The Front Row

Decaf, dude. Decaf.

Perhaps you were one of the peeps who posted this past season that we were gonna "shock the world". Oops.

Hey, no offense meant. There isn't a member of this Forum who doesn't hope you are right. But I think you are one year early.

This year's team is 10 - 2... at best.... as there is so much improvement that needs to be made on both sides of the ball and special teams. New coaching will make a positive difference, but you don't turn a shit sandwich into a steak overnight. You don't have to take my word for it -- and you won't cuz we have vastly different view of this. But read literally -- then between the lines of posters, especially the coaches who watch the practices with a discerning eye. Some of their early observations of this team are sobering. Meyer appears to be doing a masterful psyche job of calling this deficiencies of this team just as he sees them....then selectively patting players and units on the back before it's too late and lift their spirits.

There have been dozens of Ohio State football teams in the past 45 years I have been watching....complete, veteran teams with proven talent, that deserved the expectations of going undefeated. And something always (except for a few years) came up and bit them in the azz.

Okay, forget the decaf and keep your spirit. I will pour my coffee into a glass half-empty and hope for the best.

BooBahBuckeye said: Folks I'm more worried about California than the Big Ten.

And Cal plays far worse on the road than they do at home.

Injury is the ONLY way I'd adjust my opinion. Much of my opinion is based on the talent losses of the teams that everyone says we will lose to. My challenge to them is, don't state an opinion, give supporting facts. Here, Nutinpa, do this for me identify the teams we will lose to, and I will do an analysis of the matchups and support my position of caffeine induced optimism.

If we lose Miller, or if we lose one or two or more OL, of if we lose Shazier, or two cover corners, then my opinion will change because of key injuries to areas that we do not have great talented depth.

If we avoid key injuries-----Katie bar the door!

The early games will tell me where the offense is. I'm expecting 30 to 40 points or more explosions on the these teams until we get to California. Against California who has a lot of players coming back from an above average year for them, I will see how our offense performs against a team with most of the DL back and both cover corners back from the previous year. If we can hang 30 or more on them, then Nutinpa you may want to send post a post that hints at my optimism.

If we don't have key injuries (QB, OL, LB) and we have close games or a loss, I will gladly post an honoring post in your name on this board! LOL!!!

ANYONE who wants to post the game we will lose next season, I'd be glad to post my analysis. The first post wasn't complete in my analysis or research by any stretch of the imagination. I've reviewed each key team, analyzed the loss of personnel versus our incoming personnel across the line from them, looked at the NCAA statistics for each team, compared against the last two years of OSU statistics (we had a lot of players from the previous year play last year but grossly underperformed from year to year by virtue of bad coaching, switched coaching and horrible team emotional attitude--an aberration already corrected by Urban Meyer) and come up with my first post. This isn't a bald unsupported, emotionally only opinion of mine. I've successfully predicted the great fear I've had of playing USC back to back, when USC lost massive talent on offense one year and massive talent on defense the next year and predicted extreme worry about losing those games by virtue of analysis of the extreme talent recruited on the USC roster over the preceding 4 years. They kicked us when we had 18 of 22 returning starters. No such team is on our schedule this coming year, without the bowl game won't be.

At Michigan State, At Penn State or At Wisconsin. I see at least one loss from one of these teams. Probably 2. Michigan State will be the best defense we'll see all year, Penn State and Wisconsin are hell to play against at home.

i can see us going 12-0 but it would take a miracle. not a big one but enough where everything goes into our favor such as more forced turnovers, pressure on the opposing QB, and the recievers doing a lot better than last years. right now im watching the ann arbor slut team versus tOSU game on the big ten network and its just sad how theyre pushing our d-line off the line of scrimmage on most of the plays and their recievers getting open a lot. if stuff like that happens next year no 12-0. 10-2 is realistic but like as i said before i can see a 12-0 season!! go BUCKS!!

12-0 is pretty tough to do. That Buckeye team in 1998 is the best Big 10 team I have ever seen, and yet they somehow lost to MSU. I still don't know how that happened. Would have been a Nat Title for you guys. It's certainly possible for you to go undefeated this year with the talent you have on the roster, but boy those are some serious expectations that come with the head coaching job at OSU! ..To Coach Meyer: "10-2 is acceptable in your first year, but I can see 12-0."

You mean the Spring Practice? Not even a real game this year.. Na, no can do. You know how it is. Kids with Tennis lessons, dance class, yadda yadda. Have it on the radio. Sounds like weather put a damper on the festivities. I'm sure that really breaks your guys hearts!! Ha

Here is MSU game. Best selected game for the analysis as PSU and Whisky are not as tough as people think.

Again, BARRING INJURY.

