NEW ORLEANS - Ohio State does not need quarterback Todd Boeckman to be a hero Monday night.
He just has to avoid being the goat as the Buckeyes face Louisiana State in the BCS national championship game.
In his last two starts of the regular season, Boeckman threw for zero touchdowns and had four passes intercepted.
Three of the latter came against Illinois in OSU's only loss of the season. Goat meat. Then, on a cold, rainy day at Michigan that made any passing game dicey, at best, the Bucks put a saddle on running back Beanie Wells and Boeckman threw for just 50 yards.
So, he's not exactly on one of those 23-touchdown, eight-interception rolls that he enjoyed during the first 10 games of his first season as OSU's starter.
"He probably wasn't as consistent the last two games as he was in the first 10," was coach Jim Tressel's mild understatement.
The coach and the quarterback sat down recently behind closed doors and turned on the projector. They forgot about X's and O's and reminisced about fundamentals.
"We kept noticing that when I threw my feet were opening too wide and balls were sailing on me," Boeckman said of some late-season games. "I have been opening up too much when I throw to my left. It's a little thing."
But little things can make a big difference.
And little things can sink a player against a talented and gambling defense like LSU's, which sported 33 takeaways, including 21 interceptions, this season.
"They've got a lot of speed, and the other thing I've noticed is that they knock a lot of balls down at the line," Boeckman said. "You've just got to play your game and hope we make more plays than they do. You've just got to be careful where you throw the ball."
In Boeckman s case, that means playing out of a mild slump that has put him squarely in the sights of LSU s defense. In Boeckman s case, it means no margin for error.
Maybe I got down on myself too much at the end, he said. At the beginning of the season I was making mistakes and bouncing right back. At the end, I wasn t bouncing back as quickly. I ve got to shrug off [turnovers] and keep going.
Boeckman was in a tough spot from the get-go this season, replacing a Heisman Trophy winner in Troy Smith.
It was tough taking over for someone like that, stepping in and filling his shoes, because people were expecting a lot from me, he said.
And, for the most part, he delivered. He eased his way into a comfort zone against marginal competition and went on to produce some of his best work in what many considered, at least at the time, to be OSU s two toughest games. In back-to-back wins at Penn State and in the Shoe against Wisconsin, Boeckman completed 36 of 54 attempts for 419 yards and five touchdowns.
The Wisconsin game was on Nov. 3. And Boeckman has not thrown a touchdown pass since.
Sooner or later in a football game, a quarterback s gotta make a play, gotta make a great throw, gotta make a great decision, which is the No. 1 thing, said OSU offensive coordinator Jim Bollman.
No criticism there. Just fact.
It is also fact that the Buckeyes have a reasonable number of playmakers around Boeckman running back Wells, receivers Brian Robiskie and Brian Hartline, linemen Kirk Barton and Alex Boone.
It may not be as formidable an offensive lineup as the one that took the field a year ago in the BCS title game against Florida. It s a different time and place. This quarterback has not just returned from the Heisman Trophy ceremony.
But that formidable lineup and that Heisman winner pretty much stunk the joint up against the Gators to the tune of a 41-14 loss. Those Buckeyes expected heroics, but couldn t come close to getting it done.
Boeckman doesn t have to be a hero.
After ending the regular season in reverse, he merely has to point the wheels forward and keep the chains and the Buckeyes moving. He has to master the little things for OSU to have any hope of a big result.
First Published January 5, 2008, 10:20 p.m.
