In his Ohio State debut, freshman running back J.K. Dobbins had 29 carries for a season-high 181 yards rushing.
Since that game, however, the most carries he’s had in any single game is just 14. The topic of his touches has been ongoing this season, and ramped up even more after carrying the ball just six times in last Saturday’s loss at Iowa.
Meyer has stated in the past that he wants to work Dobbins more, but despite this desire, the freshman tailback has only averaged 10 rushes per game in Ohio State’s last five conference games.
Meyer said this week that he has had conversations with offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson about getting more touches for Dobbins.
How does that conversation go?
“‘I want to see J.K. touch the ball,'” Meyer said simply.
Dobbins is leading the Big Ten with a 7.7-yard-per-carry average, which is a half-yard better than anybody else in the conference. Only handing him the ball 10 times per game would seem to be a poor usage of the Buckeyes’ most dynamic player.
This is why the increased conversation about getting him more involved.
“I wouldn’t say just J.K. as much as it’s just tailback runs in general,” Wilson said on Wednesday. “But again, we spread it out, like for example, J.T. statistically has the most rushes last game, but there were four – I went back and looked – we had four designed quarterback runs where there’s no option but him.”
There were 30 run plays called last Saturday, but the Iowa defense made sure that Dobbins’ touches were very limited.
“When you’re doing the run-pass option or the run-read option, right now sometimes they’re forcing him to keep the ball because they don’t want J.K. to keep the ball,” Wilson said. “So that being said, schematically we’ve got to find some ways to get hats on those guys, so our running back can be the one to run it. And at the end of the day, we haven’t done it the last two weeks.”
Since the day Urban Meyer arrived, the Buckeyes have run a power spread offense, and that’s not going to change. The spread will remain, which is why the offense has to have different ways to combat a defense, and the quarterback reading one defender is a way for the offense to even things out.
Asked if he needed to work in some straight hand-offs, Wilson admitted that he did, but also that he needs to put the offense in the best position to move the ball.
“Yes, and at the same time, every defense that you’re playing is outnumbering you,” he said. “And either the quarterback or the run-pass option equates that. So for example this week, if you’re just going to try and just hand it to the tailback over and over and over with base runs, because every time you add an offensive player, they add one more guy into the core. And that being said, that’s the gist of the spread offense.
“Now again, we’ve got to work hard and my time through the years at other places when the quarterback could not run – our quarterback can run here. When the quarterback cannot run, how do you still find running game? We’ve had to do that over time, and we tried it last week. We had some things in last week, we just didn’t get to it and we didn’t execute well. We had 140 yards at halftime I think rushing, and so we were on track to have a good game, but we had those three three-and-outs in the third quarter and by the time the fourth quarter started, we’re down 28 and we’re in the two-minute offense. The game got away from us with a bad third quarter with execution and play calling and turnovers.”
The Buckeyes ran the ball well in the first half last week, but when you look at the box score and see six carries for 51 yards from your best player, that’s not an acceptable game plan. Wilson expects to change that this week, but warns that you can’t just pound the ball on a Michigan State defense that is third-best in the nation in stopping the run (87.0 yards allowed per game).
“Oh, he’s got to get it,” Wilson said of Dobbins. “So we’ll sit there and slam that back in there and they’ll have those 12 guys with butcher knives up in there this week. We’ll get third-and-8 really quick. They’ll tee off with their nickel package and pin their ears back.”
Wilson’s job this week is to find ways to effectively run the ball against a defense that has only allowed one opponent (Notre Dame) to average more than 3.2 yards per carry.
The Ohio State offense is going to continue to utilize the read option and the run-pass option, so they will need to find ways to keep Dobbins from being taken out of the game. They won’t be forcing anything, however.
“So, okay, do we go to ’12 package’ and put big tight ends in there, but we like that speed and that spread stuff,” Wilson explained. “Again, when you spread it out, you get into either the run-pass option or the read-option. We’ll fight hard to get him going. He’s been great and going forward we’ve got to get him carries. We’ve got to. But I don’t think we can force it either. We can’t be stubborn about it.”
Blah, blah, blah!!! You would think a school with arguably the best and most talent wouldn’t have to make everything seem like brain surgery!! It all makes my head hurt with the charts, graphs, figures, and stats! That is why I miss Jim Tressel!
How about “student body right” and “student body left”?
Sounds to me like the problem is JTB. Since the defense is “forcing” JTB to run the ball by making sure Dobbins doesn’t, tells me it will be a good thing when JTB is gone. If he weren’t there, maybe the defense would have to divert their thinking elsewhere. The one positive to Haskins as QB is that he’s not a runner at all, so as has been suggested, it would be nice to see a QB HAVE to hand it off instead of him being an option. That would be a nice change, for once.
