The 2014 class for the Ohio State Buckeyes is going to be a fill the need type class. You will see a lot of Offensive Lineman and LineBackers in this class. You will also see some Safeties with both starting safeties set to graduate after this year. With this newest commit they got a guy who could potentially depending on how his body fills out could play any of those 3 positions which in and of itself is insane. This kid is blowing up lately and could very well become one of the best recruits in the 2014 class when all is said and done.

Sam Hubbard announced he was committed to Ohio State via his twitter account.

Sam Hubbard is a 6’6″ 225 lbs 4 star Athlete from Cincinnati, Ohio. Up until 2 days ago Sam was a commit to Notre Dame to play Lacrosse but decommitted shortly before coming on a visit to Ohio State today. it didn’t take him long to accept an offer to join the 2014 class and sounds like He really found his home now. Sam is listed as an Athlete listed as a Safety or LBer but based on his size at 6’6″ he could if bulked up be an amazing OT as well or play on the DL. His potential is unlimited at this point the only question is will he live up to it. 247sports ranks him a 4 star and the 239th best prospect in the country. ESPN doesn’t have him ranked as of yet. Rivals has him ranked as a 3 star. Scout has him ranked as a 4 star and the 18th best OLB in the country. Below you can see his highlight video.

(Click headline to see full pictures, not working on the homepage)

Here are two more successful plays that are also ran out of the Pistol formation. The first is from the NFC Championship game between the 49ers and the Atlanta Falcons and the second is from the Thanksgiving match up between the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys. Just like the 49ers, the Redskins and Robert Griffin III run the Pistol very well. After drafting RGIII, coach Mike Shannahan went down to Baylor to visit with head coach Art Briles to learn more about the Pistol offense. The Redskins are a good example of a team that uses the passing game very well out of the Pistol, due to RGIII’s supreme arm strength and dual threat ability.

Counter: Once again, here are the 49ers running the three back “diamond” formation out of the Pistol. They used the same formation and same personnel when they ran the lead play, with Frank Gore (#21) behind Kaepernick and their two tight ends, Vernon Davis (#85) and Delanie Walker (#46) as lead blockers. This is blocked the same in Pistol as it would be in any other formation, as it is your basic counter play.

Gore has a great hole to run through because Vernon Davis kicks out the defensive end and the pulling guard  gets to the second level to block the linebacker. Walker should have gotten inside the hole a little quicker, but with a patient back like Gore the play is still a success.

Gore’s patience allows Walker to double team the linebacker and he follows his blockers for a solid gain of six yards on first down. If Gore was a bit more explosive he may have been able to gain a few more yards but you cannot complain about a six yard gain and a well executed play.

Play Action: Here is a good example of how the Redskins used play action against the Cowboys for a big play on Thanksgiving. The ‘Skins lined up in their diamond formation out of the Pistol, with two backs and a tight end in the backfield along with RGIII. With RGIII’s running ability and Alfred Morris’ success running the ball, you can see that the Cowboy’s are expecting run from this formation.

When RGIII fakes the hand off to Morris, you can see the entire secondary stop to play the run. The lead blockers in the backfield and the RGIII/ Morris combination have effectively fooled the defense into thinking that they are running a lead play, while the two receivers are effectively running their routes. I am guessing that the top receiver is more of a decoy to keep the corner and the safety on his side of the field occupied, while the receiver at the bottom (Aldrick Robinson) is about to take advantage of the over aggressive safety that is peeking into the backfield.

Now that it is known that the ‘Skins are passing the ball, the secondary is already beat. Both of the safeties stopped their feet while Robinson has been running full speed and is about to defeat this cover 4 by the Cowboys. The safety on Robinson’s side should have read play action and dropped back, not stopped his feet to make a play on the running back. The top receiver has done his job to sell the route to the other safety and now the deep post will be wide open.

The safety on Robinson’s side is responsible for this easy touchdown but it was all set up by the Redskins’ effectiveness of running the ball and setting up play action.

In cover 4, it would be on the safety to stay inside on Robinson, as it would be impossible for the corner to cover this post alone. The safety was clearly looking in the backfield and stopped his feet, which allowed this easy 65 yard touchdown pass.

Just like any other formation, play action is set up by a successful running game. If the Buckeyes use a lot of Pistol and have success in the running game, it opens up big plays like the one above. We all know the running game will be successful with Miller, Hyde and the plethora of running backs, so we shall see if Miller’s arm has improved to take shots down field against an overly aggressive defense.

If there are anymore play suggestions that you would like for me to breakdown, leave them in the comments!

This will keep B1G defensive coordinators up studying very late this offseason.

