Wednesday, December 28, 2016

5 Things Ohio State Needs to Do, 5 Reasons OSU Will WIN the Play-Off



Five reasons why No. 3 Ohio State will win the College Football Playoff

by 

As we approach the 2016 College Football Playoff, many are looking at the result as a fait accompli. Ask anybody who is going to win the CFP this year, and 99 percent of them will simply say "Alabama" or "Roll Tide."
It's a sensible answer. Alabama is the defending national champion, and it has looked like the best team in the country from the very first weekend of the season. Still, while Alabama is the favorite for good reasons, this is college football we're talking about here.
Strange things tend to happen in this sport, usually when you least expect them to.
If Alabama reaches the title game, one of the two teams they could possibly face there is Ohio State, and to overlook the Buckeyes is a dangerous gambit. After all, Ohio State was the first champion of the playoff era, and it's also been one of the best teams in the country all season long.
The Buckeyes are a team that can win their second national title in three seasons, and I'm here to tell you why.
1. They have the talent: Here's all you need to know about Ohio State and its depth. After last season, the Buckeyes had 12 players chosen in the NFL Draft with three taken in the first 10 picks, five in the first round and none taken after the fourth round. It's safe to say that just about any other program in the country that suffers those kind of losses will need a year to rebound, but not Ohio State. No, when it comes to the depth chart, only Ohio State can challenge Alabama when it comes to talent on the roster.
In the five years between the 2012 and 2016 recruiting classes, Ohio State put together classes in the top seven every season. Using the 247Sports Composite rankings, Ohio State has landed five five-star players and 80 four-star players in that five-year span. Aside from Alabama and Florida State, there just aren't many other programs that have recruited on such a high level in recent years. So no matter who the Buckeyes are playing, they're usually better than the players they're lined up against.
2. J.T. Barrett doesn't turn the ball over: Over the last three seasons, Ohio State's quarterback has thrown 807 passes and carried the ball 480 times. In those 1,287 touches, he's turned the ball over a grand total of 22 times (19 interceptions, three fumbles lost). Of those 22 turnovers, 11 of them came in 2014, Barrett's first season as a starter, and the year the Buckeyes won a national title.
This year he has seven turnovers (five interceptions, two fumbles). He's also accounted for 100 touchdowns over the last three seasons, so that's a pretty good touchdown-to-turnover ratio -- particularly for somebody who has the football in his hands so often.
Turnovers can play a key role in any game, but in a playoff game like the one Ohio State will play against Clemson, and a possible national title game after that where you're playing another great team, they take on even more importance. Barrett's ability to take care of the ball has been a major boost to the Buckeyes over the last three seasons.
3. Urban Meyer wins big games: Meyer is no stranger to the big moment. In his career as a head coach, Meyer has played in eight conference title games, two CFP games, two BCS title games and four major bowl games (New Year's Six, BCS bowls). In those 16 games, he's gone 12-4. Three of those games were against Alabama and Nick Saban (two SEC title games, and a CFP semifinal), and Meyer's teams have gone 2-1 in those games (he's 2-2 overall against Saban with a regular season loss to Alabama in 2010), including the most recent meeting in the 2014 Sugar Bowl.
Of course, one of those four losses came to Dabo Swinney and Clemson in the 2013 Orange Bowl.
Still, when it really matters, Meyer's teams rise up to the challenge more often than not, and it's not a coincidence.
4. Their defense can score, too: Ohio State's offense is potent enough, but the Buckeyes defense has proven to be quite adept at changing games with scores of its own. This season, the Buckeyes returned seven interceptions for touchdowns. That alone is impressive, but the rate at which Ohio State does so is remarkable as well.
The Buckeyes have 19 interceptions as a team -- which ranks sixth nationally -- meaning they turned 37 percent of their interceptions into pick sixes. No other team in the country had six this season with Alabama and San Diego State finishing behind the Buckeyes with five apiece.
The Ohio State defense isn't just talented and capable, it's opportunistic, and its ability to not only force turnovers but turn them into scores is one of the many reasons the Buckeyes have reached the playoff. And it's one of the reasons they can win another national title.
5. They has the experience: While Ohio State's opponent in the Fiesta Bowl has been in this situation before, the Buckeyes can claim something that Clemson cannot: they've not only won a national title in the playoff era (as well as the BCS era) but beaten Alabama to do it. Clemson reached the title game last year but fell short against the Tide.
Should Ohio State get by the Tigers and head to the title game, it will do so with the confidence of a team that doesn't just believe it can beat Alabama (or Washington), but knows that it can. That kind of confidence goes a long way in games like these.





