Presser Notes: Toledo Week
Likely not an easy afternoon for TresselJim Tressel’s seat at the podium was a little bit hotter this week, as The Senator came to field question’s about the upcoming match-up with Toledo, but instead found the focus of the press conference on last week’s big game blunder against the Trojans of USC.
For the first time in his tenure as Ohio State head coach, Tressel is facing the heat for his conservative play calling and “Tressel Ball” strategy which focuses on winning the turnover battle, owning the time of possession, and getting an advantage in the field position game. Don’t get the wrong idea, as Tressel will not be fired anytime soon (to the dismay of some and some more), but his grasp over the offense and play calling responsibilities could be loosening little by little.
Tressel tried to take the high note by starting out his interview discussing Tyson Gentry’s honor for an Ohio State alumni award and announcements of walk-ons earning scholarships for the fall quarter, but he couldn’t deflect the media’s questions for too long. The sting of another big game loss is still burning and sports writers, journalists, TV people, broadcasters, and Buckeye fans across the nation want the answers to the questions they were left with after the heartbreak in the Horseshoe in Saturday night.
The first thing The Vest discussed was the reaction of the team come Sunday morning after having to face another defeat to a non-conference BCS team. Many were curious of how the players would react to getting the life sucked out of them once again by the Trojans, just eight months after a disheartening loss in the Fiesta Bowl to Texas. Tressel showed to be quite proud of the troops and how they took a team-first rather than me-first approach to the loss:
Our punt unit did a great job. Six punts ended up at the 20 or back. Four of them well inside the 20. And to give that kind of field position in a knockdown dragout game like that, Jonathan Thoma’s hang times were fabulous. They were in the four sevens and four eights. I mean, they were outstanding. But you heard the special teams guys talking a little bit about, you know what, ‘if we’d have just blocked that punt, we could have made the difference.’ And it wasn’t about, well, ‘if this group should have done that or that group should have done that.’ You could hear them talking a little bit, if we could have just done one more thing for the good of the cause.
And then defensively, shoot, we played relentless. Our guys played and played and played. As I heard them talking a little bit around the course of things, I heard them talking about things like, you know what, yeah, we got five three and outs and I don’t know how many teams are going to have Southern Cal go three and out five times in a game, which is outstanding, that’s our goal to get a team to be out. Our guys were talking about, you know what, if we had one more stop, if we just had one more stop, we could have contributed to a big win.
And then when you see the offense and you hear them talking a little bit about the fact that they were able to make a play here or make a play there and they knew very well that they were playing against a very good defense, but you heard them talking about the fact that, you know what, we had good field position and we didn’t take opportunities to get sevens, we got a couple threes, and if we’d have just held the football a little bit longer, if we would have been able to cash in and so forth and really had nothing to do with “he” it had to do with “we.”
While it’s nice to see the guys wishing they had done a little bit more to help the cause, I still worry about the lingering effects of this game on the team, especially a guy like Terrelle Pryor. Pryor seems to take games like this (see: Exhibit A here) extremely hard on himself and I have to wonder if big-game flops will be in the back of his head for the rest of the season or further until he actually wins one of them.
This loss is even more dangerous than those against Penn State or Texas in that the Buckeyes face a Toledo Rockets team on a neutral site coming off a big win against Colorado. This was a trap game either way as the Bucks would either be on a euphoric high after an upset win or downtrodden, as they may be now, making the game against the veteran-laden Rockets team one that may be tighter than it should be.
Tressel recognized that Toledo is putting the Buckeyes on upset alert this weekend and that the team will not be taking this game lightly. Their recent success against BCS teams and strong efforts early in the season have not been unnoticed and it will be important for the Buckeyes to come out with a high level of energy this coming week:
Now, the thing that we need to understand is we need to bring it like that every day in our film preparation and our practice and everything that we do in the weight room and getting the proper rest and everything that’s a part of becoming good. But that really made a lot of sense to me, you know, that if you’ll bring it like you brought it, you’re going to end up with a good football team. And you learn sometimes from good times. You learn sometimes from tough times. What’s critical for us right now is that we learn and, again, I use the “we.” We as coaches, we as offensive players, we as defensive players, we as special teams players, we have to learn how we can just get a little bit better each and every day and go out and attack the University of Toledo.
Toledo blasted Colorado, what, 30-3 at one point. All you have to do, there’s one little graphic in their media guide which if it doesn’t catch your attention and you play for Ohio State, then you’re not paying attention, but if you just look at their games against BCS folks in the 2000s, they start the 2000s out with a 24-6 win over Penn State at Penn State, of course. And just a year ago a victory up in the Big House against Michigan, and if that doesn’t give you a little bit of reality.
It certainly does give us a little bit of reality, and if the Buckeyes do not learn from what happened last week, especially on the offensive end and in the last drive of the game, they could be in for more than they can handle against former Buckeye coach Tim Beckman’s team. The Buckeyes need to figure out what their identity is on the offensive side of the ball and how they plan to facilitate the growth of the young players on that unit so they can make it through the rest of the season unscathed in pursuit of their fifth straight Big Ten Championship.
