Midweek Musings!

Minnesota Redux - Buckeyes Romp 38~7

After the blistering week suffered following the Purdue loss, the Golden Gophers definitely came at the right time. Save for the 18 play drive that resulted in Pettrey's missing a chippy and the big bomb from Pryor to Posey the offense was still somewhat sluggish. The 31 point explosion in the 2nd half was eased the fragile psyche of Buckeye nation, well at least for a week. The 38 points, over 500 yards of offense, and a dominating defense have people thinking that Tressel can still actually coach this game. Following the Purdue loss, one would've thought that the Vest had lost all coaching knowledge and was way in over his head. Not only did the offense look good, Pryor seemed to be focused the whole game, the line got their act together and we got to see that there is actually some depth at running back.

Pryor's decisiveness in running the ball was the most aggresive I've seen him since last year. For the most part his footwork was much better and he made better decisions. Probably the best pass he threw during the game was the one he threw out-of-bounds. Instead of running around trying to make something of nothing, which he has been prone to do, under duress, he took the mature route, Finally!! Except for the bad throw at the end of the 1st Half, and still some messy footwork on a couple of his throws, this was by far his best game. Over 200 yards passing and another 100 rushing, really should be the norm for him. Hopefully, he'll realize that running when necessary to keep drives alive, will ultimately help his passing in the long run.

The Buckeyes actually have receivers!! Yeah, Posey had some drops but as Pryor improves this kid will be a star. No their not Ginn/Gonzalez or even the under utilized Robiskie/Hartline for that matter but the Posey/Sanzenbacher combo is a good one. Add in a rejuvenated Small and Duron Carter, this just might be the deepest group of receivers they had here since the Jenkins/Holmes/Gamble era of 2002.

Boom and Zoom better get healthy and real quick. Jordan Hall looked really good and where has Jermil Martin been all season. Martin appears to be the closest thing to Beanie on the roster. Boom and Zoom have been good, but Hall and Martin just seem to have a bit more of that natural instinct needed by running backs. Unless, there is another injury of some sort, we won't get a look at Jamal Berry until next year. Hopefully, Carlos Hyde will make it on campus next year and Roderick Smith will also be on board and he'll most likely redshirt next year.

My Comments on Some Comments

Move Pryor to receiver.. He's a bust.. blah, blah, blah. That has got to be the most absurd thing that resulted from the Purdue loss. Move Pryor to receiver, are you serious. Not to disrespect him, but anyone thinking that Joe Bauserman gives the Buckeyes a better chance to win is straight up stupid! In Football, especially in CFB, the adage is to put the ball in the hands of your 'Best Player' Well folks, Pryor is the Buckeyes best offensive player - period. Can't you hear the criticism now, if you were to get moved to WR, and the Buckeyes lost! They all would be saying that Pryor didn't get the ball enough. Just ask Georgia and Alabama fans if A.J. Green and Julio Jones get the ball enough, and you'll get a resounding NO! and there established wideouts, Pryor would have to learn that position. Here, Tressel is definitely right in his firm decision not to even consider the prospect of moving Pryor. People want Pryor to be a Troy Smith, during Smith's Heisman year. Troy Smith, for how good he was, really didn't become Troy Smith! until the later stages of his junior year, which included, some off the field issues that seemed to humble him and enabled him to mature into the player he was later on. One can only hope that Pryor has some of Smith's fortitude and mental makeup to overcome some of his issues both on the field and off, and become Troy Smith like in his remaining years at Ohio State.

And in speaking of the development of Terrelle Pryor under Jim Tressel, remember the guy who can't coach. Well remember Troy Smith, the afterthought - the last player in that Buckeye recruiting class. Smith was supposed to eventually move to receiver or something because wunderkind Justin Zwick was the ballyhooed QB. Well we know how that eventually turned out. Smith, under the guidance of Tressel, would eventually win the job from Zwick and would go on to win that Heisman in 2006. Not just win it mind you, but won it with a record 86.7% of first place votes. If Terrelle continues to work as hard as the staff claims he is, then by the time he leaves, he just might have some hardware of his own as well.

