Whaddya know? The sun came up today after all

OSU FootballHats off to the Texas Longhorns, 2009 Fiesta Bowl winners.

A few brief bullets about the game:

  • Why was Ryan Hamby wearing Anderson Russell’s uniform? (Okay. Just kidding. Had to get it out of the way.)
  • For the first time in three years, we saw a “classic” Tressel performance. This is the type of scheme, effort, theme, and pace that we got used to seeing for the bulk of his tenure here at OSU. When he hit the jackpot with the 2006 squad, he took a step away, and got used to letting his players’ talent win games. Perhaps that caused the coaching staff to get a bit spoiled and lazy. Last night was the first time in a while that the coaches were collectively impressive. Which begs the question, why couldn’t we have seen something similar earlier in the season?
  • Speaking about coaching, I’m shocked in scanning the boards that some are questioning the playcalling – are you kidding me? The best coaching performance of the season, perhaps the past two or three seasons. We saw creativity, misdirection, smashmouth physicality, and finesse. The offensive and defensive schemes were perfect; they worked perfectly to place OSU in position to win. All it came down to was execution – the game was literally in the hands of the players. With this roster, I cannot imagine anything Tressel or his staff could have done better. Fantastic job.
  • For those trolls mocking the Buckeyes/Big 10 for being overrated: You can’t have it both ways. Last night’s game was not open to interpretation – Ohio State dominated Texas for all but the last 1m 49s. So either (1) the Buckeyes are a very good team, better than most give them credit for; or (2) Texas, which needed the Bucks’ defense to miss two INTs and one open field tackle on the last drive to win in miracle fashion, is not.
  • This was the 1997 Rose Bowl in reverse. So this is how ASU fans felt when Germaine hit Boston for the TD with a few seconds left, eh?
  • All of OSU’s stars had a great game, and collectively, it might have been the best performance of their career here at OSU: Beanie’s first-half depantsing of the nation’s #2 rush defense, which probably earned The Stiff Arm Of JusticeTM another few million dollars in signing bonus. Jenkins, who, if memory serves, did not allow the receivers he was covering a single catch last night – even though they collectively gained 414 yards. Robiskie’s 116 yards receiving, all of it seemingly coming on clutch catches. Pryor’s first down scrambles. Laurinaitis’ bazillion tackles. And last but not least…
  • …Todd Boeckman. What a way for him to end his Buckeye career. No doubt he’s disappointed in the loss, but how awesome it was that he was still there when the team needed him, and he came through. If you haven’t noticed, this type of quiet, classy leadership and maturity has become a running theme for Tressel’s QBs by the end of their careers. And would you want it any other way?

Congrats to a great senior class. Your legacy will end on a positive note: as a competitive, selfless group of players that won 43 games (84%), four Big Ten titles in a row, competed for two national titles, outplayed what many consider to be one of the best teams in the country, stocked the NFL with tons of talent, and most importantly, beat Michigan four straight times. We’re proud of you. Best wishes.

Comments

  1. Well written; very good perspective.

  2. Nicely done.

    The ONLY coaching decisions I take exception to-and this has been a weakness since the Florida game-was playing the Texas receivers soft off the line and not going to a bump and run to disrupt the timing of their short pass game. We cannot continue to allow teams to catch the ball underneath. It kept Texas in the game the entire night.

    That is all. Thanks for all the good work this season, as always.

  3. Please prove the sun came up today…all the clouds are blocking it if it really is there. 🙂

    Good post.

  4. “Last night’s game was not open to interpretation – Ohio State dominated Texas for all but the last 1m 49s.”

    Wrong – Ohio State dominated Texas for all but the entire 3rd quarter and the last 1m 49s. That 3rd quarter rally was huge for Texas. But I was glad to see the Buckeyes come back and nearly pull off the upset. I hope the offense is better next year…sigh.

  5. THANK YOU. Best write up I’ve seen of the game today. Tresselball is back in working form, and in the next couple years with Terrelle Pryor, we don’t lose these games.

