Buckeye Monday: Fiesta Preview

Buckeyes invade Phoenix…..Part IV.

Is it still Bowl Season? Is there a game tonight? I almost forgot. This has been the most forgettable bowl season I can ever remember. I was trying to avoid spending any time doing any in-depth analysis for this game but just when I thought I was out…..Big House Bob pulled me back in.

Going into the BCS games I was pretty comfortable that there were 5 teams that could legitimately claim a spot in the BCS game on Thursday….Texas, Alabama, USC, Oklahoma and Florida. Those 5 teams were head and shoulders better than the next 5 teams in the rankings. Alabama’s poor showing in the Sugar Bowl whittled that number down to 4. I don’t think any of these teams would be too eager to take on the Trojans with the BCS title at stake. The system is flawed…we all know that…so I won’t get in to who should be playing who.

Tonight’s game will be Ohio State’s 5th trip to the Phoenix area in the past 7 years. While it’s still exciting for some, I’m a little down on the game….for three reasons.

#1 See above listing of schools. Ohio State is not even close to making that list. I think they are appropriately ranked at #10 in the polls. However, the gap between 1-4 and 5-10 is gaping.

#2 Ohio State’s performance in their last two BCS games has been disappointing on many levels. They were over confident and out coached against Florida. They were under confident and out coached against LSU. What combination can we hope for tonight? A clue might be Tressel’s decision to hold Pryor out of media day. I think that was a mistake. His rationale was that TP would be better served spending time in meetings and watching film. I think that’s crazy. He is the leader of the team. He needs to be put in situations on and off the field that demonstrates the coach’s confidence in him. Shielding him from the media just puts more pressure on him. Watching the Rose Bowl last week I was so envious of the environment that Pete Carroll has fostered at USC. His players have soooo much fun playing the game. They just play. There talent level just takes over games. Tressel, on the other hand, creates an entirely different atmosphere. Our players are tight because Tressel is tight. You can’t just change that approach over night and expect different/better results. This leads me to my last reason.

#3 Coaching!!! I have been totally disappointed in the job the coaches have done this year. Yes, the defense has been solid but far too conservative in nature for my liking. I am tired of 2-deep zones and limited blitz packages. Tonight is the night to lock Jenkins up man to man on Quan Cosby and send blitzes at McCoy from all over the field. The same can be said for the offense. Yes, Pryor lead the Big-10 is passing efficiency but heck, that’s not hard to do when you only throw 15 times per game. The lack of imagination in the passing game should be attributed to Bollman and the play of his O-Line. With 4 returning starters I expected more from this group. I said it before and I’ll say it again, Bollman needs to be shown the door.

How will is go?

Not well. Beanie will get 25-30 carries in his last game as a Buckeye. I think he will pick up lots of yards between the 20s but will not see the end zone. We’ve already heard about special plays with Boekman and Pryor in the same formation. Why we heard about it before the game is beyond me. I like the idea but it needs to be pretty special to work against the Texas defense.

I think we keep it close in the first half. Our defense can hang with their offense. Say 17-10. We won’t have any answers for “McCoy to Shipley” in the second half and the final score will be 31-13.

Such is life……

Go Bucks!!!!

Buckeye John