Do OSU fans project Tuimoloau or Sawyer to become Young/Bosa level guys up front based on what you saw this year? I could see your back seven getting better due to experience a more consistent scheme, but kind of seems like at least one of two guys have to become stars for you up front to be legitimately good on that side.
2021 was mostly a complete shit show on defense. Only six of the eleven starters in game one were starting by the Rose Bowl. We demoted our DC in game three. By the Rose Bowl, we were starting a LB who converted from RB in August and another who converted from TE in November. We had our starting safety “retire” prior to bowl practices and then shit post on Twitter throughout the game. Hopefully, we clean house of the upperclassmen. The true freshmen on defense were awesome in 2021.
2021 was the first year there has been any valid reason to criticize Larry Johnson as a position coach. He didn’t rotate the freshmen enough and let a lot of dead weight play a lot of snaps in front of them. Idiots always cry about the backups being better than the starters, but we really needed to rotate JTT and Sawyer more. Neither of them looked quite like the Bosas or Chase Young as true freshmen, but both looked really good. The potentially biggest star on the DL might end up being freshman DT Tyleik Williams. He needs a strong year of strength/conditioning, but he was dominant when he played. He finished second on the team in sacks, playing only a fraction of the DT snaps due to three seniors and a RS junior ahead of him.
I assume we’re going undefeated and winning the natty every year until proven otherwise so I’m sure we’ll be fine on defense
This had been about a month in the making. He's been a lackluster OL coach, but good/great recruiter and the coaching importance outweighs recruiting. Both Chryst and Rudolph understand that it is no longer working. Both are really good friends, too. Rudolph will likely be a HC somewhere soon anyways. Bostad (currently ILB coach) will be a big upgrade at OL coach. The players will hate the practices, but will love their draft position in the end - just gotta listen and take in every word out of his mouth. UW OL recruiting sells itself, so not much lost with the departure. Need to establish a better presence in the Pittsburgh/Ohio areas and we're fine. We've all been waiting for this. Rudolph is the deserved sacrificial lamb to bring in new ideas and talent. It likely means Bobby April (OLB) will get more duties, better pay, and stick around longer. He's arguably our best coach and easily our best recruiter. It also means that we get a new QB coach/possibly new OC. Just need Chris Haering (ST) canned and we're cruising. Need avoid more Wisconsin alumni incest.
Next year could be the best UM offense since the mid-00s unless they horribly botch the QB competition to the point it tanks the team. I'm pretty convinced the defense is going to be mediocre, though, due to lack of pass rush that could expose all the weaknesses Hutchinson/Ojabo masked this year. Not sure it will matter a ton outside of OSU and MSU, but both of those teams likely expose the D unless some young edge guys take massive steps forward.
Iowas defense is going to really solid again next year and they were extremely young. Iowas OL will improve quite a bit I’m thinking even though they will lose Linderbaum. WR talent looks good for once and TEs will be solid especially LaPorta returns. RBs looked really good in the bowl game. All of this won’t matter bc Petras will be the starter again and look like he shouldn’t even make the field for a NAIA program.
Vastardis and Stueber are graduating (I think, at least). Vastardis will be replaced by the UVA transfer who is good and experienced. Stueber will be replaced by one of about 5 young guys with some talent (including a few who have played a decent amount the last few years). Who knows with OLs from year to year, but if there's a step back I don't think it will be significant.
I don’t think it’ll matter. We’ll be bad all over. Clifford isn’t coming back to sit, would say he’ll be out there. I don’t hate it. We’ll suck regardless, so let him get battered for another season I guess.
That's a tough early slate for you guys. 4 of the first 6 are @ Purdue, @ Auburn, v. OSU, @ Michigan. I guess the good news is if that goes poorly the second half is a lot easier (only home v. MSU), so could transition to Allar and build for 23 during that stretch.
The thing about college football that’s great is that you don’t really know good the team each year is going to be until it has a couple games in.* So much changes each year. * *excluding Alabama.
Our board seems to be split between let Clifford be the tackling dummy behind our shit OL next year and "never want to see Clifford ever again. He's the worst qb ever" I fit in with the latter
I’m not expecting to see much of Allar unless Clifford gets seriously hurt. Franklin is blindly loyal to a fault.
