I want to ask all of you two questions. Have you looked at the Buckeyes schedule? Have you looked around the country this year at the landscape of college football? If you haven't, do so.

The national championship is anyones for the taking. There is no elite team out there this year. Anyone can step in and take a shot. Look at the Buckeye schedule and tell me that you don't feel confident that the Buckeyes can run the table. That puts us right smack dab in the middle of another run at it.

Another reason for optimism is the last two weeks of offense. When I said a new OC would help, just get someone else in JTs ear, I got some pushback from some fans that things would never change as long as JT was running the offense. Since I did not support firing JT, that I was not going to get the change I expected. Sherman, a Bucknuts poster, did an excellent job of breaking down the changes in the offense the past two weeks. I would love to bring that post over here but I don't think Mr. Bucknuts nor Sherman would appreciate that. I know Sherman is a current or former coach and does a great job with this kind of thing. His breakdown shows clearly the difference in the offense. I noted that we were running more to the right. He took it a lot further. The changes in the way we are doing things in the running game coincides with the buzz that Darell Hazel is getting an opportunity to call some plays. Back when I said there would be a change at OC you may have noticed I sidestepped the question of who would be the next OC. Hazel is odds on. You can bet there is going to be some push to get someone outside of JTs circle. The fear is someone JT is close to is going to think like him and nothing will change.

I speak to high school coaches just about every day. So much accurate information comes from high school coaches. I learn so much about recruits from coaches who coached against them. That is how the relationships got started but I learned over time that high school coaches have more contact with the staff than anyone. They get to know these coaches. The one offensive coach that the high school coaches I have talked to are most impressed with is Darrell Hazel.

Put an improved running game with a great defense and a season devoid of great teams, and I am really excited about what can happen. You want to hear the best news? Going into the season if you were asked to sum up the Buckeyes in one word I think most of you would have said "young." Think about all these pups getting a season under their belts, a new OC next year, and Miami (Fla), Penn State and Michigan at home.

The recruiting board just got shook up with a couple of out of state verbals. Will Hagerup surprised everyone by verballing Michigan. Fre'Shad Hunter pledged North Carolina State. Hagerup was looking like a Buckeye and there was a need to add kickers in this class. I have mixed feelings about it. There are the Mike Nugents and the Ben Buchanans who are so special you are going to have to offer them to get them but I like getting kickers out of the walk-on program. This staff has done a good job with that. I don't have numbers but I would

Did you see this one coming? As soon as I woke up and saw the weather I could have wrote the script for this game. Late fall afternoon, cool gloomy and rainy. It was a day tailor made for Tresselball. We saw it at its most brutal and effective yesterday.

You have to start with the domination of the oline of scrimmage by the defensive line. It took a USC line with four potential NFL players on it to have any degree of success against it, and that was limited. Early in the second half I knew this one was over. You could see it in Illinois body language as they left the field after Thaddeus Gibson single-handedly forced a three and out. It was like they went in at halftime and came out with a plan to try and contain

If there has ever been a college football season that made the early polls more of a joke than this year, I don't remember it. Mississippi was as high as #4? Did you see Mississippi last night? That is a team that is going to have a hard time winning enough games to be bowl eligible. I don't understand how they got there. I assume that the Mississippi quarterback, Jevan Snead, and DE Greg Hardy were the basis of the ranking. Both are projected first round draft choices. Snead is the quarterback Steve Spurrier made first team all-SEC over Tebow. Last night he was simply awful. I think he hurt his draft stock more with his comment about being happy that now the pressure was off. Huh? You want to play in the NFL but you

The Buckeye staff is getting lambasted for being too conservative with play calling. The same cannot be said for recruiting. In fact, I would go so far as to say the staff is cutting edge with the way they go about recruiting. Look at the situation with the class of 2011. How many offers are out there already? 10 or so? It is especially effective with instate recruits. Contact is severely limited for underclassmen. Instate schools have such an advantage that I would not be surprised if the NCAA eventually steps in. Juniors, and even sophmores, can get to games instate much easier than they can out of state schools. It is easier for a staff to "bump" into instate underclassmen when they stop by a school to meet with coaches. The Florida schools, the Texas schools, the California schools and Ohio State are left with a lopsided advtantage. Right now it is not against the rules

