Heading into Friday’s matchup with the No. 7 Oregon Ducks there is no doubt the No. 8 Ohio State Buckeyes will be looking to establish their powerful running game early and often. And with a handful of sizable and experienced lineman upfront, the Buckeyes will look to cap their 10-2 season with their first Rose Bowl victory since 1997.
“The past couple years the (bowl) record hasn’t been that great for the Big Ten (Conference),” Ohio State senior offensive tackle Jim Cordle said. “And we’re definitely aware of it.”
Cordle, the lone senior on the offensive line, has seen time at center, guard, and now tackle for Ohio State throughout his five years on the team and helped the Buckeyes rush for 2,699 yards and 20 touchdowns on the ground this season. But Cordle and the rest of the offensive line have learned through studying film just how dynamic Oregon’s front seven can be.
“I’ve seen their offense play on TV,” he said. “And you can see how explosive that is, but studying the defense, you know, they’ve got a group of guys with linebackers that go sideline to sideline as good as anybody, so you know they’ve got some speed.”
Oregon’s defense is in no short order for speed, but with Ohio State’s smash mouth style running game and its ability to pound the ball play after play, the Buckeyes could present a similar problem to the one the Ducks faced during their Nov. 7 51-42 loss to Heisman Trophy runner up Toby Gerhart and the Stanford Cardinal.
The Buckeyes tandem of running backs far from resemble Gerhart’s talent, but their approaches to attacking the Oregon defense will be similar.
“They’ve got a tough front seven and speed in the back,” senior tight end Jake Ballard said. “I don’t know if they’ve faced anybody that runs the ball as much as we do, but they do a lot of things to cause problems, they move a lot of guys around and blitz from different sides of the field.”
Sophomore quarterback Terrelle Pryor ended the regular season as the Buckeyes leading rusher with 707 yards and seven scores, while junior running back Brandon Saine and sophomore Dan Herron combined for 1,252 yards and 11 touchdowns.
The trio finished seventh, eighth and ninth in the Big Ten conference in rushing yards per game — Herron (62.0), Pryor (58.9) and Saine (57.8) — but taking on an Oregon defense that allowed just 126.7 yards per game on the ground could prove to be a much bigger challenge.
“It’s fun to line up and double team a guy, have the center block back, and have a guard pull around and hit a linebacker in the mouth and see who wins,” Cordle said.
The Buckeye run game relies heavily on straightforward, man-on-man approach but their playbook also features plenty of zone-read plays as well.
“I mean, (power running) is fun for an offensive line and we did a good job of that at the end of the season,” Cordle said. “And we also did well with our zone-read stuff, especially against Michigan. One drive was all zone-reads down the field and we scored, so we’ve got both.”
Aside from running the ball, Pryor and the offense could have a tough go of things in the areal attack come Friday afternoon as they’ll be playing without senior wide receiver Ray Small and freshman wide receiver Duron Carter after they were suspended for unknown reasons earlier this month.
Small, the No. 3 receiver for OSU during the regular season, had pulled down 15 receptions for 175 yards on the year and Carter had grabbed 13 for 176 yards and one score.
In their absence, sophomore Lamaar Thomas and junior Taurian Washington have stepped up to help fill the thinning wide receiving core.
“It will be an opportunity,” Thomas said. “But like I told the other guys, I’m not excited about the way I’m getting the opportunity. I’m truly going to miss those guys, Ray and Duron, but it is going to be an opportunity that I’ll be able to showcase some things that I want to showcase and the opportunity to make some plays for the Buckeyes.”
Ohio State’s most consistent receiver and playmaker, sophomore DeVier Posey, said he has no doubt that the two replacements will be ready to go come game time.
“I’ve seen Taurian and he’s been a lot better as far as the confidence of just knowing the (he’s) playing,” Posey said. “It gives you just that comfortable zone that ‘alright even if I mess up, coming back I’ve got another play’ and that’s definitely been good for him and Lamaar.”
Posey and Pryor have had a big-play connection all year long and Posey said that he hopes to see some of those plays called in the Rose Bowl.
“We’ll definitely see,” Posey concluded. “I’m hoping so. But if not, whatever I’m called to do I’ll do.”
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