5th year Senior leaders on defense from Ohio State's #1 ranked recruiting class in 2009: Jonathan Newsome, Dominic Clarke, Melvin Fellows, Dorian Bell, Jamie Wood, Jordan Whiting.
Good point. You can also add LB Scott McVey and DE Jamel Turner from the 2010 class, both of whom were very highly ranked recruits.
Communication. Starts and ends with communication. I was blown away by Alabama's pre snap communication. Not just between the front 4 or back 7, but also between units. Hand signals, yelling, pointing, etc. It starts with Kirby Smart. He's on the field basically helping make pre snap adjustments. The offense doesn't know what defense they are in or where the blitz is coming from because it's not predetermined.
OSU doesn't communicate well. They don't have the tools to do so. OSU is terrible at switching responsibilities in zone coverage. Their spacing isn't right, some of the time because they were faking a press or a blitz, or because they didn't adjust to the formation.
It falls on Fickell. But I vote both because you can't blame coaches for poor tackling or getting run past by a TE.
An interesting point about the communication, or lack thereof. I wonder what the coaching staff would say about this (in a private moment, of course).
The coordinators are afraid of giving up a big play, it's obvious.
And yet the defense has already (through seven games) given up 8 plays of 30+ yards (all passes), including 4 plays of 60+ yards, with a long of 85 yards.
By comparison, the 2010 defense (in thirteen games) gave up only 9 plays of 30+ yards, with a long of 42 yards.
In the poll, I added option number four (B1G offenses are unstoppable) sort of as a joke, but college football has definitely changed in the past few years. In 133 games from 2005 to 2010, the Buckeyes defense gave up an average of 13.6 points per game; gave up 30+ points only 6 times (7.8%); and held their opponent to less than 10 points 31 times (40.3%).
But since 2010, many college football teams are following the Oregon model and employing an uptempo offense - this means more plays, which usually means more points for both teams. In addition, teams are passing more - this means more clock stoppages with incompletions, sideline completions, and more frequent first downs. Finally changes in rules (and rule interpretations) have helped offenses and hindered defenses - fewer holding calls, more pass interference calls, the targeting rule.
One more thing to consider: A team like Indiana is never going to be able to field a championship-level 85-man roster. But even the Hoosiers can sign enough talent to have one solid unit, and if you're going to overload one side of the ball, it might as well be the offense because (a) you will keep your fans interested, (b) you will get more media attention, (c) you will be able to sell your program to recruits who want to put up big numbers, and most importantly (d) you might actually be able to record a major upset by outscoring your opponent in a shoot out (witness Indiana's near miss against Ohio State last season and against Michigan this season).
So while there may not be any truly high-powered offenses in the B1G outside of Ohio State, it is definitely more difficult to shut down even an average offense due to changes in offensive philosophies, combined with rule changes that favor the offense. Take out the Florida A+M rout, and Ohio State is still giving up only 23.2 points per game against FBS competition, which may not be all that bad under the current circumstances.