Flash Forward - New Mexico State

The thought process is, that this should be nothing more than a scrimmage. Well, that was the same thinking heading into to Purdue game. However, this really should be nothing more than a glorified scrimmage for the Buckeyes. New Mexico brings with them the worst offense to Columbus. No, you read right, NM St has the 120th ranked offense out of 120 FBS teams. Also, coming to town will be the 75th ranked defense. This should be a great opportunity for Pryor, the O-line, and the running backs to develop some consistency in their execution and for the coaches to develop some consistency in their play calling. The defense should've had a shutout last week, sorry the 2nd teamers are still part of the team, and Silver Bullets should record one this upcoming weekend. For whatever reason, the execution or the coaching, the defense simply was not as aggresive as I've gotten accustomed to them being against Purdue. Against Minnesota, the coaches let the dogs out again so to speak. Hopefully, moving forward, they'll remain aggresive in the game planning, as they'll have to be down the stretch if they have any hope of successfully retaining their share of the Big Ten Title and another BCS bowl berth.

My Top Five

1) Texas - have consistently played the best thus far

2) Florida - Still undefeated, still the defending champs

3) Alabama - Not hating on how their winning, see Ohio State 2002

4) Iowa - Will remain here until Ohio State game, come on Buckeyes have their number

5) Cincinnati - Undefeated and was more impressive against the Beavers than USC

The Tressel/Carroll Debate

First off, welcome to my very first blog post, with hopefully many more to come.

When thinking of what to address in this initial post, the Ohio State offense, which at this point is offensive to say the least was gonna be the focus. However, following the embarrasing loss to Purdue, which the offense was suppose to get a boost, instead got busted. While gathering my thoughts on the woes of the offense, the loss itself lead to another area which as been the subject of much discussion. The Jim Tressel v Pete Carroll debate.

Over the last several years Tressel has been taken to task for the team's shortcomings in BCS bowl games and non-conference games against the power programs from other conferences. And deservedly so. But why not the same venom for Carroll whose teams have consistently loss to teams with sub-par records? Yes, Carroll wins his bowl games at the end of the year, thus saving him from the ridicule bestowed upon Tressel. Carroll is always the preferred coach when the two are put side-by-side. He's the better coach, the better recruiter, the better game-planner, etc. His two-deep is better than most team's starters? So why is it they lose to teams who are way inferior to them.

Since 2005 both teams are in the top 5 in winning percentage, 88% for USC and 84% for Ohio State, both teams Have been to 4 BCS games. Both teams have sent comparable numbers to the NFL. Yet Tressel gets trounced in public opinion polls, ESPN, etc.. Carroll gets a pass.

Since 2005 Ohio State has 8 losses, USC 6 losses. However, all of Ohio State losses have come to BCS teams. More specifically, those losses have come to BCS Bowl Teams, Two of which were in the national championship game itself. All the others have either come in a BCS bowl game or to teams that eventually played in a BCS bowl game. USC losses have come, save one, to teams in which most cases the Trojans were double digit favorites. How can we forget the loss to UCLA (5-6) I believe 5-6 at the time or that terrible loss to Stanford another team with a losing record.

When having lively debates with my SoCal Brethren and they use the played-out thought process that the Big 10 is weak. Which based on on-field performance by the conference as a whole might be valid point. That being said, its not like USC was losing to the top-tier of their own conference, which by the way, hasn't been all the impressive either.

And in those debates I could always state the fact the atleast the Buckeyes made it to the Title game by winning all the games they were Supposed to win! Many would argue that those games were embarrasing loses for the Buckeyes, and I would argue that it was USC that had the more embarrasing losses over this time period. While the Buckeyes were losing to the Florida's, LSU's, USC was losing to UCLA, Stanford, Oregon St.

Which brings me full circle back to the Purdue loss. This was the type of team Tressel and the Buckeyes always seemed to beat. And this was the one argument that Buckeye nation could always lean on, when it came to Tressel in this debate. You could count on a Carroll coached team to have a bad, bad loss at some point in the year, and for Tressel to win a very ugly, ugly game (well maybe two or three-but he would win) at some point in the year. Granted, it was just one game and hopefully for Buckeye Nation an abberation, but if this continues, I mean is Minnesota a guaranteed win at this point. Following the Purdue loss, my SoCal brothers quickly informed me that one of my key arguments was no longer as strong as it once was. The Tressel/Carroll debate will be even more one-sided and Buckeye Nation grumblings that are already loud, will set decibel levels to new highs.