2025 tOSU Offense Discussion

[buckeyemania11]

Haven’t looked through this thread to see how much this may have been said but, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a noticeable drop off in play calling from Chip to Brian. Brian can recruit like nobody and can develop very well but playing chess with an offense is a different skill set. Every year when we see weaknesses in the season I look back at my scarlet colored glasses and say to myself that I should have seen those weaknesses more clearly in the offseason.

For me, this year the biggest concerns are OC and the D Line. I think we will noticeably miss the 2 NFL running backs we had too but I think we can manage. Again, it all comes down to creativity in the play calling. That’s such a huge thing.

The passing game is going to be such a nightmare for opposing Ds to prepare for and execute against, especially if our OL plays as good as they should. I think this will allow the RBs we have to thrive, they all bring different skills sets and if used properly will be very good.

 

[MGMT]

The passing game is going to be such a nightmare for opposing Ds to prepare for and execute against, especially if our OL plays as good as they should. I think this will allow the RBs we have to thrive, they all bring different skills sets and if used properly will be very good.

It should be, but other components like route diversity, predictability and run scheme diversity/frequency are going to matter a lot and I think that’s my concern with Hartline having autonomy regarding the offense.

I have more confidence in Sayin than most - and the surrounding talent is otherworldly. But if you don’t have much pre-snap motion, can’t run AND pass out of every formation and you’re predictable/vanilla it doesn’t matter. I think that’s what we saw under BH last go around so I think it’s reasonable to have trepidation now (not accusing you of saying it’s unreasonable).

I’m not saying he’s incapable, but it needs to be proven. Perhaps he leveraged every second he was able to spend with Kelly when it came to playcalling, preparation and analysis. I’m surprised that question to Hartline hasn’t been posed more commercially.

 

[Captain Buckeye]

I think this years offense will be better than last years if I’m being honest.

Offensive line should be better and deeper, WRs largely return, running backs obviously not quite as good, but the tight end room is far better.

An underrated part is how we seemed to figure out the run game late last year during our playoff run. We no more went with stretch but instead pounded teams with gap schemes. I think this will continue with a better and deeper OL which should give a player Peoples (who’s going to play with something to prove) room to run.

Then you have Smith to deal with who’s up to 225 at 6’4”. They couldn’t stop him last year so what will they do against a better version? Oh and btw Tate/Innis/Graham are standing next to him if it wasn’t hard enough to cover Smith.

Then once you’ve committed enough resources to stop the run, figured out a way to stop Smith, and stopped the other WRs now you have to deal with Klare at TE who’s the best receiving tight end in the country. Then btw can’t stop our run? Don’t worry it gets easier when we throw out Will and Bennet as blocking tight ends (arguably the better two blocking tight ends in the country).

If the QB doesn’t piss down their leg we will be better than last year. Literally all the QB has to do is complete 60+ % of their throws and don’t throw picks. Do that and it’s going to be very difficult for teams to stop this offense.

 

[Buckeneye]

QB might not always be the engine to the vehicle, but they are always the steering wheel. And we're breaking in a new one. That much couldn't have been said last year as Howard was a previous multi year starter at a D1 school.

Therein lies the difference - we had starting experience under center, now we have a passer who has taken less than a handful of snaps in his entire career. Combine that with the loss of RB talent and the shift in OCs, I fully expect some growing pains.

Surrounding talent is fantastic, no reasonable mind will argue against it. Sans the Center, the two spots that handle the ball the most are traffic light green.

Could this offense be better than 2024 by season's end? Absolutely. But it takes some serious rose colored glasses to believe they'll come out of the gate firing.

 

[DaddyBigBucks]

QB might not always be the engine to the vehicle, but they are always the steering wheel. And we're breaking in a new one. That much couldn't have been said last year as Howard was a previous multi year starter at a D1 school.

Therein lies the difference - we had starting experience under center, now we have a passer who has taken less than a handful of snaps in his entire career. Combine that with the loss of RB talent and the shift in OCs, I fully expect some growing pains.

