Archives for October 2011

I hesitated before cranking out the recap this week. I wanted to avoid the cookie-cutter analysis of “offense bad.”

You cannot understand why the OSU offense had such a hard time until you understand what is going on under the hood. To that end, a Fickell statement in the postgame press conference tells you all you need to know:

“I think maybe he [Braxton Miller] didn’t see the field real well… So we thought our best option was to go with a guy [Bauserman] that probably could… throw the football a little bit better in some of the formations or spreads that we needed to get into.”

I don’t quote that as proof that OSU has a troublesome quarterback problem. That’s too obvious. But read between the lines: “…in some of the formations or spreads that we needed to get into.”

In plain English, this means that the coaching staff decided to make adjustments, and that Braxton had little or no experience with the formations they would be using. Hence, Bauserman was sent in – not to “ignite a spark” or any other intangible fluff you may have heard, but only because Baus had practice experience running certain formations.

In hindsight, this is painfully obvious. Miller has been given a very limited playbook. What else could we expect? I’m certain Braxton is learning new formations and plays every week, but so far, he’s only got a pamphelet’s worth of OSU offense down.

Dantonio had film on Braxton and knew precisely what the young QB’s limitations were. He knew Miller had been given only a handful of plays (we’ll say 10 to be generous), and that none of them included constraint play checkoffs (quick tosses to the open slot receiver, bubble screens, counters, etc.). He gambled and brought a series of twists and stunts that left OSU’s offensive line shorthanded and Braxton without the experience to dump off to the slot. MSU brought an extra blitzer on 30 of OSU’s 60+ snaps.

Again, everyone screaming “more screens! more draws!! more formations!!” needs to understand a couple of things… these are not yet components of our peach-fuzzed young QB’s repertoire.

HOWEVER, they are components of Joe Bauserman’s experience — at least his academic one, anyway. Where he lacks in accuracy and athleticism, he at least makes up for in the experience of being in the program for over five years and knowing the entire playbook.

Therefore, the coaching staff had Bauserman enter the game at the beginning of the 4th quarter. And then the following happened:

Bauserman entered the game on OSU’s 10th drive. The offense sputtered for a couple of drives but improved rapidly. Almost immediately, Bauserman began involving the RBs and constraint tosses to the slot and TEs. He completed only a few of them — this is Bauserman, after all — but the new scheme was enough to get MSU to stop sending in an unblocked blitzer every other down. As we all know, it culminated with the TD score with 10 seconds left.

Now I am not saying that Bauserman is a better QB than Miller, nor suggesting he earn his starting position back. I am showing this to prove two things:

• The coaching adjustments worked
• The coaching adjustments came too late

And that’s why this loss should be chalked up as a coaching failure. While the issues with experience and talent depth are obvious, they are justified and explainable: Miller’s only been playing OSU football for a month now, OSU is missing talent and depth at WR, many starters are suspended… etc., etc. Yes, the execution needs to improve, obviously.

What isn’t justified and explainable is the lack of offensive coaching professionalism that is being shown time and time again.

It is clear that, for MSU at least, the loss was primarily due to a failure to make adjustments earlier. Had Bauserman started the second half, instead of the 4th quarter, perhaps OSU might have eked out a victory.

Or perhaps, had Bollman or Siciliano actually prepared Miller with some misdirection or constraint plays for the game, they wouldn’t have needed to switch to Bauserman and the entire situation would have been rendered irrelevant.

In short: the coaches didn’t prepare well, and they didn’t adjust in time.

Just say NO to Walrusball.

After what seems like the 1 billionth bad news day for Ohio State in the last year I think I am finally ready to accept defeat. By now I am sure most of you have heard that more bad news has come down the pipes in the way of more players suspended for taking more illegal benefits. I could go into great detail about who and what they did or how it is the systems fault or that everyone is doing it but I won’t do that. Not this time and not ever again.

