Indiana (3-1, 0-1) vs. Ohio State (3-1, 1-0)

Saturday, October 3

7:00 p.m. EDT

Memorial Stadium – Bloomington, Indiana

Both Ohio State and Indiana enter Saturday’s game with identical 3-1 overall records. That’s where the similarities end.

The Hoosiers have played one Division I-AA team, Eastern Kentucky, and beat them by six points. Then hung on to knock off Mid-American Conference member, Western Michigan, 23-19, before taking down another MAC school, Akron, 38-21, even though the Zips were playing without their starting quarterback.

So records can be misleading early in the season, like a mirage.

Hoosier fans, meanwhile, are hanging their hat on a 36-33 loss to No. 23 Michigan, last week. The Wolverines, though, have also played two MAC schools plus an overrated Notre Dame. Michigan is, without a doubt, overrated themselves.

Indiana was picked by most, if not all, to finish dead-last in the Big Ten. Last season, the Hoosiers were just 3-9.

Ohio State’s defense has pitched back-to-back shutouts, though they will be without the services of strong safety Kurt Coleman. If there’s one game where you can afford to have one of your best players sit out, it’s against Indiana.

The Buckeye offense will get a boost as junior running back Brandon Saine will start in place of sophomore Dan Herron, who has been bothered by a sprained ankle all week. I have said this many times so far this season, Saine is the better back and should be starting. Here’s hoping he lives up to my expectations.

Statistically, Indiana’s defense has been very tough against the run, which includes holding Michigan to 149 yards on 50 attempts, so clearly if the weather permits, Terrelle Pryor is going to have to throw the ball more than 12 times this week. IU has given up 278 yards passing to Eastern Kentucky and another 266 to Western Michigan, so I am thinking Pryor will have a big game, too.

Another positive is that even though this game is at Indiana, there should be 15-20,000 Buckeye fans that will fill up the 52,000-seat Memorial Stadium, which will help spur on the visiting team in this blowout.

Ohio State 34, Indiana 3

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 Bier Stube, Tuesday afternoon. (Photo via Crackberry)

It’s that time of the week during football season where I disguise myself as a sports reporter dressed up in a dorky golf shirt and Dockers to crash Jim Tressel’s weekly press conference at the Bier Stube on N. High St.

As always, Senator Sweater Vest talks about the past game, the upcoming game, and he also mentions the players of week awards which is something he did last week for the first time this season.

First, Coach T talks about how his team fared against Illinois:

Obviously our defense sets the tone. Even if the opposing team starts a couple first downs and so forth, they don’t panic, they just keep playing, come up to the play. Brian Rolle coming up with the play in the first drive obviously was huge. From a winning performance standpoint, we had maybe five on the defensive side and three or so on the offensive side, so it wasn’t a flawless performance by any means.”

…anything else?

We enjoyed the decisiveness of the score and the fact that it was a shutout was something you take tremendous pride in as a defensive football team, but we’ve obviously got a lot of work to do.”

“The Vest” then talks about this week’s award winners and he starts with the Special Teams Player of the Game…

Aaron Pettrey, I thought, on a day like that, to bang a couple field goals outside of 45 and they were at a time when you really needed them to get something on the board when you had some field position and didn’t quite execute well enough to cash in touchdown-wise.”

The Defensive Player of the Game was?

From a defensive standpoint, Doug Worthington was very, very steady. His leadership has been steady. He was the defensive player of the game.”

And the Offensive Player of the Game was?

Offensively, our staff had a little bit of a difficult decision trying to decide between Boom Herron and Brandon Saine, so they decided to name Boom and Zoom as the offensive players of the week and I think they combined for over 150 yards rushing and took care of the football. Both of our turnovers occurred not from the running back standpoint and they did a good job of carrying the ball and making sure that they handed it to the official and we thought that they played with good vision and good toughness and on a day where you most certainly were going to need to run, they provided that for us, and so they were the offensive players of the week.”

