Does OSU have leadership to land Big Ten title/playoff spot?
Amazon offers more than 60,000 books with leadership in the title, nearly 1,500 of them published in the past year.
Clearly, playing follow the leader is a thing. But what if there is no leader? Or the leader doesn’t actually lead? Or isn’t very good at it? Or the followers don’t feel like following? Or don’t know how?
Those questions feed my theory that Ohio State’s early-season issues have as much to do with direction as production. The Buckeyes face a leadership void at the moment that may or may not resolve itself by season’s end.
Think about it. Depending on the defensive package, Ohio State starts five freshmen and seven sophomores on both sides of the ball, joining seven juniors and four seniors to fill out the starting lineup. Dive two deep into the depth chart and another 11 freshmen and five sophomores join two juniors and four seniors, meaning 16 freshmen get meaningful minutes.
That’s a lot of teen angst. But even as younger players make mistakes of commission, I wonder if older players are making errors of both commission — quitting in the middle of a game, for instance — and omission — failing to lead their younger peers.
Some veteran players, like fifth-year senior defensive tackle Jerron Cage and graduated defensive tackle Haskell Garrett,
are doing better than others — Garrett said Tuesday that he finds joy in teaching younger players — but one wonders if something is not quite right in the locker room.
Ryan Day did not take it that far when discussing leadership challenges earlier in the week, but the Ohio State coach conceded that getting veterans and newbies on the same page has not been easy.
“In the perfect order of things, your older guys are the ones who are the leaders and are the ones playing,” Day said. “Sometimes younger guys come in (and) that changes the dynamic … and this year we're experiencing some of that.”
Dirk Worden experienced something similar in 1968, when as an OSU senior linebacker and captain he watched the Super Sophs move front and center, their talent pushing multiple upperclassmen out of the way.
“The experience of 1968 was seasoned and founded in 1966 when I was a sophomore,” said Worden, who lives in Berlin Heights in northern Ohio. “Not to point fingers at who the seniors were at that point, but the chemistry of that team was off, and it showed in the final record.”
The Buckeyes finished 4-5 in '66, one of two losing seasons during Woody Hayes' 28-season tenure. Two years later they went 10-0 and won the national championship.
“I felt some animosity from that older group,” Worden said of the 1966 season. “Right or wrong I felt they were a little aloof. As a result of that chemistry I told myself if I ever got in a position of leadership I would do it differently, because on any ballclub in any sport, it's how the older guys embrace the young people. It's got to be that way or else you have a dysfunctional team.”
Are the Buckeyes dysfunctional? We'll
likely know more after Saturday's Big Ten game at Rutgers, where under Greg Schiano the Scarlet Knights are no longer are easy pickings. They rank 11th in defense in FBS and should provide a litmus test for where Ohio State stands on the field and in the locker room.
Leadership is like any ship. It takes time to turn the corner. If strong leadership is lacking at the beginning of the season, it rarely improves enough to help win championships.
“If you don't have the right personalities in place, maybe you can't get it back,” Worden said. “Some people are approachable and some are not. Some get senioritis or the big head and a sense of entitlement. Then you've got a problem.”
I'll toss this into the mix. The Buckeyes are young where it hurts most. Quarterback is the most important position in football, so imagine what it must be like for seniors to depend on redshirt freshman C.J. Stroud and true freshman Kyle Mccord to lead the way.
“That's gotta be tough,” Worden said, recalling how in 1968 sophomore Rex
Kern started ahead of senior Bill Long. “But our incumbent had to accept that the best kids have to play.”
Fortunately for Day, he did not have to start either freshman ahead of an incumbent upperclassman, which is what happened when freshman Terrelle Pryor replaced senior Todd Boeckman three games into the 2008 season, a move that damaged locker room chemistry. Where does Ohio State go from here? It's a matter of timing. The 59-7 win against Akron built confidence in younger players, helping them become stronger leaders less dependent on upperclassmen.
“It's different for every guy," Ohio State defensive backs coach Matt Barnes said of younger starters, "but sometimes it depends on how soon they realistically see themselves having a chance to be a major contributor, and sometimes that makes you grow up a little faster.”
In summation: older guys need to teach and younger guys need to be teachable. If that happens sooner than later, this team can still make some noise. roller@dispatch.com @rollercd