BEATING CLEMSON: A DESERT WISH LIST

braxton miller en route to a TD in the 2014 Discover Orange Bowl
41 COMMENTS
Glendale is where it's all going to finally come together.
That's how the season script you wrote in your head reaches its exciting conclusion. It's where Ohio State develops in all of the areas you've identified as being less-than-title worthy, or more pessimistically - championship repellant. Your list of needs begins with refinement in J.T. Barrett's footwork and passing accuracy - oh, sure. Isaiah Prince's pass-blocking at right tackle solidifying - of course!
BUT THERE'S MORE - a pass rush that reaches Deshawn Watson just half a second faster than it's been getting to lesser quarterbacks - obviously. Wide receivers that can actually get open and also catch the ball - yesssss. The offense must remember to not ignore Curtis Samuel - eureka! Why didn't anyone think of these sooner.
Glendale is the perfect setting for this to all finally come together. The emergence of those gaps was just the journey, and these stubborn bad guys will meet their demise in the desert. Only a true student of the game could pick up on those deficiencies in just a dozen games' worth of observation. Good job!
Still, there are some other gaps that aren't quite as easy to pick on as #ZoneSicks or #SlobProbs. The Buckeyes were fortunate to reach the desert for New Year's Eve and they cannot blink. They got into the playoff with no historic precedent. The fun history is what lies before them, and it is up to them.
So let's peel this onion a little further to reveal some of the sneakier tears - and potentially - the keys to securing Fiesta Bowl victory.

1. REPAIR THE DIRECTOR'S CHAIR

The end-of-regulation sequence against Michigan was - this is a highly-refined scientific football term - an unvarnished clusterfuck. All the times you've rewatched Curtis Samuel's Game-winning grand jété into the endzone were medicine for what occurred as the 4th quarter was slipping away while Ohio State's coaching staff and younger players did not control the R.
jt barret vs michigan 2016
Don't crumble under pressure. You too, playcallers.
Equally important - they couldn't get multiple plays called and executed in a timely manner with the most important game in the world on the line. Go ahead and rewatch those miserable moments ahead of Fight Club's game-tying field goal as J.T. Barrett stared furiously at the sideline and his teammates while they fumbled around trying to decide on a play and line up correctly.
Up until that point the Buckeyes were barreling toward the endzone, not the uprights - they fell apart and settled for the tie instead of an outright regulation victory. Ohio State beat Michigan in spite of its late 4th quarter puckering, and its reward was a full month to get this kind of crisis management fire drill better organized for college football's brightest stage.

2. HERO BALL WITH A LEAD IS UNWISE

When both teams are loaded, momentum becomes an asset. WARNING - overused John Cooper quote forthcoming: You win the game the surest way possible.
philly brown
Field the punt safely. The yardage after that is gravy.
Momentum is to be captured, groomed and protected at all costs. To wit, the last time the Buckeyes played the Tigers they had the momentum - and their foot on Clemson's throat - before they squandered it:
The biggest play of the game came in the third quarter when Ohio State led 29-20. (Philly) Brown attempted to field a punt with pressure bearing down on him and fumbled. Clemson scored on the ensuing possession and again on its next possession. In barely more than three minutes, the Tigers went from down nine to up by five.
More specifically, Philly attempted to field a punt, in traffic, while executing a spin move to create a momentum play in Ohio State's favor. Instead, the opposite happened. We've repeatedly seen this take place on punt returns even since he matriculated to the NFL - The Philly Brown Experience was succeeded by The Jalin Marshall Experience and then The Dontre Wilson Experience. 
Secure the punt. Advance the ball wisely. Preserve momentum. Win the surest way possible.

3. NO OCTOBER SURPRISES...

The Buckeyes were favored by 19 at Penn State but, if you recall, they failed to cover the spread by in-excess of those 19 points. That was unexpected. While the offense was in pieces for much of the evening, the game teetered from W to L on two plays and both involved Ohio State's kickers. That was also unexpected.
penn state blocks the kick
This was supposed to extend the lead, not lose it.
The Nittany Lions were able to flip the field by getting to Cam Johnston on a punt deep in Ohio State's territory, and then they were able to turn a lead-extending field goal attempt by the Buckeyes into the deciding score in their favor. Ohio State had that stupid game won despite ignoring Samuel for most of the evening, having no real offensive intent and just playing horrendous, fundamentally unsound football in general.
So it's not just about preserving momentum when fielding a kick. One of the hardest things to do in football is win despite having a kick blocked. Penn State did it twice that night in October. The preferred number for Glendale - and the rest of eternity - is zero.

