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Football
10 Things We've Learned in Fall Camp
By Brandon Castel

COLUMBUS — It seems like just yesterday we were in Chicago for the Big Ten Media Kickoff Luncheon, but we are only a week away from Ohio State’s season-opener against Marshall.

The Buckeyes will officially kick off the 2010 football season on Thursday Sept. 2, which gives them just seven days to answer any enduring questions from fall practice. They named their six captains on Wednesday, and a day later they released the official depth chart for the Marshall game.

With fall camp now fading in the rearview mirror, we take a look at 10 things we learned this fall.

Terrelle Pryor
Photo by Jim Davidson

1. Terrelle Pryor has progressed as a passer. I’m not an NFL scout. I don’t claim to be. I know a great deal about the sport of football, but I’m incapable of breaking down exactly what goes into the making of a perfect throwing NFL-caliber motion. I can’t tell you precisely what makes Peyton Manning’s mechanics so exceptional, but it doesn’t take an expert to see that Pryor is throwing the ball differently this fall than he did as a freshman or sophomore. Not only is his release much more over the top than it was last season, but Pryor is making all the throws in practice. He’s probably never going to be the mistake-free quarterback that Troy Smith was, but it is hard to argue with how much progress he has made in two years at Ohio State. The real test will come this fall when Pryor must complete a higher percentage of his passes.

Mike Adams
Photo by Jim Davidson

2. Mike Adams is improving, but still not where the coaches would like him to be. It’s clear when watching Mike Adams that the junior left tackle out of Dublin Coffman has gotten better over the last year. The plays where he gets flat-out dominated by Cam Heyward and the other OSU defensive linemen during practice have become much less prevalent this fall than they were a year ago. He seems to be playing with more balance and a better understanding of how to combat the speed moves defensive ends are using to go by him. With a little more intensity and a little better footwork, Adams might even turn into a solid left tackle for the Buckeyes, but he isn’t there yet.

How do we know this? We know because Adams hasn’t been named the starter at left tackle heading into the first game week of the 2010 season, something many thought would be a foregone conclusion before the fall began. A big part of that is a credit to senior Andrew Miller, who has given Adams all he can handle during the year-long competition. But Miller has been playing through an injured left arm this fall that has, at times, limited his strength. He’s is still out there fighting like crazy, but there’s no reason a healthy Adams shouldn’t have locked this thing up—at least until Miller is able to get back to 100 percent—especially considering the fact that Miller is much more valuable backup given the fact he can play any position on the offensive line except center.

Taurian Washington
Photo by Jim Davidson

3. The Buckeyes don’t have a true No. 3 receiver. The OSU coaches are going to say that Taurian Washington is their No. 3 receiver heading into the opener against Marshall, but that can’t sit well with Tressel. There’s no question that he and the other coaches are pulling for Washington to succeed in that role as a senior this fall, but they can’t feel comfortable after watching him in the jersey scrimmage. Yes, he scored the game’s only touchdown on a 25-yard strike from Pryor, but it’s the two drops that proceeded that catch—his first and only of the day—that leave us wondering which T-Wash will show up in 2010.

Washington was in this exact situation a year ago only to fall behind Ray Small, Duron Carter and even Lamaar Thomas on the depth chart. All three of those receivers are gone, leaving the door open for Washington to write his redemption story. If he can’t, the Buckeyes will be scrambling to use redshirt freshman Chris Fields or true freshman Corey “Philly” Brown in the No. 3 receiver role.

Jake Stoneburner
Photo by Jim Davidson

4. Jake Stoneburner is going to catch passes. The biggest benefactor of the uncertainty at wideout has to be the starting tight end. A former receiver himself, Stoneburner moved to tight end before last season in an attempt by the coaching staff to get him on the field. It worked, because Stoneburner is locked in as the starting tight end this fall, but he might also have to step out and play some wideout when the Buckeyes put three or four receivers on the field. Either way, Stoneburner should be a big part of the passing offense this fall based on what we’ve seen in practice, especially considering his close relationship with Pryor. 

Corey "Philly" Brown
Photo by Jim Davidson

5. Philly Brown is one of the fastest players on the team. Being a fast runner doesn’t always translate to speed on the football field, but it has for freshman “Philly” Brown. The wideout from Philadelphia, where else, has made an instant impact in practice this fall as both a receiver and return man. He was more of a running back than a receiver at Cardinal O’Hara High School, but he has not struggled to make the transition nearly as much as Lamaar Thomas did two years ago. He still has to work on his route-running and timing, but his ability to reach his highest gear very quickly makes him a versatile option for the Buckeyes this fall. He also showed good enough hands during camp that he seemingly became quarterback Joe Bauserman’s favorite target with the second-team offense.

