Week In Review — Being Grateful Edition
It’s been a slow posting week on my end, and with good cause. I’m about 110 pages into compiling an end of the year report before I leave next week for Los Angeles for my yearly vacay. Besides, there’s no football going on, and it’s been a painfully dry awards season for the Ohio State Buckeyes. Nevertheless, a few things happened this week that are worth noting. Each is a reason to be grateful.
Brian Kelly Takes the Notre Dame Job. I think we all know why we should be grateful about this. Yeah, I know Buckeye fans don’t care for the hubris of Notre Dame fans. They are still a nuisance regionally. However, I doubly don’t care for the newfound hubris of Cincinnati fans. I admit I’m on the Cleveland side of things in terms of the intrastate schism, and thus don’t think of that entire city fondly. Nonetheless, the banter of Cincinnati fans over the past two years had been a colossal pain. The program had been trying to bait Ohio State into committing into a yearly series, or some kind of feaux-rivalry in order to validate the two years of smashing success they had with Brian Kelly. They were trying to get me to hate them when, instead, I should be nothing them. Now, fortunately, the architect of Cincinnati’s success, Brian Kelly, is Notre Dame-bound and, from the sound of it, may not even coach Cincinnati for their Sugar Bowl massacre at the hands of matchup against Florida. Observe.
“I feel like there was a little lying in this thing, I feel like he’s known the whole time. I kind of had a gut feeling that he was going to stay because he told me he was going to be here. But it is what it is. He made a business decision,” Gilyard said. “He said he wasn’t going anywhere. He liked the city of Cincinnati. We’ll be all right even if he takes the job. We’ll be all right before the bowl game and after it. We’ll still be good.
“It ain’t cool to lie. I’m hot about that. But I respect BK, and everything he did for the program here. We know whoever the coach is, the players know we’re going to take care of business (in the bowl game). We’re already looking ahead.”
Well, I’m amused. Stop trying to goat Ohio State into a rivalry and preying on Buckeye fans silly enough to think that would be a good thing for Ohio State football. I don’t envision Cincy hiring another guy with the talent that Kelly had.
Rob Ianello Hired At Akron. This one went mostly unnoticed, but I think it’s important to take note of it. Rob Ianello, formerly of Charlie Weis’ outgoing staff at Notre Dame, was named head coach of the Akron Zips. Why should this matter? Simply put: any time there’s a coaching vacancy in the state of Ohio, star assistant coach for the Buckeyes, Luke Fickell, is going to come up as a possible replacement. It’s no secret Fickell has his eyes on eventually being a head coach one of these days and that his aspirations may actually result in him leaving the Buckeyes to further his ambitions. It may make sense for Fickell, but it would be a huge blow for the Buckeyes. Fickell has the youth and energy to make him one of the best recruiters on the Buckeyes’ staff. He’s also the position coach of one of the most reliable units on the defense (linebackers) and, at least from what is commonly believed, has been in the ear of Jim Heacock, fostering the development of some of the more aggressive, suffocating defenses we’ve seen in stretches over the past two years. He may be a star in the making and we’re fortunate to have him. So, when his name came up as a possible replacement for the outgoing Akron coach1, and Jon Heacock, previously a linebacker position coach in the formative stages of his career, mysteriously resigned from Youngstown State, the necessary panic button was pressed.
It looks like all is clear for now. This is good.
Ohio State as a Top 5 Team in 2010. At least, that’s what Rittenberg thinks.
A win against Oregon would quiet the Buckeye bashing after three consecutive BCS bowl losses. A loss would only make things worse for Tressel, his team and most likely the league they continue to dominate. But regardless of the result Jan. 1, Ohio State likely will enter 2010 as a top 5 team.
