Week 3: Olentangy Liberty

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The Bombers (2-0) travel 2 hours north to face the Olentangy Liberty Patriots (1-1) for the first time in StX history.

The Patriots lost to Steubenville on the road to open the season.
The offense turned the ball over 5 times (3 fumbles, 2 INTs) and the defense gave up over 400 yards
The Patriots bounced back in Week 2 defeating the Glenville Tarblooders 7-6 in the home opener.

At QB is #11 sophomore JJ Sebert (6’1” 180lb) who likes to scramble and create.
His favorite targets are a pair of 6’2” 180lb seniors #84 Chase Brecht and #82 Alex Stackhouse.

There are 3 players of note in the trenches
#65 senior tackle Carter Smith (6’6” 280lb) Indiana commit
#79 senior guard Ben Huefner (6’3” 300lb) Valparaiso commit
#55 senior noseguard Dylan Graber (6’3” 275lb) Ball State commit

This could be another 2nd half running clock
 
 
I think a lot of people expected better from Liberty this season, especially with the two bigs on the line. They will be a good test for our more speed oriented ends, though I think the blitz packages that X runs are going to give a soph QB serious fits.

Saw some glimpses of the passing attack Friday, interesting to see if Cov opens up the playback a little more to start getting the other pass catchers more involved. It was great to see Farrar, Ryan, and Wassler get touches Friday, and McFarlin and BMc on the same page- they can be a dangerous combo. The tunnel screens aren't always going to be there, need to see more downfield.
 
bomberinmonroe said:
I think a lot of people expected better from Liberty this season, especially with the two bigs on the line. They will be a good test for our more speed oriented ends, though I think the blitz packages that X runs are going to give a soph QB serious fits.

Saw some glimpses of the passing attack Friday, interesting to see if Cov opens up the playback a little more to start getting the other pass catchers more involved. It was great to see Farrar, Ryan, and Wassler get touches Friday, and McFarlin and BMc on the same page- they can be a dangerous combo. The tunnel screens aren't always going to be there, need to see more downfield.
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As I noted on the Colerain thread, X's DE #11 looked excellent against Colerain-- but Colerain is very small on their line(s)-- so it will be especially interesting to see how Cummings does against what you indicate are the much bigger OL that OL fields... I imagine (as usual) that you have handicapped it fairly precisely, and X's defense overall will make it really hard on OL to move the ball-- but I especially want to see if #11 can continue to manhandle (much) bigger players.

It feels like this game (along with the Elder matchup, which ALSO faced PC-- last week) will give X some advance notice of what X might be able to expect to do in a possible eventual re-match against PC-- figuring that OL will face PC, in their regional, sooner or later... so, as you say, it will be interesting (and important) for X to become more diversified, in order to move the ball against the best defenses-- PC (and maybe Springfield) will likely have defenses that approach the level of LW's-- and might well require that extra level of offensive complexity to surmount... I think (without Clifford) X struggled to throw the ball downfield against LW's two very good corners-- and I hoped to see more throws to the tight ends, which is where it seemed like X had a better advantage-- and, as soon as that started happening, X really blew the game open against LW.

From what I can see (so far), PC (AGAIN) has no clue on offense-- but is stout on defense... Springfield (as long as Smoot is playing QB) is going to be more of a threat to move the ball/score on X's defense-- but I don't know if Springfield has anything like the quality on defense that they showed last year in Piqua.
 
2021 Olentangy Liberty reminds me of the 2014 Grove City Central Crossing team (also from the Columbus area) the Bombers played in Round 1 of the playoffs 7 years ago.

Spread offense of possession receivers, with very little production from the RB position while the QB is leading rusher

Neither team had/has a playmaker on either side of the ball that could score from any spot on the field.

It was a second half running clock in that one as X beat Grove City 50-13 (37-0 at the half).
I'm guessing a similar script and result in this one.
 
bomberinmonroe said:
I think a lot of people expected better from Liberty this season, especially with the two bigs on the line. They will be a good test for our more speed oriented ends, though I think the blitz packages that X runs are going to give a soph QB serious fits.
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The Patriot OLine left to right
65 Carter Smith 6’6” 285lb Senior
79 Ben Huefner 6’3” 300lb Senior
69 Benton Roberts 6’1” 225lb Senior
60 Graham Bailey 5’10” 210lb Senior
66 Troy Mrukowski 6’2” 215lb Junior

The 2 bigs are on the left side of the line while the center and right side are seriously undersized.
Glenville's left defensive tackle Tavareon Sanders (6'4" 320lb) abused poor #60 for Liberty
I'd be surprised if he's in the starting lineup on Friday.
Cummings lines up on the left so he will be going against the smaller #60 and #66 while Buerkle will get the bigs.
 
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ReLoad said:
The Patriot OLine left to right
65 Carter Smith 6’6” 250lb Senior
79 Ben Huefner 6’3” 300lb Senior
69 Benton Roberts 6’0” 210lb Senior
60 Graham Bailey 5’10” 200lb Senior
66 Charles Cole 6’0” 220lb Senior

The 2 bigs are on the left side of the line while the center and right side are seriously undersized.
Glenville's left defensive tackle Tavareon Sanders (6'4" 320lb) abused poor #60 for Liberty
I'd be surprised if he's in the starting lineup on Friday.
Cummings lines up on the left so he will be going against the smaller #60 and #66 while Buerkle will get the bigs.
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Thanks for the info, that will be interesting.
 
ReLoad said:
The Bombers (2-0) travel 2 hours north to face the Olentangy Liberty Patriots (1-1) for the first time in StX history.

The Patriots lost to Steubenville on the road to open the season.
The offense turned the ball over 5 times (3 fumbles, 2 INTs) and the defense gave up over 400 yards
The Patriots bounced back in Week 2 defeating the Glenville Tarblooders 7-6 in the home opener.

At QB is #11 sophomore JJ Sebert (6’1” 180lb) who likes to scramble and create.
His favorite targets are a pair of 6’2” 180lb seniors #84 Chase Brecht and #82 Alex Stackhouse.

There are 3 players of note in the trenches
#65 senior tackle Carter Smith (6’6” 280lb) Indiana commit
#79 senior guard Ben Huefner (6’3” 300lb) Valparaiso commit
#55 senior noseguard Dylan Graber (6’3” 275lb) Ball State commit

This could be another 2nd half running clock
Click to expand...
Scouting report suggests the 300lb LG Huefner and soph QB Sebert are out.
Huefner's rumored replacement is 6'1" and 205lb, so if true the left side just got considerably smaller.
With just 14 points in the first 2 games Liberty's coaching staff may go with senior QB Ryan Grohe (6'1" 170) to run the spread offense
 
Not a lot that can be said about that "exercise"-- this year's Oly Liberty really is not going to give X relative indications about any possible future opponents-- OL was just overmatched in every area. This year's OL team appears to be a shadow of last year's team.
 
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