Speaking of the offense, Tressel was asked by multiple reporters if he regrets any decisions he made during the past week’s game. Although he would not go into anything too specific, he did admit that in a game like the one that was lost to the Trojans on Saturday, there are plenty of calls that he regrets:
There was 150 some plays in that game and if you ask anyone on the offensive side, anytime it was third down and it didn’t go or it was fourth and — third and one and it didn’t go, you’d say, well, man, what if we’d have done this? And someone brought up over at the Quarterback Club, well, we probably should have run a quarterback sneak down in there and, shoot, that’s very valid. It was the same guy that said that last year against Penn State we shouldn’t have run a quarterback sneak, but, yeah, you know, you always question things.
You look at them and you say, was that the best thing based on what they were doing and was that the best thing based upon what we thought we could do well and when it works, you were right. When it doesn’t, you weren’t. But that’s the most difficult thing about playing or coaching is that if you’re really competitive, you think about the things you didn’t do and you forget all about the things that you did do, but absolutely.
Tressel does bring up a good point that when things go your way in a game you always made the right decision, but when you lose a game, you are subject to question. The last few big games there have been many questionable decisions, but who knows what would happen had the decisions that were not made were the ones that were called.
One of those decisions in question was the Buckeyes’ decision to punt late in the game from USC’s 36 yard line rather than let Aaron Pettrey attempt a kick that would have put the Buckeyes up 18-10 if he would have converted. Tressel discussed the decision and showed a prime example of why a coach can’t win when in a situation like the one he found himself in the other night:
Someone brought to my attention that we had the discussion about should we have kicked a field goal or shouldn’t we have and that’s a very valid discussion. We were furiously discussing that for 22 seconds or however long we had, and we did what we did and the result was what it was. Someone reminded me that when we played Texas in ‘05, we did just the opposite. Now, they didn’t remind me in those 22 seconds, but on Sunday, they were saying, you know, that was just the opposite of what we did against Texas.
We decided against Texas, we were up by whatever we were and it would have put us up by eight and we went for it and we had a pretty good guy, Josh Huston, I mean, shoot, he was a pretty good kicker and we didn’t make it. And Vince Young had 68 yards to work with and worked with it and we came up short there. But you have to make decisions based upon what you think is the best thing for the team. I was very confident that for about the last 50 minutes of the game, defensively we’d done a pretty darn good job and if we kicked them down inside the 10, I was kind of hoping it would get inside the 10, but to the 14 was fine with me, that was good work, you know, that we’d be able to take care of business and you’ve got to give them credit.
I was talking with Coach Bruce yesterday, that Number 4 for USC is a player. He had a couple runs in there where we were in position and we didn’t make the play and he executed on a little route on third and nine that he made the play and 22-yard gain or whatever it was. But, yeah, you go through that again — because we’ve got a kicker that can make a 54, but we’ve also got a kicker that can miss a 54, but, yeah, of course you go through that a million times.
I personally am someone who thought at the time that Tressel should have kicked the field goal and trusted his defense, whether he made the kick or if he missed. The Trojans were challenging OSU to make the decision to try and put them away or not by declining the delay of game penalty and when Aaron Pettrey was on the sidelines asking Tressel to kick, I would have sent him out to prove a point to Pete Carroll and have a chance to put the team up eight points and at worst be in over time at game’s end. Clearly in the past a decision like this has come back to bite the team, but you need to live in the moment in great sporting events like the one we witnessed Saturday night and sometimes in order to win big games you need to take big chances, regardless of what has happened in the past.
Another hot topic this week was the disappointing play of Terrelle Pryor against USC. Many expected Pryor to step up and lead the Buckeyes to victory, but instead the super sophomore had a pedestrian performance in arguably the biggest game in his young career. It didn’t help that Calista Flockhart rallied the troops to a win over Cheeseburger Charlie and the Not-So-Fighting Irish, or that Matt Barkley got all the credit for the Joe McKnight show, but in all fairness, Pryor did kind of put up a dud. Tressel addressed his quarter back’s play and defended the heralded sophomore:
Well, the thing I mentioned to Terrelle when we were talking on Sunday, and obviously Terrelle’s highly competitive, and he wanted to be a big reason that we won that game, you know, that’s the way he is, that’s the way he’ll always be, and I’d mentioned to him on Sunday, I said, you know, not that it has any relevance, but keep in mind that at this stage Troy Smith was a kickoff returner and at this stage, Vince Young was getting spot duty going in when things were pretty good with a couple little things to do. At this stage you were lined up against a very good defense with a very young offense and it was tough sledding out there, but we have to grow from it.