OSU v MSU:
This is the first away game after four games of development by the OSU team all at OSU stadium.

Last season we played MSU to a 10 to 7 loss in Ohio Stadium. We did this without Adams, Boom, Pryor, Posey, and Soloman who were still suspended. We played this game with Bauserman also playing BEFORE Braxton Miller took over completely the QB spot (shared playing time).

In this game we earned the 107th ranking on offense. Play calling was pathetic, QB play was atrocious, OL play was not developed anywhere it needed to be under Bollman and our experience was suspended. Bauserman played in this game for crying out loud. Remember!!! Still 10 to 7 was the final score.

MSU will be starting a newbie quarterback as Kirk Cousins is gone. The newbie QB won’t have seasoned receivers BJ Cunningham or Keshawn Martin or TE Brian Linthicum to throw to as they are all gone. The offensive line for MSU will go against, largely, the same DL they went against last year with LG gone Joel Foreman. They had little success last year when we were in complete turmoil, and they will have comparable to less success this year. It is more than possible that MSU will NOT score more than 10 points again against our D.

MSU defense will be effective. They are very well coached, they have decent players. They lose, however, the guy that was most disruptive to us in Jerel Worthy at DT. He was anticipating the snap count, he was strong and NFL quick and he was killing our offense all game long. Teams committed two guys to Worthy routinely making others look even better than they were. We will need a way to slow up William Gholston at DE he is NFL caliber, period. We WILL Option him from time to time. Two points here: first, we won’t be giving up the snap count next year and second, we won’t have to deal with Jerel Worthy. Further Kevin Pickelman at NT is also gone. The loss of the interior DL will help our young OL. Trent Robinson their best safety is also gone.

MSU defense has had the most problem with diverse attacks. Notre Dame was able to run and pass on them effectively and shut down their offense. Nebraska shut them down to 3 points and was able to score 24 on them. Wisconsin just rolled over them to the tune of 42 points.

This will be the hardest road test that we have. Braxton Miller will be a major difference maker and will outplay the opposing brand new MSU QB for enough points to win. This isn’t the same offense (think Bauserman) that MSU will play against. Our OL concerns are mitigated by the fact that two quality interior players are gone, and we will option around at times Gholston. Plus our quick passing game will help neutralize Gholston some as well. This will be a good game and great away game test. We win in a relatively lower scoring game in which our tall playmakers make plays over the relatively smallish back seven of MSU (a number of players under 6' here making Stoney, Tyrone Williams, Thomas mismatches).

This will be the toughest road game we have all year. We still win it by more than a TD.

Dantonio welcome to Urban Meyers inaugural Big Ten game in which he will NOT LOSE!

The thing about last years game is it was 10-0 till 45 seconds left in the game. We were almost shut out...at home! I know this is a different year but if the offense line doesn't figure Gholston out he's going to wreak havoc again. He was the major if not the sole reason they won last year and he's going to be better.

I honestly can't think of a Wisconsin team that has been better than ours but when we play them in Madison we have lost more than we've won in the last 10 years. We have to exorcise the demons in that stadium and until we do I can't pick us to win there.

First, it is not an argument to say that since OSU beat Wisconsin last year we will beat them this year. That may have validity if the identical players are playing on both sides of the ball and the identical coaching staffs are in place. Again, IF the above were true there would be SOME (although little) weight to the analysis.

Here are the differentiators.

FIRST, Bielema LOST great assistant coaches from this last, league winning, staff. I do not know about the new ones.

Bielema, in selecting his staff did not have the following advantages 1) he did not have a year off in the ESPN national spot light flying all over the country, talking to coaches and seeing who might be the best fit for him on his coaching staff; 2) he did not have a year to analyze, think about, and identify the coaching candidates to fill said spots. OSU DID HAVE THAT ADVANTAGE. That's all I'll say on staff other than OSU is better--maybe significantly better.

Let's look at the offense first for Wisconsin. They lose Russell Wilson!!! I repeat they lose Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson was the number one most efficient QB in the Big Ten. He was the best of 11 starting QBs. Guess what: Russell Wilson was the most efficient QB in all of NCAA. He was the best QB of 120 NCAA teams. He's gone. Repeat WIlson is gone.

Wisconsin will start a newbie QB (albeit a new 'rent a QB' and throw other recruited QBs under the bus) for next year. He will NOT be nearly as effective as Wilson. He also won't have Nick Toon (father nfl player) or effective TE Jake Byrne to throw too. Abbrederis will be the number one WR but WILL ALSO DRAW the best cover cornerback on the opposing team to cover him!!! (Toon helped Abbrederis numbers by commanding the best CB last year).

