Ohio State Football: Fall Camp Preview Part One

Fall camp is approaching fast, and I know that we are all starting to get the itch for college football.  Now it's time to start talking about where Ohio State football is as we are just over a week away from the first practice of camp.

The blaring question that everyone will want to know is how Terrelle Pryor looks as a passer, so I'm going to get that out of the way fast.  He looked good in the spring and will likely look great in the fall, but I want to move past that.  We all know who Pryor is and his potential.

The real questions are about what units of the team will be strengths and weaknesses, what freshmen will make big impressions this year, and who will will position battles.  This first section will be only for returning players, I'll get to the freshmen a little later.

Lets start with what could be the biggest strength on the team, something that hasn't happened for a while.  I'm talking about the defensive line.  They were recently picked to be the top unit in the conference in a recent ESPN article, and I believe that they even missed a few important players.  Defensive end is stocked so well that if the tackle position can provide even slightly above average play this season will be a nightmare for opposing quarterbacks.

Cameron Heyward is a beast of a strong side end, and should be seeing more time there this season than at tackle.  He has dropped about ten pounds from last season and is back more to his freshman year playing weight.  With better depth inside he should be able to stay at end and be very productive there.

Thadeus Gibson is going to give offensive coordinators fits.  If the Fiesta bowl is any indication, this is a man that knows how to get in a quarterback's face and cause some problems.  

Nathan Williams is another end who is an extremely good athlete that showed fantastic ability to get into the backfield in his limited playing time last season as a freshman.  Expect to hear his name called a lot in 2009.  The only thing that will limit his effectiveness is whether or not he is in the game.

Lawrence Wilson is a guy who is a very big powerful defensive end that has been expected to be a very good player for two years in a row.  He was finally getting things together last year when he blew out his knee in the middle of the season.  He will be back this year and is currently healthy.  Watching how he does in fall camp will be interesting because even if you are physically ready to go it usually takes an entire year or so to be back to full speed after an ACL injury like that.  Perhaps he makes a strong recovery sooner than expected, but I wouldn't expect him to make a huge impact early in the season.  Further on down the road when he is truly 100 percent I believe he will be an important contributor.

Rob Rose is another player that has a lot of talent but has not made too much of a splash yet, somewhat due to injuries.  He is big enough to play either position on the line if needed, but I would say he fits in better at end.  Rose is currently healthy and ready to go, so he will also be someone to pay attention to throughout camp.

At Defensive tackle you have returning starters in Dexter Larimore, Todd Denlinger, and Doug Worthington.  All three have a lot of experience, and there is no reason that these three guys won't perform well.  They are all three big, seasoned, and healthy.  There is also Garrett Goebel who was quietly taking care of business last year as he red shirted behind the four returning starters in 08.  He was a very highly recruited player that has now had a year on the team to learn the game and from all reports is ready to make a splash this year.  This group in particular is of great interest to me this year because it has been a weakness in recent history.  Two years ago those same three seasoned veterans were playing and not stepping up against elite competition.  Now with more experience who will emerge on top as an elite player?  How strong of a camp will Goebel have and how much playing time will he end up taking away from the three upper classman?  I personally have to believe that there will be at least two elite players out of this group that rise to the top at the end of camp.

Moving backwards in the defense takes us to the linebacker core, one of the most interesting groups on the team. There are stockpiles of talent at this position, but realistically the players that will be competing for time right now will be Homan, Spitler, Rolle, and Moeller.  The other guys are very good players, but not ready as far as learning the scheme to break into the starting rotation just yet.

Homan is the most experience player and will stay at the weak side position, that is the only spot that is certain this year, and it may not even be true during nickel packages.  He is a good linebacker that I don't expect many mistakes out of this year.  Sure tackler, smart player, hard worker, and good athlete.  I'm not sure what else to ask for in a linebacker.

The middle linebacker spot, known as Mike at OSU, is a much more interesting position.  The two guys that I would say split time here and will battle all throughout camp are Spitler and Rolle.  Spitler is a fifth year senior that has served his time waiting behind an All American middle linebacker.  The staff trusts him and believes he will be an important part of the defense this year.  On the other hand, Brian Rolle has shown nothing but brilliance lately.  He is a bit short at just under 5'10" but he more than makes up for it with his play.  He hits like a truck, is very fast, and is one of the hardest working players on the team right now.  He didn't even go home during the team's one week conditioning break so that he could stay and prepare for camp.  Rolle is determined to win a starting spot at I think Mike is actually the best fit for him.

