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Game Thread 2010 Rose Bowl: Ohio State 26 Oregon 17 (Final, 1/01/2010)

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Buckeye doc;1623825; said:
I agree, we won't miss Small that much as a receiver, but I think we probably miss him on punt returns. He came up huge in the PSU game and that helped our offense immensely. I just hope whoever replaces him on returns won't give us any oh [censored]! moments.
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I'm guessing that Dane will return punts in Ray's absence. If that's the case, we'll be fine...he has the best hands on the team. He probably won't take it to the house, but at least he won't muff it.
 
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buckeyes_rock;1623843; said:
I'm guessing that Dane will return punts in Ray's absence. If that's the case, we'll be fine...he has the best hands on the team. He probably won't take it to the house, but at least he won't muff it.
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i have a feeling that tressel will put either posey or maybe jordan hall back. he has had posey field a few punts this season though.
 
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Jaxbuck;1623841; said:
There's too much disparity between a couple of classes of opponents that make up that win % for me to take it at face value no questions asked.

Tressel at OSU overall: 93-21 (81.6%)

Regular season OOC vs BCS conference schools that finished the season with a better than 500 record: 4-4

Bowl Games: 4-4

So another way to look at it is vs the B10 and OOC teams not in our weight class Tressel Ball wracks up an even more impressive 86.7% win percentage (85-13) but has been 50/50 so far against non B10 foes of roughly equal ability.

87% vs one group and 50% against another makes me question things. Obviously I'm in the minority on that but I've seen the return of the "it just wins" defense of Tresselball taken as gospel and I think its worth pointing out "it just wins vs bad OOC teams and the B10" is more accurate.
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Not many coaches have an overall winning record against teams they are as good as or worse than. I understand wanting success but that seems like asking a bit much. The teams you mentioned are just as good as tOSU was when they played, going 50-50 against them is about what you should expect.
 
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BayBuck;1623862; said:
This sounds more like a tautology than a meaningful criticism.
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If you are just trying to ignore the main point and focus on semantics then I agree. Poor wordsmithing on my part.

AuburnBuckeye;1623873; said:
Not many coaches have an overall winning record against teams they are as good as or worse than. I understand wanting success but that seems like asking a bit much. The teams you mentioned are just as good as tOSU was when they played, going 50-50 against them is about what you should expect.
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That's fine but it kind of reinforces my point that tresselball "just wins" is not an entirely accurate assessment. It just wins against a certain caliber of opponent and is nothing more than a coin flip against another.

Kind of like mentioning Marty Schottenheimer or Bill Cowher's NFL record and not making a distinction between playoffs and regular season.
 
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Jaxbuck;1623895; said:
It just wins against a certain caliber of opponent
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Which is the kind of opponent we play what, 85% of the time? I'm fine with winning 85% of our games against 8/10 teams we play and 50% against 2/10 teams. That sounds like a very good success rate to me.

Earle Bruce was successful in bowls with a 5-3 record but Cooper was 3-8 in bowls and even the great Wayne Woodrow Hayes was only 5-6 in his bowls at tOSU. I'd look up they're stats in OOC game against teams who were .500+ but I'm feeling a little too lazy.

My point is that no matter who you are you'll probably finish about .500 in games against teams OOC that are as good as you. The phrase "Tresselball wins" means games in general and in that regard it is an accurate statement.
 
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Jaxbuck;1623895; said:
If you are just trying to ignore the main point and focus on semantics then I agree. Poor wordsmithing on my part.
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The main point seems to be that Tressel is hugely successful against BigTen (including obviously many good ones over the years) and overmatched OOC opponents, but only .500 against OOC teams at the same elite level as OSU ... which seems to be a pretty predictable outcome against those "roughly equal" teams, and even stating it as you have does not give it much force as a criticism.
 
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Bucks21;1623855; said:
Returning punts is not an easy thing. Tressel will put whoever is comfortable fielding punts back there and whoever he has the most confidence in to field the punt. IMO this will be Dane.
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That's a good point. Dane is definitely the safest option. I would think that with this team, the ability to make a big return will also factor into the decision. The offense has not shown consistently that it can sustain long drives. When they get the ball with half a field or less due to a turnover or ST play, they can be very dangerous. I know that can be said for most teams, but there were many times this year when Small PRs changed the direction of a game.

I'm sure Dane would be good for security and average 5-10yds a return, but we may need to take a shot at a gamebreaker. I seem to remember that LT doesn't like to return punts as much as kickoffs. Maybe Saine could get a chance? Posey, TWash, Boom, Schwartz, JHall; I'm sure the coaches can find something good out of that bunch.
 
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If I'm Flash Thomas, I'm licking my chops right now at the opportunity I have. Seriously, we have heard how upset he has been with his lack of PT, and the alleged ineligibility of two WR's ahead of him on the depth chart is like a dream come true for him. Make a name for yourself. Since the Wisky game, Small has actually been the primary KO return man as well instead of LT. He needs to step up.
 
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