A Recruiting Explanation for OSU Big Game Letdowns

[cincibuck]

Talent drop off, or weak judgment of talent on hand?

Devil's advocate here: Supposing that Tressel puts Troy Smith in early in 04. It was suppossed to be a toss up between Smith and Zwick, but for some reason Troy was asked to sit until Zwick played himself out of the start.

I can understand the desire to "find" your QB, but I think many will agree that Tressell stuck with Zwick with a strange tenacity not justified by events on the field.

Then Smith comes on, triggers the Michigan rout, everyones happy -- until the suspension.

Which brings us to the start of the 05 season, a lights out defense, and suddenly Zwick is the starting QB again and I have to wonder just why, having missed the bowl trip and all the bowl practices, why does Tressell not make sure Smith is ready for the Texas game? Was Zwick given all the practice snaps during the pre-season? Was he given 3/4ths?

Why, especially since it was obvious that he was going to go at the rest of the season with a QB duo, doesn't he give Smith enough reps to be ready? He'd already proven himself as the best of the two.

Hindsight? Perhaps, but I think it's a case where Tressel comes up short in judging the talent on hand.

 

[Buckeyefrankmp]

It would be interesting to compare the two recruiting classes you mentioned with, lets say, a few Oklahoma classes prior to their losses in BCS title games. Would we see the same results?

 

[Dryden]

Talent drop off, or weak judgment of talent on hand?

Devil's advocate here: Supposing that Tressel puts Troy Smith in early in 04. It was suppossed to be a toss up between Smith and Zwick, but for some reason Troy was asked to sit until Zwick played himself out of the start.

I can understand the desire to "find" your QB, but I think many will agree that Tressell stuck with Zwick with a strange tenacity not justified by events on the field.

Then Smith comes on, triggers the Michigan rout, everyones happy -- until the suspension.

Which brings us to the start of the 05 season, a lights out defense, and suddenly Zwick is the starting QB again and I have to wonder just why, having missed the bowl trip and all the bowl practices, why does Tressell not make sure Smith is ready for the Texas game? Was Zwick given all the practice snaps during the pre-season? Was he given 3/4ths?

Why, especially since it was obvious that he was going to go at the rest of the season with a QB duo, doesn't he give Smith enough reps to be ready? He'd already proven himself as the best of the two.

Hindsight? Perhaps, but I think it's a case where Tressel comes up short in judging the talent on hand.

I think JT evaluates the entire body of work in his decision making, so on-field performance is a small fraction of the equation. By Troy's own admission, he didn't become a film room junky until 2006.

I suspect that Justin was the one doing all the other things better than Troy on Sunday-Friday, at least until their Sr years.

 

[martinss01]

Devil's advocate here: Supposing that Tressel puts Troy Smith in early in 04. It was suppossed to be a toss up between Smith and Zwick, but for some reason Troy was asked to sit until Zwick played himself out of the start.

if by "some reason" you mean smith couldn't manage to stay away from trouble then yes. imo smith got hit with a little bit of guilty by association. he didn't get in much trouble himself when he first got to tOSU. but he seemed to be on hand a lot when trouble happened.

Which brings us to the start of the 05 season, a lights out defense, and suddenly Zwick is the starting QB again and I have to wonder just why, having missed the bowl trip and all the bowl practices, why does Tressell not make sure Smith is ready for the Texas game? Was Zwick given all the practice snaps during the pre-season? Was he given 3/4ths?

smith was suspended from the bowl game as well as the first game of the 05 season. i suspect him not taking part in first team drills during practice was part of his punishment as well. i my be wrong, but i believe he was listed as 3rd string going into the 05 season.

Hindsight? Perhaps, but I think it's a case where Tressel comes up short in judging the talent on hand.

i don't think misjudging talent ever factored into the zwick smith debate. if jt was in the wrong at all it was that he overreacted with smith likely due to the moc situation that preceded it.

if you judge the situation based solely on what was happening on the field, i agree completely. jt waited to long in making the switch to smith. but when you factor in things that were happening off the field... not so sure i can fault jt. especially when i see troy off the field now vrs his first few years. i can tell you with complete honesty that i wouldn't trade troy smith the man he is today and a nc loss for troy smith the violent punk who got kicked off a basketball team and a nc win.

 

[osugrad21]

Yeah, those posts definitely go more in depth than I did, I probably should have just linked his posts to support my thesis. If anything, I would hope that those two post just support my conclusion though.

[the second link says I don't have access to view it by the way, is it locked away in moderator land?]

Yes it is - sorry I didn't notice that. I'm sure the BPRT will publish that sometime this year.

We have moved the updated 2004 Recruiting Class Revisited thread back to the Recruiting Forum, so it should now be visible.

We are also working on the class of 2005 Revisited.