Disclaimer: this edition of Five Things emerges from my fingertips not enough hours removed from our Eleven Warriors / First Ohio Battery holiday blowout. If you have issue with any takes or grammatical errors, please send complaints to our ombudsman (and birthday boy) Donald J. Byrnes.
So here we sit, still damn near three weeks away from Ohio State's last game of the 2017 season. But Five Things marches on, game or not, because that's what we do.
Today's themes came as I perused Ohio State's season-to-date statistics during timeouts of the Emmy-quality production that was OSU vs. William & Mary on BTN Plus.
Let's get to it so I can go back to bed.
ON GUARD
Urban Meyer loves to remind folks he runs an offensive line driven program and to his credit, the Buckeyes have rolled out some stellar front fives during his tenure.
Center Billy Price and left tackle Jamarco Jones are stalwarts this year and right tackle Isaiah Prince is probably the most improved player on the entire roster.
That leaves the two guard spots and while they've been largely decent, left guard Michael Jordan and right guard Demetrius Knox have the most room for improvement.
Jordan started as a true freshman last year and according to CFB Film Room posted the line's second-worst pass blocking rate at 94.9% allowing 10 hurries, five hits and six sacks in 410 attempts.
This year Jordan's numbers are up to 96.8% with five hurries, four hits and four sacks but his protection stats still rank fourth out of five OSU linemen.
At the bottom of the list is right guard Knox which is understandable when you consider he became a starter after Branden Bowen snapped his leg.
Knox's numbers show a 94.3% pass block rate with eight hurries, four hits and one sack on 230 attempts. For comparison, Bowen was at 96.9% with four hurries, two hits and zero sacks through 192 attempts.
With all of these guys back next year and already on solid though not spectacular footing, expecting continued improvement seems like a given especially if they put in similar work as Prince.
K.J. THRILL
Zone Six was a crap shoot entering the year and while the unit remains one of the weakest on the team, its been fun watching redshirt sophomore K.J. Hill emerge in the slot.
Not even a starter, Hill leads the team with 55 receptions – 16 clear of Parris Campbell's second-place tally – and ranks second in receiving yards with 546, just 41 behind Campbell's 587.
K.J. Hill came up with two huge catches in Ann Arbor. (Photo: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports)
The only real knock on Hill is an unproven ability to consistently generate yards after the catch – his 9.9 yards per catch average is the lowest of any true receiver who saw legit playing time – though to his credit he stepped up in this area down the stretch.
Hill had two clutch catch-and-runs in Ann Arbor, one for 29 yards and another for 24, and assuming he comes back next season, Ohio State needs more big plays from a guy with more game-breaking ability than he's shown this season.
SNARE JORDAN
True sophomore safety Jordan Fuller earned third-team All-B1G honors from the coaches but just an honorable mention from the media for what I feel is an underrated season-to-date.
Fuller's performance as a first-year starter, behind an at-times sketchy group of linebackers, has been huge as he's racked up a team-best 49 solo stops, 10 clear of Jerome Baker.
Fuller led the team in total tackles for much of the season until Baker recently passed him up. Still, Fuller has 60 stops so far this year which is seven back of Baker. While not likely, if Fuller can make up that gap in the Cotton Bowl, he'll become just the fifth safety to lead Ohio State in tackles over the last 25 years.
The other four to accomplish the feat include:
- 2011 - C.J. Barnett with 75 tackles
- 2001 - Mike Doss with 87 tackles
- 2000 - Mike Doss with 94 tackles
- 1998 - Damon Moore with 81 tackles
Not bad company if Fuller can pull it off.
FORGET PARRIS
Game-breaker Parris Campbell hasn't been quite the same since suffering a concussion in the first quarter of the Penn State game, or probably even more accurately, dating back to one week prior as he tallied two catches for seven yards in the blowout of Nebraska.
In his first six games of the year Campbell hauled in 26 passes for 399 yards but over the last six (following his DNP at Iowa) he has just 13 receptions for 188 yards.
Parris Campbell's production has cut in half following a midseason concussion. (Photo: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports)
Maybe even more impactful is Campbell's removal from the primary kickoff return man role. Meyer hasn't explicitly stated why the change occurred but logic says its primarily an effort to keep Campbell from taking a big hit though Meyer has alluded to also wanting to reward Mike Weber with more opportunities as he returned to 100% health.
No matter the reason for the change, Ohio State is significantly worse off for it. Campbell was an elite kickoff return man last year and was giving more of the same this year averaging 36.6 yards per return on nine attempts with a long of 82 yards.
Meanwhile, Weber's stats show an average of 15.9 yards per return, also on nine attempts, with a long of 21 yards. No knock on Weber the tailback but Weber the return man isn't paying off.
CARRYING THE LOAD
J.K. Dobbins has been making history all year, most notably becoming Ohio State's most prolific freshman running back ever with 1,364 yards following a 174-yard effort versus Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game.
What hasn't gotten enough attention is the fact Dobbins is on pace to post the single-greatest yards per carry average by the team's leading rusher going as far back as the media guide allows which tracks to 1944.
Through 13 games, Dobbins is averaging a whopping 7.5 yards per carry on 181 attempts. (He's lost just nine yards from scrimmage all year.)
A few of the names in his rear-view mirror include:
- Ezekiel Elliott - 6.9 ypc during his magical 2014 season
- Carlos Hyde - 7.3 ypc is the second-best total, a mark he averaged in 2013
- Eddie George - 5.9 ypc during his 1995 Heisman-worthy campaign
- Archie Griffin - 6.6 ypc during his best year, 1974
How lucky are we to have two more years of watching Dobbins do his thing?