In addition to this, Wisconsin will lose three very capable OL. Peter Konz at center, Kevin Zeitler at RG, and Josh Oglesby at RT. They lose the ENTIRE right side of the OL including the TE. BOTH kickers are gone.

Monte Ball and James White both return at RB and they are fantastic RBs. No question about that!

Now which Wisconsin coaches left? Who left on offense if any?

With an improving (watch this year the additional improvement!!!!!) Braxton Miller OSU put up 33 points on the Wisconsin D last year. Wisconsin loses HALF of their starting DL including their best DE Louis Nzegwu, and DT Patrick Butrym, they lose their strong side linebacker Kevin Claxton, BOTH cover corners, and their best saftey in Aaron Henry. Chris Borland comes back at 5'10" and he is very good but he will need to cover Stoney at 6'5". Hmmmmmm. Ya think Coach Myer might take advantage of this? Our question marks at OL are mitigated by Wisconsin's defensive losses!!!! Talk about strategic losses here!!!

We will have an improved defense and a much improved offense this coming year barring injury. Wisconsin will have a less capable offense, more one dimensional than last year, and a less effective defense.

There DL losses mitigate our newer OL (Mewhort, Norwell and Hall really aren't all that new however), and Wisconsins OL losses will likely have more problems with our D than last year in this game.

It's hard to play in Madison, and that is the one advantage that Whisky possesses in this game from last years game. Quite frankly, having a better O against a lesser D and a better D against a lesser O, and having a better Coaching Staff over theirs are factors that our more impactfull than having urine bag throwing fans as your lone positive factor for winning.

OSU wins this one.

Penn State away.

Let's give PSU credit: they stepped up and beat us at home later in the year with Braxton at QB. Of course, Braxton was very limited by play calling that was hideous, and we attempted to win on defense.

PSU wins 20 to 14.

PSU won the game, essentially, on defense.

We will go to Happy Valley with a rearranged offensive line going against the PSU defense. The issue is, 'Is this going to be the same offense that was employed in last years game, and will PSU have the same defense that stifled us last year?"

Answer is NO and NO. By this time of year the offensive line will have some level of seasoning. Indeed Mewhort, Norwell, and Hall are all back and Fragel is a seasoned blocking tightend that will be confined to blocking. Linsley is really the sole inexperienced OL of the group but he got playing time last year.

PSU defense, fortunately for OSU, has very strategic losses. They lose their NFL caliber DT who caused us problems in Devon Still. They lose their best pass rushing and most disruptive Defensive end in Jack Crawford. There matchup problems are gone matching our OL concern for protection. Very fortunate for OSU.

But PSU defensive losses are more than the DL. They lose more than half of their starters. These include 75% of their secondary: hero Drew Astorino; Cover Corner D'Anton Lynn, FS Nick Sukay. They also lose OLB Nate Stupar. Last years D for PSU was very Senior dominated. Not so much this year.

On O we will spread the field. This means we will attack the outside and the secondary repeatedly. This is the exact area of potential concern for PSUs defense this coming year. Returning starter at CB is 5'8" and we have a plethora of 6'3 to 6'6" receivers. See any mismatches Coach Meyer may exploit here?

ON offense PSU ended the season BELOW us in total offense at 110. They only lose their tallest receiver in Derek Moyer a multi year starter, but I suspect they will be improved. I'm a little shocked at how little backup talent they really possess. PSU also loses 60% of their starters on the offensive line. WORSE, they lose both tackles--both multi year starters and their left guard--also a multi year starter. They should be more seasoned by this game. They will contend against a DL that will be one of the best DLs in the country.

Quite frankly, I've not seen much improvement overall in PSU QBs Rob Bolden or Matt McGLoin. NFL experienced head coach usually get QBs in the draft who are already at very high abilities. The problem with NFL coaches heading up college teams is that the job focus is radically different than college. In the NFL you already have hand picked talent with, usually, already established fundamentals and who have been purified to play the game and excelled in college. In college, you have 17 year old kids who need to learn the game, learn how to compete, learn how to mentally adapt to the game, and grow up along the way. This is two very dramatically different sets of skills needed for success. If you don't believe me, ask Charlie Weiss! LOL. "We will have a significant schematic advantage over other schools." HA HA---they have to grow up and execute base fundamentals, both physical and mental, FIRST!!!!! You've skipped about 37 steps of development dude!!!! That's what PSU has placed themselves in with their HC hire. This head coach will go against a COLLEGE HEAD COACH who has won 2 NCs along the way. OUCH.

I do not see PSU scoring 20: maybe 17. I do not see them keeping our offense under 21 points with Braxton Miller's improvement and our offensive design under the new coaching regime. If PSU does not have capable OLB and capable new secondary players other than their smurf, it could be a multi score difference at the end.

Sorry, don't see a loss here either.