Jordan Hall Sidelined 10 Weeks With Foot Injury

Hall is a key offensive weapon for Meyer

Ohio State announced some bad news for Buckeye Nation, stating that senior tailback Jordan Hall will be out 10 weeks after having surgery on his foot last Friday.

"Hall, who enters his senior season with 2,513 all-purpose yards to rank 26th all-time at Ohio State, suffered an accidental cut to the bottom of his right foot Wednesday afternoon while walking in grass outside his residence in Columbus. He had surgery Friday at the Ohio State University Medical Center.

“This is an unfortunate accident to a really fine young man,” Meyer said. “He’s handling things well, though. He’ll be in a non-weight bearing cast for about six weeks and then he’ll rehabilitate the injury for at least four weeks after that.”"

In case you were wondering how this affects the team as far as playing games, Hall will most likely miss the season opener against Miami (OH). The Redhawks come to town only 9 weeks from now. If everything goes alright in Hall's recovery, there's no reason he shouldn't be back in time for the second or third week of the 2012 season.

Hall has 817 career rushing yards with five touchdowns and has also caught 21 passes out of the backfield for 202 yards and four more TDs. He came out of spring drills No. 1 on the depth chart at running back. 

Junior Carlos Hyde (707 career rushing yards and six touchdowns), sophomore Rod Smith (116 and one, respectively) and true freshman Bri'onte Dunn were also competing in the mix at running back throughout spring.

Keep it at Inside The Shoe for the latest news, updates and opinions on Ohio State athletics.

2013 Punter Johnny Townsend Commits To Ohio State

Meyer got the big leg he wanted

There have been many rumors swirling around the past couple of weeks that Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer was looking for a punter to take in the class of 2013. 

It has now been confirmed that punter Johnny Townsend from Orlando, Florida, has just given Meyer his 12th commitment in the class of 2013. 

The 6'2", 200-pound Townsend also had a scholarship offer from Cincinnati, and preferred walk-on opportunities with Alabama and Florida. 

Townsend recently made the trip to Columbus to the Ohio State kicking/punting camp and made enough of an impression to earn an offer.

Townsend will be joining the Buckeyes as a punter, with no reason to not be the Buckeye's starter for 4 years.

Townsend averaged 40-yards per punt as a junior. Along with his punting duties, Townsend was splitting time at safety and outside backer on his high school team and also played baseball during part of the season.

Townsend will arrive at OSU in 2013 -- just as current starting punter Ben Buchanan wraps up his career as a senior in 2012.

Keep it at Inside The Shoe for the latest news, updates and opinions on Ohio State athletics.

Former Ohio State Player Nate Ebner Drafted By Patriots

Ebner gets his shot in the NFL

In one of the more interesting picks for the NFL draft, Nate Ebner has gone from walk-on at Ohio State to NFL draftee with the New England Patriots.

The second Dublin native to be drafted from this year's team with Mike Adams will be competing for playing time on Bill Belichik's special teams unit, a position where he shined for the Buckeyes after making the move to football from rugby. 

Ebner is a tremendous athlete, having been named the MVP of the Rugby World Cup in both 2007 and 2008. 

He was a tremendous player for the Buckeyes when it came to special teams last season, as he and Ryan Shazier (before the upgrade to LB) dominated the tackling. 

His nose for the ball and his tenacious sense of urgency on the field make him a player that will be pretty important in the Patriots special teams. I'm happy for Ebner as this was a surprise pick.

Mike Brewster remains undrafted.

Keep it at Inside The Shoe for the latest news, updates and opinions on Ohio State athletics.

How To Bounce Back Against Colorado

Fickell wasn't happy.

Well, we lost, and are out of the Top 25 for the first time in 7 years. On Saturday night, as I watched my Twitter feed, I thought the sky was falling and the world was coming to an end. Right now, I am not sure any of us know what the right answer would be for us to bounce back. We know we looked flat, unprepared and didn't adjust at the half.

Here are my 5 keys for a more positive outcome in Ohio Stadium this coming Saturday against the Colorado Buffalo's.

5. More intensity...I've never seen Luke Fickell so collected as he has been in both the games I have watched this season. Maybe he is trying too hard to be the Senator, but he was great at getting the defense fired up on the sidelines as a coordinator...what happened to that guy?

4. Better preparation....The team looked confused as to who they were playing. I don't know if the Maryland game film and the absence/return of the suspended players for Miami caused that much confusion or if we just didn't spend our time wisely in the film rooms this week. Classes start this week so it should be interesting to see what happens.

What Went Right/Wrong: Toledo

Simon made plays all day

That certainly wasn't the game any of us were expecting, including Mark May. The offense struggled all game long, the special teams (at times) looked awful, and the defense was back on it's heels for the entire game what with the Spread formations and trickery by Toledo. Let's take a look at what went right and wrong for the Buckeyes on Saturday. 

What Went Right

- Carlos Hyde rushed for 76 yards on 20 carries with 2 touchdowns, but he dominated for most of this game, pushing for extra yardage and giving that extra effort, which really payed off in the end. Hyde also scored the eventual game winner, running right up the gut from the 3 yard line and in for the score to give the Buckeyes the lead against the Rockets I'm sure due to his play in the past 2 games that when Jaamal Berry and Jordan Hall take the field again, Fickell will find room for this kid to get some yardage, most likely on short yardage situations. 

- The secondary play for Ohio State was once again a big factor in on the defense. All middle to deep passes were covered very well, and Dominic Clarke and Bradley Roby did very well for themselves, and give some serious depth to this corner spot when Travis Howard returns to play. Some might argue that these 2 should be the starters, and Howard should earn his spot back, and I might end up agreeing with them. The final drive by Toledo was on complete lock-down as far as deep passing. They couldn't hit the men they wanted to, which lead to more pressure for a mistake to be made.

- John Simon as usual was a leader for this team. After playing decently in the first half, Simon had to leave the game for a while as he was cramping to an extreme. In that absence, the Rockets did well for themselves, although they did that all day anyway, and were able to have the ball on the last drive to give themselves a chance. Fortunately, Simon happened to return from the cramp to come in and play, and lead to his quarterback rush, which resulted in a bad ball from the QB on 4th down. Game over, Buckeyes win.

Arkansas Defense/Special Teams Breakdown

The Arkansas defense is often overlooked in matchups as teams tend to focus on their offense.  They gave up an average of nearly 23 points per game this season, but that number is exaggerated by the 65 point mark that Auburn put on the Razorbacks.  Take out the Auburn game and the average is down to about 19 per game, which is respectable considering the numbers their offense puts up.

Arkansas' defense has improved since losses to Alabama and Auburn

Rush Defense: Rush defense is not the strength of the Arkansas defense. The Razorbacks finished 10^th in the SEC, giving up 157 yards per game.  That number gets even worse when you take out the home games, rising to 177 yards per game.  In Arkansas’ two losses this year, to Alabama and Auburn, they gave up 278.5 yards per game and 8 rushing touchdowns.

This could be a major issue for the Razorbacks.  Ohio State loves to run the ball and control the clock while Arkansas will want to get the ball back to its high-powered offense.  If the Buckeye defense can shut down the Arkansas pass game, the Razorback defense could tire quickly if Ohio State pounds them with the running game.

What the Razorbacks lacked in stopping the run, they made up for it by being opportunistic.  They recovered 14 fumbles throughout the season, all of them in victories.

Expect the Buckeyes to come out running and look to take advantage of the play-action pass after establishing the ground game.