Jim Tressel (National Champion, ex-President, Youngstown State University, CFB HOF)

[Gatorubet]

How many times have you seen OSU seemingly have control of the game, only to let the other team back in it? Its happened numerous times, even against lesser opponents. Something needs to change, I just am not sure what.

Honest quetion, and I have not seen the Bucks enough to answer this.

Does Tress take the foot of the pedal, or do the other staffs make second half/on the fly changes that result in less effective Buckeye drives late in the game?

I keep reading references to the other teams being "let back in", and it being attributed to a lack of aggresiveness on Tress' part. Could it instead be partly attributed to a consistant offensive philosophy that does not work as well later in the game due to adjustments by your opponents?

 

[kippy1040]

In the Woody Hayes era of Ohio State football the caliber of talent was always strong and ongoing for the Buckeyes. All they did then was just
re-load.

Now in Jim Tressels time at Ohio State the talent level is still very strong
because of Tradition. But the difference between then and now is that
there is so much "Parity" in college football teams today. Blocking schemes and techiques are basically the same all over. The talent of today is bigger stronger and faster in 75% of your big time football campuses.

Back when Tressel was at Youngstown State the talent level there was not as good compared to Ohio State under John Cooper. The difference then was that Cooper was not very good at trying to beat Michigan. And at YSU,
tressel was sucessful at coming up with big wins in at the 1-AA level.

The rest is now just history for Tressel after winning 7 times out of 8 against Michigan. And then winning the N/C in 2002, i guess no one expected that huh? With all that being accepted i think we all expected to see bigger and better things to come of Ohio State. To a degree it has happened but not to the satisfaction of so many Buckeye Fans. I was jogging with a friend yesterday and he made a comment that after the 2002 N/C we seem to have been snake bittern. That may have some truth to it in a sense but after the USC game i wondered how long is this going to continue. We are coming ever so close now. We are almost there to getting over the hump. Maybe after saturday nights game we can see the brighter side of life in the future for Ohio State Football.

 

[Buck Nasty]

Honest quetion, and I have not seen the Bucks enough to answer this.

Does Tress take the foot of the pedal, or do the other staffs make second half/on the fly changes that result in less effective Buckeye drives late in the game?

I keep reading references to the other teams being "let back in", and it being attributed to a lack of aggresiveness on Tress' part. Could it instead be partly attributed to a consistant offensive philosophy that does not work as well later in the game due to adjustments by your opponents?

First off I have no problem with the way the defense performed on Saturday night they were stellar. I have noticed a disturbing trend though and I don't know if it has to do with "taking our foot off the pedal" or what. In the Texas game we gave up two scoring drives one at the end of the first half, and one at the end of the game that cost us the game. Otherwise our defense controlled the game. Navy another drive right at the end of the game. USC a drive at the end of the first half and another at the end of the game in a game we otherwise completely controlled. I don't know the cause other than the other team making plays when they need them, but it is concerning. If we are going to rely on our defense to win every game we cannot keep putting them in these positions when we have the opportunities.

 

[Fungo Squiggly]

But he's been outcoached against USC, Texas, Florida etc. He goes conservative in attacking situations and aggressive in conservative situations lately.

Outcoached against Florida? You bet your ass. That game was an abomination.

But Tressel was not out-coached against USC or Texas. The fact that he had OSU in a position to win both of those games says to me that he was NOT outcoached.

Every year it's the same story. The points OSU scores, the defensive stops, and the wins are all by the players. Any offensive failure, points allowed, or losses are on the coaches.

The pass plays down the middle to Sanz & Pozey in the first half were just great plays by the players. The coaches had nothing to do with drawing up those plays and setting up the USC defense to bite on the PA so that the receivers would be wide open.

Looking at those games that buckeyefrankmp put up there in his last post, (PSU,Texas and USC) the only team that had more talent than us across the board is USC this year and thats maybe debatable.

It may be debatable by some, but not by me. USC's recruiting is phenomenal.

Those spoiled fans did their job last night.

Yes, they did. And after the game I heard it described as "the worst coaching performance I've ever seen" and "Tressel should be done after this." I restrained myself from giving those folks a substantial piece of my mind. (Well, as substantial as it could be, considering the minute nature of my brain ). OSU fans are some of the best in the nation, but they are most definitely spoiled by success.

