Ohio State—USC 2009: Position by Position, Who Has the Advantage?

by HD Handshoe
Founder
BlockONation.com

With the start of the 2009 season only 35 days away, I thought it would be fitting to repost a couple of articles that were originally published during the off-season, back when the season seemed so far away.

I'm sure there are new visitors to the site that have not read these stories and now they won't have to go digging through the archives.



Let me say this right up front.

I'm a Buckeye fan but I have done my damnedest to provide my absolute objective view on the game, all bias aside.

I've researched both teams and have previously written a couple of articles about them and this game so I feel pretty confident in what I'm about to post.

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OSU backfield vs. USC backfield

Pryor is in year 2 and has vastly improved his passing skills. Boom and Zoom will be just fine taking over for the departed Beanie Wells. Aaron Corp will make his 2nd career start in front of 105,000 fans and against one of the nation's best season to season defenses...

You can bet that OSU loads the box to stop the USC trio of backs and challenges Corp to beat them....I'm not sure he's ready to step up to that just yet....

Advantage - Ohio State (slightly)


OSU WR's vs. USC WR's

Both teams have fast WR's. Individually, Williams is the biggest name on both teams but as far as depth, OSU has just as much, albeit young.

Advantage - USC (slightyly)


OSU O-line vs. USC O-line

The Bucks O-line will be much better than last years group (especially now that dead-weight overrated Alex Boone is gone), but USC's guys have all played together for a full season so and are probably the best unit in the nation.

Advantage - USC


OSU D-line, LB's and DB's vs. USC's D-line, LB's and DB's

OSU is stronger on the front line, OSU & USC are pretty even at LB and USC gets the nod in the defensive backfield, primarily because of Taylor Mays!

Advantage - Push


OSU Special Teams vs. USC Special Teams

The Buckeyes have a solid kicker in Aaron Pettrey and they get a lot of practice kicking FG's. He has a powerful leg too and can kick from distance.

In the return game, I think both teams will have speed guys and are pretty even so only b/c of the kicker....

Advantage - OSU (slightly)


Tressell vs. Carroll

These are the top 2 winningest coaches in College Football since 2001 but Pete has more big wins and an AP title to go along with his BCS title and Tressel has more to prove, hopefully starting with this game...

Advantage - USC


X-Factor: The Shoe at Night



Just like last year in L.A., the Buckeyes defend their home turf just as well.

In the last 47 home games vs. OOC opponents, the Buckeyes are 46-1

Advantage - OSU

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Overall, it looks pretty even to me. OSU has the talent to compete vs. USC and they have the home field this time.

USC is extremely talented and they always reload and always shows up in bigtime national stage games.

Something has to give, but it's really too close to call IMO...

I hope for and expect a battle and for this one to live up to the "Game of the Century" hype!


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Could 2009 Be The Beginning of The End For Coach Jim Tressel?

by HD Handshoe
Founder
BlockONation.com


I consider myself to be a true, die-hard, never fairweather fan of the all sports teams I follow, especially the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Some may, and many have, even accused me of blatant, non-objective homerism!

I will admit I am kind of a homer, but I do not subscribe to the idea that being a homer means I cannot be objective as well.

And since when is being a homer fan of the team you root for a bad thing?

It doesn't mean I don't see things that I don't like or that I live in a Utopia as far as my teams go.

When there are issues, I acknowledge them and want them addressed just as much as the so-called "objective" fan, or fairweather bandwagon jumpers as I like to refer to them.

For example, I have often been critical of Ohio State's coordinators, especially Jim Bollman and their play-calling, which falls solely on the head of Jim Tressel.

It has become a common practice across the college football landscape for schools looking for head coaches to hire coordinators from successful programs like USC, Florida, etc.

Ohio State has been one of the most successful teams of this decade, yet nobody to my knowledge has inquired about hiring Jim Bollman or Jim Heacock.

There's obviously reasons no other teams have hired them away from Ohio State. I'll leave it at that.

I wholeheartedly believe that Tressel should have replaced Bollman this past off-season, and while he was at it, replaced himself as the de facto offensive coordinator with Bollman's replacement.

But alas, none of this happened, so I'll file away my off-season Buckeye wish-list until next January.

While this does worry me that we, as fans, are going to see more of the same old, tired, predictable, and uninspired play-calling of recent years, I'm not a booster, the AD, or E. Gordon Gee. I'm not in a position to implement the changes that seem warranted, so therefore, I digress.

