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LGHL Hangout in the Holy Land Podcast: Ohio State’s Cotton Bowl dud and a eulogy for the 2023 football season
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Hangout in the Holy Land Podcast: Ohio State’s Cotton Bowl dud and a eulogy for the 2023 football season
Josh Dooley via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
The Hangout Boys react to an embarrassing OSU loss and plead for changes to be made within the Buckeyes’ program.
The latest episode of Land-Grant Holy Land’s flagship podcast is here! Join LGHL’s Josh Dooley and Chuck Holmes as they discuss Ohio State football, recruiting, and much, much more! Come for the hot takes, stay for the warm ones.
Listen to the episode and subscribe:
On this episode of “Hangout in the Holy Land,” Josh and Chuck do their best to react to a confusing, disappointing, and frankly embarrassing Cotton Bowl loss for Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes.
With Michigan, National Signing Day, and even the loss of their starting QB at least temporarily in the rearview, Day and his OSU football squad had an opportunity to turn the page and roll into 2024 with some momentum. Instead, the head coach looked overwhelmed and underprepared, leaving Buckeye Nation with more questions than answers.
Questions such as: What the hell happened in Arlington, TX? Where does the football program go from here? And should Day be the one leading it?
Please make sure to like, rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast! And as always, Go Bucks!
Connect with the pod
Twitter: @HolyLandPod
Connect with Josh Dooley
Twitter: @jdooleybuckeye
Connect with Chuck Holmes
Twitter: @ctholmes3
Continue reading...
Josh Dooley via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
The Hangout Boys react to an embarrassing OSU loss and plead for changes to be made within the Buckeyes’ program.
The latest episode of Land-Grant Holy Land’s flagship podcast is here! Join LGHL’s Josh Dooley and Chuck Holmes as they discuss Ohio State football, recruiting, and much, much more! Come for the hot takes, stay for the warm ones.
Listen to the episode and subscribe:
Subscribe: RSS | Apple | Spotify | Google Podcasts | iHeart Radio
On this episode of “Hangout in the Holy Land,” Josh and Chuck do their best to react to a confusing, disappointing, and frankly embarrassing Cotton Bowl loss for Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes.
With Michigan, National Signing Day, and even the loss of their starting QB at least temporarily in the rearview, Day and his OSU football squad had an opportunity to turn the page and roll into 2024 with some momentum. Instead, the head coach looked overwhelmed and underprepared, leaving Buckeye Nation with more questions than answers.
Questions such as: What the hell happened in Arlington, TX? Where does the football program go from here? And should Day be the one leading it?
Please make sure to like, rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast! And as always, Go Bucks!
Connect with the pod
Twitter: @HolyLandPod
Connect with Josh Dooley
Twitter: @jdooleybuckeye
Connect with Chuck Holmes
Twitter: @ctholmes3
Continue reading...
LGHL You’re Nuts: What is your New Year’s resolution for Ohio State athletics in 2024?
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You’re Nuts: What is your New Year’s resolution for Ohio State athletics in 2024?
Brett Ludwiczak via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images
Your (almost) daily dose of good-natured, Ohio State banter.
Now that we have made it through Christmas, the next holiday we have on the calendar to look forward to is New Year's. Last year was a bit of a tough year for Ohio State fans. The men’s basketball team failed to make the NCAA Tournament back in March. While the women’s hockey and basketball teams made deep runs in their tournaments, they both ended up falling a little short of winning titles. Then in the fall, the football team lost to Michigan for the third year in a row and missed out on making the College Football Playoff.
Since the new year is a time to set goals to better ourselves, today we want to know what your New Year’s resolution is for 2024 when it comes to Ohio State athletics. Is there a team you want to pay attention to more? Is there a certain goal you have in mind when it comes to how you root for the Buckeyes? Maybe there is a particular game on one of the team’s schedules you want to attend. If we all reveal our resolutions we can help keep each other accountable in 2024!
