Ohio State’s Dane Sanzenbacher heads for the end zone on a 76-yard
touchdown pass from Terrelle Pryor in the first quarter. (Getty Images)

Ohio State’s Terrelle Pryor was 17-of-28 passing for 262 yards with three touchdowns while rushing for 110 yards on 12 carries and another score as the Buckeyes easily defeated the Toledo Rockets, 38-0, at Cleveland Browns Stadium on the shores of Lake Erie.

After holding Toledo to a three-and-out on the game’s first possession to start the first quarter, the Buckeyes scored quickly on just their third play from scrimmage as Pryor found junior wide receiver Dane Sanzenbacher all alone behind the defense on a 76-yard TD pass with 13:13 left in the opening frame.

It was all downhill for the Buckeyes from there.

On Ohio State’s next possession, Pryor once against found Sanzenbacher as he threaded the needle on a slant pattern for an 18-yard pitch and catch to put the Buckeyes ahead 14-0 with 5:51 remaining in the first quarter.

One of Pryor’s few mistakes in the game happened during Ohio State’s next turn with the pigskin when he tried to throw a deep ball down the near sideline and it was intercepted by Toledo’s Mark Singer at the Rockets’ nine yard line.

The Buckeyes got the ball right back after a short punt and traveled 47 yards in eight plays to take a 21-0 lead in the second period after Dan Herron scored on a 4-yard run around the right end.

Later in the second quarter, one of Ohio State’s few miscues came when the Buckeyes drove down to the Toledo three yard line and came away without any points.

With first-and-goal from the UT three, Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel called for two running plays up the middle by Herron that netted zero yards, then on third down, Pryor was flushed from the pocket and he could of ran it into the end zone but opted to try and get a pass to tight end Jake Ballard, which was nearly intercepted. Aaron Pettrey then came on to attempt a 21-yard field goal but that struck the left upright.

After holding Toledo to another three-and-out, Ohio State got the ball back with 1:04 left until halftime and the Buckeyes marched 38 yards on four plays as Pettrey split the uprights from 45-yards out as time expired and OSU went into the locker room leading 24-0.

Ohio State added a touchdown in both the third and fourth quarters to put the game away.

In the third, the Buckeyes went 86 yards in nine plays capped off on a 1-yard quarterback sneak by Pryor. The key play of that drive came when OSU faced a third-and-6 at their own 16. Pryor dropped back to pass and when he found no one open, ran around the left end for a gain of 43 yards and a first down.

The Buckeyes kept the shutout alive thanks to the play of Kurt Coleman early in the fourth quarter when he stripped the ball from Rockets’ wide receiver Eric Page at the one yard line and Ross Homan pounced on the loose ball in the end zone for a touchback.

Ohio State tacked on another TD later in the fourth on a 4-yard pass from Pryor to DeVier Posey.

Overall, it was a dominating performance on both sides of the ball for the Buckeyes. Ohio State scored points on six of the 12 possessions they tried advancing the ball on while forcing Toledo to punt 11 times. The Rockets other two possessions ended on turnovers.

Junior running back Brandon Saine gained 45 yards on nine carries, freshman Jordan Hall added 44 yards on seven tries, and sophomore Dan Herron chipped in 43 yards on 15 attempts with a TD. Dane Sanzenbacher had five receptions for 126 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Buckeyes in receiving.

Overall, Ohio State had 522 yards of total offense while holding Toledo to 210 yards. The Buckeyes had 247 yards rushing and 275 yards passing. Meanwhile, the Rockets could only muster 13 yards on the ground and 197 through the air.

Toledo’s Aaron Opelt, who was leading the NCAA in total offense, was harassed all day by the Buckeyes using different blitz packages and getting constant pressure on the quarterback. Opelt was never in a rhythm and was running for his life most of the day.

Up next, Ohio State host Illinois in the Big Ten opener for both teams, next Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET.

Tags: Football by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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Toledo (1-1) vs. No. 11 Ohio State (1-1)

The biggest question entering Saturday’s game vs. Toledo at Cleveland Browns Stadium is what will be the mindset of Ohio State after coming off a disappointing loss to USC last week? Will they still be licking their wounds? Will they be looking ahead to next week’s game against Big Ten rival Illinois?

Ohio State’s defense fared rather well against USC, minus the Trojans phantom touchdown in the first quarter where Stafon Johnson’s knee was down before the ball crossed the goal line and the final game-winning scoring drive in the fourth quarter.

