Tuesday, August 29, 2006 Ken Gordon THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Freshman Small named second-team receiver New and improved A stitch in time Analysis: Title hopefuls all have warts College football notebook: McCoy gets starting nod at quarterback for Texas NEAL C . LAURON DISPATCH Michigan’s Alan Branch drags down Ohio State’s Antonio Pittman at Michigan Stadium on Nov. 19, 2005. Players say the sleeker fit of OSU’s new jerseys will help prevent those kinds of tackles. Antonio Pittman hopes he can get rid of the hangers-on this season. No, he’s not talking about fans and autograph seekers. The Ohio State running back is speaking literally, referring to defenders who have grabbed a handful of his jersey and brought him down. "I got tackled a lot of times by being grabbed by my jersey, when I probably could have taken it long," Pittman said. "My jersey last year was baggy, and I had to tuck it in, tape it down sometimes." Pittman managed to wriggle free for 1,331 yards. That raises the tantalizing question of how many more yards he might pile up this year, when the Buckeyes sport their new jerseys. Much has been made about the new look, mainly from fans wringing their hands over the absence of gray in the sleeve striping. But players are thrilled with them. They love the fact they are form-fitting, looking almost as if they have been painted on. "That’s very important," Pittman said. As Pittman said, OSU players have coped by taping and tucking. But old-school Buckeyes had it even worse. Two-time Heisman Trophy-winning running back Archie Griffin recalls that his jersey sleeves in the 1970s were "blousy." "They could grab you by the sleeve and pull you down," Griffin said. "I could see where tight jerseys could avoid some of that." In the early 1980s, OSU briefly experimented with "tear-away" jerseys for the skill players. Jim Lachey was a lineman in that era and remembers the tearaways. "They only lasted about one or two years," Lachey said. "They got rid of those things because after every play you’re changing your jerseys." When Lachey was an NFL rookie with the San Diego Chargers, he fully realized the importance of form-fitting jerseys. "I’m sitting there watching everyone get ready for the game, and guys are taking an hour, taping their jerseys to their pads," Lachey said. "I’m thinking, ‘What the heck, I’ve got all these handles (for defenders to grab).’ "It’s better to have a skin-tight fit. If (defenders) can grab you, they’ve got leverage and they can pull and jerk you." One might think defensive players would dislike the new fit, then, because it hampers their ability to tackle. Buckeyes defensive tackle Joel Penton smiled at that thought. "It might be a little more difficult to tackle someone," he said, "but, hopefully, that’s not how we’re tackling them, by grabbing onto their jersey. The way we should be tackling is grabbing around their waist. "But actually, as a defensive lineman, the tight-fitting jersey is very preferred, because there’s a little bit of holding going on, and it’s not always called." Linebacker Marcus Freeman said the new jerseys bring up another issue: fitness. "A lot of guys have got to be self-conscious, make sure the stomach’s looking good," he said. "People either are going to like it if they’ve got good stomachs. And if not, they’re going to be complaining that it’s too tight." kgordon@dispatch.com Printer-friendly version E-mail this story