Surrounding talent is fantastic, no reasonable mind will argue against it. Sans the Center, the two spots that handle the ball the most are traffic light green.

Could this offense be better than 2024 by season's end? Absolutely. But it takes some serious rose colored glasses to believe they'll come out of the gate firing.

Agree with this completely

How long it takes the offense to come around is an open question. Best case scenario is a replay of '21, offensively speaking (I always speak offensively)

In '21 we had a new albeit promising quarterback. It took him all of one half to get going at Minnesota. After that, when he was healthy and the other team was playing by the same rules, no one could keep pace with the Buckeye offense in spite of the defense being #38 in the country in scoring D.

For those who are about to tell me that it is delusional to expect a replay of '21, let me point you back to what I said all of 3 sentences ago: This is the best case scenario (i.e. not my expectation).

The Buckeyes frequently deliver more than we have any right to expect. Very few teams could even joke about leading the country in scoring offense when they have a brand new quarterback, but the Buckeyes have done it before. They might do it this year; they probably won't. All I'm asking is that we remember 2021 during the first half against Texas.

 

[RugbyBuck]

While he is young and inexperienced, all indications are that Sayin will be able to rise to expectations. How long that will take is up for grabs, but with a supporting cast that is absurd the challenge may be reining him in so that he doesn't try to do too much. Absolute luxury to be able to be a facilitator and game manager and not have to win games by oneself. He should have a solid OL to give him time and keep him upright and will have decent RBs. TEs to block and a new one as a drop-down security blanket while the WRs run loose.

On the coaching side I think, or at least hope, that we've finally learned the lesson that there's no need to fuck around in the first quarter. I expect us to be aggressive from jump and only let up when things are well out of hand for the other side.

 

[billmac91]

QB might not always be the engine to the vehicle, but they are always the steering wheel. And we're breaking in a new one. That much couldn't have been said last year as Howard was a previous multi year starter at a D1 school.

Therein lies the difference - we had starting experience under center, now we have a passer who has taken less than a handful of snaps in his entire career. Combine that with the loss of RB talent and the shift in OCs, I fully expect some growing pains.

Surrounding talent is fantastic, no reasonable mind will argue against it. Sans the Center, the two spots that handle the ball the most are traffic light green.

Could this offense be better than 2024 by season's end? Absolutely. But it takes some serious rose colored glasses to believe they'll come out of the gate firing.

I'm probably an outlier on this, but I don't know....there were some struggles with Will last year as he adapted to a new system. Will also missed a lot of throws, or ball placement wasn't great. I think Day was willing to sacrifice an NFL QB arm in Kyle McCord for the intangibles Howard brought to the table. As fun as Will was, there's a reason he was a 6th rd pick.......

Sayin has had a year in the system, and seen how the engine is supposed to run. I think that's a big deal. I think Sayin views the game more like Day as a pocket QB, so there may not be as much early season growing pains, IMO. I think Sayin is going to get the ball out quick and be pretty sharp.....may be some growing pains at times, but I think we should remember even Will had struggles last year.

 

[Captain Buckeye]

QB might not always be the engine to the vehicle, but they are always the steering wheel. And we're breaking in a new one. That much couldn't have been said last year as Howard was a previous multi year starter at a D1 school.

Therein lies the difference - we had starting experience under center, now we have a passer who has taken less than a handful of snaps in his entire career. Combine that with the loss of RB talent and the shift in OCs, I fully expect some growing pains.

Surrounding talent is fantastic, no reasonable mind will argue against it. Sans the Center, the two spots that handle the ball the most are traffic light green.

Could this offense be better than 2024 by season's end? Absolutely. But it takes some serious rose colored glasses to believe they'll come out of the gate firing.

