The good news is that the ND game is not the season opener. I believe it will be week #4, so that should give the offense ample opportunity to gel. 

Very nice - and now I know how old you are !

Really clever Spider Man analogy.  Count me as pro-Stroud - he can’t be blamed for a historically bad defense one year, and a defensive collapse in the biggest games in the next.  In addition, I think the anti-run sentiment wasn’t his doing at all, but in preservation to assure the offense could score 40+ per game to overcome the defensive ineptitude. I loved Fields , but stroud could drop a dime like no other.

I do agree with you … and yet, had we been able to field a team vs Georgia with even a #2 or #3 RB., or a #1 or #2 TE, we would very likely have been the owner of the national championship trophy . ( Not even counting the absence of JSN and Marvin Harrison in  Q4)

It’s not the foot speed that puts them in a precarious position, it’s the ability to turn their hips back and forth to react to the receiver.  Part of that is due to the body type needed to be a run stopper and blitzer at times as a safety ,  where a corner is on the receivers all the time. 

Considering that we had a team playing for the national championship on the last play of the game (yes I consider the Ga semifinal as the national championship and you can’t convincee me differently) , it makes sense that guys have to develop physically and mentally to crack the starting lineup. It’s been the same story at Alabama for years .

I have no problem with all of the credit and blame that fans spew about college coaches.  They’re professionals, and I have no problem with the same for professional players.  I DO, however, think that the vitriol extended to 20 something year old college kids is toxic, and it leaves me wondering if the writer ever played college sports, let alone navigated college life. If you want to debate the virtues of OsUs QB run frequency, that’s one thing because so much of it is coached.  BUT to characterize a player with derogatory  epithets doesn’t make me proud of the Buckeye fan base.  These are kids who have left home and are still being mentored by parents and grandparents. I cringe imagining the player and their families  actually reading those scathing  posts here, and I wish that the writer would consider whether they would use those exact words to the player’s and parents  faces.

Cause - I’m just impressed that someone else on here knows who Mr French is !   Here’s the million dollar question, do you know the actor’s real name without googling it ?

Aren’t all pigs earth pigs ? Help me out here 

You know you’re right, I call it the January swoon. But it’s not a swoon at all - it’s the big ten conference schedule. I don’t even watch the games anymore. No fun 

All I’m saying is that there’s nothing wrong with enabling people.  You are saying that diversity is for  for the sake of diversity. I’m saying that diversity really helps - I have 50 some engineers reporting to me, and diversity in nationality, education , and various business backgrounds makes us strong as hell.   
 
maybe I’m missing your point but what I’m hearing is that you are saying that diversity is for the sake of diversity.  I say it works, and if you turn the clock back - I wouldn’t have been able to tap into all these talents of the diverse individuals 

You’ve got to be kidding me right ?  What  would the NFL and NBA be without diverse ( black) players.  Throw in MLB as an even more diverse collective with the Hispanic players as well.   I’m glad anti-diversity voices of past eras were overcome so that these sports could include the best athletes of any race.  Thanks Branch Rickey and Paul Brown for blasting through the norms of your eras.       So the other sports shouldn’t have the opportunity to improve by including a diverse player base now ?   

But the point is the same, UF has not appeared in a BCS championship or CFP in 13 years, and is going to have a difficult time getting over the hump with a surging SEC east (Georgia and Tennessee) and seemingly surging FSU whom they play every year. 

I stand corrected - my recollections of history should be posted after caffeinating , not before, at 5:00 AM !

If you look at the time between national championship or CFP appearances since the 90’s, it’s very telling. We experienced the surge from Florida, Florida State and Miami through the 90’s - and since then Miami appeared in ‘02 and FSU in ‘13 & ‘14. We showed up in ‘02, ‘06 &’07, and there was Texas/USC in that timeframe. Then it was Bama/Clemson/Oklahoma/Georgia and OSU from ‘14-‘20,   And now Georgia again. OSU appeared in most of those “eras” where no one else has. The Florida teams have been mostly gone from the landscape after the ‘90’s,  Texas & USC we’re here and gone, Clemson has now fallen out. Even Bama before Saban wasn’t on the scene.  THE Ohio State has been a player at the turn of the century, in the ‘00’s, in the teens, and once again in the ‘20’s.  Sure we would all love to have ‘o6 , ‘07, ‘19 and ‘22 back - but it’s hard to argue that we aren’t THE model of consistency and excellence.

Not saying I was right, just another data point in the perspective on Barton. Matt Jones is now in , and Stover already declared his return.
 

edit : in my initial comment I said Eichenberg, Matt Jones and “even Wypler could return”.  I neglected that he was also expecting  Cade stover’s return all along.  

Maybe not at OSU but I thought he was expected to play center in his recruitment 

I guess i don’t consider being way too early ranked between 2 to 6 being “written off” considering we were #5 going into conference championship weekend and made the top four. I think it’s a tribute actually to the consistent recruiting and recent pedigree of QBs and skill players. Miyan and Cade returns plug some holes, and a Matt Jones or Eichenberg return will put a bow on it 

Philly  ... aaaaand there's the next contestant ...   Stover announcing that he's coming back.     

Buckeye Scoop (Kirk Barton) has mentioned that, based on draft projections, Eichenberg, Matt Jones and even Luke Wypler could return. Scoop  used the phrase “band of brothers” (not sure if it’s their depiction, or if it’s coming out of the WHAC) to describe a sentiment that seems to be building among draft eligible players , to return to take care of unfinished business, as Miyan Williams said. 

I agree with you - that team was badass all the way around. The only thing that lightens the burden if that loss though is the fact that we turned around the very next year, in a season that almost wasn’t, and obliterated Trevor Lawrence’s Clemson.  That was a significant win in my view  because it was the first defeat of Clemson in school history , and somehow it avenged the Woody Hayes outburst in the 70’s, the 2013 orange bowl loss, and the 2019 robbing by the refs. (And I believe that at least a couple of starters still missed that game testing positive for Covid)

My brother does sports talk radio and we spoke yesterday. Went through the roster -  and the offense  is loaded loaded loaded. Defense should should improve - big question is why gamble with a two score lead when the game clock is your friend ?  Philosophy might need a tweak.  In any event, trajectory is very positive in ‘23 !

Ramzy

I knew with your last name that you had to be Lebanese or Syrian or Jordanian. Personally I am 96% Lebanese per 23 and me , which makes sense because my dad was from Lebanon and my mom’s parents from Syria.   I too watched NFL games at my immigrant grandmothers house on holidays and Sundays.  It so happens that I became a Dallas Cowboy fan during the ice bowl while at her house.  For the next few years (until the Cowboys won the 1972 Super Bowl) I would cry when they lost a big game. To which my Lebanese father would chide “if they won would they put money in your pocket?”

and this is how my brother and I rationalize Buckeye losses. As bad as it pains us , one of us will tell the other “Would we have one dollar more in our pockets had they won ???!!!”  It brings us back to our Lebanese dad who passed in 2008 and always puts a smile on our faces 

Thank you. Your analysis is based in fact. There are guys here bitching about not running on 2nd and 3rd down, and guys bitching that the pass patterns should have been outs ?   Yeah with no #1 WR and no #1 or #2 TEs.

It was a no-win situation with no one to move the pile in the backfield anyway, so your only hope was to see if Stroud could manufacture something yet again, and if not, you go go a FG with the ball at the 31.  How guys can complain about play calling in that situation after the play calling resulted in dropping 41 on the best D in the nation is illogical.  Guys just want the HC to be a scapegoat for their emotional reaction