Since I moved to Columbus in 2005, last year’s Ohio State women’s basketball team made one of their deepest NCAA Tournament runs, making it to the Elite Eight before losing to Virginia Tech. In the past 20 years there was numerous NCAA Tournament appearances, but they all didn’t make it beyond the Sweet Sixteen. It also helped that the men’s basketball team missed the NCAA Tournament, freeing me up to focus more on the run the women’s team made.
This year’s women’s team has enough talent to make the Final Four. So far this year, the Buckeyes are 10-2 ahead of Saturday’s game against Michigan. While Ohio State has lost two games, those setbacks came to a very talented USC in the first game of the year, and then at home recently to UCLA, who is ranked second in the country. The Buckeyes did beat Tennessee by 20 points, as well topping Penn State 94-84 in their Big Ten opener.
Jacy Sheldon, Cotie McMahon, and Taylor Thierry are averaging over 13 points per game, and the team recently saw guard Madison Greene return to the court after she was injured last season. Even though Greene is averaging just 10 minutes per game in her first four contests, she could be a huge factor off the bench as March nears. All this and I haven’t even mentioned Rebeka Mikulasikova or Celeste Taylor.
There would be times when I would keep track of scores from the women’s team but I wouldn’t really tune in to games. I know I need to change that this season since this team is so talented. The Buckeyes have two games on the regular season schedule against Iowa, which should be “must-see TV” as they try and slow down Hawkeye superstar Caitlin Clark. Along with Iowa, there are a number of tough teams in the Big Ten on Ohio State’s regular season schedule.
If you’re like me and want to do a better job at keeping tabs on the Buckeye women’s hoops team this year, at least you’re on the right site. Our own Thomas Costello does an amazing job at covering the team, so I know I’m going to keep an eye out for his work as the season moves along.
Happy New Year to all!
I’ll be honest with you, blogging about the Buckeyes over the last few seasons hasn’t always been a ton of fun. After practically 20 years of dominance, the downturn in on-field success (almost exclusively against Michigan and in the postseason) has made for rather tumultuous reactions from a fanbase that is not particularly known for being level-headed. Part of this is the ability of social media to amplify small pockets of emotion in a way that makes it feel like they are the majority-held position. And it’s almost always the people who are the most disgruntled who are so passionate about letting as many people as possible know about it.
Now, this is not to say that anger, frustration, and disappointment have not been — and do not continue to be — warranted; we have passionately written and podcasted about the team’s failures over the years. However, due to the general anonymity of social media — and blogging — there is a tendency to overamplify the negative so that it goes from being a legitimate, but limited, grievance to something that people have to act like is an affront to our shared decency or an attack on our collective humanity.
These very loud, very angry voices are actually an accurate representation of the thoughts of a group of fans, but it is a small group. And I don’t say that to discount their positions, because often I think that their analysis, while not their toxicity, is fairly astute. Instead, I just mean that the larger majority of fans — be they of the Buckeye or any other team in any other sport — don’t pay close enough attention to the individual minutia surrounding their favorite team.
So, instead of letting embarrassing losses in New Year’s Six bowls (in which the offensive gameplan looked amateur at best) destroy their entire holidays and serve as an ever-present torment on their psyche for the next nine months, most fans move on fairly quickly; still disappointed and intermittently angry, but not enough to go scorched earth on anyone and everything even tangentially associated with the program.
While we as bloggers — remember LGHL is a fan site and in no way claims to be a journalistic outlet, especially when it comes to football — are not the point here, that is from where I have most witnessed the corrosive nature of the eternally online element in the OSU fandom. So, when things don’t go super well for the Bucks, we do what bloggers do and react to it or write about it or tweet about it, That, unsurprisingly, is often met with responses from fans who don’t take kindly to anyone criticizing the team that they love.