  6. Tom,
    The sun came out in Buffalo this morning. Trust me, if it’s sunny in Buffalo, the sun indeed did come up.
    Ken

  7. You feel good goofs are pathetic…. “classic Tressel” you say, gulp? JT walks on water and as a professional never makes mistakes and I suppose Earle and Cooper never should have been fired? So it’s okay not to use a prevent defense when Texas basically faced a 1st and goal from the 30 so the Bucks can win the Fiesta Bowl? No you guys think it’s okay to put Russell on an island with less than 40 seconds to play right? So it’s okay to get inside the Texas 35 in the first half three times and come away with 6 points? So his decision to settle for a FG attempt on the forth and two did not kill the Bucks? Brilliant you say a QB rotation that has no rhyme or reason?
    Since 2005 we’ve had maybe 12 games now facing similarly talented opponents and Tressel has lost 8 of them, that’s right eight.

    2005 1 for 3 Texas, PSU, scUM
    2006 2 for 3 Texas, scUM, Florida
    2007 1 for 3 scUM, Illinois, LSU
    2008 0 for 3 USC, PSU, Texas

    Everything just perfect to all you little kiss ass Monkeye butts!

  8. STINCHCOMB says

    We have a head coaching problem…and very obviously, Jim Tressel, has been shell-shocked since January 8, 2007.

    Who’s supposed to solve Ohio State’s football problems? Tressel. What’s he been doing to solve them? No such solutions were to be found in the Superdome, last year. Nor in the Coliseum in September. Nor last night against Texas.

    What’s he been doing besides losing big, non-conference and bowl games? Boring us with obvious commentary intended NOT to confront, at press conferences.

    Jim Tressel may be writing a downer chapter in his “Memoirs of A Buckeye Football Coach.” But, the prose better get rosier and very quickly. The evidence supports calling for the ouster of Bollman and Heacock. Tressel needs to dump the doofy sweater vest and strap on a pair and edit these two out of the script. Something must be done to undo this relentless momentum toward being just a “Top Twenty-Fiver.” If status quo becomes defeat at the hands of the Trojans, this September…well, that will be intolerable.

    And if December 29, 1978 was the date of Woody’s meltdown, was the 2007 BCS National Championship Game the spark that instigated Jim Tressel’s?

  9. jimmy, kiss my monkeyebutt.

  10. The Post by ” Stinchcomb ” is proof there’s no alcohol allowed in ” The Shoe “.

    What game did you watch my friend? This team has not shown up for a game like this in quiet a while but they brought it last night. They were lights out ………..-9 yards rushing for Texas and 3 points for Texas at halftime ( when thier ranked 2nd in total offense) Colt was running for his life.

    Offensively we ran for over 200 yards on the ground against the Nations best rush defense………….

    This game could have swung either way in the end. We lost……..we lost a very tough game.

    So tell me ……..if you can Tressel? Who do you replace him with??

  11. all you haters need to find a job and/or a life. either that or crawl back down the slime covered holes of filth that you slithered out of.

    or, better yet, if you all are such offensive and defensive geniuses go out and coach the sorry high school teams that you have in your pathetic neck of the woods. terrorize pre-adolescent boys and leave your moronic diatribes off these boards. they do nothing but create edifices to the amount of brain cells you have lost, if you had more than one in the first place, and the shallow end of the gene pool that you staggered out of.

    this game was everything a true buckeye fan could ask for, a chance to play on the national stage and a competitive contest that went all the way to the last seconds. everything is ebb and flow, and i wouldn’t trade the tressel years for anything.

  12. Hey Ed and lancelott
    Ohio schools have long been known as the proving ground for young coaches. Kevin Wilson, Oklahomas’s heralded offensive coordinator got his start at Miami University, Hayes, Parseghian, Schembechler all coached there. We’ve got good young coaches all over that have a right to take their turn at OSU before ending up like Meyers, Saban, Miles, Pelini, Stoops, Pinkle all going out of state. We’re not giving any $3.5 million a year coach a free ride for mismanaged results like last night. It becomes an ego problem after years of offensive play calling without results. Our offensive numbers are appalling considering the support with talent on special teams and defense. JT’s offensive schemes are so crapy he practically needs a QB like Pryor that can duck and run to save his bacon.

    That game last night should have been an easy win. Texas is a very poor team overall that got pushed around on both lines all night long. TP played his worst game of the season, not even counting that soft tiptoeing out of bounds crap. OSU still had 400 offensive yds against this Texas team, the Bucks couldn’t even move the ball against PSU or USC. Texas got every break in the book last night, even Beanie had to sit it out. But Texas had a QB that just doesn’t give up. Combine that with Tressel who manages to screw up ever big game (see my previous post) with crazy play calling like… oh lets run MoWells up the gut again for zero yards in 100 attempts or the 3rd and 11 draw to Beanie or 51 yd FG on forth and 2 yrds it just goes on and on.

