Not a fan of this idea. 

The loss to our hated rival this year was a bit of a stunner due to how poorly we played, and how unexpected it was. This can have a big impact on our players from the shoulders up.

Reference our 1995 team that had been pretty dominant on both sides coming into The Game, only to get uncharacteristically embarrassed by our inability to slow down a rushing attack led by Tim Biakabutuka.

The defensive breakdown in that game was very unexpected, much like it was ten days ago in the 2022 version of The Game! As a result, we played poorly in the bowl game against a very good Tennessee team.

How concerned are you that confidence might have been shattered for this Buckeye team (on both sides of the ball)?

I get your point but I like our chances in the vast majority of those matchups. 

The original post was excellent, and I resonate with all of his points. To expand further, here are my thoughts on where things stand for Ryan Day and the Buckeye program. Much like all of you on this board, verbalizing it is part of the healing process. 

Buckeye fans always said that John Cooper didn’t understand how the rivalry game defined your season. I don’t think it can be said of Ryan Day. Having coached under Urban for several seasons and having great success against TTUN, followed by experiencing failure these past two years, he may understand that reality better than anyone on the face of the planet!! 

Yesterday’s result was a case of Ohio State’s coaches failing in three key areas:

1) Defensive Game Plan:

Too overly aggressive to stop the run, to the point of not having anyone on the back end. This exposed us to excessive risk of a missed tackle or a coverage mistake turning into a gash TD. We allowed TD’s of 69, 75, 45, 75 & 85 yards, when better safety help might have limited these plays to 10-25 yards. Edwards is a good runner, but not nearly as physical as Corum, especially with his hand injury. So, it was foolish to expose ourselves that badly by putting 8-9 in the box. 

2) Offensive Game Plan:

Possessing unbelievable offensive talent, the coaches weren't aggressive enough in using it. The game plan seemed to be rich in horizontal passes and running plays, and lacking in vertical threat plays downfield. They also chose to deploy up tempo, which we saw very little of during the season. The false starts killed several of our drives. 

3) Coaching Scared:

After failing to convert on 4th and 2 and in the second quarter, Ryan Day seemed to coach scared. He failed to grasp the gravity of the moment on several second half drives, when he declined to allow his Heisman QB a chance to get a 4th down conversion. He chose to end each of our first four second half drives with kicks on 4th down, instead of trusting his talented offense to convert:

>4th & 3 at OSU 49 (PUNT)

>4th & 5 at MICH 43 (PUNT)

>4th & 3 at OSU 32 (PUNT)

>4th & 4 at MICH 9 (FG)

BOTTOM LINE:

Ryan Day is still a relatively young guy. He seemed to be brilliant in his more limited OC role under Urban Meyer, when his play calling was outstanding. But since becoming head coach, a drop off has been apparent in that regard. To maximize his potential as a head coach, some kind of change is needed. 

He might need to consider delegating the play calling to someone else, so he can be more focused on setting the course and culture of the program, than steering the actual ship. He may decide he’s better at doing the steering (or he enjoys that more), in which case he might be better suited to the NFL. All I know is, he definitely needs to make some fundamental changes to how he’s handling things currently.

QB MOBILITY

Urban believed strongly that a mobile QB changed the dynamic of his offense. It was foundational to his football philosophy up until the 2018 season, when Dwayne Haskins beat out his handpicked mobile QB - Tate Martell. Until that point, Urban’s success at BG, Utah, Florida and tOSU was always tied to having a mobile QB. The running ability of Braxton Miller and JT Barrett was key to Urban’s 7-0 record against TTUN. 

Day had such a player in Justin Fields, and he was a good enough coach then to decimate a very good Michigan team in 2019. The running threat that Justin Fields represented was instrumental in keeping opposing defenses off balance, allowing the passing game and read-option game to be highly effective. QB mobility had a lot to do with JK Dobbins and Trey Sermon going off in 2019 and 2020. 

Justin Fields playing hurt in both the 2019 playoff semifinal game, and the 2020 playoff final game, took away his mobility - a primary factor in both of those losses. We haven’t had a dominant running game since, and we’ve witnessed consecutive losses in The Game in ‘21 & ‘22. 

It might be time for Ryan Day to reassess what type of athlete he recruits at the QB position. I don’t think either Devin Brown or Kyle McCord are the kind of athlete that can keep defenses off balance with a running threat. It remains to be seen whether their passing skills alone will be enough. All we know is, it wasn’t enough in the case of CJ Stroud at the helm.

If you put Barry Sanders behind that same line, instead of the crap he played behind in Detroit, and Emmitt would have never seen the field.

