Ohio State Football: Recruiting preview of things to come
When the Ohio State football team takes the field September 1st the offense will look different, and will be a preview of things to come.
Everyone is well aware when the Ohio State football team takes the field against Oregon State the Buckeyes will feature a new look offense. Gunslinger Dwayne Haskins will be behind center with running backs J.K. Dobbins and Mike Weber to hand the ball off to. And the quarterback run won’t be featured as often as it was when J.T. Barrett ran the offense.
It could be a preview of the Ohio State offense going forward as well. A look at players Urban Meyer has targeted the last two recruiting cycles makes you think the Buckeye head coach plans more of the same. Downfield passing and letting running backs carry the ball instead of the quarterback appears to be the plan.
If the most recent Ohio State commit Dwan Mathis signs on the dotted line he will be the second straight pro-style QB coach Meyer has recruited with freshman Matthew Baldwin being the other. Along with Haskins, that will make the third in four recruiting classes.
Apparently the days of Urban going after dual threat quarterbacks are done.
He is also making a concerted effort to load the RB unit with plenty of top-tier recruits. Freshmen Master Teague, one of the most underrated players in the 2018 recruiting class, and Brian Snead, the No. 3 ranked RB in the country, have joined Weber and Dobbins.
The Buckeye head coach already has two outstanding running backs in his ‘19 class, Steele Chambers and Sampson James. Chambers may be moved to defense but it is expected Urban is planning to bring in at least one more RB to the class regardless of which side of the ball Steele ends up on. It does appear coach Meyer intends to keep the RB unit loaded.
One player could slow down the evolution of the Buckeye offense in becoming more of a pro style attack but I don’t think that will be the case.
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Redshirt freshman Tate Martell is a dual-threat QB, and with his running ability would appear to be the ideal quarterback for the spread option attack. But he could be used effectively in the new Ohio State offense by utilizing his running ability in another way.
Remember how former Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson was used during the 2011 season. The Badgers had a ground and pound attack with their running backs and Wilson put up big numbers passing. The dual threat QB was still effective carrying the football though, but gained most of his rushing yards on rollouts which were pass-run option plays.
Martell reminds me of a young, unpolished version of Wilson and quite possibly the Ohio State coaching staff sees the same thing. If so, most of the ground game will on the running backs’ shoulders and Martell can be a pass first QB with most of his rushing yards coming in space.
Next: Bucks land their QB
Whatever the case we will get to look at the new Ohio State offense soon. Will the new concept be as effective as the old one which featured the quarterback run? I know Urban Meyer hopes so, he is recruiting players to fit the new system two or three years down the road,