The Pistol offense took the NFL by storm last season, most notably by the NFC Champion San Francisco 49ers and quarterback Collin Kaepernick. 49ers Coach Jim Harbaugh used the Pistol formation at Stanford with Andrew Luck, then incorporated it into his NFL playbook. Many thought that the Pistol was just a college gimmick and an NFL fad like the wildcat formation but Kaepernick, Robert Griffin III and other dual threat quarterbacks will have something to say about that.

Kaepernick excelled in the Pistol offense at Nevada under Coach Chris Ault, the creator of the Pistol offense, and Braxton Miller possesses some of the same traits as Kaepernick. When one thinks of the Pistol, they think of just the read option but in reality, a variety of running plays can be run out of the formation. There’s the read option, counter, power, lead, inside trap, quarterback sweep, and almost anything else that is run out of a pro-style formation. Also, with the quarterback at 4-5 yards, he is still a serious threat to pass the ball and that is what makes this offense very difficult to stop when it is ran correctly. I can only imagine Meyer watching 49ers’ film and salivating over the thought of Miller, Carlos Hyde and two other playmakers (B. Dunn and R. Smith in practice) in the same backfield.

Read Option:

Here are a few screen shots of the 49ers in the Pistol versus the Bills last year. They’re in a 2- back Pistol alignment. Kaepernick is going to put the ball into RB Kendall Hunter’s stomach and keep an eye on the Bills defensive end to see if he crashes down on Hunter or stays home to play Kaepernick. The H-Back will pull across the line of scrimmage and kick out the outside linebacker if Kaepernick keeps the ball or create the hole if Hunter gets the ball.

Kaepernick puts the ball in Kendall Hunter’s stomach and reads the Bills defensive end. Kaepernick is looking right at him and sees that the DE is crashing down to play Hunter.

After seeing the end crash down, Kaepernick pulls the ball back from Hunter and runs through a huge hole with the outside linebacker getting kicked out by the H-Back for a huge gain.

Running the read option out of the pistol will highly benefit Miller and the offense. We saw Miller succeed in running the read option last year mostly out of shotgun for big gains and expect the same but with more wrinkles out of the Pistol.

Lead:

This is the 3- Back diamond formation of the Pistol that was seen at practice on Tuesday by 11 Warrior’s Kyle Rowland. If the two lead blockers get inside to the linebackers, that forces the safety down in run support to make the play on the running back. This play is your basic lead run play that can be run out of basically any formation. (These images below are from www.nationalfootballpost.com)

The 49ers used their two very athletic tight ends, Vernon Davis (#85) and Delanie Walker (#46) in front of Frank Gore (#21) as lead blockers. Davis got to the second level and got a good block on an inside linebacker and Gore gets a big gain up the middle with a chance to make the safety miss.

There are many, many more plays out of the Pistol that Miller will run this season. This is just a small example of two plays that the 49ers ran of out Pistol that Meyer will implement into the playbook this spring. If executed correctly by Miller and the rest of the offense, this will be an even scarier wrinkle to an already scary offense.

I’ll post a few more of these to elaborate later on and if you want me to breakdown any specific offensive plays or formations leave them in the comments!

Hopefully you’ve already voted in the Offensive side of the 2013 Moment Bracket. Here we present the 16 plays on the Defensive/Special Teams side of the ball.

To the bracket!
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Yes, the Buckeyes will be participating in their Sweet Sixteen match-up tomorrow evening, but we’re starting a Sweet Sixteen of our own: The 2013 Ohio State Buckeyes Football Moment Showdown.

We did this last year and, to be honest, struggled a little to come up with 16 moments to match up. This year, after a perfect 12-0 season, it was a struggle to whittle the list down to 32. So many good moments, so many to choose from.

So this year, we’ve broken it up into two brackets, Offensive Moments and Defensive/Special Teams moments. We’ve seeded them 1-16 and matched them up. This first round will be link and poll intensive, but hit the jump and join us in deciding the best football moments of 2013.

[Read more…]

We here at MOTSAG are opening up our blog to a new writer (or 2). We are looking for a professional hahaha, just kidding. I can’t believe I actually used that word. We are really just looking for a few people who love the Buckeyes and who have some free time to dedicate to writing for the world’s oldest (active) Buckeye Blog. You don’t have to be the best writer [but it helps! -ed] or know how to spell or put together coherent sentences — our resident editor and founding father el Kaiser will fix all your mistakes and barely shame you into checking your work before hitting publish. We would like the new writer to have an interest in Breaking News or OSU news in general. We need a writer who can put up posts in a timely matter and also have the ability to gather many OSU stories for a weekly recap post. The ability to want or know how to interview is wanted but can be taught as well.

Requirements:

1. Be able to name at least five Buckeye football players who played before Jim Tressel took over the program.
2. Be able to write weekly posts that don’t include all the words your momma wouldn’t let you say as a child.
3. This is a PG rated family blog (we want our wives and kids to read).
4. A good sense of humor is a must. We don’t take much of this seriously and want you to do the same.
5. A thick skin is required in order to deal with people who disagree with you especially those PSU fans.
6. Dedication to helping make this a better blog for all our fans.