And is he human? Absolutely, because no one wants to be a part of great things more than he does, but he’s got to keep his focus on now and working on all the little things you have to do. He did some very good things. There was a couple of those throws he put in there that people weren’t doing that against USC on the films I watched and he conceptually knew why we were doing it and so forth. There were some other times where maybe things broke down a little bit and it didn’t look as good or it wasn’t as good and that’s part of playing that position especially in those highly competitive games. But if you can grow from that, you know, you have a chance to become good.
Funny Tressel brings up Troy Smith and Vince Young, because after the game I was telling my buddies that if VY or Troy were in the same game in their second years in college, neither would have lead their team to a victory. It’s easy to write off Pryor as a big-time college quarterback after last week, but once this kid becomes comfortable with what the offense is trying to do, he will almost be impossible to stop. It’s hard to be patient as many expected TP to take the necessary steps in the off-season to be at that point for the USC game, but sometimes, as JT mentions, you have to realize Pryor is still a human being and if he develops the way we all envision, it will be worth the wait.
Another point Tressel touches on when discussing Pryor’s performance is how good the USC defense is. The Buckeyes certainly should have done a better job on offense, but nothing should be taken away from the Trojan’s defense. This is probably the toughest unit OSU has faced since Florida in the MNC game in January 2007 and will be the toughest unit they face all season long. Carroll’s team had a game plan to keep Pryor away from the outside of the field and did a great job forcing him to stay in a collapsing pocket and make tough throws while blitzers were coming at him from all angles. That being said, Pryor will need to learn how to read these types of things better within the offense, and until that is able to be done, I’m afraid to say we might have to put a limit on our expectations of number 2 this season.
Finally, when pressured to answer questions about his vanilla play calling and if he will ever change his ways or consider hiring an offensive coordinator, Tressel, well, pulled a Tressel:
I’ve always told you guys never say never, but I’ve also always told you that I’m probably not going to sit in my office or read the USA Today or watch talk radio and get a headache, so I try to be helpful in every phase, whether it’s the punt team or the defense or the offense. I spend more time with the offense. I enjoy working with quarterbacks, but I don’t work with them on a daily basis in their meeting rooms and all that type of thing, but, no, I think I would have a hard time being at this press conference and you saying, you know, something about the offense or whatever and I had no clue. That, to me, I might as well send somebody else.
I’m not sure exactly what a wholesale change would entail. I mean, are we going to go to the Navy triple option? Probably not. Don’t know anything about it. Will we go conceptually to this or that, we think can add to the — if you look at our teams from 2001 on, they haven’t been exactly the same because, you know, you don’t have the same people. But I don’t know that we would make a wholesale, you know what, this isn’t a good idea, this wouldn’t work even if we did execute it, because that’s the only reason you do it.
I’ll always believe that you win tough ball games by making sure that you’re the group that makes less mistakes, wins that field position battle, wins the battle in the trenches statistically, and you guys love statistics, that is true. So, no, I philosophically wouldn’t go against that, and I think the people that maybe line up differently than we do or might be perceived differently than we do, the games that that happens for them are the ones they win, just because it might look a little bit different.
While Tressel continued to dodge the idea of bringing in a new offensive mind to call plays and said a lot without saying much, he did let Buckeye fans know one thing which is that his offensive philosophy will not be changing anytime soon.
Tressel clearly believes that his strategy can still work in today’s world of college football, so all of you who think the game has passed him by should not hold your breath waiting for drastic change in the Ohio State offense. He has statistically and practically justified Tressel Ball in his head and will continue to try to win turnover battles and field position wars as long as he is the head coach in Columbus.
I have no problem with wanting to control the ball, giving the defense good field position, and winning the turnover battle, but what I do have a problem with is the fact that you cannot play not to lose against teams that have the capability to win the game on a single drive, no matter what yard line they begin on. Texas and USC are two of those types of teams and when you give them the last possession to win the game they are going to take advantage of it. Ohio State needs to put teams away when they have the opportunity to do so in game’s like the Fiesta Bowl or the one lost on Saturday and not taking advantage of turnovers and defensive stops will no longer suffice if the Bucks want to shake the big game monkey off of their shoulders. I am not saying Tressel needs to hire a coordinator or give up the play calling duties, but what I am saying is that he needs to reconsider how he manages the game against teams of elite caliber.
The first two segments of the presser are below. To see the rest, head over to our YouTube page.
It’s a game we should’ve won and so forth.
i agree with that. I hate how Barkley thought that he was the best now and he did everything. It was all Joe Mcknight, all barkley did was hand off and throw a little slant.
I’ve been saying that since the game. Barkley didn’t do anything spectacular. McKnight should be a heisman candidate, if he were getting 100% of the carries.
What a load of crap. His doubletalk me puke.
games like that make me wish i died in the freak gasoline fight accident with brit, meekus, and rufus.
that there is some funny stuff
A poor argument about the QB sneak there — completely different situations. Against Penn State, we were nowhere near the goal line — if we had been, Terrelle wouldn’t have tried to bounce it outside for the big gain, he would’ve just taken his two yards and there wouldn’t have been a fumble. Also, the field position given up by a failed 4th down sneak at midfield is (obviously) a whole lot worse than that given up by a failed 4th down sneak at the goal line.
