I have waited a bit to not post something stupid...the "don't say anything if you don't have anything nice to say" approach if you will. I have thought long and hard and after much reflection...I still don't really have anything nice to say. But I do have things to say in general, albeit much more censored than if I posted this around the time the clock ran out on Saturday night.
We have all of the talent in the God-given world. And we are bringing in the best recruiting class we have likely seen in the upcoming year. As much as I tried to insist to my friends that we were "just too young" and had "the most freshmen in football" after the game to make myself feel warm and fuzzy...that is a fucking bull[Mark May] excuse. Bama does it each and every year, they don't give a [Mark May]. They just win. Win. Win. Win. And more likely than not again...win. We had a ton of guys leave early last year and are going to have a ton of guys leave early again this year... just like Bama did and will this year again, same damn thing. Yet they do not miss a beat. If you clearly define the standard of where you wanna be, it is easy to define when you are not reaching it (see below). We won a title in '14? Cool. You know how many damn titles Bama has won recently...yeah...they probably can't even remember their favorite one in the last 5 years.
I get that they are the golden standard, but UFM made it very clear that the Bama standard is the one we are seeking to achieve. I will admit wholeheartedly that this was an amazing season by most standards, particularly giving our youth. But when your coach flat out says that is not the standard to be measured by and you recruit basically to the level that Bama does every year for the last 3-4 years, do you accept less? I don't think so. You admit that you are getting out-coached and fix it. We have the athletes and we did not put them in a position to win, simple. Sure, our players made mistakes in the game. But that was about the most piss-poor coaching preparation I have ever seen at Ohio State, only to be rivaled by getting out-coached by Urban himself in '07 against Florida. We got the holy piss beat out of us, up and down the field, without mercy, for the ENTIRE DAMN GAME. It was flat-out embarrassment and there is no way around it. I think it had very little to do with the players, but I could not even finish watching it and that is the only time since I have watched OSU football. I still wore my OSU gear up through tonight everywhere I went and love my school no matter what, and I will never waver on supporting them...but that was just unwatchable.
I do not give a damn where the blame should rest on the staff personally, I just want/trust Urban to fix it. General thoughts are that Warriner and Smith are great position coaches. Alford seems capable. Studrawa is too early too tell, although past reviews leave me uneasy and this year was rough given the talent. Everyone else on the offensive side...I hope they find gainful employment elsewhere (I know, not being cryptic). LJ Sr. is an absolute star and should get a raise. Fickell is unfortunately leaving our ranks but wish him the best, hope we find a great replacement. Schiano and Coombs are amazing, keep it going. Seems obvious to pinpoint the offense but how can you not? We have great talent coming in, sure...but I do not trust our current staff to do anything with it without a change. This offensive staff ruined a great team, I tend to think they could/would do the same with similarly great talent in the coming years as a whole.
But I will close with a positive but candid statement. There is every reason to believe that we will be a force to reckon with in the upcoming years. But we need to make changes on our staff to effectuate it imo. We are a very, very good team and we are really close...but there is a gap to close. I absolutely believe we will do it but not without some upgrades on offense.
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It is a little sad that it took a dreadful performance in a playoff game to off Beck, but better late than never!