There have been a number of questions that I have not gotten to and a couple of comments I wanted to addresss. I am going to pull them off the last couple of blogs and answer them here:

[quote]Get past it !
written by pussysoprano, January 21, 2010
OL numbers debate continues every year. ITs not news ..they have different philosophy on the numbers of scholarship OL. It makes sense when they get the right people.

ANyways - I thought Duane promised Buckeye Nation that Boles was retiring this year and if he didn't he would jump in Mirror Lake with a speedo. [/quote]

You offering me a deal if Bolls comes back? Instead of going silent for a month I go speedo in Mirror Lake? What month?

Get the right people. That is something I see from those who want to maintain the status quo. That is not accurate. You can look up the rankings and the offer lists for the offensive linemen who have come into the program, especially the class that included Mitchum, Person, Rehring and Skinner. Those were top guys. So was Boone. The problem has been the small numbers and the versatility theory. Neither has been effective. Show me a program where it has been effective. We are not faring any worse than anyone else as far as the percentage of linemen who live up to expectations. We just don't have enough lineman to afford to have smaller numbers. We have to either bring in more players or have a higher degree of development. As far as Bollman coming back is concerned I stand by what I said. Last I bothered to check he was moving into the football office. He was not going to be back on the field as a coach. We saw better line play this year. The best in the Tressel era. We also saw Darrell Hazel more involved in the offense and Keith Uecker come in to the program. My problem with Bollman is the small numbers and the verstatile player theories. As long as we keep those two principles I do not believe we will ever have the best lines we can have. The best running team in college football is Alabama. I think JT would like to look like Alabama in the running game. A friend pulled up these numbers. I think they are telling:

Offensive linemen recruited by Alabama and Ohio State over the last five years:

2006: Alabama 5; OSU 3
2007: Alabama 2; OSU 1
2008: Alabama 3; OSU 3
2009: Alabama 7; OSU 4
2010 so far: Alabama 2; OSU 1
Totals: Alabama 19; OSU 12

I don't think we know how good a line coach Jim Bollman is. I have stated that before. I think we have not had the numbers to make that determination. Offensive linemen are the hardest to project out of high school and moving them around does not help matters. As long as we keep recruiting this way and trying to develop linemen this way, I do not think we will ever see the line be what we want it to be.

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[quote]written by fish-61, January 20, 2010
I also saw where the number is three left at the moment. The thing to consider with that number is that also includes Moeller. Who knows if he is ever able to play again.

I know Taurian Washington is still enrolled but maybe he is only going to be here for the spring and leave later. He still has a redshirt so maybe he plays spring ball and then transfers.

If both of these happen then that puts the number at 5.

Brown's offer could be due to the fact that Thomas left and if Washington leaves that could have tipped the scales. [/quote]


Everything I am hearing is Washington is staying. He played like a player who was returning in the Rose Bowl, and I don't see JT giving practice reps, let alone playing time, to a player who will not be back with the program next year. Use those 15 practices to prepare a guy like Chris Fields who has really impressed this year.




[quote]Moses News
written by njbuck, January 22, 2010
I was browsing the net and found 11warriors did a Morgan Moses interview posted this morning. Seems like he's definitely interested, just not sure if we're going to have room for this guy. Good to know him and Hyde have hit it off. Here's the link: http://www.elevenwarriors.com/...umbus.html
[/quote]


Moses is showing the interest. Right now it appears that he is only going to visit Ohio State. Some people follow these kids on Twitter. Moses made an update on Twitter that sounds very exciting for us. He and Carlos Hyde have become good friends. Hyde is sounding like a future great recruiting host. He hung tough and showed how much he wanted to be a Buckeye. Now it looks like he might bring a surprise with him.



[quote]...
written by iu fan, January 20, 2010
Regarding Matt James' upcoming visit to ND, I take the opposite view. Have you been to South Bend in January? It's like Akron...but the weather is worse and the people are fatter.
[/quote]


There is something bugging me about this, Buckeye fans. Kelly recently offered St. X QB Luke Massa. I like Massa. Good quarterback. Underrated, actually. But he is not a Big Four kid. Kelly has been in place for a month. Had a few weeks to get a look at the Notre Dame roster before he was given the reins. He has known all this time about his ugly quarterback situation. He has Hendrix coming in, a quarterback who rates Notre Dame. James walks out without verballing, now we have an offer to Massa. It may be nothing at all but there is something about this that just doesn't feel right. I still think James is headed to Notre Dame. I am just not so sure of that now.



[quote]...
written by Playmea, January 19, 2010
Duane, I hear ya. And you know that I disagree.

So lets put it this way, there are really only two spots where we can take the hit if we pull such a move. RB (and thats because we've already over-recruited in this position) and LB (simply because we've just got so much talent). We can't afford the gap in depth at any other spot. Maybe safety because we have numbers to fill in. But we don't have the talent at Safety. I guess we could go without another WR.

My concern Duane, is the trend in this staff would be to take the hit on the OL and the DL. Two places where we absolutely CAN NOT take a hit depth wise.

So if you could promise me that the staff wouldn't take the hit in those areas I may be cool with such a notion. But I know you couldn't make that promise. JT wouldn't make that promise. And I know you Duane. The idea of another season of only taking one OL (maybe even zero) can be detrimental. We'll have 5 QB's on our roster going into 2010. Wouldn't you rather shore up the depth on the OL (specifically Tackle) than bring in 3 QB's?

I say take one of the three unless someone is will to move to another position. I realize that QB's will likely transfer. But by then the gap in depth will have already surfaced. And the lack of distribution of reps among the other QB's (because of the log-jam) will have also played a role in the lack of development for the remaining QB's on the roster. All in the name of upgrading a position at "whatever the cost".

Eventually, the staff is going to have to take responsibility for the people they have already recruited. [/quote]

We cannot afford to take a hit on the offensive line. I put the exception in my statement about needs. We can't ignore other positions to make this happen. We need to have the scholarships available. We lose 8 OLs in the next two years. We have more OLs on the roster, that would be one thing. We don't have the numbers to short that position. We don't need backs or LBs. If we get Hicks this year we could pass altogether on LBs next year, yes, I am saying DePriest is not a high priority should we land Hicks. We are near the bottom of the barrel on reps as it is for LBs. We can't pass on receivers. We lose Sanzenbacher, Washington and Schwartz. That leaves us with 6 receivers. When you play 3 at a time alot, 6 is the bare minimum. Devin Smith is a must have player anyway. I think we could pass on corners but how do you pass on Eilar Hardy, and the Buckeyes have already offered Doran Grant. A junior offered this early is a must have player as far as the staff is concerned, and I like Hardy better. I don't think we can pass on a tight end but we have to wonder if we are going to draw one here. Ben Koyack is already backing off his initial burst of excitement from the Buckeyes early interest. The thing is, I am only looking for one extra. Playmea sees it as two since he only wants to take one of these QBs.

We have some time to see if this is something the staff will genuinely consider. This scenario is only possible because of where these three elite quarterbacks are. I would not be talking about this if these programs did not have the kind of relationship with the Buckeye program that they have. Glenville, Wayne and Coffman are all pipeline programs. We only think of Glenville when we think of pipelines. When these other schools have had players offered by the Buckeyes, they have a strong history of ending up at Ohio State. We get to see where Guiton is this spring. We get to see how much Grahams time off has impacted him when he arrives sometime this summer. Let me ask you this, Play. If we start getting reports that Graham has layers of rust and Guiton is still looking more like an athlete at quarterback than he is a quarterback, do you then drink the Kool-aid I am serving?

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