SB Nation Houston: All Posts by Steven Godfrey

A quick analysis of Jaguar UFA Quarterbacks Kawaun Jakes and Jordan Rodgers

2013-05-03T14:58:45Z

Hello there, irritable north Florida professional football enthusiasts! My name is Steven Godfrey and I write sports words now and again for SB Nation's college football section.

If you're alarmed that my presence in your territory is any way related to Tim Tebow, please take this opportunity to sniff me with caution - Courtesy of Alfie's gracious invite, I'm here to tell you about two quarterbacks going to rookie camp with the Jaguars: Western Kentucky's Kawaun Jakes and Vanderbilt's Jordan Rodgers.

Jakes - He holds most of the records at WKU that his head coach, Willie Taggart (now at USF), had as the Hilltoppers quarterback in the early 1990s. Jakes benefited greatly from WKU's run-heavy power offense that Taggart brought from Stanford. Like the Cardinal, emphasis was placed on play-action passes to tight ends. He led the Sun Belt in pass efficiency (147.77), but that's due in part to favorable match-ups created by the offensive scheme. Running back Antonio Andrews finished the season with almost 3.000 all-purpose yards, a luxury Jakes heavily relied on. When WKU was forced to throw their way back into games, Jakes struggled.

Tight end Jack Doyle (now a UFA with the Tennessee Titans) actually made many of the line calls in WKU's multiple shift-motion looks, and Jakes couldn't find open receivers or check down against top-tier SEC defenses like LSU and Alabama. At 6-3 and 195 lbs. Jakes is an impressive athlete (he actually filled in as a practice player on WKU's basketball team this season) possessing a relatively strong arm but might struggle with a pro system.

Rodgers - He's Aaron's little brother, but at times in his two years with the Commodores, he looked a hell of lot like he was Brett Favre's kin. Rodgers is serviceably mobile in the pocket (420 rushing yards) and worked to not only evade some of the best pass-rushers in the country but also keep game-winning drives alive with his feet.

But much like a mini-Favre, he was plagued by interceptions, most notably in his junior season and in a terrible Liberty Bowl performance against Cincinnati. His deep ball has always been shaky, but given time in the pocket he's an accurate passer. With his steady development over two seasons in Franklin's offense, I'm convinced that if he had one more year of eligibility, Vanderbilt would be a 8-9 win team with Rodgers in 2013.

Of the pair, I'd pick Rodgers to make a roster. His height (a generous listing of 6-2) is no worse than a Drew Brees or Russell Wilson but he never displayed the league-level cannon arm those undersized quarterbacks use to compensate. But I can attest that he's seasoned for the life of a pro quarterback. I also covered Eli Manning throughout his college career, and the nonstop nausea of little brother comparisons from national media outlets matured Jordan much in the same way it did Eli. He models his game prep and film study after his brother and is a locker room presence (in the good way). If he finds a way to increase his downfield accuracy he could be a pleasant surprise after a year or two with a clipboard.

The state of the spread: Mississippi rivals on the future of football's trendiest attack

2013-04-30T15:22:56Z

There's still no definition of the spread offense.

Mississippi State offensive coordinator Les Koenning reverts to his preferred teaching method. The former Texas wide receiver vibrates with enthusiasm, leaping to his feet, but before he hits the whiteboard to chart the evolution of spread offense formations - "I'm a visual learner," he explains - he says:

"This is how I start when I'm at coaching clinics: 'What does the term spread offense mean to you?'" he asks.

There's a pause, and then I realize he wants an answer from me.

Originally it was maybe shotgun, one back, two receivers to either side, that’s probably where it’s started ... but I know it’s changed, because you put a tight end in and run power out of...

"Awesome. Those are great answers," he cuts me off. "You know what spread really means?"

Uh, no?

"Whatever type of quarterback you have, utilize him. That's it. See, you’re trying to get into formations," he corrects me. "Formations to an offensive staff is just a way to create mismatches. The basis of it is how you get the best way for your football team to move the ball."

Head coach Dan Mullen brought sweeping change in 2009, but none more so than the offensive overhaul honed by his years as Urban Meyer's offensive coordinator. Entering his fifth season, Mullen's Bulldogs average more than 1,400 total yards a season and a yard per play more than the previous regime's west coast offense. That's translated to three consecutive winning seasons, two New Year's Day bowl appearances and a level of consistency heretofore unseen in Starkville in the modern era of SEC football.

Most spread offenses are balanced.

Over in Oxford, the offensive transition has been shorter but even more noticeable: After back-to-back Cotton Bowls, Houston Nutt's 2009 and '10 Rebel teams flatlined in a 6-18 run, with the Rebels failing to score more than 13 points in seven games. Nutt's playcalling had grown so stagnant that it was possible to predict calls from the stands. But in Hugh Freeze's first season, the Rebels racked up over 5,500 yards hit the 30-point mark eight times.

Ole Miss offensive coordinator Dan Werner came to Oxford from Miami, first under Ed Orgeron and now on his second tour with Hugh Freeze. A pro-style practitioner, Werner was installed to help complement Freeze's system with his own experience. He was also to help debunk any preconceived notion of the spread being a gimmick attack.

"What is a spread now? I think most people think that if you’re in shotgun, you’re in spread," Werner said. "Certain teams go to the spread to run the football, and that’s basically all they do. Then there are others, the air raid, basically they throw it every snap. We want to be both. We want a pro-style quarterback that can run a true pro-style drop back scheme with the ability to also run the ball and do different things to keep defenses honest."

The Rebels were hardly a Mike Leach derivation - Ole Miss favored the run 551 to 411, despite having only one true tailback (senior Jeff Scott) to start the year.

Speed, not formation, is the equalizer.

An up-tempo spread jabs at a superior defense's conditioning, even if it's one that wins national titles in the neighboring state and same division. One of the reasons so many staffs have latched on is to help even the field, making defenses defend every part of the field and creating mismatches to give undersized players an advantage.

