Less is More – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/24/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 24, 2005
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The late season surge that saw Ohio State win five of its last six games in 2004 was mainly attributed to several offensive adjustments, featured by the success of quarterback Troy Smith and utility man Ted Ginn in a revamped, open offensive attack. What might have been overlooked was the production on the other side of the line of scrimmage during the climatic run that included a decided win over Michigan and a victory in the Alamo Bowl.
In the first six games last season, the Buckeyes yielded more than 21 points a game en route to a 3-3 mark. In the final half of the schedule, that number dipped to 14 points per contest as the Buckeyes finished their campaign with an 8-4 record.
A major contributor to Ohio State’s lockdown was senior defensive tackle Marcus Green, who started the last five games of the season, helping the Buckeyes win four of those five outings. Green also started the wins over Marshall and N.C. State last season, upping Ohio State’s record to 6-1 with Green in the starting line up.
For his career, Green has started 11 contests and has helped Ohio State to a 8-3 ledger in those games. His first career start came in 2003 in an emergency role against Northwestern, filling in for an injured Darrion Scott. The outcome that day? A 20-0, shutout victory over the Wildcats.
“With Tim (Anderson) and Darrion, I never expected to play much,” Green said about his first start. “I figured I would have to wait for the next season to get some good playing time. When Darrion got hurt, coach (Jim) Heacock and I talked. He put me in and I had a good game in my first start. It was a huge confidence boost.” Green was part of an Ohio State defense that held Northwestern to an average of just three yards per carry. He also provided punch to the frontline pass rush, applying pressure to a Wildcat passing attack that connected on only 10-of-25 attempts and converted just 6-of-18 third-down conversions.
Heacock, now Ohio State’s defensive coordinator and defensive line coach, was comfortable sliding Green in to replace the injured Scott.
“We like to rotate eight or nine guys on the defensive line,” Heacock said. “So, Marcus was able to get some playing time leading up to that game. I knew he would respond and he did. He did a great job in that game.”
Green finished his first start tied for the team lead with four solo tackles and totaled seven on the day, which ranks as the second-highest for a single game in his career.
What put Green in position to step in as a capable replacement for Scott that day was a focused offseason workout regimen completed between his freshman and sophomore seasons; work that resulted in dropping roughly 40 pounds, which according to Green might have been too much.
“I may have overdone it a bit,” Green said. “We all thought I was a little too light at 279. If you lose weight, you lose strength. I lost a little too much and had to work on putting on more muscle mass. It was not hard. For me, it is easier to put weight on than to lose it. I knew I could do it, but the key was to do it the right way.”
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The big thing with Marcus is his discipline. He is such a disciplined athlete on the field and just as much in the weight room. |
For Green, the “right way” included extensive hours of lifting and double-duty when it came to cardiovascular training.
Green would visit Allan Johnson, the strength and conditioning head coach for Ohio State football, several times daily in the weight room at the Woody Hayes Athletics Center.
“Marcus would come in at 6 a.m.,” Johnson, now in his fifth season with the Buckeyes, said. “Then, he would go to his classes and then come back at night and go again. He would mix things up with the bikes or the climbers. He goes at least 30 minutes each time and often goes an hour.”
Green admittedly turned into a maniac of sorts when it came to working out.
“I turned into a fanatic,” Green said. “I worked out with the team and then did my own workout. I doubled up on everything. I probably worked out too much. I worked out on weekends. It was a seven-day-a-week thing.”
Quinn Pitcock, Green’s counterpart at defensive tackle, marveled at his teammate’s dedication.
“I am not a morning person,” Pitcock, a junior that led the defensive line with 49 tackles last season, said. “That is the first thing about him that gets me. He comes in at 6 a.m. then comes back and goes extra at the end of the day. You will not find anyone who works harder than him in the weight room. He goes full-go just like he would if he was on the field.”
All the work has paid off for Green, especially when you examine Johnson’s progression charts spanning the last four years.
“If you look at it, he dropped his body fat from 22 percent to 10.7 percent,” Johnson said. “That is a significant number. That is more than 11 percent. His waist was 46 inches and now it is 39.”
As impressive as those numbers might be, Green’s gains in strength are even more striking.