Jamaal Berry
Photo by Jim Davidson

6. If healthy, Jaamal Berry will have a role in the offense. Another young guy with tremendous speed who could make an impact for the Buckeyes offensively is tailback Jaamal Berry. Unlike Brown, there were big expectations for Berry coming in last season, but a hamstring derailed his first year at Ohio State. He flashed in the spring, but an ankle injury in the jersey scrimmage kept Berry from playing in the spring game. It also left many questioning whether Berry would ever be able to stay healthy at this level.

He has been during all of fall camp, and it’s clear that a healthy Berry will have a role on the OSU offense this fall. He has been working hard on his pass-catching, but his hands still aren’t as good as guys like Boom Herron or Jordan Hall—not to mention Brandon Saine—but his speed and explosiveness are second to none. Saine might have better wheels when he gets moving in the open field, but no one on the roster has better burst in traffic, and Berry should get some touches during the non-conference portion of the schedule at the very least.

Devin Barclay
Photo by Jim Davidson

7. Devin Barclay has better range than we gave him credit for. After watching him kick last fall and in the spring, it seemed clear that senior Devin Barclay just wasn’t cut out to kick field goals from 40 yards and out. Inside that range, he was nearly automatic, but put the ball down behind the 30 yard line and he seemed to fall apart. That held true during the spring kick scrimmage, where freshman Drew Basil showed a stronger leg on long field goal tries, but Barclay has quietly been finding his range from long-distance this fall. While he still doesn’t blast them the way Basil can, Barclay was hitting much more consistently from 40 yards and out during the kick and jersey scrimmages and might be able to handle the field goal kicking duties all by himself this fall. Either way, Basil will be the guy on kickoffs.

Andrew Sweat
Photo by Dan Harker

8. Andrew Sweat and Tyler Moeller are both excellent football players.  With so much talent on the Ohio State defense, it’s hard to imagine any non-established starter missing more than a week or two and still being able to come back and grab a starting spot. That’s what makes the stories of Andrew Sweat and Tyler Moeller so exceptional. While Sweat missed half of last season and all of spring practice with a knee injury, Moeller was away from full-contact football for more than a year when fall camp opened back on Aug. 5. Yet both players have put themselves in position to be in the starting lineup when the Buckeye defense takes the field against Marshall.

After suffering a traumatic head injury last summer, Moeller participated in non-contact practice during the spring as a safety, but he moved back to his “Star” (nickel) position this fall and could give the Buckeyes a whole new look on defense. He still seems to be finding his timing from all the time off, but he flies around out there and hits like a truck. Sweat, meanwhile, has recovered so nicely from the knee injury that he is seriously challenging classmate Etienne Sabino for the starting Sam linebacker spot. Sabino occupied that role during the spring and throughout most of fall camp, but Sweat tracked him down and took his spot with the first-team defense during the jersey scrimmage.

Adam Bellamy
Photo by John Porentas

9. There is some good young talent on the defensive line. If there’s one area that carried the Buckeyes in 2009 I was the defensive line. One of the deepest and most talented groups of the Tressel era, the OSU front dominated the line of scrimmage last season. They also lost a good deal of that talent and depth in the off-season with the departures of Thad Gibson, Doug Worthington, Todd Denlinger and Lawrence Wilson. Cam Heyward’s return should give them a formidable first group again 2010, but it wasn’t until fall camp that we began to see some young players emerge to replenish the depth. No one has made bigger waves this fall than freshman defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins, but the Buckeyes have also gotten stellar play out of backups Garrett Goebel, Adam Bellamy, Solomon Thomas and Melvin Fellows. If those five can be a part of the rotation in 2010, the Buckeyes could have one of the best defensive fronts in the country yet again.

Tyler Moeller
Photo by Jim Davidson

10. Star position is here to stay. When it was created prior to the 2008 season, the Star position didn’t look all the much different from the traditional nickel back at Ohio State. A fifth defensive back to cover the slot was nothing new, but the Star position was unique because it created a linebacker-safety hybrid spot that needed to be able to tackle well but also cover running backs out of the backfield, tight ends across the middle, or even the occasional slot receiver. Originally created with Jamario O’Neal in mind as way to combat the spread of “spread” offenses in the Big Ten, the spot went to a sophomore named Jermale Hines in 2008. Hines became the prototype for the position, big and strong with the ability to run and hit. Tyler Moeller added a new aspect to the position late in the season with his ability to blitz, and now there is a new twist. With Hines playing deep safety and Nate Oliver—the backup to Moeller—hurt, the Buckeyes moved 5-9 corner Christian Bryant over to be the backup Star. A little guy who packs a lot of punch, Bryant could revolutionize the position because he can hit like a linebacker but cover like a corner.

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