By
Ryan Finley
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wildcats, Buckeyes both looking for backs, QB play
A week after defeating Utah, 17-3, the Arizona football team will face another early-season challenge when No. 16 Ohio State comes to Arizona Stadium Saturday night.
Both teams seemed to mirror each other in the season's first week. Loaded with defensive power and searching for a running back to follow a departed starter, both the Buckeyes and Wildcats will enter Saturday's game with questions to answer.
Both UA and OSU - along with Virginia Tech - are atop the country with a plus-5 turnover ratio.
"Both teams are leading the nation in take-away and turnover ratio," UA head coach Dick Tomey said. "At the end of next week, somebody's not going to be."
OSU, one of the country's football powerhouses, is notorious for a hard-hitting defense and a "grind-it-out" style of football.
Defensively, tackles Ryan Pickett and Mike Collins give the Buckeyes one of the best interior-linemen tandems in recent school history.
"They are a very talented team," Tomey said. " Their defense is very quick. Their size (and) athleticism concerns me."
Pickett, who is in his third season as a starter, finished 1999 with 48 tackles.
Collins, who eased into the starting role last season after missing the first game, led all defensive linemen with 56 tackles and 11 tackles-for-loss.
In last weekend's 43-10 rout of Fresno State, OSU's defense scored a school-record four times on defense - twice on fumble recoveries and twice on interceptions.
Similar to UA's game against Utah, the Ohio State offense sputtered despite boasting some of the best players in the Big Ten Conference.
Like UA quarterback Ortege Jenkins, OSU signal-caller Steve Bellisari gives the Buckeyes an added facet as the team's quarterback.
"Steve Bellisari is a scary athlete," Tomey said. "(He's a) capable thrower and a great athlete. He can beat you with his legs and his arm. He's a real gritty competitor."
Buckeye receivers Reggie Germany and Ken-Yon Rambo have a penchant for big plays. Germany scored his lone touchdown of the year with a 40-yard reception against Wisconsin in 1999 while Rambo averaged 128.3 all-purpose yards-per-game last season.
"Rambo and Germany are good players," Tomey said. "(Both are) explosive, fast (and) good players."
Despite both receivers' talents, Tomey is hesitant to reveal whether OSU's receivers are better than Utah's.
"I don't think so," Tomey said. "They're all pretty good tests. If somebody made you pick (between Utah and Ohio State), you'd have a really hard time."
Ohio State and Arizona will both spend the early stages of 2000 attempting to replace successful running backs. While the Wildcats will use either Larry Croom or Leo Mills to replace current St. Louis Rams' back Trung Canidate, Ohio State will attempt to replace departed-senior Michael Wiley with a trio of running backs.
"We need to shut down the run," UA sophomore linebacker Lance Briggs said. "That's what Ohio State is known for."
The likely starter for OSU appears to be Derek Combs, a 6-foot senior who averaged nearly 10 yards-per-carry in high school. An Ohio native, Combs had 88 yards on 14 carries last weekend against the Bulldogs.
Ohio State's offensive line, although big, fails to threaten defensive end Joe Tafoya.
"They're not the most experienced line we've ever faced," he said. "But they have the size."
Despite the two teams' similarities, Tomey warns that the two teams may have more differences than previously thought.
"On the surface, there are similarities," he said. "But it's all on the surface. It's too early to make predictions about this year. We just have some information now that we didn't have last week."
