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Football
The-Ozone Note and Quotebook
By John Porentas

Dreams Come True: Buckeye fans have been dreaming about the day that Terrelle Pryor finally set foot on Ohio Field. That dream finally came true for them on Saturday. It turns out that Pryor had his own dreams as well.

Terrelle Pryor

"I dreamed of running (onto the field) behind coach Tress with his vest on. It was just a dream. That's all I can say. One of my dreams came true," Pryor.

Pryor was impressive in his first action, but was maybe even more impressive after the game. With the media attention he commands Pryor is a young man who has every opportunity to be a bit full of himself. He showed none of that after his first Buckeye action.

"What people think about you doesn't really matter. It's what they think," said Pryor who then went on to explain what he does consider important.

"It's between us, it's between our teammates. We're a team. Whatever the outside guys say we don't really listen. It's inside the group and we're all together," Pryor said.

Pryor's debut was impressive, but he was quick to share the credit for his performance.

"It's just watching Todd (Boeckman) and how Todd does all his things," he said.

"It's how our coaches teach us. I think we have the best quarterback coach in the country, Coach Daniels. He teaches you about just being calm. We always talk about being poised in the pocket and delivering the ball, feeling comfortable and not letting anything stop you. That's mainly what Coach Tress and Coach Daniels make sure we have in our minds, and no turnovers, that's mostly it. Once you take that all into consideration and keep hearing it day after day and keep poised and show no discouragement, that's where that comes off."

Comparing Hits: Wide receiver Dane Sanzenbacher had a catch in the game but paid a price. The pass from Todd Boeckman had just hit his hands leaving him in a vulnerable position when he got lit up by a Youngstown State's Lenny Wicks with a clean but very hard hit. Sanzenbacher said he never saw Wicks coming.

Dane Sanzenbacher
Photo by Jim Davidson

"I didn't see it at all. You don't have time to think about it. I tried to make the next play but they blew the injury whistle on me so I had to sit one out. It just knocked the wind out of me," said Sanzenbacher.

Fellow wide receiver Ray Small said the play reminded him of another play with which he is personally intimately familiar.

"Minnesota '06 when I got hit," said Small.

Small said he was at first concerned for Sanzenbacher, but quickly realized that his teammate was OK. Small raised his hands above his head and started shaking them then said. 'As long as his hands aren't like this then I know he's good,' he said laughing and imitating his own reaction to the hit he took against the Gophers.

Concern for Beanie: When Beanie Wells was injured in the third quarter of the game on Saturday the rest of the tailbacks on the roster all at least temporarily moved up one notch on the depth chart. Freshman tailback Boom Herron said he's rather have a healthy Beanie Wells than the promotion.

Boom Herron

"I was a little scared, a little nervous," said Herron describing his immediate reaction to Wells' injury.

"I was hoping that he was OK. He and I are like best friends. I just wanted him to be OK. You don't want to see any of your friends go down," Herron said.

OSU defensive end Lawrence Wilson, who himself suffered a season-ending injury in the Youngstown State game last year, said he tried to help Wells through those first few scary minutes on the field.

"I was telling him 'Just stay calm and breath,'" said Wilson.

"He seemed like he was breathing real fast.

"I told him to just relax and breath and everything is going to be all right. I was just trying to encourage him a little bit because he seemed a little rattled. It was hard to watch him go down," said Wilson.

Whitewash: The Buckeye defense simply smothered the YSU offense and ended up recording a shutout for their effort.

"Anytime you can get a shutout it's a little added incentive. It feels good," said defensive tackle Todd Denlinger.

Tyler Moeller

"It feels great," agreed linebacker Tyler Moeller.

"When you don't let you opponent score on you it feels great because you accomplished all your goals."

According to Jim Tressel, part of the reason for OSU's defensive success was the fact that YSU is installing a new offense, something that sometimes takes more than one game to accomplish. Tressel also said the Buckeyes made that transition a tough one.

"Youngstown State has changed their style of play and this was their first chance to rehearse that, and to rehearse that against our defense, I could pick better rehearsals than that one. Our guys are just very assignment-sound but physical," said Tressel.

