I had to see how Rose Bowl turned out before I finalized my thoughts on 2023.   Why?  Because I had to see how TCUN performed in the Rose Bowl. Michigan is our measuring stick in many ways and this year we didn’t fully measure up but it was a prize fight, a sledgehammer game to quote Mr Meyer.

 I expected TCUN to get worked by Bama. Saban coached, a month to prepare, a real physical D line and team you better not be one dimensional against. Felt to me like a recipe for failure for Michigan.  They were not a good passing team against us or the whole last third of the season. All their work was done with running game, good defense and capitalizing on errors of opponent.  Tonight it was Michigan who made all th errors  (made our STs look downright competent) and still pulled it out. I wanted Michigan to get exposed but they weren’t

I get the disappointment with the last 6 weeks of Buckeye football but we are NOT on verge of collapse.  Michigan abused Alabamas O Line.  Our guys did MUCH better against their front.  Could they have been more consistent? Sure   Should we expect improvement out of them? Of course 

Where did we come up short?  QB play overall first and foremost. Completion %, TD/INT ratio and yds/att were all real good, but we had way too many drives that started off schedule due to QB inaccuracies and indecisiveness.  Our defense was good enough to keep most of those errors from hurting us but it affected our efficiency and I think it changed how our coaches called games.  Certain calls they just didn’t feel comfortable making  Secondly it was our D Line being over worked.  I do think we need to get back to rotating more fresh guys in, we’ve done it in recent past and if it’s a Knowles thing he needs to adapt or go.  Thirdly I think we need to get back to an offensive eye in the sky, if it’s true we didn’t use that this season. Certain things can only be appreciated from that perspective and it’s really tying our hands if we don’t use that

Ultimately we are comparing ourselves to the best and if you look at last 3 yrs we measured up pretty well. Last year vs UGA it was pretty indistinguishable. Someone had to lose ….. and it sucked it was us  This year it might be Michigan…… yeah they cheated…. egregiously, and that cheating for sure gave them unfair and consequential edges they didn’t earn in the spirit of fair competition…. but they also got a lot better the last 3 years. That can’t be denied  I also think we are close than many of our “supporters”  seem to think  This  isn’t a call for keeping the status quo but simply to pump the brakes on blowing things up.  That Mizzou game was ug-Lee but I’m betting it will serve as a real positive in the end.