Football
Beanie's Gone, but OSU Running Game Not Gone with Him
By John PorentasThe Beanie Wells era is over. No more stiff arms, no more running over and around Wolverines for record-breaking performances, no more leaping over would-be tacklers.
You'd have to be a madman to want to follow that act.
Let me introduce you to Boom Herron and Brandon Saine, two madmen who want to follow the stiff arming, Wolverine trucking, leaping act.
Herron was Beanie's understudy last year, a role that would have been Saine's had not an injury pretty much ruin his season.
"I guess my hamstring injury the second day of fall practice really set me back," said Saine.
"I missed about 30 practices, all of camp. I missed a lot of reps so I wasn't really able to get out there and run with the offensive line the way I really needed to be able to."
Saine's misfortune was Herron's good fortune. He started the season as Beanie's backup, but when Wells injured his foot he became the main man at tailback, a role he didn't anticipate but embraced. The experience he got in the early season let him develop quickly last year, and when Wells was injured again in the Bowl game it was Herron who came in to help the Buckeyes rally to a late lead against Texas. For the season, Herron rushed for 439 net yards and six touchdowns while averaging 4.9 yards per carry. By comparison, Wells averaged 5.8 yards per carry
"It was a great opportunity for me and really built a lot of confidence for me. It helped me a lot just having that experience of playing against the best that's out there. I think it's helped me a lot," said Herron.
The Texas game is fresh in the memory of OSU fans, as is the memory of a disappointing season for Saine. In the minds of many, Herron is the man to beat for the starting job. That may be a premature assumption. Saine was disappointing last season, but for good reasons, reasons that no longer exist.
"I think the fact that I missed all those reps and I still didn't have a lot of confidence in it," said Saine.
"It's kind of a hard injury to come back from. I'm wasn't sure if I was going to pull it again or not. I just needed to get my confidence back. People had told me it takes a while. Once you feel good that's not the end of it because it's a lot in the mind and you're afraid to push it."
Saine was finally coming around during bowl practices when he was once again injured.
"I sprained my ankle in a scrimmage that we had during bowl practice.
"I just started getting back into things and was really doing well, then I sprained my ankle. I tried to come back from it but I need one more week."
The Buckeyes didn't have that week, so Saine was pretty much sidelined for the Bowl game. Since then however he's had time to recover fully from both his injuries. He's also used the time to find out what it takes to avoid injury and practice what he's learned.
"I'm more conscientious to what I need to be doing to stay healthy," he said.
"Last year I didn't really warm up enough, I just went through the motions. You really need to do it. The coaches don't make you do it for nothing."
Saine is not only full go physically, but has come full circle mentally as well.
"It's not even in the back of my mind at all. I feel 100 percent. I don't think about it at all. It's so far back I don't really remember it.
I feel good and I'm having a lot of fun just trying to fly around and hit," he said.
Sizing up the Tailbacks
The Buckeyes have three tailbacks coming into camp next fall, but for now it is Herron, Saine, and a group of walkons that are taking snaps this spring and competing for playing time. Running backs coach Dick Tressel says none of them are going to be mistaken for Beanie, but that doesn't mean they aren't talented. It just means that they are different, and that will mean that the Buckeyes will do some things differently in the running game.
"Beanie's strength was not changing directions," said Tressel describing Wells' straight ahead, shortest distance to the goal line style.
"Boom Heron's strength is changing directions and maybe Brandon Saine changes directions a little bit better than Beanie, so maybe you do some counter kind of things, some start one way, go another way kind of things, where with Beanie you wanted to get him going one way and hope that somebody would just get an arm there and not a whole body because he would run through an arm.
"Another thing is that you have to hope that an offensive line and fullback and all those kind of people that are giving you space give you a little bit more space so you get a little less arm on you. Dan Herron can run through and arm but maybe not a shoulder. Beanie could run through a shoulder," said Tressel.
Herron indeed did show the ability to break a few tackles last season, and should be even more capable of doing that this season. He played last year at 195 pounds, but has put on about 10 pounds of muscle and now is playing at 205.
"I think I'm going to stay at about this weight," said Herron.
"I don't want to get too much heavier because I want to keep my quickness and my speed. I don't want to be too heavy because I don't think I'm that kind of back."
Tressel seems very optimistic about Saine and what he can bring to the Buckeye offense.
"He's a good player and has the opportunity now to rebound from a tough year last year.
"As a freshman he made some great plays, bursts, attacked people.
"Last year he wasn't in a position to do that, from a pulled hamstring to never getting enough reps to get in a groove and being behind three other good guys is part of it too.
"He's our fastest guy, he's the fastest guy on the team. I think he still holds the state record for the100 meters in track, and he's 220 pounds, and he can catch the ball."
Before Saine's injury last season there was talk of using him in the same backfield as Wells as a kind of dual-threat back that can be effective as both a tailback and receiver. Tressel did not rule out the possibility of using Saine and Herron in the same backfield in a similar manner, but stressed that Saine will first and foremost be a tailback.
"That's why you start thinking about using him (Saine) a lot of different ways (because of his speed), but everybody needs a home. You've got to have something you own to work from and expand from it, so that's what he's got to get comfortable to be able to show that he can run, he's a tough guy, that he can catch it and if you give him a chance he'll take it to the house. His number one role is tailback. He can do everything that a great tailback can do."
Still, Beanie is gone, and both Herron and Saine will have to adjust to being the first option as OSU's ball carrier.
"I think the challenge that both he and Brandon Saine face now is what it means to be at the head of the line, not to be the support character, so they're going to have that same ability to go fast, go free, play hard, play well sort of carrying the load rather than being a bonus," said Tressel.
Though Saine and Herron are OSU's only two scholarship tailbacks this spring, there is some talent behind them.
"Marcus Williams is a warrior on special teams and he's the same kind of warrior as a back. Casey Christian and Bo Delande are just good runners all the time. They're patient and make that nice cut. Maybe they don't take it 50 but they utilize the blockers well," said Tressel.
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