Just a thought: maybe Holtman's early success was with the assistants he brought with him. Now that they are gone to other endeavors, his basketball teams'  lack of success is on him. Great assistants can make any head coach look good. 

CJ is alright. He is for what he was recruited for: a pocket passer; not a dual threat QB. As for Henderson goes, I, as a fan, have the right to believe the other two RBs are Better. Simple observation for me says that the other two will fight for every yard even if the offensive line does not open up the big holes. Henderson goes down at the first contact. He is great as long as the hole is big enough to drive a truck through. That observation is not disparaging his character as a person or as a player, just an observation of his strengths and weaknesses. Personally I think he should have been a receiver rather than a RB.

I do not see any reason why the committee would change the current order: 1G-2M-3T-4O. I don't see any reason why TCU and the Buckeyes should switch places, unless the committee does not want an all Big Ten final. 

Three of his best players won't play if they can not practice this week. Well I guess we need to keep an eye on that one. BTW, weather should be good for Saturday: sunshine and in the low 40s to start the game. 

Over the years I have watched many a prolific scoring pro team in the NFL win 14-7 in weather conditions like this in November and December. Yes I am "concerned" about the running game. But I also am quite aware that both Day and Wilson are pass happy. Makes me think that the coaches spend much more time in practice on Pass protection than in  blocking schemes for the run game. What is the expression: it is what it is. I don't see Day and Wilson changing their stripes. BTW would you like to be a Clemson, Alabama, Tennessee or egads a Oklahoma or Texas AM fan today, all who lost yesterday? As for me, I am celebrating being 9-0.

When a play is successful for the Buckeyes, that is expected and mostly taken for granted. When a play fails, the fan wants to find fault with either the coaches or the players (never want to give credit to the other team for actually having skill also). Let's face it, our fans hate losing and fear that it is going to happen on every play that just doesn't work. 

If we were outsiders and were purely objective, we would be in awe of the Buckeyes. Since 2001 when JT became the coach, the Buckeyes have won at an 85% clip: 246/44. I would say that about 99 percent of all the schools would love to have that kind of record.  Enjoy it while we have it. If Day should ever leave, how many coaches are out there that can come in and continue at that rate of wins?

Henderson: nine touches for a grand total of 15 yards. yikes

For 45 years I had four or more cups before I left for work. I would have that many more before noon. So six is not that many. Due to certain health issues, I limit it to only two cups a day now. Sometimes four but don't tell my doctor!

I nearly fell off my chair when the camera zoomed in on M. Williams standing beside D. Jones. What a comparison in size! Hope Williams didn't sprain a neck muscle looking up to him!

I lived in Houston in the 80's and 90's. Now there is a city that backs only winners: Rockets: even though they had Moses Malone, the team stunk and the Summit was empty. Astros, fans sit with their  arms crossed and left after the 7th inning to beat the traffic, Oilers, I never had trouble getting free tickets; fans and others were giving away tickets. Oh when Mike Scott pitched and when Akeen (can not spell his last name) came to Houston, leading their teams to championships, then the fans showed up. 

Now being an American league Fan, I often drove to Arlington to watch the Rangers play Detroit or Cleveland. Did not matter how good the Rangers were, the fans came out in droves and boy did they ever party!

Point I am making is simple: it will be a sad day for the Buckeyes if the fans only back a winner. Fans should go to the games and Party like there is no tomorrow, regardless of the outcome of the game.

Today is March 1st. We are playing last place  Nebraska- at home- and the Buckeyes are behind at half time. Does anyone seriously think that this average team will survive the first weekend of the National tournament?

the answer to the nope. Sorry for being pessimistic 

Somewhere along the line, the powers that be have lost the focus that it is a college game: college student athletes playing for the student body. Instead the powers that be see only the dollar sign. Send the students to the end zone. Give the rich gray-hairs and corporate big-wigs the prime viewing seats with the high price tickets; allow resellers the ability to gobble up a boatload of tickets and charge double face value so that us common folks are priced out. I live three hour drive from Columbus. My brother and I use to go to one game a season. No more. Game day atmosphere is just not the same. Entering the gates the gray-hairs out number the middle age and younger fans. There is more cheering in my den than in the stadium. Sad

I have no ties to OSU, but have been a fan since 1965 when I attended my first game there. Here is another take on the question. I also have been a Detroit Tiger fan ever since I played little league in the late fifties. I moved to Houston in 1982. All I heard there was that the American league was bad, that they don't play real baseball (designator hitter).Only the national league plays real baseball. Now that the Astros have moved to the American league, I wonder what they are saying now. I left Houston in 1998. 