An area of concern defensively coming into the season was the defensive line. One member of that group, Todd Denlinger, said he saw improvement in the season opener.

"I think so. I think the d-line made a lot of strides. I'm sure after watching the film there's going to be a lot of things that we need to get better at but the defensive line has definitely been talked down upon in the media. That's real talk and we do have to get better. I think as the year goes on we'll surprise a lot of people," he said.

"Once you get older you know what you're doing so you can just run out there and play football. You don't have to think about your assignments or what you have to do and I think that showed quite a bit."

Shining Out Wide: There was plenty of preseason talk about the depth at wide receiver this season. That group did not disappoint in the season opener. As expected, both Brian Hartline and Brian Robiskie played well, but several of the younger players also had very strong performances including both DeVier Posey and Ray Small. Posey had four receptions for 47 yards, both game highs. Posey's very first reception as a Buckeye resulted in a touchdown on a 25 yard reception from Todd Boeckman

DeVier Posey

"I was actually surprised. When he missed me I was like 'Oh man!' I didn't know I scored at first but it just felt so good," said Posey of the play.

"I couldn't sleep last night but I didn't think I was going to score. I was surprised at first. I was trying to find my mom but I couldn't find her. It felt good but I never in my wildest dreams thought I would score the first time I played. I saw he was playing soft so I caught it and did a little hitch. Todd threw it to me and he came up. I did what any person would do if somebody is going to come at you, I moved. I was surprised at how free I was. I kind of was stunned. I felt like I stood there for about five seconds in my head but I know it really wasn't that long. I just took off. I closed my eyes when I dove in but it felt good.

"Devier Posey is going to be a great receiver," said fellow wide receive Ray Small.

"I was excited for DeVier. He came in and it was like he wasn't a high school player. It was like he was from another college. That's what it seemed like. He was so good. He's a great guy. I was excited for him. He was more nervous than anything," Small said.

Ray Small

Small is a player who was not in the best of graces with the OSU coaching staff at times last season. Small talked about that situation after the YSU game.

"I was attending the class I was supposed to but I just wasn't coming on time. Tressel is big on on time. I was just kind of lollygagging around, getting there at a certain time that I wanted to. He said you can't do that, you've got to be there when you need to be there," said Small.

"When Tress sat me down to talk to me about it I understood that was important to me. Whenever you sit down and talk to Tress he teaches, it's always a learning experience. He just told me what I needed to do to be successful in life," said Small.

"I never felt like I was in the doghouse. I would say I had a fresh start. I don't look at it as a bad thing. I look at it as a good thing because Tress turned that around for me."

Return Game Spark: Ray Small played well at wide receiver against YSU and also provided a spark in the return game as a punt returner where he brought back four kicks for 79 yards. His best return of the game, however, was shortened by a penalty, though he was credited for a 45 yard return on the play.

"At least the people (blocking for him) were trying," said Small. "That's all that counts. We're going to get one sooner or later."

Brian Hartline teams with Small as OSU's punt return tandem. Backing them up is freshman wide receiver DeVier Posey who says those two players, along with Brian Robiskie, are mentoring him not only as a returner but as a receiver as well.

" I've got two real good punt returners ahead of me in Hartline and Ray Small. Those guys are really good," said Posey.

Todd Boeckman
Photo by Jim Davidson

"I know my time will come, but this year I really want to learn a lot from these guys because we've got NFL receivers in front of me and I've got a really good quarterback to learn from and really good coaches.

"I've got my mental notepad out at practice all time taking notes from those guys. I think it's good to see rather than just hear. That's why I came to Ohio State, because I could see these guys."

Taking it in Stride: Quarterback Todd Boeckman was at times guilty of under throwing the deep ball last season, but Boeckman seemed to be hitting receivers more in stride against YSU. That was particularly true on a 47 yard completion to Brian Hartline in the first quarter when Boeckman hit Harline on a deep ball and Harline never had to slow down to make the catch.

"All year Robo and Hartline said just throw it deep and we'll go get it," said Boeckman.

"I've been trying to work on that all winter and all spring and all fall, just throw it out there and let them go run under it because I know they can."

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