the tone in the posts and in the comments (which one can’t and probably shouldn’t control too exclusively) is that tress should go, and i’m totally against that. from a purely recruitment standpoint, how can one argue against the results for the vest?

going forward, i would like to set some new goals.

1. beat michigan (one might think ‘of course’, but lets remember a couple of games that michigan has shown hints of what they can do if given the chance. read: wisconsin, michigan state. i know they will be juiced for us, it would only be proper to return the favor)

2. win the rose bowl (this was always the dream of my childhood and i’m all too happy that our bucks have a chance to make this dream come true)

3. finish the season 10-2 (this will be an improvement over troy’s first season and a great point to move from for the next season)

It’s the Bollman thing I have an issue with. I do agree that there’s only so much the OL coach can do – if the players won’t listen, then they won’t listen. Or, maybe they are listening, and they’re just plain not that good. Either way, the coach is the one responsible.

It’s not about the # of wins, either – it’s about HOW you win. E.g., the peak and perfection of Tresselball was 2002, and even then they never failed to score a TD. This season, they have three games without an offensive TD, another one where they squeaked by with a late TD, and a couple of sloppy games where the team won, even though the offense was outgained by the opposing squad. That’s not Tresselball, that’s sloppy performance. Even the Bellisari years were more offensively productive.

“The line, without question has been the weakest link on the offense all season long. I’m still not sure how that unit actually regressed, but through nine, they’ve been yelled at by Tressel, Beanie and Nicol, seen a freshman forced into their ranks and have seen themselves getting worked over by the majority of opposing lines they’ve gone against. That is on Bollman.

Another complaint has been about the playcalling and while I maintain that a playbook doesn’t matter if your line cannot provide the protection to use half of it (or the players simply cannot execute), this is a legitimate beef.”

I know you all want to put the vest out in the cold, but i think that would be the wrong call. tress made the right call putting tp as our starter and sticking with him, just imagine the pain/ugliness if we still had tb in there. and this is not a crack at beockman, i think that with a decent o line he would be a great quarterback (see previous work). however, without that foundation, the tower known as our ‘offense’ is built on sand.

I couldn’t agree more with something YNBA said:
“The weaknesses of this style of play (Tresselball) have been exposed on a national stage three times in the last three years. This is my opinion and it seems like a pretty popular one amongst Buckeye fans everywhere. It seems like the program has regressed over the last couple of years”

That is exceptionally well-expressed. Kaiser and I were having a similar discussion on Tresselball over lunch. IMO, I don’t think Tresselball has regressed as much as it has stayed rather consistent, even though defenses have figured out a way to beat it. It doesn’t seem like Tressel has done much to adapt to the modern “mantra” of dealing with opponents that score quickly and often.

More often than not anymore you need your offense to score points to win games. To depend on your defense and special teams to win games, and turn the offense into nothing more than “keep the other offense off the field for as long as possible,” is not Tresselball, it’s insanity. It might work against bad to mediocre teams, but it will rarely work against good teams.

Look at the 2006 OSU/UM game: Tressel got aggressive, and used never-stop attitude and creativity to beat UM. The Wolverines scored 39 points that night, but Tressel still beat them. Why has he abandoned that aggressiveness the past couple of years?

While I can appreciate the sentiment, I cant really speak for monkey and kaiser on this one.

I started writing for the site in late August/early September, but I wouldnt call any of the stuff that I have written to be real gloom and doom. Is it cynical and laced with large amounts of sarcasm? Indeed..it is.

Let’s be honest here. This team has given us little reason for joy this year. I understand that people can point back to the Cooper years, but I dont want to have to point back to the cooper years anymore. I want to be able to point back to 2002 and say that this year’s team plays with same level of intensity….win or lose. I have only seen two games where that has occurred this year.

Here is where all of the negativity creeps into every OSU blog out there that isnt regurgitating a game recap without any opinion. The weaknesses of this style of play (Tresselball) have been exposed on a national stage three times in the last three years. This is my opinion and it seems like a pretty popular one amongst Buckeye fans everywhere. It seems like the program has regressed over the last couple of years…even with the successful record. The OSU offense is purest definition of ‘insanity’ right now..and in turn it is driving all of us a little insane.

Zach…I agree that things have been moving more to a negative fell across the Buckeye blogoshpere. When the coaching staff and team give us something positive to write about, it will most definitely happen. There wasnt much to be positive about in the Penn State game. Sure the D-line showed up for parts of the game, but the other parts of the team have not improved, which is a reflection on the coaching staff…bottom line.

~~YNBA~~

i don’t want this to be a ‘bash zach’ conversation, by the way, so please keep posting (besides, i have a brother in law named zach, and he’s pretty cool. lives in cbus, going to bowling green). i also want to give you props on bringing up the cooper years. my dad is a [i]crazy[/i] buckeye fan (and old) and every time he gets worked up about one of these losses, i bring him back to the statements you just made. i still think this year is a good year. great year? no. if we lose to michigan, it will be a bad year. however, this is still a good year.

the ‘blame game’ arises out of a couple of things. first, these coaches are paid a lot of cash to do their job. until very recently, tress was one of the lowest paid ‘big school’ coaches, but even then i think its safe to say that he saw more dough than you or i. this is the same for the assistant coaches on the team. it is only natural for us as americans/human beings to say that if someone is going to be valued at such a high level, that more should be expected of them. if they are not able to produce those results, corresponding to their compensation, then questions should be raised. (note: please don’t get it twisted, i don’t think that tress should go) second, there is some serious talent on this team, it is the coaches job(s) to most effectively use that talent. again, when this does not happen… questions… etc. third, i believe another innate thought process for americans is that we should have some say about the people who are in power. you know, democracy and all that. (even though, in this case our thoughts really have little bearing…)

again, if i am off base with these comments, let me know. i don’t presume to know others thoughts about this. thank you!

when the team is not very good, well, you have more negative comments regarding the team.