    When your a top ten team you don’t lose 5 in a row against other top ten teams without there being a problem, as the OSU HC it’s inherent that you will be judged only on these few games each year, get the picture?

  13. NAME CMP ATT YDS CMP% YDS/A TD INT RAT
    Colt McCoy 332 434 3859 76.5 8.89 34 8 173.4

    Rushing Statistics
    NAME CAR YDS YPC LONG TD
    Colt McCoy 135 579 4.3 35 (TD) 11
    Vondrell McGee 88 376 4.3 21 4
    Chris Ogbonnaya 74 373 5.0 62 4
    Cody Johnson 76 338 4.4 61 12

    507 2195 4.3 62 33
    Receiving Statistics
    NAME REC YDS YPR LONG TD
    Quan Cosby 92 1123 12.2 40 10
    Jordan Shipley 89 1060 11.9 68 11
    Chris Ogbonnaya 46 540 11.7 65 (TD) 3
    Brandon Collins 35 430 12.3 40 (TD) 3
    Malcolm Williams 17 304 17.9 91 (TD) 3
    James Kirkendoll 21 221 10.5 29 (TD) 1
    Blaine Irby 10 95 9.5 23 (TD) 2
    Dan Buckner 5 84 16.8 51 (TD) 2

    this is a ‘very poor team’? come up with something better than that.

  14. o, and lest we forget:

    Rank Team name Winning
    Percentage Games
    Won Games
    Lost Games
    Tied Games
    Played
    1 Michigan 0.74475 869 286 36 1191
    2 Notre Dame 0.73864 824 278 42 1144
    3 Texas 0.71814 823 313 33 1169
    4 Ohio State 0.71379 797 304 52 1153

    please go here and educate yourself: http://football.stassen.com/

  15. lancelott
    Okay let me rephrase that, I should have said “surprisingly Texas appeared a easily beatable team given the way the Buckeyes were able to push them around on both lines all night long.”

    Fact remains if JT doesn’t change course soon and actually hire better offensive coaching help he’s headed toward being known as one of the biggest talent wasters in CFB history. If he doesn’t step down soon he’ll eventually get fired just like Earle and Cooper but not soon enough.

    Your looking up statistics at stassen.com is great for those choosing to live in the past. Living is easy with eyes closed. 4 wins for 12 games against similar talent since 2005 should be shocking enough and the only statisics you need to see where this program has been headed.

  16. I am going to have to side with Jimmy’s last post. JT has been quoted (and I am paraphrasing here) that his ego wouldn’t let him share/give up play calling duties.

    JT says in his post game preser that “when you don’t get a 1st down in the 3rd quarter its a problem”…JT won’t even take ownership of the problem.

    I agree with Jimmy’s point of the big money being paid to JT to win. Coming out of the 90’s with losses to scUM and missed opportunities with HUGE talent with Cooper-led teams, JT was hired to beat scUM. Ok, we’ve done that. Now its time to take the next step and beat some other big programs in CFB.

    4/12 just ain’t going to cut it. Being 33% isn’t competitive.

  17. jimmy
    o, so now we did do a good job against texas? so you agree with how we used a two quarterback system? so you agree with our blitzing which obviously kept a strong and experienced quarterback like colt off balance most of the night? i’m sorry buddy, but you can’t have it both ways.

    Fact is that JT has already eclipsed Cooper in his bowl wins (JT has 4, Cooper only had 3. JT is just behind Bruce who has 5), winning the most important game (JT has 7, Cooper only had 2, Bruce did a little better with 5)and you think that he wastes talent?!???!!(note: now you are the one bringing up the past, funny. also humerous is that you could have learned all this if you had looked it up before making wild assertions. maybe espn has a job for you? you seem to do just fine with your eyes closed as well… *reference: any picture of mark may*)

    Fact is that JT not only recruits top talent, but he teaches them how to be men, something both cooper and bruce failed to do (please don’t make me look up all the players that got in trouble, you can do that on your own). but wait lancelott, what about a particular running back from tOSU under tressel who got in a sh*t load of trouble?!?!awwww, snap!1!!!pwned!@!e1ev3nty!!!! ok, one bad apple out of how many nfl players that are making it big now? one bad apple out of all the james, troys, ginns, gonzales, etc.? i would rather lose with a man who teaches how to do things right than win with a richrod err… i mean someone who proves consistently that he (or she) is a sleeze.

    again, please come up with something better than that.