But Koenning expands further, pointing to the easy-to-apply marriage of the two most common offensive line blocking schemes: zone and gap. To illustrate, he stands and pulls his shorts almost sternum-high, then squats.

"So if everybody stops and we get our jocks on and we get our pants straight and we get ready to come off the ball and their guy weighs 290 and ours weighs 220, who’s gonna win? But if you go really fast, that 290 guy, he gets tired and a little confused. And all of a sudden that’s an advantage for the offense. And if you’re always running laterally [in a power formation] all of a sudden those big guys are tired. And so all of a sudden you can gap it down, pull around and one guy gets out his gap - he scrapes too hard? Say the backside 'backer scrapes to the top, you gash ‘em to the safety!"

"the only thing slowing us down is the ref."

it also temporarily locks them into personnel groupings (something certain winning head coaches in certain Alabama towns absolutely hate). As Red Cup Rebellion breaks down here, Ole Miss ran the same play five times in a row in a minute of clock time for a 48-yard scoring drive against Pittsburgh in the BBVA Compass Bowl.

"As fast as that ref will set the ball down is as fast as we should go," Werner said. "Some refs will take their time, and I see different crews ... some whip that ball in and set it down and they're gone. Others will sort of walk it in and make sure defenses are set. We want it to be as fast as possible."

While it sounds like a baseball problem of varying strikes zones depending on each night's ump, there's a fair amount of consistency in the speed of ball-setting from conference to conference. He notes that the Pac-12 crews are especially fast.

"I've seen Oregon games where the guys are whipping the ball to each other to get the next play set. And we see other conferences take time enough for the defenses to get set."

And the SEC officials are how fast?

"You're not going to get me to say anything about the SEC officials," he laughs. "But put it this way: as fast as they want to put it down, we'll snap it. We tell our players that when we get into that tempo that the only thing slowing us down is the ref. If he can set it and walk away before we snap it, we're going too slow."

Quarterbacks cannot be one-dimensional.

Does a quarterback have to be able to run like a tailback? Not to a Michael Vick or Vince Young standard. But the quarterback must be some kind of threat to run.

"Old school thinking was that we never wanted our quarterback getting touched. But now, I just think that to even the odds up he has to be in the process somewhere, whether it’s running or throwing more," Werner said. "I think I was hard-headed for a long time, thinking it wasn’t my style or whatever. Teams used to play base defenses, and it wasn't an issue. But the more you kept running into an extra defender, coaches just got sick of it. And so now people are starting to realize you have to recruit the right type of guy for that position."

The biggest bullet point on Mullen's resume is Heisman winner Tim Tebow, who overshadows former No. 1 draft pick Alex Smith of Utah as an example of the system thriving without a track star behind center. Smith was a traditional quarterback, but implementing him as a runner allowed Utah to keep defenses honest. Smith's starting run in San Francisco ended in part because he wasn't as mobile as Colin Kaepernick, yet he ran for 1,072 yards and 15 touchdowns at Utah.

"It's not mandatory, but it helps," Mullen concedes. "But I'd say that decision-making trumps mobility greatly. You don't have to be mobile to run option football; you have to be a great decision-maker. If you've made the right decision in option football and you keep the ball, you can still run even though you're not dynamic, but because you've made the right decision."

When Ole Miss quarterback Bo Wallace pulled on a zone read against LSU and, uh ... lumbered for a 57-yard touchdown straight through the defense, it was the right decision and execution, but was still shocking to Freeze, who had coached Wallace at Arkansas State before the quarterback transferred.

"When we were at Arkansas State it was a big joke, like 'Oh, Bo runs a 4.9, he's slow,'" Wallace laughs. "So as soon as I scored I went straight for him on the sideline, and Freeze pats my head and says, 'I'm so sorry for making fun of you your freshman year,' but you can see me on film tightening up around the ball, thinking, 'Surely to God, someone's about to catch me.' I couldn't see, because at LSU there's only a Jumbotron at one end."

According to Koenning, a stiff-legged passer rumbling through a secondary is the essence of the system's beauty.

"That’s the benefit of the spread," he says. "You still have gap schemes, you still have zone schemes, you’re still making them think, but when I go to run the zone read, if Tyler Russell’s running the zone read, what’s the defense going to practice? Tackling the running back. But when Tyler gets a pull, it’s for 20 yards, because they can only practice against so much."

Wallace against LSU. Crystal LoGiudice-US PRESSWIRE.

The spread also cannot be one-dimensional.

MSU and Ole Miss will enter 2013 with starting quarterbacks considered to be passers, yet both will continue to be spelled by runners Dak Prescott and Barry Brunetti.

Brunetti appeared in 12 game for the Rebels last season, but had only 36 pass attempts to Wallace's 368, whereas he had almost half as many rushing attempts (60 to 143). That tendency created a trend in coverage when the former West Virginia quarterback would enter the game.

"Oh yeah," Brunetti admits. "I’d go out there last season, and I’d hear the checks. They’d be checking to certain places ... I’d hear them say, ‘Watch the option, watch the run.’"

Neither team is quarterbacking by committee, but the matter at hand will be maintaining versatility no matter which quarterback is in the game. Mullen enjoyed three years of success in Starkville with Chris Relf, the 6'4, 240-pound, run-first threat. His career totals at State are impressive (1,578 yards rushing, 3,297 passing, 37 total TDs) but his run/pass ratio (401 carries to 460 pass attempts) shows that he was more Tebow than Smith. Enter Russell, a nationally ranked pro-style quarterback. He became the full-time starter in 2012, spelled by redshirt sophomore backup Prescott, a more Relf-ian type.

"The biggest issue we have is what our kids can do the best. In order to be successful offensively you've got to utilize the talents that you're given. We're not a place where we get a Christmas list all the time," Koenning said.

Russell, a Merdian, Miss., native, was the best quarterback in the state when he committed to the Bulldogs, so in what Mullen calls "the big thick playbook," State dropped a few chapters and added some different ones.

"I’m looking to throw the ball but when we have a run play called, I’m looking... 'OK, what are they doing? Are they going to respect me on this play? Is the end just going to crash down and go for the back?' I might get six, seven yards from that. It’s not going to happen every time, but it’s going to happen at some point in a game," Russell said.