Hmm, and the Jim Parker Offensive Lineman of the Game was…

…Jake Ballard. Jake graded very, very well and also caught a pass for six yards, but had the highest grade on that group up front.”

…an Attack Force Player of the Game was…

….Jermale Hines. And Jermale did a good job. We were in nickel most of the time, so he was in that attack force a good bit of the time and is a very good player and continues to get better and better and was awarded that attack force player”

Now for some “coach-speak” on Indiana:

The thing I like about Indiana’s team, when Coach Hoeppner went in there a few years back, they put a plan together. Obviously unfortunately he passed, but his plan has remained and Coach Lynch and the rest of the staff took over and have just tried to carry it on, and right now if you look at their defensive side, for instance, I think there are like seven true seniors, either four this-year or fifth-year seniors that are contributing and there’s four fifth-year juniors. There are guys that have been there, played against everybody, experienced a lot, and they play with that maturity, and then over on the offensive side I think there’s at least three or four of those big guys up front that have started some amazing amount of games. They’ve started 80 some games on their offensive line going into the year, and so they have that background. They’ve settled in. I thought last year they hurt themselves a little bit by having that unsettling issue at quarterback. Sometimes it was Chappell, sometimes it was Lewis and back and forth and it was tough to get continuity for them and Chappell is their guy. They brought in an influx of young talent and you can see the young guys making some plays.”

What about the suspension to Coleman? How will that affect you? And how’s the health of your team, Jimmy T?

Well, you can never look at losing a player as something that stops you in your tracks because guys sprain ankles, they twist knees, they pull hamstrings, they hurt elbows. You better have been getting ready the next guy at any position. So do you like losing guys? No. I think we’ve been pretty fortunate. Jimmy Cordle will still be out. Tyler Moeller, obviously, is out. Aaron Gant is a guy that we were hoping would be back by now and he’s not back. Jamaal Berry will be close and he’s looking like he’s got a chance. Zach Domicone will get back, which will be a plus for us because he was on a number of our special teams and so forth before he got injured. So hopefully you’re getting people ready so that when those things happen, you’ve got a guy to step in and I’m sure that’s what our guys will do. “

So coach man, what running back are ya gonna use? Is Boom and Saine gonna split time?

They would be the two guys that would get the most, who would get more, a lot of times depends on how they drive and keeping momentum and not wearing a guy out and so forth. We kind of felt going into the spring that those guys were going to be good ones and felt the same way in preseason and after four games, I think they can be pretty good.”

So brah, were you running up the score on the Zooker? I mean, dude, you were passing on fourth down with just over a minute or so left?

No, not at all. We only had Terrelle on the field passing 12 times up to that point.”

So, seriously coach man, the two “D’s,” Dane and DeVier have had their share of catches, but there’s no one else that’s seems to be catching on, pardon the pun. Wouldn’t you like some other dudes to get involved? Maybe get some other homies to step up?

We haven’t completed as many passes period as I’d like to complete. And really, if we’ll just throw to the guy that’s open, I really don’t care if Ray Small has 11 catches this week and Dane and Posey have none and then you ask, why aren’t you getting Dane and Posey involved? Well, because he wasn’t open. I hope we’d go that way if Ray’s the one that’s open. I think Ray and Duron and Lamaar, anything we can do to add them to the burst, because they can go, and if they get their hands on the ball — but I haven’t seen any situations where our quarterback had those guys open and went — said, well, I’m going to throw it to Posey because we came in together or I’m going to throw it to Dane because he’s my friend or whatever, but the more the merrier, I don’t mind throwing the tight ends, the backs are okay, so there’s only one ball and all of a sudden if you start running it well, then you’re going to not have as many balls to go around but those guys are coming along. They’re going to be okay. All right, Lori, we’ve got to go.”

Tags: Football by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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Right: Junior quarterback Ben Chappell became Indiana’s full-time signal-caller after playing in 11 games with three starts, last season. (AP Photo)

Ninth-ranked Ohio State (3-1, 1-0 Big Ten) crosses the border and heads over to Bloomington to take on Indiana (3-1, 0-1 Big Ten) this Saturday. Kickoff at Memorial Stadium is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET, and the game will be televised on the Big Ten Network.