[quote]...
written by Pula, September 22, 2009
I forgot my main question last post. Do you think that Terrelle Pryor is a 3 and done guy. Given the struggles of running QBs in the NFL, I think Pryor will need as much time to prove himself to reassure NFL GMs. [/quote]

I am on record as saying I do not see it out of him. He has been very pragmatic in his decisions. I think he will continue to be when it comes time to think about going to the Show. He could have been the sure starter at Michigan in an offense that fit him perfectly but he knew that offense was not going to get him to the NFL. He was going to try and play basketball too but realized that by doing that he would hurt his chances of making it to the NFL. Beyond running quarterbacks, early entry quarterbacks have not fared well at all. I am sure someone will make him aware of that fact. A couple of years back Buckeye fans were baffled by the fact that Chad Henne went so high in the draft. We learned that the NFL has found that the one best projection number for determining NFL success with quarterbacks is college starts. I think it goes beyond that. I think it is about reps. Reps, reps and more reps. Practice reps count. Starts is a tangible number that you can wrap your mind around. We are talking about the most demanding position in sports. The more reps a player has at any position, the better but it is especially acute at quarterback. So much to learn. I think the other great decision Pryor made was in choosing Jim Tressel. We are as a whole unhappy about play

We are seeing the spread, in various incarnations, all over the college game. A friend asked me if I thought it would ever make it to the NFL.

I think the NFL will always be a league where quarterbacks need to be another level passers. Most quarterbacks coming out of these systems are so dependent on their running ability. There is always that compromise when running one of these spread systems. The quarterback needs to be a really good runner. I have not seen quarterbacks with great feet who are great passers, and I have not seen great runners who were NFL caliber passers. It has been my contention all along that the spread goes to another level when we see pass first quarterbacks running them. The closest I have seen so far was Dixon from Oregon who is now with the Steelers. We see all this talk about Tim Tebow. I don't think Tebow has the arm to be a pro quarterback. I don't think he is a great athlete. When he runs he is more like

Someone on Bucknuts asked whether this is the best defense since the 2002 defense. I think it is too early to make that determination but there is one thing they have in common. Tough veteran defensive linemen. I would put the number of reps that Worthington, Denlinger, Larimore and Heyward up against any other front in college football. You have fully grown men out there with a boatload of weightroom reps. They have made it very easy for the rest of the pups on defense to find their way around.

I think we need a primer as we are in an odd man front defense so much of the time.
The difference in an odd man front and a 3-4 is there are still 4 down linemen on the field. It is where they line up that matters. You want that weakside end, in the case of our defense that is more often than not Thad Gibson, uncovered. You are trying to create a situation where he is out there able to run free and clear and not have a 330 lb tackle lined up over him. We still have 2 tackles and 2 ends on the field but the positioning is different than a 4-3.

It has been my contention all along that Pryor throws the ball better than anyone is giving him credit for. The thing that stands out to me is the criticism of his motion. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with the pass. His motion is so much better than when he was in high school. The little hitch that he only shows sometimes is inconsequential. He has a great arm. He is throwing with accuracy. The first touchdown to Sanzenbacher was picture perfect. The second one was sublime with the accuracy. The biggest problem right now is the tendency to try to make a play when there is not a play to make. That tendency was crucial in the Penn State game. Sometimes a sack is the best play available. He had three bad decisions all day on his own. Under pressure he made several more because of his determination to make a play. I think we should give him the option of running when the pocket breaks down. Tell him to make the decision which is the better play, a low percentage pass or running? He is fully

Here is my top 10 list of Buckeye recruits still on the board:

1 - Seantrell Henderson
I am getting great news about Henderson from multiple sources. We are in good shape here. If we can get him out of LA without him verballing, I think we stand a great chance of getting the next Orlando Pace in a Buckeye uniform. Yes, it went that well. I think Notre Dame has some ground to make up on the Buckeyes and Trojans. I feel confident at this point that this is an Ohio State-USC battle. Henderson and Norwell is tackle Nirvana. Not as many bodies as I want but it makes it easier to swallow when they are this level of talent.


2 - Jordan Hicks

I have always believed we would get this kid. He had a great visit. Something I just learned. He is not originally from Ohio. Coming from Lakots West, a pro-Ohio State part of the state and a program that has sent a number of players to the Buckeyes, I assumed he would be a lock. I like where we are with him.

3  - Josh Shaw