No. 3/3 USC (1-0) vs. No. 8/7 Ohio State (1-0)

Date: Saturday, September 12
Time: 8:00 PM ET
Place: Ohio Stadium – capacity 102,329
TV: ESPN will televise the game with Brent Musberger, Kirk Herbstreit and Lisa Salters.
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.
From AccuWeather.com: Partly cloudy skies and a game time temperature of 67 degrees.
Latest Line: USC is a 7-point favorite. The Over & Under is 45.
Series History: This is the 23rd meeting between the two programs. USC holds a 12-9-1 series edge over Ohio State.
Last Meeting: USC won 35-3 at the Los Angeles Coliseum last year.

A day of redemption? We shall see tonight.

A couple of keys for the Buckeyes. First and foremost, they are going to have to play a mistake-free game which includes no turnovers, no silly penalties, and no blown coverages. Defensively, Ohio State must stop the run and make USC’s freshman quarterback Matt Barkley beat the Buckeyes with his arm. But that’s easier said than done. At the very least the defense needs to keep the Trojans in front of them and avoid the big play.

Offensively, the comparisons of Terrelle Pryor to former Texas quarterback Vince Young are never ending. But Pryor has yet to post Young-like numbers. Last week against Navy, Pryor has just 174 yards passing. Ohio State will not win by passing for less than 200 yards. They are going to need a coming-out party of sorts for Pryor, who will literally have to take this team on his back.

Against USC in the 2006 Rose Bowl, Young was 30-of-40 passing for 267 yards and he rushed for another 200 yards on 19 carries with three scores. Granted, those are insane numbers, but if Pryor can throw for 250 and run for another 100, the Buckeyes have a really good chance for an upset win.

At the end of every preview, I put my prediction down. This week, do I follow my heart or my head? My brain says USC wins by about 10-14 points, but my heart says…

Ohio State 41, USC 38

Tags: Football by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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Right: Coach Tressel speaking to reporters and other bar patrons at Bernie’s Bagels, Tuesday afternoon. (Ansel Adams Photo)

It’s that time of the week during football season where I disguise myself as a sports reporter and crash Jim Tressel’s weekly press conference at the Bernie’s Bagels on N. High St.

I swear, each week when he drones on and on about this, that and the other for 40 minutes I drift off into space. Again, nothing earth-shattering in terms of information, and I spent most of the time wishing I hadn’t had that Filet-o-Fish sandwich for lunch. (“Give me back that Filet-O-Fish.”)

Some of coach’s opening statements:

Navy’s a tough one. Last year 12 out of 13 games they scored in the opening drive and we made it one for one for them this year, and you knew they were never going to stop playing. And I thought that we did some good things in the ball game. We did some things that we’ve got to get better at. And now we have all that film.”

Later on, Coach T talks about backup quarterback Joe Bauserman. Granted, I thought it was a bad idea bringing him in during the second quarter vs. Navy, just when it seemed that Terrelle Pryor was getting into a groove, but I do see his point. Just think it wasn’t the best time:

We were able to get Joe Bauserman in, which I thought was critical to make sure we did that because we feel as if you always have to have two quarterbacks ready to step in front of that huddle.”

Then on to USC:

And Southern Cal was obviously very impressive in their opening game. They’re going to be a great football team again. I thought their young quarterback demonstrated a command that might have been beyond his years for a youngster that just came in in the spring and had some spring practice and probably had some increased reps a little bit this preseason because of the injury to the other fellow and took advantage of that, grabbed the job, and stepped up and was very efficient. He’s got some great people around him and he recognizes that and distributes the ball very, very well, gets them in the right plays, make the checks and all those things.”

Coach Tressel was then asked about how the USC offense affected OSU’s defense last year:

They have an excellent knack of coming up with what we call explosive games. They might go a couple plays and it’s business as usual and then, boom, all of a sudden it’s a 17-yarder. And so they hit us with a couple big ones, but probably the thing that affected our defense as much as anything was the fact that we turned it over on offense.”

Coach then gives updates on the status of DeVier Posey and Ray Small:

Ray looked a little peaked on Sunday when he came into the training room and yesterday looked like he was getting a little more life back in him, but he had a good case of it whatever it was, so I think he’s coming along. DeVier didn’t work much yesterday. I expect him to here in the next day or so.”

