Letting the NFL Grade Bollman: Part 2 01/17/2012
 Offensive line commits from 2002-2010 (Via Rivals) Ken Kohl (5:27 pm)
[Ed. Note] This is the second part of Ken's inside look at Jim Bollman and the offensive line issues at Ohio State. The first part can be read here. “It was the best of lines, it was the worst of lines..” - my sincerest apologies to Charles Dickens. In this case, the two cities are not London nor Paris, but Columbus and Iowa City. This is a follow up, as suggested by reader TexasBuckeye comparing the development of offensive linemen at Ohio State and the University of Iowa. I’d like to acknowledge data for the “inputs” from Rivals.com and for the “outputs” from The Football Cube. These were the sources for college recruit rankings and NFL draft rounds. For the college recruiting years of 2002 - 2010, Ohio State recruited 22 linemen while Iowa recruited 24 linemen. Obviously, the schools had additional linemen on their rosters (walk-ons) but these numbers represent the higher profile recruits. You know, where coaches actually identify a need. Above is a table that shows the Rivals ranking and number of recruits for each school during this period. As expected, Ohio State has been bringing in higher quality linemen, according to Rivals. What did the NFL think of all this? For the NFL portion, I used the drafts of 2007-2011 since they closely aligned with the 2002 - 2010 recruiting classes. OSU had 4 draftees and they averaged being drafted in the “4th and a half round”. Iowa’s five draftees averaged being drafted in the 4th round, so they fared slightly better 4 Comments Joey O'Connor Becomes No. 21 01/17/2012
 O'Connor picked OSU over Cal and Iowa. Less than 48 hours after receiving an offer from the Buckeyes during his official visit, offensive lineman Joey O'Connor has committed.
The 6-4 290 pound product from Windsor, Colorado, had originally committed to Penn State, but decided to part ways with the Nittany Lions after the scandal broke. In recent weeks he had narrowed his list to Cal, Iowa and Ohio State, and despite not having an offer, made the trip to Columbus for a visit. He received the offer he was looking for, and has become an important piece to the 2012 recruiting class. He is the fourth offensive lineman in the class joining Taylor Decker, Jacoby Boren, and Pat Elflein. He is slotted to play guard or possibly center for the Buckeyes, and helps provide quality depth at a spot of desperate need. Meyer and the staff will still be looking to add one more tackle, likely either Jordan Diamond or Kyle Dodson in the coming weeks. You can find O'Connor's highlights after the jump... Inside Scoop on Withers and Herman 01/16/2012
Michael Chung (1:53 pm)
Ohio State has two brand new coordinators for offense and defense. From the looks of their resumes, they are two top-notch coaches. Both have had a lot of success and Buckeye nation is hoping that their expertise will contribute to a National Championship. I recently sat down with someone who knows and has worked with both of them. Anthony Ceder was a graduate assistant at the University of Texas during the time that both Everett Withers and Tom Herman were on the staff. Withers was the defensive backs coach and Tom Herman was also a graduate assistant. A third person perspective could prove very enlightening about two of the new coaches for the Buckeyes. Everett Withers: Q: I am not going to ask 20 questions, flat out, what kind of coach is Ohio State getting? AC: They are getting a tremendous coach. Withers is an ace recruiter, very bright. He's a great teacher of fundamentals. Q: What are his strengths? AC: To sum up Everett’s strengths, he is incredibly bright, very organized and detailed, tough yet inspiring. Professionally, a secondary coach is one of the hardest jobs on a staff. Passing schemes and new offenses are making it very hard on secondary coaches because they must adjust to it all. With all the innovative offenses and passing schemes, one better have a coach who has mastered the details of how to be a defensive back and Everett has. Everett goes out of his way to make sure his players are prepared. He was known to have extra 6am meetings with his players above and beyond the normal team meetings. He is highly professional and a master of the defensive back position. He knows technique inside and out and has the ability to teach it to others. Q: You mentioned he was inspiring; can you give me an example? AC: I believe it was after the Red River Rivalry of 2000 when we lost to Oklahoma 63-14. Everyone was down in the dumps, including myself. Not only had we lost to one of our biggest rivals, our secondary was decimated. Josh Heupel must have thrown 5 or more TD passes and we came into the locker room as dejected as we could be. Everett walked in the room to talk to his secondary. Everett told us that football is an unforgiving game and that we have to turn it around. The only way to make sure football does not destroy us is through toughness and resilience in the midst of challenge. He asked us who was scared today and some raised their hands. He apologized for putting them in a tough position as some were true freshman and told them he should not have played them. He was able to comfort our fragile confidence and inspire us to overcome our horrid situation. I believe that year; we went on to win 7-8 straight games.  Decker's new look. (H/T Alex from 11W) Drew Thurman (7:10 am)
