Closing the Door on tOSU

This should be a Channel Flipper, but for SOME reason, nobody decided to broadcast the UW/Idaho game, so I wasn't able to watch it, let alone not watch it while watching other games. Instead, some final thoughts.
It seems like just the other day that USC beat Ohio State at the Horseshoe. Time really flies when you're having football fun! We've seen how people on the USC side are feeling, namely that Islamabad is happy, Plaschke needs to change his pants, and everyone else is like lol wut. But let's wrap up the whole Tostitos Presents the Ohio State Experience in 3D with a look at how the three most important tOSU contingents are dealing:

• The Buckpeople Faithful: Over at....Bucknuts....the investigatory journalists have, unfortunately, uncovered our big secret. The game was all thrown. His knee was down, Pete just handed a big wad of cash to the refs to make it all go away.

• Jim Tressel: Tressel is in the proverbial seat of heat. There's a lot of talk about his play calling, his Terelle Pryoring, and his vesting, in re: whether or not it should be at Ohio State for much longer. Tressel, though, could care less because he realizes these people are from Ohio. This gem:

  Tressel said he has received critical e-mails, but said the fans' poison makes him feel sorry for them."When I read some of them I feel terrible for them because there's no way they're happy," he said. "They've got to be some of the most unhappy people in the world, and I feel bad because we just made them less happy, and I hate to be a part of making someone less happy. I mean, they're already miserable."

• Greg Oden: My biggest regret regarding this game is that, in the end, it made Greg Oden sad. Look, I could care less about the Big 10, the Midwest, the state of Ohio, Ohio State, Terelle Pryor, etc. etc. But, I am sure that in some alternate reality Greg Oden and I are best friends, and am still holding out for the day when he shows up at my apartment and we make McFlurries and play blackjack. Greg was at the game, but took so long to post about it because he's "still hurt about what went down this past saturday." Although, if it's any consolation, at least he "had a good time eating." Greg I am sorry and you will be in my heart. Ronald McDonald says high five!

One non-USC related aside: A couple of guys, who you can sort of say are the intellectual grandfathers of Islamabad (although we have never met them and probably would be reduced to incoherent stutters if we did) are taking over Deadspin tomorrow. Wine shall flow from the streets and there will be great bacchanalia.

Gut Reaction, Five Hours Later

Remember last summer, when there was all the talk of Michael Phelps winning eight gold medals, and you thought to yourself "no way, that's too many"--not because there was some apparent problem with Phelps, just because nobody wins eight gold medals with a true freshman quarterback (spoiler alert: it's an analogy). And then he goes and wins some, and you're like "oh, this dude is pretty good, but nobody wins eight gold medals." And then came the 100-meter butterfly, where he was losing the whole time, and you lean over to your friend and say "told you--dude just can't do it." Then out of nowhere, Phelps surges, slaps the wall, wins by 1/100 of a second, and you're not really sure what you saw.

I'm not saying that USC is now about to go win 8 Pac-10 gold touchdown medals (not a thing), just that coming into this game, there was no reason to expect Barkley to be able to do anything considering it was his first collegiate road game in a notoriously hostile stadium against a completely respectable team. And during most of the game, you leaned over to your friend and said "well, I guess we shouldn't have expected too much." Then out of nowhere Barkley put something together, and you were just glad to see it.

So maybe in January we can look back on this and think, well that was USC's 100-meter butterfly, when we knew this was legit. Or maybe we'll look back on the game before USC lost to Washington. Ha, jokes! But seriously, Nick Holt is for realsies.

Okay, I'm sure we'll have more to say about this later, but until then, it was a fun night. And by fun I mean miserable for like 55 minutes of play and then whew.

The Sweater Vest

A sleeveless sweater is an item of knitwear that is similar to a sweater, but without sleeves.

—Wikipedia

Tressel is as bland as vanilla pudding made with a sugar substitute. He wears glasses and parts his hair. He's the banner member for the sweater vest club.

—Lucas Sullivan

College football isn’t usually a place for high fashion. Last time these odd bedfellows crossed paths, we ended up with Texas Tech’s Brandon Carter. Scary? I thought so. But, somewhere deep in the midwest, one man is challenging the paradigm. That man is Jim Tressel, coach of tOSU, and he rocks sweater vests like you’ve never seen. Except that you have seen them, every Saturday, since god knows when.

