With the looks of your season Paul, your team has had "fits" with anything that breathes.
Well that would give MICHIGAN a better chance at the upset. We have had fits defending QB's with "happy feet" like Pryor.
This guy is a great recruiter, but the worst in-game coach since Herm Edwards. It's so annoying to watch a guy who doesn't make the proper adjustments during the game.
Spare us the histrionics, Jim, waving off the field goal made you look silly in my book. Instead how about coming up with a game plan that doesn't include running the same plays on first and second down almost EVERY SERIES. It was monotonous, boring...and losing.
I've been giving this guy the benefit of the doubt, but our team always seems to make the big mistake, the big penalty, at the wrong time. From the ridiculous penalties on the second drive of the USC game where we were actually threatening to run away with the game, to the penalties tonight, it really seems like other teams are better coached than ours.
Not to mention that unbelievable timeout last year when Illinois was ready to punt the ball back to us with something like five minutes left in the game. Tressel calls timeout because his defense isn't ready to receive a punt, Illinois changes their mind during the timeout and goes for it, makes a first down, and we never get the ball back again. Awesome, Jim. Oh, and Maurice Wells looked like he never caught a kickoff in his life...how does that happen at home? How does that always happen to us?
It's difficult beating a team that goes into one of the most hostile environments in sports and makes no mistakes whatsoever. No turnovers, no penalties...their DB's actually turn around and look for the ball and everything.
Is this really the same coach who had Craig Krenzel throw deep on fourth and one late in both the Iowa and I think Purdue games when we were trailing, back in the national championship year? What happened to that guy? What happened to throwing on first down every once in a while just to keep the defense honest? Or doing something different than running Beanie Wells between the tackles non-stop with very little to show for it.
At least the nation is spared another national championship game that is over at the end of the first quarter because one coach is adjusting and one isn't.
Oh, and did you see the stat tonight? We're 103rd in the nation in red zone offense. Number 103. How many division one teams are there, like 109? And we're 103. Lovely. Mr. Imagination on offense will bring you that kind of stat.
And whoever here said Todd Boeckman would be playing by now lied.
Eh, I'm just aggravated. The sun will come up tomorrow, right?
Sandra
If The Ohio State lets Tressel go you could end up with the same kind of coach that Michigan has.
"
Being a Florida grad, I do not have the mental scars.
I do recall Florida had their own Moby Dick- winning in Tallahassee, which they didn't do for a while before they eventually do it."
Those scars disappeared when Florida beat FSU to win the 1997 title, 52-30. (Really, the scars I was referring to were from the Title Game 2 years ago; I was tongue in cheek referring to the fact there are no scars because UF won).
My main point is that Tressel is one of the best coaches in the country. Ohio State is 7-2 in a rebuilding year.
As for some of the other comments, Pryor looks like a better athlete than Troy Smith and seems suited to a spread option approach.
Ohio State's problems in the title game versus Florida were that: 1) its OL could not block Florida's DL, which was loaded with guys playing in the NFL (both ends went in the first round) plus fourth round type draftees who made it, too (UF had linedackers and DB's make it in the too, including a first round draft choice, Reggie Nelson); 2) OSU's defense was young; and 3) Florida had southern speed. Last year, LSU had a healthy DL by the title game and a defense loaded with NFL players and a very fast and experienced offense. Typically, when the top calibre southern schools overcome the advantage top calibre Big 10 schools have in the OL, the southern schools win.
OSU lost to USC for similar reasons this year, except it is a young, rebuilding team.
Tressel is not at fault. The amazing thing is that OSU beat Michigan 2 years ago, with all the guys Michigan put into the NFL the last 2 years. Even though OSU was at home, it beat the more talented team. I credit the coaching.
I've given him a pass for quite a while now, actually. I absorbed the Florida and LSU demolitions as part of competing at this level. Sometimes good teams will beat you. Sometimes badly. I started questioning him after the USC game. That was ugly.
And now this.
You can make the argument that 10-2 is an underachieving year, since so many publications and prognosticators had us in number 1 or in the NCS game again. But I'm not going there...I'm mostly questioning Tressel's in-game decision making.