When teams shift their defensive calls dramatically depending on State's quarterbacks, Russell doesn't get offended if he's left relatively alone on a run assignment.

"It doesn’t really make you mad, it’s just kind of funny," Russell says. "You’re supposed to play sound football. The defensive end has the C gap, and if you’re not going to respect the C gap and just try and tackle the running back and there’s nobody else out there, I’m going to take it."

State fans would tell you that Russell is the passer (231-394 for 2,897 yards) and Prescott is the runner (32 carries, 118 yards), but because of the way defenses play the pair individually, Prescott must maintain the ability to throw (18-29 for 194 yards) and Russell must be some threat to run (43 total carries, but -5 net yards due to sacks). Koenning and Mullen both contend that either can command the offense, because the offense must always be versatile enough to fit the talent, whatever the talent may be.

"We're in a situation where our 'passer' can run," Mullen said. "He's not a dynamic runner, but in the open field if you don't cover him he'll go run down the field. And our runner can throw, he threw a bunch of touchdown passes last year. And that aspect of things changes based on your personnel."

Mullen points to the difference in running the zone read at Utah and a Florida - the Utes featured pocket-passing Smith, who had little perimeter speed, whereas in Gainesville the monstrous Tebow was flanked by light backs like Chris Rainey and Jeff Demps.

"If Peyton Manning wanted to come play for me, I'd figure something out."

"All we did was reverse the play," said Mullen. "Tebow would read to go inside, the running backs to go outside. You're still reading the same way, but instead of the running back going inside and the quarterback (Smith) keeping around the edge, it's the quarterback (Tebow) keeping it inside or giving to the running backs around the edge. Those are the little flexibilities you have to have in your system. It can't ever be just one particular way."

"Hey," Mullen adds. "If Peyton Manning wanted to come play for me, I'd be all in. I'd figure something out. But he probably wouldn't run too often."

Who can be a quarterback has changed.

Veteran NFL receiver Roscoe Parrish played wide receiver for the Hurricanes while Werner was on staff at Miami. But Werner also had a package of plays for Parrish, a high school quarterback, in 2005 that would've constituted spread-option offense. Today's demand for that type of athletic talent at QB has outpaced the evaluation skills of some veteran recruiters, and cautionary tales of mobile Heisman quarterbacks Cam Newton, Johnny Manziel and Robert Griffin III being unsuccessfully offered to play other positions give coaches nightmares.

Werner agrees that the sample size for potential BCS-level quarterbacks has grown substantially, but the core demands on the position haven't changed.

"No doubt we're looking in more places. But this is what I stress to our recruits: I think some schools are looking for athletes who can throw, but I'm still looking for a quarterback who's a good athlete. You have to be a quarterback first. If you can run, great, but when it's 3rd and 8, we can't win if all you can do is run."

The success of NFL offenses in Seattle, Washington and San Francisco was celebrated outside their respective fan bases, as scores of college and high school quarterbacks felt validated. Werner admits that as a coach on the recruiting trail years ago, he was able to campaign against offenses that weren't specifically pro-style by using the fear of the NFL when recruiting quarterbacks.

"I was an old pro-style guy. When I was at other schools that's what I sold them on: look, you can go to one of those schools but nobody does. Whereas now they are, so I want to make sure ... in the NFL it's not like they're only running the quarterback. They still have to learn all their protections and reads. That's a big selling point to our quarterbacks now is, hey, we're going to teach you the pro-style schemes, the drop backs and reads, with an addition to what the pro-style is going towards."

This doesn't mean Denard Robinson wouldn't have to change positions if he came out in three or four years - height and weight nullify some outright - but it does mean that a quarterback like Prescott, who was labeled "ATH" by recruiting services, isn't forced to become a tight end or flanker to make money professionally.

"Being in a run-first college offense - and we’re still 50/50 - but being in that, it’s hard," Prescott admits. "It’s like Denard moving to receiver. It’s hard when you run the ball to actually get in the NFL. Even when you believe you can throw, the film says you’re running the ball 60 percent of the time, they’re going go off that. It’s a business. Now that they’re integrating the dual-threat quarterback and the read option, it’s actually helping us and making it easier for us."

"I feel they’ll definitely take a chance on a guy who has more of a running ability then just what you would call a simple dropback passer," Prescott said.

Prescott against Arkansas. Spruce Derden, US Presswire.

It's no easier on an offensive line.

One of the lingering falsehoods about the spread is that a shotgun somehow allows for offensive line play to become less aggressive. Ironically, the resurgence in power running plays has come from the spread and option, most notably with Newton and Gus Malzahn at Auburn and since replicated all over.

"When I came back here, taking to booster clubs that was the mentality. 'Are we going to be tough up front?'" Werner said. "Well, it's not like we're telling the offensive line 'Hey, since we're in shotgun you guys can go be soft.' We're still running the inside zone and the power, and they're still blocking. There were a lot of people nervous about that, but when they see how we run the football it makes them feel a lot better about it."

Koenning, along with a host of NFL general managers set to wager a few million, is convinced the secret to the last Heisman-winner's success in Texas A&M's offense came along the line specifically.

"You know why Manziel’s really good?" he asks. "Number one, he’s a really good football player. That’s number one, but number two are those offensive tackles he has [No. 2 Draft pick Luke Joeckel and Jake Matthews]. Imagine a kid with that much athleticism sitting back there going [Koenning yells] 'One Mississippi, two Mississippi ...' [Texas A&M] reminds you of that. We’re playing in the backyard. 'Oh hey, he ain’t open ... Three Mississippi! Move over a little bit!’"

Koenning said the Mississippi State staff spent time in the offseason breaking down A&M film to watch the Aggie offense specifically.

"We counted eight seconds in the pocket a couple times. That doesn’t happen. Those two tackles are really really good. Johnny Manziel is good, don’t get me wrong, but you’re going to find out those two offensive tackles helped him a lot more than what people really thought."

