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Is the Coaching Staff Over-thinking or too Uptight?

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Gametime's picture
September 11, 2014 at 12:51pm
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As I've been reading the responses from the coaching staff, I have to say that I'm generally disappointed in the answers, even though they were obvious ones.

I was listening to Bishop & Rothman on my lunch break and they made some interesting points that I was also feeling after the loss:

  • What Va Tech did that game was somewhat expected at Ohio State

All off-season we've heard about this aggressive, press-man Defense, and our stellar rotation up front. Last Saturday our visitors from Blacksburg did exactly what we expected to do: Corners in aggressive, press man-to-man coverage with a blitzing/robber safety & a center fielder.

We saw none of this from our guys and sure they still made some plays, but you'd love to see more passes contested at the point of arrival. Breakdowns in technique later in the game (little things like NOT opening up toward the QB) and targeting mismatches with our LBs in the intermediate passing game which leads into the next point...

  • Curtis Grant and Joshua Perry are NOT every-down LBs

The play of Darron Lee has been pretty damn good overall, but it was apparent that Joshua Perry & Curtis Grant, while they've been pretty stout in run support and run blitzes, all but become complete liabilities in the passing game. Now of course the staff knows best (at least that's how it's supposed to work), but there's no excuse for Raekwon McMillan to not be at LEAST subbing in on obvious passing downs. Also Chris Worley, Cam Burrows, or Gareon Conley need to sub in for an additional walkout LB, a 3 safety look (Star) look, or a flat out dime package.

  • What exactly is suffocating the offense?

Other than offensive play by the offensive line, what exactly is restricting Urban & Tom Herman from coordinating the offense on the fly?

Usually when you have a young QB and OL, you call plays that help make things easier for them. VA Tech did this with their QB by calling a series of screens and constantly moving the pocket by design.

With JT you have an obvious lack of arm strength, so why not (especially in this situation), run "man beating" routes with trips, bunch, stack, and other formations that run pick, crossing, slant, curl, hook, & drag routes while flooding an area and rolling JT to that side of the field away from the pressure VT created in the pocket? 

We didn't do it enough, (heck we didn't do it enough with Braxton, which IMO would put him at his most dangerous).

I'm sure we've heard other points about the offense Ad nauseam, but these ideas seem so simple that you'd think it's not that hard to make an adjustment for something that should already be in the playbook.

  • Is the coaching staff too uptight?

What I mean by this is there seems to be a real reluctance to play some guys who just might be flat out better despite some minor deficiencies. In the red-zone there's no excuse for Mike Thomas, Jeff Greene, and one of our talented TEs to not be on the field.

Raekwon McMillan deserves a shot to start.

WRs shouldn't be required to block like fullbacks to see the field either - Dixon, Clark, Greene, if they can run routes, get open, & catch the ball they deserve a shot. All it takes is a key block here & there to spring big runs, but they don't have to be 11 seconds long...

Creating a competitive atmosphere is a great move, but it has to be kept in mind that not all guys practice how they play. Some guys were practice all stars and never see the field (Mike Thomas circa 2012-2013) while some guys practice pretty average and are all stars on game days. The coaches have to stop talking about getting guys in and actually get guys in the game to see how they can contribute.

  • Have fun!

I know it's tough playing with the weight of expectations that comes with being at THE Ohio State University, but this STAFF needs to remember to have fun, as well as the players. Backyard football was some of the best football we experienced growing up and they need to remember that. Open it up and have it!

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