dwayne haskins

Dwayne Haskins
That's a mighty clean uniform you've got there. [Bryan Fuller]

Resources: My charting, OSU game notes, OSU roster, Bill C profile, CFBstats, 11W Snap Tracker

The longer a leader lasts, the more that leader's followers will take on his or her personality. Ohio State's offense is in its seventh year of Urban Meyer, and for the most part it remains a model of efficiency. Their base play is "Mesh," the play ruled the most efficient in football, which formed the basis of the Air Raid offense. Their base run is an inside zone with a bubble read that gets two yards from the offensive line and three more from a running back burrowing forward.

His roster is built with the 4- and 5-stars statistics say will most likely be ready to contribute early and round into all-conference and NFL sorts—all but one player who gets significant snaps was in the composite Top 250 out of high school, and most of these guys were Top 100. Every offensive lineman was somebody's coveted left tackle, every receiver a gamebreaker, every tight end a matchup nightmare, every back a five-tool player. While everybody's talents are out there in theory, they're rarely used because the most efficient way to move the ball is burrowing through zone gaps and outpacing linebackers on crossing routes.

Rumors of this offense's demise with the graduation of JT Barrett are unfounded: They were 7th last year to MGofavorite fancystat S&P+; this year they're 8th. But the character has changed.

The film: I charted two games—one against a bad defense and one against a good one. The bad was Indiana because I could do it while pretending to give two fucks about Indiana all last week. The good was that awful, O'Neill-officiated Michigan State game from a couple weeks ago. That went into the 4th quarter 9-6 despite Sparty QBs throwing a combined 18/48, and three Rocky Lombardi carries accounting for 49 of State's 54 (non-sack adjusted) rushing yards. I did not watch that part. I had to watch the other part, however. MSU is 4th in S&P+ defense. The only other defense in the Top 40 that the Buckeyes have faced all year is Penn State, on September 29th, and after that game they changed their approach, dumping the RPOs in favor of just letting Haskins sling it to the slots.

Personnel: My diagram:

image

PDF Version, larger version (or click the image)

My cyan'ing is relative, but I actually charted everybody for this game. We'll scoot through the guys you know because we'll meet them again further down: QB Dwayne Haskins is sawft Chad Henne, RBs JK Dobbins and Mike Weber are compact guys with extremely good balance and vision, and H receivers Parris Campbell and KJ Hill are videogame sprites from an early version of Madden that overdid it on the speed burst button. Like Indiana last week, OSU's offense is built on getting the slots the ball with room to YAC.

The non-slot targets are all fast and athletic but each has a pair of extra positive characteristics: WR Terry McLaurin (14 yards per target) is the most dangerous deep man and can run after the catch. WR Johnnie Dixon (10 YPT) is a plus blocker and the better route runner. WR Binjimen Victor (11 YPT) is the large, leapier dude. They're finishing the season without the burly possession type Austin Mack, playing surehanded freshman zone-slicer/former badly desired Michigan target WR Chris Olave (12 YPT) in his stead. TE Luke Farrell is a lot like Ian Bunting—a big target with skillet hands who's willing and unable at blocking. Backup TE Rashod Berry is a DE convert and better blocker, but he can get you a stiff arm and some YAC in the passing game.

As for the offensive line, we're going to have to talk after the jump.

[the talk, after THE JUMP]

Al Washington's dad played for Ohio State; Al Washington now coaches at Michigan
[Fuller]

Things Discussed

  • Washington's dad played for Ohio State
  • Washington's feelings on the rivalry
  • Preparing for Dwayne Haskins

[After THE JUMP: Two days]

Things Discussed

  • Shea Patterson's development
  • Ed Warinner's effect on the offense
  • Karan Higdon, Donovan Peoples-Jones' impact
  • The Game

[After THE JUMP: Two days]

Haskins: Not a good development [Eric Upchurch]

The Sponsor:

It’s Nick Hopwood, our MGoFinancial Planner from Peak Wealth Management. Nick is also a Podcaster—if you haven’t listened to it before, his podcast Finding True Wealth. One of his episodes he shared how he put together his own financial plan for 2018. It's good to know if you choose a CFP where he puts his own money.

Legal disclosure in tiny font: Calling Nick our official financial planner is not intended as financial advice; Nick is an advertiser who financially supports MGoBlog. MGoBlog is not responsible for any advice or other communication provided to an investor by any financial advisor, and makes no representations or warranties as to the suitability of any particular financial advisor and/or investment for a specific investor.

-------------------------------

The Question:

Last week we did Michigan. So this week we'll do the conference: players, teams, units, coaches.

The Responses:

BiSB: Sigh. Stock Up: Dwayne Haskins. 76% completion percentage, 10.4 YPA, 16 TDs to 1 INT.

Seth: Can we excise Rutgers?

slackbot: I think you mean Rutger

Seth: Because they are extremely stock down.

BiSB: Oh... we'll get to Rutgers. I HAVE MORE TO SAY.

slackbot: I think you mean Rutger

BiSB: But even against TCU, Haskins was 9.1 YPA and 2 TDs on 63% completions.

Seth: Giving Ohio State and Alabama unbeatable quarterbacks is a level of unfairness too detestable to contemplate.

BiSB: The one silver lining is that he's been one-dimensional; he has been almost non-existent in the run game.

David: Stock Up: Buffalo who has spiritually replaced Rutgers in the B10.

slackbot: I think you mean Rutger

David: I do not, Slackbot. I mean Buffalo.

[After THE JUMP: What is Purdue? How do you stop Maryland's offense? Is Penn State secretly meh?]