Allen leads OSU's stingy defense

Originally Published: October 1, 2003

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By Bruce Feldman
ESPN The Magazine
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Best indicator of a "They don't rebuild, they reload"? Try the Ohio State University, where the Buckeyes may be winning ugly, but they still keep winning and, in the process, have developed a whole new crop of stars this fall, most notably linebacker A.J. Hawk and safety Will Allen.

OSU, which had the nation's No. 3 rush D in 2002 (77 ypg), is allowing just over half that this season (43 ypg) and three of the Buckeyes top four tacklers, Hawk, Allen and Nate Salley, are first-year starters.

Will Allen is leading a stingy OSU defense.

Hawk is coming off a career-high 13-tackle effort in the Buckeyes 20-0 win over Northwestern where he earned Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week, marking the third time an OSU defender has won the award in the first month of the season. All three are, yep, first-year starters (Allen and DE Simon Fraser were the others.) "He's exceeded my expectations," says Buckeyes linebackers coach Mark Snyder.

Allen, who the Buckeye coaches say is like a coach on the field, has become the defense's big-play man, making a game-saving goal-line stop against NC State and returning a tipped pass 100 yards for a game-winning touchdown in OSU's win over San Diego State. "The big thing is," says Snyder, "we're tackling well so far, knock on wood."

Random Notes
We realize Mike Price and Rick Neuheisel got most of the ink when all the speculation started about the Arizona coaching vacancy, but the man Wildcat AD Jim Livengood should be calling is Ricky Hunley, who is working in Cincinnati these days.

A two-time Wildcat All-American linebacker in the early '80s, Hunley is the Bengals linebacker coach and has a résumé packed with heady references. He's worked under Marvin Lewis, Steve Spurrier, Larry Smith, Mike Shanahan and Dan Reeves among others and he'd bring some much-needed energy to a program that has fallen into an abyss. He also gets the thumbs up from Joe Castiglione, Oklahoma's AD, one of the sharpest guys in the business who knew Hunley from his days at Mizzou. If hired, Hunley would also become the just the fifth African-American head coach in I-A football.

"Ricky's very well thought of," says Florida AD Jeremy Foley, who got to know Hunley when he coached on Spurrier's staff. "He has a real passion for the game and a great relationship with players and a tremendous pedigree and that is something you definitely look for when you hire."

Hunley didn't want to comment Tuesday afternoon when ESPN.com spoke with him. "I got a job to do here and if things work out, they work out," he said. "But it's really premature right now."

As if Jeremy Bloom doesn't have enough on his plate. Colorado's returnman/wideout/Olympic skier/model/lobbyist is about to add cornerback to his résumé. Buffs coach Gary Barnett, eager to fix the nation's 115th ranked pass defense, approached the 5-foot-9, 175-pound speedster about playing defense in addition to his other duties.

Bloom just laughed when Barnett came to him. "It's fun learning something new," Bloom says. He shouldn't have too much of a problem getting his hips ready given that he is a moguls skier. As for tackling Bloom did make one touchdown-saving tackle last season when he ran down a defender after a fumble recovery.

Anyone who tuned in Saturday to see Minnesota beat Penn State probably heard analyst Bob Davie raving about Greg Eslinger, the Gophers' outstanding young lineman, who pulls more than any center in college football. In fact, Eslinger's as big a reason as there is why Minnesota is third in the nation in rushing and thriving with a running back-by-committee approach.

The pulling center is something of a rarity. The Steelers' great Dermontti Dawson set the standard about a decade ago, although you still don't see it much these days simply because finding a guy with the agility to get to defenders at the second level isn't so easy. Minnesota has been pulling its center for years. Wisconsin, another zone running team, and Ohio State are pulling their center some too now. But if you want to see when a center can be a difference maker, watch Eslinger.

"He's just a natural," Gopher offensive coordinator Mitch Browning said. "He plays so hard and with such enthusiasm and intensity."

The other great thing about the slightly undersized 280-pound sophomore is his great footwork, something developed from years as a standout hockey defenseman and discus thrower. Browning is such an Eslinger fan, he says there's no question the kid is much better at this stage than former Gopher All-American center Ben Hamilton was. "He's just a phenomenal football player."

Speaking of great O-linemen, there may not be a more dominant player in college football than Arkansas' Shawn Andrews. Last week against Alabama, the 6-5, 358-pound junior tackle Shawn Andrews graded 98 percent and had an astounding 21 knockdown blocks. He also had one highlight where he pancaked two defenders on one play.

Just a thought, but shouldn't Lloyd Carr have awarded Steve Breaston Michigan's sacred No. 1 not butter-fingered Braylon Edwards? The 6-1, 177-pound redshirt freshman is the Wolverines real gamebreaker and averages 18 yards every time he touches the ball.

We're pretty certain that Ernie Sims (FSU), LaMarr Woodley (Michigan), Tavares Gooden (Miami) and Wesley Jefferson (Maryland) are going to be great college linebackers, but the true freshman LB who is making the biggest impact is Pittsburgh's hitting machine Clint Session.

A punishing 5-11, 235-pounder, Session has 12 tackles against Texas A&M in a little over three quarters after Lewis Moore got hurt. In recruiting circles, Session may have been slightly overshadowed by a quartet of his talented teammates from Pompano (Fla.) Ely High who went to Miami, but it sounds like Walt Harris got another star from South Florida.

How much does Penn State miss former Lion standouts Jimmy Kennedy, Anthony Adams and Michael Haynes? PSU is yielding over 213 rushing yards per game and has already allowed five different runners to have 100-yard games. Of course, given those departures, it shouldn't come as a shock.

What is surprising, though, is the way JoePa called out one his linebackers Derek Wake (28 tackles, 0 TFLs) at his Tuesday press conference: "Derek has been a big disappointment," Paterno said. "He's one of our best athletes, if not the best, at the position. He's got to rise up."

In the year of Neil Parry's return, you can't say any other guy is as deserving for comeback player of the year mention, but in addition to Tennessee's Kevin Simon and Arkansas' Cedric Cobbs, you have to be impressed with Jeff Smoker. The Michigan State QB has battled back from his much-publicized substance-abuse problems and has led MSU to a 4-1 start. Better still, Smoker's improvement from the start of the season was been eye-popping.

In last Saturday's 20-10 win over Iowa, Smoker hit on his first 11 passes to get the Spartans out to a 14-0 lead. Smoker's always had great vision, a quick release and an accurate arm, but credit MSU QB coach Doug Nussmeier for improving Smoker's footwork to round out the QB's game. Nussmeier, who once was John L. Smith's QB at Idaho before going on to a long NFL career, had Smoker do extensive ladder drills, plyometrics and shuffling to quick his feet. He has also boosted Smoker's confidence. "The biggest thing with Jeff is he's growing as a person," says Nussmeier. "He feels good about himself, and he still hasn't played his best football yet."

Lonta Hobbs is a pretty good back, but he may end up as the Wally Pipp of TCU. With Hobbs hobbled by an ankle sprain, shifty Robert Merrill (no, not the voice of the Yankees) roared in his first two games at tailback, rushing for 267 yards in his first two games for the Horned Frogs.

Merrill is no sleeper though (TCU beat Nebraska and Colorado to get him), but last season the Horned Frog coaches felt Hobbs was more ready of the two freshmen last season so they redshirted Merrill, and Hobbs went on to having the most prolific freshman year in TCU history, rushing for 1029 yards.

Bruce Feldman covers college football for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at bruce.feldman@espnmag.com.