4. ...AND NO "OCTOBER SURPRISES" EITHER

In the spirit of this Election Year, this is with regard to unexpected negativity popping up at the least opportune time. Ohio State had too many of these the last time it faced Clemson.
Noah Spence became abruptly unavailable in the lead-up to the Orange Bowl. The team was also beat up far more badly than previously thought; possibly the result of Ohio State tampering down on that type of intel (also a product of having played an extra game in Indianapolis; a task from which the Buckeyes were spared this time around).
But as it turned out, Curtis Grant could barely run. Bradley Roby pulled his gimpy self out of the game. And on top of all that, a fucking flu virus made its way through the roster and spread quickly. Braxton Miller's QB career ended in the middle of that game and he still played through it. That wasn't Ohio State at 100% strength losing to Clemson. Sixty would be generous.
None of that 11th hour shit again, please. It's a big ask to control the uncontrollable, but it cannot be worse than it was last time.

5. RELEASE THE DEATH MACHINE

We saw it emerge in those three postseason games to end that glorious 2014 run.
bosa touchdown! Blood! Thirsty!
Nobody was beating Ohio State that night.
We witnessed it in Ann Arbor last season only after the Buckeyes had forfeited their repeat bid, and then in Glendale after that. It's when every heart on the Ohio State sideline calibrates into a single terrifying drum beat. It's that moment when an Urban Meyer football team gels and comes to the confident realization that it is unfuckingbeatable. 
Ohio State becomes self-aware and shreds everything in its path. There's no bit of bad luck that can stop it, either - not Wisconsin's clodding strategy of suffocating everything fun out of football, not Alabama's roster full of aliens and dozens of shadow coaches, and not even going 0 for 6 recovering fumbles against the Rose Bowl champions in Arlington. Everything in the Buckeyes' path gets burned to the ground. 
They were not there yet against Michigan. There were moments - too early in the season, against Nebraska, at Maryland - but that machine hasn't been fully engaged yet. That moment is still to come.
But if that team makes an appearance in the desert on New Year's Eve, Ohio State will find itself preparing to play in the final football game of the season.

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Ohio State's Fickell Headed to Cincinnati, but Focused on Bowl GameS - Coaches vs Players