This time I am heart broken not because my team is in trouble but because there seems to be a total disregard for the reality that has been cast upon us in the last year. First we had players make stupid mistakes that lots of people do when they are college athletes. Then our beloved coach lied and covered up for them and we are told it is isolated and nothing else will be found. Over the next 10 months we hear that same line over and over like a broken record every time something new comes out. Players are taking illegal benefits and it is isolated to a few individuals. Gene Smith assures us, and it won’t cause the dreaded Lack of Institutional Control or Failure to Monitor charges. Gene Smith keeps telling us there is nothing else to see here and we are moving forward. Gene Smith is an effing liar but what do I expect him to say? That Ohio State has lost control of its players and we should expect extremely harsh penalties because I, Gene Smith have done a horrendous job of running the Athletic Dept? Of course he won’t say that because he desperately is trying to save his job and the school from the NCAA hounds.

I have bad news for you Gene Smith. The gig is up. None of your friendships at the NCAA is going to save OSU now. The players who continued to break rules and take illegal benefits from rogue boosters after already getting caught doing it DON’T GIVE A DAMN FOR THE WHOLE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY. You write up a report to send to the NCAA laughably pretending like these fricking idiots had no idea they were breaking the rules by taking money for a job they weren’t doing. Yet you don’t kick them off the team. You don’t resign from your job as AD at OSU. You instead continue to embarrass and shame Ohio State and its honest athletes and its devoted fans by trying to make us believe lies that our 5 year old kids would make up after breaking mommy’s vase.

To those players who I supported through the beginning of this process because I thought they were being taken advantage of by a bad system: Today some of you proved to me it was greed and excess that drove you to break these rules, not kids being kids. I am struggling with why on earth you all weren’t kicked off the team today. There is no place for you on this year’s team or any future team because you put your self importance and greed above the good of the team. I am angry as hell at you all but a few weeks or months or maybe years down the road I will forgive you and welcome you back to my Buckeye Nation with open arms as time heals all wounds. Today though there is a gaping hole in my heart that you guys caused.

This day in history is the day where I can’t find a reason to defend you Mr. Smith and the players who have besmirched the wonderful name that is the Ohio State University. To you Coach Fickell, if you don’t have the ability to kick these guys off the team then you should quit in protesting them still being on it. If you do have the ability to kick them off the team and didn’t for any reason then shame on you, too.

I can only hope that when all is said and done the NCAA will decide to wipe this entire year off their record books just like last year so I can pretend that this season never happened on the field or off of it. For the first time in this whole thing I am really unsure what to do or feel. I can’t find a way to defend the players or the AD or the coaches. I can’t imagine the NCAA wont change the charges to give us a LOIC and/or FTM violations. If this school doesn’t deserve those charges I can’t imagine who could. E Gordon Gee better start cleaning house now or I will be ready for his dismissal as well. Start to fix this ship now and kick the players off the team and resign Gene Smith or be fired. Luke Fickell, I am sorry this is what you had to deal with but your career at OSU is over and you have given me nothing to try and fight for you to have another chance. I hope the NCAA will have mercy on us by seriously how in the world can they? I will never stop being a Buckeye fan and support my school and its teams. Today though it is becoming way to difficult justify fighting with non-Buckeye fans that they are wrong and that OSU isn’t a school out of control.

It doesn’t help that I am writing this post during a 36 hour period where I have been passing more kidney stones then any OSU QB has footballs all season. My pain is real and it is enormous but it pales in comparison to how my Buckeye Heart aches right now sadly.

We’re still trying to wrap our heads around this:

The return of Ohio State tailback Daniel Herron and receiver DeVier Posey from their start-of-the-season NCAA suspensions could be delayed by at least one more game barring a change of heart by the NCAA, sources told The Dispatch today. OSU athletic director Gene Smith is expected to shed some light on the matter during a press conference later this afternoon.

We’ve got the Press Conference open in the next tab and will update accordingly, but yeah…

We ain’t out of the woods yet.

Don’t gloat too much, because if we want your coach in four months, we’ll take him. And there’s nothing you can do about it.

Consider him on loan to you while we figure out what to do with Fickell and Meyer.

Buckeye fans, stay tuned. The game recap will be posted soon – expect plenty of anti-Bollman sentiment.