People saying he should’ve punted last year were right, and people saying he should’ve used the sneak this year were right, and not just in hindsight: it’s just a matter of good strategy given different situations. Either Tressel’s being disingenuous, or he fails to see the obvious differences between the two situations. As much as I’d like to say it’s the first, that he’s just trying to cover his butt, his tendency to be aggressive when the risk is high and the reward is low, and conservative when the risk is low and the reward is high, suggests that it’s the latter.
Also, we had Beanie Wells in the backfield for the PSU play, as opposed to Boom Herron, which changes the calculus significantly
Dean,
I thought the same thing about his QB sneak comments. It’s a cop out to act like those 4th downs are similar. I can’t believe he tried to play that card like we’re all stupid.
I just think people should not have questioned the QB sneak play against Penn State. The QB sneak is never a bad idea when you do not need more than a yard or so. It works like 95% of the time. The Penn State play was just a rare exception.
I’ve lost some respect for Tressel after this:
“They’ve got to be some of the most unhappy people in the world, and I feel bad because we just made them less happy, and I hate to be a part of making someone less happy. I mean, they’re already miserable.”
The way he said it made it seem like it was all a big joke to him. That combined with Bob Hunter’s commentary that we’re all a bunch of knee-jerk reactors makes me wonder who he thinks pays for his 12 million salary? How many more big time televised games will OSU get if they keep blowing up spectacularly? How many fans will travel to lesser bowl games even though the economy is down? I mean really, how many people can afford right now to spend $500 just to see a game between parking, tickets, food and beer? But yet we, the miserable, knee-jerk reaction fans do it because we love our Buckeyes no matter who the coach is, or who the star player is that year.
I do not think that going on 4 years of big time losses is knee-jerk. I also don’t think that anyone who bides their time the rest of the year for buckeye football to start are miserable people generally. They give their heart, soul and hard earned dollars supporting a program that doesn’t support them back by acknowledging that maybe they need to change a little bit to compete on the national stage.
The fact of the matter is we have a coach who hasn’t proved much on his own other than he can’t manage a game against equal talent. He won a national championship with another coaches players and recruits, He has won or shared four big ten titles in a league that everyone and their mother agrees is in a downward swing (Ie. Michigan State losing, Wisconsin taking 2OTs to win, Michigan getting beaten by 1-AA team, etc…), and he’s beat Michigan seven times when over half of those Michigan wasn’t even good enough to beat the three sisters of the poor at home earlier in the year. He’s also had some of the nations top recruits which have failed to develop into the star players that were promised.
Agreed. He came across as very condenscending. Sorry, Coach, if we are inconveniencing you by wanting to win.
Excellent points, JBuckeye. I couldn’t agree more. Maybe one day more people will realize its okay to point out facts that aren’t pretty without saying the guy should be run out of town on a rail.
Ohio State will get plenty of big time, nationally televised games because they have very high ratings. The team is always good, they have fans all over the US, and let’s not forget how many people tune in to watch OSU lose as well. They’ll continue to be put on primetime games.
Florida State used to be bigtime also. Nothing is a given anymore.
I don’t think it’s a joke to Tressel; I think he’s actually taking it pretty seriously. That’s why he even commented on it in the first place. I do think his priorities as a coach are significantly different than ours.
I can understand frustration with the game and with the fans, and I can understand calls for change to the offensive philosophy. And I agree fundamentally that we need to think about getting a dedicated OC.
Yes, Tressel wet the bed with his playcalling and especially his clock management, and it looked like Pryor was channeling Steve Bellasari out there. We lost the game, and it was horrible. Fans are justifiably upset about the manner in which we lost.
But at the end of the day, it really is just a game. A game about which we’re all passionate, but a game nonetheless. The lessons from the game will almost certainly transcend the importance of the game itself, and the reason that we hired Tressel (outside of beating UM more than twice in 13 years) was because he is a very effective communicator of those lessons to the 95% of the athletes he coaches who won’t make it in the pros.
Let me be clear: every single one of the members of the team, including the coaching staff, wants to win more than you want them to, and they strive for that goal. But I can also guarantee that every member of the coaching staff realizes that football is the best avenue they have for teaching boys to be men, and they will capitalize on the L’s as much as the W’s for that purpose. Tressel has demonstrated himself to be more than adequate to that end, and IMHO vastly superior to Cooper in that respect.
I may be in the minority of fans, but Tressel is what makes Buckeye football matter to me these days. I want to win as much as you do, but I don’t like winning (or losing; thanks for that, Robert Reynolds) without class, and I certainly don’t like putting winning ahead of more important things. I think Tressel is one of the rare coaches in the game who succeeds and has his priorities straight.
