Today’s Topic: What’s the ‘Fun Part’ For Kevin Wilson?
This past week, Ohio State co-offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson met with reporters following a spring practice to talk about the Buckeye offense, as well as the group of tight ends that he is coaching.
Normally, this would be the part of spring where the articles are written about this being the year the tight ends are used.
This is not that article. Not quite, anyway. This is the article about how if Ohio State wanted to use the tight ends more, they could.
To hear Wilson and his tight ends tell it, this is the best group in a while at OSU and they have the talent and versatility to command more playing time.
In fact, the coaching staff named them the best unit of the offseason.
On the field, tight ends Luke Farrell, Rashod Berry, Jeremy Ruckert, and Jake Hausmann can be called upon to be used in any number of ways, which makes the entire Ohio State offense even more difficult to prepare for.
“If there is one tight end on the field, he can play tight end, but he also has to be able to flex out,” Wilson explained. “So if you’ve watched us in the last couple years, if there’s one tight on the field, he might be in the backfield playing that fullback position, he might be at tight end, he might be a wing, he might flex out at receiver. When you put two of them on the field, they both could be tight ends, one could come into the backfield, one could flex out, both could flex out.”
There have been some two tight end sets over the last couple of years, but mostly for run blocking purposes. That could be changing this year and for one key reason.
“The reason we’ve never done that is because the second tight end wasn’t as good as the second receiver or the third receiver or the fourth receiver,” Wilson said. “So what you’re going to do, you’re going to play your best 11 or your best 12, 13, or 14 or 15 people. So if the tight end position is better and their skill set says they can do a lot of jobs, now we change formations, but they get on the field. If you want to do that and those are bad players, you take them off the field and put the good players on the field.”
The Buckeyes lost three talented senior receivers last season, so that group has taken a hit. According to Wilson, however, it’s not about the receivers falling back to the rest of the offense. Rather, it has been the tight ends who have risen to the level of the receivers.
“So previously because of the receiver strength we’ve had, we’ve been a lot more spread with one tight end,” he said. “Now our receivers are doing well, and our young receivers are going to be good, so we’re not going to have a major drop off in talent at receiver. So it’s not like we’re trying to have more tight ends because the receiver position is not going to be strong. The receivers are going to be strong, it’s just that our tight end position is getting stronger that they can get on the field more.”
The options are plentiful for the Ohio State offensive coaches this season, which is the best kind of problem to have. Just because there will be new faces and possibly more tight ends on the field, however, that doesn’t mean the offense will be new.
“So it’s really not new. It’s not a new offense, it’s just getting the best guys on the field,” Wilson said. “And Demario McCall has a slight pulled muscle, but you do Demario McCall with two tailbacks, and now he’s a receiver because he has that skill set. So it’s really kind of cool. That’s the fun part.”
Who gives a DAMN about someone who hasn’t played since 2017? You care about Hill as a person and hope things work out for him. Other than that, let’s stick to covering our current players and those who are doing positive things in the NFL.
Congrats, T Shock- you win the “Blinders” award of the day! Keep your comments in mind the next time you feel like banging on a player from another team who screws up big time (he played for OSU just 2 years ago, not 20!)… and YOU can care about a charged meth dealer all you want, I’ll take a hard pass on that one. I couldn’t have illustrated the problem better had I tried. I know there are better fans out there than this, wow…
Too bad I didn’t stop reading before I got to the Responses Section. Is this back & forth really necessary ? Aren’t we all united Buckeye fans ? Stop the cheap shots and focus on news about the 2019 Buckeye football team which will be awesome. GO BUCKS !!!
Atlbuck- I wish it was that easy. It’s a 2 way street though…
Kevin Wilson is in his element as a Coordinator and position Coach. HC? Not so much. I’m hopeful for the TE’s in 2019.
Nice tap dance around the topic, Tony. You just keep on thinking of Christmas all the time, okay buddy? Everything will be okay, I promise…Jeesh.
“We don’t usually do much coverage of former Buckeyes, especially when it’s something that has nothing to do with sports.”
The examples you used are about sports. And the words “usually” and “much coverage” were also in that sentence. Thanks for your loyal reading as always.
Attacking a man’s integrity because he doesn’t write the way you want him to is childish and dumb in almost all cases, but when it is a free site trying to present good, solid, and wide-ranging news and opinion about the Buckeyes, it seems ridiculous. Don’t like it? Stop reading. Want to vent your spleen? Please go away. You’d be welcomed at the cesspool tsun sites
Hey Charles consonant overload- you’re entering a mental combat without enough ammo, partner:
1) I didn’t “attack” this author because he doesn’t write the way I want him to write. ANY O-Zone writer should be tasked with making note of the current elephant in the room of the Hill Felony arrest. The thing I don’t like is the tiptoeing to avoid even the possibility of “offending” some OSU source for the site, by reporting (!) an obvious reality. This is the kind of garbage the cesspool tsun sites and fans resort to when one of their own screws up, and it’s shameful…
2) “Good, solid, and wide ranging”… yes, sometimes. And sometimes it’s just sunshine written to avoid controversy, or recycled nonsense.