  18. lancelott
    No ones saying JT doesn’t have some fine qualities as a HC but to ignore his prominent weaknesses as an offensive coordinator is wrong and I hardly feel alone in this judgement. As head coach of a high-profile program in one of the four most talent rich areas of the country, especially when one is paid $3 million, what example is set for young men when your ego gets in the way of turning over the offense to someone who can at least keep us out of the bottom of national offensive rankings year after year.

    Regarding the game, my stance hasn’t changed from my first post regardless of what ever reality you try and twist it into. Tressel used little clock management when he had the game won, why he didn’t bring his players to the sidelines, huddle , explain the plan and show leadership is something that will haunt him. JT is just plain in over his head calling plays in big time college ball.

  19. Texas Wahoo says

    “For those trolls mocking the Buckeyes/Big 10 for being overrated: You can’t have it both ways. Last night’s game was not open to interpretation – Ohio State dominated Texas for all but the last 1m 49s. So either (1) the Buckeyes are a very good team, better than most give them credit for; or (2) Texas, which needed the Bucks’ defense to miss two INTs and one open field tackle on the last drive to win in miracle fashion, is not.”

    Dominated all but the last 1m 49s???

    Texas had 12 more first downs and 107 more total yards. Sure a few of the first downs and 78 of the yards came in the last 2 minutes – but they still had more of each. What exactly was dominating? OSU did win the time of possession by a good 26 seconds.

    I was very impressed by the Buckeyes, especially Boeckman – I have no idea why you didn’t use him more this season. I wish our OC would draw up some more creative plays instead of running so many screens that never work. But I think you watched a different game than I did. Texas almost ran away with the game in the 3rd quarter, but made some mistakes and things didn’t go their way. They let OSU back in the game and it almost cost them the game.

  20. Wow, some interesting points being brought up here.

    First, @TW – you’re the only person who honestly thinks Texas wasn’t on their heels the entire game. OSU’s defense held Tx to half of its normal points, below its total yardage average, including negative 9 yards rushing by halftime, and dominated the line of scrimmage. OSU’s offense, meanwhile, put up well over 100 yards of rushing in the first half alone against the nation’s #2 rush defense, and dominated the line of scrimmage for most of the game.

    Again, not just my opinion – check out the ESPN vid in the previous post. This is the consensus for everyone.

    Furthermore, TX didn’t “make some mistakes,” they _benefited_ from mistakes on OSU’s side. In other words, even though OSU was making tons of mistakes, they were still controlling the entire tempo, flow, and pace of the game. OSU lost because they shot themselves in the foot once too often (missed FG, missed tackle, roughing penalty).

    @jimmy – your reasoning is interesting, but it contains a major flaw: you keep using this phrase “similar talent”. With the exception of Illinois in 2007, every one of those losses was to a top 3 team. Three of them were to teams that won the national championship (Tx2005, LSU, Fla).

    So if your standard for success is that Tressel should be expected to win the majority of the time against top 3 teams – that’s an unreasonable standard for any coach.

    Since 2005, OSU has gone 43-8. 20 of those 43 victories were against ranked teams, and seven of those eight losses came against top three teams, three of which won national titles. He also beat two #2 teams.

    See the math, then? In other words, JT has played 9 top three teams in the last four years alone! Going 20-8 against the ranked, with seven of those losses coming against the top three, while beating two in that span, and coming within one missed tackle of beating another, is abso-freaking-lutely competitive.

    One thing is for sure: no other coach currently in Div-IA comes close to drawing that amount of tough competition over the last four years.

    But back to the OSU/Texas game: it came down to one missed tackle. Period. Nothing more, nothing less. It wasn’t a coaching failure. They ran a press coverage, which depends on good open field tackling, which had been reliable the entire game. This time, the DB missed. Simple.

  21. @gbmachine: 4-12? could you please specify where this number comes from. If you are looking at the bowl games that JT has been in, its 4-4.