I hate it when we lose big games, especially when we should win (Texas last year, USC this year). I’m glad to call a spade a spade: bad coaching and poor QB performance cost us the game against USC. But the rumblings about firing Tressel are patently ridiculous. Getting a dedicated OC would be a good idea; if people are that concerned, that’s what they should push for.
“But I can also guarantee that every member of the coaching staff realizes that football is the best avenue they have for teaching boys to be men, and they will capitalize on the L’s as much as the W’s for that purpose.”
Are you actually Ray Small?
Guess I’m not sure exactly what you’re getting at. If I were Ray Small, I’d like to think I’d recognize the chance afforded me. Ray’s problems are his own, not the coaching staff’s. They can do their level best, and that’s all you can really ask for.
The point I’m making is pretty simple: fans are complaining because we lost, but Tressel’s job description includes more than just winning. The only people who don’t see it that way are fans; I’m sure Gene Smith and Gordon Gee both have expectations different than ours. I personally happen to think that winning the big one isn’t as high on his priority list as (1) doing his best to mold kids through the program and (2) beating Michigan. After all, that’s all he said when he took over: that we’d be proud of the players on the field, off the field, and when we beat Michigan in so many days.
Tressel’s not going anywhere; if we’re fortunate, he’s going to make some changes offensively (at the very least I’d hope he’ll figure out that his definition of clock management could use some tweaking). But he’s going to be at OSU as long as he wants to be, and I’m guessing that he’s going to have the luxury of naming his successor, too (given what happened to UM).
Bonus prediction: since he and Beckman are good buds, I don’t expect we’re going to blow out Toledo on Saturday, either.
I must be one of the few that didn’t see that as a swipe at the fans. We are miserable, aren’t we? I am anyways…
He knows the loss only makes it worse.
I only saw it as a swipe at the ones that were over the top. He said it was appropriate to question things in football.
well idiots that e-mail coach and say retarded things deserve to be knocked down a peg or two. just like those morons that swamped Hamby’s inbox after texas in ‘05. totally uncalled for and out of line.
I e-mailed JT to say that he has my support. He wrote back and thanked me. This is not the first time I have written to him and gotten a response. The last time I got two tickets to the UM game last year compliments of coach. Say what you will about his play calling etc., but no one can say he is not a first class guy.
We’ll always have stupid fans, but just the way he talked and
then laughed at the end made it seem like it was a joke to him
It was totally uncharacteristic of Tressel. I really hope it’s not
his ego coming out. I really hope that he does consider
things the fans say as important.
Heck..I would have been happy if he flat out lied and said he
was taking all opinions seriously and giving them consideration.
But to come out and talk about how it’s his way or the highway
just rubs me the wrong way.
pam, i think you should write another email to Jimmy T to apologize for what you just did to his inbox.
“This is not the first time I have written to him and gotten a response. The last time I got two tickets to the UM game last year compliments of coach.”
hey guys, i’m a wolverine and you folks are nuts. what school wouldn’t take your record since the vestman took over. i think osu suffers from playing in a weak conference and not getting the weekly challenge that sec schools get. your athletes must be getting good coaching or they wouldn’t be drafted as high as they always seem to be. would you rather go back to the cooper years or even the bruce years?
This makes me feel a little better….
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4476855
…makes me feel a little better too, but why couldn’t the injuries have kept them out of the 4th quarter saturday?? They will remember playing OSU for a long time. They took a worse butt kicking!
Because you or I could have dumped the ball off to McKnight and won that game. It was a great display of play calling by Jeremy Bates, taking advatage of the soft underbellie of our defense, knowing that old conservative Heacock would give that up to protect the big play.
First, I still love Tressel and that will never change. Sometimes though, you have to face reality and come to the conclusion that I have done the same thing 6 times in a row against top-notch opponents and I have got the same result. Clearly, Tressel should at least bring in the counsel of an offensive mind and allow some critique of his approach and tactics. Any good leader or manager MUST be open to suggestion and/or changes to improve the product. It is starting to become clear that maybe Tressel has convince himself that he does not need that outside counsel and that he will keep banging away to prove a point…. I hope that is not the case. Any good business, or sports franchise learns to change with the times or they cease to be relevant.
On Pryor, Tressel is correct that Troy wasn’t even taking (many) QB snaps at this point as a player but that also works in the reverse.. Pryor has 2 years experience jump on Troy at this point–shouldn’t he be thinking out of the box at all at this point. Watch the game again and look at the extra man in the box leaving a receiver uncovered at the bottom or top of the screen…. why not take the snap, turn, and make a quick throw for 2-3 yds every time they do that… and maybe break one for a big YAC gain???? Was he told to do that and didn’t?? or was that ignored??? QB sneak– why was that not obvious with a 6′6″ inch 235 QB??? not sure there???
Oh well, move on quick because Toledo can play.
Toledo is coming…
Our defense will have seen the triple opition, sort of west coast, and now the spread talk about your defense getting a look early in the season…!