Keep in mind, I'm STILL not necessarily questioning the losses themselves. Again, that will happen. It's the way we're losing, the penalties, the lack of discipline on the field, the absurd timeouts, the fact that he keeps doing the same thing over and over and over again.
Eventually the pass runs out. Maybe not in Ohio, but here it does.
It's not a question of 10-2 or not 10-2. That's way too simplistic, and sounds like it comes from a person not realy familiar with Ohio State...or a person way too familiar and in 'hero-worship' mode. If we had two losses that were not games thrown away by the coach, I would live with that.
Quarterbacks will fumble. Passes will be dropped. Tackles will be blown. Mistakes will be made, mistakes a coach has only so much control over. But if you actually read my post, I'm concerned with in-game mistakes made by the coaching staff, I suppose mostly by Tressel. This is what bothers me, and makes me feel he's not up to the level the top coaches in the sport.
OK, so you can also question the fact that Tressel took a team that up until around 11PM Saturday night was still in the national title race, and turned it into a rebuilding season by giving the keys to a freshman quarterback (did he attend any classes yet?...I know the academic year at OSU is unusual) and letting a senior, who already took us to a national title game, watch from the bench.
Isn't there a way Tressel could have used both quarterbacks, like Meyer did with Tebow and Leak? Actually, I thought that was the plan all along...I suppose that changed in one game. Or in one quarter.
Didn't Leak have a bad game (or quarter) along the way two years ago? Why didn't Meyer change everything and put Tebow in for good, to rebuild? Leak didn't even have a national title game on his resume like Todd Boeckman does.
For the record, I don't have a problem with Pryor playing over Boeckman. I didn't say that before the game (although I did question if we'd ever see Boeckman again), so I won't say it now. But I do have a problem with everyone labeling this as a rebuilding or transition year all of a sudden. Nobody said that before the season started, so don't say it now.
Ask James Laurinitis if he thought this was a rebuilding or transition year on Labor Day.
Personally I yearn for the days when Tressel played to win, and didn't play 'not to lose'. And when our teams always seemed more prepared than the other teams. And key penalties were called on the other team way more than on our team.
I think Urban Meyer is a jerk, but you can't help but wonder what he could do with this team...
Sandra
Well that would give MICHIGAN a better chance at the upset. We have had fits defending QB's with "happy feet" like Pryor.
If tOSU loses to Northwestern, I shudder to imagine how the Three Buckeye-teers will freak out.
Who are you talking about ?
It's not just about winning the national title every year- you have to be consistent in contending, have a team that is capable of being a legit threat, beat your rivals, and go to decent bowl games.
Tressel's done a nice job- other than 1998, Cooper had trouble beating big rivals and winning big bowl games.
You, Sandra, and HD MM are this site's resident tOSU fans.
Tressel also beat a more talented Miami team in the Rose Bowl.
Believe it or not, Tressel has NEVER coached in a Rose Bowl.
Tressel also beat a more talented Miami team in the Rose Bowl.
I'm sorry you think Urban Meyer is a jerk. He is honest, hard working and one of the brightest coaches in the game. He is a great recruiter. Florida is a very young team (10 starters will be back on defense next year).
I am not a hero worshipper of Tressel and I see way too much college football to make my wife happy. I went to Florida. My wife went to Michigan.
The comments above say it all. Ohio State had trouble moving the ball before Pryor took over.
And, I would argue Tressel has learned. Next year, he will have an experienced, talented QB. He will not have to be second guessed for playing a senior who couldn't move the team and being left with an inexperienced QB for next year.
As for the Chris Leak comparison, there is none. Leak had been a starter since he was a freshman. He had a terrible game at Auburn and some erratic moments, but he was the clear starter. Tebow had a very important change of pace role.
I think its to Tressel's credit that he didn't stick with a senior who was not performing and that he was forward thinking. Don't condemn him based on bad expectations. Who saw Penn State , Alabama and Texas Tech as contenders this year?
There are a lot of schools that would be happy with 10-2, 9-3 or 8-4 in a "bad year." Ohio State lost to USC on the road and Penn State. Two championship contenders.
Don Shula used to say that coaches are measured every week-- by the score and by their record. Tressel's record does not have the be defended.
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