BOBBY HAINES  wrote:

<<<I have appreciated your insightful explains of SSE & WSE and the different
Hybrids and how JT has been recruiting the last 5 years. And if you have been
paying attention to my postings, I have disagrragreed with you in the fact that
i think JT has the flexibility to adjust on the field to just about any look he
wants to for Big10, SEC, Big12. Speed, Power, Spread, whatever. 3-3-5, 3-4, 4-3,
de to dt, dt to de to lb, ss to olb.
He has so many different hybrid athletes on this defense, that if any idiot doesn't think we dont have speed...Watch the spring game, and watch Moeller track down the run away RB at the end of that game. Beautiful! We are more flexible than we have ever been!<<<

I do believe that the staff wants flexibility. We were at our best with an elite Leo player on the roster. When Bobby Carpenter was here he was the key to the defense Heacock wanted to run. It was as flexible a defense as you will ever see. Being able to move between the 4-3 and the 3-4 without changing personnel is the ultimate in flexibility. The one downside to packages is they are a "tell". Who is coming on the field and who is going off is a tip-off to the opposition. With Carpenter being able to put his hand in the dirt and play both the run and the pass as a defensive end, as well as play in space as we well as cover as a linebacker was the difference. Finding another has been a long fruitless search. You may remember that Gibson first stepped on the field as a linebacker. They knew he could rush the passer. The experiment did not go well. Gibson is a go go go type of player. You need to put him at end and cut him lose. If you want a player like that again I think you have to go with a big linebacker and teach him what he needs to play defensive end. I think we may have seen at attempt at that with Mark Johnson. I know that was the plan with Walter Dublin. There are a couple of guys I find very intriguing as possibles. Etienne Sabino is a unique talent that is not adjusting to the scheme really well. He played linebacker in high school but played with the same go go go that Gibson played but Gibson was a high school defensive end. Sabino has the size. Unlike Gibson, he has the experience at linebacker that will allow him to handle the linebacker responsibilities better. The other I like in this role is David Durham. He might be an even better candidate as he played a much more disciplined linebacker than Sabino in high school. I saw linebacker film of him and wondered why anyone would project him as a defensive end, then I saw film of him a few weeks later as a defensive end and saw why.

I think we continue to recruit for the flexibility. John Newsome is not looking like a defensive end. Neither is Wells and Durham is not looking like an every down hand in the dirt 4-3 end. On the other hand Steve Miller is a prototype 4-3 weakside defensive end. When you think about it flexibility is the way to go. We are not going to have a heckuva time winning the Big Ten if winter comes early to the region and we end having to slug it out in games that see 10 passes per side, but we are not going to win bowl games against SEC and Big 12 opponents 6 weeks later with a defense that wins games against 45 running plays.

First, I want to talk about the offer to Jonathan Hankins. That is what I am talking about. A true nose tackle. He is as well conditioned a 325 lb kid as you will ever see. He is impossible to move and commands a double team on every play. He hustles and chases. Love the motor. The fact that Oklahoma has offered him seals the deal. We think  DT, we think SEC but nobody is producing better DTs than Bob Stoops right now. The top 2 tackles in the draft could come out of Oklahoma next year. I am really surprised Michigan has not offered. With their 3-3-5 he is a perfect fit. The best part is he favors the Buckeyes right now.

Speaking of the 3-3-5, I had a revelation yesterday. You may have seen some back and forth both here and on Bucknuts between me and a knowledgeable young guy with the screen name Dvo45. He had some access and was the first to report to me that he saw alot of 3-4 in camp, which is the basis for our discussion. I say it is a odd man 4-3. He thinks it is a 3-4. There are still 4 linemen on the field in the base set. That they are lined up where they are is a wrinkle, as in odd man front, not a basic change in defensive scheme to a 3-4. But that could be changing. We have not offered players like Hankins over the years. The fact that we are looking at Jibril Black, a player who is likely to fill out into a nose tackle, is another reason to think we could be looking at a change. We have run the 3-4 Leo when Carpenter and Hawk were here but that is still a 4-3 defense. Heacock is very comfortable with a front 3. He likes to 2-gap but we have not had 2-gap DTs. We recruit the smaller quicker DTs, 1-gap players, and ask them to play 2-gap. Drives me nutty. The 3 DTs who make up the base front are Heyward, Worthington and Larimore, with Larimore playing right in the middle of the threesome. Heyward and Worthington fit the mold of 3-4 defensive ends. Worthington has always been a 4-3 tweener. He was never quick enough to be a defensive end and not big enough to play tackle. That is a good basic description of a 3-4 defensive end. I think Heyward could be a great 4-3 tackle but I think he is an even better 3-4 defensive end. The thing that is missing is a nose tackle. That brings me to the 3-3-5.

