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Ryan Day Has Some Work to do This Year -

+13 HS
buckeye phi's picture
February 7, 2017 at 3:06pm
79 Comments

It should come as no surprise Ohio State's new Quarterbacks Coach, Ryan Day, is facing some significant challenges in 2017.  After all, he and new Offensive Coordinator, Kevin Wilson, are inheriting what was the nation's 81st ranked passing offense in 2016 (according to ncaa statistics). 

I recently stumbled upon an article on the subject by Tony Gerdeman of The Ozone.  http://theozone.net/Ohio-State/Football/2016/News/To-Do-List-Buckeye-Quarterbacks-Coach-Ryan-Day

Gerdeman merely states the obvious for the most part: 

At some point Day will have done some deep-dive film work on Barrett and he will find some problems to fix.

Ya think?

But it was enough to get me wondering exactly how Day and Wilson will go about making the much needed changes. 

For one thing - I have long felt former Quarterbacks Coach, Tim Beck got more than his fair share of the blame for our offensive woes pretty much every time we faced a defense with a pulse last year.  Remember - he was not responsible for the breakdowns in pass protection from the offensive line.  Nor, was he responsible for the sometimes poor route running, etc. by the wide receivers. 

And as the founder of MENSA mentioned when he hired Beck as his offensive coordinator at the University of Texas - Tim Beck was not OSU's primary play-caller in 2016.  That has to sit a little sideways with all the fans who worship Tom Herman - but despise Tim Beck. 

However, that's not to say Day and Wilson will not be able to find some fairly obvious "fixes" when it comes to Ohio State's quarterback play.  It's just that finding a given problem and actually fixing it may not be the open-and-shut case a lot of fans seem to be thinking it'll be. 

For example:  If there was one major positive aspect of the Buckeyes' passing offense in '16, it was that there were very few interceptions thrown.  It has even been suggested that JT Barrett may have been a little too concerned with making a major mistake.  So much so - that it frequently caused him to hold on to the ball a little too long.  That certainly would have explained some of those almost curiously late passes. 

There's generally a rather fine line between worrying about something like that too much - and not worrying about it enough.  That "fix" might not be as simple as it sounds.

But even assuming that particular issue is addressed, it doesn't explain the out-and-out misses when everything else was clearly in place for a major play downfield.  Even on plays when the pass protection was good - the receiver was running wide open - and he was "on time" - JT would misfire far too often.  Sometimes, quite badly. 

And no "weenie arm" comments, please.  Those errant passes were over-throws every bit as often as they were under-throws. 

By the way, when it comes to play calling - it's actually kind of understandable how last season's coaches might have become reluctant to call the intermediate-to-deep stuff if they were fairly sure their offense would not be able to execute it reliably.  Even when that would have clearly been the solution verses defenses that were plainly jumping all over the short routes because they had little fear of getting burned deep. (Thinking specifically of Clemson, here)

Obviously, the play calling options become severely limited in a situation like that. 

I'm thinking the intermediate-to-deep game will be one of the first things Wilson and Day will address.  After all, the running game is already pretty good - and the short passing game will automatically open up a bit if defenses have to start respecting a legit intermediate-to-deep threat. 

That means the coaches who were retained from 2016 - Greg Studrawa (offensive line) and Zach Smith (wide receivers), will also have to get their units better up to speed.   Football may be the ultimate "team sport".  Even if Day is entirely successful with the QB play - it won't mean much if the pass protection, etc., doesn't improve, also. 

Naturally, there are other aspects to QB play that may need to be addressed, as well.  Better pre-snap reads - and going through the progressions more quickly are two things that come immediately to mind.  The basic fundamentals - like footwork and actual throwing motion - seem to be OK, though (from a relative layman's point of view). 

Hey - if it was easy, it would have been fixed already - wouldn't it?

Those are a few thoughts I've had on the subject.  I'd be interested in seeing what my fellow 11Wers have to say -

 

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