No. When you get fractional media rights shares your school is considered poor so it appears Oregon is saving some money, must’ve decided to not mail them out.
The RB Rooms in this matchup are pretty wild. Each have nationally recognizable #1 backs, and then go 3 to 4 deep with absolute playmakers behind them. Crazy talent and depth.
ND has really leaned into a heavy counter based run game this year, where we'll like pull a guard, tight end, and wide receiver (we have a couple big body receivers), and the play takes like 3 seconds to develop then somehow right when you think it'll be blown up, Estime rumbles into the secondary for 12 yards because the hole opened up just enough I'm really nervous a fast, gap shooting defense like OSU is going to blow it up to a level something like Tennessee St couldn't
I got an email from ND athletics that I will receive an LED wristband at my seat Saturday. That will be used for a special light show as the team runs onto the field. Can’t fucking wait for this.
Yeah we don't really do a lot of that. Our DL is coached to focus on "destroying blocks" to try to spill runs rather than shooting through gaps.
Every ND fan in the parking lot on Saturday drunk trying to explain to OSU fans that being independent is way more fun
I think the two keys on offense for Ohio State are: (1) Is McCord ready for the big stage; and (2) will the OL hold up? McCord has thrown better each week, and was pretty accurate on his deep stuff last week. If he’s ready, it’s tough to simply double Harrison because we have three WRs and a TE who are all very good. If he’s off, we’ll have trouble. The OSU OL has pass blocked well, but we have been a mediocre running team. Third and three is a passing down. For the OSU defense: (1) the DL needs to play to potential; and (2) our DBs cannot get beat on big plays. So far, both of those issues have been great, but ND is a different opponent.
Pretty much mirrored for nd. offense: can they protect Hartman so he can go through his reads? If he has time he finds the right guy. Can they get enough of a push to have a serviceable run game? Nd is going to run into a brick wall either way - just don’t know if they will break through. defense: Despite what the analytics say about pressures my own eyes tell me the pass rush isn’t great. Can they get to McCord? Can they do it without sending 6? Can cam hart and Morrison (two nfl hopefuls) slow down Marvin et Al without safety help?
The OSU Blogosphere lost its collective mind after the Indiana game because Harrison went 2/18 and Egbuka 3/16. They ignored that McCord went 6/8 for 58 to WR Fleming, 6/7 for 108 to his TEs, and 2/3 for 24 to RBs. In the last two weeks, Harrison put up the ridiculous stats everyone expected, against outmatched opponents—7/160 2 TD and 5/126 1 TD. I look for ND to double Harrison and McCord to use his TE Stover and WR Fleming to hurt ND for using a safety on that double coverage.
Went for a nice walk this morning through Harrison West, popped on some OSU podcast called THE Podcast, it was the first to come up on Spotify- those dudes were in love with themselves. We have some odd podcasts but our ND beat is so damn shy and reserved as personalities that was quite the change in pace. Made it through two episodes and needed to get back to work, if that's the type of info your beat is feeding your fanbase I feel bad for you guys. The ND beat is really thorough on opponent research and will map out really well how our opponents will attack ND, those guys were absolutely not thorough. Only mentioned three ND players by name the whole time: Alt, Fisher, Hartman which seems insane to not mention Estime considering he's leading the NCAA in rushing and is the Doak Walker favorite. Hartman apparently sucks to these guys- seemed to care more about Freeman and Gene Smith's ND/OSU connection than anything to do with the game.That got beaten to death last year, no one cares anymore Is there a better podcast to listen to? I have 5 hrs of drive time tomorrow If you want a ND podcast listen to the Thursday afternoon Irish Illustrated Game Preview Podcast- they are good and grounded.
This isn't a MAC team, ND isn't going to fucking double team some random WR and pray to TD Jesus that 9 can stop 10. ND is man coverage defense that plays some Cover 3, that's what they will play Saturday. ND goes 5 deep at CB and 4 deep at Safety, they have a legit top 15 defense with 6+ NFL players in the starting lineup. Its the same DC as last year and ND didn't double cover anyone in Columbus
Most we’ll likely do is bracket to give safety help. I don’t think you can devote so many resources to a single Ohio State playmaker without getting carved up by the rest of the unit. You need to hope you can limit the damage on the outside in 1 on 1 situations, and not give McCord enough time to have comfort in the pocket. The bigger issue arises when Harrison and Egbuka get put in the slot, because it would be abnormal for us to have them followed by our outside corners (who actually played them extremely well last year).
You should try listening to Menace 2 Sports podcast for some in-depth, objective thoughts on OSU football and football in general.
If your plan is to leave Harrison in man coverage without safety help, have at it. As for last year, we were down two starting WRs after Smith-Nigba went out, Fleming being the other who missed the game.