I have always been a firm believer in the 4-3. The best defenses I have seen were built around a front four that could at least get a stalemate consistently against the 5 offensive linemen across from them. I have started to come around to the 3-4. I think this pass happy generation makes having a smaller quicker guy on the field a sound strategy. Yesterday I was talking about this on the Bucknuts board and it hit me. The way 4-3 defenses are having to play right now it is more like a 4-2-5. We see more of Jermal Hines and Tyler Moeller than we do Ross Homan. In the 3-3-5 you still have 3 linebackers on the field. After that revelation I went looking for information. I wrote off the 3-3-5 as a gimmick defense. I would run right at such an animal. Zone block it to death. I did not think it would work at all in a conference where the best teams still want to pound the ball. I said some time ago that we would find out about the read option and the 3-3-5 that Rich Rodriguez was bringing in here this year. I think it is going to show some results as early as next year or it was going to look like he was not going to be around long. I think with the right quarterback the read option is very scary. I did not have the same opinion of the 3-3-5. Smash mouth dinosaur that I am, I saw maize and blue bodies laying all over the field with Carlos Hyde cleat marks dotting their bodies. After taking a closer look I might be wrong about that, .....and maybe we see some of that here in Columbus.

Here is a great primer on the 3-3-5 from BuckeyePlanet

http://www.buckeyeplanet.com/forum/news/609152-basics-3-3-5-defense.html

I was shocked to see Nick Montana chose Washington. My money was on Stanford. I did not see Washington as a player. I forgot who replaced Ty Willingham. I checked and the new head coach is Steve Sarkisian, a highly regarded quarterback guru. It now makes perfect sense. Stay on the coast like his mom was adamant about and get groomed by a guy that knows what he is doing with quarterbacks. Good luck to him. He was a classy kid throughout this. Handled himself well.

The timing of the offer to Hendrix shows a staff that has found its recruiting mojo again. Maybe Montana told them thanks but no thanks but I believe they saw the handwriting on the wall not just with Montana but with Hendrix becoming the hottest quarterback commodity in the country. I think it shows we are committed to taking a quarterback in this class. I could not agree more. I think quarterback is the most important position on the football field by a clear margin. I want to have talent stacked at least 3 deep and preferably 4 deep. I want Hendrix. I think he is a talent. I am still not sure about Bauserman's return. I know it has been refuted by Joe himself but I still have not have heard from that private source that he is definitely going to stay. He is not going to make a public statement, Buckeye fans. Come on. For the same reason that players say they are returning to school and then leave, Bauserman is going to wait until he is ready to go, and it makes sense for him to go. He can play for several years and maybe have a shot at the NFL. Neither is going to happen sitting behind the Franchise. Even those convinced he is coming back have to acknowledge the logic that leaving is in his best interest. The one hitch, a good hitch, is he is a more mature guy. He knows from experience. that the pros is another level. He knows how hard it is, and he is not ideal sized. He may be more interested in Buckeye Nation post college. I can't believe that Guiton is going to be a quarterback at this level. He looks like he could be a steal as a wide receiver. Someone whose opinion I respect greatly says he is at least 6-3. One of the needs high on the list this year is a big split end. We could get one and not spend a scholarship in a smallish class. He is emergency depth for one year and that is all. I like what I see out of Hendrix as a player and I love what I am hearing about him. He is such a competitor. Neither Pryor nor Miller will impact his decision. I like kids that believe in themselves and have that driving desire to win. I don't care about his numbers. You can see how little college programs care about them. Numbers mean so little. That is one of the things I have tried to get across to you over the years. Remember, Roy Hall caught 9 balls as a junior. Yes, I said 9. He had offers from Ohio State, Michigan and Florida State before his senior year started. Great looking prospect. Great move to offer when we did. Great idea to add quarterback depth no matter who is a definite lean this way in the future.

