Gator Bowl
To find the last time Ohio State had ever recorded 7 losses in a single season, you'd have to go all the way back to 1897. Some interesting facts about 1897:
- William McKinley was the sitting President of the United States of America.
- Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Hawaii, and Alaska had not achieved statehood yet.
- Flight had not yet been achieved, and the first running American car had only been built four years prior.
- Princeton, Yale, Harvard, and Penn ruled the college football world.
Anyways, as a result of the 24-17 loss to the Gators on January 2nd, it dropped our overall record to 6-7, meaning that for the first time in 114 years we had a 7 loss season. This was a game that we absolutely should not have been playing in (Although I'll get to that later), but here goes my impressions of the game, which are brief because mainly I want to move the hell on from the current season:
- Special teams lost us this game. The defense played pretty solidly, at least good enough to win, but the blocked punt and the kick return for a touchdown killed us. Urban has always placed an emphasis on special teams and using starters on them, so I would expect to see immediate improvement in this area come next season.
- We averaged 6 yards per carry against Florida... yet we didn't pound the ball down their throats like we should have. We should've been running until they showed us they could stop it (They didn't).
- Apparently Florida knew our snap count, by their own admission. Whenever Brewster is about to snap the ball, his head bobs up, and this was seen most clearly when Braxton got hit before he could even attempt a handoff on a crucial third and short.
- John Simon is a monster. The rest of the front four, and the defense in particular, was very average or worse. Let's not pretend like we were facing a dynamic attack, Florida is anemic at best and we should've shut them down even better than we did.
- I wish we would've had DeVier Posey all season. It's clear how much more confident he makes Braxton Miller and how much more dynamic our passing game is with him out there in general.
- Our other receivers, meanwhile, had a difficult time getting seperation from the Florida defensive backs. Braxton had to take several coverage sacks because of this, and it's been an issue that has plagued our team for a couple of years now. Hopefully new coaches/philosophy can fix that.
- I'm really disappointed to end the season on a four game losing streak, and also really disappointed that Luke Fickell's record as head coach finishes at 6-7.
NCAA Verdict: Bowl Ban for 2012
As I assume you've most likely been informed of by now, the NCAA handed down it's verdict for the violations by the football program stemming from its notice of allegations about Jim Tressel's botching of Tattoogate, and as well from of the Failure to Monitor allegation concerning the attendance of a booster's charity event in Cleveland where players received impermissible benefits. And, those punishments include: a 1 year post-season ban for 2012 (This includes the Big Ten Championship Game), a reduction of 3 scholarships per year over 3 years (Not a big deal), and 4 years probation (Not a big deal unless they really mess up).
We are technically the first program to ever receive a post-season ban with only a Failure to Monitor charge and absent a Lack of Institutional Control Charge, but at the same time, we received the post-season ban as a result of the charity event and our status as a repeat violator dating back to Jim O'Brien and the basketball program's failures a decade ago.
When you look at all of the circumstances, the punishment is fair, in my opinion. But Gene Smith, our idiotic athletic director (I'm not about to mince words about the person responsible for mishandling this entire situation since day 1), needs to be fired. If there was even the slightest possibility of a post-season ban, which there was, he needed to institute a self-ban for 2011, which was a lost season anyways. Instead, the first year of the Urban Meyer era we are saddled with a post-season ban.
Gordon Gee needs to get some heat. I won't call for his firing because of the enormous amount of things he does for this University on the academic side, but he needs to be sat down by the Board of Trustees. His stupid comments about sports aside (Little Sisters of the Poor, Polish Army this past week, etc.), his way of handling things, especially the botched press conference where he said, 'I hope Jim doesn't fire me', are completely unacceptable.
Urban Meyer: There are not words
People talk about making a home run hire, well we made a grand slam, in the bottom of the ninth inning, down 3 runs, with the World Series on the line to save the world type of hire. This may be the biggest hire in NCAA history. Think about it, when was the last time a two-time national championship winning coach, with a legacy of recruiting and winning that he has, was hired by a school with as much influence, reach, and success such as Ohio State? I'm coming up empty.
His impact has been instantaneous. Here's a little recap of the recruiting work he has done thus far (Credit to The Bank and Nevada at Scout.com for breaking all of this news over the past month):
- 5 star DE Noah Spence, a top 5 player in the nation, committed to Ohio State after not even having us under consideration before Urban's hire.
- 5 star DE Adolphus Washington committed when word spread of Urban's hiring. He was already coming here, but this is just a point of emphasis.
