I'm typically a huge pessimist and I've drug myself into the gutter since Saturday afternoon. Yes, it was a pretty depressing beatdown. Yes, it certainly exposed some major flaws in this 2021 team and maybe in the program at large. But, if we can see these issues/problems, I'm sure Ryan Day can too. I personally think the guy hates to lose and is as ruthless as Urban when it comes to winning. He'll purge some staff, rehire, or not doing so will be the start of his downfall.
But let's look at the asset side of this year's balance sheet:
- We lost some major talent from last year's team (Fields, Sermon, Davis, Browning, Werner, Borland, Hilliard, Wade, Cooper, Togiai, Hausmann, Farrell). They weren't all superstars but those that weren't were still solid major college football players. We also lost Miller for the year and Williams to the transfer portal. But with all those loses, we ended up 10-2 and will be at a New Year's Day bowl. I really didn't expect us to be this good with all these personnel losses and all the new players stepping in.
- We could have lost Chris Olave, Thayer Munford and Haskell Garrett but they came back. That said, I'm not sure why since most guys don't seem to improve their draft stock much by staying (or at least OSU guys don't seem to).
- Stroud had a great year as a first-year starter who really had limited game experience in 2020. That's worth celebrating. And a QB room with McCord and Ewers behind him (for however long) is a big plus.
- Henderson is a stud RB who just needs more experience (and maybe a little better run blocking OL in front of him). Williams and Prior seem like great 2/3-deep guys.
- JSN became a stud WR and Egbuka and Harrison Jr showed they are capable replacements for Olave and Wilson.
- We learned that Steele Chambers can be a terrific LB, especially if he puts on some solid weight over the winter.
- We learned that Denzel Burke is a future first-round NFL draft choice and we get him for two more years.
- We also saw some huge DL potential in JTT, Tyleik Williams, and Sawyer. These guys just need to grow up and get stronger.
- And lastly, we are seeing that college football is just about like the NFL. Free agency in the guise of the transfer portal (so we better use it). College coaches leaving programs while they're on the edge of possibly making the CFP (see Brian Kelly) and lots of coaches getting ridiculous amounts of money relatively undeserved (James Franklin, Mel Tucker, Lincoln Riley). And players making money off of NIL. So let's embrace the chaos and use it to our advantage.