More: Egg Bowl back to Thanksgiving Ole Miss' confusing Photoshop

Injuries happen in every offense.

"Getting hit, that’s probably why the NFL didn’t use this offense for so long," Brunetti supposes.

He's probably right. The concept of turning $100 million franchise players into less-durable tailbacks never sounds appealing to a general manager. But there's no hard proof that one particular system injures quarterbacks more than another. Wallace spent the spring on the sidelines and in the film room recovering from surgery on his throwing shoulder, an injury he sustained on a zone read play against Tulane in September. The hit - Wallace hit a linebacker head on before his lineman could create a block - clearly affected his accuracy and arm strength for the remainder of the year, but Wallace said he didn't change his running style, despite the multiple protests of his coaches.

"Once I got banged up I should've changed a lot of things, but that's me just trying to compete and fight for every yard. We were 5-5 trying to get a bowl game, so you're trying to do every little thing you can. I guess I'm just hard-headed, but yeah, going forward I'll have to change things."

While not season-ending, the injury had a direct effect on the entire offense ("By the end of the year I was lucky if I could throw anything 45 yards," he said), an issue Werner is still addressing in the offseason. According to Wallace, the team spent some of the spring trying out new formations, pistol included, and he's anxious but unable to try them out.

"We're not the type that's going to run him 20 or 30 times. But if they're going to give us the run, we have to take it. People don't like that quarterback running down the middle because usually when he does run, we're getting nice gains out of that. As soon as they start taking that away we can go to different things," said Werner.

Consequently, Brunetti and backup Maikhail Miller spent the spring learning to fall correctly - forward unless arriving at head-on contact, with the ball tucked and on your non-throwing shoulder - while Wallace is still immobile until he starts throwing rehab the first week of May.

"Anytime you have an operation on your throwing shoulder it makes you nervous. You can go a month without throwing a football and come back and for a couple days you won't be the same. So I'm interested to see where I'm at," Wallace said.

The NFL will adjust.

The zone read is only one way of answering the pass rushing defensive end, and it's not foolproof. Coaches insist it's not just about freezing out all-world defensive ends like Jadeveon Clowney, but Brunetti and his fellow zone read enthusiasts wax poetic at the thought of doing just that:

"My favorite moment is once [the defensive end] pulls down, and I pull, it and it’s open field... If I see ‘em start real wide, I figure he thinks it’s going to be a straight-ahead hand off. I watch his shoulders to see how he’s leaning. Is he playing with me? Is he trying to play both ways? If he tries to play me and the running back I’ll try and hold it a little bit longer than I would usually. I learned that from watching Cam Newton."

In the SEC, zone read quarterbacks attest that the adjustments are already in place, including specific changes late in 2012. Wallace said that of the entire conference schedule, Georgia's 3-4 was the most frustrating due to its twisting linemen late in the game.

Brunetti breaks down the most common technique he saw in 2012: "They’re shooting the [defensive] end down and making the quarterback pull it, and then scraping a linebacker over the top to make it a one-on-one play between the linebacker and the quarterback. But one thing I was always good at in high school and this level is one-on-one in the open field. The worst is when that D-end really can play both guys, when you’re playing against a great end who’s athletic enough to stop you from handing it off and stop you from getting outside."

Mullen shrugs off the idea that one play can be an inarguable answer at any level, merely that it's an issue of matchups and little else.

"If your two D-tackles absolutely dominate the O-line it doesn't matter. The simplest [defense] in zone read is if you can't throw the ball or you don't have great wide receivers, well, then our corners can completely lock down on your receivers, and I'll stand two extra guys on the line of scrimmage. It's not hard to defend the zone read ... you're just having to give up something to do it."

Rest assured that the confirmed (and unconfirmed) visits from NFL defensive coordinators to a variety of college coaching staffs running air raid, pistol and spread concepts were to accelerate the learning curve.

"It's not hard to defend the zone read. You're just having to give up something."

"It's just something that no one in the NFL has done until here lately," Werner said. "There's a lot of different things going on, but the simplest part is on the backside of a run they [the defensive coaches] can teach that guy [the defensive end] to squeeze and he'd squeeze, and every now and then we'd call a naked [bootleg] off of it. You could hit 'em with a little pass in the flat, and you'd hit for a six- or seven-yard gain. The defense says fine, you can do that two or three times a game, but we're going to stop the run, whereas now, they've got to come up with another defender because the quarterback pulls it and gains 15 yards or more, and they've got problems."

Mullen agrees: "The defense of it in college is much better because kids see it in high school. The ability to understand the zone read as a college player, you've defended against it in high school. It used to be 15 years ago there were 10 teams in the whole country running, and it was like going to play against the wishbone. If you don't ever see it it's hard to prepare for it one week. It's hard to simulate what they're going to do in just one week. The zone read and spread option stuff used to be very similar."

The spread era had no beginning and will have no end.

'There's about five people who say they invented the zone read," Werner said. "From what I hear it was an accident. The story I heard was that one day the quarterback missed a handoff in practice, and he just took off running, and the coaches noticed what happened. That's usually how this stuff happens. People always talk about football geniuses, and if we were geniuses we wouldn't be coaching football. All it is is the option."

Koenning can chart a quick-look evolution of what the layman fan recognizes as the spread evolution - a split-back look, a one-back offset, the pistol stacking the running back and removing tendencies for the defense to scout, and the next great wrinkle, which he either isn't telling about or is among those still searching for.

"You’ve got to think outside of the box. you think inside the box and you’ll never progress. That’s where it’s going; you’re seeing more people thinking outside of the box. Everybody’s becoming more broad. We’re all thieves by nature. Don’t think that we’re all geniuses. Yes, we do have good ideas, but we’re thieves by nature," he said.

Mullen's name will sit forever next to Meyer's in the annals of offensive scheming, if only for their introduction of the spread option and its subsequent application to a national champion. But in 2013, as over half the conference that once shunned the idea as a gimmick will run some form of what he and Meyer brought to Florida, he's hesitant to anoint the popular trend as the new standard.