When he reported to fall camp his freshman season, Green’s bench press figure of 360 pounds was just slightly above his body weight, which is a less than ideal scenario for a defensive lineman. Now, Green is among the leaders on the team with a bench press maximum lift of 445 pounds. In addition, he did not even test in the squat and the hang clean when he reported. According to Johnson’s latest max listing, Green topped out at 600 pounds on the squat rack and posted a clean of more than 350 pounds.
The weight loss and added strength also improved Green’s quickness and overall athleticism. He dropped more than four-tenths of a second off his time in the shuttle run from his freshman season. The Ohio State strength and condition staff uses the shuttle run as its main test for quickness and explosion.
Athletically, Green bettered his broad jump by two feet from 7 feet, 7 inches to 9 feet, 7 inches, while his vertical jump extended to 32 inches, opposed to just 21 1/2 inches when he reported.
All of the gains encompassed a higher level of production on the field and, more importantly, an improved self-perception.
“I got to 285-290 (pounds) my junior year,” Green, who has four brothers that have all played football at either the high school or collegiate level, said. “That is when I hit my ideal weight. I was quicker, stronger and faster. But it was more of a mental confidence boost than anything.”
Johnson agreed that the physical and mental aspects of Green’s strides are on an even scale.
“It has been a marked improvement with both aspects,” Johnson said. “First and foremost, his conditioning level is much better. He is stronger and more explosive. When you drop weight like that, it gives you more quickness in your first step and more burst.
“He had a sense of urgency. He knew his weight and body fat were too high for him to play a lot of minutes. He was carrying way too much weight. To his credit, he was committed to getting in better shape.”
Johnson’s eyes lit up when he looked at his charts and rattled off Green’s numbers. He attributes Green’s across-the-board success to that level of commitment to reach his personal goals.
“The big thing with Marcus is his discipline,” Johnson said. “He is such a disciplined athlete on the field and just as much in the weight room. He is disciplined with his diet, too. He altered it and stayed committed to it. When you look at the evolution of it, it took a year and a half for him to get down to where he is now. He came into camp his freshman year at 348. Now, he always stays at a steady 290-295. To keep at that weight, that is hard to do for a big guy.”
Heacock also pointed to Green’s steady progress and his defense reaped the benefits on the field.
“He was a guy that was determined,” Heacock said. “He came in overweight and lacked a lot of quickness and athleticism. Unlike a lot of people, he dedicated himself to doing something about it and what he has done is unbelievable. I have never had a player that has worked as hard as he has in my career as a coach.”
For Green, that commitment meant a complete change to his way of life.
“I basically had to change my whole lifestyle,” Green said. “I had to change what I ate and when I ate. I had to change a lot in many of aspects in my life.”
Green’s ability to stick to his strenuous work out regimen and altered direction in life has helped him evolve into one of the leaders on the 2005 Ohio State squad.
“Marcus is the true sense of lead-by-example,” Pitcock said. “He goes all-out every down, especially during this year’s camp. He has led the other guys by example. I just try and watch and learn from him as much as I can.”
According to Johnson, Green is a huge influence on the younger players in the Buckeye weight room.
“He is as self-motivated as you will ever see,” Johnson said. “That’s what makes him a great role model for the young guys. He leads by example and is a great teacher. He has taken a couple younger guys under his wing like Doug Worthington, Lawrence Wilson, Ryan Williams and Todd Denlinger.”
Although he is penciled in as a starter and considered a leader this season, Green takes nothing for granted, which falls in line with the work-ethic he has displayed since becoming a Buckeye.
“I think the end of last season helped me, but here (at Ohio State) you have to compete with a lot of good defensive linemen,” Green said. “I could have started since my freshman year and still not have solidified my starting spot this year. I think I am more of an overachiever than opposed to a great football player. That’s why I am more of a hustler, a player that runs to the ball.”
Many players attribute hard work as a key to their success, almost to a point where hard work has become a cliché of sorts. For Green, there is no cliché involved. No one can attest to that better than Johnson, who sums up Green’s work ethic best.
“The saying goes `the true character of a person is shown by how hard they work when no one is looking,’ Johnson said. “Well, not many people are looking at 6 a.m., are they?”
