I know what you mean but it would actually be a step down for him title wise. He is a defensive coordinator now.
And ac really good one it seems. I know his name was thrown around when Lea left as a as a position coach, future DC. But that was all speculation not knowing who the actual dc would be
Oh my this has me so excited for next year. Really would like 3 years with freeman but 2 will do. I don’t pretend to be a super expert but watch the below and tell me if that isn’t some of the most inventive gap sound tackling sound defense you have seen in a while. It looks a lot like Lea but crazier
no too early he has a reputation as a tireless recruiter though, no DC under Kelly has ever even been known as a marginal recruiter so this is a big change
Another thing I love about this is that it stocks the cabinet for future HC hires. In the Willingham/Weis era, the only guys with ND connections were some dude from the Packers and ??? 5 years down the line, Rees, Lea, and Freeman are all realistic options
How would y’all rate your DL this year? Having some discussion in our thread re: our back up center, and I thought y’all had one of the better units we’ve faced this year. Curious to hear what y’all think, though.
A step back from last year (which was one of, if not the best of the last 2 decades) but still pretty strong. It was great by ND standards but still a clear step below the elites.
they are a bit on the small side but really good against the run, they work really hard and they are relentless. It’s biggest strenght is depht, Nd would switch the entire dline for a few series a game without any drop off. You don’t have the superstars like chase young at de but they can put some pressure on the qb, they could not finish with sacks so that was a weakness. i think osu ´s is better overall but I doubt that they are as disciplined and steady. They will probably pressure you more but also make some mistakes that will open up some good running lanes.
I'm trying to think of teams that Bama played with an overall better DL and I'm coming up with Georgia.
And a good article... https://thedraftnetwork.com/articles/marcus-freeman-notre-dame-defensive-coordinator-scheme Though the part about corners does scare me.
He has a history of modifications. This year's 3-3-5 is not his traditional base. But a shift from a 4-3 to match AAC offenses. Last year they came out in 4-4 against one academy and because there was film on it, for their next academy game they went with a 5-2 "bear" look. He adjusts. That's one thing he's always done well. UC in general has been fun to watch the last couple years, but his defense is a huge reason why.
Really interesting Urban Meyer article... https://theathletic.com/2311073/2021/01/09/ohio-state-alabama-urban-meyer/ Spoiler This all started with Alabama’s hands. OK, it started a little before that, when Urban Meyer took the job at Ohio State in November 2011 and began building the program into the monster that is today. But things really started to crystalize for Meyer when he watched the way Alabama’s players were using their hands during pregame warmups before the BCS National Championship against Notre Dame in January 2013. “He’s a lunatic,” former Buckeyes linebacker Joshua Perry said. “He sent us a text about Alabama as he was watching them in pregame warmups. He was down by the defensive line. He said that their defensive line was the best in America at shooting their hands inside, gaining inside leverage, and that the reason Alabama was so much better was because of the details. He said they’re the best inside hands team in America, and we don’t do it like Alabama. We’re way behind. It became a point of obsession, just that one singular point.” Alabama won that day in a rout, 42-14. With Ohio State’s postseason ban in effect that season, Meyer was at the championship game in Miami as part of ESPN’s coverage. He didn’t wait to get back to Columbus, collect his thoughts and address his team at the first meeting before winter workouts. He texted players from the sideline. “That was when ‘The Chase’ started,” Meyer said this week. “I texted every player, every coach, everyone on the support staff, everyone associated with Ohio State football and said, ‘We’re 12-0, but the reality is we’re not even close.’ I watched (Alabama) come out of the tunnel. We didn’t look like that. I watched their fundamentals in pregame. We didn’t play like that. So ‘The Chase’ officially started. We were gonna chase Alabama.” By this point, everyone knows how that chase ended. Two years later, the Buckeyes beat Alabama in a College Football Playoff semifinal at the Sugar Bowl and then dispatched Oregon to win the national title. The title lives on forever. A street in Columbus is named after it: “The Undisputed Way.” But that win against the Crimson Tide was arguably more consequential for the future of Ohio State’s program. With Ohio State set to play Alabama again Monday night for the national championship in Miami, it’s fair to wonder where exactly the Buckeyes would be if not for that win against the Crimson Tide six years ago. “In my mind,” Meyer said, “that changed the trajectory of Ohio State into a national, national power.” It’s not that Ohio State wasn’t good before then. It’s been the class of the Big Ten and the dominant program in the Midwest for a long time. But since beating Miami for the national championship at the end of the 2002 season, the Buckeyes were mostly known for being good, but not quite good enough, to compete with college football’s elite when it mattered the most. National title losses to Florida in 2006 and LSU in 2007 helped hammer that home. Meyer took the job before the 2012 