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Ohio State vs. Navy Preview By Tony Gerdeman |
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Ohio State and Navy will meet on the football field for just the fourth time ever when the two teams come together on Saturday.
The Buckeyes hold the 3-0 series advantage and have yet to give up a point to Navy in the regular season.
The last time these two teams met came in the 1981 Liberty Bowl. The Buckeyes beat the Midshipmen 31-28, keeping Navy at arm’s length for the duration of the contest.
This will be Navy’s first visit to Ohio Stadium since their 20-0 loss in 1931.
Ohio State is 103-12-4 all-time in season openers. Jim Tressel has yet to lose a season opener, going 8-0 during his tenure in Columbus.
The Buckeyes haven’t lost a home opener since 1978, when the fifth-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions came into the Horseshoe and shut Ohio State out 19-0.
Navy is 26-40-3 all-time against the Big Ten. Their last win against the conference came in 1979 when they won at Illinois.
The Midshipmen have just two wins against ranked opponents over the last 20 years. Their last win over a top ten team came in 1984, when they beat second-ranked South Carolina.
Navy’s record against BCS teams since 2003 is 13-16. Their 13 wins over BCS teams ties Utah for most in that span.
Navy is one of just four schools to produce a U.S. President (Jimmy Carter) and a Super Bowl winning quarterback (Roger Staubach).
When Navy Has The Ball
The Midshipmen will bring their Flexbone triple-option offense into Columbus with designs on continuing their ground game dominance. Navy has led the nation in rushing for an NCAA-record four-consecutive years. Last year, they averaged 292 yards rushing per game, which was their lowest total over the last four years, as was their impressive 5.3 yard per carry average.
While the system will remain the same, the Midshipmen are replacing eight starters on offense. In fact, the entire offense only returns 45 career starts, and those were all accumulated last year by seven players. By way of comparison, Ohio State’s defensive line has over 75 career starts to their credit, dating back to the 2007 season.
Despite the lack of starts, there is still experience on the offense. Quarterback Ricky Dobbs only started once last year, but played in eight games. He is the team’s leading returning rusher, having rushed for 495 yards and eight touchdowns last season. In fact, against SMU last year, Dobbs carried the ball 42 times for 224 yards and four touchdowns off of the bench. In his only start of the year, he carried the ball 25 times for 124 yards and a touchdown in a win over Northern Illinois.
Dobbs completed just 9 of 16 passes last year, but Head Coach Ken Niumatalolo has seen enough to declare Dobbs the best passer Navy has had in nearly a decade. The Ohio State defense might want to expect a few more passes than the seven Navy averaged per game last year, but if Navy is trailing there will definitely be more than seven passes from Dobbs.
The Flexbone offense starts with the quarterback, but it’s the fullback who usually gets the most carries. This year, that honor falls on sophomore Alex Teich (6’0” 212), who carried the ball seven times for 24 yards as a true freshman last year. The fullback in this offense isn’t usually the fastest guy, but they do hit the line of scrimmage with force and immediacy, and when they find a hole, they can go a long way before the secondary tracks them down.
When the fullback is running effectively the rest of the triple-option is nearly impossible to stop. The defense gets sucked in and becomes so focused on the middle of the line that they sometimes sleep on the slot backs, which is where the third option of the triple-option comes in. If he decides not to give the ball to the fullback, the quarterback will then come off the line of scrimmage and decide whether to keep it, or pitch it out to one of the slot backs who are running with him. Last year, slot back Shun White was excellent in this role, as he rushed for 1,092 yards with an 8.3 yard per carry average. Fortunately for the Buckeyes, White is gone.
The two slot backs starting this week will be sophomore Marcus Curry (5’11” 200) and senior Bobby Doyle (5’11” 204). Doyle carried the ball 16 times last year for 169 yards, but don’t expect that average to keep up throughout this season.
As the Buckeye coaches and players have stressed whenever talking about defending Navy’s offense, the defense must stick to their assignments. It only takes one player freelancing to allow a long gainer against this offense. It will take a team effort, but it’s not unheard of for Navy’s offense to be contained. Last year, Notre Dame held the Midshipmen to a season-low 178 yards rushing, which is still quite a bit.
The defensive line will need to remain strong, but nimble in order to avoid Navy’s cut-blocking. If they can’t control the line of scrimmage, then the linebackers are going to have to dodge linemen while trying to track down any one of four possible ball carriers. It’s an awful lot of commotion to deal with, especially when you aren’t used to it. This was probably the main reason Navy scored on the first possession in twelve of their thirteen games last year. There is an adjustment period for all defenses against the Flexbone. But some defenses just never make the adjustment.
And just when the defense thinks they have a handle on things, Navy will pull out the play-action pass. There will be times when linebackers are matched up with slot backs who go out for a pass on the play-action. If they don’t stick to their assignment, it could mean six points streaking down the sideline as the rest of the defense is flowing completely away from the ball.