I have tried to avoid talking about this game for almost a full day to let my emotions subside. I was pretty sure by now, I'd have calmed down. But I haven't. Tressel ball does not work against elite teams. In games like last night's, he needs to let his hair down and let the talent he recruits go out and play. The wrinkle he threw in last week of actually throwing to a tight end may have scared him a bit. He must have felt like he was getting more liberal than Pat Buchnan or John Hagee and had to check himself.

If Tressel runs out the clock at the end of the first half, USC has 3 fewer points. If Tressel runs the ball up the middle on 3rd down of the penultimate drive instead of calling a pass play leading to a sack, OSU may have 3 more points. Abandoning "Tressel-ball" cost OSU the game as much as sticking to it did.

 

[scarletngray]

http://cfn.scout.com/2/557921.html

I saw this posted on another board and thought it was worth sharing. An article by Matt Zemek actually supporting Jim Tressel and his philosophy. It is the most rational thing I've read in defense of our coach, from an outside perspective.

:osu:

 

[Woody84]

I don't get people. The drive right before the half, instead of running out the clock he tries to get more points, it didn't work and USC got 3. Tress is damned either way it seems.

If we get that punt block, or was able to punch it in after the saftey instead of getting 3, the game isn't close and the last drive doesn't even matter. Sure looking back on it, I bet he would change somethings. But you can't blame him for being conservative, and then blame him for playing it to loose.

 

[Poe McKnoe]

Yowzers.

Deconstructing: The grisly demise of 'Tresselball'- Dr Saturday - Rivals.com

 

[buckeye78]

The top 20 Ohio State football players for 2009: No. 17, Aaron Pettrey - cleveland.com

I won't debate the other calls. What tress did up to the fourth quarter is debatable...we were in a position to win. Can't really argue with that. What is not debatable, is that we have a kicker who is one of the better long distance kickers (and kickers period) in the country. Isn't special teams part of tresselball? Why don't you kick the 53 yard field goal, sack or no sack, and go up by 8? Changing the pressure from "we need a touchdown and we win" to "we need a touchdown and a 2 point conversion to TIE".

Just sayin. I am not calling for Tress's head here. I think he's still one of the best coaches in america, and we are blessed to have him.

That doesn't excuse this decision, IMHO.

If someone can explain to me why he chose to do this, I'm all ears. And I don't buy the pin em down and let the Defense win it argument. They were on the field the entire second half. Given our propensity to give up end of half/game drives, it makes no sense to me. (BTW, that was one of the most spectacular defensive efforts I have seen in a VERY, VERY long time). We needed points in a defensive battle. We had em, we didn't take em and we lost because of it. (I realize there were more things involved, but all irrelevant if we kick the field goal and go up by 8).

GO BUCKS!

EDIT:

If we miss the field goal, it's a twenty yard difference from where they wound up with the ball. 3 points > 20yards of defensive position.

 

[morbitzerker]

Wonder what he has/had to say about the 2005-2006 offenses? Not a slight, just curious.

 

[osugrad21]

Yowzers.

Deconstructing: The grisly demise of 'Tresselball'- Dr Saturday - Rivals.com

I stopped reading when he said USC played cover 2...then said USC didn't even bother to cover the #2 WRs. 'Should have thrown the bubble!'

Yup...throw the bubble into an outside leverage CB who is automatic outside force while LBs run the inside force, DL in pursuit laterally, and Taylor Mays filling the alley. Sounds more like 3 yards and a cloud of death.

Brilliant.

 

[BrutusBobcat]

Yowzers.

Deconstructing: The grisly demise of 'Tresselball'- Dr Saturday - Rivals.com

Yowzers, indeed. It's interesting to contrast that with Zemek's article, which really only addresses game decisions and not schematic ones. Do any of our resident coaches or former players have comments?

 

[Merih]

Yowzers, indeed. It's interesting to contrast that with Zemek's article, which really only addresses game decisions and not schematic ones. Do any of our resident coaches or former players have comments?