Then on the strong side the leader candidate is likely to be Tyler Moeller.  He is a very fast athletic player that is excellent at blitzing the quarterback, but it will be interesting to see how he handles the responsibilities of being an every down player if he wins a starting job.

Even if this ends up being the base 4-3 set of linebackers, Ohio State spends at least half of the time in nickel defense with the teams that it faces now days.  Will there be totally separate personnel packages for nickel?  There are certainly enough players to do something like that and allow the defense to become more specialized.  Whatever the result, I can pretty much guarantee that we won't just be seeing the three or four players I mentioned above in that rotation.  The other guys that will be worth watching include Sweat, Sabino, Klein, and Bell.  If Sabino picks up the technical aspects of the linebacker positions in fall camp he is a likely candidate for playing time, but as of the spring he wasn't ready to get on the field.

I would wager that at least one player out of that group will prove me wrong by the end of camp though.  This is a tough position to predict right now.

Then there is the hybrid/star position that belongs to Jermale Hines.  This is part safety part linebacker but I'm going to include it here.  There is no mystery here.  We won't know much about how good Hines really is until we see how he plays during the games this fall.

Moving all the way to the back of the defense we now get to the secondary.  The safeties are easy because they are both returning starters.  There will be no shake up with Anderson Russell at Free Safety and Kurt Coleman as Strong Safety.  Both are seniors and returning starters.  I think Coleman made some pretty big strides last season and will have a very good senior season, and Russell is good despite missing that tackle on the last play of the game against Texas.  The only questions I have at safety are just how good will Russell end up, which won't get answered in camp, and who will be second on the depth charts.

Corner actually has a position battle though.  Chekwa is the starting boundary corner, there is no controversy there.  He is a very good corner with plenty of playing experience who could be poised for a break out year.  I expect nothing but good reviews out of camp for him.  The other position is likely a three way battle between players already on the roster with the possibility that a freshman could come in and get into the mix.  Those three players are Andre Amos, Devon Torrence, and Travis Howard.  All three are good, but this season the safe money is on Andre Amos.  He was a very talented player and an elite athlete two years ago before he was plagued with injuries.  Now he's been healthy all year and looks ready to play.  Keep in mind this is the guy that was used to shut down Manningham against Michigan in 2006, so he can play.  I wouldn't count out the other two players though.  Howard is going to be a very good cover corner when he makes it into the line up and Torrence didn't play baseball this summer so he could focus on football.

That covers all the positions of the defense, now to look at who might make a splash out of the incoming freshman on defense.  

Melvin Fellows might make his way into the defense, and if it were a different year where the team wasn't so stacked at end I would say he is very likely to play.  He is one to watch this camp.  If he has a strong showing and injuries hit the position Fellows could be an important part of the team.

Jonathan Newsome is in the same boat at defensive end.  He looked very strong this summer and may have been an underrated player coming out of high school.  I would be surprised if he plays much this year, if any based on the people ahead of him.  I'll still be paying close attention to what he does in camp.

I don't expect Bellamy or Simon to play this year.  Their development throughout the season will be very important with the losses at defensive tackle after the season, but I'm not so sure they will be needed this year.

I already mentioned Dorian Bell and Storm Klein getting into the mix at linebacker but I omitted Jordan Whiting.  He is also a guy to watch and should not be overlooked.

All four defensive backs in the 2009 class are 4 star or better prospects, but C.J. Barnett is the freshman to watch at corner.  He was here for the spring and was turning heads.  If he has a big fall camp he could easily climb up the depth charts very quickly.  Corey Brown is the other freshman corner coming in this fall who was a five star recruit on rivals.  Jamie Wood is a safety that was here in the spring as well, so he could be prepared enough to break into the two deep going into the season.  The other freshman DB coming in is Dominic Clarke, who was a corner coming out of high school but may play safety at Ohio State.  Which position he ends up at is something to pay attention to this fall.  Clarke will be an interesting player to watch because he is a smart tough player with 4.3 speed.

That will be all for now.  The offense will come next.