I was sitting at lunch the other day listening to a few Buckeye fans discuss this year’s team’s potential. They were surprisingly accurate in a lot of areas but when they got to the quarterback position, I was surprised at their skepticism. Their thinking was that the QB, whomever it ends up to be, will be the downfall of the season. Well I can pretty much guarantee that these guys hadn’t seen any of our incumbent QB’s play in a top line Big Ten game nor have they seen the this year’s first team offensive unit together for a solid period of time. Let’s hold our expert opinions until we actually see these guys have a chance to gel as a unit…..we may be very much surprised.

Obviously Tress is going to adapt the offense to his new signal caller. He probably won’t be running many of the schemes that he ran with Troy since these guys are much bigger and can survive in the pocket. Expect a little more I backfield running with Beanie, Maurice and Brandon with play action holding the backers. You’ll see the two bean pole receivers Brian & Brian, running short and intermediate routes, breaking tackles and picking up first downs. Small and the younger receivers will be running under routes away from the defenders. And I would love to see Tress match up Maurice Wells out of the back field against a linebacker or safety and give him the options to beat his man for a big play.

While we are talking about it, let’s look at the QB spot. The front runner is Todd Boeckman (6’5” 235lbs. Jr. So.) He has been in the system for 4 years now and learned behind Troy and some other pretty good guys. His M.O. is he likes to stay in the pocket and keep his eyes down field. He throws a very catchable ball and is athletic enough to run but smart enough to get down and protect the ball. The more time he has with the 1’s the harder he is going to be to overcome barring injury. Tress isn’t going to look to him to win games but just not lose them. His focus will be to be prepared to get the O in the right play, execute the offense and not turn the ball over. I know it sounds obvious but football is a simple game.

Rob Schoenhoft (6’6” 240 lbs. So. Fr. ) is another big QB and may be even more athletic than Todd. He has a strong arm but is still learning some of the ins and outs of the offense. Rob has a tendency to drop and run too early. He is going to be a good one as long as he continues to get more time with the offense. We will see him early in the season with the “pre-season” games so he gets some quality time in case Todd goes down.

Antonio Henton (6’2” 210 lbs. Fr. Fr.) comes to the Bucks as a Troy Smith kinda QB. Very athletic with great escapablility. Needs to work on throwing mechanics and the offensive schemes but if he IS like Troy, once he gets it, he will be off and running. He will also see some time early just so Tress can see how he reacts. I know everybody thinks he can make some big plays with his legs but right now he has potential to make big mistakes and Tress won’t have that.

Joe Bauserman (6’2” 220 lbs. Fr. Fr.) finally decided to give up that baseball thing and come back to football. He is a freshman but he is 23 years old and has had the experience of playing in the minor leagues for a few years which can only help with his maturity level. He comes to OSU with the same kind of credentials as Joe Germaine with much the same kind of background and we all know how that worked out. Don’t be surprised if he sneaks up the depth chart with more time in the offense.

Ben Kacsabdi (6’1” 207 lbs. Jr) Walk on and probably never going to see the field, but these guys still work their butts off and deserve to be mentioned with the rest. They get all of the crap jobs and try not to killed on scout team against the #1 defense. But he still puts in the same amount of time and energy as the others without a scholarship. Way to go Ben!

So that’s what we’re looking at and I am pretty optimistic. Even though there is not a lot off playing time in the mix, there is a lot of experience and maturity which is a big help. The first two are very big boys and can withstand a Big Ten season. Their job, as I said before; get into the right plays, execute the offense and don’t make any big mistakes. Protect the ball and good luck!

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