(photo courtesy USAToday Sports/Greg Bartram)
Never doubt Urban…. Never doubt Urban… Never doubt Urban – those are words to live by in life as a college sports fan and should be on your daily reminder list, especially after what was witnessed on Saturday in Cincinnati as the Scarlet beat the Gray 31-14 in front of over 37,000 fans at Paul Brown Stadium.
The traveling Buckeye caravan came to the Queen city with the hopes of seeing Braxton Miller torch the defense and begin his likely Heisman candidacy with some early buzz coming out of the spring. He sort of accomplished that goal, going 16 of 25 passing for 215 yards and 2 touchdowns. Not a bad day in the spring game, as he also tacked on one rushing touchdown.
Normally that would have been the headline, but one of the major question marks heading into spring and the spring game itself was what the front seven of the OSU defense was going to look like and play like. After all, they are replacing all but two starters and doing so with a ton of youth at those five positions.
On Saturday the headline was clearly the play of the defensive line, and specifically one Adolphus Washington, who earned some very high praise from Urban Meyer following the game for his 4.5 tackles, 4 sacks, and 4 tackles for a loss day.
"Adolphus Washington has really raised his level of play," said Meyer following the spring game. "He's a legitimate player as a starter at Ohio State. We saw him today just have his way with the offensive line. He could be a very good player."
Overall the defense recorded 11 sacks, not exactly a ringing endorsement of the offensive line – but also an extremely positive sign for a defense that Meyer thinks will be the best in the conference. He also thinks the offensive line situation could ruin what he thinks is the best offense in the conference as well.
"I would be disappointed if we're not the best offense in the Big Ten," Meyer said. "The one glaring weakness is that fifth player of the offensive line. We have a legitimate concern about who that player is. I feel good about four of the five starters and unless we get that fixed, there goes the best offense in the Big Ten. One of those young players has got to step up and they haven't this spring."
All in all though you have to be happy with what went on on Saturday as some big time questions are seemingly finding some major answers, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Now, if those players can carry that momentum and feeling into the spring then it could be watch out time for the rest of the Big Ten.
