Football
Jersey Scrimmage Produces Lopsided Score,
Some Surprises, and Some Rising Stars
By Tom Orr
The Ohio State football team's first venture into
Ohio Stadium since a 14-9 win over Michigan was, well, surprising.
After winning the national championship with a lights-out defense
and an offense that more-or-less just let the defenders catch their
breath, the 2003 Buckeyes got off to a very different start.
The offense moved the ball at will through most of the scrimmage
and rolled to a 105-44 win in a modified scoring system.
Sophmore Maurice Clarett and junior Lydell Ross sat the scrimmage
out with minor injuries, allowing speedy junior Maurice Hall an
extended audition with the first team. Senior lineman Shane Olivea
also sat the scrimmage out.
The defense played without five starters, as Will Smith, Darrion
Scott, and Simon Fraser were missing from the defensive line, and
Fred Pagac and Robert Reynolds were absent at linebacker.
This allowed younger players like freshmen defensive ends Jay Richardson
and Joel Penton to shine, and gave coaches a glimpse of sophomores
A.J. Hawk, Mike D'Andrea, and Bobby Carpenter playing side-by-side.
It also allowed the offense to take advantage of its experience
to rip off huge chunks of yardage and points.
"You didn't really see the pressure on the ball like you usually
see, so Craig and I had a lot more time," commented wide receiver
Drew Carter.
They got it rolling early, as redshirt freshman quarterback Troy
Smith hooked up with fellow freshman Santonio Holmes on a 62-yard
touchdown.
The next possession, Smith went to the air again, finding freshman
Roy Hall for an 8-yard touchdown.
Senior backup quarterback Scott McMullen made the most of his opportunities,
first taking a bootleg and running over sophomore safety Tyler Everett,
then lofting a short touchdown pass to senior tight end Ben Hartsock
on the next play.
The defense came back to put together a few highlights, like senior
linebacker Jason Bond intercepting a Justin Zwick pass over the
middle. But the offensive dominance returned quickly.
Zwick led the offense down the field once again, completing passes
to freshman tight end Stan White, Holmes, and junior wideout John
Hollins. That set up a nice run by walk-on Roshawn Parker. The junior,
who went to the same high school as Archie Griffin, took a handoff,
hesitated to let safety Thomas Matthews fly by, and then went off-tackle
for a 15-yard touchdown run.
Senior quarterback Craig Krenzel had the next chance to run the
offense, and took advantage as well.
Krenzel hit senior receiver Drew Carter on a 26-yard pass play,
down to the one. From there, junior tailback Maurice Hall plowed
into the end zone.
Smith threw his third touchdown pass of the game later, as he hooked
up with Hall on a four-yard throw.
When the offense was forced to operate from its own endzone, the
defense finally started to shine. Linebacker Anthony Schlegel, who
will sit this season out after transferring from the Air Force Academy,
made tackles on three consecutive plays.
But the good times wouldn't last for the beleaguered defenders.
Walk-on quarterback Matt Trombitas, a sophomore from Dublin Coffman
high school, hooked up with Holmes for a 98-yard touchdown. The
receiver from Belle Glade, FL got freshman walk-on cornerback Antonio
Smith turned around, then caught the ball and strolled into the
end zone.
The offense pushed their score into triple digits on the final
play of the scrimmage, as Craig Krenzel hit Drew Carter on a bubble
screen. The senior from Solon, OH flashed some of his much-discussed
speed as he took the pass 29 yards to the end zone.
A. J. Hawk lamented the play of the defense.
"The biggest thing is the young guys, all of us learning what
to do," he said.
"We made mental mistakes. We have to know what to do, and
then just run to the ball. Pursuit, that's the big thing. When you
get out there and if a lot of guys haven't played a bunch like us
young guys, you start to think too much and you don't play football
anymore."
Hawk reduced the defensive problems to their simplest terms.
"You've got to know what you're doing, but it all comes down
to everyone just running to the ball and try to kill the guy with
the ball. That's what we do. It's just like third grade again. It's
what you do."
Some observations from the day...
* At least on this day, the hype surrounding a quarterback in the
class of 2002 seems to have been misplaced. Troy Smith shows flashes
of absolute brilliance at times, and more than one person compared
him to a young Michael Vick.
Smith generally made good decisions in the pocket, and tucked the
ball to scramble effectively at times, too. He did, however, turn
the ball over twice.
Once, he was blind-sided as he threw, floating a wounded-duck into
the arms of a defender. He was also stripped of the ball once during
a scramble. But overall, he was solid, and occasionally showed flashes
of "lightning in a bottle."
By contrast, Zwick had a rocky day. He led the offense to a touchdown,
but was also intercepted twice (once by Bond, once by junior walk-on
Rob Harley). He wasn't ever terrible, but he never seemed completely
confident, either. He has another season to sit and learn behind
Krenzel and McMullen, and that should help. Don't write him off
yet, there's potential there.