It seems you can't click the refresh button quick enough these days, as Buckeye football news is just pouring in. Again yesterday, we got major news pertaining to what this team will look like in 2012 and beyond, both good and bad. Buckeye Nation not only can welcome some new faces, but also has to say it's goodbyes to several players and coaches. Let's take a look at the additions and the unfortunate attrition. Addition - Taylor Decker There arguably isn't a bigger need left in the 2012 recruiting class than offensive tackle. That void got smaller as Vandalia Butler offensive tackle Taylor Decker committed to Buckeyes yesterday. Decker originally committed to Notre Dame back in March, and seemed to have little interest in Ohio State in the midst of all of the turmoil. Meyer's hiring in November seemed to peak Decker's interest and at least made him evaluate his options again. Then when Notre Dame coaches Tim Hinton and Ed Warriner joined Meyer's staff, Decker's public shock made most believe the switch was imminent. His visit this weekend sealed the deal. Decker is the 20th member of the 2012 class and the third offensive lineman with Jacoby Boren and Pat Elflein. He's listed at 6-8 315 pounds, and is ranked as a four star prospect by all the major recruiting services. Between Kyle Dodson, Jordan Diamond, and Joey O'Connor the staff will be looking to add at least one more offensive lineman in this class. O'Connor was the only one of the three without an offer, but he finally got that offer extended this weekend on his visit to Columbus. Attrition - Jeremy Cash, Dominic Clarke, and Derjuan Gambrell The Buckeyes have lost a lot of depth in the defensive backfield in the last 48 hours. First news was released that safety Jeremy Cash is seeking a transfer. Cash played in five games last year as a freshman, and it appeared he had a bright future. While no reason has been given as to his motivation to transfer, the combination of a new coaching staff and the entire defensive backfield returning next season would seem to be likely explanations. No schools have been named as his possible destination. Basketball LiveBlog: Indiana 01/15/2012
 Revenge. The Buckeyes host the Hoosiers (15-2, 3-2) hoping to repay the loss they were dealt on New Year's Eve, 74-70, at Assembly Hall. They will also be looking to rebound from a 79-74 loss at Illinois.
The game tips at 4:30 PM ET on ESPN, but the LiveBlog will get going at 4. Joining us will be Men of the Scarlet and Gray, Our Honor Defend, The Buckeye Battle Cry, Buckeye House Call, the Buckeye Blog, Scarlet and Game, and Fox Sports Ohio. LiveBlog after the break! Letting the NFL Grade Bollman 01/13/2012
 Ken Kohl (12:41pm)
[Ed. Note] We are in the process of adding several writers here at The Silver Bullet, and growing beyond just being a father-son operation. This means more content for you. So we would like to introduce Ken Kohl. Ken's been around the blog for awhile now, and we got smart and finally asked him to write. You can read all about him here. I’ve wanted to do this for some time, probably going back 6-8 years, but it was brought to a head for me this year. In the last decade or so, I’ve been uncomfortable with Ohio State’s offensive line play. I just haven’t bought into linemen sporting the "belly-over-belt" look that we’ve seen under Bollman. For background, I’m a Baby Boomer, and my earliest recollections of Ohio State football are Bob Ferguson and Tom Matte. In terms of offensive linemen, the pinnacle was Dave Foley and Rufus Mayes. So aside from the play calling this year, I was curious about Bollman’s performance in his stated responsibility: offense line. Unlike Marc Antony, I come not to bury Bollman, nor to praise him. This must have crossed a few folks minds, because their have recently been two excellent posts related to this as Ramzy at 11W and Scott Dame at The O-Zone have recently written excellent articles related to this. This post takes a look at Ohio State linemen that have been drafted into the NFL. This is based on the assumption that NFL GM’s have some idea of talent, and regardless of college performance these players were thought highly enough of for a GM to spend a draft pick to acquire. To do this comparison, I looked at some “horizontal” and “longitudinal” numbers to see how Bollman compared against his contemporaries and his predecessors as an offensive line coach. I had two “measures of success”: number of linemen drafted and number of linemen drafted in the 1st round. This may quantify and qualify the end results. Regardless of how “good” a recruit was going into the system, did he emerge “good enough” that an NFL GM would draft him? I want to stress that this is a comparison, not an analysis. Predicting the Finish 01/13/2012
 Rivals has OSU at #7 and they will likely move up Michael Chung (7:32 am)