However, if we try to take an optimistic, glass-half-full approach to any disappointing outcomes, a different group of OSU fans (or maybe it is some of the same folks) get upset that we are not as actively pissed as they are. So, no matter what we do, there are people in this large and expansive Buckeye Nation who aren’t going to be happy. That’s just how it works when you cover the team with the largest fan base in the country.
And to be honest, that’s a bummer because everyone that covers football at LGHL is a die-hard Ohio State fan and we all want to see them win just as much as all of the readers and listeners do. But, when the team does fall short of its own (or its fans’) expectations, we are going to write about it. And, just like all of the fans out there, we have a wide range of opinions, so someone is practically always angry at us when we discuss the team’s shortcomings.
So, my New Year’s resolution is to just not pay attention to it, whether that’s in the comments of our stories, podcasts, or posts, or just on social media at large. It’s not that I don’t think that those people’s opinions are valid, or that they don’t have worthwhile perspectives, it’s just that they diminish my enjoyment of something that should fundamentally be fun. Being a fan of a football team comes with inherent highs and lows, and a general negativity surrounding a team at is underachieving is to be expected. But it’s the extreme venom that makes being a fan not much fun.
Therefore, in 2024, I’m just removing myself from that part of following the team. Podcasts, newspapers, articles, TV, radio, those are all forms of media that are st all still on the table
Continue reading...
Brett Ludwiczak via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images
Your (almost) daily dose of good-natured, Ohio State banter.
Now that we have made it through Christmas, the next holiday we have on the calendar to look forward to is New Year's. Last year was a bit of a tough year for Ohio State fans. The men’s basketball team failed to make the NCAA Tournament back in March. While the women’s hockey and basketball teams made deep runs in their tournaments, they both ended up falling a little short of winning titles. Then in the fall, the football team lost to Michigan for the third year in a row and missed out on making the College Football Playoff.
Since the new year is a time to set goals to better ourselves, today we want to know what your New Year’s resolution is for 2024 when it comes to Ohio State athletics. Is there a team you want to pay attention to more? Is there a certain goal you have in mind when it comes to how you root for the Buckeyes? Maybe there is a particular game on one of the team’s schedules you want to attend. If we all reveal our resolutions we can help keep each other accountable in 2024!
Today’s question: What is your New Year’s resolution for Ohio State athletics in 2024?
We’d love to hear your choices. Either respond to us on Twitter at @Landgrant33 or leave your choice in the comments.
Brett’s answer: Watch more of the Ohio State women’s basketball team
Since I moved to Columbus in 2005, last year’s Ohio State women’s basketball team made one of their deepest NCAA Tournament runs, making it to the Elite Eight before losing to Virginia Tech. In the past 20 years there was numerous NCAA Tournament appearances, but they all didn’t make it beyond the Sweet Sixteen. It also helped that the men’s basketball team missed the NCAA Tournament, freeing me up to focus more on the run the women’s team made.
This year’s women’s team has enough talent to make the Final Four. So far this year, the Buckeyes are 10-2 ahead of Saturday’s game against Michigan. While Ohio State has lost two games, those setbacks came to a very talented USC in the first game of the year, and then at home recently to UCLA, who is ranked second in the country. The Buckeyes did beat Tennessee by 20 points, as well topping Penn State 94-84 in their Big Ten opener.
Jacy Sheldon, Cotie McMahon, and Taylor Thierry are averaging over 13 points per game, and the team recently saw guard Madison Greene return to the court after she was injured last season. Even though Greene is averaging just 10 minutes per game in her first four contests, she could be a huge factor off the bench as March nears. All this and I haven’t even mentioned Rebeka Mikulasikova or Celeste Taylor.
There would be times when I would keep track of scores from the women’s team but I wouldn’t really tune in to games. I know I need to change that this season since this team is so talented. The Buckeyes have two games on the regular season schedule against Iowa, which should be “must-see TV” as they try and slow down Hawkeye superstar Caitlin Clark. Along with Iowa, there are a number of tough teams in the Big Ten on Ohio State’s regular season schedule.