Jimmy T. then talks about the play of Terrelle Pryor against Navy:

All in all, I thought Terrelle had a command of what we were doing. He did a good job leading the group. He was into it and understood what they were trying to do against us, which sometimes in an opening game — they were probably a 12% blitz team coming into the game and I don’t know if they ended up 65% blitz or I don’t know what, and handled that change and those kinds of things. I thought all in all, he had a very efficient day.”

Senator Sweater Vest then address the fact that Ohio State dropped two spots in the AP poll and he was asked if he was surprised, but then again it’s only week two, who cares, right?:

Gosh, I don’t know. Yeah, I guess. I’m trying to remember, I catapulted someone way up, I think Ole Miss moved up significantly and Oklahoma State had a heck of a win. To me there were some impressive wins. Boise State had — Cincinnati had an impressive win. You know, it’s so early that those are irrelevant unless you win all your games or nearly all your games.”

One idea I had to defend against USC was to sneak that eighth guy into the box and almost dare the Trojans to throw the football, but Coach Tressel dismisses my idea here:

I think what makes Southern Cal a challenge, talent aside, they’re so talented, but they’re so balanced. You can’t say we’re going to force them to pass, we’re going to put 16 guys in the box and they’re not going to run it, well, then they’re going to pass it. And just the opposite, oh, we’re going to double those great receivers and all that stuff. Well, if you’re doubling those great receivers you don’t have many guys in the box and they’re going to hurt you running. So to me the fact that they’re so balanced and they do run at you and misdirect you and have got lots of speed lots of places, speed is crucial, so real challenging.”

Ohio State is currently a six-and-a-half-point underdog at home to USC, so it’s apparent that Coach Tressel doesn’t hang out with the likes of Pete Rose or Art Schlichter:

I learn something from you guys every day I come. I had no idea on the line, other than their line, their line is darn good, on both sides by the way. I don’t know. The role I like is that I’m on Ohio State and we’re playing USC, that’s what I like.”

Coach Tressel then concludes the press conference by talking about USC and by forgetting where he is, mentioning Youngstown before he corrects himself and says Columbus:

But they’re good across the board. It’s a great challenge. It’s great to have Youngstown — I’m getting old, Columbus, Ohio highlighted and the whole world coming to watch us. They’re a great football team. We’re trying to become one.”

Tags: Football by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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Right: Freshman quarterback Matt Barkley threw for 223 yards and a TD vs. San Jose State, last Saturday. (AP Photo)

While Ohio State was just a few plays away from going 11-2, and another few snaps from being 12-1 last season, the Buckeyes were about 80 more plays away from going undefeated after the 35-3 public flogging in front of 93,607 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum where the Southern California Trojans took the Buckeyes to the woodshed, last September.

The only blemish on the Trojans’ record last year came at the hands of another OSU, as the Oregon State Beavers upset USC, 27-21, in Corvallis five days later. After that, Southern California ran the table, eventually giving another Big Ten team thorough beatdown as the Cardinal & Gold claimed a 38-24 victory over Penn State in the Rose Bowl to finish the 2008 season 12-1.

Head coach Pete Carroll returns nine starters on offense, though last year’s starting quarterback, Mark Sanchez, unexpectedly skipped his senior season to enter the NFL Draft. Carroll, though, has never had any problems plugging in a new signal-caller, but this is the first time during his nine-year tenure at USC that he has had to replace a starting QB in back-to-back seasons.

True freshmen Matt Barkley (6-2, 230), who graduated high school a semester early and enrolled at USC to participate in spring football drills, is now the Trojans’ starting quarterback. The prep All-American from Mater Dei High in Santa Ana was the Gatorade national prep player of the year in 2007, becoming the first junior to be so honored.

In USC’s 56-3 win over San Jose State on Saturday, Barkley was 15-of-19 passing for 233 yards and a touchdown.

Ten different players hauled in passes from Barkley and backup quarterback Aaron Corp as junior wide receiver Damian Williams (6-1, 195) led USC with three receptions for 67 yards. Junior wide reciever Ronald Johnson (6-0, 190), who suffered a broken collarbone during preseason camp, is still out for another 4-6 weeks and will not play against Ohio State.

