Friday, September 17, 1999
Playing it safe is not for Bellisari
All-out style vs. UCLA wins points in quarterback duel
BY SCOTT MacGREGOR
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COLUMBUS — It was Steve Bellisari at his finest, but not the way you think.
Amid the bombs he threw for big completions, the tight spirals into coverage and the scrambles for first downs, perhaps the play that most defines Bellisari, the football player — not just Bellisari, the Ohio State quarterback — came when he leveled a UCLA defender with a crushing pancake block last Saturday.
This is not what you might expect to be the finest moment of a new quarterback's impressive coming-out party, not in a 42-20 win in which he threw for two touchdowns, directed five scoring drives and seized the lead in the Buckeye quarterback duel.
It was Bellisari in his element: Having fun, playing hard-nosed, down-and-dirty football, reveling in the toughness of the competition, knocking down a bigger, stronger opponent.
It's not necessarily why Bellisari will be the starting quarterback for Ohio State (1-1) in Saturday's 3:30 p.m. kickoff against Ohio (0-2) in Columbus. It's not why he may have grabbed that job for the season.
But that block defines him as a football player.
“That was probably my favorite play of the whole game,” Bellisari said with a huge smile. “I like doing something like that. It's exciting. I like getting in the mix.”
Bellisari, a 6-foot-2, 230-pound sophomore from Boca Raton, Fla., showed that toughness last year as a special teams standout, sharing the Buckeyes' special teams player of the year honors.
But when he entered the season slightly behind Austin Moherman in the quarterback battle, it wasn't clear how that fire would translate to the most important position on the field.
It's clear now. That block and the three first downs he ran for Saturday — all crucial to OSU scoring drives — made it clear.
“He can throw the ball pretty good, he can run the ball pretty good, but it's his attitude that shows above everything else,” said receiver Reggie Germany, who caught Bellisari's first long pass, a 39-yard jump ball downfield that set up a touchdown to give OSU the lead. “He brings something very positive to the table at all times. He just wants to have fun.”
Bellisari says that's what he's about: Having fun. It's the key element to Bellisari's game, and it shows when he hustles to make the big plays, or when he jumps up and down and pumps his fists afterward, as he did against UCLA.
“I'm going to go out there and play with emotion. I think it's a big part,” he said.
So was Saturday the most fun Bellisari has had on a football field?
“I think so,” he said. “It was a great time. We went out there, made some big plays. I think everyone saw I had a really good time.”
Ohio State coach John Cooper wants one of the QBs to win the job, and says if Bellisari keeps playing like he did against UCLA — he completed 11-of-16 passes for 159 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions and ran three times for 50 yards — he'll earn the full-time work.
Cooper won't state a preference, but he likes Bellisari's toughness. “He's more vocal, more energetic, more outgoing, more aggressive,” Cooper said. “He showed you all why we had confidence in him.”
Bellisari, whose brother Greg was a standout linebacker at Ohio State from 1993-96, isn't overwhelmed by all the attention paid to him this week. He knows it could turn in an instant if has a repeat of his performance in the season opener against Miami, in which he threw a pass backward, fumbled a snap and was back on the bench after two series.
“My biggest reality check was that Miami game,” he said. "It made me realize one week I can be a hero, the next week I can be a scapegoat. I don't think I was emotional enough in the opener. I was too mellow.”
Bellisari hasn't won the QB job outright — yet. Moherman, who played well in his limited time against UCLA but not as well as Bellisari, will also play Saturday against Ohio, and a bad day by Bellisari could put him back on the bench.
Being the starter, Bellisari said, “means I better be ready, more than anything. He's going to push me like I push him. I think it's good for us. There's really no time I can get lax.”
But it's Bellisari's job to lose.
“It just worked out that I went in and things happened,” Bellisari said.
Funny how that worked.
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