"The general consensus," said Mullen, "of who the top three teams in the SEC were last season were Alabama, LSU and Georgia. Pro teams, all three of 'em are under center, I-formation teams. Any offense can beat any defense. I can beat any zone blitz if I've got the right play called. And any defense can stop any given play if you have the right kind of defense called. You see that in good old Tecmo Bowl, right? Just hit the right button and Bo Jackson scores."

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Urban Meyer courts the Queen City: Why Ohio State fights for Cincinnati

2013-04-15T15:43:40Z

CINCINNATI - Despite official claims, Ohio State didn't leave Columbus to break even on a meaningless exhibition because the seats weren't fixed yet. The Buckeyes came south to ensure that the future of the Urban Meyer regime would enjoy as many Adolphus Washingtons as possible.

The former five-star Washington's high school, Taft, is less than two miles from Paul Brown, and the sophomore end was arguably the breakout star of the Scarlet's 31-14 win over the Gray. The Buckeyes will replace their entire starting defensive line in 2013, and Washington finished with four of the Gray team's nine "sacks" of quarterback Braxton Miller, who wore a no-contact jersey.

Ohio State played in front of an announced crowd of 37,643 between Paul Brown Stadium's Bengal-orange end zones Saturday afternoon. That's a staggeringly low count for any kind of Buckeye home game, because even spring ball averages over 60,000 fans in Columbus.

More: Ohio State spring game recap Daily Ohio State recruiting coverage

Yet head coach Urban Meyer didn't waste a second wrapping an otherwise newsless press conference in good tidings for his former hometown, a city once thought of as "hostile territory" for the state's flagship university and what Land-Grant Holy Land's Luke Zimmermann calls a "region historically unusually difficult for Ohio State to recruit."

Greg Bartram, USA Today Sports

Former head coach John Cooper once said Cincy was harder to recruit than anywhere else in state. The 2013 Buckeyes roster lists just four Cincinnatians, the same number as either Notre Dame's or Louisville's.

"To have almost 40,000 people show up for a scrimmage, there are so many things I wish we could do here [in Cincinnati]," the former Cincinnati Bearcats defensive back said. "Coach Hayes started the tradition years ago when they would go visit a place, he'd take them around and educated the players."

So OSU made it a point to announce it was hitting the Montgomery Inn and Skyline Chili, that the Buckeyes got a special tour of the Reds Museum, and that they even stopped by Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis' house. That's because this region is rich with BCS-level football talent, and for all its seemingly worldwide branding, OSU has yet to truly dominate recruiting it.

"I can tell you for me personally I couldn't be more proud of my town," assistant coach and Cincinnati native Kerry Coombs said. "There's something that fills your heart as a Cincinnati guy to come down 71, and then you turn and there are the buildings. For me, thank you to the people of Cincinnati. This was special for a lot of kids today."

Coombs joined Meyer's staff from UC and is still the area's lead recruiter for the Buckeyes.

"I've been to a lot of spring games when I was coaching high school ball, and to me an environment like that is special. You've got the band and the Jumbotron and you're in a NFL stadium. You're not even in your town. We're not in Columbus and we have a crowd like that. So if I'm a local kid -- if I'm any kid -- and I see that environment, I can't imagine why you'd pick anywhere else if you had the opportunity to come play here."

Steven Godfrey, SB Nation

There are seven current commitments for OSU's 2014 class, and linebacker Sam Hubbard is the only current Cincinnati area player (Moeller High). Of the 2013 class, only wideout Jalin Marshall came from the area (Middletown, about 40 miles out). Meanwhile, local guard Dylan Weisman spurned an OSU offer for Tennessee (via Butch Jones leaving Cincinnati).

"Cincinnati kids have certainly always been aware of Ohio State, but their natural allegiances have been more spread out than other parts of that state, when you look at Cleveland or Dayton, for instance, those kids have historically accepted offers from Ohio State immediately," Rivals.com midwest recruiting analyst Josh Helmholdt said.

Helmholdt also pointed to some unusual competition, namely Catholic institutions like Boston College and Notre Dame having a historic backdoor into the city's Greater Catholic League stars like Luke Kuechly and Kyle Rudolph (Zimmermann calls the GCL the "de facto AAA" for the Irish), as well as the suddenly resurgent Kentucky Wildcats.

"Mark Stoops is an Ohio guy, and they're already starting to show a tremendous success in the area. I think [bringing the game to Cincinnati] is Urban making sure that they solidify the borders of Ohio more than anything else."

19 minutes until kickoff and EVERYONE is stomping on the logo. Meyer oversees a bull ring / cat drill. twitter.com/38Godfrey/stat…
— Steven Godfrey (@38Godfrey) April 13, 2013

Wide receiver prospect Derek Kief, among the five Cincinnati recruits invited to Paul Brown on Saturday, is a standout at GCL member LaSalle and just received an offer from Notre Dame to go along with 16 others. He's the Washington-type talent the entire program uprooted itself for a day to impress and part of the idea behind this national power's pointless April exhibition. They didn't aim for the GIF pool or the heartstrings -- the decidedly more football-centric matter of recruiting was paramount.

Helmholdt will be on hand April 20 for a Rivals-Under Armour camp in nearby Lakota West high school, and will gauge any lingering goodwill from the reinvested interest in the region by Ohio State.

"It shows that they care about the city. That might be a short-term gain though, and moving forward it’s something they’ll have to continue to work at. It was a smaller crowd on Saturday, but how many people there were future high school prospects? Or how many might not be legitimate prospects, but how many will be friends with those kids being recruited?"

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2013 Ohio State Spring Game: More Braxton Miller TDs! Scarlet leads, 24-7

2013-04-13T19:00:24Z

- The second half began with a botched trick play: Kenny Guiton passed to Cardale Jones, who passed back to Guiton... who dropped it. It looked like the intent was for Guiton to then go for a home run pass down the left side.

- A few players later Jones was stripped in the pocket (he's not wearing a no-contact jersey) by corner Eli Apple, who recovered the fumble as well.