    @jimmy: you want to be competitve with the top teams? yes, lets talk about pay (2007):
    Rank School Name Annual Inc.
    1 Alabama Nick Saban $4,000,000
    2 Oklahoma Bob Stoops $3,400,000
    3 Notre Dame Charlie Weis $3,300,000
    4 Southern California Pete Carroll $3,000,000
    5 Iowa Kirk Ferentz $2,840,000
    6 Texas Mack Brown $2,664,000
    7 Louisville Bobby Petrino $2,500,000
    8 Ohio State Jim Tressel $2,450,000
    9 Auburn Tommy Tuberville $2,231,000
    10 Tennessee Philip Fulmer $2,050,000

    looks like we are par for the course and doing a heck of a lot better than half of the coachs on that list.

    as far as twisting what you have said, i believe you have already changed it once on your own. i just want you to think about what your are saying instead of writing how you ‘feel’. JT made all the calls he should have and it came down to missed opportunities on the field (as SM has pointed out). by the way, i’m all for getting rid of our o-line coach and i don’t think that SM is in love with JT, but i think (and i believe that SM thinks) in this game our team (the whole team)did exceptionally well.

  22. Texas Wahoo says

    I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree then. You saw a game in which Texas benefited from more mistakes than OSU, and I saw the opposite. Texas was a really dumb pass in the red zone away from at least being tied at the half, and that was after accounting for the fact that their offensive coordinator called a game reminiscent of 2000-2004 Red River Rivalries. They were then a toe out of bounds away from putting the game away at the end of the third quarter. Pryor looked like he was running for his life half of the time, only doing any damage because he was able to break contain and run outside (and then out of bounds at odd times).

  23. @lancelott
    Won’t be joining you in that monkeylove world where you can simplify the management of a complex game and determine it’s outcome based on “one missed tackle. Period”, won’t be hand to monkeyhand skipping through life without a care about that which might determine ones fate. A prevent defense and the Buckeye’s win the Fiesta Bowl, clock management on OSU’s final possession wins the Fiesta Bowl. Coaching failures shockingly obvious to everyone outside Monkeyworld where kicking the first FG on 4th and long… smart, then the FG attempt on 4th and 2 …dumb move… are oh so common. Things been adding up (this ain’t Youngstown State anymore Jimmy boy) while Urban chuckles and shakes his head. Yeh I wouldn’t monkey count that early 2006 Texas team ranked #2, not top ten either since they dropped into teens, certainly not top 2. When your top ten you should be able to compete with any top ten not go 0-5 like the Bucks, enough said.
    I’m going to drop this and head out for some of that monkey Moonshine and leave ya Bucknuts with a bit of hope. See JT’s offense is so crappy, a great athlete like Pryor could truely shine but that’s assuming Bollman is sent packing and somebody teaches him to set foot in the pocket or fans are going to see more of that Bauserman cannon next year. We’ve got new talent WRs and OL what scares me is when I think about the coaches returning.

  24. @jimmy:
    ha. haha. how many prevent defenses did colt chew up this season? (please see oklahoma game for, as you say, a ‘top ten’ opponent) its hilarious how you can accuse of oversimplifying a complex game when it is clear you have no idea what you are talking about. what if we were stopped on that 4th and 2 you are speaking of? you’d be hollering that we should have kicked the field goal and taken the points while you can. you show me your huge wins over D-1A opponents and i’ll stop talking. i’m sure there are plenty of teams for you to coach down there in florida, you and old urban seem a perfect fit together.

    speaking of stupid rankings, you mean you actually believe the bull that the bcs hands you in terms of rankings? if that was really the case, utah would have never come close to beating the omgsuperawesomeyouonlylosttofloridabutthatisokbecauseyoucomefromtheSEC alabama. who do you think gives you the ratings? you sir are dumb, and what you say is dumb. and you live in some kind of strange parallel universe where stupidity is a form of currency that you spend like its going out of style. please get yourself back to reality or keep your impotent ruminations out of sight. go back to your grandmother’s basement, play your WOW or whatever alternate universe you infest and leave the discussion to your betters.

  25. I didn’t read the other comments because I didn’t want my thoughts to be swayed by them. Your article is obviously painted with a lack of reality. OSU recruited an amazing talent in Pryor and why? Because he could run. Yes, he is an adequate passer (although, I’d say there’s plenty to argue about it on that subject.) but he’s amazing at escape and picking up first downs and more (most of the time). (Of course, there’s the propensity to run out of bounds at just about every opportunity (Monday night he ran out before the first down twice when he had more room.) So how many times (before it got desparate) did they call his number for a designed QB run? Here’s another point about coaching Monday night. Why on the next to last drive for OSU did the players keep going out of bounds? Let me enlighten you. Because the coaches (admittedly most coaches fail to do this) didn’t think to tell them to stay in bounds. OSU didn’t need a touchdown. They needed to score three points and run the clock out. They could have ran the ball once they got in field goal range and then made a short field goal with little or no time left. I realize these points are not completely foolproof because you can never tell what’s going to happen. My problem with your article is your admiration for the way the game was called and coached. No way it was “collectively impressive” as you put it.