What happened to Jim Tressel’s good old counter play. Run it right, then run it left. Keep running it until they stop it. Then run the play that plays off of it. It’s not rocket science. You want J.K. to have the ball, call his number. It’s not rocket science, unless you are Urban Meyer. Then it’s darn near impossible.
You know, on second thought, I’ll just answer the question posed in the title of the article. How does OSU get JK Dobbins more involved? Answer: GIVE HIM THE BALL MORE, don’t send him out for pizza and subs during the second quarter like the past few games. Good heavens.
Sounds like Urban was moving his hand inside the Kevin Wilson doll during the moments quoted above. The remark that defense is “forcing” OSU to act is particularly absurd, as its the offense that dictates to the defense rather than the opposite. Ditto for the “we don’t want to force it” comment. EVERY play is designed to “force” the ball to somebody, folks- the comment is nonsensical. Finally, he says he’s worried about being at 3rd and 8 after “forcing” the ball to JK. Maybe- and I’m just spitballing here- there wouldn’t be so darn many 3rd and 8s when the MOST EFFECTIVE player gets the ball more! Can I get an Amen from anybody out there? Jeesh. I’ll tell you how the “conversation” Urban had with Wilson went. Urban- “I’m gonna let you talk to the media this week”. Wilson- “Okay”. Urban- “Deflect all the responsibility from us to the other team, throw in some official sounding terms to make it look good- but DON”T tell them JK will get the ball more”. Wilson- “Yes, sir!”
Keep in mind that, despite all the quotes we just got sick reading, neither Meyer nor Wilson owned up to the stupidity of the lack of JKs touches, nor did they promise he would get it more. Translation- Saturday will be more of the same. What a bunch of garbage.
Mr. Longtime Fan, you are hilarious. Your rants are as predictable as the sun rising in the morning. Happens every time the Ozone posts a blurb about an Urban Meyer presser.
All coaches do the Coachspeak thing. Nick Saban does it. Mike Leach does it, even though he does it as a standup comedy routine. Meyer is not unique in that regard.
Now, this year’s team definitely has its problems, both on the player side and the coaching side. But I don’t have a reserved seat at team meetings like you, so I really don’t know what they talk about. Even if I DID have a seat, I doubt I’d understand much of what was being talked about; I’ve never been a football coach.
I’ll still keep my trust in Meyer. I still think he’s a good, if not excellent coach. And I know, it’s tough being a fan of a team that is only 7-2. That’s a hard record to swallow, isn’t it?
But I’m not about to criticize and rant on the coaches, simply because I can’t. I don’t know enough about coaching to know where to start. But I hold the same emotional feelings most people who post here do: Give Dobbins more touches! Throw downfield more! Do trick plays! They’re cute to watch!
BUT, after 65 years of watching OSU football, I no longer pull a Woody and throw something against the wall when the Bucks lose. Nor do I have to be put on suicide watch.
That makes my wife happy.
Walt Weaver- it says a lot that you’ve been watching for 65 years and can’t recognize a mess when its right in front of you. (Nice to note that you have mastered the art of being passive aggressive though.) Thanks for telling me about coachspeak, I’d never heard of it before (that’s sarcasm by the way, Walt). Problem is, this is NOT mere coachspeak. It has deteriorated into a head coach who has thrown position coaches under the bus, and who has stubbornly dug in his heels out of ego. I genuinely hope you get to watch for another 65 years- maybe you’ll figure it out by then.
for once, I would like to see how Dobbins can run with a few designed plays rather than read option all the time.
Once again, If I were coordinator, I would play with it a little from the 40 yard line in to get a feel and to pound the defenders a little. Run a few plays with the TE in the backfield leading Dobbins and or JT into a hole. And there is actually a lot you can run off that fomation to keep the defense honest. With our guys who are supposedly better than their guys, it is very hard to keep us from gaining 10 yards on 4 plays when we are getting positive yards each down. Herman did that a lot as coordinator. He incorporated some very good play action off of it to get good matchups. He also had some counters off it. Where have those plays gone? And Berry is a high energy monster whenever he is on the field, the perfect guy to blow up the linebacker or safety trying to fill the hole.
Didn’t Penn State have the #1 rush defense before we played them? Why be afraid of Sparty’s run D?
Why only pass to J.K. on the wheel route or out wide? What’s wrong with a good old-fashioned flare route after the LBs have blown by on their way to J.T.? (A flare route is where a RB heads into the teeth of the line, but not having the ball slips through into the shallow zone past where the LBs have vacated).