Gentlemen,

I do not envy you for the situation you inherited this year. Even veteran, elite coaches must sympathize at the terrible hand you have been dealt. Still, however, one wonders why, with the challenging situation in which you have found yourselves, you would choose to sabotage your chances of putting the team in a position to succeed.

In particular, I am referring to the use of Joe Bauserman as quarterback. While his on-field struggles are well-known to anyone that has seen OSU play, one stat in particular stands out: In his career, Bauserman has a 37.5% completion rate against teams from BCS conferences.

I will say this again — Bauserman completes less than 38% of his passes against BCS AQ teams.

I could ask all sorts of questions about the wisdom of using this “quarterback,” especially the mind-numbing decision to use him to replace Miller at Nebraska. Instead, I will ask only two questions, and neither is about Bauserman:

• What is it about Kenny Guiton and/or Taylor Graham that makes them so incompetent that they are not being given a chance to play this season? (Followup: Why are they at Ohio State if they are so incompetent?)
• If incompetence is not the issue, and there is another ‘hidden’ concern (such as team discipline), then shouldn’t that be explained to Buckeye Nation so that your own coaching skills aren’t called into question? (Followup: Should they be allowed to transfer?)

Sincerely,
MotSaG

Here’s the weekly Game Chat with the guys over at The Buckeye Battle Cry and Our Honor Defend. Usually at least one of us MotSaG’ers join in the fun over there.

I imagine that the festivities will start around 7:45 PM or so.

Also, if Google+ is more your style, the sportsMonkey has been setting up G+ chats that happen during the game. If you’re interested in joining, make sure and circle Men of the Scarlet and Gray.

So anyway, the chat:

See you at 7:30!

Finally, the time has arrived.  After all of the off-season tumult and subsequent suspensions, the Nebraska game is here and we can now welcome back QB phenom Terrelle Pryor, dynamic RB Daniel “Boom” Herron, speedy and sure-handed WR DeVier Posey, and impenetrable LT Mike Adams to reclaim the reins from their his surprisingly effective replacements and continue the march to a perfect  completed season and, if everything falls right, the national championship Meineke Car Care Bowl.

Well, crap.

In the aftermath of last week’s offensive “performance” that failed to budge the scoreboard until there were just 10 seconds left in the game, you may be thinking that there is no hope for Ohio State this weekend, playing on the road against a 4-1 opponent that in recent years has competed for titles in their old conference.  You may be worried that our inexperienced roster will be intimidated by a large and hostile crowd enjoying their first Big Ten home game (on homecoming weekend, no less).  You may be considering tuning into A&E’s Storage Wars marathon or The Last of the Mohicans on CMT (Wait, what does the “CM” stand for again?)

And you may be right, but I actually think the Buckeyes can pull this one off.  No, the skill position game-changers we were all waiting for aren’t riding in to the rescue, but Ohio State gets something back this week that it’s had in every win so far: a poor defense to play against.

And before you Husker fans go corns**t in the comments section, let’s do a little comparison, shall we?

When Ohio State Has The Ball

Expect average (150+ yards) numbers running the ball and slightly above average (170+) in the passing game, although Adams’ impact could improve those numbers (it’s doubtful that his return could hurt production, even if he literally falls asleep for a quarter or two).  The Nebraska defense gives up far more yards through the air than Ohio State typically gains, but someone is going to have to take advantage of that.  If that person exists–and if Jim Bollman can correctly identify him–then it could be a very successful night for the offense.

The Buckeyes average 23.8 points per game (I know; seems high to me too) while the Huskers give up 27.2.  That puts Nebraska right with Toledo (27 papg) statistically among Ohio State’s previous opponents.  This already bodes well for OSU since we actually managed to hit that number against the Rockets despite some pretty poor offensive play and playcalling.  I don’t expect either of those things to change drastically this week, although Adams’ return should help with production and maybe even get us into some manageable 3rd downs (imagine!).  The two teams Ohio State lost to also happen to give up 20 points or fewer on average.  The other three are well over that mark, and the Buckeyes have performed accordingly against those teams.  Despite Nebraska’s defensive tradition and reputation, they have landed themselves in the second group so far this year.  Expect Ohio State to score in the mid-to-high 20s.

When Nebraska Has The Ball

The Huskers tend to be very productive on the ground, something that could lead to trouble for Ohio State.  So far, Nebraska has run for nearly twice what their opponents usually give up.  Fortunately for the stout Buckeye D, this would still come out to under 200 rushing yards.  I don’t think they’ll get that much, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see 160-170.

On the other hand, the Huskers tend to underproduce through the air, a major advantage if Ohio State can stop the run effectively.  Look for 120-140 yards passing for Nebraska.

Nebraska has played just one team with a solid defense this year and that didn’t turn out so well for them.  The good news for the Huskers is that their 17 points was more than what Wisconsin typically allows (10.2)  and they score more than any offense the Buckeyes have played so far.  The bad news is that the Ohio State defense is almost as stingy (14.6) as the Badgers and no one has matched their average production against the Silver Bullets yet, averaging just over half of their ppg when they play Ohio State.  Look for Nebraska to score in the 17-21 range.

Ultimately, a lot hinges on Adams’ ability to help the offense improve and the coaching staff’s ability to learn from last week’s disaster of game management and playcalling.  If Nebraska finds success blitzing like Michigan State did, it’s probably all over.  (Walrusball has no use for in-game adjustments, except to Bollman’s belt after his halftime snack.)  Still, the opportunities will be there for the offense if they can execute, and the defense will be lights out again.

My final score prediction:  Buckeyes 27, Huskers 20.  Yours?

As always, presented without comment.

As always, stats are grabbed from cfbstats.com. As a side note, cfbstats.com is holding a pledge drive to pay for the costs associated with running a fantastic resource of a website. If you love these By The Number posts as much as I do, please consider heading over there and throwing a few coins in Marty’s direction. I just did and hope you will, too. Thanks for the great site, Marty!

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.