Toledo is a good offense, they are going to test our secondary all game!
I feel as though the offense needs to have breakout performance.
Toledo is probably one of the worst defenses we will see all year, i am just hoping we can take advantage of this.
Please, leave TP in the whole game… KID NEEDS THE REPS!!!
I think he learned his lesson against Navy. Only way Buaserman sees time in this game is if were up by more than 4 scores in the 4th.
I don’t look at Pryor having 2 years experience yet, we’re only headed to the 3rd game of his Sophomore season.
<blockquote cite="This was a trap game either way as the Bucks would either be on a euphoric high after an upset win or down trotted…."
i believe the term is “downtrodden”.
in other news, why didn’t we just let sc score instead of pretending that we were going to stop them? we would have had a few more seconds on the clock and a timeout to spare (not that our 2:00 drill seems to have ever been practiced)… thoughts?
During the game, I was saying that maybe the Buckeyes should just give SC the TD after they were down to the 15 or so. Just to save the clock for a comeback drive. I’ve seen several games from various teams where I thought that might be the best idea, since the defense was not stopping the opponent. But I’ve yet to see a game where anyone has been willing to allow an easy score just to save the clock. I’d like to see someone try it once. Seems just as risky as fighting longer, still allowing the TD, and having little time to try for your own score.
Plus maybe it would have left the defense with some energy to stop that 2 point conversion.
The Packers did that against the Broncos in the Super Bowl in 1998. It did not work.
Mike Holmgren did it once when he was coach of the Packers, and IIRC it worked…
Can you imagine the sh!t-storm that Tressel would be facing now if he’d done that and it didn’t work?
Could it be much worse than the current storm?
tressel would never have done it. same reason why he punted instead of going for the 53 yard fg. and in the college game, it’s not a necessity to have timeouts in the two minute drill. it was just a thought as inevitability loomed large…
I think Tress’s point about the QB sneak is that folks are always going to complain about the things that don’t work and say things like Coach should have done this or he should have done that. If Tress called the plays the way all the armchair QBs out there think he should have called them and they didn’t work they would still be bitching and moaning about it. They would be saying he should have done something differently. If he would have tried the QB sneak last Saturday and TP would have fumbled it they would have blamed Tress. Tress is tried of all the people who play NCAA and Madden believing that because they play a video game they can somehow coach football. I think we are all tired of losing the big games and there is only one cure for any of this, and that is win.
– Wasn’t Cooper suppose to be an offensive genius when we brought him in?
Wait–the cure for losing games is winning them? Well SHIT, why didn’t you just say so?!?!?!? You need to get that sage advice over to Tress quick, as it appears you don’t want to critique his play calling because we the arm-chair/madden coaches haven’t the slightest objective view on this and of course aren’t the ones getting paid $3.5 million per year to consistently lose to top 10 teams.
I’m upset at losing the big games as much as anyone else, but I think people are losing perspective. The fact of the matter is no matter what play call JT dials up if it doesn’t work people are going to blame him. I’m just don’t understand it. I understood why Cooper needed to go, yes. I just don’t understand all the hate Tress is getting. Can people not see all the good that he has done? How many BCS bowl games have we played in? How many times have we beaten that school up north? Have we lost to App State, Stanford, to the Michigan team that lost to App State? No. We have lost to elite programs. What would you do if we went 9-4 and lost in a bowl game? Florida recently did this. You people would plant horse heads in Tress’s bed while he slept if he ever let that happen.
Am I just being a deaf, dumb, and blind homer? Tress’s conservative approach can at times make me ill, but I am still in for “In Tress we Trust.” Am I the only one? I can’t imagine what all this negativity and blame on Tress’s part is doing to our recruiting……
why are you happy with not being an elite program? if you think we are, you need to open your eyes b/c elite programs don’t lose six games in a row to legit teams. six games and tressel has the audacity to call his fans unhappy? why yes we are thank you very much. we’re unhappy with you. carroll was 4 for 4 on 4th down conversions. our coach? 0 for 1. to quote al pacino in any given sunday “that’s the F*CKING difference between winning and losing…”
I’m not at all happy with us not winning the big games. At the time we were smoked by Florida I worked for a company based out of Florida. That was not fun for the Football or Basketball. Now, after my former company moved all of the jobs to Florida I work for a company based out of guess where? California. So no, I’m not happy. I hear the smack talk constantly.
But, I’m not blind to all the good Tress has done either. Where were we before Tress? How far have we come?
FYI PC was 3 for 4 on 4th down conversions, not 4-4.
“What would you do if we went 9-4 and lost in a bowl game? Florida recently did this.”
If we played in the SEC, as Florida does, a 9-4 record becomes more likely, depending upon how each year’s schedule plays out (teams and location of game).
..handing off 3 yards behind the line of scrimmage (1/2) yd. line can result in a fumble also…. why keep doing the same thing if it didnt work 3 strait times…. USC used the sneak to get a first down… worked, didnt it?? and their QB is not 6′6″.