COLUMBUS, Ohio — On a recent evening in the Ohio State football facility, Buckeyes co-defensive coordinator Luke Fickell picks up his iPhone and glances at a few of the 275 unread text messages. He shrugs his massive shoulders and smiles at the small victories of life. Earlier in the week he had as many as 512.
Fickell, 43, is caught in the middle of two surreal opportunities. He’s preparing Ohio State’s defense for the College Football Playoff semifinal against No. 2 Clemson. He’s simultaneously beginning his career as the head coach at Cincinnati, a job he earned on Dec. 10 after arriving at Ohio State in 1992 and serving as either a player, assistant or interim coach for all but three years since.
Fickell has arguably had more impact on the Buckeye program than any single figure the past two decades. And his relentless dedication to Ohio State ended up being the biggest obstacle in his career development. He’d done so much for the place, and the place in turn meant so much to him, that leaving the reciprocal comforts proved daunting. “It’s a blessing and a curse,” Fickell said. “The blessing is that you are at Ohio State. The blessing is that it’s where you went to school and you are really good. The curse is you aren’t pushed to leave and to prepare yourself.”
To understand the mentality Luke Fickell will bring to Cincinnati, it’s best to look back at his wrestling career. In high school, Fickell compiled a 106–0 record as a wrestler, including pinning all 12 of his postseason opponents his senior year within three minutes. (The YouTube clips are gold.) As a football player, Fickell was the embodiment of a blue-collar player. His father, Pat, is a Vietnam veteran who worked in a rail yard much of his career. Luke eventually ditched wrestling for football and famously played in the 1997 Rose Bowl with a torn pectoral muscle as a senior. But he never abandoned the wrestling mentality, focusing only on what’s directly in front of him—the next game plan, recruiting call or film clip.
That changed this off-season, when Fickell made a conscious decision to start exploring head coaching opportunities. Free time isn’t easy to come by for Fickell, as he and his wife, Amy, have six kids between 2 and 14. But he set time aside this summer to build a coaching philosophy and core values, and lay out exactly how he’d run a program. “Luke has been ready for a head coaching job,” said Rutgers coach Chris Ash, who worked with Fickell as a coordinator at Ohio State. “He hadn’t made up his mind he wanted to do it.”
Once he did, Fickell reluctantly began to market himself. Even former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel, who treated self-promotion with the same disdain he did sideline fashion, told Fickell the game had changed. The old method of doing a good job and waiting for someone to notice wouldn’t work anymore. Fickell changed agents, met with Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith and put the word out through influential Buckeyes in the media world like Kirk Herbstreit, Joey Galloway and Chris Spielman. Smith called Fickel “non-promotional,” a great quality to have in a top assistant. Fickell had to act counter to his instincts and put himself out there.
In past years when schools would call Fickell, he viewed it more as an inconvenience during the throes of recruiting and bowl preparation. This time, Cincinnati called him on a Tuesday night and they met for the interview at his house that Thursday. Fickell was flying back from a recruiting trip in Dallas that evening and landed at 6:15 p.m. His interview began at 7 p.m. in his home. Fickell had just two days to prepare, but he’d been ready for months. “If you are not prepared, you have no chance,” he says. “Because of some of the stuff I did, I was really comfortable.”
In the end, everything fit. When he and Amy discussed Luke exploring coaching jobs six years ago, she mentioned Cincinnati as a preferred destination because it's close to both their families in Columbus and has a strong Catholic community. “To stay in the state and be around people you know,” Fickell said, “you couldn’t have written a better script.”
Fickell learned on the job from two national championship-winning coaches in Urban Meyer and Tressel. They have both experienced extreme success with extremely different styles.
When asked about his polar opposite mentors, Fickell immediately brings up an intriguing name—Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio. Fickell worked with Dantonio at Ohio State for two years in the early 2000s. He’s seen Dantonio’s style become a medley of two of his mentors, Nick Saban and Tressel.
Fickell hopes to combine the strengths of Tressel and Meyer with his own twist, much like Dantonio did at Cincinnati and Michigan State. He pinpointed Tressel’s people skills and consistency as traits he’d like to emulate, noting Tressel’s penchant for remembering names, connecting with people and being compassionate. Fickell brought up Meyer’s “aggressive leadership,” which focuses on taking staff and players out of their comfort zones to force them to grow. He paused for a second and then said, “The ability to combine those things would be crazy.”
Those who know Fickell best say his defining trait as an assistant coach is the strength of his relationships with the players. The depth of those relationships hasn’t gone unnoticed. “He’s going to be one hell of a dude,” said Ted Ginn Sr., the legendary coach at Glenville High School in Cleveland. “He’s going to be a good asset to Cincinnati because I know what he stands for. I know that he’s strictly for the kids.”
Fickell’s only other shot at being a head coach came in 2011 after Tressel’s departure in the messy aftermath of an NCAA investigation. Ohio State went 6–7 and Fickell recalls a mostly joyless experience, as he said he didn’t even have a press conference for nearly two weeks after becoming head coach. Fickell said he enjoyed the players and competition, but never felt the sense of achievement or accomplishment of becoming a head coach because of all the dark clouds hovering from the scandal. At Cincinnati earlier this month, he got to experience all those things. And along the way, there’s been an outpouring of good feeling from all those who’ve crossed his path over the decades at Ohio State. “If you call anyone who ever played for him, they’ll start by telling you he’s a good human being, he’s a father figure guy,” Smith said. “His impact on our program, I don’t know if you can articulate it.”
For the next week or two, Fickell’s attention will be split. But Fickell has made it clear that his vision and purpose are clear, as soon he’ll be attacking the Cincinnati job like an opponent in a singlet. Until then, forgive him if he doesn’t text you back.


Ohio State took a break from preparations for Clemson in their PlayStation Fiesta Bowl semifinal on Monday to have a little player vs. coaches challenge.
Buckeyes players and members of the coaching staff went one-on-one in a goal line tackling drill. The star of the day was Ohio State assistant Ryan Stamper, who is the director of player development and a former linebacker at Florida under Urban Meyer.
Stamper barely lost his first battle before dominating his next two. The best part of the whole thing is this player's reaction.
osu-face.png
The second best part is Meyer telling the players that "you don't want that" when it comes to taking on Stamper. Ohio State's defense is excellent, but with Deshaun Watson and Clemson coming up, they might want to see if they can squeeze another year of eligibility for Stamper.