Another thing Carroll has going for his offense is that he has a stable of swift running back and five starters returning on the O-line.

Senior Stafon Johnson (5-11, 210) along with juniors C.J. Gable (6-0, 205) and Joe McKnight (6-0, 190) combined to rush 1,981 yards and 19 touchdowns in 2008. Johnson led in attempts (138), yards (705) and TDs (9). But last Saturday it was all McKnight, who rushed for 145 yards on 14 carries and two touchdowns. Johnson and Gable combined to rush for 74 yards on 13 attempts.

The offensive line, arguable one of the best units in the nation, returns five starters and 2 part-time starters from last season, anchored by junior center Kristofer O’Dowd (6-5, 300), who was a first-team, All-Pac 10 selection in 2008. Senior left guard Jeff Byers (6-3, 290) is a two-year starter who was granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA because he missed 2005 and 2006 with injuries.

Defensively, the Trojans lost several key players from a year ago. Gone are linebackers Rey Maualuga, Brian Cushing and Kaluka Maiava, along with defensive end Clay Matthews and strong safety Kevin Ellison. Those were five of the top six tacklers from last season.

Only three defensive starters return from last year’s team. Senior free safety Taylor Mays is a 6-foot-3, 230-pound freak of nature who can run a sub 4.3, 40-yard dash. He is the Trojans’ top returning stopper after recording 53 tackles in 2008.

Other starters returning include senior cornerback Josh Pinkard (6-1, 215) and junior defensive tackle Christian Tupou (6-2, 285). Others who have seen significant playing time are: junior defensive end Everson Griffen (6-3, 280), senior strong safety Will Harris (6-1, 210), senior cornerback Kevin Thomas (6-1, 190), junior cornerback Shareece Wright (6-1, 185), junior strongside linebacker Michael Morgan (6-4, 220) and senior defensive tackle Averell Spicer (6-2, 295).

After having one of the top recruiting classes for the last five-plus years running, USC doesn’t rebuild, they reload. The Trojans will enter Ohio Stadium on Sept. 12 against Ohio State several point favorites, and it’s going to take a mistake-free game by the Buckeyes to pull off the upset, but it can be done. It needs to be done. Southern Cal is a national title contender, while Ohio State needs a win to garner national respect.

Tags: Football by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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Right: Ohio State linebacker Brian Rolle intercepts a Ricky Dobbs’ two-point conversion pass attempt and returns it 99 yards to give the Buckeyes a 31-27 win.
(AP Photo)

With 2:23 left to play in the game, Navy scored on a 24-yard run by quarterback Ricky Dobbs that brought the Midshipmen within a two-point conversion of tying the game at 29-all. Luckily for the scarlet-clad faithful inside Ohio Stadium there’s a man named Brian Rolle.

Rolle, a rather smallish middle linebacker listed at 5-11, 221-pounds, stepped up and stepped in to intercept Dobbs’ two-point conversion pass and raced 99 yards the other way to give Ohio State the two points and sealed Navy’s fate as the Buckeyes went on to win 31-27 in front of 105,092 fans at The ‘Shoe, Saturday afternoon.

While there were some positives, there were also quote a few negatives in Ohio State’s play.

One positive, the Buckeyes took the game’s opening drive and marched 49 yards in six plays that was capped off on a 38-yard touchdown pass from Terrelle Pryor to Dane Sanzenbacher in a drive that took only two minutes and 23 seconds off the clock.

One negative is that Navy scored on their first possession, going 80 yards in 15 plays as Dobbs raced 16 yards to paydirt on a quarterback draw play when the Midshipmen were facing a third-and-2.

Another negative is that on Ohio State’s next possession, the Buckeyes were able to drive all the way down to the Navy 10 yard line, but could only come away with an Aaron Pettrey 23-yard field goal after two plays and a penalty netted minus-3 yards.

After both teams traded punts, another positive is that the Buckeyes were able to forced one of the three Midshipmen turnovers on the day as Thaddeus Gibson knocked the ball away from Dobbs and it was recovered by OSU’s Ross Homan.

