Football
The O-Zone Note and Quotebook
By John PorentasBarton Hoping for Successful Debut: Offensive lineman Kirk Barton will get his first start of his Buckeye career this week against Iowa. Barton said that the start is a dream come true...with qualifications.
"It's only a dream if you play well. You don't want it to be a nightmare," said Barton.
Barton's presence in the lineup is a "tweak" by the OSU coaching staff that has, according to some observes, stunk. Barton thinks he knows how to change that opinion.
"Like they say, winning is a great deodorant," Barton quipped.
Barton was glib with the remark, but has taken seriously the criticism leveled at OSU's offense.
"Honestly, I'm embarrassed when people like Herbstreit say their defense is so great and their offense is like a big pillow fight and they can't move anyone. That's embarrassing. You've got to have pride. If you do, that gets you angry," said Barton.
Barton says OSU's offensive woes have one root cause.
"People come down on our coaches, I've read the newspapers, they're coming down on Coach Bollman and Coach Tressel. It's on the players, it's not the coaches. We're the ones out there," Barton said.
"They (the coaches) don't play a down. They have good game plans. We watched the film and one guy misses a backside block, one guy doesn't fake; if we do all that we could be up there. We could be like a Purdue and just lead the nation in offense. It's all on the players. That's all there is to it."
Gimme the Ball, Coach: The-Ozone's Jeff Amey's weekly analysis of the Wisconsin game indicated quite clearly that certain parts of the running game were really quite effective against the Badgers. The Buckeyes ran six draw plays for 52 yards (8.7 yards per attempt) and three iso plays for 22 yards (7.1 yards per attempt).
Despite the success, the Buckeyes elected to emphasize the passing game for the entire game against the Badgers. Freshman tailback Antonio Pittman says if it's working, stay with the running game.
"It looked like it was going the right way. Anybody could see that. The running game was working," said Pittman, who was somewhat dismayed that the Buckeyes went away from it.
"You've got to feed the running back. At least one of us should get 15 or 20 carries a game. It should show from there.
"Last week we came out running the ball pretty good. If we had run the ball a lot more, the results could have been a lot different, but you can't question the coaches opinion. We've just got to go out there and do our thing."
Need Some Plays: Wisconsin got big plays out of their quarterback and wide receivers for scoring plays against OSU. The Buckeyes couldn't match them. The results were as you might think, the Badgers won. According to Jim Tressel, that formula has been true for a long, long time.
"That's how you separate games," Tressel said.
"We could go back all the way through to 1950. We were just talking about that. If Ohio State made plays, they won, and if they didn't make plays and their opponents did, they lost.
"You have to tip your hat to those couple of catches. Now that's our problem. We need to make plays and that's what we're working on doing."
Ryan Hamby agreed.
"Wisconsin had huge plays. Pittman had a big run, but offensively we didn't have any plays to get things going. In the second half we had 20 plays total. That's just not going to get it done," Hamby said.
Double Trouble: The Buckeyes have gotten punt returns for touchdowns in two consecutive games. Santonio Holmes returned one against Northwestern and Ted Ginn Jr. against Wisconsin. The T.D.s have come out of a formation in which the Buckeyes have twin safeties to return the kick as opposed to the single safety they used in previous seasons. On each of the touchdowns, the safety not making the catch and run made the key block to spring his teammate.
"The other returner helps him (the receiver) out, so we can have a clean catch," said OSU wider receivers and return specialist coach Darrell Hazell.
"Then if we can take a few steps and put our foot on the ground, we've got a chance to get things to happen. We really try to get the ball up the field quickly as opposed to get it outside."
The strategy has worked.
"If you get past the snipers, you've got a shot. We put the off returner on one of their snipers," said Ginn.
"We protect each other," added Holmes.
"Ted and I get back there and we look at each other, and he protects me and I protect him. Our special teams are really doing a great job."
Hazell says he likes his punt return tandem.
"I like guys who are very relaxed back there," Hazell said.
"That's one of the toughest things to do. You've got 10 guys screaming down the field on you with your eyes up in the air. That's tough to do, so you need guys who are relaxed and comfortable back there. If you've got guys who have a little bit of wiggle, that helps you out a little bit more," Hazell added.
Hazell likes the speed and wiggle he saw on Ginn's return against the Badgers.
"I watched it several times on film and I couldn't believe how fast he was, once he got past that last defender how fast his turnover was. He's got great speed, really good speed," Hazell said.
Making progress at receiver: Big things were expected of Santonio Holmes this season, and he has delivered. According to Wide Receiver Coach Darrell Hazell, a couple of other receivers are starting to come on as well.
On of those guys is Bam Childress who has continued to perform at a high level despite some minor injuries.
"Bam was a little nicked up going into last week. He's better now," said Hazell.
Roy Hall is a player that much was expected of, but has lost his starting position to Childress. According to Hazell, Hall has made strides since losing his starting spot.
"Roy's gotten tremendously better," said Hazell.
"We made a change there early in the season, and since that point he's really worked at all the things we're asking him to do.
"He's done a tremendous job the last two weeks with his all-around game; catching the ball, blocking, all the things we ask him to do."
According to Hazell, in the past two weeks defenses have jammed OSU receivers at the line of scrimmage, and that has been somewhat of a problem.
"One of the things we have to do a little bit better to help the quarterback is get off the jam a little bit better. It will help the timing of the quarterback as well as the receivers, so we need to work on route depth and releasing off of press coverage," said Hazell.
"We've seen pressure (on receivers at the line of scrimmage) in two games. We expect to see it until we show that we can beat it," he added.
One of the guys Hazell has emphasized that with is Ted Ginn.
"That's something that's he's working very hard at and gotten better at in the last two weeks and he'll continue to get better because that's something that I'm sure he hasn't had to do a whole lot of coming out of high school," said Hazel.
"That was one of his sticking points when we first started."
Hazell is very high on Ginn despite a few shortcomings in his game at the moment.
"He's a guy who's going to be a great receiver when it's all said and done. He's got tremendous ability. He's smooth, got great hands, obviously can run. He's young. He's got a lot to learn yet," said Hazell.
Hazell sees positives in all of his receivers.
"Santonio is guy who has tremendous transition. He gets out of his routes very quickly. Other guys are learning that. Bam is very quick so he is able to separate a little bit better. Teddy Ginn is a guy who goes by you a little bit better. They all have different characteristics," he said.
Hazell is happy with his current crop of receivers, but says that there is a young freshman on the roster that has definitely caught his eye.
"Devon Lyons is guy that I have to find a way to a way to get him in the ball game," said Hazell.
"He's very special. He's got a big body and quickness for his size and has really good hands. I've got to find a way to get him some reps and get him out there.
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