If you’re like me and want to do a better job at keeping tabs on the Buckeye women’s hoops team this year, at least you’re on the right site. Our own Thomas Costello does an amazing job at covering the team, so I know I’m going to keep an eye out for his work as the season moves along.
Happy New Year to all!
Matt’s answer: Tune out the vocal minority
I’ll be honest with you, blogging about the Buckeyes over the last few seasons hasn’t always been a ton of fun. After practically 20 years of dominance, the downturn in on-field success (almost exclusively against Michigan and in the postseason) has made for rather tumultuous reactions from a fanbase that is not particularly known for being level-headed. Part of this is the ability of social media to amplify small pockets of emotion in a way that makes it feel like they are the majority-held position. And it’s almost always the people who are the most disgruntled who are so passionate about letting as many people as possible know about it.
Now, this is not to say that anger, frustration, and disappointment have not been — and do not continue to be — warranted; we have passionately written and podcasted about the team’s failures over the years. However, due to the general anonymity of social media — and blogging — there is a tendency to overamplify the negative so that it goes from being a legitimate, but limited, grievance to something that people have to act like is an affront to our shared decency or an attack on our collective humanity.
These very loud, very angry voices are actually an accurate representation of the thoughts of a group of fans, but it is a small group. And I don’t say that to discount their positions, because often I think that their analysis, while not their toxicity, is fairly astute. Instead, I just mean that the larger majority of fans — be they of the Buckeye or any other team in any other sport — don’t pay close enough attention to the individual minutia surrounding their favorite team.
So, instead of letting embarrassing losses in New Year’s Six bowls (in which the offensive gameplan looked amateur at best) destroy their entire holidays and serve as an ever-present torment on their psyche for the next nine months, most fans move on fairly quickly; still disappointed and intermittently angry, but not enough to go scorched earth on anyone and everything even tangentially associated with the program.
While we as bloggers — remember LGHL is a fan site and in no way claims to be a journalistic outlet, especially when it comes to football — are not the point here, that is from where I have most witnessed the corrosive nature of the eternally online element in the OSU fandom. So, when things don’t go super well for the Bucks, we do what bloggers do and react to it or write about it or tweet about it, That, unsurprisingly, is often met with responses from fans who don’t take kindly to anyone criticizing the team that they love.
However, if we try to take an optimistic, glass-half-full approach to any disappointing outcomes, a different group of OSU fans (or maybe it is some of the same folks) get upset that we are not as actively pissed as they are. So, no matter what we do, there are people in this large and expansive Buckeye Nation who aren’t going to be happy. That’s just how it works when you cover the team with the largest fan base in the country.
And to be honest, that’s a bummer because everyone that covers football at LGHL is a die-hard Ohio State fan and we all want to see them win just as much as all of the readers and listeners do. But, when the team does fall short of its own (or its fans’) expectations, we are going to write about it. And, just like all of the fans out there, we have a wide range of opinions, so someone is practically always angry at us when we discuss the team’s shortcomings.
So, my New Year’s resolution is to just not pay attention to it, whether that’s in the comments of our stories, podcasts, or posts, or just on social media at large. It’s not that I don’t think that those people’s opinions are valid, or that they don’t have worthwhile perspectives, it’s just that they diminish my enjoyment of something that should fundamentally be fun. Being a fan of a football team comes with inherent highs and lows, and a general negativity surrounding a team at is underachieving is to be expected. But it’s the extreme venom that makes being a fan not much fun.
Therefore, in 2024, I’m just removing myself from that part of following the team. Podcasts, newspapers, articles, TV, radio, those are all forms of media that are st all still on the table
Continue reading...
LGHL Grumpy Old Buckeye: Ohio State vs. Missouri
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Grumpy Old Buckeye: Ohio State vs. Missouri
Michael Citro via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by John Bunch/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The Cotton Bowl offered few redeeming qualities for Ohio State fans in an embarrassing loss to the Missouri Tigers.
