Matt Tamanini
Guest
Ask LGHL: What will it take for you to consider the Ohio State football season a success?
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images
You ask, we answer. Sometimes we ask, others answer. And then other times, we ask, we answer.
Every day for the entirety of the Ohio State football season, we will be asking and answering questions about the team, college football, and anything else on our collective minds of varying degrees of importance. If you have a question that you would like to ask, you can tweet us @LandGrant33 or if you need more than 280 characters, send an email HERE.
Ohio State’s fall football camp kicked off last week, and the team officially moved into it’s hotel on Sunday in one of the most beloved — and bizarre — traditions in all of Buckeye Nation as fans and media alike photographed the players walking into their new digs as if they were severely underdressed for an awards show red carpet.
But, with three and a half-ish weeks until the Buckeyes open the season against Notre Dame, to kick off our Ask LGHL series for the season, we wanted to get an idea of where your head is at in regards to this team and this season.
So, we asked two simple questions in our most recent SBNation Reacts survey about what your hopes and expectations are for this year.
Question 1: What is the minimum needed for a successful Ohio State season?
The Ohio State fandom is made up of many different people and we all come into each season with different thresholds for what we consider a success. So, as you can see in the graphic below, we gave you four options and more than half (54%) of the respondents said that making the playoffs is the floor of what would make the OSU 2022 campaign a success.
I do wonder if we had made one of the options “Win a CFP Playoff Game,” if that would have moved the bar up a little bit. While people would obviously be pretty ticked off if the Buckeyes lost to The Domers and/or TTUN, it does make sense that fans would need more than those two high-profile wins to feel good about the season. Imagine beating them, but losing to Penn State, Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Ugh, I just got a nasty shiver down my spine.
For me, given these four options, I would probably agree with the majority and say that the Bucks would need to make the playoff to have a successful season, but I will admit that without winning a national championship this year, the first four years of Ryan Day’s tenure in Columbus are going to feel monumentally disappointing to me, based solely on the fact that they will have squandered four years of potentially the two best quarterbacks in program history.
I feel very comfortable in putting Justin Fields atop that list already, and given C.J. Stroud’s first year as OSU’s signal caller, I think he has the ability to be in that conversation as well by season’s end.
I will talk more about my thoughts on what needs to happen from Day and company this season in tomorrow’s Ask LGHL column, but it is definitely time for this team to make some significant steps forward.
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Question 2: What do you most want to hear coming out of preseason camp?
When we put together the multiple choice answers for this question, we wanted to keep it balanced between offense and defense, but let’s be honest, we all knew that the answer was going to be on the defensive side of the ball.
With Stroud and that absurd group of receiving talent, the passing game is going to be fine, and while the line’s ability to impose their will should go a long way to determining how well-rounded the offense is this fall, that side of the ball is going to practically score at will for most of the season, so nothing from the offense could possibly rise to the level of the most important question — short of an injury to Stroud {furiously knocks on every piece of wood in the house}.
So, all of the major questions surrounding this team are going to come from Jim Knowles side. With a nearly completely new defensive coaching staff, I don’t think that the Bucks need to become the No. 1 defense in the country to contend for a national title, but if they can move up to the No. 25-30 range, this team could be unbeatable, assuming the offense maintains its otherworldly firepower from last year.
For the fans, the biggest hope is that the linebackers and defensive backs — particular focuses in Knowles’ units — make big strides during camp. Again, I would agree.
While Jack Sawyer and J.T. Tuimoloa becoming the dominant edge rushers that we all think that they can be would be a huge bonus for the defense, I think the defensive line is strong enough without an elite edge rusher that they can hold their own, as long as the linebackers and secondary make considerable strides.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23929267/OhioState_2_8422.png)
For college football fans, August is filled with speculation and expectations. With how limited media access is to preseason practices, it likely won’t be until Notre Dame shows up at The Horseshoe that we actually get some solid ideas about who this Ohio State team is actually going to be in 2022.
But the great part about being a college football fan is that hope springs eternal this time of year and the anticipation, debates, excitement, hopes, and dreams are part of the inherent joy and charm of the sport.