Toledo’s offense will spread the ball around, as they combined the run with the pass rather well against Colorado in a 52-38 win. The Rockets ran the ball 43 times for 305 yards and attempted 23 passes for 319 yards in a game where UT was in the lead the entire time. Both running back JuJuane Collins and quarterback Aaron Opelt rushed for over 100 yards and three receivers had at least three catches.

In a 52-31 loss to Purdue the week before, Toledo trailed the entire contest and Opelt wound up attempting 69 passes as the Rockets tried to play catch up. Defensively, Toledo gave up 535 yards of total offense to Purdue, including 315 yards rushing as Boilermakers’ tailback Ralph Bolden ran for 234 yards on just 21 carries (11.1 avg.).

So as you can see, Toledo’s defense couldn’t stop a fat lady from an all-you-can-eat buffet, which is perfect for an ailing Ohio State offense.

A couple of things I noticed in the USC game. First of all, I really think that head coach Jim Treseel needs to simplify the offense in terms of checks and reads. It seems that quarterback Terrelle Pryor is thinking too much. Just get him in situations where he can make plays!

Secondly, in the first half against the Trojans, Pryor had some success throwing the ball as USC more or less sat back in a soft zone to contain his running abilities. In the second half, the Trojans came after him, making him look timid and frazzled. At 6-foot-6, 235-pounds, you can’t be afraid to take a hit!

Toledo is giving up, on average, 42.5 points per game. I would love to see Ohio State put up as many, but Tressel and Toledo head coach Tim Beckman go way back so he won’t run up the score by any means, but let’s hope there’s a little more breathing room than there was against Navy.

Ohio State 34, Toledo 17

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Right: Sports Illustrated’s Stewart Mandel at last year’s Ohio State-Penn State game in Columbus wearing a navy sweater.
(SI.com Photo)

It amazes me how some people land nice paying gigs to cover sports, yet in reality these folks never strapped on a helmet, threw a pass, or took a hit. Most probably played on their high school golf team, or tennis team, or very likely they spent hours after school with the chess club. In fact, if you gave most of these sports geeks a forearm shiver, they would probably land somewhere between next Tuesday and next Wednesday.

Sports Illustrated’s Stewart Mandel fits that description perfectly. Mandel, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, graduated from Sycamore High, a school where their students compete against the country’s best in the National Science Bowl, which has nothing to do with football. Chances are, Mandel spent his Friday nights either running water bottles out to the football team during timeouts, or was operating an expensive camcorder up in the press box.

So now this guy is an expert on college football just because he has a degree in Journalism from Northwestern University?

Thanks to former Buckeye Jeff Meade, I stumbled across an article written by Mandel on Sports Illustrated’s website where he states that “perhaps Pryor simply chose the wrong school” as he compares the quarterbacking performances of Ohio State’s Terrelle Pryor and Michigan’s Tate Forcier over the weekend.

First and foremost, the Buckeyes were taking on one of the best teams over the past decade, USC, while the Wolverines met up with a Notre Dame squad that was ranked, but shouldn’t have been.

Let’s rewind about 18 months. Pryor was trying to decide on several schools, though it appeared that his two top choices were Ohio State and Michigan. After delaying his decision six weeks, he officially became a Buckeye.

But Michigan head coach Rich Rodriguez highly coveted Pryor for his athleticism, and thought he would be a perfect fit for his spread offense. Pryor made an official visit to Ann Arbor two months before he made his decision, taking in a basketball game with Rodriguez.

Pryor just might have been a good fit in the Wolverines offensive scheme, but clearly Pryor was looking long-term. He didn’t want any part of Rodriguez’ spread offense and preferred Jim Tressel’s more pro-style attack. I’m sure when Tressel was recruiting Pryor, he often mentioned about Troy Smith and his development from an “athlete” to a complete quarterback, but that didn’t happen overnight.

Smith benefited from sitting out during the 2002 season, then played sparingly, mostly as a special teams player during his redshirt freshman year of 2003.

In 2004, Smith was the second-string quarterback behind starter Justin Zwick. In the first five games, Smith played in just two contests and attempted only five passes before taking over after Zwick fumbled on the second play of the second half and left the game with a shoulder injury during a 33-7 loss to Iowa in week six.

Smith went on to start the next five games in a row as the Buckeyes won four of those contests. During that span as the starter, Smith was 58-of-105 (55.2%) passing for 791 yards with six touchdowns and three interceptions plus he rushed for 325 yards on 70 attempts and two more scores. Against Michigan in the regular season finale, Smith accounted for 386 yards of total offense and three TDs as the Buckeyes defeated the Wolverines, 37-21.

In his junior year, Smith improved his completion percentage to 62.9% (149-237) and threw for 2,202 yards with 16 TDs to just four INTs. He also rushed for 611 yards on 136 carries and 11 TDs.