Whatever we witnessed on Friday night was the furthest thing from Ohio State football I can remember seeing in a long, long time. At least the defense played well (until it didn’t) and the Buckeyes fell 14-3 to Missouri in an embarrassingly poor Cotton Bowl performance. It would take far less time to write what went well than to spell out the entire laundry list of things that I found exasperating about the Buckeyes. In fact, if not for the punting of Jesse Mirco and the play of Jack Sawyer, I’d probably say the evening had no redeeming value whatsoever.
But here are some of the many irritants from the egg Ohio State laid against the Tigers.
It wasn’t a good tone that the Buckeyes set with their first possession. Missouri made a tackle for loss on TreVeyon Henderson on first down. Devin Brown made a terrible throw to waste a second down. Brown was then flushed out of the pocket by the pass rush on third down. The first-time starter could have tucked the ball and gotten something positive — perhaps even the first down if one man missed — but instead threw a poor pass. The offensive line was porous all night, and it seemed like any additional rusher was never accounted for and came through cleanly every time Missouri tried. Early drives are usually about emotion and the Buckeyes did not match Missouri’s level.
OSU Special Teams Coach Parker Fleming, who has been absolutely stealing money from the university, is the unwanted gift that keeps on giving. He’s the brick-hard, two-year-old fruitcake your ancient aunt sent for Christmas, and you have to eat it every single week. Ohio State couldn’t even manage to get the game’s first punt away without taking a delay of game penalty. Fleming’s unit rarely does anything well, but the minimum expectation should be to line up correctly and snap the football.
The two Joshes wrecked the second Ohio State drive with false start penalties. Josh Simmons and Josh Fryar have struggled to avoid penalties throughout the season, but to have both commit them on the same drive was just…[chef’s kiss]. Brown got sacked on third-and-20, because they joined the rest of their teammates up front in not pass-protecting all night, and the second drive was over quickly.
I’m fully aware that Ohio State plays on artificial turf, but I don’t like it and I don’t like any artificial turf being used ever. My view on that did not change when Brown’s foot got stuck in the turf while he was being tackled and he came up limping. He sat out a couple of plays before giving it another go, but a brutal hit on a sack — one that happened because Simmons got roasted on the left side — ultimately was the last straw and he exited the game, leaving me to curse the name of Kyle McCord, and leaving Ryan Day with no choice but to throw freshman Lincoln Kienholz into the fire. Like many, I had concerns with a first-time starter in a bowl game, but it sucks not knowing how Brown would have fared as the game went on after a bit of a rough start.
What kind of idiot would fall for a fake handoff to a quarterback who has shown he can barely walk for the last few plays? No player on Missouri, so it was a ridiculously bad call for Day to opt for a play with a direct snap to Henderson and a fake to Brown. The fake was never going to slow the defense down and only allowed them to get to Henderson faster. I’m not sure it was the worst play call of the 2023 season, but it’s at least in the conversation.
Missouri was able to pick up a fourth-and-short in the first half and it was curious to me that on such an important play Larry Johnson’s unit had the backup defensive tackles on the field. Rotation is necessary, but it seems a smart move to have your best players on the field for key situations like that. I’m not a coach, so don’t take my word for it.
Missouri was about to attempt a 65-yard field goal in the final seconds of the first half. When they showed the view from the end zone, Ohio State had nobody standing in the end zone. It’s a 65-yard kick. If it’s left short, you’ve got a chance at returning it against a field goal unit that typically doesn’t feature a lot of speedy guys. And I’ve seen Missouri’s kicker. He’s not chasing down one of your faster guys. Parker Fleming felt it wasn’t necessary to have someone back in case of a short kick for some reason. This is a man who is paid in United States dollars to think of what to do in various special teams situations. It didn’t matter in the end, as Missouri took a penalty and did not end up attempting the kick.
