Our Honor Defend

Yes, I know I’m last on the train to make a post about this (see: MotSaG, 11w).  In my defense, it was my lunch/gym hour.

Nevertheless, we know now that Brian Hartline is opting to forgo his senior year and enter the NFL Draft.  In the same breath, Coleman is opting to return for his senior season, a decision for which I am grateful.  However, I choose to focus on Hartline for this post.

To be honest, I know it’s not popular to admit this in light of the rumors of locker room tension allegedly being generated by a frustrated Hartline, but he was far and away my favourite player after the 2007 season (well… after Beanie, but not by a lot).  After his RS sophomore year, Hartline looked less like a football player and more like an ill-tempered monster with a taste and inclinations for violence — much like yours truly — wanting to hurt someone wherever possible.  Our scope is short here, but think before this season.  Remember his killshot against Indiana while doing kickoff duty in 2006?  And his block against Iowa in the same season?  And that was just the stuff that we remember for its inclusion into YouTube.  The one that doesn’t get enough praise is his low block against Michigan State in 2007.  We surely remember Beanie stopping, reversing track, and turning a 5 yard loss into a first down and additional yards on top of it (footage: here, at about the ~2:37 mark).  What gets lost in the hoopla for Beanie is Hartline putting on a block against some hapless Spartan defensive back (Kendell Davis, I think) just before Beanie eventually tackled.

Was it an efficient block? Not really.  Was it timely? Not really.  Would it have sprung Beanie for additional yards? Not really.  Was it illegal? Probably.  Was it filthy? Oh yeah.  Did I love it?

Oh you bet I did.

And the iconic images of Hartline’s sophomore season don’t stop there.  The capstone might have been Hartline’s screen TD against Penn State in Happy Valley.  We remember Boone’s jubilant leapfrogging of Hartline in the end zone, but that leapfrogging was over a Brian Hartline who had just reached equilibrium.  The viewer’s eyes may have been drawn to the 6’8 300lb left tackle hurdling a 6’3 wide receiver, but Hartline’s eyes were fixated solely on the deflated Nittany Lion faithful for whom he would show no mercy.  In Hartline’s eyes, the time of purification had come.

The same game, and the same player, gave me one of my favourite images of the 2007 season (shown to the right).  When this blog had just started (in January 2008), I considered it something of a call, or a rallying cry for 2008.  The caption you see under the photo is unchanged from when I first uploaded it way back in January of last year.  Hartline had solidified himself as a solid football player 694 yards and 6 touchdowns in his sophomore season.  In terms of the runaway fandom that college football fans are susceptible to, he was the closest thing to a serial killer we had on the roster.

And then 2008 happened.

To be honest, I don’t know what to say.  As a general principle, I try to shy away from innuendos you can gather from some of the posters at Bucknuts or wherever else, but all signs pointed to him being toxic.  The offensive line fell apart, the wide receiver routes were unimaginative and conventional, and they (Robiskie and Hartline) weren’t getting open accordingly, the offensive line fell apart, the offensive line fell apart, and Todd Boeckman — left to his own devices — retrogressed badly.  Oh, and the offensive line fell apart.  And from this fallout came two things that we’ve internalized so far: 1) Pryor, the true freshman, was the new starting quarterback and 2) Hartline had inexplicably become a cancer.  The story goes that Hartline had become a prima donna, a jackass, a narcissist, a slacker and a cancer, or whatever combination of those you wanted to pick and choose.  Inexorably tied to senior and good friend Todd Boeckman, he did not take the benching kindly and was not warm to the idea of a run-first freshman taking over at quarterback.  He complained about the direction of the passing game when, really, the passing game was at best a symptom of what derailed in 2008 and not a solution to it.  Details may be lost on me, and the story is yet — as far as I know — to be confirmed in whole, but the loss of production was evident.  Hartline finished his junior year with 200 fewer yards, 30 fewer catches, 2 less TDs and finished as one of the most reviled players among the fanbase.

Again, I don’t want to say much about it since I find it more depressing to have this as an issue than I find it a topic of discussion or lively debate.  The end result is a fall from grace, and, eventually an ignominious early exit where, I’m guessing, most people are happy to see him go.

The good news that I choose to focus on is that Hartline’s early exit might be necessary for reasons heretofore undiscussed.  So many seniors have taken their leave from the scholarship count, but only one of them was a wide receiver (Robiskie).  In fact, I was fearing Hartline was going to come back because the wide receiver rotation has become awfully crowded as a result of the past two recruiting classes.  2008 saw the arrival of Posey, Thomas and Stoneburner.  2009 has Duron Carter, Chris Fields and James Jackson.  Taurian Washington and Dane Sanzenbacher came in the 2007 class.  Ray Small has already elected to come back.  The “problem”, if you will, with Ohio State’s offense that, for all intents and purposes, only two see the field with any regularity.  That would have left Hartine and Small as starters with perhaps Posey or Sanzenbacher as sparsely used alternates and Washington as a transfer topic and James Jackson as a perpetual rumor to switch his commitment.  With Hartline’s exit, though, comes the chance for Ohio State to get back to square one with the wide receiver rotation and see who fits, who fits when, and what exactly someone like Taurian Washington can do with extended time on the field or what Lamaar Thomas is capable of on more than just gadget plays.

As for the overall evaluation of Hartline? Well, as you might have gathered from me uploading YouTubes from the Earle Bruce era, and the early Cooper eras, I like to be selective in my evaluation of previous Buckeyes.  That is, I’ll remember the good times… but it might take a few years to get the sour taste out of my mouth of the big game letdowns and national humiliation.

As it is, I thank Brian Hartline for his time and his effort.  It’s the most I can do.  He’ll receive his degree in June from The Ohio State University and will marry in May.  Beyond the fandom, I think that (getting a degree and finding happiness in his experiences at The Ohio State University) is the most I can ask of him.

Best of luck in the NFL.  Albeit it’ll probably as an undrafted free agent, I think.