KARL PEARSON
Star Beacon
October 11, 2008 03:42 am
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There are no off days in Big Ten football anymore.
Unlike the old days of the Big Two of Ohio State and Michigan, or even the rise of Wisconsin and Illinois and the infusion of Penn State in more recent times, the reduction in scholarships each school is allowed to 85 has made every school a force with which to be reckoned and not to be taken lightly. The vast improvement shown this year from programs that have traditionally struggled like Indiana, Minnesota and Northwestern gives even more credence to the notion that parity has finally arrived.
So 12th-ranked Ohio State (5-1, 2-0) is not in a position to relax following last week’s big road victory at Wisconsin or look ahead to next week’s game at Michigan State. The Buckeye coaching staff, at least, is wary of Purdue (2-3, 1-1) which comes into Ohio Stadium today (3:30 p.m., ESPN, WFUN, WFXJ).
“We’re facing another tough one,” OSU offensive coordinator Jim Bollman said. “There are no days off in the Big Ten anymore.”
Some of that concern stems from recent games between the Boilermakers and Buckeyes have been tight. Purdue even gave OSU its toughest regular-season test in 2002 on the Buckeyes’ drive to the national championship, which was only pulled out on Craig Krenzel’s miracle fourth-down touchdown bomb to Michael Jenkins.
In his role as offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, Bollman has had fits over the years with Purdue’s stack defense. It’s no less complicated this year, with the Boilermakers featuring six returning starters, led by preseason All-American candidate Anthony Heygood at linebacker.
Purdue has an experienced defensive line featuring senior defensive tackles Ryan Baker (280) and Alex Magee (295) and junior Keyon Brown. Junior David Pender returns at cornerback and junior veteran Brandon King is at free safety.
“They’re tough and experienced,” Bollman, a Harbor High School graduate, said. “They have a good defensive line and good linebackers. Their guys in the secondary are little young.
“This has been a tough game year in and year out since 2001 (when Jim Tressel’s staff arrived). All the games we’ve played with them have been big ones, including last year (a 23-7 win at West Lafayette, Ind.).”
So the Buckeyes have to look to create matchups that favor them.
“If you get a personnel mismatch, you have to take advantage of it,” Bollman said. “We need a good job of protection for our quarterback and we have to make good decisions.”
That applies in particular to freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor in his ongoing maturation process. At times against Wisconsin there were struggles, but in the long run, particularly on the game’s last drive, his uncommon gifts were in evidence.
“Terrelle just keeps trying to get better,” Bollman said. “I hope he’s making much better decisions. He made some great plays at the end of the game and a wonderful play on that last touchdown.
“I thought we showed some improvement last week against a very tough opponent. We had a couple of opportunities where if we had put the ball in for touchdowns instead of kicking field goals that I would have felt better.”
The performance of tailback Chris “Beanie” Wells was also big.
“Beanie had a real good game,” Bollman said. “He had some really big runs for us. We were actually pretty consistent in the running game.”
The Buckeyes are beginning to get a bit healthier, although several having been fighting the flu this week. That includes senior guard Steve Rehring, whose participation against Wisconsin was impacted by the bug.
“Steve was ill during the game,” Bollman said. “We expect him to play a lot more this week.”
But Backup tailback Daniel “Boom” Herron and wide receiver Dane Sanzenbacher figure to be on the sidelines while recovering from concussions suffered against Wisconsin, though. Freshman tackle J.B. Shugarts, who was fighting for playing time, missed the trip to Wisconsin and will also sit out this week with an injured shoulder.
The search for consistency throughout the offense continues, although there were improvements.
“We were pretty consistent on third downs,” Bollman said. “Our goal is to convert 50 percent on all third-down situations. That means making all third-and-shorts, 65 percent of third-and-mediums and 35 percent of all third-and-longs, which all adds up to 50 percent.
“I think we keep taking steps forward in that area. We still need to try and convert more of our scoring opportunities in the red zone. We just have to keep improving.”
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