There’s a lot of question marks about Ohio State’s team. I don’t think anyone takes Terrelle Pryor’s abilities for granted anymore. I don’t think anyone can safely assume he’s just going to get so much better for his junior year. It may happen. Anxieties abound about our schemes, our offensive line (tackles especially), a sad running game, playcalling and our secondary. I’m not sure if Jim Tressel was able to watch the SEC Championship game, but the way Alabama played (down to the philosophy and execution) is what Jim Tressel could only wish he had and, probably, calls plays as if that’s what he had. Will we get something like that in 2010? Well, it’d be nice.
Lamarcus Joyner Commits to Florida State. Okay, so maybe this wasn’t the best of news. Every Buckeye fan wanted Joyner in the fold for 2010 and he would’ve been a great addition to the class. However, he followed his heart and jumped on the Jimbo Fisher bandwagon. Ohhh well. Why would this be a good thing? Well, can you imagine the monster of a BKAB feature I would’ve had to write about him? That saved me a lot of work.
- Darrell Hazell’s name also came up, which would’ve been another big loss. [↩]
Well, I agree and disagree a little bit with you Vico. I think Cincinnati being good is also good for Ohio high school football. I don’t know about good for us, a series with them could be fun and dangerous. There are several “civil wars” played out across the country each year….might be good to test ourselves. Lord knows Cincy is better than 3/4 of the Big Ten.
I have a good friend from Pittsburgh who watched Pryor live on numerous occasions in high school. He said that it was zone-read, do what you want behind center, free for all. He never could understand why OSU recruited him so hard as a pass first quarterback. Don’t hold your breath on Terrelle, unless the staff goes a different route (or we have a new staff) with the spread option and he runs 30 times a game I am keeping my expectations at their current level: low.
I am not a Fickell fan. Nor Heacock or Johnson or Haynes. I despise Siciliano and Bollman. You know, our defense has been suffocating against lesser opponents but has crapped in their pants in every equal talent game in the last 4 years. The secondary has been terrible. The linebacking corps last year was completely overrated. This is the first D-Line since 2002 with serious bite, and they still lost to USC and Purdue. Now, I realize that the offense didn’t help much in those games but Texas? USC last year? Florida? LSU? Fickell was present for all those my friends. Fickell really just knows OSU.
Our offensive line is just shit. I won’t even bother with that. Shit. Look at Alabama…how do they have such a dominate line in 2 years? Coaching and recruiting the RIGHT players.
I think we as OSU fans place too much emphasis on individual player achievements and we associate that with coaching achievement. Say for instance Malcolm Jenkins, great kid, student, player, feel good story coming in as a 3 star. Malcolm was great because he worked at it harder than everybody. What did the rest of the secondary do last year? Got burned in the zone. Don’t give these coaches credit for MJ’s work ethic.
I think we need some fresh faces on the staff. Those faces need to have southern ties as it is a recruiting hotbed. The SEC is college football right now…..time to copy the model: coaching, recruiting, emphasis on speed and speed with size. Also we as fans need to step up the importance we place on our conference and teams success on the national stage. We should be chanting BigTen! BigTen! every chance we get, and putting pressure on everyone involved to pick it up when it comes to football. A good place to start is our coaching staff. Just win the big ones baby.
I think the hiring of Brian Kelly by Notre Dame is going to hurt OSU’s recruiting. One of the keys to OSU success (and Michigan’s decline) has been Jim Tressel’s ability to clockdown Ohio’s borders. Heck, Tressel was even making inroads to Cincinnati high schools, and get kids that historicall went to Notre Dame, Michigan, or the SEC. From all accounts, Kelly has very good relationships with the Cincy area coaches, so I’d expect to see Notre Dame getting those 4 and 5 star kids from the area – and not just the Greater Catholic League kids.
1) Not sure this won’t hurt OSU in the long run. Kelly got Ohio kids but they usually weren’t recruited by Tressel and crew. Now if Kelly can get Notre Dame rolling again, he might start winning head to head for some big-time Ohio guys. I think a big reason Ohio State has been so successful this decade – especially against scUM – is Tressel keeping the top Ohio guys here.