Most sensible OSU fans will take a similar wait-and-see approach before passing judgment on our 2009 team.

But some "fans", still with 38 days to go before the start of the 2009 season, already have the Buckeyes losing three to five games, including blowout losses to USC and Penn State, and are predicting, if not outright calling for, Tressel's head on a stick.

Here is just some of the negativity our own (fairweather bandwagon) "fans" are spewing about our program, players, coaches, etc. over at my least favorite OSU site, Bucknuts.

"Since Michigan in 2006, we haven't won a big game on the national level. Some of those losses were embarrassing blowouts with the Texas game close but still a loss.

All those games were played on fields a long way from Columbus. This game will be at home and if we stink up the place, especially on offence (Tress and Bollman's department), then it will start to shake confidence in the locals about Tress's ability to match wits with the top programs."

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"Beating Michigan, which is basically a MAC level team means little in 2009. Tressel is safe of course—he is a great person, good for any program but only an average game day coach.

The fact that he is 0-6 vs. the last six BCS bowl teams cannot be ignored. Objective OSU fans know something is wrong and Tressel needs better assistants and massive help in play calling. Losing to USC will not help but can be expected as Carroll and USC's talent is still better the OSU's."

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"I think if we lose the USC game and our bowl game JT has one more year to get his **** together. It happens. Fulmer and Carr both won a national title early in their careers at their schools and they both became average coaches.

It's sad to say but I think the game has already started to pass JT by. How long can he live off one NC title while getting his ass handed to him year after year by the SEC and other top programs? His offensive play calling is a joke and he shows no signs of changing his mind.

I watched the Michigan game from last year over the weekend. I have never seen a team win 42-7 and look like ****. But we pulled it off nicely. The play calling in that game was awful. Tressel got lucky that Wells broke a long run or two.

Calling the same running play 5 times in 2 quarters and hoping your back finds a hole isn't coaching."

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"You're right. I am very happy to win the JV conference that is the Big Ten and get our asses handed to us EVERY time we step out of conference and play a real school.

If you want to go through life with blinders on than so be it. I for one think it's alright to question the bible by Jim Tressel. I am tired of a school that makes as much money as we do, recruits the type of players that we do, and sells out EVERY home game like we do being the laughing stock of college football.

For you blind ass homers let me spell it out for you.............

Winning the Big Ten and beating Michigan doesn't mean a damn thing. It's not good enough. I would rather beat USC and lose to Penn St and not win the Big Ten. At least that way we can show we can play with the big boys.

And I hope you're right about TP changing the way Tressel calls plays. Anything would be better than the sissy playing calling we've seen since Troy left. And you can't blame it on having a bad QB. Who's fault is that? Perhaps the head coaches for not bringing in a better QB?"

There are plenty more like these but I think you get the picture.

Some of these comments are worse than others and some hold more validity than others, but here's the blunt truth as far as I am concerned:

Some of you seriously need to get a clue or get a new team if you're so unhappy with Tressel and company consistently thumping Michigan, winning at least ten games per year and winning the Big Ten title nearly every year!

There are about 115 DI FBS football programs that would love to have the "problems" Ohio State football has had since 2006.

Of course, this is just one man's opinion and I could be wrong...

Or not.


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Huge News to Share With Ohio State Football Fans

by HD Handshoe
Founder
BlockONation.com


I have been selected to blog as an Ohio State football blogger by PhilSteele.com for the 2009 season!

If you're a true college football fan, then you know who Phil Steele is and you realize this almost makes me kind of a big deal!

In addition to the articles that myself and my contributors post here at BlockONation and on BleacherReport.com, I, HD Handshoe will be blogging about the 2009 Buckeyes over on PhilSteele.com

This is an amazing opportunity and a chance to gain even more exposure for this blog, as well as for myself, Kristofer, Tim, Michael, Jeremy and Kyle!


Here's the link to the Ohio State team page blog on PhilSteele.com where my season-long articles will appear!

I'll be sure to let everyone know when my articles appear on PhilSteele.com

Thanks to every Buckeye fan that has visited this site and told others about it.

You've already helped me in making BlockONation more than I ever imagined it could be in such a short time.

Thanks for your continued support! It is greatly appreciated!

HD
Founder
BlockONation.com