Matt Tamanini
Guest
Ohio State fans want more production out of the tight ends
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
You ask, we answer. Sometimes we ask, others answer. And then other times, we ask, we answer.
Throughout 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.
Our (week-) long national nightmare is over! It is finally again a game week for the Ohio State Buckeyes. I don’t know about you, but it felt very strange to already have to watch an entire Saturday of college football without a Buckeye game. Don’t get me wrong, I still love CFB Saturdays, but they aren’t the same when OSU isn’t on the field.
Fortunately as it is Sunday, that means that the team has turned the calendar from Improvement Week to Marshall Week. So, we are going to look back and see just what Buckeye Nation hopes was accomplished during these past long, grueling, tedious seven days.
Early last week, we asked Ohio State fans a couple of questions, one about what they hoped was being accomplished during the open week and the other about how what they saw in the first two games has impacted their perception of the team. Below are the results of this week’s fan survey.
If you disagree with the general consensus, let us know in the comments at the bottom of the page.
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Obviously, offensive line play is the No. 1 issue on the team right now. It is not glaringly bad through two games, but you have to take into account the opponents when judging these things. I think that an objective analysis of the o-line play would say that it has been good-ish (yes, that’s a technical term) through two games.
But, since we are eliminating the big men up front, we wanted to see what else wasn’t yet perfect in your opinion. And, like LGHL’s Jami Jurich argued in an article that came out earlier today, the survey respondents feel that the tight ends need to be more involved in the offense.
At UCLA, new Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly used the TEs far more than he had at any of his other college or NFL coaching stops, but that was out of necessity. When he arrived in Westwood, he didn’t have nearly the offensive talent that you would like to see in a then-Pac-12 team, so he leaned into what he had and focused more on the tight ends.
We have not yet seen anything like that in Columbus, for obvious reasons. The Buckeyes’ skill positions are loaded with top-tier talent for Chip to play with, while the tight ends are perhaps a step or two (or more) behind where the wide receivers and running backs are. Through two games, OSU tight ends have just four receptions, highlighted by Bennett Christian’s 55-yard touchdown scamper.
I don’t know that the Buckeyes need to throw more to the tight ends to win — again because of all of the other pieces on offense — but having the threat of a tight end will undoubtedly help. There is always a push and pull in Columbus over the tight ends about how much they have to be blockers and how much they have to be receivers. Obviously you would like them to be both — like Jeremy Ruckert and Luke Farrell — but this year, it doesn’t yet seem like they have found that.
Given the offensive line issues, I understand why Ryan Day and Chip Kelly haven’t just gone all-in on Jelani Thurman (a freaky athlete, but not yet a polished blocker) or Gee Scott Jr. (a converted wide receiver who doesn’t have traditional TE size). They brought in Will Kacmarek from Ohio University during the offseason and he has been fine as a blocker, but hasn’t done much of anything as a receiver.
Ultimately, I would love it if Thurman figured it out in terms of blocking and could then use his obvious physical skills to become a true offensive weapon, but for him to do that, he would have needed to do a lot of improving during Improvement Week.
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I wn’t bore you with my take on this questions, because I’ve already written about it a few times, including after Week 1, but I think this Buckeye team — mainly because of how impressed I’ve been with Will Howard — is better than I anticipated, and I had them going undefeated and winning the national title.
It seems like the vast majority of you don’t exactly agree with that assessment, but instead feel like your preseason expectations were spot on. Well, if those expectations were that OSu was going to be one of the few actually great teams in the country, then congratulations, you were correct.
Of course, 40% of the respondents also thought that the team was better than anticipated, so I don’t know who that lowly 1% was voting that the Buckeyes were worse than they expected, but I’m going to guess it is a Michigan troll trying to find something else that they can chest on.
Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Ohio State fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
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
Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
You ask, we answer. Sometimes we ask, others answer. And then other times, we ask, we answer.
Throughout 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.
Our (week-) long national nightmare is over! It is finally again a game week for the Ohio State Buckeyes. I don’t know about you, but it felt very strange to already have to watch an entire Saturday of college football without a Buckeye game. Don’t get me wrong, I still love CFB Saturdays, but they aren’t the same when OSU isn’t on the field.
Fortunately as it is Sunday, that means that the team has turned the calendar from Improvement Week to Marshall Week. So, we are going to look back and see just what Buckeye Nation hopes was accomplished during these past long, grueling, tedious seven days.
Early last week, we asked Ohio State fans a couple of questions, one about what they hoped was being accomplished during the open week and the other about how what they saw in the first two games has impacted their perception of the team. Below are the results of this week’s fan survey.
If you disagree with the general consensus, let us know in the comments at the bottom of the page.
Question 1: The Buckeyes are calling this “Improvement Week,” so beyond the obvious offensive line play, what do you want to see them improve the most?
Obviously, offensive line play is the No. 1 issue on the team right now. It is not glaringly bad through two games, but you have to take into account the opponents when judging these things. I think that an objective analysis of the o-line play would say that it has been good-ish (yes, that’s a technical term) through two games.
But, since we are eliminating the big men up front, we wanted to see what else wasn’t yet perfect in your opinion. And, like LGHL’s Jami Jurich argued in an article that came out earlier today, the survey respondents feel that the tight ends need to be more involved in the offense.
At UCLA, new Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly used the TEs far more than he had at any of his other college or NFL coaching stops, but that was out of necessity. When he arrived in Westwood, he didn’t have nearly the offensive talent that you would like to see in a then-Pac-12 team, so he leaned into what he had and focused more on the tight ends.
We have not yet seen anything like that in Columbus, for obvious reasons. The Buckeyes’ skill positions are loaded with top-tier talent for Chip to play with, while the tight ends are perhaps a step or two (or more) behind where the wide receivers and running backs are. Through two games, OSU tight ends have just four receptions, highlighted by Bennett Christian’s 55-yard touchdown scamper.
I don’t know that the Buckeyes need to throw more to the tight ends to win — again because of all of the other pieces on offense — but having the threat of a tight end will undoubtedly help. There is always a push and pull in Columbus over the tight ends about how much they have to be blockers and how much they have to be receivers. Obviously you would like them to be both — like Jeremy Ruckert and Luke Farrell — but this year, it doesn’t yet seem like they have found that.
Given the offensive line issues, I understand why Ryan Day and Chip Kelly haven’t just gone all-in on Jelani Thurman (a freaky athlete, but not yet a polished blocker) or Gee Scott Jr. (a converted wide receiver who doesn’t have traditional TE size). They brought in Will Kacmarek from Ohio University during the offseason and he has been fine as a blocker, but hasn’t done much of anything as a receiver.
Ultimately, I would love it if Thurman figured it out in terms of blocking and could then use his obvious physical skills to become a true offensive weapon, but for him to do that, he would have needed to do a lot of improving during Improvement Week.
Question 2: After two games, how do you feel about the team’s championship potential this season?
I wn’t bore you with my take on this questions, because I’ve already written about it a few times, including after Week 1, but I think this Buckeye team — mainly because of how impressed I’ve been with Will Howard — is better than I anticipated, and I had them going undefeated and winning the national title.
It seems like the vast majority of you don’t exactly agree with that assessment, but instead feel like your preseason expectations were spot on. Well, if those expectations were that OSu was going to be one of the few actually great teams in the country, then congratulations, you were correct.
Of course, 40% of the respondents also thought that the team was better than anticipated, so I don’t know who that lowly 1% was voting that the Buckeyes were worse than they expected, but I’m going to guess it is a Michigan troll trying to find something else that they can chest on.
Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Ohio State fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
Continue reading...