2026 tOSU Offense Discussion

[cmstophe]

And here, I just thought I wanted Day fired. Whataboutism and all that.

 

[RuGettinIt]

This at least gets to the real issue people are giving all kinds of different labels to.

Execution.

Doesn't matter how fast/slow you go, if you don't execute, you don't get the maximum points per possession you could have. When the other team can punch back more and more this is going to get you into tighter games or beat.

It isn't because of tempo. It isn't because of the number of possessions. It's because you failed to execute and extract enough points in the possessions you did have. If you go faster on purpose (not in scenarios where you have no choice) when you have an execution problem, you are just going to give the ball back to the other team faster.

The constraint of the game of football is 1) the clock and 2) the rules that require an exchange of possessions. If you speed up, you can absolutely get more possessions per game but you are at the same time going to give your opponent more possessions and when you do that you are giving them more opportunities for random variance to express itself.

Ask yourself what is the ideal outcome of every possession? If you could make it happen what would it be?

For me it's score a TD after the longest possible time of possession possible which is theoretically 60 game minutes. Even though that is fantasy, it's true north of how the game actually works. Anything you do that gets away from that, you are going in the wrong direction.

Give me points (ideally a TD) after every possession and each possession take 8-9 minutes and I will end up with 2-3 more possessions than the other guy. THEN, he will be playing from behind in the fewer possessions he has so the last few will be severely constrained (in my favor) and I am going to win every time. When you are the more skilled team, this is the only sensible strategy.

It breaks down when execution breaks down, like anything else.

You sound like you would be a good CEO. This is the kind of talk that our CEO gives in Company meetings, sans the football.

The ideas and concepts are very much the same. Execution is the key to it all. Well stated.

 

[Jaxbuck]

Hard to execute vs comparable talent. Thats the name of the game in sports. Just because Steph Curry is good at shooting 3s should he just hang onto the ball until the play clock is up and knock it down? Or would you prefer he just take his shots when he has the chance whether than be 2 seconds in our the full 25 second play clock?

Football isn't basketball so this is nonsense. It's just noise. You keep making hypothetical situations to support your narrative.

Similarly, just operate the offense and stop worry about the clock. Sure sometimes it’ll be a 7 minute drive but sometimes a back breaking 1:20 second 4 play drive is vital.

So scoring is the key. Agreed. If you had a choice, would you take the 8-9 minutes off the clock and score a TD or would you score a TD faster than that?

You need to be able to do it all. Need to be able to grind it out and need to be able to go for the jugular quick if need be too. Indiana for example can do either and they’re better for it. They can stomp you out quick like they did a huge number of teams this year or they can play the efficiency game and go win it in the 4th.

Maybe I’m being mistaken here. I’m not saying we go hurry up. I’m saying you need it all because sometimes a team is ready to fail (Oregon last year) and all the game needs is that final gut punch.

What you are fumbling in the dark for is the concept that Indiana can execute better and take what the defense gives them. So can OSU, we just have to execute better.

You are conflating a result (losses) with the approach (efficiency). The approach is the correct one, it just needs to be executed better.

 

[billmac91]

This at least gets to the real issue people are giving all kinds of different labels to.

Execution.

Doesn't matter how fast/slow you go, if you don't execute, you don't get the maximum points per possession you could have. When the other team can punch back more and more this is going to get you into tighter games or beat.

It isn't because of tempo. It isn't because of the number of possessions. It's because you failed to execute and extract enough points in the possessions you did have. If you go faster on purpose (not in scenarios where you have no choice) when you have an execution problem, you are just going to give the ball back to the other team faster.

The constraint of the game of football is 1) the clock and 2) the rules that require an exchange of possessions. If you speed up, you can absolutely get more possessions per game but you are at the same time going to give your opponent more possessions and when you do that you are giving them more opportunities for random variance to express itself.

Ask yourself what is the ideal outcome of every possession? If you could make it happen what would it be?

For me it's score a TD after the longest possible time of possession possible which is theoretically 60 game minutes. Even though that is fantasy, it's true north of how the game actually works. Anything you do that gets away from that, you are going in the wrong direction.

Give me points (ideally a TD) after every possession and each possession take 8-9 minutes and I will end up with 2-3 more possessions than the other guy. THEN, he will be playing from behind in the fewer possessions he has so the last few will be severely constrained (in my favor) and I am going to win every time. When you are the more skilled team, this is the only sensible strategy.

It breaks down when execution breaks down, like anything else.

I think what Indiana and Miami exposed though, is OSU may be more talented in nearly every position group, but all it takes is a defensive line to wreck the efficiency if the offensive line cannot hold up….and once they offensive line cannot hold up consistently, it dramatically effects our freshman QB even when his protection isn’t bad.

