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Ohio State vs. Marshal Preview By Tony Gerdeman

On September 11, 2004, Marshall and Ohio State met for the first time in the two schools' histories, as the 9th-ranked Buckeyes pulled out a 24-21 win thanks to a game-winning 55-yard field goal from All-American place-kicker Mike Nugent.

Ohio State will enter this game ranked second in both polls, which doesn't bode well for the Thundering Herd, who are 1-7 against top ten opponents in the school's brief FBS history.

Buckeye Head Coach Jim Tressel is 15-1 against first-year head coaches, with his first loss coming last season against Purdue and Danny Hope. He is also 9-0 in season openers. All-time, the Buckeyes are 104-12-4 in season openers.

Ohio State has won 53 consecutive non-conference games against unranked opponents. Their last such loss came in 1988 against Pitt.

The Buckeyes are 11-1 all-time against teams currently in Conference USA. The lone loss came to SMU in 1978.

Marshall wide receivers coach Zach Smith is the grandson of former Ohio State Head Coach Earle Bruce.

When Marshall Has The Ball

With a new coaching staff making their debut on Thursday night for Marshall, any conjecture on what the offense is going to look like will be just that—conjecture.

The Ohio State coaching staff will be looking at film of last year's team in order to get an idea of the level of talent that will meet them on the field; but as for systems and schemes, they'll have to look at all of the recent stops of the Marshall offensive coaching staff.

Head Coach Doc Holliday has spent the last five years split between Florida (2005-2007) and West Virginia (2008-2009), so it wouldn't be unusual to expect some semblance of those two types of offense at times.

However, reports have this offense more pass-oriented, which would jibe with their depth chart which features four wide receivers (or a tight end), and just a single running back.

Regardless of exactly what the offense looks like, we can expect to see plenty of quick passes. The offense has pre-snap reads which dictate where the ball is going. For the most part, the ball will be released as quickly as possible.

Quarterback Brian Anderson started all thirteen games last year, but threw 13 interceptions to his 14 touchdowns. He seems to love the new shotgun offense and hasn't been shy about blasting the old offense. There appears to be less post-snap reading for the quarterback, which apparently suits him better.

Anderson gained 211 yards on the ground last year as well, so if he is asked to carry the ball at times, he's not completely unaccustomed to it.

Because of Marshall's spread offense, the Buckeye defense will counter with their nickel package, which will see nickel back Tyler Moeller on the field as much or more than strongside linebacker Andrew Sweat.

Moeller missed all of the 2009 season with an injury, and now with both starting cornerbacks for Ohio State banged up but playing, there may be some spots for Marshall to hit some high notes in the passing game.

The top receiving target will be sophomore Antavious Wilson (6'0” 191), who caught 60 passes for 724 yards and three touchdowns last season. He has the ability to take a quick pass, make a slight move and then get upfield. Despite only being a sophomore, he may be more experienced than the cornerbacks he goes against when seniors Chimdi Chekwa and Devon Torrence are on the sideline nursing their nicks.

Backup cornerbacks Corey Brown and Travis Howard should see a good deal of playing time, and if recent performances in practice are any indication, both underclassmen should be up for the challenge.

Even though a quick passing game should be expected, the Marshall offensive line will still have their hands full with an Ohio State defensive front that boasts size and speed from all angles. Fortunately for the Herd, they return three starters from last year and a fourth from 2008 who lost his job last season. In total, Marshall's starting offensive line has 73 starts under their belts and boasts Big Ten size to boot.

Experienced or not, they have yet to face a defensive attack like they'll see from the Buckeyes, and that's including last season's 52-10 loss to Virginia Tech. Though to compare last year's Marshall offense to this year's version is an exercise in windmill tiltery. Everything has changed.

Starting defensive end Nathan Williams will be sitting this one out with an injury. In his place will be fourth-year junior Solomon Thomas, who has shown promise from Sunday to Friday, but has yet to do much on a Saturday.

Marshall will likely have to pass to run, because if they think they can spread the Ohio State defense out and just run the ball with their single back, they are mistaken. They will need to get the Buckeye back seven on their heels if they want to run. But that's going to be awfully hard to do with veteran linebackers Ross Homan and Brian Rolle patrolling things. They've seen just about every type of offense you can come up with and they generally aren't caught off guard by anything new.

Sophomore running back Andre Booker (5'10” 178) is currently listed as the starter for the Herd. Last season he carried the ball just 15 times for 73 yards. His backup is Martin Ward, who was also the second running back last year, finishing the season with 393 yards rushing 82 carries. We can probably expect split carries from these two unless somebody emerges with the hot hand.