[Ed. Note] We are in the process of adding several writers here at The Silver Bullet, and growing beyond just being a father-son operation. This means more content for you. So we would like to introduce Michael Chung. He's an OSU alum that we are excited to add to the team. You can read all about him here. Wednesday February 1, 2012 is around the corner. National signing day offers fans of college football a glimpse into the fate of their teams’ future. Current AP and BCS national champion Alabama had the #1 recruiting class in 2008 according to Rivals.com, which translated into a championship four years later. Recruiting is destiny. Ohio State started out the 2012 recruiting season strong but with the forced retirement of Jim Tressel and tattoo-gate, recruiting took a nosedive. Top ranked offensive lineman Kyle Kalis de-committed from Ohio State and then pledged to Michigan. Top recruits Se’von Pittman, Kyle Dodson, Taylor Decker, and Greg McMullen, all considered OSU locks, decided to go elsewhere. Ohio State was not even in the top 30 at one point of the recruiting rankings with few premiere recruits and little to no interest from recruits outside of Ohio. Even 10 days before the hiring of Urban Meyer, recruiting guru Bill Kurelic would not have put Ohio State’s class in the top 20. But things changed. Adolphus Washington, Ohio’s top player, pledged to Ohio State on Nov. 21, 2011 and then one week later, Urban Meyer was officially named head coach of Ohio State. Since then, Meyer has taken a once less than stellar recruiting class by Ohio State standards to a top ten recruiting class in the opinion of most recruiting services. Currently, Rivals.com lists Ohio State as having the # 7 class, Scout.com lists OSU at #8, as does 247Sports.com, while ESPN has Ohio State at #10. These rankings will likely change in the near future as Ohio State is in on a lot of top prospects. Urban Meyer Rounds Out His Staff 01/12/2012
Drew Thurman (10:24 pm) Today was a big day as Urban Meyer had his first official press conference in the WHAC as head coach. The university also officially announced Ed Warinner and Tim Hinton as the final members of Meyer's staff. They were made available to talk to the press along with the other new assistant coaches. They did have some interesting comments to make, which you get a rundown of here. Overall, here is what Meyer's new staff looks like:
You can catch a video of what Meyer had to say today after the break...
 Drew Thurman (9:38 am)
We now find ourselves entrenched in January with the college football season in the past, but there is still plenty of news. This is definitely not a dead period. Let's take a look at all the action. Dominic Clarke Gets Strike Two Last night the news broke that on January 7th, cornerback Dominic Clarke was pulled over for running a stop sign as well as going 35 miles per hour in a 20 MPH zone. Clarke would also be cited for failing to provide proof of insurance as well charged with operating a vehicle while impaired. You can see the police report here. This is his second offense, as he pled guilty to disorderly conduct for shooting a BB gun near and on campus restaurant back in October. He sat out the Illinois game after the incident. While the university is aware of this situation, it appears we will not find out Clarke's status on the team until after the legal process plays itself out. He is scheduled to be arraigned this morning in Franklin County Municipal Court, so we may find out that news soon. It will definitely be interesting to see how Meyer handles his first off-the-field issue, and whether or not he makes a statement to Clarke and the team. This being Clarke's second offense, my guess is that Meyer and the staff will take this very seriously. Six Enroll Early, Maybe More to Come The university officially announced yesterday that there are six early enrollees that will take part in the winter quarter. They are Jacoby Boren, Bri'onte Dunn, Cardale Jones, Joshua Perry, Tyvis Powell, and Michael Thomas. They will get to be part of Mickey Marotti's new conditioning program and get a leg up on having a role on the 2012 team. There is also word that Se'Von Pittman, Luke Roberts, and Najee Murray may be enrolling in the spring quarter. That's possibly a third of Meyer's 2012 class in early to get coached up. We have seen in the past the early advantage these guys have under Tressel, and we will see if the same is true with the Meyer regime. One thing is for certain, having Jones, Perry, and Thomas early definitely helps this team out. They all three provide depth and talent at thin spots on the OSU roster, especially Thomas who I believe may be a key player during the 2012 run. This team is majorly lacking playmakers at wide receiver, and I think Thomas can establish himself as the big, possession receiver that is needed. Basketball LiveBlog: Illinois 01/10/2012
 The Buckeyes take on Illinois (14-3, 3-1) at one of the toughest B1G arenas in Assembly Hall. The Illini have looked very mediocre over the last few games, and will be down guard Sam Maniscalco tonight. Their leading scorer, D.J. Richardson (13.2 ppg), will return to starting lineup though, after to being limited by a wrist injury.
The game tips at 9 PM ET on ESPN, but the LiveBlog will get going at 8:30. Joining us will be Men of the Scarlet and Gray, Our Honor Defend, The Buckeye Battle Cry, Buckeye House Call, the Buckeye Blog, Scarlet and Game, and Fox Sports Ohio. LiveBlog after the break! |   SubscribeBuckeye LinksAlong the Olentangy CategoriesAll ArchivesFebruary 2012 
|
RSS Feed
Copyright © 2008-12, The Silver Bullet. All rights reserved. TSB is not affiliated with The Ohio State University.
