2023 CA DE Matayo Uiagalelei (Oregon Signee)

[Jaxbuck]

this is where I am. the whole convo is pointless

buckeye nation is not a monolith. some people are going to be highly vocal / reactive to every development. some people aren’t.

but the one thing we all rally around is moments of glory (scUM wins, big OOC wins, playoff wins, NCs).

And the problem right now is we do not have enough moments of glory vs our expectation, basically since we won the title in Jan ‘15.

that title wasn’t the inflection point we thought it was going to be. that’s where the frustration is

I've been pondering this myself and I would offer up that we (most of us, not all) use The Game as our championship.

If you follow that along then, we won a championship something like 18 of 20 years.

So then when you lose it two years in a row, naturally there is going to be a certain level of freak out/entitlement/whatever you want to call it.

 

[Bestbuck36]

yeah, but there is something to the "entitlement" argument. This fan base is unbearable at times. I understand the expectations are extremely high every year, but NC's don't grow on trees, and 11 and 12 win seasons are nothing to sneeze about. I am determined our fans are miserable unless there is a championship trophy hoisted at the end of every season.

Sure, I get upset when they underperform, but when I see all the Academic All-Americans, the things these kids are doing in their communities, and the success they are having once they leave OSU, it makes you realize the culture within the walls at the Woody is just fine .... and whether they finish #1, #3, or #7 in an arbitrary recruiting rankings poll (which there are like 5 of them that all differ), I don't think OSU is ever going to be in a place where they lose 25 kids to the portal in a specific cycle, or have the need to bring in 10 additional from the transfer portal in a given cycle to fill positions of need.

The sky is not falling and we'll be having this same conversation again next year when they are 1 or 2 wins away from winning a championship.

It would be awesome if they could land Matayo though.

The only thing truly unbearable is another Cooper-esque bad run. Folks in my age range couldn't handle that and are being very vocal about the warning signs. Let people vent. Don't read it if it bothers you because it can get worse.

 

[calibuck]

Lived through the old '2-10-1' era and it wasn't pretty. smack talk pretty much all the time from the Wolverweenies fans. What hurt worst was the condescending attitude I received from those people after a loss. Thank God for Tress, then Urban, and hope we don't backslide with Day. Day appears to be the best available for tOSU, but maybe the Xichigan coach was right - that Day hasn't got the scars on his back that the rest of the coaching world has earned. Well, he's earning 'em now. Truly believe this 'average' recruiting cycle is due to the two-in-a-row losses. The pressure mounts on Day to become a complete coach against Georgia, and then, and then beat Xichigan in the reprise. Thrice in two years might earn him a talking to. PS, with the loss of all of the DE triad, maybe Coach J's health/energy/etc is truly being quesioned. Go Bucks - always.

 

[mendensa]

The only thing truly unbearable is another Cooper-esque bad run. Folks in my age range couldn't handle that and are being very vocal about the warning signs. Let people vent. Don't read it if it bothers you because it can get worse.

I imagine I would be included in the age range of folks you are speaking of. And it was a rough 14 year stretch. Vent away. Just do it in the proper threads so that those who want to scroll through recruiting threads don't have to read it in every thread.

 

[MaxBuck]

Is what it is. Hope the 2024 class finds a couple of high-end DEs for the Bucks.