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

2016 Heisman Trophy Candidates




Heisman Trophy finalists

There are five players heading to New York City as Heisman Trophy finalists this season.
Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson, Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield, Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson, Michigan linebacker Jabrill Peppers and Oklahoma wide receiver Dede Westbrook were all announced as finalists Monday for college football's most prestigious award.
Jackson is the frontrunner to take home the hardware. The Louisville signal caller threw for 3,390 yards, ran for 1,538 yards and accounted for 51 touchdowns as the Cardinals finished the regular-season 9-3. Louisville will play LSU in the Citrus Bowl on Dec. 31.
Mayfield and Westbrook are the first pair of teammates to be named Heisman finalists since 2005 when USC's Matt Leinhart and Reggie Bush made the trip. Mayfield has 3,669 passing yards and 38 touchdown passes this season for the Sooners while Westbrook recorded 74 catches for 1,465 yards and 16 touchdowns.
Peppers played a number of positions this season for the Wolverines — including offense — but his primary position was outside linebacker. The junior recorded 72 tackles (16.5 for loss), four sacks and one interception.
Watson was a preseason favorite of many and led the Tigers to a 12-1 record this season and a College Football Playoff berth. He finished the regular season with 3,914 passing yards, 524 rushing yards and 43 total touchdowns.
Ohio State has already faced off with three of these finalists having beaten Oklahoma and Michigan this season. The Buckeyes will play their fourth Heisman Trophy finalist of the season in the Fiesta Bowl when they match up with Watson and Clemson.
Ohio State also faced all three Heisman Trophy finalists in 2014 when the Buckeyes played Wisconsin (Melvin Gordon), Alabama (Amari Cooper) and Oregon (Marcus Mariota) in order to end the season. 
The winner of the Heisman Trophy will be revealed Saturday night.

Heisman Trophy Finalist
Could it be the Year of the Quarterback once again for the Heisman voters?
Louisville quarterback Lamar JacksonOklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield and receiver Dede WestbrookMichigan linebacker Jabrill Peppers and Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson were announced as Heisman Trophy finalists on Monday night, sending a full field to New York for the ceremony on Saturday night.
After two running backs and one quarterback were invited to New York a year ago, the field this year settled back into the recent trend that has seen this award go to the best quarterback in the country. With quarterbacks dominating the field of finalists, it seems likely a quarterback will win the award for the fifth time in the past six years.
Jackson has long been considered the favorite to win the award after opening September on a torrid touchdown pace, racking up 26 total TDs in the month and at least 400 yards of offense in each game.
Though Louisville lost its final two games to put a damper on its season, Jackson ended up with the ACC single-season total touchdown record with 51 and became the first player in FBS history with 3,300 yards passing and 1,500 yards rushing.
He is the first Heisman finalist in Louisville school history.
In an interview over the weekend after picking up his ACC Player of the Year trophy, Jackson said this about being in the Heisman conversation: "It really hasn't hit me yet. I'm still trying to let it sink in."
But he is not the only quarterback who made a big impression this season. Watson, who also plays in the ACC with Jackson, came on strong in the final month to ensure his second consecutive trip to New York. Watson ended up with 4,443 yards of total offense and was responsible for 43 touchdowns while helping the Tigers win a second straight ACC championship.
He remains the only player in Clemson history to become a Heisman finalist. Watson finished third last year and is the first player to make consecutive trips to New York since Johnny Manziel in 2012 (winner) and 2013 (finished fifth).
But among the three quarterbacks, Mayfield ended the season as the highest-rated player in the country and saw his Heisman hopes take off over the past month. Mayfield finished with 3,669 yards passing, 44 total touchdowns and eight interceptions and also led the nation in completion percentage (71.2 percent) and quarterback efficiency.
Though Mayfield didn't get an invitation to New York last year, he finished fourth in the Heisman balloting.
He has a stellar receiver in Westbrook to help him out. Westbrook did not exactly start out quickly -- he had 154 yards receiving in his first three games combined. But over the last nine, he failed to reach the 100-yard mark just once. Westbrook had 1,465 yards receiving and 16 total touchdowns to rank No. 4 nationally in receiving yards per game (122.1).
If either Mayfield or Westbrook wins, he would become the sixth Oklahoma player to hoist the Heisman, ranking second nationally.
The selection of Peppers came as somewhat of a surprise considering his position. Defensive players rarely get invitations to New York: Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o was the last in 2012. Only fellow Wolverine Charles Woodson has won the Heisman as a primarily defensive player.


Tuesday December 6th, 2016
Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson has been named a Heisman Trophy finalist for a second consecutive season and is joined by Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson and Michigan linebacker Jabrill Peppers on the list of finalists.
Jackson has been the star of the Cardinals' offense all season as he recorded 51 touchdowns and averaged 410 yards of total offense per game.
Watson led the Tigers to the ACC title and will face the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Fiesta Bowl. He finished the season with 3,914 yards and 37 touchdowns.
Two Oklahoma Sooners will be heading to New York as well; Quarterback Baker Mayfield and wideout Dede Westbrook were also named finalists for the award.