To paraphrase a Bobby Knight quote: "If I have a choice of watching a Georgia/Alabama redo or a documentary on the mating habits of the Amazon Basin Frogs, I will take the latter."  (Knight said something like this one time when he was asked if he watched NBA games.)

This will be Utah's first Rose Bowl Tournament, but since they joined the Pac 10 in 2011, they have been in LA every year since then, playing either UCLA or USC and there fore have played in "the Rose Bowl" . It will be a "home game"  for them, without the distractions. 

There was a time in the 70's and 80's that the Pac10 was dominating the Big Ten in the Rose Bowl. The reason that was proffered at the time was that it was a "home game" for the Pac10 but it was a "vacation game" for the Big Ten as the players enjoyed the sunshine, Disneyland, Hollywood, and whatever else that area of the country had to offer for the Players coming from the cold of the Midwest. The players were too distracted to take the game seriously. From 1970 until 1992, the Pac10 went 19-4. Let us hope that this is not the case.

Fumbles,  false start penalties (correctable for the future), and not having Master Teague for those 3rd and 4th and very short first down attempts, made this game very close. Eliminate the first two and having the last and I am pretty sure the team would have met the spread. 

The Team definitely needed Master Teague for those short 3rd down runs. He has the ability to move the pile which was lacking. As been pointed out, self-inflicted mistakes kept this game close. 

The team will need to correct those mental mistakes soon as both the -ichigan teams have pretty good defenses also.

I have always admired Coach Coombs. Still do. And if I were a betting man, I would bet that he will be back next year, possible  with the title of C0-DC.  I am pretty sure that Coach Day understands the talent he has as a coach, as a motivator, as a recruiter, and with years of experience. As a head coach, Day would be remiss if he did not make every effort to retain someone with those credentials. Personally, I think when Day was forced to make the change, every defensive coach got a earful about the failings of each part of the defense and woke all the coaches up. Coombs took the heat, but all the D- coaches were failing in some respect. 

Peace and prayers, Kevin.

With the rate of highly rated recruits, I, like so many others. believed the hype that OSU reloads, not rebuilds. With all the new starters on defense and a couple of key returners injured to start the season, obviously it is a rebuilding year for the defense. The polls are accurate for us anyway. Inexperienced defense and slow starting offense spells a couple of more losses, in which case we will be at the bottom end of the top 25. I hope not, but that is the current reality.

Sports broadcast commentators: I don't care what teams are playing, during the broadcast they will name at least three players "who are the best at their position in all of College Football (or the NFL or MLB). They will also name at least one or two who "if he is not in the Heisman discussion, he should be"  

Can it be saved? Of course it can. The staff did not recruit a group of no talent players. The solution is simple: we have a huge group of extremely knowledgeable coaches, analysists, and  players, all of whom study game films.  For the next few weeks, they need to collectively put their brain power to work and as a staff help the entire defensive staff put together a system that will be effective. The talent is there to get er done.  (I hope this was worth two cents.)

Take any fifty CF refs who had not watched that play, ask them if it is a targeting call and I can bet 25 will say no and 25 will say yes. The refs and especially the BigTen have not a clue what constitutes targeting,  I really have no interest in pre-season or early season polls. They are Baskin-Robbins flavor of the week polls. Look at the drastic change in just one week. Compare this one to the one that will be in week 6 when the season will be half over. 

I am vaccinated, so i do have less fear of covid. Still I am a three hour drive from Columbus. Money is the issue: 25 for gas, 20 for parking, 160 for ticket and probably 25 for food. Stay at home: 10 to order a pizza. A couple of years ago I beat the system by going to the opposing team's website and ordering a ticket from them. Paid half the price OSU was charging. Had to sit in the section with the opponent's fans but I did not care.