- 5 star DT Tommy Schutt flipped from Penn State to Ohio State because of Urban.
- 4 star DE Se'Von Pittman flipped from Michigan State to Ohio State because of Urban.
- 5 star RB Brionte Dunn, while at the time a verbal commitment to Ohio State, was heavily leaning towards Michigan, and even considered a lost cause by most close to the situation for Ohio State. In 2 weeks, Urban completely won over Dunn and Brionte has in fact enrolled early and is on campus as I type.
- 4 star OT Taylor Decker has flipped to Ohio State.
- 4 star OT Joey O'Connor, a former Penn State commit before the Jerry Sandusky news broke, received an offer from Ohio State this weekend, and is expected to commit soon.
- Still on the board: 4 star OT Kyle Dodson (Wisconsin commit), 4 star ATH DaVonte Neal, 4 star LB Camren Williams (Penn State commit), 4 star CB Armani Reeves (Penn State commit), 4 star LB Dalton Santos (Tennessee commit), and others.
He has assembled what can be called one of the best coaching staff's in America on paper. Tom Herman (Offensive Coordinator and QB Coach), and Zach Smith (Wide Receivers coach) are rising stars in the coaching world (Smith is actually the grandson of former Ohio State coach Earle Bruce), while he pilfered ND coaches Tim Hinton (Fullbacks and Tight Ends) and Ed Warinner (Offensive line, Co-Offensive Coordinator), two good coaches and excellent recruiters. As well, he made the biggest hire of all by convincing Luke Fickell (Defensive Coordinator & Linebackers coach) to stay on staff, and also added former North Carolina interim coach Everett Withers (Co-Defensive Coordinator and Safeties), and retained Mike Vrabel (Defensive Line) too.
The Jim Tressel era was incredible. Just look at the raw numbers: 106-22, 7 Big Ten Championships, 1 National Championship, 3 National Championship Appearances, 5 BCS bowl wins, 6 bowl wins overall, 9-1 against Michigan. Those are numbers we may not ever see matched again. But trust me folks, I love Jim Tressel, he's one of the best in college football, and this is no disrespect to him but he pales in comparison to Urban Meyer.
Urban is flat out, the best coach in college football. He wins immediately wherever he goes. He puts together the top recruiting classes, puts out more NFL players than anyone (2 of the 4 QB's starting in NFL playoff games yesterday were his - Alex Smith and Tim Tebow), he has two national championships in the most rugged conference in college football, the SEC, has a perfect season under his belt at Utah (And a perfect regular season at Florida), 3 13 win seasons, 7-1 in bowl games, just overall unbelievable.
The Tressel years were incredible. But trust me when I say this, and I'm not one to dole out credit where it's not deserved: Urban Meyer will be better.
For a breakdown on Urban Meyer's offense, take a gander over at the work by Ross Fulton at Along the Olentangy, as he does a great job breaking things down: passing offense, rushing offense.
Around The Nation
- That was the worst national championship game ever, and the ratings back it up. First off, Alabama shouldn't have even been there (Thank you BCS), but rather Oklahoma State, but then to top it all off we're forced to sit through three hours of torture disguised as a football game. At least it gave us this gem.
- Penn State hired Bill O'Brien, the New England Patriots Offensive Coordinator, as their new head coach. Once I got done laughing upon hearing the news, I did a little digging into his history, and his last experience at the collegiate level? Going 1-21 in two years as the OC at Duke.
- Frank Beamer did everything possible to ensure that Brady Hoke finished his first season at 11-2. Nah, I'm playing, Michigan did what they were supposed to do and won that game, but Virginia Tech definitely showed that they shouldn't have been there.
- Kellen Moore finished one of the best careers in NCAA history in obscurity, with a capping things off with a 56-24 win over Arizona State in the MAACO Las Vegas Bowl. He finished his illustrious career with 14,667 passing yards, 142 touchdowns, a QB rating of 169.0, and the NCAA all-time record for career wins with a 50-3 record.
- I'm looking forward to watching how Nick Saban is going to fit ~97 players into the 85 man scholarship limit by the NCAA. The other day, LSU had to ask a player to pay his own way for the spring because they oversigned and did not have a scholarship for him. Karma struck, the kid refused, and promptly enrolled at SEC rival Auburn.
Just wanted to note that this blog is not affiliated with Time and Change clothers in any way shape or form, and is not a representation of the company, business, or those who run it, but only a reflection of the views and opinions of myself, Brad Potter, a student at The Ohio State University who writes this blog out of boredom and passion for Ohio State football and receives zero dollars for the production of it.