- Braxton Miller's first pass of the second half was a very nice 42-yard pass to Devin Smith that put Scarlet on the five-yard-line. Two plays later Miller would score on a five yard rush, scrambling left and faking the pass while moving. Drew Basil tacked on a PAT (just one!) from the 10-yard-line.

- Gray's second drive lasted just one play. Cincinnati local Joe Burger recovered a fumbled snap by Jones, setting up Scarlet on the Gray 34-yard-line. The drive stalled - multiple penalties were called on both sides, but Meyer had all declined - and Drew Basil (kicking against his own team, for shame) hit a 25-yard field goal to give Scarlet a 24-7 lead.

- Field goal break! Scarlet's Kyle Clinton hit from 25 and 31 yards.

- Jones returned for the Gray team, allowing Scarlet's defense to hit the quarterback. If Kenny Guiton's day is over (it seems so), he looked impressive against the not-exactly starting defense: 9 of 14, 116 yards, 1 TD. Jones had a pretty deep pass to Chris Fields, but Fields couldn't hang on.

2013 Ohio State Spring Game: Scarlet leads 14-7 on two Miller touchdown passes

2013-04-13T18:18:36Z

An Urban Meyer spring exhibition in a neighboring city will be friendly, but ruthlessly paced. We're trying to keep up here:

- Position watch: Late in the first quarter, Scarlett's Chase Ferris was beat out for a sack by Adolphus Washington.

- Gray quarterback Kenny Guiton made a questionable call on a second down rush out of the pocket, electing to run out of bounds rather than throw to an open receiver. A few plays later Gray receiver Michael Thomas broke the hold of Eli Apple on a short pass and ran for a nice 13-yard gain.

- Guiton found Chris Fields for a five-yard touchdown pass across the middle to cap a 14 play drive, tying the game at 7. It was a 90-yard drive marked by Guiton's arm - he's 9 of 11 passing for 118 yards through two quarters.

- Drew Basil then had to hit a series of "PATs" with Meyer looming right over him. He hit from 49 and 29 yards and missed from 54, 54, 54 and 39 yards.

- Noah Spence and Adolphus Washington are ruining Braxton Miller's afternoon thus far. Gray has recorded six sacks thus far, Spence has three and Washington two.

- Armani Reeves knocked away a deep Miller pass to Smith prevent a touchdown down the left sideline. Reeves had his break-up timed perfectly.

- Miller has looked progressively less effective in the passing game, especially if you take away what could be considered a blown coverage on that first play of the game.

- Scarlet would retake the lead with under a minute left. Bri'onte Dunn had a nice run-and-catch on a 17-yard reception from Miller to set up a first and goal at the Gray 8-yard-line. Miller followed with a scramble to the three, then found Corey Brown for the touchdown pass.

2013 Ohio State Spring Game: Braxton Miller touchdown pass give Scarlet 6-0 lead

2013-04-13T17:48:11Z

Hello from Paul Brown Stadium, where Ohio State has just sped through their first 10 minute quarter. Here's a few quick notes:

- Position watch: Chase Ferris got the start for the Scarlet team (the starting offensive line) at right tackle.

- The first play from scrimmage was a 49-yard Braxton Miller pass to Evan Spencer. The pass should've been a touchdown as Spencer was past the safety, but the receiver slipped extending for the ball. Two players later Miller would leave the pocket and wave Devin Smith into position for a 20-yard TD pass..

- The Gray team failed to convert on their opening drive when a six-play drive ended on a 28-yard missed field goal from Drew Basil.

- On his next drive, Miller was "sacked" four times, underthrew one receiver and gained a first down from a blatant PI call downfield. Two players later he brilliantly evaded a collapsing pocket but struggled to throw his receiver open.

- Receiver Corey Brown dropped a gimmie pass on a wide open crossing pattern. He hauled in a quick, tight pass on an out route the next play.

- The pregame ended with both teams meeting a midfield for a bull ring / big cat drill with respective positions from Scarlet and Gray going at each other. It culminated with quarterbacks Braxton Miller and Kenny Guiton locking up to a consensus stalemate.

- Linebacker Ryan Shazier is in pads after missing most of the spring with a sports hernia, but not expected to play. Not dressed out today: Bradley Roby (shoulder), Rod Smith (concussion) and Nick Vannett (concussion).

Beware the Swag-O-Meter: Mississippi State's 'You're a Baller' artist speaks

2013-04-10T13:12:56Z

There's a whole book on his desk, plastic sleeves holding some of his most famous works. Lying on top is a recent sketch - the Mississippi State banner M logo shining over a cityscape like Gotham City's Bat-Signal, with a note imploring a potential recruit that only he can help the Bulldogs save the day.

"Here's a personal favorite. The original 'You're a Baller,'" he says while pointing to a photocopied picture of himself with a magic marker word bubble displaying his now-famous mantra.

He won't allow pictures taken of his collection, ever the discriminating artist (also there's a bunch of current and former recruit names on each page, so that's a NCAA violation and stuff). He professes to have never taken a single drawing class in his life - "Nope, not one!" he happily assures - allowing his natural talent to evolve unencumbered by the gauche restrictions of conventional instruction.

This the portrait of the artist Geoff Collins, Mississippi State defensive coordinator and accidental art pioneer, the creator of two of this season's most celebrated works - the raw, minimalist "You're a Baller" and the Warholian "Can of SWAG," which assures the viewer that Collins "has a truckload of it over here in Stark Vegas."

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Until now Collins was something of the Johannes Vermeer of the college football letter movement, which in years past was a far less adventurous affair. But now that his identity has been found, his story can be told, if only to better understand his art.

"When I was a G.A. at Georgia Tech, that's when I started getting into the whole writing recruiting letters," he says. "When I was there under Coach [George] O'Leary, we had six primary states, and I kept bugging him to recruit. So finally he said, 'OK fine, you've got the other 44 states.' I couldn't go on the road, so I started writing letters and trying to find a way to create a big impact. That year, of those 44 states we had five kids sign. So ever since it's been about trying to garner attention of recruits for whatever school I'm at."