Anybody want to speculate on how the season would have gone with better offensive line play? I saw a national championship run before the season. I stand by the statement I made last year at this time that we should have the best offensive line of the Tressel era last year. That line underperformed. Why I think that happened is another conversation. Think about how veteran that line was. Alot of starts between Boone, Rehring, Cordle and Person. It was a line who had impressive offer lists coming out of high school. Between experience and projected talent there was every reason for the optimism that a number of pundits had in addition to myself. This year I am even more convinced that the line will be better.
I like the core. I like the core alot. I think Brewster with Boren on one side and either Browning or Cordle on the other is the strongest middle of the line we have seen since since Adrian Clarke, Alex Stephanovich and Bryce Bishop in 2002. I think it is arguably the best since the '96 team with Kurt Murphy, Rob Murphy and LeShun Daniels. Cordle was not a great center but he became a very good guard. I think Browning could be an even better guard than Cordle and likely will get the chance with the odds of Cordle starting at right tackle, at least for the first few games, being quite high. The question is at both tackle spots. I think we saw Mike Adams step up mentally. He has always had enormous physical potential. He is a rare physical specimen. He needed to get tougher. I think we saw that happen right in front of our eyes. He went from a player who halfway through spring practice looked like he was going to sit behind a throw-in former tight end, to pitching a shutout against some very good defensive linemen by the time the spring game came around. On the other side I am still not convinced about Cordle. You just don't see guards handling pass blocking well out there in space at tackle but I am confident he will be better than Browning. We saw how important tackles can be last year. So many things went wrong because Browning was such a liability. I think with solid play out of right tackle we will see a world of difference in line play this fall.

It is an old expression but one that still resonates. The little things really do matter. With a team losing so many veteran players there are so many things to point toward as possible problems. We lost an award winning milddle linebacker and a three year starter beside him. We lost both of our starting corners. The best back to come through here in many a year. A true Buckeye Hall of Famer. We are thin at tight end and even thinner on the offensive line. I think there are a couple of things, little things, that are getting overlooked that could have a great impact on the season.

We are assuming so much about Posey. He is an immense talent. He is arguably the best receiver from this state in a generation. Despite the depth at receiver he still pushed his way into playing time. He is a kid. He has not been the man yet. To say Small has been erractic would be an understatement. There are a number of reports that he now gets it. He is ready to step up. I hope so. For his sake and ours. The guy that is going to be key is Dane Sanzenbacher. He and Pryor seem to have developed a repoire. He is the only thing the Franchise can bank on. Until Posey finds his game and Small remembers his, Sanzenbacher will have to be the best receiver on the field.

We have to find a fullback. I don't know if we were good at fullback last year. We were just great at RB. Chris Wells just needed a fullback who could get in the way of a defender. I think we are going to need to find a guy who can move people out of the hole. Herron reads his blocking so well but he needs those blocks. Saine has power but I would not call him a power back. Berry is not going to be a guy who makes his own hole. Carlos Hyde can but I don't want to ask a freshman to have to do that.

The line can come together. Pryor can throw the ball all year as well as he did in the spring game. We can have a seemless transition to the new linebacker corps. We don't miss a beat at corner. We will not have the season we expect to have if Pryor does not have a guy he looks for when things are not going well, and if we don't have a lead blocker at fullback who will give our young backs an opportunity to get a look at the defense by taking down the first guy in his path.