With just over 12 minutes left in the second quarter, Ohio State was able to take advantage of Navy’s miscue as the Buckeyes used the short field and went 44 yards for a touchdown as Pryor ran around the left end and into the house for a 2-yard TD seven plays later that put OSU ahead 17-7.

After Navy was unable to sustain a drive and was forced to punt, Ohio State took over at their own 38 with 5:44 left until halftime. It was then that Buckeyes’ head coach made a puzzling decision. Instead of having Pryor back out playing quarterback, he inserted backup Joe Bauserman. Now I can understand why he wants to get Bauserman some playing time. After watching Oklahoma lose their quarterback, Sam Bradford, to an injury, you need someone with some experience if the unforeseen should happen. But it was neither the time or place to put a backup in the game. Pryor was just starting to get into a groove.

Even though I thought it was a bad move putting Bauserman in the game, he was 3-of-5 passing for 36 yards as the Buckeyes were able to move the ball down to the Midshipmen 8 yard line before settling on a 23-yard field goal by Pettrey with 58 seconds remaining until halftime, putting Ohio State ahead 20-7.

Both teams traded punts to start the second half before Navy mounted a 15-play, 99-yard scoring drive that resulted in a 16-yard touchdown pass from Dobbs to Marcus Curry that trimmed Ohio State’s lead down to 20-14 with 1:24 left in the third quarter.

The Midshipmen faced third down situations just twice in that drive. On a third-and-5 at their own 6, Dobbs gained six yards on a keeper over left tackle for a first down. The only other time Navy faced a third down was on the touchdown play when facing a third-and-14 from the OSU 16 yard line.

On the Buckeyes next turn with the ball, Ohio State went ahead 23-14 on a 52-yard field goal by Pettrey with 14:11 left to go.

Shortly thereafter, OSU’s Kurt Coleman forced a fumble that was recovered Doug Worthington at the Navy 30 yard line, and it took just three plays to cash in on the Midshipmen miscue as Herron took a pitch and ran six yards around the left end for the score that put the Buckeyes ahead 29-14 with 11:56 left after Pettrey’s PAT attempt was wide-right.

Five plays into Navy’s next turn with the pigskin, Coleman intercepted a Dobb’s pass at the OSU 48 yard line with 9:31 remaining. Game over, right? Not even close.

The Buckeyes were able to drive down to the Midshipmen 15 yard line, but on fourth-and-2, head coach Jim Tressel gambled by going for it instead of trying for the chip-shot field goal. Herron was stopped short and Navy took over on downs at their own 14.

It took just one play for the Midshipmen to get back into the game as Curry was able to get one-on-one coverage from strong safety Anderson Russell who beat him deep and scored on a 85-yard pitch and catch from Dobbs with 6:15 to go.

Now with the Buckeyes leading 29-21, all Ohio State needed was a long, time-consuming drive to drain the clock and maybe put some points on the board. Neither of that happened as Pryor threw an interception that gave Navy good field position at the OSU 33 yard line.

In just thee plays, the Midshipmen got the needed 33 yards for the touchdown as Dobbs scored on a 24-yard draw play that cut the Buckeyes’ lead down to 29-27 with 2:33 left. A two-point conversion would of tied the game, but Rolle saved the day with his interception.

While I applaud Ohio State for scheduling a far better opponent than some Mid-American Conference member or an FCS (Division I-AA) team, like so many big time programs do to start the season, I am going to have to think that the Buckeyes were looking ahead to the USC game next week.

Another thing that I think was clearly evident is that defensively, Ohio State did not have any answers for Navy’s triple-option offense, even though the coaching staff had eight months to prepare for this game.

One thing I also noticed is that I think Brandon Saine is the better option at running back for Ohio State. Saine had 53 yards on nine carries for an average of 5.9 per attempt. Herron averaged 4.2 yards after he totaled 72 yards on 17 attempts.

Pryor has a decent day passing the football, completing 14-of-21 attempts for 174 yards and one score, but he did have that one interception that was almost fatal.

There’s just six days left until USC comes to town. Not sure how much a team can improve in that short amount of time.

Tags: Football by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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