into play. One is obviously the individual players take, but the other is the order in which the positions are opened. The strategy is to open positions first in which there is a perceived big difference between the top player and the next player down. Also entering into the strategy is an effort to undermine the opposing team. If one team is long on senior offensive linemen and the other team short on them, the team with the linemen could opt to open linemen early and get the top pick in that category in order to weaken the line talent of the opposition.

This year's draft went according to expectations in some ways, but in other ways was surprising. No one was surprised when the Gray elected to open quarterbacks and take Terrelle Pryor after they had won the coin toss. After that, however, it got interesting.

Scarlet elected to make defensive ends the second category opened and made Gibson the first pick in that group. The Gray countered by opening defensive tackles and snagged Cameron Heyward with the first pick. The shocker came when the Scarlet opened offensive line.

At first the Scarlet attempted to open offensive tackle and take Andrew Miller. That would have made Miller the top offensive line pick, but a clarification by Tressel changed that pick. Tressel ruled that the Scarlet could not open just tackles but had to select from all offensive linemen including centers and guards as well as tackles. That caused them to change their pick to Bryant Browning. Justin Boren became the second lineman picked and Miller ended up the first tackle taken with the third pick in the category by the Scarlet.

Linebackers followed, then corners and safeties. Interestingly, tailbacks, tight ends and wide receivers were the last positions taken before the final groups, the specialists and the fullbacks. The implication is that the difference between the top draft-eligible players at those positions and the next player at that position was very small. At tailback Boom Herron went ahead of Brandon Saine. At wide receiver DeVier Posey went first followed by Taurian Washington, Lamar Thomas and Grant Swartz.

After all the selections were made the teams were given an opportunity to make trades. No transactions were made, but following the draft an email went out indicating that "late trades" were made. In other words, the OSU coaching staff moved some players. You will find a list of the players moved at the bottom of this page as well as links to the final rosters for each team.

In one other item of note, Tressel announced that both Joe Bauserman and Terrelle Pryor would play a total of three quarters. In two of those quarters they will be "live" and subject to being tackled. Both Bauserman and Pryor will wear black no-contact jerseys in the first quarter. In the second and third quarters the quarterbacks will go live and Justin Siems will substitute for one of the starters in the second quarter and the other starter in the third. Bauserman and Pryor will both play the fourth quarter as live quarterbacks.

Order in which positions were opened and draft picks within each group.

Quarterback

1) Terrelle Pryor (Gray)
2) Joe Bauserman (Scarlet)

Defensive ends

1) Thaddeus Gibson (Scarlet)
2) Solomon Thomas (Gray)

Defensive linemen

1) Cameron Heyward (Gray)
2) Dexter Larimore (Scarlet)
3) Garrett Goebel (Gray)
4) Willie Mobley (Scarlet)
5) Don Matheney (Gray)

Offensive linemen

1) Bryant Browning (Scarlet)
2) Justin Boren (Gray)
3) Andrew Miller (Scarlet)
4) Mike Brewster (Gray)
5) Mike Adams (Scarlet)
6) Josh Kerr (Gray)
7) Connor Smith (Scarlet)
8) Scott Sika (Gray)
9) Evan Blankenship (Scarlet)
10 Jack Mewhort (Gray)
11) Zach Slagle (Scarlet)
12) Chris Malone (Gray)

Linebackers

1) Brian Rolle (Gray)
2) Tyler Moeller (Scarlet)
3) Andrew Sweat (Gray)
4) Etienne Sabino (Scarlet)
5) Storm Klein (Gray)
6) Tony Jackson (Scarlet)
7) Grant Dziak (Gray)

Corners

1) Chimdi Chekwa (Scarlet)
2) Devon Torrence (Gray)
3) Travis Howard (Scarlet)
4) C. J. Barnett (Gray)
5) Donnie Evege (Scarlet)
6) Taylor Rice (Gray)
7) J. J. Emmenecker (Scarlet)

Safeties

1) Jermale Hines (Gray)
2) Orhian Johnson (Scarlet)
3) Zach Domicone (Gray)
4) Rocco Pentello (Scarlet)
5) Jamie Wood (Gray)
6) Nate Ebner (Scarlet)
7) Chris Maxwell (Gray
8) Nate Oliver (injured and doubtful for the game) (Scarlet)

Tailbacks

1) Boom Herron (Scarlet)
2) Brandon Saine (Gray)
3) Bo Delande (Scarlet)
4) Marcus Williams (Gray)

Tight Ends

1) Jake Stoneburner (Gray)
2) Spencer Smith (Scarlet)

Wide Receivers

1) DeVier Posey (Gray)
2) Taurian Washington (Scarlet)
3) Lamaar Thomas (Gray)
4) Grant Schwartz (Scarlet)
5) Ricky Crawford (Gray)
6) Garrett Hummel (Scarlet)
7) James Jackson (Gray)
8) Joe Cech (Scarlet)
9) Josh Springer (Gray)
10) Chris Roark (Scarlet)
11) Antonio Ranieri (Gray)

Long Snappers

1) Jake McQuaide (Gray)
2) Patrick Howe (Scarlet)
3) Garrett Dornbrook (Gray)
4) Gar Chapplear (Scarlet)
5) Matt Heater (Gray)

Kickers/Punters

1) Ben Buchanon (Scarlet)
2) Derek Erwin (Gray)
3) Devin Barclay (Scarlet)
4) Gregory Eisenhardt (Gray)

Fullbacks

1) Adam Homan (Gray)
2) James Georgiades (Scarlet)

Following the draft it was announced that the following "trades" had been made:

Linebacker Etienne Sabino for linebacker Andrew Sweat
Defensive back Travis Howard for defensive back C. J. Barnett
Fullback Jermil Martin was added to the Scarlet Roster

Scarlet Roster

Gray Roster

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