Lacking any sort of substantive knowledge on sweater vests, like any reputable blogger, I turned to Wikipedia. Finding that Wikipedia knew about as much as I did on the subject, I proceeded to a Google search. Here are some interesting facts I found:

Holidays:

Currently, there is only one holiday celebrating sweater vests — the predictably named International Sweater Vestival. But why sweater vests?:

The Sweater Vestival is an expression of our shared humanity, and no other garment is quite so inclusive, from the self-conscious hipster to the person who just wants to stay warm. Asking people to dress in unison is already asking a lot, but the vest allows enough individuality, humor, and fashion to poke through. Even though the sweater vest has virtually dropped out of the fashion lexicon in recent years, it remains a humble garment that has a comfortable familiarity to it; donning a vest does not come across as an outlandish stunt. Far from asking people to go out on a garish, uncomfortable limb by wearing patent leather pumps or fake moustaches, collective sweater-vest wearing is like chicken soup for the torso.

Other people who wear sweater vests:

• The Jonas Brothers, who will also be releasing a line of clothing, including a sweater vest.
• Clay Aiken
• Justin Timberlake (but only while golfing).
• John Mayer
• Your great aunt who knits you sweaters you never wear, and feel slightly guilty for never wearing them.

In other words, quite the illustrious crowd.

Reasons to wear a sweater vest:

• Torso is cold, but arms are hot.
• Your biceps are too large to fit in a sweater (The Schwarzenegger conundrum).
• Because a sweater vest t-shirt just isn’t classy enough for you.
• Even your beer needs to stay cool.
• Your last style gimmick didn’t work out so well.
• It brings out your eyes really well.
• IT’S AWESOME.

Colors to wear:

• Red
• Grey
• Argyle
• Plaid
• Anything else

In Short:

Expect a strong showing for the sweater vest this weekend. As it takes its place along the Ohio State bench, all tOSU nation will look to it for inspiration. It is a beacon for mankind — a representation of all of man's hopes and dreams; of our trials, tribulations and failures. It is pain, passion and triumph in a knitted package. Most importantly however, it will keep one man's torso nice and toasty while allowing his arms to remain relatively cool.

USC vs. OSU: Key Matchups

Today starts our first of five straight days of wall-to-wall coverage of the run-up to the GAME OF THE CENTURY!!!!!

The contest will be presented by the Worldwide Leader in THREE DIMENSIONS! That’s fifty percent more dimensions than usual!

Anyways, on to the schedule:
Tuesday: Key Matchups
Wednesday: Special Teams
Thursday: When Ohio State has the ball
Friday: When USC has the ball
Saturday: Last-minute game notes and snarky predictions

Islamabad sees five matchups that are key to the outcome:

USC Linebackers and Defensive Ends vs. Terrelle Pryor

Terrelle Prior is, to use Pete Carroll’s word that was stolen from Malcolm Gladwell which is really just a simple statistics term, an outlier. He’s special. He’s 6 foot 5, stronger than Samson, supposedly can leap up to ten yards, has Michael Vick’s speed and elusiveness, and has zero felony convictions.

The problem is that he hasn’t really shown a Vick/Young/Dixon ability yet, only a Vick/Young/Dixon potential. So we are always waiting on tenterhooks for that “breakout” game.

In short, no one defender can stop Terrelle Pryor - it takes a team. The Trojans charged with keeping track of Pyror are the defensive ends (Everson Griffen and Wes Horton) and the linebackers (Mike Morgan, Chris Galippo, and Malcolm Smith). The particular schemes that the Trojans and Buckeyes will employ will be further examined on Thursday.

Though running quarterbacks like Vince Young and Dennis Dixon have cause the Trojans some problems in the past, there is hope that USC can progress. The current crop of linebackers is the fastest group that Pete Carroll has had in his tenure at SC, so they can be expected to close gaps more quickly than previous incarnations of the Trojan backers. In addition, Pete Carroll claims to have updated his schemes so that his defense can stop running quarterbacks.

On the downside, the Trojans’ front seven appears to be less than sure tacklers, missing several easy wrap-ups against lowly San Jose State, especially up the middle. And that lack of size at the linebacker position might show up when trying to tackle the 6 foot 5 Pryor.

Bottom line: If USC can bottle up Terrelle Pryor’s running game, then the Buckeyes will have to pass. And that means that USC will almost certainly win.

Ohio State’s Secondary vs. Matt Barkley

If the Buckeyes can stack eight men in the box, then there’s simply no way that USC can run the ball effectively. It’s up to The Chosen One to force Ohio State to drop more men into coverage and open up the running lanes for CJ McJohnson.

Matt Barkley’s situation has been hashed, rehashed, and overhashed. Here’s a brief overview, in haiku form:

Barkley is quite skilled
But he is young and naive
Can he take pressure?