2) “Anxieties abound about our schemes, our offensive line (tackles especially), a sad running game, playcalling and our secondary.”
– The running game was clicking in the last 3-4 games this season. I think Saine and Herron will take care of business against the Oregon defense. I have to wonder about the other positions though. Pryor isn’t going to hammer out all of the chinks in his armor in a month. We aren’t going to pass on Oregon but hopefully we won’t need to. The o-line is average but I don’t think Oregon will win the trenches. Nothing about their defense scares me.
3) “I’m not sure if Jim Tressel was able to watch the SEC Championship game, but the way Alabama played (down to the philosophy and execution) is what Jim Tressel could only wish he had and, probably, calls plays as if that’s what he had. Will we get something like that in 2010?”
- Who knows. We all know Pryor struggles throwing the ball so we’re probably not going to be running a Texas Tech offense. I do think that we continue to spread out more but will run more than pass. I guess I’m saying no, I don’t think we’ll run a classic Tresselball type offense. I don’t care either. I want an offense that scores touchdowns regardless of the scheme.
4) Good luck to Joyner. Kid’s going to be a beast.
*Rose bowl will be a classic!*
Weiss recruited Ohio well, any good ND coach will. Tress has his recruiting machine in place and we will get ours. Otherwise a pretty limp article from a guy I usually read before anyone. Our running game was not sad. Sad?? 8 times over 200 yards with a patchwork oline is not sad. This line did very well for the injuries and flu and should be given credit. It has gotten to the point that some are bashing just to bash. This was a rebuilding year and after the Purdue game this team got better.Including every one’s whipping boy, Pryor. This team has a tremendous up side for next year. And since the mighty JohnBoy seems to know all….how about they hire him and he can show all how it is done?
I agree Jack nause…….how about they hire Jonas Boy, so he can show’em how its done. But first he has to get up off the couch where all that intelligence comes from…………yea , right……..lol
Hey, I am an admitted armchair QB. However, under the current coaching administration that qualifies me to be quarterbacks coach no?
I know I am over the top on the criticism but let’s be honest, this has only become a “rebuilding” year since we lost two very winnable games but finished fairly strong. (Against not so good opponents mind you…’cept for maybe Iowa.)
This was not a rebuilding year, Ed and Jack Nause, when you turned on your TV that night against USC. It was a year for Pryor to blossom, and our offense to be unstoppable with all the great players returning. We all fancied legitimate NC hopes and why wouldn’t we? Those were derailed quickly by the same old issues that this team and coaching staff keep having. You know why? It’s the same coaching staff.
Ever wonder why our coaching assistants keep getting passed over for jobs? I sure do.
Jack Nause, are you freakin’ serious about the O-Line? C’mon man, agree with me that our offensive line and our offense in general has been horrible for 5 years now. It’s been discussed on this site back to front. Sure, we put up a few decent rushing games…but against who? Man, how things change….where are all the Bollman boo-birds now?
Sorry about offending anyone, I just think our conference and our team needs a little fresh perspective. I’m not the only one….the 12th team is going to happen. Michigan – OSU will soon not be the last game of our season. The conference championship will finally be a reality. Some of our conference brothers are beginning to recruit the south better (Purdue, Minny) and are going to get better because of it. New stadiums and fan involvement seems to be on the uptick. We could be a completely different conference in 5 years or so.
IF Ohio State made me head coach, the first thing I would do is make Vico the Director of Football Operations. I would hire Ed and Jack Nause as Sports Information Director’s, and then I would promptly get fired for inappropriate behavior with a cheerleader. (Mike Price ain’t seen nothin’!)
But not before I hired the hottest offensive and defensive coordinators in the country.
Here’s to beating the Ducks soundly. My apologies.
JohnBoy,
I’m not offended.
Vico,
I watched Saban’s team do what Jim Tressel dreams about. I can only contribute it to 1) coaching and 2) talent. Then again, what else is there?
Poe,
In the immortal words of Vico: “sigh”
We shall see.