In this case, using tempo can help a weakness compared to the other team (our offensive line versus their defensive line), and maximize our talent at positions where we do have the advantage (go tempo so the defense plays a “base” coverage that allows our offense to exploit our advantages more easily).

I think where the argument to play as slow as Day is, fundamentally breaks down, is when we cannot execute because we just aren’t more talented in one facet of the game. I was rolling with it until Indiana made Swiss cheese of our o-line and then Miami basically did the same thing with stunts.

I guess, IMO, I’m not cutting my nose off in spite of my face…..I feel like Day let Indiana and Miami beat us with (1) position group….i guess (2) if you count special teams. But defensive lines wrecked our season. And you can gameplan around elite defensive lines…..we just didn’t for the most part.

 

[Jaxbuck]

You sound like you would be a good CEO. This is the kind of talk that our CEO gives in Company meetings, sans the football.

The ideas and concepts are very much the same. Execution is the key to it all. Well stated.

It's not a CEO thing, it's years of working to get better at decision making.

I know what the logic failures, cognitive biases and lack of awareness of what the real risks are, what the real bet is feel and sound like because I made them all many times.

I've just made it my business to get better at risk management/decision making and as a result I see the game of football completely different than I did when I was younger.

Football coaches had it right when it was run and stop the run. That as the way to be most efficient. 3yards a a cloud of dust meant you had the ball, he didn't and if you could do that to them instead of them doing that to you, you'll win.

Then they took their eye off what really mattered which was scoring. Empty TOP means almost nothing. This is where I had the heart burn with Martyball/Tresselball types. They were content to manage the game to a state where they had a good defense rested and protecting a 1 score lead. That isn't optimal.

June Jones, Mike Leach type went too far the other way and over emphasized scoring alone.

Urban got it back to a modern understanding when he said the best defense was a 14 point lead. His philosophy was power run, keep the ball moving down the field and defense was built to play with a lead then disrupt. Get his offense the ball back as fast as possible either through chaos or a quick score.

I feel like Day has it as right as you can get it now. Manage the game so that you limit the opponents possessions in relation to yours AND score the most points possible in your possessions. Sounds simple but it's really an important distinction. He's intentionally maximizing his edge in talent and minimizing his exposure to random variance.

There can be no question that is the right overall approach. The results not being what you want doesn't invalidate the approach.

 

[Jaxbuck]

I think what Indiana and Miami exposed though, is OSU may be more talented in nearly every position group, but all it takes is a defensive line to wreck the efficiency if the offensive line cannot hold up….and once they offensive line cannot hold up consistently, it dramatically effects our freshman QB even when his protection isn’t bad.

In this case, using tempo can help a weakness compared to the other team (our offensive line versus their defensive line), and maximize our talent at positions where we do have the advantage (go tempo so the defense plays a “base” coverage that allows our offense to exploit our advantages more easily).

I think where the argument to play as slow as Day is, fundamentally breaks down, is when we cannot execute because we just aren’t more talented in one facet of the game. I was rolling with it until Indiana made Swiss cheese of our o-line and then Miami basically did the same thing with stunts.

I guess, IMO, I’m not cutting my nose off in spite of my face…..I feel like Day let Indiana and Miami beat us with (1) position group….i guess (2) if you count special teams. But defensive lines wrecked our season. And you can gameplan around elite defensive lines…..we just didn’t for the most part.

Totally agree on how they did it but that's an execution thing.

I've watched other teams this bowl season adapt to a fierce pass rush through quick, short passes to the TE's, backs and WR's. They didn't go up tempo, they just stopped dropping their QB deep, rolled him out or whatever.

Listen, if you see a specific team is very vulnerable to tempo because you can run the DL ragged then by all means, but that's just a tactical application of tempo, it isn't an overall strategy. You still have to execute.

I think as the all 22 film starts to come out we will see that Saying had many chances to execute and win vs these teams and defenses. It's not like Day doesn't know how to draw up a quick passing game.

 

[Steve19]

Perhaps one lesson is that, despite the player health benefits from running fewer plays, the offense needs to vary tempo during games and drives, so that it is accustomed to uptempo when needed?

Perhaps another lesson is that, when everyone is blowing smoke up your backside about no weaknesses anywhere, fart.

 

[billmac91]

Totally agree on how they did it but that's an execution thing.

I've watched other teams this bowl season adapt to a fierce pass rush through quick, short passes to the TE's, backs and WR's. They didn't go up tempo, they just stopped dropping their QB deep, rolled him out or whatever.

