First, I was one of the critics over on bucknuts last year about the offense being too conservative. I thought the staff feel into patterns out of certain formations and I saw no progression in the playcalling. I still think that even with new personnel that the same problems exist. Duane posted a great blog entry from his "mystery" coach about how Coach Tressel tries to do so many different things that it has almost become counterproductive. If I was given the opportunity to pitch Coach Tressel I would start by saying that they need to just forget about the spread.

I think that osu needs to get back to what made them champions. Being physical. They beat up teams with the running game and with their defense. They were assertive and aggressive with both. They dictated to teams what was going to happen. I think OSU should become a base I team again. I think they will always be at the top of the list when it comes to recruiting the big powerful backs who can be featured to run the ball 20 times a game and they will get their pick of the litter. They already have one in the pipeline next year.

Now I think it is very important to be diverse out the I. Playaction, Bootlegs, Pitches, Traps, Counters, Options, 3 and 5 step drops, Screens and Reverses can all be run out variations of the I. What makes the likes of Florida, USC, Oklahoma and Texas have consistently productive offenses year in an year out? Probably the same thing that makes OSU have a consistently productive defense year in and year out. Competition and Consistency. I believe a lot of it comes down to they know what they do well and they do it.

I believe that if you can build an offensive system, recruit depth for it and have competition in practice and the offseason, then you will get better execution. Look at the defense. They have basically run this defense for a couple of years now and it can be truly great at times but it is always at least very good. There is depth and competition at nearly every spot. I think the defensive recruiting has been outstanding at most positions. There seems to be a focus on finding guys for specific positions and building depth at each position. Offensively the staff has brought in a lot of talent. But the offense lacks a consistent identity and focus. I think there needs to be a system in place to allow these players to fit into a position and focus on learning all that the position requires.

One of my biggest gripes over the past year and a half is that there is no direction with the playcalling. Darts are being thrown at the wall in my opinion. We don't see any attempts to set up plays to pick up yards in chunks. We might see a deep ball every now and then but there is no creativity or planning in just chucking it deep.

Even when Beanie was healthy nothing was done to help him and the line in the running game. There was no threat of a bootleg to slow backside pursuit. I have no idea why Pryor was never used to show boot action last year. So much of the talk about the spread is it makes you defend the width of the field well the same can be done if you have Pryor threatening with playaction bootlegs, boot action, naked bootlegs, etc. It will slow down the backside pursuit and the safties and help the running game.

I think Coach Tressel is most comfortable in offenses where he can feature a big powerful back or at least a back that can be productive between the tackles. Clarett, Wells and Pittman have been around for the best years this team has had under Tressel. I would love to see a move like bringing in a NFL coach who has playcalling experience to be the OC and create a system here at OSU that is built around the I formation.

Nice thoughts fish!!!
I think a pro-set should be our base. It allows us to utilize our WR talents, smaller backs (Hall, Brown, Berry) and the mobility of TP.