If you think you are the kind of person we are looking for and you seriously want a shot to write with all of us and you want to be part of the awesomeness that is myself and the other humble MOTSAG writers then drop us a note (either using the Contact Us page or an email to motsag@gmail.com) answering the following questions below:

1. Who is your favorite Buckeye of all time and why?
2. Who is your least favorite Buckeye of all time and why?
3. Did we win the bowl game we were in the year you were born and what game was it?
4. Favorite TV show of all time and why?
5. Other then TTUN which teams fanbase do you hate the most?
6. Have you ever or do you currently write for anyone else and do you have an example of your work?
7. Other then myself (obviously I am) who is your favorite OSU blogger?
8. If you could attend the sporting event of your dream what would it be?
9. What would be your last meal if you knew you were dying tomorrow?
10. Honestly how many well thought out articles will you write a month?
11. Do you have a twitter account and if so what is it?

Thank you to each and everyone who applies. Our goal is to add a writer (or 2) who would focus on “news” or current events, if you will. If you are hired your compensation package will include the following: lifelong friendship. There is also always the possibility that el Kaiser will share one of his many Groupons and take you out to lunch as well.

It seems like it has been a long time since we have had a recruiting post about a new commit. Well that’s because it has been a long time as far as recruiting time goes. To the surprise of pretty much no one though Coach Meyer has gotten back on the board and even less surprising it is a DLman. With that being said the 5th member of the 2014 recruiting class is…

DYLAN THOMPSON

Dylan had this to say on his twitter account….

Dylan Thompson is a 6’5″ 270 lbs 4 star DE from Lombard, Illinois. Dylan is a strong side DE with a huge motor and a lot of strength. He is relatively unknown and hasn’t been scouted much but Coach Vrable has been recruiting him hard and was able to land him today on his visit to Ohio State. As we go deeper into the recruiting season and he attends more camps I assume he will get bumped up. ESPN has not ranked him as of yet. Rivals also hasn’t ranked Dylan as of now. Scout ranks him as the 31st best DLman in the class and a 3 star currently. 247sports ranks him as the 17th best SDE and a composite 4 star. Below you can see his highlight reel….

Versatility is why the Urban Meyer offense works. A mobile quarterback takes away the defensive mathematical advantage by forcing teams to account for all 11 players. Read option plays shift that advantage to the offense by eliminating at least one defender without physically blocking him. The result of all of this is space, and Meyer’s goal is to fill that space with an offensive player and the ball.

Of course, that’s not enough for Meyer, so he tries to make sure that player is one of his fastest and most elusive. With a running start and some shifty moves, he can turn space into points in a hurry. No player was better at this than Percy Harvin, the dynamic Florida star who played a hybrid position Meyer refers to as simply “offensive skill,” lining up at receiver, running back and even quarterback at times.

Without the benefit of a full off-season to recruit, Meyer had to find someone to re-purpose for this role in 2012. Fortunately for him, running back Jordan Hall was up to the task and was by all accounts progressing very nicely in the system before suffering a freak foot injury that eventually forced him to redshirt.

To say that Meyer was despondent at the loss of Hall is an understatement. He was so visibly depressed about it, that I began to think we weren’t going to win a game all year. While receiver Corey Brown was tried out at the spot, the whole concept was essentially abandoned in favor of the Miller/Hyde ground attack. With no Hall, Meyer knew he simply didn’t have the personnel to implement the Harvin package. This year’s recruiting class is a testament to his desire to make sure that this is never a problem again.

None of the freshman Offensive Skill candidates enrolled early, so Hall and Brown should be the go-to guys here in the spring. I fully expect Hall to lock down this job and be the hybrid starter in the fall. However, Meyer didn’t go after those youngsters for nothing, and he will want to use any garbage time we may have in 2013 to fast-track some of them for the future.

The Harvin-esque newbies include Middletown star Jalin Marshall, DeSoto (TX)’s Dontre Wilson, Florida speedster James Clark, and Ezekiel Elliott of Missouri. Rest assured that all of these kids know what is expected of them. In fact, Wilson says that Meyer exclusively used Harvin highlights during recruiting.

In retrospect, it may be end up being a blessing that Meyer couldn’t install this piece of the offense in 2012. Okay, so going undefeated makes that an easy claim to make, but it forced the staff to focus on the power run game and allowed them to assess where Miller needs to grow.

Adding the Offensive Skill position back into the rotation now only puts more pressure on defenses who probably still won’t be ready to deal with what Miller and Hyde (and a more experienced supporting cast) are going to do to them. Throw in some rumored new wrinkles (Meyer is reportedly enamored with the 49ers’ pistol inside zone) and the 2013 iteration of the ever-evolving Urban Meyer offense could be truly amazing to watch.