Continue reading...
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images
You ask, we answer. Sometimes we ask, others answer. And then other times, we ask, we answer.
Every day for the entirety of the Ohio State football season, we will be asking and answering questions about the team, college football, and anything else on our collective minds of varying degrees of importance. If you have a question that you would like to ask, you can tweet us @LandGrant33 or if you need more than 280 characters, send an email HERE.
Ohio State’s fall football camp kicked off last week, and the team officially moved into it’s hotel on Sunday in one of the most beloved — and bizarre — traditions in all of Buckeye Nation as fans and media alike photographed the players walking into their new digs as if they were severely underdressed for an awards show red carpet.
But, with three and a half-ish weeks until the Buckeyes open the season against Notre Dame, to kick off our Ask LGHL series for the season, we wanted to get an idea of where your head is at in regards to this team and this season.
So, we asked two simple questions in our most recent SBNation Reacts survey about what your hopes and expectations are for this year.
Question 1: What is the minimum needed for a successful Ohio State season?
The Ohio State fandom is made up of many different people and we all come into each season with different thresholds for what we consider a success. So, as you can see in the graphic below, we gave you four options and more than half (54%) of the respondents said that making the playoffs is the floor of what would make the OSU 2022 campaign a success.
I do wonder if we had made one of the options “Win a CFP Playoff Game,” if that would have moved the bar up a little bit. While people would obviously be pretty ticked off if the Buckeyes lost to The Domers and/or TTUN, it does make sense that fans would need more than those two high-profile wins to feel good about the season. Imagine beating them, but losing to Penn State, Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Ugh, I just got a nasty shiver down my spine.
For me, given these four options, I would probably agree with the majority and say that the Bucks would need to make the playoff to have a successful season, but I will admit that without winning a national championship this year, the first four years of Ryan Day’s tenure in Columbus are going to feel monumentally disappointing to me, based solely on the fact that they will have squandered four years of potentially the two best quarterbacks in program history.
I feel very comfortable in putting Justin Fields atop that list already, and given C.J. Stroud’s first year as OSU’s signal caller, I think he has the ability to be in that conversation as well by season’s end.
I will talk more about my thoughts on what needs to happen from Day and company this season in tomorrow’s Ask LGHL column, but it is definitely time for this team to make some significant steps forward.
Question 2: What do you most want to hear coming out of preseason camp?
When we put together the multiple choice answers for this question, we wanted to keep it balanced between offense and defense, but let’s be honest, we all knew that the answer was going to be on the defensive side of the ball.
With Stroud and that absurd group of receiving talent, the passing game is going to be fine, and while the line’s ability to impose their will should go a long way to determining how well-rounded the offense is this fall, that side of the ball is going to practically score at will for most of the season, so nothing from the offense could possibly rise to the level of the most important question — short of an injury to Stroud {furiously knocks on every piece of wood in the house}.
So, all of the major questions surrounding this team are going to come from Jim Knowles side. With a nearly completely new defensive coaching staff, I don’t think that the Bucks need to become the No. 1 defense in the country to contend for a national title, but if they can move up to the No. 25-30 range, this team could be unbeatable, assuming the offense maintains its otherworldly firepower from last year.
For the fans, the biggest hope is that the linebackers and defensive backs — particular focuses in Knowles’ units — make big strides during camp. Again, I would agree.
While Jack Sawyer and J.T. Tuimoloa becoming the dominant edge rushers that we all think that they can be would be a huge bonus for the defense, I think the defensive line is strong enough without an elite edge rusher that they can hold their own, as long as the linebackers and secondary make considerable strides.
For college football fans, August is filled with speculation and expectations. With how limited media access is to preseason practices, it likely won’t be until Notre Dame shows up at The Horseshoe that we actually get some solid ideas about who this Ohio State team is actually going to be in 2022.
But the great part about being a college football fan is that hope springs eternal this time of year and the anticipation, debates, excitement, hopes, and dreams are part of the inherent joy and charm of the sport.
Continue reading...