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I want to get out in front on this. I want to be the first to say it. The 2010 national champions will be the Ohio State Buckeyes. You know I am no cheerleader. I do not own a pair of scarlet and gar colored glasses. This blog is evidence of that. I am a realist. I am pragmatic. I am not going to make a statement like that unless I intend to back it up.
Change is occurring. Not as fast as some of us would like, but it is happening. I was so frustrated by the defense since Jim Heacock took over that I wanted to see a housecleaning. Get new coordinators on both sides of the ball. That was after the USC game where we once again played safe, keep them in front us, don't give up the big play, and we got embarrassed again. We have not played that way since. Some fans were angry that we were
so aggressive in the Texas game that it cost us the game. That is change.
Never has JT come under more fire than the firestorm that hit Columbus after another poor performance on offense against USC. Since then we are seeing more involvement from Darrell Hazel. The offense is different. I think we are not done seeing it evolve. It is not like this can happen overnight. You put in this while you dump that.It is a process.
It has always been my contention that JT is too much of a competitor to tolerate losing like this. I absolutely believe he is as bothered by 0-6 as we are. But change is hard. Especially for a man who has been so successful doing it the way he has been doing it all these years. Think about it this way. Florida has won the national championship two out of the last three years. If Urban Meyer decided to go to the wishbone we would all say, is he nuts? JT won 4 of his 5 national championships years ago. The national championship here may have been the worst thing to happen to him as it reinforced his belief in his way of doing things. It has taken time for him to come around to this. I think USC was the final straw.
On the field the horses are there. We just need to use them better.
I could not be more baffled by the flack Pryor is taking. I am looking at a young quarterback coming along. I was especially bothered this past weekend when he came under attack. I saw his best game of the year. He threw 3 touchdown passes and should have had 4. He did whatever he wanted out there. I saw 2 bad plays out of him. One a bad throw and the other a bad decision, the interception late in the game. I am excited about where he can be next year. Vince Young was not a good quarterback as a sophmore. Neither was Troy Smith. He was not even a starter. Carson Palmer was not a starter until his senior year. Won a Heisman. Successful sophmore quarterbacks are an exception, not the rule. This kid can take us where we want to go.
We will be better at running back. The backs we have will have another year to mature. Rod Smith and Corey Brown are coming in and may take reps from all of them. Running backs come in all the time as freshman and start. Why more don't is more about blitz pick-ups, blocking in general and receiving. I think Posey, Carter and Sanzenbacher will go down as one of the most formidable receiver corps ever. Posey and Carter are really now just getting their feet wet.
We will be a better offensive line.We have been talking about offensive coordinator so much that we are forgetting the impact of a new offensive line coach. Even without a change in the offense, better play up front will make this a better team. I see signs of it right now. Maybe sharing the OC duties with Hazel is helping Bollman be a better offensive line coach. I know we are moving people all of a sudden. Yes, we are more talented. That still goes back on Bollman. If he would have taken more kids over the years we would have been better earlier. Numbers matter in recruiting. That is why bigger classes end up at the top of the recruiting rankings. No position is more numbers sensitive than offensive line. Maybe he is a good offensive line coach. We never got to see that because of recruiting decisions that go back on him. We are young and we will be better.
We lose one linebacker. We lose both safeties and we lose some DLs. If we lose Heyward I may want to come back and say we have a great shot at winning it. He is that important to the defense. Everywhere else on defense we have talent that can step up. I am worried about safety right now. I will not be as worried about it next year. Something I did not point out yesterday about the safety recruits were the rankings. All are at least 4 star players. All are ranked in the top 10 at their positions, with 3 of the 5 ranked in the top 3. All play at a high level of competition in high school. They will be more ready to step in immediately. That we are going to get at least 2 of them, and I think at least 3, says we will have some elite kids to throw into the mix.
The bow to tie all this together is Miami, Penn State and Michigan at home.
The Ohio State Buckeyes - 2010-2011 national champions.
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, and we were supposed to be great last year with the seniors coming back. Perhaps it's the team version of "if it's going to bite, it'll bite as a pup"
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