Joe Bauserman is getting some competition in the fight to see who will back up Terrelle Pryor.
View full sizeJoe Bauserman is Terrelle Pryor's backup at Ohio State, but he's being pressed by Kenny Guiton and Taylor Graham.Columbus, Ohio -- Terrelle Pryor, who's now a leader instead of a punk, at least according to beat writer Doug Lesmireses and safety Tyler Moeller, is the starting quarterback for Ohio State. Now the fun comes in figuring out whether Joe Bauserman will be, as expected, No. 2 on the depth chart. Ken Gordon, who covers the Buckeyes for the Columbus Dispatch, had this observation after Tuesday's practice:
Coach Jim Tressel has thrown (Kenny) Guiton and (Taylor) Graham into the mix alongside Bauserman as candidates to be quarterback Terrelle Pryor's backup. This is a departure from 2009, when Bauserman was the only real option if something happened to Pryor.
"It's competition," Bauserman said, shrugging. "I have no control over it. I can only do what I do."
Guiton, the last player offered a scholarship in 2009, redshirted last season as a true freshman. He emerged this spring, though, capped by an impressive spring game.
This summer, Graham arrived as a freshman. He's the son of former Ohio State quarterback Kent Graham.
(All three apparently had good practices on Tuesday.)
"It's always heated," Bauserman said of the competition. "Some days, (Guiton) is better than me; some days, I'm better than him. Some days, Taylor is better than all of us. It goes around."
You know, for all of us sports fans and sports writers who talk about competition being good for the team, Starting Blocks has to wonder: How would we fare knowing that there was some kid waiting in the wings who might type just a little faster, respond to a client's question just a little quicker and, being younger, might recover from a bad day just a little easier?
Oops, that's called real life. Never mind.
End justifies the meansTight ends at Ohio State traditionally are just tackles who happen to wear receiver numbers. That could change this year, according to John Kampf, writing for the News-Herald about 6-foot-5, 245-pound receiver Jake Stoneburner out of Dublin Coffman High School.
The words "tight end" and "shine" don't often find themselves in the same sentence when talking about the Ohio State offense, unless it is in reference to how well the glorified offensive lineman blocks. After all, the most productive tight end -- scoring-wise -- this decade from the tight end position was Ben Hartstock, who caught five touchdown passes from 1999-2003.With the multitalented redshirt sophomore now manning the position, all sorts of opportunities have arisen. Early indications are the Buckeyes appear ready to re-incorporate the tight end to the passing game."Yeah, we did a lot in the spring," Stoneburner said, "and we've done a lot in (preseason) camp, so I don't know why that would stop. Terrelle (Pryor) loves to throw to me and we're pretty good friends. He has confidence in me."
As Kampf noted, a tight end hasn't led the Buckeyes in receiving since Jeff Ellis caught 40 passes for 492 yards in 1988. With those kinds of numbers, it's almost a wonder really that Ohio State has had the success that it has in this air-it-out erea. But if Stonerman becomes the target he expects to be, the OSU offensive arsenal just got bigger.
From The Plain DealerWe mentioned Doug Lesmireses' story at the beginning of today's blog, but we thought you'd like another snippet of just what Tyler Moeller had to say about Terrelle Pryor as a freshman and Terrelle Pryor today. And as Lesmireses noted, it means more coming from Moeller:
"I think when he first got here, I don't think too many people liked him, really. He was kind of a punk. But now I have the utmost respect for him. He's a great player and a great leader and I'd follow him into battle any day."
Moeller's words didn't come under the gun, forced in response to a direct questions he couldn't avoid. They weren't words that slipped out and then were corrected on second thought. They were an honest assessment from a player who was taken away from football for more than a year after suffering a head injury when assaulted in a Florida restaurant last summer.
It would be hard to find a player on the roster who loves the Buckeyes more than Moeller or who understands better how important football is to him."Playing here is everything to me," Moeller said. "To come back and be able to play and contribute to this team, it's everything to me."