Shades of the Santonio Holmes and Ted Ginn Jr. days, Ohio State sent two players deep on punt returns Saturday.
After a muffed punt last week signaled the end of the Dontre Wilson Punt Return Experience, we knew Curtis Samuel and and K.J. Hill would see punt return reps; what we didn’t know is they would see them at the same time.
When Nebraska lined up to punt for the first time Saturday afternoon, Hill and Samuel both trotted out as returners. When the punt came, Samuel fielded it while Hill blocked the gunner. Later in the game, Demario McCall replaced Samuel in the return game, but Ohio State gave the same dual-returner look.
The Buckeyes didn’t do anything special out of the formation – no reverses or other sorts of trickery – but the threat is now there. Time will tell whether Ohio State actually plans to implement a trick play, but regardless it’s just one more thing an opposing team has to plan for.
"BEAT MARYLAND"
This week, Urban Meyer responded to no less than five questions with “Beat Maryland.” Turns out, his eagerness for the game wasn’t feigned.
Meyer was more jacked-up during pregame warmups of Saturday’s game against Maryland than many had ever seen him. He was slapping players on the helmet, joking with others and gave an inspired speech at the middle of the field before the team’s quick-cals.
“We feed off of him,” Jerome Baker said after the game. "You see it on the field."
If Meyer was this hyped to face Maryland, it’s difficult to imagine what he’ll be like on the 26th of November.
ONE-TWO PUNCH
The Buckeyes have two formidable running backs in Curtis Samuel and Mike Weber. Getting them both enough touches has proven to be a challenge –there’s only one football, after all – but Ohio State got a little creative Saturday.
More times than usual, the offense ran with both Samuel and Weber in the backfield, oftentimes as a triple option making Barrett, Weber or Samuel a threat to run.
““We knew they were probably going to stack the box a little bit, have some people on the perimeter,” Samuel said. "With me, they probably just think I’m going to run outside every time or mike’s just going to run inside every option. We get a bunch of different looks."
The two-back set also allowed Weber to be a lead blocker for Samuel on a number of plays, which sprung Samuel a few times on Saturday.
“If there’s anybody I want in front of me, it’s Mike, definitely,” Samuel said.
Can't Guard Curtis
A few times, Maryland put Curtis Samuel on an island with one of its top cover corners and dared the hybrid-back to beat him one-on-one.
“When we saw they pressed him we felt real confident in him and his ability to punch the ticket deep," said Meyer after the game.
Samuel proved he's not only yards-after-catch machine in the short passing game, he can legitimately burn a secondary – and that's a good sign for the Buckeyes in the future.
"He creates mismatches all the time – exposes those 1-on-1s," quarterback J.T. Barrett said after the game. "Sometimes teams want to play man against us and with that, we're going to have to take our shots and that's what we did today."