Listen, if you see a specific team is very vulnerable to tempo because you can run the DL ragged then by all means, but that's just a tactical application of tempo, it isn't an overall strategy. You still have to execute.

I think as the all 22 film starts to come out we will see that Saying had many chances to execute and win vs these teams and defenses. It's not like Day doesn't know how to draw up a quick passing game.

Well, yeah….

He missed (2) TD throws. Max Klare over the middle after he underthrew Jeremiah Smith on the deep ball (that should’ve been a TD as well but I digress) and he missed Carnell Tate streaking down the middle bc he came off him to early and dumped it the RB instead.

And I’m not advocating going tempo every play…..im advocating for tempo periodically, bc yes, it absolutely gasses a defensive line when they don’t get substitution opportunities. We actually did go tempo in the 3rd quarter, and it worked well. As stated before, it could be argued Miami went soft playing with a lead….but we gained momentum in the 3rd Q while going tempo. And then in the 4th Quarter, we went back to what we’ve done all year, and it felt like we sucked all the energy out of the stadium.

Again, I get playing to the best odds, and how playing efficient makes sense. But all it takes is one game wrecker like Rueben Bain to destroy a gameplan. Or a roster of 5th and 6th year seniors employing an incredible stunt strategy that our guys struggle to pick up.

I feel Day got overly simplistic and missed a relatively easy opportunity to make life harder on Miami. And to be honest, the game plan was there….SMU and Louisville both beat Miami with similar plans. I guess that’s frustrating too….its not like Miami is “that good”….we let them exploit our biggest weakness with their biggest strength. It’s not apples to apples but it feels somewhat like our loss to Michigan last year. From an efficiency standpoint, it never made much sense to continually run it at (2) first RD DT’s. But that was the gameplan….bc efficiency??

 

[System_id]

I dunno, I feel like the only disappointment on the offense was the OL. While I didn't think they'd neutralize Miami's DL at all, I thought it'd look more like the second half than the first. First half they may as well have not even been on the field during passing plays. They were getting absolutely destroyed. Second half it felt like they were winning more battles than they lost. Definitely should've went to Padilla earlier but I assume they were trying to give Van Sickle time to work out the rust given he'd played pretty well against Indiana.

All this talk about offensive philosophy needs to be put on hold until OSU gets an OL that can consistently block and I MIGHT be in the camp that thinks Bowen either needs to be replaced or moved to another position. Ain't no way the OL is supposed to look like that with all of that returning talent.

 

[Onebuckfan]

Get a real ST and a real punter and kicker. That’s the Fetentz way. We went 4 TEs like Iowa. Just didn’t have the STs

 

[TampaBuckeyes]

I mostly agree, but thought Miami showed right off the bat, we weren’t going to win with efficiency. Once Rueben Bain wrecked our offensive line, IMO, you have basically now conceded the efficiency game on that side of the ball.

I touched on this in another thread, but the problem with going slow is it allows specific defensive play-calls, including stunts to come in. Going tempo puts the defense in a “base” package which eliminates 95% of the exotic calls a defense may have. They can mix-up coverage in the backend a bit, but it’s usually very vanilla as well.

To start the 3rd Q, we finally went tempo a bit. It wasn’t Ole Miss fast, but a couple times we didn’t huddle, and we usually snapped the ball with about 22-23 seconds left on play clock.

I’m the first to admit, it’s hard to decipher the offensive success to start the 3rd Q with going more tempo versus Miami just going more vanilla to protect a 14-0 lead.

That said, when you going against comparable talent, especially elite talent at DE where that position specifically, can wreck games, you need to neutralize that threat. Tempo can absolutely do that. Indiana and Miami both used stunts to destroy our offensive line…..I really think tempo would’ve neutralized that bc stunts are typically signaled in once a defense has a chance to see offensive alignment.

I’m also very confident, for example, the pick 6 Sayin threw, is likely just a busted play rather than an interception if that comes from tempo. The ability to read and react to shifts and tendencies they’ve seen on tape, really allows Miami to play “downhill” in the first half, whereas it felt like we were playing on our heels.

I 100% get the efficiency argument and how effective it can be. I’d argue, especially with Sayin missing wide open throws (probably bc he’s a freshman?) that playing for nearly perfect execution is likely a mistake against a team with a very good, if not elite, defensive line.

Also, and not to pile on, but if Day wants to go down the efficiency rabbit hole, he better learn clock management, bc he flat out sucks at managing it. When you minimize our teams possessions by playing so slow, at least understand the best use of TO’s to maximize opportunity. It’s really not hard to get a GA, or even clock “expert” to be on staff to advise best use of TO’s….tons of coaches have humbly acknowledged they’re too engrossed in the game to make great decisions with end of half or end of game TO’s. He’s brutal at it….