During his Heisman Trophy-winning senior campaign, Smith threw the ball more and ran less. In 2006, Smith was 203-of-311 (65.3%) passing for 2,542 yards with 30 touchdowns and just six picks while only rushing 72 times for 204 yards and another score.

Each year he improved, going from a 90.7 quarterback rating his sophomore year to a 114.7 rating during his senior season of 2006 in which he won the Heisman Trophy, the Walter Camp Award, the Davey O’Brien Award and was named consensus All-American, Sporting News College Football Player of the Year, and the Associated Press Player of the Year.

Many have once compared Pryor to another Heisman Trophy caliber quarterback, Vince Young from Texas. He, too, also benefited from sitting out during his first season for the Longhorns, then split time at quarterback with Chance Mock during his redshirt freshman year of 2003. That season, Young played in 12 games, started seven, and passed for 1,155 yards while rushing for another 998. His completion percentage was rather low at 58.7 percent and he threw only six TDs compared to seven INTs, but did score 11 rushing touchdowns.

During his sophomore season of 2004, Young was 148-of-250 (59.2%) passing for 1,849 yards with 12 touchdowns and 11 picks, which are rather pedestrian numbers. But what was extraordinary is that Young also eclipsed the century mark, rushing for 1,079 yards on 167 carries and 14 TDs.

In his junior year when Young was second in the Heisman race, he greatly improved his passing numbers while still rushing for more than a 1,000 yards. All told, Young was 212-of-325 passing for 3,036 with 26 TD tosses and 11 INTs.

Smith stayed in the program five years at Ohio State and Young was with Mack Brown at Texas for four years. Pryor has been with Tressel and the Buckeyes just a shade over a year. He still has plenty of time to blossom and mature as a player and as a person. He just needs time. And I will assume he stays until he completes his senior season.

Oh, and Stewart, if I ever need to know if it’s good chess strategy to develop both knights before the Queen’s bishop, I will give you a call.

Tags: Football by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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Right: Senior quarterback Aaron Opelt has accounted for 874 yards of total offense in two games this season, tops in the NCAA.
(Paul Nelson/RocketsDigest.com Photo)

Tom Amstutz, better known as “Toledo Tom,” was an assistant coach for the Rockets for 24 years, serving under head coaches like Nick Saban, now at Alabama, and Gary Pinkel, currently at Missouri, before taking over as UT’s head coach in 2001.

During Toledo Tom’s first five seasons, the Rockets went to four bowl games and complied a record of 47-18 while winning two Mid-American Conference championships. The last three years, though, Toledo went 13-23 with three-straight losing campaigns. The one glimmer during 2008, Amstutz’s final season, was a 13-10 victory over Michigan in Ann Arbor. But with four games left on Toledo’s schedule, Amstutz and UT athletic director Mike O’Brien came to a mutual decision that Toledo Tom should resign, which he announced on Nov. 3.

Enter Tim Beckman, an Ohio guy who was the defensive coordinator at Oklahoma State for two years before accepting the position at Toledo, last December.

Beckman, 44, spent his last two years of high school in Berea, Ohio, where his his father, Dave Beckman, worked in the front office for the Cleveland Browns.

After high school, Beckman played college football at the University of Findlay, then started his coaching career in 1988 as a graduate assistant under Pat Dye at Auburn. Most recently, Beckman concluded a two-year stint as the defensive coordinator under Mike Gundy at Oklahoma State.

Prior to joining Gundy’s staff, Beckman was the cornerbacks coach at Ohio State during the 2005-06 seasons, and was the defensive coordinator/assistant head coach at Bowling Green from 1998-2004.

At Ohio State, Beckman mentored the Buckeye cornerbacks. In 2006, Ohio State ended the year No. 12 nationally in total defense, allowing just 280.5 yards per game. The Buckeyes were fifth in the country in scoring defense, yielding only 12.8 points per game, and Antonio Smith was a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation’s top defensive back.

“Being from Ohio and having coached in the Mid-American Conference, I have always had a great respect for the tradition and accomplishments of the Toledo football program,” Beckman said. “I feel this is one of the best, if not the best football program in the Mid-American Conference, and I am honored that I have been chosen to carry on the tradition here.

Beckman inherited a team that went 3-9 last season and returned nine starters on offensive, and nine more on the defensive side of the ball.

So far during the 2009 campaign, Toledo has a record of 1-1 that includes a 54-38 win over Colorado, last Friday, and were handed a 51-32 loss at the hands of Purdue on Sept. 5.