Of Indiana’s three wins, two have come against Mid-American Conference members Western Michigan (23-19) and Akron (38-21), while the third victory came against FCS (Division I-AA) Eastern Kentucky (19-13).

In IU’s Big Ten opener against Michigan, the Hoosiers had their chances, but missed a 42-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter and had a pass intercepted later on in the period when it appeared that both players came down with the ball simultaneously, which by the rule would of given possession to the offense.

Head coach Bill Lynch, who enters his third year at the helm of the Hoosiers, returned six starters on offense, nine on defense on a team that went 3-9 a year ago, but lost one of his key returnees during spring ball.

Kellen Lewis, who set 16 school records as a quarterback, was dismissed from the team for an unspecified violation of team rules, last April.

Lewis became a full-time starter during his redshirt freshman season of 2006, racking up 2,221 yards passing with 19 total touchdowns and was named a Freshman All-American by both Sporting News and Rivals.com.

As a sophomore, Lewis was a second-team, All-Big Ten selection after setting Indiana’s single-season record by throwing 28 touchdown passes for 3,043 yards while completing 60.0 percent of his throws.

Before last season, Lewis was suspended for spring practice in 2008 for violating team rules, but was reinstated before the summer.

Lewis battled injuries during his junior campaign, but still threw for 1,131 yards with six touchdowns while racking up 500 rushing yards on 93 attempts with three more scores.

Lewis holds the Indiana record for touchdown passes (48), ranks third in career passing yards (6,395), and is second in total yards (8,072).

This spring, Lewis moved over to wide receiver to allow junior Ben Chappell to take all of the snaps. During Indiana’s spring game, Lewis caught five passes for 52 yards and figured to play a prominent role in the Hoosiers’ offense.

Chappell, a 6-foot-3, 235-pound junior, played in 11 of the 12 games last year, making three starts. He threw for 1,001 yards with four touchdowns and three interceptions while completing 52.3 percent of passes (80-of-153). So far this season, Chappell has completed 64.6 percent of his passes (84-of-130) for 944 yards with three touchdowns and four interceptions.

Chappell’s favorite target is sophomore wide receiver Tanden Doss (6-3, 199), who has 26 receptions for 374 yards. Sophomore wide receiver Damarlo Belcher is second on the team with 19 catches for 222 yards and a TD.

Indiana’s top returning wide receiver, senior Ray Fisher (5-9, 185) from Cleveland’s Glenville High School, who caught 42 passes for 373 yards and five touchdowns in 2008, moved to cornerback during spring drills. He is also the team’s kickoff and punt returner with one touchdown to his credit already when he took a kickoff 91 yards to the house against Akron.

Three running backs split time in the backfield with fifth-year senior Demetrius McCray (5-11, 200) leading the Hooisers in rushing with 229 yards on 43 attempts and a score. True freshman Darius Willis (6-0, 219) has toted the rock 34 times for 221 yards and three TDs, while redshirt freshman Trea Burgess (6-1, 212) gets the call mostly in short-yardage and goal line situations and has 91 yards on 31 carries with two touchdowns.

Four of the five starters on the offensive line from a year ago return, anchored by senior left tackle Rodger Saffold (6-5, 306) and senior center Pete Saxon (6-6, 303).

On defense, Indiana’s top stopper is senior middle linebacker Matt Mayberry (6-2, 244), who leads the team with 26 total tackles.

The Hoosiers front four is led by senior defensive end Jammie Kirlew, who tops the IU roster with 8.5 tackles for loss, while the other defensive end, Greg Middleton (6-3, 282), leads the squad with three sacks.

Senior strong safety Austin Thomas (6-2, 221) leads the team with two interceptions.

