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Football
Longhorns Say Buckeye Defense Poses Tough Challenge
By John Porentas

If nothing else, Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Heacock is a disciplined individual. His dedication is legendary even among his peers on the OSU coaching staff. He's famous for arriving early, staying late, and keeping his nose firmly affixed to the proverbial grindstone in his effort to put together an effective OSU defense. There is precious little that distracts Heacock from doing his job.

Football teams, it is said, reflect their coaching, and according to the members of the University of Texas offense, the way that Heacock's sense of personal discipline permeates the Buckeye jumps right off the screen when you watch tape the Buckeye defense Heacock puts on the field.

"They're probably the best defense that I've seen since I've been at Texas. They have a lot of NFL talent," said Texas running back Chris Ogbonnaya.

"The way they run things, they are are very disciplined. They've very disciplined. They don't give up many big plays and they have great gap integrity."

Heacock's disciplined defense will face what is likely the most high-powered offense they have seen this season when they line up against the Longhorns, and the Longhorns say that the disciplined approach they have seen on tape is one that can cause problems for an offense, even a high powered one like theirs.

"As a running back when you're having to pass catch, protect and run the football you have to be able to see all those things," said Ogbonnaya.

"They do things very well in terms of stemming, moving right before the snap to confuse you, and that takes great discipline. That speaks volumes of the coaching staff and how disciplined they are as players."

Ogbonnaya is not the only Longhorn to see the Buckeyes that way. All-American and Heisman-runner up quarterback Colt McCoy also thinks OSU's discipline on defense sets it apart.

"Ohio State's defense is better than Oklahoma's defense in my mind. They're bigger, more physical, they fly around, they're disciplined, they don't make mistakes," said McCoy.

The trick to playing defense, however, it to balance that discipline with aggression, a fact that has not escaped the OSU coaching staff. In order to be truly aggressive, the OSU coaching staff has to be willing to sacrifice some of that discipline.

"Yeah, you do," said co-defensive coordinator Luke Fickell.

"That's where you have to know who you've got, the guys that you've got.

"Some people are going to be a little bit better when they're undisciplined or you have some situations where you have to turn a guy loose.

"Then you have some guys who have to be very disciplined football player to fit the system and play the role.

"You have to go through personnel. If we had our druthers you'd want to blitz James Laurinaitis in every blitz but you can't. There are certain people who have a knack for getting there and I think he's one of those people."

The Big Ten Network recently televised the 1997 Rose Bowl, a game in which Fickell played. In that game the Buckeyes were in a bear defense most of the game, crowding the line of scrimmage with six or even seven players and allowing middle linebacker Andy Katzenmoyer the freedom to roam about the field and make plays. While Fickell loved that style of defense as a player, he says that kind of hyper-aggressive defense just wouldn't work today simply because offenses have changed so much over the past 10 years.

"The game was different then. Arizona State was in two-backs. They had Jake Plummer so the offense was completely different." said Fickell.

"With the spread, we never see two backs. We're in a three linebacker set half the time, the rest of the time we're in the nickel. That requires us to play differently," Fickell said.

The Buckeyes will have to get pressure on McCoy in the Fiesta Bowl, but his ability to either run for yardage or scramble to buy time may limit just how aggressive the Buckeyes will be able to be.

"I love it when guys come after me, when they blitz," said McCoy, "because that makes my eyes right, makes me know where my protection is, makes me know where my quick balls are if I need to get it out of my hand."

The OSU defense isn't likely to become suddenly undisciplined against Texas, but Fickell wants to make sure that there is enough aggression and effort to make plays to keep McCoy uncomfortable.

"We've got disciplined kids, sometime too disciplined as not to have confidence in their ability to just relax and have confidence in their ability to play. That's probably were we need to focus," Fickell said.

Standout Longhorn wide receiver Quan Cosby says he sees a Buckeye defense on tape that has found a way to strike that balance between discipline. and aggression.

"What separates the top 10 defenses is that they're very aggressive in a disciplined manner," Cosby said.

"They're where they need to be (in position) but they do their blitzes and things too. That's why they're a top-10 defense. Most of them are one or the other, and they're both. That's why they're one of the best."

Texas Offensive coordinator Greg Davis agreed, but also added that along with the right mix of discipline and aggression, the Buckeyes also have the right mix of players to make it tough on his offense.

"Usually when a team goes from a four-down front to a three-down front there's a substitution that comes in. You see that sub come in and your mentality as a play caller switches," said Davis.

"They do it with the same people. That's where it creates problems for you schematically is they can do it a lot of different things with the same group of people on the field. We have great respect for their defense."

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