This is so absolutely true! It’s not necessarily a knock on Emmit. It’s more an acknowledgment of how incredibly special Barry was. For my money, he’s the best that ever was in that league. 

I think winning out they are locked in at 2 unless Georgia/Tennessee loses the SEC title game. 

Assuming Bama beats LSU on Saturday and then wins out, I think that’s exactly what will happen. 

It's a long overdue decision to eliminate divisions in the B1G. The West has been a joke since the switch from the previous Leaders and Legends debacle.

The only two B1G Championship Game victories by teams currently in the West were 2011 (Buckeyes were reeling after just having fired their coach), and 2012 (Buckeyes were undefeated, but banned from the post season). 

The second best team in the East has traditionally been the clear second best team in the conference, only to be forced to sit out of the Championship Game every year. Since reshuffling the divisions in 2014 to the current East-West lineup, the Big Ten Championship Game has only featured the two best teams in the conference one time.

2014 - The two best teams were clearly tOSU and MSU. The championship game matched us up with a pretty average Wisconsin team from the West, and we won 59-0.

2015 - The two best teams were tOSU and MSU. The championship game matched up MSU (defeated us in a monsoon rainstorm) with a decent Iowa team. There was little doubt the Buckeyes were better than Iowa, and we would have slammed MSU in a rematch, had it occurred in the B1G Championship Game. The East-West format prevented the Buckeyes from defending their 2014 national title, despite being one of the four best teams in the country.

2016 - The two best teams were tOSU and PSU. The championship game matched up a two loss PSU (defeated us on a questionable blocked FG return) with an average, two loss Wisconsin team in the Championship Game, despite the Buckeyes and TTUN clearly being the two best teams in the conference. 

2017 - The two best teams were tOSU and Wisconsin. This was the only year where the two best teams in the B1G faced each other in Championship Game, where two loss tOSU defeated an unbeaten Wisconsin team. 

2018 - The two best teams were tOSU and TTUN.  The championship game matched one loss tOSU with a mediocre, four loss Northwestern team (that was likely the fourth best team in the conference, and had no business being in the Championship Game).

2019 - The two best teams were tOSU and PSU. The championship game matched up one loss tOSU with a mediocre, two loss Wisconsin team (that we had already defeated 38-7 in the regular season.

2020 (not considered due to Covid debacle).

2021 - The two best teams were tOSU and TTUN. The championship game matched up one loss TTUN with a very mediocre, two loss Iowa team in the Championship Game.

It's certainly great to be winning, but we are still too much of a finesse team. When we are confronted with brute force, we have difficulty. No question.

A fair statement when referring to our offense. However, the opposite is true when talking about our defense this year. And since our defense is at least 45% of the equation, I like our chances in a brute force type of game. 

The silver lining from this performance is, our offense faced some adversity after our defense awarded them incredible field position. Both the coaches and the players struggled, and learned where improvement is needed, yet still dominated to the tune of a 44 point margin.

Next week will be another test against a quality opponent. This team definitely looks worthy of its ranking, and I like our chances against our rival on the last Saturday in November in The Shoe. 

A fair statement when referring to our offense. However, the opposite is true when talking about our defense this year. And since our defense is at least 40% of the equation, I like our chances in a brute force type of game. 

I believe the weather was a huge factor in slowing down our passing attack. As evidence, I would point to two huge plays that prevented us from jumping out to an early lead. The first was a dropped pass early in the game by JSN. Instead of extending a potential TD drive, we punted. a short time later, there was a dropped pass in the end zone by Olave that would have been a TD. Instead, we settled for a FG. Instead of going into the locker room at halftime by multiple scores, we allowed TTUN to believe they could hang with us. That confidence equipped them to start the second half strong with momentum we couldn’t slow down. 

The best combination of cocktails, steaks and table service are at J Gilberts. 

The majority of the comments I’ve seen in this thread relate to how well our defense will be able to match up with their dominant rushing attack. I agree that will be a huge factor. But I think the other side of the ball will have more to do with determining the flow of the game. 

The most interesting thing I heard Joel say about TTUN was the way their defense is built like an NFL team. I believe that’s the matchup that will determine the outcome of this year’s game. Can their defense slow down our offense like they did last year. 

There has been one game this year where our offense struggled early and didn’t get out to a large lead. We trailed late into the fourth third quarter against Notre Dame, because they had a plan and the personnel to slow down our offense. 

The performance of Penn State's defense yesterday somewhat resembled last year's edition of The Game, where Ohio State's defense got absolutely manhandled in the second half. In looking at these two games, the common denominator was the outstanding performance of TTUN's offensive line.

