Football Friday! Penguin Edition
No. 2/3 Ohio State (0-0) vs. Youngstown State (0-0)
Date: Saturday, August 30
Time: 12:00 PM ET
Place: Ohio Stadium – capacity 102,329
TV: Big Ten Network will televise the game. Thom Brennaman will call the play-by-play with analysis from Charles Davis. Charissa Thompson is the sideline reporter.
Radio: WBNS-AM 1460 The Fan in Columbus is the flagship station for the 73-station Ohio State Radio Network. The Jim Tressel pregame show airs 30 minutes prior to kickoff. “Big Daddy” Paul Keels will call the play-by-play and will be assisted by former Buckeye Jim Lachey in the booth and Marty Bannister on the sidelines.
Weather: Partly cloudy skies and a game time temperature of 79 degrees.
On the eve of Ohio State’s season-opener versus Youngstown State, head coach Jim Tressel is now the highest paid coach in the Big Ten.
Tressel, who is under contract until the end of January 2013, received a raise today of more than $1 million annually than the previous agreement.
Tressel’s list of starters who will not be in the lineup when Saturday’s game gets underway is growing.
Junior strong safety Kurt Coleman, who rolled an ankle in practice on Monday, will not play against Youngstown State. In his place will be sophomore Jermale Hines, a 6-foot-2, 212-pound converted linebacker who was listed as the nickelback on the depth chart.
We already know that starting cornerback Donald Washington will sit this one out against the Penguins as he serves a two-game suspension of violating an unspecified team rule, and sophomore Chimdi Chekwa will start instead.
Aaron Gant, Nick Anderson, Tyler Moeller, and DeVon Torrence will also get their opportunities to play in the secondary.
Defensive tackle Doug Worthington will not start either following his DUI arrest last month, but will play.
All three quarterbacks, senior Todd Boeckman, redshirt freshman Joe Bauserman, and true freshman Terrelle Pryor are all expected to play by the end of the first half. In what sequence, though, remains to be seen. My best guess is that Bauserman comes in first, but Pryor plays more.
In the running game, Beanie Wells will get his share of carries, and redshirt freshman Boom Herron will be the first one off the bench. How much, if at all, sophomore Brandon Saine will play remains to be seen. He’s not mentioned on the depth chart at running back, senior Maurice Wells is the other one of the three that are, but Saine is listed as a kick returner.
All four wide receivers on the depth chart are your usual suspects with senior Brian Robiskie, juniors Brian Hartline and Ray Small along with sophomore Dane Sanzenbacher. It will be interesting to see who else gets an opportunity to play. Taurian Washington? DeVier Posey? Flash Thomas? All should factor in at some point during the game.
Defensively, Ohio State may show a new look on occasion, switching from their conventional 4-3 alignment with a 3-3-5 stack defense.
Last year, the depth chart had two defensive ends and two defensive tackles on the D-line. This year, Lawrence Wilson is listed as the defensive end, with Todd Denlinger and Cameron Heyward at the tackles. Nader Abdallah is the starting in place of Worthington at nose tackle, a position Ohio State has not had on their roster in awhile.
The linebackers generally are aligned behind the linemen, hence the name “stack,” instead of in the gaps, while there are five defensive backs. There’s two cornerbacks, two safeties and a free safety.
But the strong safeties are more hybrid linebackers/defensive backs, like Hines or Moeller, which are called “field spurs” or just “spurs.”
They can creep up towards the line of scrimmage for run support, blitz, drop back into a zone, or cover either a tight end or back in man coverage.
Not sure how much of this you will see this against Youngstown State, if at all, but you will against teams that use the spread offense.
The 2008 edition of the Penguins are younger than the team that made the trip to Columbus last year, with nine underclassmen making their first collegiate start against the Buckeyes.
Junior quarterback Todd Rowan is also making his first start of his career, though Toledo transfer Brandon Summers will also likely take some snaps.
Youngstown State is banged up as well. The Guins’ top rusher from a year ago, senior Kevin Smith, will not play Saturday due to a pulled hamstring and has missed most of fall camp. His backup, junior Jabari Smith, along with redshirt freshman Kamryn Keys will get the bulk of the carries.
The strength of the Penguins’ D is on the line with senior FCS All-American defensive tackle Mychal Savage, and in the secondary with two veteran cornerbacks with senior Jarvis Richards and junior Lenny Wicks.
Unfortunately for YSU, all three linebackers, seniors Mike Barlak and Nate Ward. along with sophomore Jordan Edwards will be making their first start ever. The Penguins top tackler from a year ago, junior Roshon Simons, a 6-foot-1, 235-pound linebacker from Eastmoor Academy in Columbus, went down with a knee injury two weeks ago and will not play.
Prediction and Analysis
After losing two national title games in a row and with all of the all of the experience coming back, this Buckeye team is on a mission and will dispose of the young Penguins quickly in a workman-like fashion.
Coach T won’t run up the score on his old team, but Ohio State will still score a fair amount of points. If Youngstown State does get on the board, it will be late in the game against third-teamers.
Ohio State 45, Youngstown State 7
