Worst Case Scenario

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Sports

June 23, 2008

Antonio Henton has finally proven that he is the ultimate Buckeye. The media may portray Henton as leaving because he felt he wasn’t going to get playing time. The bloggers may say the same. Some will blame Terrelle Pryor, some will blame Joe Bauserman. Poe McKnoe has learned the real reason Henton is leaving for Georgia Southern. After being committed to the Buckeyes for more than 2 season, Henton experienced what it felt like to lose 2 national championship games to 2 SEC teams. He knows how he felt and he knows how the team felt. He made a promise that warm January night in the Bayou to never let it happen again. He vowed to do whatever it took to make sure the Buckeyes would not lose to another SEC team in the national championship game. He thought and thought and then finally made a decision on how to stay true to his word. If he couldn’t do it on the field for the Buckeyes, he would do it on the field for someone else. Henton left Ohio State for the only place that made sense…Georgia Southern. Henton left Ohio State for one reason and one reason only…to take out SEC favorite Georgia Bulldogs the first game of the year. Thus preventing the Bulldogs from an appearance and possible confrontation with the Buckeyes in the title game. We salute you, Mr. Henton, for being an ultimate Buckeye.

And the legend of Antonio Henton was born (just imagine if it actually happens)…

I don’t believe in luck, karma, or jinxes. Good thing, because with that said, the departure of Antonio Henton leaves Ohio State with 3 QBs on their depth chart. But let’s break it down further: 1 Greyshirt/Redshirt Senior, 1 Twenty-something walk-on RS freshman, and an incoming freshman who has been on campus for less than 1 week. One thing that the Henton departure requires is more trust in Todd Boeckman, the mandatory kind and not the earned kind. But what happens if Todd becomes suddenly and very unexpectedly ‘unavailable’? No, I’m not talking about suddenly being discovered and moving to Hollywood or being busted by the Feds for running a meth trafficking ring out of his house.

Gone are the 2 backups from last year’s team, Robbie Schoenhoft and Antonio Henton. They took with them whatever knowledge they had after a combined 5 years in Jim Tressel’s system. Antonio’s transfer comes as more of a (kinda sorta) shock than Schoenhoft’s, however. Robbie showed off his NFL caliber arm during last year’s spring game and probably had the most upside of any QB on the roster. Robbie’s problems were more mental than physical, as he never completed more than 40% of his passes in high school and did nothing but make the gophers under Ohio Stadium pay dearly for what they had done with his bounce passes 15 yards down field. Rob knew what was coming, got moved to TE, and transferred to Delaware. Henton, on the other hand, looked like a gamer and showed good presence in his actual game time. But then Terrelle Pryor signed with Ohio State and Joe Bauserman showed why Tressel talked so highly of him in the 2008 Spring Game.

Let’s put it another way; nobody thought Lawrence Wilson was going to be ‘unavailable’ last season. Depending how you look at it, you’re either running for the hills or wildly content. Let’s take a look at the backups. In terms of experience and running the offense, we start off with…

Joe Bauserman (RS Freshman)
This depth chart is a whole lot different than last year, where Bauserman was an afterthought to an afterthought. Jim Tressel loved him enough back in 2004 to offer him a scholarship, but Joe no doubt didn’t like the Troy Smith/Justin Zwick/Todd Boeckman situation ahead of him and went the pro baseball route. The white (or bleached blonde) Bo Jackson, as we will refer to him now, came back as a walk-on in 2007 and spent his redshirt season behind Schoenhoft and Henton.

Then came reports that Joe Bauserman looked like the most complete QB on the team and Devon Lyons (who?) or Albert Dukes (who?), one of the two, looked like the best receiver. If those reports were true, we will never know, but Bauserman came out with a chip on his shoulder for the 2008 Spring Game. What was expected to be the Henton coming out party, Bauserman looked cool, calm, and confident in the pocket and on the run. He showed off arm strength that sent Boeckman to the free weights. He juked Brian Rolle out of his pants, and we know everyone loves Rolle.

Only problem? It was an intra-team scrimmage. The kid (man?) has zero experience since 2004. We’re not talking just game experience, we’re talking football experience. He went to play baseball for three years. You make jokes about Boeckman being old, Joe had a career and came back to OSU. Bauserman knows that with being a 20-something walk-on and Jim Tressel as his coach, Ohio State presents the best opportunity for playing time. He’d be golden, and not just his hair, if they hadn’t gone out and got Mr. Everything…

Terrelle Pryor (Freshman)
Rivals and Scout agreed that TP was the #1 recruit and #1 QB in the nation last recruiting season. ESPN had him at the #6 recruit and #1 QB. The one thing Terrelle Pryor has going for himself that other #1 QBs including Jimmy Clausen or Ryan Mallet don’t have is the ability to run. And not just run, but run fast. Pryor claims he’s a 4.3 guy, and I wouldn’t doubt it. He isn’t a 5’9” scat back, he’s a 6’5.5” 225lb QB. In terms of natural ability, he’s a Calvin Johnson/Vince Young athlete. ESPN initially wouldn’t rank him as QB, because he would make too much sense anywhere on the football field except offensive line. I wouldn’t be surprised if Pryor could play TE, LB, S, or long snapper and excel at it. He’s been working out so hard for Ohio State, his high school coach was afraid he was going to get too big and they’d have to play him at defensive end.

He backed up his natural ability by leading his high school team to division titles in both football and basketball. He was arguably the most sought after recruit in the nation last year and had the media circus to prove it. The thing about Pryor is that he seems to be able to turn up his play whenever he needs to, whether it is in state playoff games on all-star games. He was named the MVP of the US Army All-American game (joining other Buckeyes including Ted Ginn Jr. and Beanie Wells). We’ve seen Tressel use Troy Smith as a passer and a runner, but Smith was only put into duty after Zwick went down (thankfully. Can I say that?). We’ve seen the Shot-Ginn formation, we’ve seen a little option attack, and we’ve seen old school single wing (Ted Ginn in the 2004 Alamo Bowl. Fowler: “He might throw, Lee.” Corso: ”He’s not going to throw” Fowler: “Teddy Ginn to the house!”). Hell, Troy Smith was doing the play action to himself before Tim Tebow was even in college. The coaching staff has been candid enough to say they studied all their offenses and found the 2005 to be the most effective (Man, those stats had to be skewed to the end of the season).

All that’s great, but Pryor hasn’t been on campus for a week yet. He’s never played D1 football. He hasn’t even officially practiced with the team. He looked like a man against boys in high school because he was a man against boys. I don’t remember Pryor playing a full game because the scores were normally 70-10 in Jeanette’s favor. Whether this is a testament to how great Pryor is or how poor the competition is has yet to be seen. I know those defenses aren’t USC’s or Wisconsin’s. The more I heard about TP, the less I’m worried about attitude or personality, but Vince Young wasn’t thrown into the fire as a freshman (he redshirted) and didn’t blow up until his sophomore year.

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