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Football
Maturity...or Toughness?
By John Porentas
You say Toe-Mae-Toe. I say Toe-Mah-Toe.
You say Poe-Tae-Toe. I say Poe-Tah-Toe.
What you call something really isn't important. What is important is what that something really turns out to be, then recognizing it for what it is.
Ohio State will begin spring drills on Thursday with shortage of numbers at just one position: tailback.
"Yes, that is an area of concern," OSU Head Coach Jim Tressel said yesterday.
Tressel and staff are facing a double-whammy at tailback coming into spring ball. Not only do they have just two tailbacks to work with, but both are largely untested.
Freshman running back Antonio Pittman saw some action for the Buckeyes last season, but fellow running back Eric Haw redshirted last season and did not see the field. Pittman also entered OSU spring quarter, giving him a little leg up on Haw. Pittman showed flashes last year, but spent a lot of time injured and unable to play.
"They need experience. We need to find out who can hang in there and take the pounding, because there's not many positions that get pounded like a running back," said OSU Head Coach Jim Tressel.
Tressel called it experience, but what he may have been really trying to say without really saying it is that Haw and Pittman need to show some toughness, the toughness it takes to be an effective Big Ten running back week after week. Size, strength, quickness and athleticism, said Tressel, are not the only issues for a running back.
"What do I like about them? I think their size and strength. I was really impressed by their numbers this winter, looking at their squat numbers, broad jump, that type of thing.
"I was really impressed with their raw abilities and I've been impressed with the way they've carried the ball what little bit they've had a chance to do that. Now, it will be 'Who can handle the load?' That starts in the spring," said Tressel.
And that's where the problem begins. Tressel and staff need to let Pittman and Haw see what it's like to take heavy pounding during spring ball, but with just two running backs in camp, can't let them take so much pounding that they can't participate. So do the coaches throw Pittman and Haw to the dogs and let OSU linebackers pound them all spring, or do they protect them and let them maximize their reps? According to senior fullback Brandon Schnitker, holding back is not a good idea.
"I don't think so," said Schnitker.
"Some of the object is to try not to get pounded, but the way we run our offense, we're up the middle and doing those kind of things, you're going to get beat up.
"Hopefully we'll be able to utilize some of their speed and athleticism on the perimeter and reduce that a little bit," Schnitker said.
Tressel, however, was not quite as hard-line.
"Somewhere in between," said Tressel.
"We can't be unrealistic, nor can we be crazy. We have to come up with the right number of reps and the right number of experiences."
What Tressel wants is for both the young backs to find out where the limits physically really are without having either of them lose practice time.
"Part of the pounding is real, and you're hurt," said Tressel.
"Then there's other parts of it you have to ignore.
"What's hard is you can't make that decision for a kid.
"You never want to tell a kid he's all right, because maybe he's not.
"I think there's a maturity thing to it where you just get used to feeling crummy," said Tressel.
Toe-Mae-Toe, Toe-Mah-Toe. Poe-Tae-Toe, Poe-Tah-Toe. Maturity, Toughness. Call it what you will, Pittman and Haw have to find what all the great college running backs have found in order to be successful.
"Ask Archie Griffin," said Tressel.
"He could barely walk until Wednesday or Thursday of each week, but he wanted to stay in there."
Tressel is hoping that now that it is clear that one or both of them MUST step up, both will have the frame of mind this spring that will enable them to do so, something that Tressel says may have been missing last year.
"Those two young guys might have suffered from 'Coach Tressel always plays the older guys. He's going to give Mo Hall and Lydell and Brandon Joe the playing time,'" said Tressel.
"They might have suffered from a little bit from that, which I'm not saying they're totally wrong, because if it's fairly even I do go with the senior.
"What you prefer a guys does is say 'I'm not going to make it even (close). I'm going to be a lot better, then they won't have any choice but to play me.'"
What Tressel is describing is singlemindeness...determination...toughness.
Pittman and Haw will have plenty of opportunity to sort out who has it, and who doesn't, this spring.
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