Fleming isn’t directly responsible for Jayden Fielding doinking his second field-goal attempt off the left upright. That’s on the kicker, but there’s a coach responsible for that unit and it’s the same guy I’ve had to talk far too much about this season. Other college teams make moves when a coach’s group isn’t performing. Ryan Day has shown a willingness to do that in the past when Kerry Coombs’ defense wasn’t up to snuff. But for some reason not known publicly, Day has refused to admit the obvious: his dedicated special teams coach has one of the team’s most reliably bad units on the team.
Ohio State’s defense had played well all night. In fact, it had done such a good job that when the Tigers took over at their own 5-yard line late in the third quarter, the players on the OSU defensive unit shouldn’t have been any more tired than the underworked Missouri defense. Ohio State had to stop a third-and-7 from the Tigers’ 8-yard line to set up the offense in good field position. Instead, cracks started appearing in the dam. Missouri got exactly the seven needed yards and a fresh set of downs.
From that point on, the defense seemingly had no answers, and the Tigers put together consecutive long touchdown drives. The first one essentially ended the game, because there didn’t seem a prayer of Ohio State’s offense scoring a touchdown, and it started with that conversion. The Tigers drove 95 yards on a defense that had stifled them all night. After Ohio State’s offense failed again, the Tigers went 91 yards to put it away.
And that’s the season. It wasn’t one to remember, although it started out well. At this point, it seems like the only fond memories from 2023 will be of watching Marvin Harrison, Jr. and the return to form of Denzel Burke. With starters Kyle McCord and Mirco having entered the transfer portal, this off-season has already started to feel like rats fleeing a sinking ship, but that may just be the effects the last two games have had on my psyche. At any rate, I can now be a grumpy old basketball fan until the fall.
Continue reading...
Michael Citro via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by John Bunch/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The Cotton Bowl offered few redeeming qualities for Ohio State fans in an embarrassing loss to the Missouri Tigers.
Whatever we witnessed on Friday night was the furthest thing from Ohio State football I can remember seeing in a long, long time. At least the defense played well (until it didn’t) and the Buckeyes fell 14-3 to Missouri in an embarrassingly poor Cotton Bowl performance. It would take far less time to write what went well than to spell out the entire laundry list of things that I found exasperating about the Buckeyes. In fact, if not for the punting of Jesse Mirco and the play of Jack Sawyer, I’d probably say the evening had no redeeming value whatsoever.
But here are some of the many irritants from the egg Ohio State laid against the Tigers.
Offense Sets the Tone Early
It wasn’t a good tone that the Buckeyes set with their first possession. Missouri made a tackle for loss on TreVeyon Henderson on first down. Devin Brown made a terrible throw to waste a second down. Brown was then flushed out of the pocket by the pass rush on third down. The first-time starter could have tucked the ball and gotten something positive — perhaps even the first down if one man missed — but instead threw a poor pass. The offensive line was porous all night, and it seemed like any additional rusher was never accounted for and came through cleanly every time Missouri tried. Early drives are usually about emotion and the Buckeyes did not match Missouri’s level.
Delay of Game. On a F*%#ng Punt
OSU Special Teams Coach Parker Fleming, who has been absolutely stealing money from the university, is the unwanted gift that keeps on giving. He’s the brick-hard, two-year-old fruitcake your ancient aunt sent for Christmas, and you have to eat it every single week. Ohio State couldn’t even manage to get the game’s first punt away without taking a delay of game penalty. Fleming’s unit rarely does anything well, but the minimum expectation should be to line up correctly and snap the football.
Don’t Be Untrue
The two Joshes wrecked the second Ohio State drive with false start penalties. Josh Simmons and Josh Fryar have struggled to avoid penalties throughout the season, but to have both commit them on the same drive was just…[chef’s kiss]. Brown got sacked on third-and-20, because they joined the rest of their teammates up front in not pass-protecting all night, and the second drive was over quickly.
