Coaches and Coordinators

At this point in the year, with a 3-2 record and losses to Miami (Who got beat by Kansas State and struggled with Bethune-Cookman) and Michigan State (In one of the most anemic offensive performances in decades), it's not looking very likely that Luke Fickell will be retained as head coach at the end of this season.  That being said though, Coach Fickell did not inherit the job under the best circumstances.

I think we can all remember the day that Jim Tressel resigned, May 30th, 2011, and Fickell was tabbed as the interim head coach for the 2011 season.  Now, that date is pretty key when it comes to assessing the job that he has done this year.  You see, per NCAA rules, programs have 15 practices in the spring, 15 practices in the fall, and 15 practices in preparation for a bowl game.  Obviously by that point, Sugar Bowl practices were long gone (What Sugar Bowl?), and spring ball had ended more than a month prior to that.  The defense was no worry, as Tressel was not as involved on that side of the ball, and Jim Heacock had been running the show since 2005, with Fickell being right along side him since then (especially since the blowout loss against USC in 2008).

Jim Bollman, the bane of Buckeye
fans existance since 2001

The offense though, is another story, and in order to properly tell it, I'm going to give some background information.  When Jim Tressel was hired as head coach at Ohio State way back in 2001, he named Jim Bollman his offensive line coach and his offensive coordinator.  Now, Bollman had been an offensive line coach at NC State (1983-84), Virginia (1991-94), and Michigan State (1995-97), so there's not much to debate there, although the offensive line play has been lacking throughout most of his tenure.  But, his only prior experience as offensive coordinator was two years back in 1989 and 1990 under Tressel at Youngstown State.  He knew what Tressel wanted to do, and was an expert at designing the right offense in order to do it.

Tressel worked closely with the quarterbacks and the offense as a whole, and despite winning the national championship in 2002, halfway through the 2004 season the Buckeyes sat at a crossroads.  They were 3-3, with disappointing quarterback play and unimaginative play-calling.  Here is where Darrell Hazell comes in.  Hazell was in his first year as Wide Receivers coach, coming from Rutgers.  It was then that his opinions started to take root in the offense, and the changes were noticable immediately as they offense boomed into an explosive one that culminated in Troy Smith's Heisman Trophy season of 2006.

Now, lets fast-forward to 2011.  The offensive brain trust, made up of Tressel, Hazell, and Bollman, has disintegrated.  Tressel resigned under pressure, Hazell took the head coaching job at Kent State in December, but Bollman is still here.  And now, we're seeing Bollman for what he really is.  Without Tressel and Hazell, without players like Troy Smith, Terrelle Pryor, or Beanie Wells to cover up his deficiencies, we're seeing him for what he is as an offensive coordinator: mediocre, resistant to adjustment or change, and in way over his head.

Troy Smith isn't walking through the door anytime soon

It's remarkable how similar it is to former Texas offensive coordinator Greg Davis.  Davis, like Bollman, went back a long time with his head coach (Davis had coached under Mack Brown for 20+ years), and thanks to talents like Colt McCoy, Vince Young, Ricky Williams, and others, his deficiences went unnoticed for a while.  But in 2010, without such talent to work with, the offense imploded.  They finished 88th in scoring offense with around 23.5 points per game, and 58th in total offense with 382 yards per game, and 116th in turnover margin thanks to his offense.  And, after the year, Davis 'retired', and Mack Brown brought in Bryan Harsin from Boise State to fix things offensively.  So far through 5 games, they are averaging 34 points (37th in the nation) and 420 yards (46th in the nation) per game, and are tied for 7th in the nation in turnover margin.

Through 5 games, we currently rank 91st in scoring offense (23.8 PPG) and 108th in total offense (308 yards per game), I think you can see where I'm going with this.  It's been painfully obvious since Tressel's resignation that Bollman will not be around after this season, but there's also the question of whether Fickell will be around with the opportunity to replace him.  Knowing that his time may be limited, I think the time for Fickell to act is now.  Change the hierarchy.  Give more power to Stan Drayton, Dick Tressel, or someone. Shake things up and see what happens.  It's obvious things are working out with Bollman right now, so, knowing that you've really got nothing to lose at this point, make a change.  Be a man of action.

All I know is, this is the last season with Jim Bollman as our offensive coordinator and offensive line coach.  I just wonder if Luke Fickell will be around to reap the benefits of a new offensive staff.  We're only 5 games into the season, and we're 3-2.  We could very easily be 5-0 with even an average offense, considering we nearly had a chance to beat Michigan State late despite barely being over 100 yards of total offense for the game, and we settled for 2 FG's and were driving to pull within 3 against Miami when Braxton fumbled the ball away.

There's 7 games left in Fickell's on-going job interview as head coach.  On the road against Nebraska, Illinois, Purdue, and Michigan, and at home against Wisconsin, Indiana, and Penn State.  This is where Fickell is either going to win or lose the job.  Unfortunately though, that also means 7 more games of Jim Bollman calling the shots offensively.