Ask any Buckeye football fan which position group on the team has been most frustrating to them in recent years, and it won’t take long before the wide receivers come up.
Ohio State has pumped out some legendary pass-catchers over the decades, from NFL Hall of Famer Cris Carter to Biletnikoff Award winner Terry Glenn, and current NFL standout Michael Thomas. But since Thomas departed following the 2015 season, the passing game has been inconsistent at times, and nearly invisible at others.
The fan mentioned above will probably also let you know that former quarterback J.T. Barrett was a source of more than a few thrown remote controls during that time.
But with Barrett now on to the NFL, the offense is likely to look a little different this fall, no matter whether Dwayne Haskins, Joe Burrow, or Tate Martell takes over the starting job.
That change could present an opportunity for the receiving corps to finally break out, something Urban Meyer says he wants to see.
“Receiver we’ve been good. We’ve not been elite,” said Meyer. “I’ve challenged (WR coach Zach Smith). I’ve challenged (Co-Offensive Coordinator) Ryan Day who is going to be working directly with them as well.”
Some people took Meyer’s comment to imply that Day’s role was a new, and more hands-on one. Smith said it’s pretty much status quo.
“He does what any coordinator does,” said Smith. “He’s in charge of the offense, he’s in charge of the throw game and in charge of the quarterbacks. He doesn’t coach the receivers or do anything specifically with them.”
Instead, Smith said Day’s role is more of a big-picture one.
“He kind of oversees the offense, oversees everything that’s being taught, everything that’s being done, and then he really just plays a hand in the whole pass game development,” Smith said. “How to run routes, and how to complete the ball, progressions, really normal things that coordinators do.”
Day will be coordinating an offense that does not have a player who has ever cracked 600 yards in receiving in a season. That’s partly thanks to a deep rotation of six guys who are all designated “starters.”
Meyer said he doesn’t evaluate the receiver unit solely based on those stats.
“We looked at much more than just catches,” he said. “We’ve been good. Last year very good group. Maybe not the first-rounder that was making the ridiculous catches all the time, but we look at the blocking. We look at more than just that.”
If Zone 6 wants to go from ‘very good’ to ‘elite’ like Meyer envisions, finding one or two top-level receivers who can work their way up NFL draft boards would be a big help. He thinks those guys are already on the roster.
“There’s some elite people that are potentially in that group,” Meyer said.
One of those players is Austin Mack, who is entering his third year. He had 23 catches for 243 yards and a pair of touchdowns in 2017, and Smith has already laid out some big expectations for Mack’s junior season.
Mack said that it has been useful to have input from the offensive coordinators to help the receivers understand the whole offense.
“Coach Day and Coach (Kevin) Wilson also come in to help us understand the perspective from the quarterback’s perspective. So we make their job easier,” Mack said.
“It’s cool that we have that connection because if you look at Tom Brady, he’s always with his receivers. So it’s like that’s helping us close that gap to be able to be on the right page and the right times.”
Our WR simply aren’t on the sa
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Ryan Day can’t but Dwayne Haskins can and will. Zone 6 will be better because they’ll have more targets and more opportunities.
The players are elite but if they don’t do something about that HS level route tree I wouldn’t expect much different in the way of production.
If there’s a silver lining it’s that Brian Hartline continues to work with the receivers. Maybe his help will get Zone 6 past the ineptitude of Day.
Everybody uses the same route tree though.
Sorry Tony, they might use the same basic concepts for their route tree, but that’s where the similarities end. It wasn’t a surprise that defenses could make simple adjustments on the fly to body slam the Buckeye passing game. Weak armed quarterbacks allow them to collapse on the dink and dunk silliness. They couldn’t stretch the field worth a damned.
Put a lousy passing QB on the field and even the basic route tree is simple to jump and/or adjust to. The Buckeyes were fortunate to have exceptional athletes that masked the weakness behind center.
Developing a route tree requires a position coach who can teach everything from hand technique, footspeed, stride, and distance to create consistency in timing. That job gets tougher when the weakness at quarterback comes into play and the route tree has to be pared down to accommodate that shortcoming.
Everyone uses a basic tree concept but they actually make multiple adjustments to break point, depth of route, and even the primary receiver for same look formations. The Buckeyes have some of the top athletes in the Country manning the receiver position. They are bound to break some based on that alone. A defense knew for the past few years that they could simply use spot coverage for the back half of the basic tree. Once the little adjustments were made by defensive coordinators, jumping the lower branches got easier for them do. No fear of the deep intermediate and deep routes. RECEIVER talent led to big plays. Anyone can pop in a replay of early games compared to later in the season games. By mid-season any adjustments Day had brought in were virtually eliminated without the opponent reinventing the wheel. Day had exactly NO counters for their adjustments.