Tags: Football by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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Ohio State’s Terrelle Pryor takes the snap in shot gun formation during a torrential
downpour against Illinois at Ohio Stadium, Saturday afternoon. (Getty Images)

The 13th-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes notched their second shutout in as many games by defeating the Fighting Illini of Illinois, 30-0, in front of 105,219 rain-soaked fans at Ohio Stadium, Saturday afternoon.

The Buckeyes had to settled for two long field goals by Aaron Pettrey before running back Dan Herron took an option pitch from quarterback Terrelle Pryor around the left side on a 4-yard TD gallop with 7:30 left in the second quarter to put Ohio State ahead 13-0.

Illinois started their first drive of the second half deep in their own territory at the 12 yard line after a holding penalty on the kickoff. Three plays netted zero yards as Ohio State defensive end Thaddeus Gibson recorded a tackle for loss and a forced fumble. The Illini then had to punt out of their own end zone which only went 27 yards after going out-of-bounds at the UofI 39.

Working with a short field, the Buckeyes needed just five plays to reach paydirt as Heron plowed in from the 2-yard line.

Later in the third quarter, Pettrey added a 27-yard field goal to put Ohio State up 23-0.

In the fourth following an interception by Jermale Hines, the Buckeyes marched 42 yards in eight plays capped off on a 2-yard touchdown pass from Pryor to Dane Sanzenbacher that made the score 30-0, which was the final.

Report Card

Offense – Overall: B

Overall, the Buckeyes had 318 total yards on 59 plays for an average of 5.4 per snap. Ohio State reached the red zone four times, coming away with three touchdowns and a field goal. The Buckeye offense turned the ball over once as Pryor fumbled late in the fourth quarter.

Passing Game: B

Because of the steady diet of rain showers throughout the game, Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel didn’t ask quarterback Terrelle Pryor to throw the ball much, who finished with 82 yards on 8-of-13 passing and a touchdown without an interception. Dane Sanzenbacher had three receptions for 36 and a score.

Running Game: B+

Much like the 2007 game vs. Michigan in Ann Arbor which was played in the rain, Tressel opted to kept the ball on the ground for the most part. Brandon Saine had 13 carries for 82 yards, Dan Herron added 75 yards on 14 tries, Pryor toted the rock 11 times for 59 yards, and Jordan Hall chipped in 22 yards on seven chances. Overall, the Buckeyes rushed for 251 yards on 46 carries for an average of 5.1 yards per attempt.

Offensive Line: B-

Sophomore Mike Adams started in place of Andrew Miller at left tackle, which was rather surprising, though it was a given that he was going to get a fair amount of playing time. Overall, they did a good job blocking and opening up holes for Pryor and the backs when running the ball. And while they didn’t allow a sack all game, it’s kind of hard to gauge their pass blocking skills against Illinois when you only attempt 13 passes. It does seem, though, that this unit is getting better with each game, which is important because Ohio State’s biggest tests come during the final three contests at the end of the season.

“We’ve been working hard each week at getting better,” junior left guard Justin Boren said. “As a unit, we feel we’ve been improving. Practice has been going well and we’re getting results in the game.”

Defense – Overall: A-

Professor Barker doesn’t hand out A’s all of the time, but the Buckeye unit is deserving of their mark after posting their second straight shutout.

After losing the likes of NFL first-round draft picks James Laurinaitis and Malcolm Jenkins to graduation, the Ohio State defense has picked up where it left off. Against Illinois, the defense surrendered just 170 yards to the Illini (82 rushing, 88 passing) while forcing three turnovers.

Kurt Coleman led the Buckeyes with nine total tackles while defensive end Thaddeus Gibson had seven with two tackles for loss. Brian Rolle, Lawrence Wilson and Jermale Hines each had an interception.

Special Teams – Overall: B-

Aaron Pettrey was 3-of-3 kicking field goals including a 50-yarder and he made all three of his PAT attempts.

Jon Thoma had an average of 38.3 yards on three punts with a long of 52. One went inside the 20 and one went into the end zone for a touchback.

Lamaar Thomas had only one kickoff return for 20 yards and Ray Small had three punt returns for 14 yards but muffed one which was recovered by Illinois.

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