Not surprisingly, as the hand-written letter movement has become the luddite compliment to unlimited digital harassment of college football recruits, recruiting coordinators found a problem: Kids were sharing their huge one-day post office hauls on Twitter and Facebook, but they might have not been actually reading the letters.

Schools like Mississippi State took notice. The Bulldogs changed the size of their envelopes and sometimes the color (opting for solid maroon) just to create a look that would stand out. They'll continue to alter their look to stay noticeable.

"What's the important thing? That a kid got 100 letters in one day, or that he opened one?" head coach Dan Mullen asks.

"You've got to think of the stacks of mail that these kids are getting," Mullen says. "Even if a kid gets 10 letters from us, that probably means he's being recruited by 50 schools. Well that's 500, and we're doing that once a week; that means he's probably getting 500 letters a week. What makes him want to open it?"

Consider Lee Davis, Mississippi State's staff recruiting specialist, the art dealer for Collins' brilliance and one of the first to inform the artist of his newfound fame.

"He came to me and said, 'Oh gosh, this is on the internet.' And well, any publicity is good publicity, right? He said, 'The message is short, sweet and to the point, so the only thing I would change is my handwriting. And honestly, that kid really is a baller.'"

On this particular day I've just missed a sneak peak at Collins' latest masterpiece, an unofficial sequel to "Can of SWAG." The artist himself pops his head into Davis' office to make the announcement:

"There might be a Swag-O-Meter in there! Might be!" Collins says.

"There's more to come," Davis insists. "They just haven't been sent out yet. That's why you haven't seen them on Twitter yet."

For all the endless hours of coordination - matching coaches to prospects as pen pals on a daily basis and coordinating the ensuing mass mailings on a year-round schedule - Davis' primary concern as a recruiter is alleviated.

"Now, whoever gets his mail is going to open it."

Indeed. Because somewhere out there in the abyss of the USPS, inside one of a thousand official maroon envelopes and tucked among a litany of Land's End catalogs and credit card offers, "The Swag-O-Meter" seeks its recruit.

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2013 Tennessee football: Every feel-good spring cliche made real?

2013-04-09T13:47:40Z

KNOXVILLE - There's nothing particularly new in what first-year Tennessee head coach Butch Jones is doing to a crestfallen Volunteer football program, unless you happen to care intensely about Tennessee football. If that's the case, he's nothing short of a revelation.

It's why safety Byron Moore now knows that another Carson, Ca. product, linebacker Kevin Burnett, played between the checkerboards in Knoxville just a decade ago, and why that should matter to him.

"I had no idea until I started researching that," Moore admits.

Jones has issued a mandate that all active roster players study and then present reports on former Volunteers who have worn their current numbers, as well as every All-American that's ever come through the program.

"It's cool to see that there had been players from before that had come out here from California and do well."

Remember the handy guide to spring college football cliches? If you're playing along, it's a short path to bingo in Neyland Stadium during a sunny Saturday scrimmage, but that doesn't mean the intent isn't genuine.

Every player will give 100 percent.

Throughout Saturday's two-hour plus scrimmage, a collection of yellow-jersey'd players out with injuries were tucked in a corner of one end zone with a strength and conditioning assistant. Depending on their ailments, the players had to perform a rotating series of basic, low/no-resistance reps on isolated muscle groups the entire scrimmage.

I periodically checked - the players never stopped exercising. I've seen IR guys putter on ellipticals, but I've never seen that level of organized conditioning from the bench.

This is a great program with great traditions we're looking to uphold.

Jones has practiced first rate PR, but it's also necessary. Everything about the Tennessee era following Phil Fulmer has been a corrosion of identity. Lane Kiffin brought in a NFL resume and a WWE mouth, forcing players to model themselves after the same USC program he'd eventually ditch them for. Then came Derek Dooley, the son of Georgia legend Vince Dooley, who at his first SEC Media Days prompted more questions about what color his famous parents would be wearing on gameday than about the program itself. Both coaches failed miserably to court former players and both ate the curb on the statewide rubber chicken circuit.

In its own weird, 2013 way, that's also why Moore has been encouraged to engage in program-approved troll wars with the Vols' offensive coaching staff. In the spirit of competition, the digitally verbose senior is one of a few players smack-talking the opposing side on Twitter, and coaches are joining in:

@bmoore3vfl @utcoachza @utcoachelder we are going to have a VIP section in the checkerboard end zones because we are there so much...#TDS
— Derrick Lett (@utcoachdlett) April 6, 2013

"Everybody on staff has to have a Twitter now," Moore said. "It's about building our logo, building our brand. It's fun to have coaches on there and talk trash. But it's more about putting out some positive energy for Tennessee right now."

Chris Spognardi is Jones' assistant, and monitors the entire Tennessee football social media spectrum almost 24 hours a day through multiple cell phones, a dual-monitor system in his office and a tablet that's never out of reach. There is a staff-wide mandate to tweet, and Spognardi monitors uniform hashtag usage and any phrasing or interactions that could be viewed as dangerous or negative. He said Jones' Twitter followers have jumped from around 12,000 upon his hire to over 72,000, which makes Jones the third most-followed college head coach in the nation. Spognardi also insists that Jones primarily runs his own account. If you're a Vol who nabs a RT from the head coach, that really is Butch Jones tweeting you.

"Our staff has embraced this since we've been at Cincinnati. We've been doing this for this three years, we know the positives and negatives. I'm looking at 30, 35 accounts over Facebook and Twitter, making sure that everyone's compliant, that everyone is on message."

We're going to make football fun again for our student-athletes.

"It's really fun," Moore promises. "Everyone's excited to come out here each day and the competition that Coach promotes is fun. We take that serious, who gets that orange jersey. And it makes it a lot more fun than it's been in the past."

Competition is open at every position.

Of course it is, because new head coaches don't show up to tinker with five-star rosters executing successful, brilliant schemes.

