Our Honor Defend

Ken Gordon published a piece Sunday — with shameless teaser published on Saturday — where he catches up with the two-deep QBs for the Buckeyes: starter Boeckman and new backup and OHD-favourite Antonio Henton. The resulting interviews reveal some interesting tidbits.

On the issue of his performance in his final three games — Illinois, Michigan, LSU — the middle of the three was as much of a drydocking as it was a poor performance:

It’s a good thing Boeckman is so easygoing, at least outwardly. This sort of pressure could buckle someone with less resolve.

“I’ve always got to go out and prove something,” Boeckman said. “Even though I started every single game and put up decent numbers, if I’m not getting the job done on the practice field, if somebody is doing better than me, why not let them get a shot?”

…

“There were times in a close game I was trying to force the ball and make a play happen,” Boeckman said. “I should always know where the safety is, and sometimes that slipped my mind. I was letting my ability take over and wasn’t thinking as much as I should have.”

Ken thinks this contrite admission from Boeckman was remarkable, for as he noted in his Saturday teaser, Troy Smith could be somewhat hostile to (and openly suspicious of) interviewers following his two game suspension for the $500 handshake and Justin Zwick had a concealed bitterness to him following his demotion to backup. He’s also convinced that this is sincere and that The Todd isn’t hiding any resentment or illwill.

For my part, while I can’t speak for Ken’s experience with the other Buckeye QBs, it’s at least kind of rewarding to see a quarterback critically self-evaluate himself along the same lines as the average fan (or at least me) does: a guy with great assets around him who did pretty good for a “rebuilding” year, but could do a whole lot better. Granted, we’re not Jim Tressel, Jim Bollman or Joe Daniels, who could probably speak to things like delivery time and downfield vision more appropriately than we can, but Todd at least seems to echo our frustrations with coming so close and so far and feels the need to improve as much as we would like to see him improve. At the very least, what this suggests is a humility and work ethic that should at least comfort Buckeye fans into knowing that no matter what screwups Boeckman can commit in a game, he won’t degenerate into a Ryan Leaf.

Antonio Henton also made the story as well, offering something which I’m curious about:

Henton said he’s not worried about competing with Pryor.

“That just makes me think they want another quarterback to come in that can do some things I can do,” Henton said. “I hope they do get him. That makes me go harder.”

A curious statement considering that I’m expecting him to transfer (he’s only a RS freshman-to-be-sophomore after all) in the event that Pryor joins on.  Does Henton mean he won’t transfer and will try to beat out Pryor for the position when, if he wants playing time, he can head elsewhere?  Don’t get me wrong, I’m pulling for Henton to be the best he can possibly be, since he just comes off as a good kid.  Accordingly, it’s why I’m hoping Pryor decides to head to Oregon, so we can make way for Henton to focus on getting better (and so Michigan can’t have him).  But if Pryor does come on, I wouldn’t expect Henton to stick around for too long.  His words here suggest he would.  Curious if nothing else.

In the interim, though, we will seemingly have Boeckman as the guy for his senior season.  For which case, we’re glad to read something like this cap off the article.

“I can’t slack off just because I started last season… I’ve got to work harder.”