Yeah, the sneak! Gotta try a sneak in there!
Maybe, he had fond memories of Penn State last year but still!
Forever in my mind is the field goal.
Honestly, i love pryor he is young i think is going to be a good quarterback.
But the way he struggled to throw the ball, run like he was afraid.
I don’t know guys, hmmm…. i probably one have been thinking what offense
can i run with this kid???
Granted there were some plays tressell could have done differently… I agree!
But, gosh pryor was set on receivers, ran scared, it was like a totally different
pryor out there. Heck, he played better against penn state, wisconsin at night.
Maybe just maybe… USC has a dominant defense, great scheme!
Put that with pryor sucking it up, couple bad play calls by tressell..
That was the differnce.
Either way maybe a couple of calls tressell makes one’s the game, but with a
quarterback who might or might not have excuteded them we will never know!
Dammit I wanted you guys to win. Not to downplay the awesomeness that was beating Front-Butt and ND, but the Big 10 needed that win against USC, an elite win that would have silenced some of the haters. Even though I bleed Maize and Blue, I was rooting for the Bucks and was disappointed when the Condoms scored with a minute remaining.
I don’t think that Cooper was considered an offensive genius when he was hired, even though I was way too young to remember. Didn’t OSU just hire him because he beat Michigan in the 1987 Rose Bowl as Arizona St’s coach? If you look at his record, it’s unremarkable. Rich Rod did have a remarkable record where he coached. I’m not going to say that Tressel has the most control over his players, but apparently Cooper had absolutely none. Tressel is a great coach and I want him to continue to appear that way. I want Michigan to beat Tressel when he is still considered at the top of his game, not after he has peaked. This is also for the series’ sake–have two elite coaches at the top of their game in the biggest rivalry in sports.
Starting to wonder if Tress’ pride is getting in the way of OSU winning these games. He’s a very smart guy and i’m sure he knows his x’s and o’s but he also seems to be extremely stubborn which makes me wonder if the more we clamor for change and the more Tressel-ball gets trashed nationally, the more he digs in his heels trying to prove it still works.
Very frustrating as I think he’s a tremendous human being and ambassador for OSU, but my confidence in his ability to get the job done in big games is shaken if not gone. Makes me sad.
You know that article on Yahoo that everyone is so in an uproar about? I just saw this on KGordon’s Twitter (http://twitter.com/kgordonosu):
“Sanzenbacher: Slot receiver open before snap Saturday, but when OSU checked into a play, USC often rolled its coverage and caused problems
about 18 hours ago from web”
The photos the article used to make its very judgemental points about Tress would not have demonstrated this.
assume that is true…it is still a coaching problem. pryor is not going to magically learn how to read and react to defenses and shifting coverages any more than you or I magically learned calculus (or not learned, in my case).
and maybe its not fair to expect TP to have learned that much yet and JT to have taught that much yet…but JT is still the one who put TP (and the team) in that position.
I’m just saying…
http://menofthescarletandgray.com/2009/09/15/salt-meet-wound/
I apologize if it was already posted.
damn…….see……that pisses me off, hurts…….wtf! Worse than the horrible Illinois call. That was in plain sight, but this game is HUGE. That is what our coaches should be seeing. Maybe I am just a blind homer…
doesn’t matter about his knee being down… it is where the ball is that matters at the goal line. Looks to me like the ball crossed the goal line.
watch it in real time, it appears the ball crosses the line right before this frame and then he goes down and the ball comes back… this is not the reason we lost so stop talking about it…. we had too many other chances that WE blew.
I don’t know that it didn’t matter… Take a touchdown away from them and we would’ve been in a much better position to start the game, not to mention the huge morale swings for our offense (INT didn’t result in a TD), our defense (huge stand from 1st and goal from the 2), and their offense (can’t punch it in from 2 yards)
Brother Ski,
I know it doesn’t matter. They can’t take it back, and anyway, it would’ve put us in a bad starting position.
I need a real-time link.
JT should quit head coaching and open a training camp for special teams, especially punting. He relishes the punt like no other coach I’ve ever seen.
I don’t want my head coach to have an obsession with punting. I want him to have an obsession with destroying the other team with an insanely potent offense. (He can have a secret obsession with punting, but until he’s consistently winning the big games through offensive destruction, I don’t want to hear about it.)
JT: The punt is what happens when you fail to execute on offense! It punctuates [1] the lack of offensive success. All 106K people in the stadium, except you, have a *disappointing* feeling when we punt!
