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Image Credit: Scarlet and Game

Opponent: #20 Ohio State Buckeyes (3-1, 0-0 Big Ten Conference)
Location: Capital One Field at Byrd Stadium (54,000)
Date: Saturday, October 4, 2014
Time: 12:00 PM ET
TV/Radio Broadcasts: ABC, Terrapin Sports Radio Network

(Discuss this article on the BSL Message Board here.)

Opponent Preview

The 20th-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes come to College Park for the first time in their history on Saturday, and the Maryland Terrapins are hoping to build on what has been a solid season so far. The Buckeyes have been one of the best teams in college football for what seems like forever, especially since Urban Meyer took over in 2012. They haven’t lost a Big Ten Conference regular season game since 2011, Luke Fickell’s only season as head coach after Jim Tressel was fired.

Urban Meyer is known for his offense, but he lost the most important part to it before this season even began. QB Braxton Miller was set up to have a huge 2014 season, but suffered a season-ending injury to his right shoulder during fall practice. Ohio State then turned to redshirt freshman QB J.T. Barrett to lead the show, and he has done a remarkable job in Miller’s stead. He has improved in every game, throwing for over 300 yards in each of the team’s last two games against Kent State and Cincinnati. While he isn’t quite the runner that Braxton Miller was, he still forces defenses to account for his legs when he’s on the field.

The Urban Meyer offense is essentially an old-school spread-option. Meyer developed this offense when he was at Florida with Dan Mullen, and most people can remember how well QB Tim Tebow thrived in this system. While Meyer had run a spread long before his time at Florida, the Ohio State offense most resembles the old Gator offenses from the mid-late 2000’s. The Buckeyes must be able to run the football to have success, and their base running play is some version of the read-option. They’ll run zone read, inverted veer, and speed options along with many other variations (such as the jet sweep inverted veer). They want to spread the defense out and run the football, much like almost every other team in college football nowadays.

The Ohio State defense has long been a source of pride for the Buckeyes, but it faltered a bit last season, especially in conference play. Luke Fickell is the team’s main defensive coordinator this season after splitting duties with Everett Withers last season. When Withers took the head coaching job at James Madison, the Buckeyes hired Chris Ash from Arkansas to take his place. This season’s defense is much more aggressive than in years past, but has some very obvious holes in its secondary. While Fickell and Ash seem to want to run a lot of man coverage with blitzes up front, they may need to move to more zone coverage if they don’t want to keep getting burned on the outside.

Maryland Preview

The Maryland Terrapins will host their first sell-out at Byrd Stadium since 2008 this week. This comes after the announcement earlier this week that the Terps have boasted the largest percentage increase in attendance in the country this season. The Buckeyes will certainly be one of the toughest tasks of the season for the Terps, but this is a team that seems to be on the rise. After a very disappointing game in South Florida in Week 2, many Terps fans doubted this team’s potential. However, they seem to have found their stride, holding a record of 4-1 (1-0 Big Ten Conference) after their first 5 games.

Their win over Indiana was the most impressive of the season, as they held the high-flying Hoosier offense to just 15 points. LB Cole Farrand made a huge impact in his return defensively, recording 19 tackles. Despite being very hampered with injuries to many defensive starters and backups, this team never backed down and bottled up one of the most explosive offenses in the conference. Offensively, RB Brandon Ross racked up 99 total yards of offense including a receiving touchdown. He seems to have found his stride after dealing with some fumbling issues early in the year.

QB C.J. Brown injured his left wrist in the Terps’ game against Indiana, and the team has announced that they will not make a decision on his status until game-time. QB Caleb Rowe started the entire second half for Mike Locksley, and performed very well in Brown’s stead. He completed 12 of his 18 pass attempts for 198 yards and 2 touchdowns. C.J. Brown also performed very well before exiting the game, completing 10 of his 15 pass attempts for 163 yards and a touchdown. Brown also added 22 yards and a touchdown on the ground. No matter who starts at quarterback for the Terps in this game, they should feel very confident. Both Brown and Rowe have great control and knowledge of this offense, a benefit to having the same offensive coordinator for the third season in a row. The Terps would obviously rather have Brown start due to his running ability and senior leadership, but there is no doubt that Rowe will be ready if called upon.

Opponent Interview

This week, I was able to speak with Dave Biddle about the Ohio State Buckeyes. Dave is the editor of Bucknuts.com on the 247Sports Network, and I’d like to thank him for his insightful responses and his participation in this interview.

BSL: The Buckeyes come to College Park with a record of 3-1 (0-0 Big Ten Conference), and are fresh off of an impressive 50-28 win over Cincinnati last weekend. What has changed the most about this team since their Week 2 loss to Virginia Tech in Columbus?

Biddle: The biggest differences are the offensive line has played much better and Ohio State faced two atrocious defenses its last two games. The Virginia Tech game was a bit of an anomaly in that almost everything that could have gone wrong for OSU did (I think OSU would win in a rematch) but the fact remains that the Buckeyes are still a better team than they were three weeks ago. We’ll find out how much better when they face Maryland, but they have improved.

BSL: Everyone knows that Braxton Miller is out for the 2014 season with a right shoulder injury, and freshman QB J.T. Barrett has had to take his place. Barrett seems to be getting better with each game that he plays, and has been very efficient in every game except against Virginia Tech. How much has J.T. Barrett improved since his Week 1 debut against Navy in Baltimore?