Krenzel and McMullen turned in their usual solid performances,
moving the offense up and down the field efficiently. Krenzel scrambled
some, but it was tough to evaluate his effectiveness outside of
the pocket because of his "no-contact" jersey.
"Troy (Smith) did some good things. I thought it looked like
two different groups of quarterbacks. You saw that Craig and Scott
obviously had done these things many, many times and it didn't look
like there was anything out there that either of them hadn't seen
before," said Tressel.
"Troy and Justin, I felt that when they looked good they looked
good, but when they struggled, they struggled, but that's youth.
As Mark Dantonio said as we were riding the bus back, which I thought
was interesting, he was upstairs which is where he normally is during
the game, he said from up there, it looks like we have four quarterbacks.
Coming from a pretty good defensive coach, that made me feel pretty
good."
* Anthony Schlegel is the real deal. With only a few weeks at OSU
under his belt, he gave everyone in attendance a glimpse of things
to come. He was a stud at Air Force, recording 19 tackles in a loss
to Notre Dame last year, and becoming the first Falcon to be named
all-conference as a sophomore. He has the opportunity to be an All-American
caliber player here, and is already showing signs of being a real
leader.
* Watching Joel Penton, Quinn Pitcock, and Jay Richardson working
with the first-team defense was a good reminder that while depth
is a positive thing, there is going to be a little drop-off from
a guy like Will Smith to a redshirt freshman.
Richardson, however, looked impressive at times, getting to the
quarterback on a couple occasions. There are whispers that he could
become the next great defensive end at Ohio State.
"It was a lot of fun, it was real intense. It was a good opportunity
for me to kind of show the coaches and everybody what I could do.
I think it well, went all right," said Richardson of his first
opportunity to play in Ohio Stadium.
Richardson was happy to have had a chance to play, but not so happy
with the outcome of the scrimmage.
"As we were playing we felt like we were doing our job, but
they were just making big plays. The offense was just hitting their
passes, the run was looking good, the draw, we couldn't stop it.
That play was just working for them," he said.
"Our offense has a lot of weapons, and you've got to think
our whole O-Line is back and they've been a unit the last three
years, so they're looking real good. We've got a lot of guys stepping
up on offense like Drew (Carter) is looking real good. It was just
rough today."
* Maurice Hall finally got a chance to really showcase his skills,
and looked good doing it. Stuck behind Clarett and Ross last season,
Hall ripped off a couple nice runs of 8-12 yards, and showed good
second effort on his touchdown.
"I was really happy with Maurice Hall, because with Lydell
and Maurice Clarett being out, he had to kind of carry the mail,
and he was kind of nicked up a little bit. He had an ingrown toenail
that had to be taken care of, and he was a little bit sore from
some things. I thought he hung in there, and I thought he pass protected
well," Tressel said.
Hall impressed onlookers with his running. He impressed his coach
with other aspects of his game as well.
"Alex Stepanovich mentioned on the bus on the way home that
he was really happy with the communication with Maurice when he
was the single back in the pass protection because it's Alex' job
get them all on the same page. I was very happy with Maurice, but
he's a good kid and a good player, so I'm not surprised."
Hall seemed please that he was able to take advantage of his opportunity
to show what he can do.
"I think it's always important, spring and summer camp, you're
always going out there to try and show the coaches something new,
something different they can use for you," said Hall.
"I think I've got a little speed, I think I've got a little
speed, a little vision, I can catch the ball a little bit, so I'm
all right."
* Roy Hall and Santonio Holmes looked unreal. Granted, they were
working against backups for most of the day, but one can't help
but think that there's a bright future at OSU for both of them.
Holmes hooked up with Troy Smith for a long touchdown last year
(one of few offensive highlights in an otherwise dreary spring),
and looks poised to be a major star. I look at Hall and see a young
David Boston. If these guys continue to develop and take advantage
of a chance to learn from experienced stars like Michael Jenkins...
watch out.
"I think you heard us talk a lot about Santonio a lot last
fall," commented Tressel on Holmes.
"What he did for our defense last fall was outstanding. The
look he he gave them, the competitiveness, he has that ability to
challenge you and make plays. I have really high hopes for him."
Tressel said the Buckeye coaching staff came very close to playing
Holmes last season
"There was a moment last year, Chris Vance was out if you'll
remember and Chris Gamble was playing on defense a lot, it was as
late as game 14 of Santonio Holmes taking his redshirt off. We have
high hopes for him."
* True freshmen Dante Whitner and Ashton Youboty both looked good
in their first chance to play in the Horseshoe. Whitner is a big
hitter, and Youboty looks very quick. They probably won't play much
on defense this year, but both could be major contributors on special
teams.
The team returns to the stadium this Friday at 3:15 for the kick
scrimmage. ESPN's College Gameday will be there to cover the event,
and it is open to the public.
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