On offense, senior quarterback Aaron Opelt (6-2, 225) enters his fourth season as the starter. Last year, Opelt completed 59.8 percent of his passes (225-of-376) for 2,176 yards with 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions.

So far in 2009 utilizing Beckman’s spread offense, Opelt is 56-of-90 (62.2%) passing for 742 yards with seven touchdowns and two interceptions. He’s also the Rockets’ second-leading rusher with 132 yards on 12 carries, one of which includes a 61-yard TD scamper against Colorado. So he has a rocket for an arm, but can motor, too.

At running back, senior DaJuane Collins (5-10, 211) gets the bulk of the carries in Toledo’s pass-happy offense and has rushed for 189 yards on 29 attempts (6.4 avg.) with two scores.

Opelt’s favorite target from a year ago, two-time All-MAC senior wide receiver Stephen Williams (6-5, 199) is tied for the team lead in receptions with true freshman Eric Page (5-10, 165), as both have hauled in 15 passes so far in 2009. Williams has 266 receiving yards to Williams’ 185 and both have two touchdowns to their credit. Three other players have seven receptions which include sophomore wide receiver Kenny Stafford (6-4, 185), sophomore tight end Danny Noble (6-5, 236), and senior wide receiver Robin Bailey (6-5, 230). One thing Opelt doesn’t really do is lock into one receiver and tends to spread the ball around, though none of those passes thrown head towards any of the running backs.

Last year, Toledo was 24th in the NCAA in sacks allowed (1.33 spg), and so far in 2009, Opelt has been sacked only once. The offensive line is anchored by senior left guard Jared DeWalt (6-4, 318) along with junior center Kevin Kowalski (6-4, 290) and junior right guard Nate Cole (6-2, 305).

While Toledo is seventh in the NCAA in total offense (558.5 yards per game) and 15th in scoring offense (42.5 points per game), it’s a totally different on the other side of the ball for the Rockets. So far in 2009 Toledo has given up, on average, 45.0 points (tied for 115th in NCAA out of 120) and 493.0 yards (110th in NCAA) per outing. Last season, the Rockets allowed 31.2 points per game and surrendered 35 or more points six times last year.

Five of the top six tacklers from a season ago return, which includes junior linebacker Archie Donald (6-2, 235), who had a team-high 119 stops in 2008 and senior roverback Barry Church (6-2, 219).

Church, a cross between an outside linebacker and safety, is a Jim Thorpe and Bronko Nagurski award candidate. He had 93 total tackles, 5-1/2 of those for loss with six pass breakups and one INT last season.

One problem Toledo had defensively last season was putting consistent pressure on the quarterback, as the Rockets had just 11 sacks all year. In two games this year, Toledo has four.

There’s a lot of speed on Toledo’s roster, which was evident in their game with Colorado, but clearly the defensive side of the ball has a ton of question marks, which is just what a doctor would order for Ohio State’s struggling offense.

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 the Blue Danube, Tuesday afternoon. (Photo via Crackberry)

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 Blue Danube on N. High St.

As I slink down into the chair with my voice recorder rolling, I momentarily drift off for my afternoon nap dreaming that I’m listening to Brian Kelly, but when I awoke it’s still Senator Sweater Vest.

Seriously, I like The Vest. I hope he stays. There are others, though, I would like to see get the pink slip within the program. And what’s the deal with Columbus Dispatch’s Bob Hunter and his fluff piece on the Tressel and the coaching staff? I guess he enjoys his comfy seat at all OSU football functions.

Anyway, without further ado, Coach Tressel and his opening statements as he later addresses the USC game:

Defensively, shoot, we played relentless. Our guys played and played and played. As I heard them talking a little bit around the course of things, I heard them talking about things like, you know what, yeah, we got five three and outs and I don’t know how many teams are going to have Southern Cal go three and out five times in a game, which is outstanding, that’s our goal to get a team to be out. Our guys were talking about, you know what, if we had one more stop, if we just had one more stop, we could have contributed to a big win.”

Then Coach T. talks about Toledo:

Tim Beckman’s going to do a good job there. Toledo is a great place. I think it’s a great football job. You get tough kids. He’s got his kids flying around. He’s got a senior quarterback, which is, I think, critical in the transition. They’ve got a veteran guy who’s been there, done that and they’ve done a good job of moving the ball. He threw it like 69 times against Purdue and they were playing Purdue pretty back and forth there and made a couple mistakes, and then bounced right back six days later, had to play on a Friday night, and thrashed Colorado pretty well.”

