I don't know what happenned from this year to last...because I certainly wouldn't say it relates to losing Tommy & Devo...But the team just seems to have so much confidence and trust in eachother. It is clear nobody really cares who gets the most credit. They are just gelling unlike any complete roster I have ever seen at Ohio. It is a thing of beauty. And we have the exact same crew back next year!
I think a lot of it is that we run ten deep and Groce has confidence in all of the ten. The emergence of Hall and Johnson as well as the continued emergence of Baltic and Keely really gives this team options. Throw in Offutt, Taylor and Goard and you have a deep, deep team. The way we want to play defense takes a lot of energy so getting guys some time on the bench is key to keeping the energy up. Last year at this time Keely was struggling, Johnson and Hall were just feeling their way around and still trying to do the things they were able to do in High School. So essentially we've replaced Tommy and Devo with Offutt, Taylor, Hall, Johnson and Goard and Keely is much improved.