OSU’s problems this year have centered around its offensive line play.  These guys are talented underachievers.  There is simply no way around that.  I will give them credit for a good game against Illinois.  But one game isn’t enough, especially when you compare it to their performances against Ohio U., USC, and PSU.  The terrible play of the offensive line this year cost Todd Boeckman his starting job.  That is the bad news.  The good news is that it started the Terrelle Pryor era a lot sooner than most folks (including this folk) would have predicted. 


To understand what makes OSU’s offense work, you have to understand two things:  Chris Wells and Terrelle Pryor.  Injured or not, Chris Wells is the best running back in college football this year.  His detractors will point to his numbers.  But so would his fans.  He is closing in on 100 yards after sitting out three games this year.  He is closing in on 1000 yards behind one of the worst offensive lines in the Big Ten.  He is fifth on the all time OSU leading rusher list, and he has two games to go in his junior year.

Pro scouts notice you when you get hit in the back field and still turn in 55 yard runs.  If Chris Wells had been able to avoid the turf toe injury in the first game and had any kind of consistent blocking this year, he would have been closing in on 2000 yards.  I’ve said it all year on this website.  A running back like Chris Wells comes along once every 25 years.  He has been sadly wasted by this offensive line.  Whoever the offensive line coach is at OSU, he (or she) needs to lose his (or her) job.  Though Chris Wells said last year that he was going to stay at OSU all four years, it is hard to justify not going to the NFL when you will be the number one running back picked as a Junior.  It is also hard to justify staying if you are going to be running behind another crappy OSU offensive line next year.

The thing that you have to love the most about Chris Wells is the stiff arm.  As one writer at the www.the-ozone.net put it, he stiff arms defenders so hard into the turf that he appears to have something against turf.

The other half of the equation is Terrelle Pryor.  He ran for over 100 yards against Illinois last week.  He has a long, graceful stride that makes it look like he his going slower than he is.  The trouble is that everyone else is moving much slower than Pryor.  Because of this, defensive players seem to take bad angles at him, and he can make those who take good angles miss, either with a move to the inside, or with a stiff arm that he is learning from Chris Wells.

Early on when he first took over for Todd Boeckman, he had a very limited passing repetoire.  But that has grown steadily, as has his ability to go through progressions rather than simply taking off running when the first receiver is covered.  His touchdown pass to Dane Sanzenbacher last week against Illinois was proof of this.  Now when Pryor takes off running, it is almost always on a design run play.  OSU is putting a lot more QB draws in with TEs and other offensive linemen slipping downfield to block.  He usually gets about 15 to 25 yards on these plays until the other team assigns a player to “spy” on him.  But this takes a defender out of the passing defense, and he is becoming a better passer with each passing day. 

He still has some work to do on his fundamentals, but his footwork is getting better and his reading of the field is getting better too.  It is going to be pretty easy to be an OSU fan over the next few years, especially if they get their offensive line problems worked out. 

Were I in charge of the OSU universe, I would hire former OSU head football coach Earle Bruce to come back and be the offensive line coach.  Earle was an offensive lineman in college and he knows the fundamentals.

If the score gets big in this game, it is going to be because of interceptions run back for touchdowns by the likes of Donald Washington and Kurt Coleman, and it is going to be because of the fumbles caused by linebackers getting to MIchigan QBs a lot sooner than they are used to.  LB Laurinatis and CBs Donald Washington and Kurt Coleman have a sneaky way of playing a bit out of position, and then relying upon their speed to close on a poorly thrown ball.  Look for this in The Game.

OSU is going to want to send a message in this game.  Not to Michigan, but to the rest of college football.  We are a different team than the one that lost in Los Angeles back in September.  OSU needs to make the case that we are deserving of a BCS bowl should PSU or Oregon State lose between now and the end of the regular season.  At that point, there are some bowls that are going to have to make a choice between a resurgent OSU and teams like Boise State and Utah who haven’t played a soul and whose fans don’t travel well.

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