Today's Skull Session is sponsored by beefy offensive linemen.
THE SPARTAN BLUEPRINT TO BEATING THE BUCKS. Some of you might not have heard — you guys know how much I love dispensing nuggets of information to these streets — but Ohio State plays host to Virginia Tech in the second week of the season.
french60wasp of the The Key Play (a quality, independent Hokies blog) has been breaking down Ohio State on film all summer:
- Braxton Miller and the Counter Trey.
- The Power Read.
- Bread and Butter: Inside Zone Read.
- The Power Play.
Yesterday, he looked at Michigan State's game-plan against our beloved Buckeyes:
After Meyer's first season of implementing his single-wing spread offensive system, Eleven Warriors compiled a breakdown of some of the key defensive strategies that Big Ten opponents used successfully against the Buckeyes. After reading this breakdown, I went back to the Michigan State film to see which strategies were most effective as the Spartans stuck Meyer with his first Big Ten loss. The Michigan State film is even more critical because the Spartans use the same defensive front alignment as Tech—a four-man "over" defensive front with a three-technique to the strong side, with two inside linebackers shifted away from the strength, and a wide outside linebacker who shifts around based on a variety of keys based on alignment. Foster uses a slightly different approach against base plays, but against the option I would expect Foster to make some adjustments.
First and foremost, teams that had success against Ohio State made a commitment to take away big running yardage between the tackles via formation and a variety of run blitzes. On almost every snap, the Spartans had both defensive tackles and both inside linebackers occupying interior gaps. Often, they incorporated a variety of slants and linebacker twist stunts designed to confuse the defense, but those linebackers were sticking their heads in and challenging blockers on every snap. On read options, Michigan State committed to taking away the dive. On power, the tailback again was the focus. On the inverted veer, they defended the tailback sweeping with one contain defender and sold out on the inside. No matter what, the Spartans were going to limit what the Buckeyes got between the tackles. This lead to some big plays on the edge and in the play-action passing game, but by putting the Buckeyes in poor down and distance situations, the Spartan defense put itself in prime position for success against the Buckeye's suspect drop back passing game. According to cfbstats.com, Ohio State had a season low of 20 first downs against Sparty (25.8 average).
To which I say: Whatever, bro!!!!111
Counterpoint: the offense will look much different (read: better) this year than it did last year (and it set records last year).
In other Virginia Tech news:
It's sad that the athletic department needs to ask students to buy season tickets two weeks before kickoff pic.twitter.com/wTACotVPz0
— Treadmill Horse (@treadmillhorse) August 13, 2014
LeCHARLES BENTLEY GETS THE GRANTLAND TREATMENT. I'm too young to have many solid memories of LeCharles Bentley as a Buckeye, but the dude got a career-ending staph infection from the Browns, and he still supports them. They don't make loyalty like that anymore.
He's also my antithesis on Twitter; he's funny and insightful.
Let's check in on old friends of the program, LeCharles Bentley and Mike Brewster. From Robert Mays of Grantland:
The weight of a pickup truck matters in few places. Chandler, Arizona, just happens to be one of them. It’s barely 10 a.m. in Chandler, one of the dozen or so small cities that orbit Phoenix, and the temperature on this July morning is already inching toward 100 degrees. Mike Brewster, like the rest of his 300-pound cohorts yanking and pushing a couple of tons across the scorching asphalt, has sweat pouring down his face.
“I’m telling you,” says Brewster, who happens to be the center for the Jacksonville Jaguars, “the white one is heavier.” The white one is a Sierra Denali with some custom grille work that Buccaneers guard Patrick Omameh is pushing through a parking lot. Omameh will spend training camp fighting to be one of the Buccaneers’ starting guards, and of everyone here, he would require the least amount of CGI to play the Hulk. Bobby Massie, the Cardinals’ right tackle, who’s spent his morning pulling the maroon F150, isn’t convinced. As Omameh finishes, Brewster calls him over. “Pat, which one is heavier?” A hand on his hip, still catching his breath, Omameh points to the Denali. “I told you,” says Brewster.
