Football
Buckeyes Rushing to Improve Rush Defense This Season
By John Porentas

The Buckeye nation was aghast after the season-opener with Northern Illinois. Not because of the outcome of the game, but because Northern Illinois was able to roll up 173 net rushing yards against an OSU defense that in past seasons has given up rushing yards grudgingly.

Luke Fickell
Photo by Jim Davidson

"If you can't stop the run you're going to have a long day," said OSU linebackers coach and co-defensive coordinator Luke Fickell. "When you put all the emphasis on stopping the run and you don't stop the run it hurts even more."

"That's the thing we always talk the most about here is shutting down the run and having the ability to make at team one dimensional.

"That's probably what we haven't done and that's probably one of the big things that we're going to have to focus on. For us to be a good defense or even a great defense we know we have to shut down the run. It's something we always harp on but it's something we have to get a lot better at this year."

Last week against Texas, the Buckeyes were once again vulnerable to the run, allowing the Longhorns 172 net yards on the ground. If your cup is half full, that's an improvement of sorts, though one-less yard is hardly what most would call a dramatic improvement. Despite the minimal improvement in the numbers, Fickell says he saw improvement in his linebacking crops from week one to week two.

"We felt like we played better, got off of blocks better, pursued better," Fickell said.

Fickell sees improvement, but says there is still work to be done.

"We're not there yet. We missed maybe 13 tackles. There is some youth to it, there's some making the play to it, really to me it comes down to the fundamentals of making tackles when you have the opportunity," Fickell said.

The missed tackles rankle Fickell, though as in the case of the improvement he saw in pursuit angles and shedding blocks, Fickell saw some improvement in the tackling as well. According to Fickell, the Buckeyes probably missed more than 13 tackles against Northern Illinois.

"It may have been a few more," said Fickell of OSU's missed tackle count vs. Northern Illinois. "That's one thing that we always look towards and evaluate at the end of the game to see how many tackles we missed," said Fickell.

"Double-digits meant that you didn't have a good game, that's on the whole defense," Fickell said.

Fickell said that while the missed tackle count is disturbing, it is nothing new with young linebackers. The group of linebackers that just left Ohio State that included A. J. Hawk, Bobby Carpenter and Anthony Schlegel had similar problems early in their careers as well. He recently reviewed a game from that group's junior season and saw a group that was not nearly as effective tackling as they were in their senior seasons.

"We watched Cincinnati from 2004 and there's a distinct difference you can see in those guys," said Fickell.

While Fickell definitely is not happy with the missed tackle number, he sees reason for hope for improvement.

"It comes down to personnel in almost everything we do," said Fickell.

"We have the personnel to do it. We just haven't come together as a whole unit yet," Fickell said.

Fickell likes the development he is seeing in his personnel, and that doesn't mean just the starters. Current backup Larry Grant has caught his eye of late including his play in the Texas game.

"When Larry was in there he did a very good job and he's had a very good week (this week)," said Fickell.

"He's a guy who is learning and getting better. You can say he's a junior, but he's only been here six months," Fickell said.

Another player who flashed for Fickell in the Texas game was Curtis Terry.

"Curtis did a great job. He only played 17 plays and I wish he would have played a lot more," Fickell said.

"We played a lot of nickel, so there wasn't as much of an opportunity for him to be in there because of the nickel stuff, but he's shown he can do some great stuff for us right now."

It will probably be a different story this week against Cincinnati whose offense probably won't dictate as much nickel defense. That will mean more time on the field for linebackers. Look for Terry to get a lot more than 17 plays against the Bearcats.

"Curtis always had the ability," said Fickell.

"He's just really starting to mature a lot more, starting to understand the game. There's no doubt that he can play. It's really about having an opportunity. Last year he didn't have an opportunity behind Bobby Carpenter or Anthony Schlegel or A. J. Hawk because we moved him around to every position. Really its about having the chance to play," Fickell said.

Fickell said that the verdict is still out on whether freshman linebackers Thaddeus Gibson and Tyler Moeller will redshirt, but there is still some possibility that one or both of those players will see action this season. Ross Homan, the freshman linebacker who enrolled last spring, has already played this year but had some injury problems in fall camp and is still adjusting to the college game.

"The spring really helped him out a lot, but the speed of the game is still new to him, and missing a little bit of camp hurt him but he's coming along," Fickell said.

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