Fake Grass Sucks
I’m fully aware that Ohio State plays on artificial turf, but I don’t like it and I don’t like any artificial turf being used ever. My view on that did not change when Brown’s foot got stuck in the turf while he was being tackled and he came up limping. He sat out a couple of plays before giving it another go, but a brutal hit on a sack — one that happened because Simmons got roasted on the left side — ultimately was the last straw and he exited the game, leaving me to curse the name of Kyle McCord, and leaving Ryan Day with no choice but to throw freshman Lincoln Kienholz into the fire. Like many, I had concerns with a first-time starter in a bowl game, but it sucks not knowing how Brown would have fared as the game went on after a bit of a rough start.
Speaking of the Devin Brown Injury…
What kind of idiot would fall for a fake handoff to a quarterback who has shown he can barely walk for the last few plays? No player on Missouri, so it was a ridiculously bad call for Day to opt for a play with a direct snap to Henderson and a fake to Brown. The fake was never going to slow the defense down and only allowed them to get to Henderson faster. I’m not sure it was the worst play call of the 2023 season, but it’s at least in the conversation.
Wrong Rotation
Missouri was able to pick up a fourth-and-short in the first half and it was curious to me that on such an important play Larry Johnson’s unit had the backup defensive tackles on the field. Rotation is necessary, but it seems a smart move to have your best players on the field for key situations like that. I’m not a coach, so don’t take my word for it.
More Fun from Fleming
Missouri was about to attempt a 65-yard field goal in the final seconds of the first half. When they showed the view from the end zone, Ohio State had nobody standing in the end zone. It’s a 65-yard kick. If it’s left short, you’ve got a chance at returning it against a field goal unit that typically doesn’t feature a lot of speedy guys. And I’ve seen Missouri’s kicker. He’s not chasing down one of your faster guys. Parker Fleming felt it wasn’t necessary to have someone back in case of a short kick for some reason. This is a man who is paid in United States dollars to think of what to do in various special teams situations. It didn’t matter in the end, as Missouri took a penalty and did not end up attempting the kick.
Fleming isn’t directly responsible for Jayden Fielding doinking his second field-goal attempt off the left upright. That’s on the kicker, but there’s a coach responsible for that unit and it’s the same guy I’ve had to talk far too much about this season. Other college teams make moves when a coach’s group isn’t performing. Ryan Day has shown a willingness to do that in the past when Kerry Coombs’ defense wasn’t up to snuff. But for some reason not known publicly, Day has refused to admit the obvious: his dedicated special teams coach has one of the team’s most reliably bad units on the team.
The Conversion / The Drives
Ohio State’s defense had played well all night. In fact, it had done such a good job that when the Tigers took over at their own 5-yard line late in the third quarter, the players on the OSU defensive unit shouldn’t have been any more tired than the underworked Missouri defense. Ohio State had to stop a third-and-7 from the Tigers’ 8-yard line to set up the offense in good field position. Instead, cracks started appearing in the dam. Missouri got exactly the seven needed yards and a fresh set of downs.
From that point on, the defense seemingly had no answers, and the Tigers put together consecutive long touchdown drives. The first one essentially ended the game, because there didn’t seem a prayer of Ohio State’s offense scoring a touchdown, and it started with that conversion. The Tigers drove 95 yards on a defense that had stifled them all night. After Ohio State’s offense failed again, the Tigers went 91 yards to put it away.
And that’s the season. It wasn’t one to remember, although it started out well. At this point, it seems like the only fond memories from 2023 will be of watching Marvin Harrison, Jr. and the return to form of Denzel Burke. With starters Kyle McCord and Mirco having entered the transfer portal, this off-season has already started to feel like rats fleeing a sinking ship, but that may just be the effects the last two games have had on my psyche. At any rate, I can now be a grumpy old basketball fan until the fall.
Continue reading...