Pushing trucks isn’t a punishment. Each of the NFL linemen roasting out here has paid to do it. This is LeCharles Bentley’s O-Line Performance, a program started by the former Pro Bowl center in 2008. “This shit ain’t for everybody,” Bentley says, as he watches Steelers left tackle Kelvin Beachum pull. “This ain’t South Beach. There’s no sand here, no pretty girls.”
Bentley has 30 NFL players from all phases of their careers under his tutelage. He took an alcoholic, underachieving Alex Boone and turned him into an elite NFL guard (who is in the midst of a contract holdout and could soon be traded).
It's always nice to see athletes to get some post-football longevity. Props to LeCharles.
BARTON ON THE DOG DAYS. Speaking of former offensive linemen, Kirk Barton is dictating a blog series to Tim May of The Columbus Dispatch.
In the first dispatch, Barton says "the dog days" — the string of two-a-day practices — is the stretch of the season that truly makes or breaks a team:
Days are defined as either a "double" or a "single" (similar to terminology used by Inn-N-Out Burger, but not nearly as delicious). On "single" days, you’ll usually have a fully padded morning practice that is very physical, followed by lifting and film in the afternoon. On "double" days, usually you'll have a heavy practice in pads followed by a lighter practice in uppers (shoulder pads but no football pants) in the afternoon. The on-field practice usually runs 2.5-3 hours for a single day, five hours for two-a-days (in 2.5-hour segments). It is a an absolute grind, but the prize of locking down a starting spot at Ohio State makes it totally worth it.
The second major part of it is the mental grind. The mental part of the day can be as exhausting as the on-field work, especially for the younger players who are coming from a usually less sophisticated high school playbook. Learning details to blocking schemes, blitz pickups, pass routes, hot routes, coverage responsibilities, blitzes, stunts, coverages, etc., can be mind-numbing for the first-year guys on both sides of the ball. It is something they have to pick up as fast as possible. If you cannot learn it, it is very difficult to play early.
Football is a reactionary game. The only way you can play is by knowing your assignments/rules so that you can combat whatever the opposition throws at you. There is no rule saying a defense has to line up a certain way and only run blitzes you've seen before. Knowing your rules helps circumvent confusion and allows you to perform vs. any look the defense can possibly give you.
Barton goes onto talk about the various camp drills the coaches prefer (and why), and the whole thing is a giant reminder of the work and dedication put in by the players.
All I've ever done is drink liquor in parking lots while basking in the shadow of the Horseshoe, and by the end of the season my body was broken and my soul was empty.
So yeah, props to the guys risking their lives for my entertainment.
DO IT GENE. We start with a tweet from my homeboy, Cecil Hurt:
That vacancy in Ohio State's football schedule ('17-18, UNC cancelled) sure fits Alabama's openings for a big-time series. #WishfulThinking
— Cecil Hurt (@CecilHurt) August 14, 2014
Damn, I want Ohio State to get a crack at Alabama. The playoffs would be great, but a regular season match-up would also be a banger.
What was it Gene Smith said to Cleveland.com a few weeks back about the prospect of a series with Alabama?
"I'm not sure I'd play them in a neutral-site game," Smith said, preferring a home-and-home. "Come to me baby, then let me come to you."
*praying hands emoji*
FAVORITE OHIO STATE SI COVER. Braxton gracing the cover of another regional Sports Illustrated got me thinking about my favorite OSU-related SI cover. Here it is:
Ohio State would've lost to Florida 100 times out of 100 times if they played that game a month after the season. If that game's played two weeks after the season, however...
O! What could have been.
Oh well.
This cover still runs numbers for me.
THOSE WMDs. Northwestern's Venric Mark to transfer...Where America's casinos are... Jim Tressel was a gay rights pioneer...Texas #teen lives in Wal-Mart for four days... OHSAA is crying for help with Steubenville case... Bovada sets B1G stats over-unders, odds... Damn, it's like that, Jim Heacock?
