By PSH Staff
Published: January 5, 2008 PrintEmail
Ohio State Buckeyes(1)Lousiana State Tigers(2) Louisiana Superdome: New Orleans, Louisiana January 7th, 2008; 8:00 P.M. E.T.
TEAM BACKGROUND
After last year's meltdown in the BCS title game against Florida, not much was expected of this 2007 Buckeye squad led by a stifling defense and an unproven offense. After early struggles against Akron, the offense finally hit the proverbial switch against Washington in Seattle with Boeckman going 14/25 for 214 yards and two touchdowns, including a 68 yard strike to junior receiver Brian Robiskie that was a sign of things to come. The middle part of the Buckeyes schedule saw important road wins including a 20 point roasting of Penn State in Happy Valley and a 23-7 victory over Purdue in West Lafayette that was a shutout of the Big Ten's most prolific offense for most of the way. After a heartbreaking loss to Illinois in the home finale snapped a two year Big Ten winning streak, much was on the line for the Buckeyes as they traveled to That State Up North to play the Michigan Wolverines. Needing a win to clinch what looked like a Rose Bowl date with Southern Cal, the Buckeye defense dominated the outgoing trio of Chad Henne, Mike Hart, and Jake Long leading the Bucks to a 14-3 victory in which Chris "Beanie" Wells provided all the offense the team needed.-- RaidenDAWG2
TEAM BACKGROUND
After winning a BCS game last year the expectations for this LSU team were extremely high as they returned most of their talent from last season. They did lose the #1 overall pick QB JaMarcus Russell, but they had 2 highly recruited players in senior Matt Flynn, and sophomore Ryan Perilloux to fill the void. They started the season off very strong with a blowout win against a top 10 opponent Virginia Tech at home, then continued on through the SEC with a come from behind victory against another top 10 team Florida at home after finishing 5-5 on 4th down plays. The next week they met their match for the first time when they played Kentucky. Kentucky was riding high and was in the SEC title picture for the first time in awhile. They ended up pulling off the upset in Lexington in triple OT. That could have gotten LSU's spirits down, but they persevered and won very close games against Auburn and Alabama right after that. Then in the last week of the season when they had the SEC West all wrapped up, Arkansas came to town and LSU's defense which was beaten up allowed Darren McFadden to run all over them and LSU again lost in triple OT. The psyche of the team was down, but they knew they could still get a Sugar Bowl bid if they beat Tennessee. They took care of their business thanks to a pick 6 by Zenon. Then with Missouri and West Virginia losing that opened the door for LSU to sneak into the title game. -- GatorsRock
KEY TO THE GAME For the Buckeyes to have success against a tough LSU defense, Todd Boeckman must reemerge from his late season slump and show he can toast them with the deep ball once again. This will help keep the Tiger defense honest and allow the veteran offensive line to open up holes for sophomore running back Chris Wells. Defensively, Ohio State matches up well against the Tiger offense. When Matt Flynn is in at quarterback for the Tigers, the Buckeyes must attack and put pressure on the senior to make plays. When sophomore Ryan Perrilloux is in, the Buckeye front seven must contain the young quarterback and pressure him into making mistakes.-- RaidenDAWG2 KEY TO THE GAME Limit the mistakes. Last year Chris Leak and the Gators were able to just dink and dunk themselves down the field with a very effective game plan. They also didn't turn the ball over at all. LSU needs their WR's who have been inconsistent throughout the year to catch everything thrown their way and LSU needs to utilize their 2 QB system of Matt Flynn and Ryan Perriloux. Flynn and Perilloux need to make the right reads if LSU wants to win. -- GatorsRock
Todd Boeckman (QB)
It's easy to say Chris Wells must have a big game, or James Laurinaitis must lead the defense, or Vernon Gholston must apply pressure liberally to create wounds in the LSU offense, but the game for the Buckeyes really hinges on the right arm of one man and one man only: junior quarterback Todd Boeckman. It's been a tale of two Todd's for the last two months, and the Buckeyes must have the strong armed quarterback with pinpoint deep accuracy, not the throw it up for grabs strong armed friend of the deep safety if they want to win. Boeckman cannot turn the ball over to LSU, but at the same time, he must prove he can throw the ball deep to open it up for everyone else on this talented Buckeye offense. If he can't, don't expect Jim Tressel to hesitate to call on backup Antonio Henton to see if he can get the job done. -- RaidenDAWG2
Craig Steltz (S)
It'd be easy to put someone like a Glenn Dorsey in this spot after winning 3 awards and finally going to be healthy, but Craig Steltz was a Thorpe award finalist and led the Tigers with 6 INT's including several key ones. He is another senior leader and definitely will wreck havoc against Todd Boeckman and the Buckeye offense. With Dorsey hurt, Steltz took it upon himself to take over one of the top ranked defenses and he did that very effectively. -- GatorsRock
LSU Front 7 Vs OSU Offensive Line
LSU Front 7 play vs. Ohio State offensive line. We saw how effective the Florida Gator front 7 was against the Buckeyes last year and the LSU front 7 is arguably better than that one. Ohio State's offensive lineman are going to have to block much better to give Todd Boeckman some time to throw and the Wells' at RB some holes to run through. It's going to be tough for them to block guys like Glenn Dorsey and Ali Highsmith. Of course, this isn't the same Buckeye offensive line that opened holes for Troy Smith last year. First year starters Jim Cordle (center) and Ben Person (guard) have stepped in to give the Buckeyes a little more size up front, but will face their toughest test of their young careers going up against Dorsey in the middle.-- RaidenDAWG2 and GatorsRock
Lousiana State Tigers(2)