The special teams for Marshall will have its ups and downs this season, and likely on Thursday night as well. The Thundering Herd will be replacing their place-kicker, but at least they'll be doing it with somebody who played a good bit in 2008. Junior Tyler Warner was 3/5 on field goals in 2008, and made all five of his extra points.

The punting game will once again be in the hands of Kase Whitehead, who netted 33.4 yards per punt last season. That's not a great number and he may want to add about 15 yards per kick onto that average if Marshall is going to have any chance in this game.

A possible equalizer on special teams for the Herd, however, may be Andre Booker, who was pretty decent on punt returns last year, averaging 20.4 yards on his nine returns, including a touchdown.

Of course, Marshall would first need to force some punts.

When Ohio State Has The Ball

The talk for the last month or so is that Ohio State may actually become more of a passing team this year, and we should see initial evidence of that early and often on Thursday night.

Quarterback Terrelle Pryor apparently has the confidence of Jim Tressel, and since Tressel is the one calling the plays, it stands to reason that we'll see that confidence put on display.

Expect to see many of the same quick pass plays that we saw in the Rose Bowl. Not only does this increase Pryor's confidence, but it gets the ball outside the hash marks and into the hands of playmakers with fewer defenders around them.

Since there is currently no established third receiver for the Buckeyes, starters Devier Posey and Dane Sanzenbacher should be pretty busy early on. Marshall will be breaking in a new cornerback and a new safety this year, and nobody on the roster will be able to stay with Posey or Sanzenbacher for an entire half.

The third receiver to watch could very well be tight end Jake Stoneburner. At 6'5” 245 pounds, he will provide a mismatch that no linebacker or safety on the roster will be suited for.

The best way for Marshall to disrupt the passing game would be with a tenacious pass rush. Defensive end Vinny Curry led the defensive line in sacks last year with 3.5. He will start at one end spot. His bookend mate will be redshirt freshman James Rouse. Rouse provides good size (6'5” 231), but seems to be an ideal candidate for abuse on misdirections and zone reads.

If things stay true to form from last year for this defense, much of the pass rush will come from blitzing weakside linebacker Mario Harvey. Harvey (6'0” 250) led the team with 7.0 sacks last year, but he only finished with 8.5 tackles for loss. Meaning, if he isn't blitzing, he isn't usually going to be found making plays in the backfield. Of note, he recorded the second fastest 40-yard dash time on the team (4.35 seconds) during the offseason.

The Buckeye offense will eventually establish a suffocating running attack, buoyed by an offensive line that returns four starters from last year and should be even better than they were in 2009. Add in the infusion of two more running backs to last year's effective stable, and while people will want to see more passing, it will be hard to keep from running the ball with so many capable tailbacks.

Brandon Saine will likely get the start at running back for the Buckeyes, and the Herd defense is going to have to follow him all over the field, because he has as good a pair of hands as anybody on the roster. If he somehow gets behind the defense on a wheel route, he will score.

Trying to stop the Buckeye running game will be the responsibility of a defensive line that is anchored by two new starters at defensive tackle. Although both Johnny Jones (6'5” 301) and Delvin Johnson (6'3” 300) have a combined 24 starts to their credit, only four of them came last year.

The Marshall defense has the size of a Big Ten defense, but the depth and talent are lacking.

The Buckeyes will be employing a new punter this season, as sophomore Ben Buchanan will be repeatedly called upon to take part in the most important play in football. Buchanan averaged 42.8 yards on his four punts last season.

Place-kicker Devin Barclay is back again this year after splitting the kicking duties with Aaron Pettrey last year. Barclay has shown a stronger leg than he did last season, and has hopefully kept his accuracy.

Ohio State will be looking to get new life in the return game this season, and will be using sophomore running back Jordan Hall to try and find it. Hall has tremendous cutting ability, which should suit him well on punt returns.

How It Will End Up

Both teams should come out firing in the passing game, which means there will be some early hiccups on offense.

Marshall will look to test the new Ohio State safeties, but if Brian Anderson holds the ball too long, he'll either lose it getting sacked, or throw an interception after telegraphing a pass.

Attacking the safeties is a nice idea, but the offensive line has to give the receivers enough time to run.

The Buckeyes will get a fairly early score, but will bog down a bit as the offensive coaches run subs in and out for a few series.

The Herd will also get an early score, but that will be it for the first half. The Ohio State defense will bend in the second half, but per usual they won't break.

The Buckeyes will begin to fully establish the run in the second half en route to a suffocating win.

The second half will last a little over an hour, after which everybody can get back to their fretting about The Game.

Ohio State 31 – Marshall 10

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