I know it’s preposterous to say but I think our offense next year could be just as good if not better than it was this season, especially if they bring in an OL coach who gets his unit playing tougher in the run game. On defense the only way to go is up. This season was hands down the worst defense I’ve ever seen at Ohio State. Getting us early is probably a good thing, I could definitely see the more aggressive scheme hurting us until guys understand their assignments. The good thing is (at least I pray) that the change in coordinator will reset the roster. There were a handful of guys that didn’t justify the number of reps they were getting.
Seems like PSU would benefit from getting into the portal more. Especially after spring ball when the next wave of transfers happens.
CJ Stroud closed 2021 with the best four game stretch by an OSU QB in history: Purdue 31/38 361 5 TD 0 int MSU 32/35 432 6 TD 0 int Michigan 34/49 394 2 TD 0 int Utah 37/46 573 6 TD 1 int Our running game largely left us and the defense was a clown show, but there isn’t a better passing attack in the country.
In any other situation I might agree, but this is the brain trust that gave us classics like Tuf Borland covering DeVonta Smith, an eight man LB’er rotation and Zach Harrison dropping into coverage against Utah’s most explosive weapon.
We’ve recruited too well to play this badly on defense. I’m old enough to remember the early John Cooper years, when his answer to the question of what’s wrong with the defense was, “we have too many slow white guys.” In theory, there is no way this defense should be this bad. We have talent.
You have talent, but I don't think it's the same level of talent you had when Urban was there. That makes the margin for error smaller if one or two of them aren't superstars. That's why I asked about JTT and Sawyer earlier, because if those guys aren't stars, you're not rolling out a secondary that's filled with first rounders to cover it up. That leads to things like getting caught in match-ups because QBs have time to pick you apart (like your offense does to everyone else). Your D should be the best in the conference, probably, but it's harder when you don't have top 50 guys at every position on the field. I don't think you have that anymore.
And before OSU people get mad about it, OSU's offense is so good it probably doesn't matter. You're the clear favorite going into next season because no one is going to stop that offense.
People forget just how bad the 2017 and 2018 OSU defenses played at times. We had a five game stretch in 2018 where we gave up Purdue 49, Nebraska 31, Maryland 51, and Michigan 39. We had back to back games in 2017 giving up Penn State 38 and Iowa 55. We have four and five star players at every position on this defense except LB, but signed three top 50 overall Lbs in this 2022 class.
Ohio State fans: It can only get better. Michigan and Nebraska fans: (throw their heads back in laughter)
Depth Chart in the 2014 NC game vs this season (prospect rankings): 2014: Bosa (37) Washington (19) Bennett (49) Miller (62) Lee (636) Grant (23) Perry (133) Apple (52) D. Grant (59) Powell (483) Bell (26) Avg player rank: 143.54 This season: Harrison (12) Garrett (68) Jackson (51) Smith (34) Chambers (231) Simon (75) Hickman (115) Burke (196) Brown (323) Proctor (71) Ransom (167) Avg player rank: 122.09
In stats we eliminate outliers to get better comparisons. Lee and Powell should be eliminated for the 2014 team and Brown should for this year's. That changes the average for 2014 to 51.11 and this year to 102. The talent level has gone down.
I just want you to know that, as OSU fans, we always appreciate MSU coming in with a chair to the back of Michigan while we’re engaged.
If you think your talent level on defense is the same as it was at your best under Urban, we're just going to agree to disagree. Whether that's a recruiting thing or a development thing, I don't know. Maybe you're right. But even on some of your worse defenses in 17 and 18, you still had obvious difference makers and future top draft picks. I just don't see that with you at the moment.
I’ll 1000% agree with you on the development side. The issue isn’t the talent, the issue is the defensive staff isn’t developing it. That’s why I’m hopeful in the Knowles hire, he’s proven he can develop guys and put them in positions to be successful.
What an absolute moronic comparison. Your 2014 team had 8 guys starting on the defense ranked 62 or higher. This year's team only had 3 guys starting that are ranked that high. Just because you had two starters on the 2014 team who had extremely high rankings doesn't mean the collective talent was worse. You had much more elite talent on that 2014 team and it's not even remotely close.