——-
[1] No pun [2] intended
[2] Really, no pun intended
All the Senator talk is funny as long as they are winning. But if he keeps losing big games it will not go over too well. His comment yesterday about people not being happy was a little over the edge as well. Un JT like. A little heat isn’t bad every once in awhile. He’s getting paid a bunch of money to win a big game occassionally. Happy Valley is a must…not to mention Saturday. People have every right to question things when big games are lost repeatedlly. I always used to say that “Has everyone forgotten about 2002?” I think right now, 2002 was all Cooper’s recruits for the most part. I would say yes…it is ancient history. I think JT and his staff need to do some serious reflecting, which I am sure they are. Still hard to really get on a guy hard that has won as many Big Ten Titles as he has in his tenure. Plus the money his program brings in…are you kidding me? If the stadium was only 3/4 full, another issue.
It doesn’t matter who the coach is, the stadium will always be full. I agree though, Penn State is a must win, in fact the last three games of the year (PSU, Iowa, and scUM) I hope to see the juggernaut we all wanted against USC. If the Bucks aren’t rolling on all cylinders going into bowl season then when will they ever be?
I disagree with you that the stadium will always be full.
Before the NC game in 2002 I was always able to get good seats at face value or less,
the spring game never had 85,000 people come to, more like 5,000,
Alumni never had a lottery for tickets to their 1 game per year,
jerseys were not $70 for the good ones etc….all because of the fair weather fans
jumping on the bandwagon of OSU greatness.
The job of OC is usually a stepping stone for most coaches. That job is the last stop before before they assume control of their own programs.
I have a fear that if Ohio State brings in someone, he will be there a year or two then leave for bigger things.
I do not think a head coach from a lesser program would take the demotion to OC at Ohio State.
Hey Coach:
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” But what does Albert Einstein know?
I’m a little gumpy about the coaching, but not at all about the strategy which was good and almost worked. We had a real special teams advantage and that strategy makes the most of it.
I didn’t like that our tendencies where so strong: first down run up the middle if in I ( iso v gaps oh boy), pass if not. Second and 10, get in the Ginn for 3y pass. Third and long. Again.
No zone read. Zero. Play action? never heard of it.
USC’s LB Galippo: “We talked about it all week,” the sophomore from Corona said. “I saw them get into their rollout formation and I saw the receiver come open, so I knew he’d throw it there. I just jumped in front.”
That’s right, the pick wasn’t Pryor’s fault, it was the coaches’.
In the case of the uncovered slot, if they were adjusting to our audible we could have called the bubble screen (and, if need be, audibled out). We were in that formation alot. The slot was never covered. We had time to notice. We didn’t take advantage.
Tressel-ball is great it plays to our strengths. But some of these things…
The only truly elite team Tress has beaten was Miami, everyone else turned out to be flops. Sure, scUM was no.2 in 2006, but they went out and got crushed in the Rose Bowl.
Can someone name a team we have beaten that went on to dominate in a BCS bowl?
I can’t think of a team that even won a BCS game……
Stop it! What are you talking about?! How dare you question the success Tressel has brought us! What is this pesky “truth” you speak of? These annoying “facts” bother me because they hurt and go against what I want to believe about Tressel and the state of our program! *buries head in sand*
“This is probably the toughest unit OSU has faced since Florida in the MNC game in January 2007 and will be the toughest unit they face all season long.”
The second part of that sentence is right. The first part I think is quite wrong. USC’s defense last September was the better than the Florida unit and was probably better than the Miami unit back in the days of glory (circa 2002).
Let’s just hope that Tress got some of the not so subtle messages this week. To me, the immediate problem that needs to be addressed is the time management. Plays are called and getting in way to late for the QB to read the defense much less change the play at the line. I’ve been harping on this for the last few years and it’s getting real old.
I’ve been around for quite a while and fans complained about Woody-ball, Earl-ball, Cooper-ball and now Tressel-ball. I’m getting to the point where I’m beginning to think that the Bucks are just snakebit in big games.. Now, just beat the shit out of Toledo!!
Jeff Amey’s breakdown of the game on The Ozone had some interesting observations. He suggests that TP is afraid of contact. This is somewhat evident when he’s in the pocket and “senses” pressure that isn’t there. However, this is also evident when TP is in the open field running the ball. Instead of fighting for that extra yard, he puts out that weak stiff arm and makes a beeline for the sideline. Again, this isn’t my opinion.
I’ve been thinking about that since reading that. Wasn’t there a play last year in the BCS game against Texas where he ran out of bounds a yard before the first down marker instead of taking a hit and getting the first down? I know some people claimed that he had tweaked his shoulder, but we never heard anything definite.
Although as a counterpoint he did have a pretty good hit on the linebacker from USC that he threw that interception to.
It’s hard to pinpoint. You’re right about Texas. He also trucked that Minnesota LB last year. Who the hell knows.
Didn’t we make the same amount of mistakes as USC (an interception each, no fumbles), obviously win the field position battle (the punter had him inside the 20 a million times it seemed), and for the most part win the battle of the trenches (the o-line held there own finally, and the D-line got pressure all day except for the last drive). So we followed Tressel’s philosophy for tough games and came out with a loss, this is why we need some new blood on offense to help tweak this philosophy.
Welll put. I had the same thoughts earlier.