Agree with this completely

How long it takes the offense to come around is an open question. Best case scenario is a replay of '21, offensively speaking (I always speak offensively)

In '21 we had a new albeit promising quarterback. It took him all of one half to get going at Minnesota. After that, when he was healthy and the other team was playing by the same rules, no one could keep pace with the Buckeye offense in spite of the defense being #38 in the country in scoring D.

For those who are about to tell me that it is delusional to expect a replay of '21, let me point you back to what I said all of 3 sentences ago: This is the best case scenario (i.e. not my expectation).

The Buckeyes frequently deliver more than we have any right to expect. Very few teams could even joke about leading the country in scoring offense when they have a brand new quarterback, but the Buckeyes have done it before. They might do it this year; they probably won't. All I'm asking is that we remember 2021 during the first half against Texas.

Really is just a question of how the QB performs. If they’re moderately successful this offense should do great. If the QB is elite we can be a top 5 offense no problem with the weapons we have.

 

[Buckeneye]

I'm probably an outlier on this, but I don't know....there were some struggles with Will last year as he adapted to a new system. Will also missed a lot of throws, or ball placement wasn't great. I think Day was willing to sacrifice an NFL QB arm in Kyle McCord for the intangibles Howard brought to the table. As fun as Will was, there's a reason he was a 6th rd pick.......

Sayin has had a year in the system, and seen how the engine is supposed to run. I think that's a big deal. I think Sayin views the game more like Day as a pocket QB, so there may not be as much early season growing pains, IMO. I think Sayin is going to get the ball out quick and be pretty sharp.....may be some growing pains at times, but I think we should remember even Will had struggles last year.

I was one of the early nit-pickers on Will.

See here.

Post in thread 'QB1 Will Howard (National Champion, Pittsburgh Steelers)' https://buckeyeplanet.com/forum/thr...mpion-pittsburgh-steelers.678897/post-3773635


And his early problems showed up once the Bucks hit big 10 play as predicted. Tossing INTs against 6 of 9 B1G opponents, a pick six against Penn State and 2 against scUM.


Even with his first snap, Will had 2+ years of game starting experience over Sayin'.
You are correct that Justin had a full season to learn the offensive structure, language and time to begin building chemistry with his pass catchers and Oline.

I suppose I correlate the current QB situation to a certain phrase - "knowledge is when information meets experience"

Sayin has a ton of information I'm sure the coaching staff is preparing him to use. But he will not cultivate wisdom without starting experience.

Much like Howard did, I expect some early struggles. Although for different reasons.

 

[Captain Buckeye]

I was one of the early nit-pickers on Will.

See here.

Post in thread 'QB1 Will Howard (National Champion, Pittsburgh Steelers)' https://buckeyeplanet.com/forum/thr...mpion-pittsburgh-steelers.678897/post-3773635


And his early problems showed up once the Bucks hit big 10 play as predicted. Tossing INTs against 6 of 9 B1G opponents, a pick six against Penn State and 2 against scUM.


Even with his first snap, Will had 2+ years of game starting experience over Sayin'.
You are correct that Justin had a full season to learn the offensive structure, language and time to begin building chemistry with his pass catchers and Oline.

I suppose I correlate the current QB situation to a certain phrase - "knowledge is when information meets experience"

Sayin has a ton of information I'm sure the coaching staff is preparing him to use. But he will not cultivate wisdom without starting experience.

Much like Howard did, I expect some early struggles. Although for different reasons.

It’ll be interesting to see for sure.

Because Sayin will have more experience than Will did in the system. This is year two for Sayin where as Will had a few months by the time the season started. But to your point Will played a lot of football.

I won’t rehash but this is why I wish we didn’t have Texas week 1. It’s going to take some time for whoever is new to the lineup but there’s pretty much no time to waste with Texas week 1. There will be growing pains for Julian. There were issues for CJ Stroud for example (although Justin/Dwayne didn’t seem to have much issue) so it’s reasonable to expect some early turbulence.

The best thing the coaches can do is run the ball a lot, give the QB some easy throws (screens, slants, quick throws), and then take the occasional shot.