Buckeye linebackers Austin Spitler and Brian Rolle will be getting their first starts at Ohio State and they will get a fast and furious indoctrination to life in the scrum. If the Buckeyes do have some issues containing the outside run, don’t be surprised to see nickel back Jermale Hines come in to add some speed to the linebacker position.
There will be some struggles early on simply because Navy’s offense can’t be realistically simulated in practice. However, after a couple of drives, adjustments will be made and things should settle down.
Regarding the special teams, Navy returns a solid punter in Kyle Delahooke, who averaged 41.6 yards per punt last year. The place-kicker is Jon Teague, who handled kickoffs as a true freshman last year, but did not handle any placements on the season.
There is virtually no return game to speak of for the Midshipmen. In fact, Navy has gone 151 games without a punt return touchdown, which is the longest drought in the nation.
When Ohio State Has The Ball
Last year, quarterback Terrelle Pryor was a freshman running a scaled-back Buckeye offense. This year, the offensive coaches are no longer worried about giving him too much; instead they may be worrying that they haven’t given him enough.
Regardless of what this offense is going to look like in November, or even next week against USC, we can expect a fairly basic attack this week from the Buckeyes, with one or two wrinkles thrown in to excite the influential season ticket holders.
Navy plays a 3-4 defense and returns roughly seven starters from last season (several players had handfuls of starts). They like to attack the backfield with their outside linebackers, but given that they probably don’t want to have to chase Terrelle Pryor down the sideline, they may just be content to play some contain defense and try to collapse the pocket from the inside.
However, the interior of the offensive line is where the Ohio State strength is, so eventually Navy is going to have to try to get to Pryor from the edge.
Navy doesn’t solely rely on blitzes, however. Sophomore defensive end Jabaree Tuani started nine games last year, finishing eighth on the team with 42 tackles. His 9.0 tackles for loss actually led the team. At 6’1” 265-lbs, he is not as undersized as you might expect and provides a better motor than many players his size.
We will likely see several rollouts and bootlegs from Pryor, giving him the option to run or pass as the defense dictates. Since Navy is only returning one starter in the secondary, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for the Buckeyes to attack deep several times throughout the game. If they stretch the defense, it will leave the middle more open, which is an area that they seem intent upon utilizing this year.
Pryor seems to have built a rapport with the top three receivers on the depth chart. Dane Sanzenbacher was a go-to guy many times last year for Pryor. Don't expect to see that stop any time soon. Quarterbacks love receivers who know how to get open and who can hold onto the ball no matter how hard they get hit by a roving safety.
DeVier Posey and Taurian Washington will be the other top two targets, both of whom formed a consistency with Pryor during the offseason. They are both big receivers and should get plenty of looks downfield on Saturday.
Expect some early passes to the tight end, if for no other reason than to get the safeties inching closer to the line of scrimmage.
Even though the passing game may be busy early on, it will be the running game that is called upon to clear the table.
Sophomore running back Boom Herron will get the start and should have a big day if given the opportunity. Herron himself is as big as most of the linebackers that will be coming after him, but none possess his quickness or his speed. The Buckeye offense ran between the tackles very well throughout practice this summer, and this game should only be a continuation of that success.
When Herron is getting a breather, the coaches are also going to want to get a look at a healthy Brandon Saine in live game action. If Saine shows some flashes of his freshman self—or better—then the coaches will have a much better feel for where the running game stands.
No matter who is running the ball, inside linebacker Ross Pospisill will be keying on them. Pospisill led Navy in tackles last year with 106, but don’t expect to see him in the backfield much. He is mainly around to clean up messes after they break free from the line of scrimmage.
One area where there is likely still some trepidation would be the punting game for the Buckeyes. Senior Jon Thoma has only three punts in his career, but will be counted on to involve himself in the “most important play in football” about 50 times this year. That’s a lot to put on an inexperienced specialist.
Aaron Pettrey returns to do the place-kicking duties. His leg is never a question, only his sights.
The return game should provide the Buckeyes with an advantage over most teams they face. Punt returner Ray Small averaged 15.2 yards per return last year, which led the conference by far. Small has a very good chance for multiple touchdowns on returns this season.
Sophomore receiver Lamaar Thomas will likely handle the bulk of the kickoffs this year and he is poised to break out. Don’t be surprised if it starts on Saturday.
How It’ll End Up
The Buckeyes will open up with a first down pass to tight end Jake Ballard and the crowd will cheer in excitement and confusion.
From there, the running game will prove too fruitful to abandon.
When the Buckeyes do pass, they will be short, controlled passes, with a couple of deep throws mixed in to keep things interesting.
Navy will find some success on the ground, as is their nature, but they will struggle to average four yards per carry. They won’t abandon the run, however, as Navy’s biggest concern is limiting Buckeye possessions. They will milk the clock and run the ball until it’s time to punt, and Jim Tressel will gladly let them.
In the end, it won’t be the offensive explosion many Ohio State fans were hoping for, simply because there weren’t enough possessions to go around.
Ohio State 34 – Navy 14
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