3) Not going away, partner. You’ll find me complimenting the wrestling team, Terry McLaurin, etc in recent articles- and banging way when the “b.s. detector” is on overload (like now, for instance).
Buy yourself and ‘e” or an “a”, and come back when your’e better prepared.
Well, that’s a lie, Tony. Were the articles about Meyer getting a job with FOX a mirage (former coach)? How about the stuff about Martell’s future with Miami? (former player) The articles about the dreaded NFL draft and where former players COULD land (speculative plus former players)? How about the articles that have crept in about UM football??!! Although my memory wasn’t what it used to be, I am certain those articles recently appeared on this site…and fall outside your stated parameters…
By the way, I found a January 13 article by you, entitled ‘Will this be the year OSU throws to the Tight Ends?” Or something very similar…It’s deja vu all over again!
Might want to touch on Hill a little bit, in the name of some form of integrity?
And anyway, you’ve gotten very, very angry in the past when we have written about people who are no longer part of the team and I didn’t want to ruin your day.
Oops, almost forgot. You don’t make me “very, very angry”, Tony- I don’t care enough about you for that. Rather, the feeling is akin to that which occurs when I’m watching a cashier try to make change at the register without a computer- call it “bemused disbelief”… Oh- and I don’t think for a second that you give a rip about “ruin(ing) my day”. You’re kind of lame at the insult stuff.
The previous HC was dismissive of using his TE’s as pass catchers, even as other teams would sometime exploit OSU by using their tight ends to advance the ball. I remain confident the new coach will alter that choice, as OSU has some good players to use…
In other news, nothing about the arrest of Michael Hill for Meth Possession/Intent to Distribute? Hopefully there won’t be a “close your eyes and cover your ears” approach to this development (“That’s a bold strategy, Cotton”). If you are going to sing the praises, you’ve got to address the bad stuff too- even if it’s embarrassing and pathetic.
We don’t usually do much coverage of former Buckeyes, especially when it’s something that has nothing to do with sports. Hill hasn’t been at Ohio State since 2017. If you call that “close your eyes and cover your ears” we also do that for every catch by Michael Thomas in his NFL career. We did it when Denzel Ward was named to the Pro Bowl. It has nothing to do with bad or good. We’re just usually busy covering the current team.
Denzel did/does deserve some coverage. #cantguardmike does as well. Maybe even weekly (please?) 🙂
Ohhhh! It’s Michael Hill. I kept reading from the top, up, thinking it was KJ Hill y’all were babbling on about. Who gives 2 sh!ts about Michael Hill? Glad they caught em. Hope we finally utilize the Tight Ends this year. Maybe even something approaching their potential.
GO BUCKS!
Michael- the reason for your confusion is that the site you rely on for OSU coverage, is whistling in the dark about the arrest (“if we don’t write anything, it doesn’t exist”). So, there is no article to reference, likely because the folks at O-zone somehow believe that even a small acknowledgement of the arrest, accurately reported about a very recent player, would “offend” their OSU sources. This has been a classic UM media coverage trick for years-which is why I reject it…
At least now we don’t need to look forward to a speculative article which asks which recent OSU player is likely to be arrested for Meth charges!
And yes, the TE’s need the ball more this year- as previously addressed 10 weeks ago in a similar article on this site.
In your upcoming response could you please give your age? I just have to know. I don’t spend much time on the internet reading nonsense and no doubt forums are littered with mental midgets but you have to be the strangest mofo around. I’ll try again….insight, look it up and get some!
Bill- you are the very definition of internet nonsense! Find a wood chipper, put your head inside it, and hit the “on” switch…
Again, who gives two sh!ts about Michael Hill? Did tOSU provide him the education to cook the meth? The resources to distribute the meth? No? Then why does it need to be mentioned here?
Michael- it’s illustrative of the problem itself, that I even need to explain… You see, OSU fans (like me, for instance) constantly bang on other rival schools for their faults- and they are almost always deserved! So, when one of our own screws up, it is the definition of homer/hypocrisy to sweep it under a rug. The arrest IS news, yet a site that makes “news” out of the most trivial of things somehow decides not to report it. Let me put it to you this way…if the site prints an article about Tate Martell’s chances of success at Miami- NOT Ohio State- and claims relevance, then how is Hill’s arrest deemed “not relevant”? It’s a bad look, it’s the stuff that schools do that we denigrate. It SHOULD have drawn some formal mention, period.