The question going into this year's version of The Game is whether our revised defensive scheme can make TTUN's offense one dimensional. If TTUN needs to rely on JJ McCarthy's arm to win the game, it will give us a huge edge. 

‘96 vs TTUN is definitely in the top three

Arch Griffin's (31) consecutive games over 100 yds rushing!

I feel like BTN does a really good job of covering Big Ten football daily on “The Big Show” with rotating analysts. Nicole Auerbach is excellent on Mondays with Howard Griffith. Josh Perry and Gerry DiNardo are also excellent. The Journey is an excellent weekly show as well. 

I suggest you also check out SiriusXM. ESPNU Radio covers college football exclusively during the season. Dusty and Danny are excellent in the early mornings. They also feature Big Ten Radio which is dedicated to discussing the conference. 

I would rather watch paint dry than tolerate Finebaum on “woke” ESPN. That network is hot garbage. 

For my money, the prettiest campus I've seen nationally was The United States Military Academy at West Point.

I visited there a few years ago and was absolutely blown away by the beauty of the campus, its views of the Hudson River Valley, and history. 

In terms of Big Ten schools, I would call U of M the most overrated. The prettiest is Indiana University Bloomington.

I loved the article, and I love seeing what he’s become in this Buckeye offense!

It seems to me Miyan is a bigger, faster, stronger version reminds of Carlos Snow, who played for the Buckeyes from 1987-1991. My favorite memory of Carlos was his outstanding performance in Earle Bruce’s final game in Ann Arbor. 

https://youtu.be/-0gvKHVMykI

What hurt us in 2015 was the perception that (going into the B1G Championship game vs a very mediocre MSU team) undefeated Iowa was incorrectly perceived to be a really good football team. And MSU was vastly overrated based on their fluke win over tOSU in literal monsoon conditions. Then the committee gave Iowa even more credit for losing to mediocre MSU team on the last play of that game.

When the rankings came out, Bama was celebrating, because we were behind both MSU and Iowa, despite the absolute fact that our roster was absolutely stacked with talent that had beaten Bama the previous year, and all the insiders knew we were orders of magnitude better than both MSU and Iowa in every phase. It was an absolute travesty! 

Bama steamrolled MSU 38-0 in their semifinal game, and Iowa was hammered by Stanford 45-16 in the Rose Bowl. 

Finding a hotel in the Short North area would put you within easy walking distance of all kinds of shopping, entertainment and a plethora of outstanding restaurants. The best options are The Columbus Hilton, Hampton Inn and La Meridien. 

My favorite steakhouse in the city of Columbus continues to be J Gilberts. They’re well known for being a great destination on Thanksgiving Day. It is located in the Worthington area near Route 23 and I-270. 

As dominant as Miyan Williams was in the first half on Saturday, why did he not get a single carry in the second half? Was it because the coaches believe he’s the singular running back on our roster that we absolutely can’t afford to lose, and they didn’t want to risk injury? Or was it more a thing where the coaches wanted to see to what extent Henderson could assert himself with the heavier load? 

For my money, the best Buckeye rushing backfield ever was that of the 2014 squad.

Zeke Elliott (1,878 yds) and JT Barrett (938 yds) combined for 2,816 yds rushing, and the result was a National Title.

JT was playing the QB position, but his position on that team had to be considered an equal running threat to that of our halfback. Our opponents were unable to stop the rushing attack, despite the fact they knew our passing attack was very limited. The Elliott/ Barrett backfield combo averaged 6.34 yds per carry. 

Bama will lose to the Razorbacks on Saturday. Mark it down. 

I was impressed with Dallan when he ran the ball a few times vs Arkansas State. Then he backed it up big time vs Toledo. His ability to see the hole and get through it very quickly reminds me of Arch Griffin. That shows his strengths of vision and  quickness. But he appears to have another very important strength. The ability to make the first guy miss, followed by a significant burst. To my eyes, his instinctive running back skills are better than Henderson’s. And his speed isn’t far behind. He may end up being an all time great here. Just my two cents. 

In addition to many of the Buckeye podcasts mentioned here, I enjoy listening to Dusty and Danny in the Morning on ESPNU Radio. It’s available on SiriusXM. They have commercials, but you can skip through them using the app, as long as you don’t listen live. It’s an excellent show covering college football nationally, and they’re very entertaining. The story they told last week about Dusty walking into the ladies restroom at O’Hare was comedy gold!!

I’m not a fan of the Full Ride show that comes on afterwards. Can’t stand Chris Childers.