This is what has been killing me about everyone saying that tempo isn’t an advantage. Tempo is a game of which coordinators can get the call in time.

First you need an OC that is fast at adjusting, has watched enough film to know the defensive tendencies and can quickly dissect them to get the offense into the right play. They need to be 2-3 plays ahead and really understand the rhythm of the game. Hard to do with a first year OC and maybe why they went so slow. Last year Chip cranked up the pace in the playoffs. Particularly with the change up of the play calling structure, they really didn’t have the ability to speed it up.

When you have that then it puts the defensive coordinator on their heals. It forces them into base, makes it harder for them to adjust, change personnel, call in blitzes and stunts. If they do call a blitz it’s at a bigger risk because they are doing it off of less information. The defenders have less time to get in alignment and get on the same page.

I think it became clear the last 2 games that our offense is very predictable and given time to get the call in a good d coordinator can have his guys in positions to win. Particularly in the passing plays. Our plays are just about our guys are better than your guys and will win. That’s why they jumped the screen. That’s why the sideline throws have become so difficult and why the middle of the field is left wide open. They didn’t even try to attack Miami’s defensive weaknesses, they just ran the same plays they have been running all year.

 

[Jaxbuck]

From an efficiency standpoint, it never made much sense to continually run it at (2) first RD DT’s. But that was the gameplan….bc efficiency??

I don't equate poor execution by coaches (gameplan) as a condemnation of the efficiency approach as a strategy.

There was a lot Day and company could have done better this year and in the past.

You said it though, my advocacy stops at playing the game in a way that puts the odds in your favor. Once that is done, if you fuck it up then you examine what you fucked up.

I do thing context is important. He's fresh off a NC and everyone was swinging from his nuts all season. Now he had a bad result and people want to chance the approach. Some of these same people were asking if this is the best OSU team of all time mid season so

 

[1926Buckeyes]

It was McCord-esque. I believe in Julian as the guy going forward, but the whole idea of bringing him along slowly blew up in OSUs face massively come crunch time. Should have been pushed in his development more.

Maybe, it’s hard to know if that would actually have helped him, or he just would’ve gotten sped up all year and struggled.

I dunno, I feel like the only disappointment on the offense was the OL. While I didn't think they'd neutralize Miami's DL at all, I thought it'd look more like the second half than the first. First half they may as well have not even been on the field during passing plays. They were getting absolutely destroyed. Second half it felt like they were winning more battles than they lost. Definitely should've went to Padilla earlier but I assume they were trying to give Van Sickle time to work out the rust given he'd played pretty well against Indiana.

All this talk about offensive philosophy needs to be put on hold until OSU gets an OL that can consistently block and I MIGHT be in the camp that thinks Bowen either needs to be replaced or moved to another position. Ain't no way the OL is supposed to look like that with all of that returning talent.

Onianwa being a bust really hurt them. Siereveld should’ve been in Fryar’s spot this year. They went from 1.5 tackles to .5. Daniels was put in a bad spot and it was really rough seeing his foot speed on the edge against Miami.

I think the staff will look back at Purdue and realize they needed to keep Ian Moore in the lineup. Not sure about the RG situation, but that would’ve helped a lot.

 

[Jaxbuck]

Last year Chip cranked up the pace in the playoffs.

I don't have a clean plays per game source so I looked at the box scores from last years playoff games and just added the pass attempts plus the rushing attempts. If that somehow misses any other plays then forgive me but here is what I found

Team: pass attempts/runs/total

Tenn: 31/33/64
Oregon:57 total plays, I had it backwards.
Texas: 33/24/57
ND: 21/41/62

60 plays per game

The average plays per game in '25 was 64 according to this site and if that's site data is correct, the overall plays per game in 2024 was 62.8.

So not so sure the sped things up from last playoffs narrative holds water. Also, if this data is correct, you guys who are arguing faster = success need to reconcile 2025 being a slightly faster year than 2024.

Unless all of this is way off, the tempo hasn't materially changed.

The outcome did.

EDIT

This site has it easier to find and lists plays per game.

I would also add they ran 59 plays against Miami and 56 against IU.

57.5 plays per game in 2025, against 60 plays per game in 2024 playoffs.

2 plays per game isn't the story folks.

 

[buckeyemania11]

If Day just names Kennan Bailey as the "play caller" I lose a ton of faith. This is a yes man move who's play caller in name only. He needs to let go and find a real OC and let said OC do their thing