season unsure of whether a Big Ten school could ever consistently compete with the dominant programs in the South on the field and in recruiting. The win against Alabama answered the first question and set things in motion for Ohio State to become a significant recruiting force in football hotbeds outside of the Midwest. “They’ve always done OK, but it was more of the footprint, kind of a regional thing,” Meyer said. “You dipped into New Jersey or Florida, but you didn’t go get the best players in Georgia, Texas, California.” In the six recruiting classes before beating Alabama and winning the national title, Ohio State signed eight total five-star prospects. In the six since, it has signed 19 — and they have come from places such as Georgia, Texas, Florida, California and Washington. The Buckeyes have gone into Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia and Oklahoma for blue-chip prospects who previously might not have considered playing in the Big Ten. The program’s real recruiting footprint now has become as national as national can be. Ryan Day’s staff can go anywhere, including down south. That’s not only about beating Alabama. Ohio State has consistently developed NFL players as well as any program, and better than most, since Meyer’s arrival. And its “Real Life Wednesday” off-the-field development program has been copied around the country. However, consistently winning recruiting battles in some of the most talent-rich areas of the country was not a reality prior the Buckeyes completing their chase of Alabama under Meyer and winning that championship. “Once you go down in the South and you get a win against a team like Alabama, it definitely creates inroads,” Perry said. “It makes it OK for kids to leave the South to come to the Midwest to play ball. I definitely think that helped. If we didn’t get that win, I don’t know if it’s easy to go and get guys out of South Florida, Georgia, Texas that would lean maybe more toward going to the SEC.” Ohio State, which will play Alabama on Monday night, is reaping the benefits of that. Day has reached the Playoff in each of his first two seasons as head coach on the strength of stellar recruiting classes in 2017 and 2018 that in some way were a direct result of that 2014 championship season and the way the narrative changed around Ohio State. At the time, Meyer said it would take a year or two to reap the rewards of that title on the recruiting trial. In 2017, the program signed its best class of the modern recruiting era. Baron Browning, Shaun Wade, Wyatt Davis, Josh Myers and Haskell Garrett — just some of the players in that class — have played crucial roles this season. The 2018 class, which was arguably as good as the 2017 class, produced seven current starters. Those players come from Texas, Florida, California, New York, Oklahoma, Idaho … everywhere. The roster probably would look a little different if Meyer had not been able to elevate Ohio State’s recruiting. “I think that really helped solidify that and helped us take off to be able to recruit with the best in the country year in and year out,” said Ohio State defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs, who was coaching the Buckeyes’ cornerbacks in 2014. The win against Alabama would perhaps be looked back on less fondly had Ohio State not blown out Oregon in the national championship game and finished the job. “We knew once we beat Alabama, there was no chance Oregon was gonna be able to hang with us,” Perry said. “It felt like that was the team to beat. Once we did it, it felt like nobody could fuck with us, for real. I think that game was big in being able to change the way people had conversations about Ohio State.” The game was memorable enough to stand on its own. Cardale Jones stepping in for J.T. Barrett and guiding Ohio State on its championship run is the stuff of legend. Evan Spencer’s touchdown pass off of a reverse to Michael Thomas swung momentum just before halftime. Steve Miller, at the time an anonymous defensive end, ran back an interception for a touchdown. Ezekiel Elliott put the dagger into the Crimson Tide with his 85-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. Any of those moments would stand as one of the greatest in the history of the program. But that game was not only about the legacies that were cemented that day. It was about the future, too. “When Zeke came out of the other end of that run, that changed things,” Meyer said.
Good article, thanks for posting. I’m optimistic about our young corner talent and they’ve got 20 months to get better for Ohio State. I don’t see anyone on next year’s schedule outside of USC who’s really going to threaten them, and USC is losing both Amon Ra and Vaughns.
https://247sports.com/college/notre...Cincinnati-Bearcats-Fighting-Irish-158919612/ Anything good in here?
That’s a bunch of words to not tell us anything more than we already know Loy’s clickbait game is elite
« What I was told is that there was a strong feeling that LSU was set to land him until Freeman had one final conversation with Kelly on Thursday. I wouldn’t say his mind was completely made up at that point, but it was about as close as you’ll get. Now, I’m not going to say that call was the tipping point, but I’m told it definitely impacted the end result and was essentially a game-changer. » That is some impressive writing, how to contradict yourself while also making sure to not take any responsibility for what you wrote.
Someone asked if BK upped the offer on the Thursday call and Loy said that is not something he has looked into. Wtf.
Lol. I will give Bk credit he has the beat writers in check. Never any leaks that aren’t coordinated.