Later “The Vest” was asked why the coaching staff did not vote on an offensive player of the game or for an offensive lineman of the game vs. USC:

We didn’t have enough consistency. We hit some plays. We did some things, but we didn’t. It was a battle, and it was hard to be consistent. So when you have that type of result, it’s hard to say that someone was the offensive player of the game because that’s typically based on consistency of what we do, and that’s not to say everyone played terrible, I don’t mean that, but we just, as we kept thinking, what about this guy, what about this guy, well, what about this guy, we just didn’t have the consistency that we felt that you have to have.”

Before becoming a head coach, JT was a quarterbacks coach at places like Akron, Syracuse and Ohio State. Even “The Vest” himself was a quarterback at Baldwin-Wallace. Now the big cheese at OSU, Tressel likes oversseing the offense and calling plays. He was then asked if he could ever foresee a time when he’s not an integral part of the offense?

I’ve always told you guys never say never, but I’ve also always told you that I’m probably not going to sit in my office or read the USA Today or watch talk radio and get a headache, so I try to be helpful in every phase, whether it’s the punt team or the defense or the offense. I spend more time with the offense. I enjoy working with quarterbacks, but I don’t work with them on a daily basis in their meeting rooms and all that type of thing, but, no, I think I would have a hard time being at this press conference and you saying, you know, something about the offense or whatever and I had no clue. That, to me, I might as well send somebody else.”

- So it looks like “The Vest” and his ultra-conversative play-calling will continue, now and forever. -

Later, Jimmy T. was asked about making any “wholesale” changes to the offense, and of course he kind of downplayed that notion here because why fix it if it ain’t broke, huh?:

I’m not sure exactly what a wholesale change would entail. I mean, are we going to go to the Navy triple option? Probably not. Don’t know anything about it. Will we go conceptually to this or that, we think can add to the — if you look at our teams from 2001 on, they haven’t been exactly the same because, you know, you don’t have the same people. But I don’t know that we would make a wholesale, you know what, this isn’t a good idea, this wouldn’t work even if we did execute it, because that’s the only reason you do it.”

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Right: Coach Tressel trying to fire his team up during the USC game, last Saturday night.
(AP Photo)

For the second time in three games, Ohio State went toe-to-toe with one of the top teams in the nation only to fall short in the closing minutes.

First it was a gut-wrenching, 24-21, loss to Texas in the Fiesta Bowl back in January, which was then compounded by the heart-breaking, 18-15, defeat at the hands of USC this past Saturday.

Now I am not going to get on my soap box to preach to the masses that head coach Jim Tressel has to go, but his football philosophies, better known as Tressel-ball, too.

Battling for field position, the play of special teams and a rock-solid defense have always been the main traits of Tressel-ball, but it’s time to kick up the offense a notch.

At the tail end of the first quarter and the game tied at 7-all, Ohio State had first-and-goal at the USC 2 yard line, but came away with just an 18-yard field goal by Aaron Pettrey to start the second quarter and take a 10-7 lead.

The Buckeyes managed to get into the red zone just three times against the Trojans, and scored just one touchdown. In the third quarter, Ohio State got down to the USC 5, but again settled on a chip shot field goal.

In the business world, millionaires make their money by talking risks. If Tressel took more risks, maybe Ohio State wins more games against the big boys. (Note: USC was 3-of-4 on fourth down, OSU was just 0-for-1.)

Again, I am not advocating that Tressel should be fire, but he has to look deep into his own staff and make some changes. He really needs to bring in some fresh, young minds, particularly on offense to revive the program. They need to be risk-takers. Someone with “cojones.” Someone who can open up the playbook and develop young quarterbacks. Of course, though, Tressel has to go along with their vision.

One person in particular that has to be shown is walking papers is offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, Jim Bollman, who’s been on the staff since Tressel was hired in 2001.

And one this is for sure, Tressel needs to find someone who can develop young signal-callers. Time will tell about quarterbacks coach Nick Siciliano, who’s just in his first year after taking over for Joe Daniels, though the play of Terrelle Pryor has been less than impressive so far this season. Meanwhile, Daniels, who mentored Heisman Trophy-winner Troy Smith, has moved from a coaching position to an administrative one within the program.

Pryor was just 11-of-25 passing for 171 yards and one interception. His counterpart at USC, freshman Matt Barkley, where they’re known to produce some quality QBs, was 15-of-31 for 195 yards, though he threw a pick as well. But Barkley also engineered the game-winning scoring drive in the fourth quarter.

Of course, don’t get me started on the officiating. Stafon Johnson’s knee was down before the ball crossed the goal line during his 1-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-goal in the first quarter. Water over the bridge now.

Time to regroup and refocus, but things have got to change. Soon. Oh, and Dan Herron isn’t the answer at running back, either.

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