Edit: reading this back in my iPhone, this was not a final draft kind of copy. There are spelling and grammatical errors, but like I mention in the post, I threw it all together quickly from my hotel in dc while I should have been getting on the road home in charleston.
I think our offensive struggles are coming from several areas (see. everywhere) I will start with the suspensions. Our Rose and Sugar bowl winning QB along with the #1 receiver, #1 Tailback, #1 LT have not played a snap this year. Now I know there is always turnover in the college game, kids graduate, transfer, get hurt etc.... but right now we have been without guys we had previously counted on to be here INCLUDING in the recruiting game. When you have the biggest hyped QB in the history of the world commit to your program it is extremely difficult to land the next big fish at that position for a couple years. Sure, we have a senior in Joe Baseball, but I do not believe that the coaches envisioned him ever becoming our starter under center (he came to the program about the same time Pryor did. ) I also think, before all this crap with tattoos and suspensions, the coaches had been counting on having Braxton on the sidelines for a year while Pryor finished his career here. Guiton is very talented but he was not the first choice on the recruiting trail for us in that class but he was still offered because they felt they needed a capable backup to Pryor outside of Baus....... Also in this same time period, you have a change at the QB coach position from Joe Daniels to Nick Siciliano. Joe Daniels coached guys like Marino and T.Smith for decades. Nick Siciliano is a great guy and works his ass off, but this was his first full time position coaching job in the FBS division. Topped off with a guy in Pryor who, felt he could walk all over Siciliano and the older players from the rip... and the worst part is HE GOT AWAY WITH IT. I am going to stop on the TP talk right now or it will set my day off in the wrong direction and I could get banned. Got a lot of love for Nicky Sic, but he was thrown into the frying pan with Pryor.
Then you have the losses of several other very talented payers to suspension and again, you have players you had been counting on to be on the roster now out of the lineup.
Now, the guys that ARE playing.....
Receivers: aren't they all still teething? all of them are VERY young and inexperienced.
TE's: Stoneburner is a vet who most expected would be a factor and he has done exactly that. He is solid.
Running Back: It's tough when #1 is out and you have a couple of generally untested's trying to run behind ->
The Oline: People think Brewster is not performing, when I feel that Brew is missing a couple key components he had gotten used to in having Boren and Adams on his left side and Browning on his right. His guards were both seniors who had been getting PT since their Frosh years. Shugarts is still jumpy as [Mark May] and all that put together has come together in a poor poor effort.
Now Bolls. He is supposed to coordinate this mess without JT who was an offensive guy by trade. Now his new HC is Luke Fickell, a Defensive guy. Coach Hazell is gone (how many of his receivers are in the league?) Coach Daniels is not coaching. That leaves coach Peterson and Doc Tress as the other offensive staff members still on board.
I had started writing a short thing about Bolls in a word document the other night so I could make a post like this without flying off the handle.... I will paste it in here now because I am in DC and need to get my ass going and on the road back to my home in South Carolina....
I only worked for him for two years, and the first one of those years he didn?t say a whole lot to me. It was almost a challenge to get more than five words out of him if it wasn?t directly related to the offensive line, the offensive game plan, film cutups, call sheets, or back side linebackers (?must get the back side backer?). During the season and most of the offseason, he comes in before dawn and doesn?t leave until 10 PM. He can be found in the offensive staff room watching film, making the practice schedule, or working on that week?s game plan. At some point in the morning, usually early, he would get on the treadmill or elliptical for an hour. His breakfast was always oatmeal and/or mixed fruit, eaten in the offensive staff room. An intern or a GA would go out each day and grab lunch for the coaches, or Bolls would have brought lunch from home and that lunch would, again, be brought to the Offensive staff room. The only time he wasn?t in that room, was for a team meeting in the team room, for O line meetings before and after practice, or outside at practice itself. Once those were over, dinner was consumed normally at training table and then, inevitably, he would find his way back into that room. None of the time he spends at work is wasted. He is 100% focused 100% of the time.
Early in the week, the coaches would look at most everything we had in the play book and then would start shaving plays they didn?t like until they felt they had a solid to go into Saturday with. There were a couple of occasions where I would on my way to get Bolls that bigger list we had earlier and I would get stopped by other members of the staff so they could shave them before Bolls could see them. Why? Because Bolls would want to really get into each and every play in detail and all the position coaches would be stuck in the meetings until no one could see straight.
That was as far as I had gotten...
This is a guy who refused to write anything on the board in the visitors locker room at halftime at Purdue because the only marker in there was Blue. He cares about his players. He cares about Ohio State. He cares about beating Michigan. He cares about his faith (I originally met him at church) and he makes sure he works hard at all of those.
At the end of the day, Bolls is a very very solid coach, mentor and coordinator... .Do I think this is probably his last year here... yep. absolutely. He is not the first coach or coordinator who is very good at his job to most likely be ushered out after a bad, bad year and he won't be the last.
I don't feel any coordinator in the country could have this offense humming along with all of the other factors going on. I don't. I also didn't know it was going to be this rough.
ANYWAY.... time to get on the road.... I kinda threw this together in my hotel when I should have been packing and I don't have my glasses/contacts on either.... forgive typos and run on sentences........
I may write some more later...