Fewer people, however, have analyzed the Ohio State secondary. The first thing that pops out is the enormous experience level in the secondary - it has three seniors and one junior starting. While the unit might lack top-flight talent, they’re unlikely to give up any big plays. Expect the secondary to play solidly, but not spectacularly.

Another item of note in Ohio State’s secondary is the lack of a shutdown corner. Ohio State usually has one, but currently is lacking a marquee DB after Malcolm Jenkins left to play on Sunday. Chimdi Chekwa, a junior, will draw the responsibility of covering Damien Williams. After that, the CB position is rather muddled. Andre Amos, Devon Torrence, and Travis Howard will split time covering the remainder of the USC receiving fleet. None of them is particularly distinguished.

The secondary has some quality safeties, but none are particularly special. Remember, this is a unit that conceded 12.0 yards per pass attempt to NAVY. Yeah, the team that only runs a triple option.

The Trojans receivers, even without Ronald Johnson, are surely a more talented bunch than the Buckeyes they’ll be lining up against. In the end, though, the Ohio State secondary will likely focus more on confusing Matt Barkley with funky packages than actually trying to shut down USC’s receiving threats.

Bottom line: If Barkley can stretch out the Ohio State defense and force the safeties to play 15 yards from the line of scrimmage or further, then the USC rushing attack should be effective, and the offense will roll. If not, then the battle will focus on USC’s offensive line.

USC Offensive Line vs. Ohio State Defensive Line

The USC offensive line is probably the best offensive line in the nation. It dominated last week’s battle, and it’ll be even better against Ohio State due to the return of All-American Kris O’Dowd. The group should be absolutely fearsome in the trenches.

The Ohio State defensive line is a worthy opponent, though. The strength of the Ohio State defense, the line returns 8 players with a combined 43 starts. With that kind of depth, look for the D-Line to throw in a lot of different looks, utilizing their depth to keep the defensive line fresh and rested. As good as the unit looks on paper, it didn’t appear to be all that effective against Navy’s triple option, ceding a total of 186 rushing yards for a 4.2 yard per play average. That kind of production won’t get the job done against USC.

Bottom line: USC has a strong edge on the line. Expect USC to push Ohio State off the ball and protect Matt Barkley. Anything less would be a surprise. USC should be able to relatively consistently get offensive linemen to the second level to put a body on the Ohio State linebackers.

Ohio State Offensive Line vs. USC Defensive Line

As my esteemed colleage, Ronald Johnson, M.D., noted previously, we perhaps should start calling the Ohio State O-Line the “blow-line.” It was absolutely shredded against Navy. It was a leaky sieve. Jim Tressell considered using a Dutch boy to plug the leaky dyke with his finger, but that would mean there would be 12 men on the field. The point is that this unit is Ohio State’s biggest weakness. Not to take too much away from Thursday’s segment, but Ohio State wants to run the ball to set up the pass. This unit had a hard enough time eking out 4.0 yards per rush against an overmatched Navy defense that it’s doubtful that they can make USC respect a power rushing attack.

USC’s defensive line is good, not great. Injury-riddled at the top but still extremely deep, the Trojans should be able to get at Terrelle Pryor early and often. Look for Ohio State to try to negate the Trojan line’s aggressiveness with zone option read plays, fly sweeps, zone counters, screens, and speed option plays. Terrelle Pryor will likely have protection problems, but he is perfectly fine with scrambling.

Bottom line: Look for USC to eviscerate the Ohio State offensive line. The concern comes in the Ohio State playmakers being able to use deception to keep the defensive line on its heels. If that happens, then the Ohio State offensive line will look good, even thought they’re not doing much.

USC Secondary vs. Terrelle Pryor

This is really a lopsided matchup - USC’s secondary is one of the top five in the nation, anchored by headhunter and part-time grim reaper Taylor Mays, and rounded out by shutdown corners Kevin Thomas and Josh Pinkard and strong safety Will Harris.

On the other side of the line lurks Terrelle Pryor. Mr. Pryor, while a physical specimen and a pterodactyl look-alike, is not very good at throwing passes, especially deep passes. Look for Mays and Harris to be looking to stop the run and contain Pryor on the ground. Especially early, they’ll look to force Pryor to pass the ball.

Bottom Line: USC will look to put 7 or 8 men in the box on most plays to force Terrelle Pryor to try to beat them with his arm. As such, the matchup between Pryor and the USC secondary will be an important factor in shaping the game on Saturday.

That’s all the matchups we have time for today, folks. Come back tomorrow and we’ll discuss special teams.

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