Who steps up in Moeller's place?

Not alone

At first, the obvious answer to the question of "who's up next?" after the end of Tyler Moeller's season seems to be none other than Brian Rolle. Rolle, for the past few seasons, has been the name everyone brings up when discussion moves to the crowded Ohio State linebacker situation. A true junior, he has carved a name out for himself as a heavy duty special teams hitter and earned the title of the most popular back-up on the team. But come this spring, when a new starting spot at his position opened up, Rolle couldn't close the deal. For that reason, I don't think the staff can simply plug Rolle in and Rolle with it (yeah, I said it); in the base 4-3, Rolle will probably get the majority of snaps. But in nickel, and 3rd-and-7+ situations, I expect that to change. Make no mistake: losing Moeller is sizable hit to Ohio State's defense. His quickness and his tackling ability simply won't be replicated by any one player, and his versatility as a former safety sets him apart from the other linebackers on the roster. But the staff will find a way to make up for his absence.

In Ohio State's base set, Rolle is the guy. But in the nickel package, especially against spread teams, I think the coaching is going to want a bit more speed on the field, and Jermale Hines will step in to fill this need. The irony here is that, prior to Jermale Hines' emergence at nickelback, Moeller played the position in spot duty for a few games in 2007. I told you: he's versatile. Actually, that's probably not irony, come to think of it. I'm sure an English major will be along to correct me shortly, before resuming the sardonic sipping of his or her latte. But it's a neat little factoid. The aim here is to replicate Moeller's aformentioned versatility by rotating a variety of personnel into and out of the game depending on the stiuation. Rolle can easily approximate Moeller's hard-hitting nature, since he's proven to be one of the better form tacklers on the team.

I also think that Hines, however, could step in on occasion in non-nickel situations, to fill the component of Moeller's game for which I was most excited as a blitzer off the edge. He is, after all, a safety-linebacker hybrid, just like Moeller. The catch: Hines is roughly 10 pounds lighter and of leaner build. Thus, using him in place of Moeller consistently could result in him trying to tackle Big Ten running backs like this, which is major no-no against the likes of Penn State, Illinois, and Wisconsin.

I want to mention that I don't expect a traditional, early-2007 style "rotation" at the position; rather, Ohio State is going to adjust the personnel based on the scheme, like it always does. However, Moeller had the versatility and range to be on the field in both nickel situations and in the base look, and that is all gone now. Expect to hear a lot more about the Rolle/Hines combination as it evolves this season.

Some other practice tidbits

- So much for JB Shugarts: The afore-linked Dispatch article had this to say about the offensive line:

I thought it was surprising, but Tressel made it sound like the only real competition for starting jobs on the offensive line is at left tackle, between Andy Miller and Mike Adams. Those two are alternating with the first team right now.

The four who appear fairly set are Justin Boren at LG, Mike Brewster at C, Bryant Browning at RG and Jim Cordle at RT.

So apparently Bryant Browning impressed in the offseason at his new position; enough to bump Jimmy Cordle back over to RT. Also, Nathan "but a G-thang" Williams  gets in at DE in nickel packages, a prospect that excites me since he excelled in providing pressure on 3rd-and-long last year.

- Ray Small's batshit insane pop thinks he'll be back on the team soon

- The team isn't buying into all the criticism, which I'm not sure I like