buckeyesin07
Veni. Vidi. Vici.
I still have confidence in Coach Herman. He had a bad game. It happens. He's still a young coach and sharpening his skills, his eye and his judgement.
I think he called a game last night that looked better in theory than in practice. I think he recognized what MSU was doing in terms of scheme and called for plays and formations that should have countered those things. I think where things went wrong is that MSU's players made some great individual and team plays to overcome play calls that should have worked for Ohio State. Conversely, Ohio State did some things that in theory probably shouldn't have worked, but because players made great individual and team plays to overcome it they were able to succeed. The plays that should have worked in theory didn't and the plays that shouldn't have worked did. When the chips were down, I think he trusted theory and scheme instead of his players that were making plays and getting the results in spite of what MSU was trying to do to stop them.
I can't help but think of the anecdote that Meyer has from when he was a position coach at ND, where he had a player crying because he wasn't getting the ball and he could have helped his team win. Meyer says he resolved that he would go out of his way to make sure his best players always touched the ball. I think him and Herman got away from that last night. It's a tough way to get a reminder about one of your core principles.
Good post. Maybe Herman out-thought himself, but I'm disappointed that at some point, he didn't realize that OSU was gashing MSU with Hyde up the middle. The only time Hyde was stopped is when his own offensive coordinator did it to him. Narduzzi and Dantonio came up with a good game plan last night; that said, they should feel really fortunate that OSU stopped Hyde, because MSU wasn't able to do it.
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