I know that you like Day, but for me? I’d rather watch a painter paint than a guy who is clueless.
A route tree is a route tree is a route tree. Now how you PLANT the route trees is a different story. 🙂
Look at it like this Tony. The route tree is a fixed truth. But does a Buckeye tree resemble in anyway a palm tree, Hickory, pine, or any other tree? Not beyond the basic notion that they’re tree’s. What Day is throwing onto the field is a palm tree. Any defense that can match the Buckeyes talent at wideout makes that tree pretty sparse. Defenses know what’s coming because the palm tree only has a few branches. They can sit down on those limited branches.
But a route tree isn’t universally created. Just like in natures tree’s, the football route tree is very often different and even has sprouts in non conforming area’s. A tree is a tree, but they aren’t all created the same, or even serve the same purpose.
A sound route tree development if the teacher is worth damn, will be dynamic (Longtime Fan is correct) and generally unpredictable, which isn’t exactly the same thing.
I had no problem taking the heat last year for my comments concerning JT Barrett’s absolute inability to utilize or stretch the field. So even a general/basic route tree was more like a bush than a tree. Even the bush had limited branches.
Hi James- believe me, I feel your pain! For some time now, I’ve been mystified by the offense’s apparent lack of interest in any pass that isn’t a) a 30 yard heave or b) a parallel to the line lob that good defenses see a mile away, and which is essentially a run substitute. Assuming the personnel are there to accomplish it, here’s hoping for a few of those mysterious “slant” or “cross” patterns- I think they are still legal play calls! Whatever has been holding that back for a few years- inadequate pass blocking, poor route running, a playbook which fails to acknowledge basic pass schemes- I hope its fixed. As an aside, I’d trade away 6 workable guys for 3 excellent ones. Everyone doesn’t need chances if a couple guys are hot.
Many of OSU’s biggest plays in the passing game came from crossing routes/mesh routes last season. I’d expect that to continue this season as well, even with a big arm at QB. The middle will give the Buckeyes big plays just as well as the deep stuff down the sideline, and it will be a higher completion percentage.
Uh, no they didn’t, Tony. Most of OSU’s biggest frustrations in the passing game came from the very deficiency I mentioned. Taking the UNLV score from 1000-0 to 1007- 0 on a pass, does NOT count as a “big play”. Anybody who thinks last year’s passing attack was somehow dynamic is either a) interested in rewriting history or b) high as a kite. Take your pick, I don’t care. I can’t believe I’m quoting Lavar (sp?) Ball here, just “stay in your lane”.
Who said “dynamic”? I said many of their biggest plays came from plays over the middle. YouTube has these plays readily available if you’re interested. You can search “Parris Campbell 2017 Highlights” or “Johnnie Dixon 2017 Highlights”.
I’m the one who said “dynamic”- sheesh. How elementary does this need to be before you understand? It was readily apparent to anyone with even a kernel of objectivity, that OSU’s passing game was overly simplistic and predictable to the better opponents. You stated- wrongly- that there were unicorn sightings of slants/crosses etc that somehow resulted in unicorn big plays-again, wrongly. The opposite of predictable or static is “dynamic”- thus my use of the term. I’m not going to stand by while you try to put lipstick on a pig, the lack of a consistent and truly dangerous passing game (against the better opponents) was even subject matter on the O-zone’s own pages. Objectivity is what separates us from UM fans and the like, you should try it sometime. There is nothing wrong with pointing out areas of concern and wanting better. I don’t have any YouTube highlights to offer up in a false display of helpfulness- maybe you should check the Urban Dictionary for the meaning of “homer” instead?
It is certainly an area of concern. Nobody is saying it isn’t. I’m just telling you there is actual video evidence of OSU using the middle of the field last year. That’s all. No homer. Just fact.
Elite physical talent is there. What the receivers need to develop is CONSISTENCY AND CONCENTRATION catching the ball.
Part of that could be that they didn’t believe they had a QB that could exploit their talent. If you go through even the televised games there are receivers uncovered all of the field.. It’s pretty hard to stay motivated when you put in the work to make yourself a target, and the QB can’t exploit your hard work. Maybe some of the lack of concentration (yes, there is no excuse for it) is based on that?
We’ll see what happens with whoever wins the job behind center this year. If the passing game suddenly opens up in the deep intermediate and deep passing game things will become clearer where the issues have been.