Football
Tressel Cranks up the Hitting as Buckeyes Begin Second Week of Camp
By John Porentas

If you happen to be in the city of Columbus this week don't be startled by the grinding, grunting, and groaning sounds in the air. It's just the Buckeyes turning up the intensity in Fall camp.

After a week of NCAA-mandate acclimatization the Buckeyes open the second week of fall camp with a full schedule of workouts on the docket, workouts that are probably the toughest of the year.

"It will be the most physical week," said OSU Head Coach Jim Tressel.

"It will be much more physical than the third week because the third week, you get someone bruised pretty good you might lose them for game week, whereas if someone gets banged pretty hard this coming week they have a couple weeks to get ready. This will be a big week for us."

Things continue to wind down in the fourth week, which is really a game week preparation week, but before the Buckeyes can get to those wind down weeks they have to survive this one, and it promises to be a bruiser.

"Two practices Monday, one on Tuesday, then two on Wednesday, one, then two, then a scrimmage on Saturday, so that's a bunch of practices. Normally in the spring we have 15 in a month, now we're going to have nine in a week," said Tressel.

The schedule is demanding and the hitting will be vicious, and that's just what the OSU coaching staff wants. Up until now, everyone has been running around, doing their thing, and looking pretty good doing it. When the hitting starts, however, the real football players, and contributors this fall, begin to really emerge.

"While there's no impending collision some people know what's coming and know what to do assignment-wise," explained Tressel.

"When you add that element of collision in and one's memory goes a little bit at times and you have to restart the comfort zone of being able to do it under pressure."

The running around in the first week has allowed the incoming freshmen class to see one of the differences between the college game and high school football, the speed of the game.

"I feel like the game speed is so much faster in college. High school has people who don’t really know what they’re doing, but in college everyone is fast and knows what they are doing and takes good angles, so it’s really hard to beat them," said freshman running back Jamaal Berry.

What Berry and his freshman teammates will get a dose of this week is the ultimate difference between college and high school ball, the level of hitting. It likely will prove to be a bigger adjustment for them than the speed of the game.

"When you add collision to the game of football, that's what changes it from most every game there is," Tressel said.

"You can stand over the golf ball all you want, people talk about pressure as someone hiccups or something, but pressure is when someone is going to hit you with a silver helmet, and do you know your assignment then, so it changes the game totally.

"Our (veteran) guys have done that and the new guys will get the understanding of just how physical this game is."

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