I'll take a stab at it:

The article completely ignores what USC did defensively. They lined up their D-Line very wide (almost outside of the tackles) in order to take away TP's perception of the edge. He is right about the check down to the slot receiver, however. That was there all night. USC was selling out to stop the run and to maintain containment on TP. They wouldn't even line up over the slot receiver. However, TP is not quite ready yet to make all of those at the line adjustments. The checkdown to the slot was there all night however.

He made a comment about the Shot-Ginn formation, calling it "Idiotic" because it took that player (Ray Small) out of the game. Not true. The formation creates a lot of decision making problems for the defensive safety. One thing we didn't do that I wish we did was pump fake to Ray and have him run a bubble route just for show. Mays was over biting all night, and I think we may have been able to hit one over the top.

He then compared our lack of a bootleg to SCUM using theirs and running an option counter. But at the top of the article did he not state that we don't use the zone read? I understand what he is saying about the bootleg. However for that to have success and PA Bootleg would have already have to have worked. And like I said with USC lining up wide of the offensive tackles, that bootleg wasn't there.

He was right about the two minute drill. No qualms here.

His overall statement is that the game is passing JT by. What can I say to that? I don't really believe that. He's lost games to teams that are national champs and top-5 ranked. Other than Texas, all of those teams had outstanding defenses. What's bothering me is the lack of cohesion from play to play. Finding what works, lulling the defense to sleep, breaking tendencies, exploiting certain weak links on defense, etc. I am on the record of thinking that an offensive coordinator could help with many of those things. But this season is still going on. Remember 2005? A loss at home at night to a Texas team where the game emphasized field position. The rest of the year you saw the offense grow and mature alongside the already strong defense. By the end of the year, Ohio State could've beat anyone in the country, including the two teams in the national championship. Give this season a chance, it's not over yet.

 

[BB73]

For those criticizing Tresselball, I'll add myself to the list of those pointing out that offensive aggresiveness in the last 1:50 of the first half allowed USC the drive that tied the game at halftime. A conservative offensive approach would have resulted in a 10-7 tOSU lead at the half. And USC's only first-half points would have been from a drive that averaged less than 1 yard per play.

On the drive before tOSU's last punt, when at the edge of being in FG range, two passes were called (one incomplete to Ballard, one resulting in a sack). A couple of boring running plays would have put the team closer for a potential FG to push the lead to 8 points. Admittedly, that would not have sealed a victory, since that's still a 1-score game.

Personally, I would have liked to have seen some QB sneaks run on at least a couple of occasions. And I would have tried a 53-yard FG in the middle of the 4th quarter, even after the sack. But QB sneaks and FG attempts aren't exactly calls for a sexier offense.

Let's remember that it's not an easy thing to score against exteremely talented defenses. Oklahoma was setting records last year, and only managed 14 in the BCS Title Game.

 

[osugrad21]

He is right about the check down to the slot receiver, however. That was there all night. USC was selling out to stop the run and to maintain containment on TP. They wouldn't even line up over the slot receiver. However, TP is not quite ready yet to make all of those at the line adjustments. The checkdown to the slot was there all night however.

He is ready to call audibles...when they are there. Cover 2 puts the safeties on top of #2 and the CBs playing outside leverage on #1 to funnel in. Especially with your DL shade comment, why would you throw the bubble? He acts as if the 2 shell was a brilliant strategy and only used because of poor coaching...bull. It was there to keep flats players and outside force to contain Pryor. Sanzo's catch down the gut exposed that 2-shell...but that apparently was just dumb luck. The call was there and executed. That is successful football...they go hand in hand.

 

[Merih]

He is ready to call audibles...when they are there. Cover 2 puts the safeties on top of #2 and the CBs playing outside leverage on #1 to funnel in. Especially with your DL shade comment, why would you throw the bubble? He acts as if the 2 shell was a brilliant strategy and only used because of poor coaching...bull. It was there to keep flats players and outside force to contain Pryor. Sanzo's catch down the gut exposed that 2-shell...but that apparently was just dumb luck. The call was there and executed. That is successful football...they go hand in hand.

I understand what you're saying. No the Cover-2 was not a revolutionizing play call. None of what USC brought to the table was. You're absolutely right about the Sanzenbacher play. It definitely got Mays to be a bit more cautious. Would you then agree, osugrad21, that many of the passing plays called in the second half took a bit too long to develop?