There are some, a nice sized number, who are very concerned about defensive tackle. I think we have some help on the way with the last 2 classes so I am not as concerned. However, when you can get good DTs you take them. We done messed around and had a good tackle class here in Ohio, Buckeye fans. It just snuck up on us. It looks like we will see an offer to Jibril Black. That is getting back to the kind of player that has been effective here. He is like Quinn Pitcock, David Patterson, Tim Anderson, Darrion Scott, the recent best we have had here. Not a prototype body but tough, strong players with good balance and excellent technique. Good hand fighters. Good at keeping themselves clean. Black is that type of player but quicker. What got me to take time with the tackles right now was mark Porter pointing out Teven Eatmon from Wynford. What a specimen he is. He has great feet and such an athlete for his size. He shows some pop. I think he is so raw. He is one to keep in mind for later. Se how his grades shake out. He is flying low under the radar. We can wait on him. The other kid that got me excited about the defensive tackle class is finally seeing Travis Jackson  from DeSales. How did he get penciled in at guard? That kid has to get a shot at defensive tackle. He is athletic and he can run. You have to give him a shot at DT. I think Terry Talbott from Huber Heights Wayne is some verified measurables away from a whole lot of attention. I can't believe I forgot about  Micah Robinson from John Adams. He is a player I would love to see down at cam. You want to hear my #1 sleeper? Eric Lefeld from Coldwater. He can play somewhere. I love his long body and what a motor. He could be a DT, maybe a strong side DE. If nothing else he is going to be a great OL. Look at  Michael Dennis from Carey. He is another kid I would like to see at camp. Likely an OL, but I would very much like to see him get some reps at tight end. If you want to try to grow one he is right at the top of the list. 6-7 and 260 or so sounds ideal for trying to grow one of those 6-7 320 lb freaks that we all want. Another new name for me is Harrison Scott from New Albany. He was as natural a football player as there is at the position this year, and he can run. He needs to get to combines and get himself measured and looked over. Size is going to determine who he sees offers from.

Off the top of my head I can't remember a better or deeper tackle class in Ohio. I would be happy to see offers to Black, Eatmon and Jackson. Talbott could get an offer once I saw him up close. I really like Lefeld. Looking at him just as a big athletic kid I would not have a problem with an offer. I like them all that well. Some you recruit as just bigs, Lefeld, and maybe Carey, who I really hope camps here. You know JT is cool with that.

Stop looking at what they are not and start looking at what they got.

Playmea found this:

http://heismanpundit.com/archives/2131

It is a list of most overrated coaches. If you don't want to follow the link and read the entire thing, here is the part Buckeye fans will find the most interesting:

<<<2. Jim Tressel, Ohio State–Is any coach more stubborn about his system and way of doing things?  Sure, he is successful to a point, but he gets a ton of talent every year and lately has found a way to get pummeled in the big games.  It’s almost as if he is satisfied to lose, as long as it is his way.<<<

Some fans are not going to like it but it sounds like this guy has been paying attention. He voices the same concerns that alot of Buckeye fans are talking about right now. The last line is the one that gets my attention and what I am compelled to respond to.

I am not offering an argument for "Tresselball". I an putting forward an explanation. Here is why Jim Tressel does it the way he does it. It is very simple. 5 national championships. In his mind Tresselball is a formula for success. It has worked for him 5 times, and most important it has worked at the highest level of competition. The national championship game was something that Buckeyes fans needed. It may be the worst thing that happened to us. It confirmed, at least in Jim Tressels mind, that he could win at this level too doing the same old same old that had brought 4 national championships to Youngstown State. I think so much of the problem goes back to success at the 1-AA level doing things this way. That is a different level of football. Some schools have better talent than others but there are no game changers at that level. No players that can completely mess up a game plan like there are at this level. This is not a Jim Tressel thing. Would anyone change a way of doing things when the tried and true is working for them? Why would anyone choose to leave their comfort level when it has been very successful?

I think Jim Tressel is a tremendous competitor. I don't think anyone get this far in sports without a burning desire to win. I think he is a scarlet and gray bleeding Buckeye. I think he wants to win national championships more than anyone. I don't think his way will bring us another national championship without the same luck that was crucial to the 2001-2002 national championship. I think Jim Tressel will realize that. The competitor in him will demand that he do what is necessary to make that happen. How much longer is the only question that remains.