    • Mark, you make some good points. Once the Buckeyes got to the 50 on their last drive, I started screaming at the television to keep the clock running and get into FG range. To be fair, only Robiskie ran out of bounds after that, and it was while catching the ball on the sideline for the first down.

      Nonetheless, what you describe is clearly what Tressel was thinking when he called two running plays up the gut once they were in FG range. Only nobody figured Boom would break one right between the tackles for a 20+ yard TD.

      In hindsight, if Boom doesn’t score that TD, then OSU probably wins. Tressel would have wasted the clock centering a nice FG attempt, in the process forcing Tx to use at least one of their TOs, probably both of them, and result would have been 18-17 victory for OSU.

      So in reality, it wasn’t the clock management, it was the unexpected touchdown that gave Tx the ball back with 2 mins left.

      Also, to clarify “collectively impressive;” if you’ve read this site for the entire season, you know that I’m NOT a fan of the way the coaching has gone this year. I’ve repeatedly called for Jim Bollman’s head, and I still feel that way. This season was successful from a win-loss perspective, but the recent pattern of offensive underachievement of great talent is inexcusable, and it’s a direct failure of the offensive coaching staff (particularly the O-Line staff).

      So my statements regarding the coaching success of _this_ game were in that context. There’s no question that this game was the best coaching job of the year – overall. Again, if you’ve seen OSU put together a better game this year, then please point it out to me.

      All of that is why I begged the question, “why couldn’t we see this type of coaching effort earlier in the year?”

  26. Texas Wahoo says

    “Nonetheless, what you describe is clearly what Tressel was thinking when he called two running plays up the gut once they were in FG range. Only nobody figured Boom would break one right between the tackles for a 20+ yard TD.”

    As a Texas fan I was hoping they would let OSU score at that point, and it happened. I don’t know what the Texas coaches were thinking at the time, but I think it was definitely the right way to go (especially in hindsight).

  27. @TW – maybe I’m misunderstanding you: did you just suggest that the Tx coaches _allowed_ OSU to score a TD on its last drive?

    As in, “let’s go ahead and let OSU drive 73 yards for their go-ahead TD now, so that we can have the ball last and score & win the game?”

  28. Texas Wahoo says

    Certainly not. The Texas coaches were trying to stop OSU before they could get into field goal range.

    I’m talking about once OSU was clearly in field goal range. I’m just suggesting that with 2 minutes left and the ball in the red zone, Texas coaches might have gone all or nothing. Sell out to try to force a turnover/move the line of scrimage back, and if they aren’t successful, let them score. I’m not saying they did that, but it had to be on their mind. The chance of OSU’s kicker missing a <40 yard field goal are much lower than the chances of Colt taking the Texas team down the field in 2 minutes. The guy had already made a 50 yarder and a 40+ yarder, and Texas fans have seen Colt march down the field at the end of the game quite a few times at this point.

  29. OK, TW. Makes sense. Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t misunderstanding you – one could read what you wrote in different ways. :-p

  30. Texas Wahoo says

    I know ragging on Big XII defenses is all the rage these days (everyone not from Southern Cal and Florida must be slow and plodding), but our defense isn’t nearly that bad to let you score from 73 yards out just so we would get the ball last.

  31. @sportsMonkey
    “recent pattern of offensive underachievement” you’ve certainly seen enough, I mean it’s not like your blind to what’s going on.

    We certainly had a glimpse of things to come by 2004 with Cooper’s upperclassman gone we ranked 90-something nationally in offense. One of the things that bothers me is how thick headed and clueless some fans can be, we grade our student/players based on achievement and yet these goofs like lancelott expect you to believe that it’s acceptable for 65 teams in the nation to consistently have more talent on offense than we do? They want you to give a passing grade to Tressel when Illinois, Wisconsin, Purdue, Indiana, Northwestern, Michigan State and iowa all had more talent and “better” offenses than OSU. Only one team had “similar talent” PSU and they finished 1st but OSU finished 9th in this conference.
    You saw the game last night, some posters to this tread commented how talented Texas was. Now imagine a team that has produced TWICE as many NFL players over the last 8 years, wouldn’t you expect it would have more to show? Another comment, Texas just came at us relentlessly, I saw ONLY one screen play and it worked, few if any quick slants or mid level slants. What I saw was an OL that has to be the biggest false start offenders in big situations I have ever seen. Easily the most undisciplined squad at a big time program in the nation, so fundamentally flawed it’s just plain laughable.