The Vols have arguably the thinnest amount of skill position talent in the SEC. Wide receiver "Pig" Howard could be a quality contributor on any roster but will have to become a No. 1 option overnight. The lack of quality depth behind the departed Cordarrelle Patterson and Justin Hunter is stunning to see now.

Running back will be the de facto strength of the offense because of experience, but Jones criticized the field vision of Rajion Neal and Marlin Lane on Saturday. The tandem will likely carry the load - the quarterback race is beyond wide open - but will have to adjust to running out of the spread, something Jones' UC teams excelled at.

We're going to bring a new excitement to this team.

Consistently successful programs usually have boring springs. If your team has depth and low turnover on the staff, March and April are vanilla by design. Under new regimes inheriting losing teams, April is your own personal NCAA Football Dynasty Mode gone wild - players switch positions, wild new plays and techniques are experimented with and every day's official team practice report has some exciting new detail.

For instance, Saturday's scrimmage was an unquestionable defensive victory, with that unit beating the offense by a "score" of 86-63 (don't worry about figuring the metric out) and forcing a long string of three-and-out possessions from the first- and second-stringers. Does this mean the SEC's worst defense is suddenly better? Not necessarily. It means that one play, a challenged offense can't find read the field and Lane is absolutely tattooed by two defenders on a dump-off pass, and a few plays later the defense overcommits on a zone read and Lane gashes a 50-yard run.

We want the fans to be a part of this program.

On this particular Saturday, Jones has ordered each player to hand-deliver practice invitations to current UT faculty members. Before the scrimmage, the team and coaches, interspersed with professors, takes a group picture.

Immediately following, players fresh from full-contact play don baby blue t-shirts for a meet and greet (and another group picture) with a local Big Brothers Big Sisters chapter. The SID staff promises that, halfway though spring ball, this is nothing new since Jones came in, but completely, totally different for the program in recent years.

There's more energy in practice!

Jones apparently likes his energy aural. When I visited Cincinnati last season before the Bearcats' penultimate Keg of Nails game against Louisville, mobile speakers blared an audio mash of what UC staffers not-so-affectionately termed "The Eight Most Annoying Sounds In The World," a overlapping, shifting mix of screaming babies, road construction, industrial engines, alarm clocks, a chainsaw, multiple sirens, ringing phones and good old crowd noise. Artificial noise in practice for road games is nothing new - the purpose is to practice silent snap counts and have the center make line checks - but Jones' aim is to teach every player to focus individually through confusion.

In the infancy of this overhaul, the Vols aren't focused on road noise, but Jones is no quieter. A mobile audio receiver connected to a wireless microphone pipes Jones' voice through the P.A. system of Neyland Stadium. Jones spends the entire day announcing down and distance scenarios in full scrimmages, addressing players by their full names on penalties or big plays and enjoying the ability to address his entire team at once without losing his normally soft and gravelly voice, a problem he faced throughout his career,

It's a blessing for assembled media members because plays are easier to chart, and it's an incentive for players to not have their names called out. When Howard fumbles after a catch, Jones quips, "107,000 people just groaned!" to muffled laughs from players on the other sideline. During a series of passing plays, quarterback Nathan Peterman walks over to Jones after breaking the huddle, after which the coach announces, "The quarterback is now LIVE, by request! You want it, we'll give it to you!" This is received with hooting enthusiasm from the defensive sideline (Peterman went untouched on the following play, a long incompletion down the left sideline).

We're going to bring in a new attitude.

There's a reason why, far from any measurable game, years from a fair shake with an ideal roster, coaches like Jones spend the time they do. Quarterback Justin Worley didn't attribute a bad afternoon for the offense to inexperience with the offensive system, but rather the lingering attitude of teams past.

"Just falling back on what we used to do," Worley says, "and that was kind of tucking our tails between our legs and pouting. We need to work on getting away from that, and we've made huge strides, but that's still happening here and there. That hurts, but I think we're making strides in the right direction. Everybody's buying in to what the coaches are teaching and preaching. It's night and day."

If there's a tried and true cliche of the new head coach in the changing-culture mode, it's access. Early on in Saturday's scrimmage a football staff rep informs SID Jason Yellin that a previously set rule requiring reporters to move off the sidelines at a certain point was nixed by Jones. It's the same reason when, two hours after the scrimmage, he'll retweet me when I test the savvy of the new social media monitoring system. There are no questions about the long and unpleasant task of returning Tennessee to a level of winning that might have passed this program by completely, but the new Orange mandate is to have an arm around your shoulder.

"If the fans are behind you and embrace you and there's a bad break during the game, it might not be as bad as if you shut everyone out and give no access," Spognardi said.

We're going to recruit harder than we ever have.

Those homework assignments to read about the history of the Vol Navy? As SB Nation recruiting analyst Bud Elliot has reported, that could bode well for a first-year coach (born in Michigan) who happens to be courting multiple top prospects with close family ties to former Vol players.

The Southeastern Conference has been building to this type of coach at this level of a program. The SEC has seen this recipe before, specifically in Mississippi State's Dan Mullen, Ole Miss' Hugh Freeze, Vanderbilt's James Franklin, and even Kevin Sumlin at newcomer Texas A&M: a young outsider trying to bridge the gap between disillusionment and impatient expectations for success with tech-savvy rallying and a fast-paced spread offense.

And a lot of recruiting. Like, a lot. Between zone reads and hashtags and exhaustive public speaking schedules, the dynamic new personality buys him a season of forgiveness. Jones is landing blue chip talents, making the long-suffering loyals tout next year with less and less doubt. Certainly the recent verbal commitment of five-star running back Jalen Hurd will serve as a balm for what will likely be another fight for six or so wins this fall.

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2013 Tennessee football: Every feel-good spring cliche made real?

Every player will give 100 percent.

This is a great program with great traditions we're looking to uphold.

We're going to make football fun again for our student-athletes.

Visit Rocky Top Talk for more Vols

Competition is open at every position.

We're going to bring a new excitement to this team.

We want the fans to be a part of this program.

There's more energy in practice!

We're going to bring in a new attitude.

We're going to recruit harder than we ever have.

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