Biddle: He has certainly exceeded expectations and there was a lot of guarded optimism when he took over. But even though people close to the program thought he would be solid — even as a redshirt freshman — he’s been far better than that. Even in the Virginia Tech game, he received little help from his teammates, including several dropped passes and poor play from the offensive line. He’s passed for over 300 yards in each of the last two games, making him the first Ohio State quarterback to do that since Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith. Barrett is already a better passer than Miller or Terrelle Pryor ever were. He’s not the dynamic running threat they were, but he’s an effective runner and is a very good all-around quarterback. He’s improved a lot since week one and part of that is the coaches trusting in him more. The Buckeyes used a very vanilla offensive attack against Navy and they’ve opened things up since then.

BSL: Ohio State’s strength for a long time had been their defense, but they seemed to struggle a bit last season, especially in conference play. After JMU hired Everett Withers away from the Buckeyes, Urban Meyer hired Chris Ash from Arkansas to join Luke Fickell as co-defensive coordinators this season. How has the Ohio State defense changed from 2013 to 2014?

Biddle: Well, it’s our understanding that Everett Withers was told to find another job, but that’s a story for another day. Chris Ash is the true defensive coordinator now (even though he shares that title with Fickell) and the biggest change is the Buckeyes are more aggressive defensively this season. They are playing more man coverage instead of the soft zone they utilized for the last two seasons. The Buckeyes have actually been too aggressive at times this year. For example, late in the first half against Cincinnati with the Bearcats pinned at their own end of the field, OSU used man coverage and allowed a long touchdown pass right before the half. Long touchdown passes has been the Achilles’ heel of the Buckeyes the last 2.5 years and we’ll see if the excellent WR corps at Maryland can take advantage of that.

BSL: One of the biggest tasks for the Ohio State offense this season has been finding a way to fill the hole that Carlos Hyde left when he graduated after last season. So far this season, Curtis Samuel and Ezekiel Elliott have split carries in the backfield for Urban Meyer. What can you tell the Maryland faithful about this two-headed attack for the Buckeyes?

Biddle: Elliott will get the majority of the carries against Maryland and he looked great last week against Cincinnati. He’s a sophomore and has the total package at around 220-225 pounds (listed at 225). He’s big enough to run inside and get yards after contact, yet fast and elusive enough to do damage on the outside. I’ve also been very impressed with Samuel, who is a true freshman. Both Elliott and Samuel look like future stars. (They have a lot of sophomores, redshirt freshmen and true freshmen at the skilled positions offensively that have extremely high ceilings.) The issue right now with Samuel is that he’s battling some type of injury. Also, he fumbled against UC last week and never returned to the game, so I doubt he’ll see a lot of carries this week, but you never know. The other RB in the mix is fifth-year senior Rod Smith. There is definitely a drop-off going from Hyde last year to Elliott this year, but it’s not a precipitous one.

BSL: The Buckeyes and the Terrapins both have a bye week after this game, so looking towards next week’s opponent won’t be a problem. What are your keys to victory for Ohio State this week as they come to College Park to face the Terps for the first time?

Biddle: It’s definitely limiting big plays in the passing game from Stefon Diggs (who strongly considered OSU during the recruiting process), Deon Long, Brandon Ross and Marcus Leak. What an impressive group of wideouts, and Maryland has an experienced quarterback in C.J. Brown who can get them the ball. Brown is also dangerous as a runner and Urban Meyer expressed concern about that this week. And if Brown’s injury lingers, as you know, Caleb Rowe is more than capable of coming in and having success against OSU’s pass defense. So, we’ll see how it goes, but without question Ohio State’s pass defense is the biggest key to victory for them. I think the Buckeyes will be able to move the ball fairly well against the Terps’ defense and score their share of points, but Maryland’s fans will be up for this one and OSU needs to limit the big plays it allows defensively.

Zack’s Keys to the Game

  • Get it to the 4th – In games like this, coaches often talk about getting the game into the fourth quarter. If the Terps can keep this game close into the fourth quarter, they’ll be in a great spot to upset a Top 25 team. But you have to be within reach by the fourth quarter to have a shot.
  • Run the ball – It may be tough against Ohio State’s front seven, but the Terps have to find a way to run the ball. Having C.J. Brown at quarterback would help tremendously with this, but this offense cannot have success if they have to throw the ball 40-50 times.
  • Pressure Barrett – J.T. Barrett is an extremely talented quarterback, but he is also a redshirt freshman. The Maryland defense is predicated on pressure, so being able to put heat on the young quarterback is imperative for them in this game.
  • Protect your QB – The Terps’ offensive line has improved in each game they’ve played so far this season, but they’ll have to be on their game this week. Whether C.J. Brown or Caleb Rowe starts at quarterback, they must be given time to take advantage of Ohio State’s poor pass defense.
Zack Kiesel
Zack Kiesel

Terps Analyst

Zack is a financial analyst for a defense contractor in Washington, DC. The Owings Mills native focuses most of his efforts on Maryland Football recruiting and individual coach and player pieces; but also covers Terps Basketball. He has established relationships with Big Ten beat reporters across the conference, which he utilizes in his game previews. Now a Sr. Terps Analyst for BSL, Zack can be reached at: [email protected].

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