    We all hoped Tressel would change things and there was hope with the first couple of scUM wins and that one miraculous 2002 season. Since then, other than beating scUM (partly while they decline) and getting a few favorable bowl matchups, he’s continued an obvious trend. The more disturbing aspect is how acceptable it all is, I say OSU and our kids deserves better coaching.

  32. @jimmy:
    “jimmy: Your looking up statistics at stassen.com is great for those choosing to live in the past. Living is easy with eyes closed.” … “jimmy: Now imagine a team that has produced TWICE as many NFL players over the last 8 years, wouldn’t you expect it would have more to show?” haha.

    “jimmy: What I saw was an OL that has to be the biggest false start offenders in big situations I have ever seen. Easily the most undisciplined squad at a big time program in the nation, so fundamentally flawed it’s just plain laughable.” … “lancelott: by the way, i’m all for getting rid of our o-line coach”

    “these goofs like lancelott expect you to believe that it’s acceptable for 65 teams in the nation to consistently have more talent on offense than we do?” … we are actually ranked 45 in offense (scoring, because that’s what i assume is all you care about), and i would challenge some of the competition that some of the teams ahead of us had to play.

    “They want you to give a passing grade to Tressel when Illinois, Wisconsin, Purdue, Indiana, Northwestern, Michigan State and iowa all had more talent and “better” offenses than OSU. Only one team had “similar talent” PSU and they finished 1st but OSU finished 9th in this conference.” … looking in conference we finished 4th in offense (scoring again). Also, which one of those teams that you listed beat us? o, right. only psu.

    “Another comment, Texas just came at us relentlessly, I saw ONLY one screen play and it worked, few if any quick slants or mid level slants.” … seems like our run worked just fine:
    tOSU Texas
    1st Downs 21 33
    3rd down efficiency 4-12 6-17
    4th down efficiency 0-0 3-4
    Total Yards 379 468
    Passing 176 414
    Comp-Att 10-25 41-58
    Yards per pass 7.0 7.1
    Rushing 203 54
    Rushing Attempts 39 29
    Yards per rush 5.2 1.9
    Penalties 7-67 8-83 … wait… texas actually had more penalties?
    Turnovers 0 1
    Fumbles lost 0 0
    Interceptions thrown 0 1
    Possession 30:13 29:47

    “jimmy: Tressel used little clock management when he had the game won” … “SM:
    Nonetheless, what you describe is clearly what Tressel was thinking when he called two running plays up the gut once they were in FG range. Only nobody figured Boom would break one right between the tackles for a 20+ yard TD.

    In hindsight, if Boom doesn’t score that TD, then OSU probably wins. Tressel would have wasted the clock centering a nice FG attempt, in the process forcing Tx to use at least one of their TOs, probably both of them, and result would have been 18-17 victory for OSU.

    So in reality, it wasn’t the clock management, it was the unexpected touchdown that gave Tx the ball back with 2 mins left.”

  33. @lancelott
    Certainly we’ve run this argument into the ground. The 65 national offensive ranking was an average ranking over the years not just this year. There is no way for a school that has one of the top 10 recruiting classes perennially to consistently rank that low unless there are problems with the teaching/coaching staff. The inability to score has doomed this team time and again, would you not think by now JT would have at least made adjustments to correct his program? Your right, defense is as important but struggling to consistently put up points against even MAC schools is troubling.
    Obviously your a great fan of Tressel as well as the Big Ten, but it never hurts to have a critical eye on the reality of the situation. Enjoyed your banter and wish you well.

  34. @jimmy
    i agree that we have run this conversation to the ground. i also concede that something should be done on offense, be that a change in the o-line coaching or a new offensive coordinator. i live in michigan (ann arbor specifically) and living here has made me fear coaching changes like the plague and defend everything buckeye with passion (i was awoken at 4am the other day at some guy shouting ‘a$$h*le’ at my window and the block O that hangs there). i do appreciate our conversation and am truly happy that you care about the buckeyes as much as i do. i apologize for my earlier harsh words and wish you the best. hopefully we can have more conversations when the season starts again.

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