The game with Rutgers this past week had me thinking about the mindset of coaches and their support staff when preparing a team that is obviously so mis-matched against a team like Ohio State to come to Columbus and line-up to get their asses beat.

What really gets to me is when these teams show up and they play so far out of their character and the film they've put out for the year... When you see 4 or 5 QBs lining up in various packages from the "running QB" package or the wildcat, or this is the "pocket passer" QB... Then they have all the "trick plays" that get their guys (who aren't nearly as good athletically) moving sideline to sideline trying reverses, and other nonsense that by and large doesn't work... Onside kicks that really don't net anything other than great field position for Ohio State...

Here's what I'm wondering... I can't believe for a minute that in fall camp, preparing to kick off against Boston College and Wagner, Temple etc... running all this sideline to sideline stuff and running a half dozen QBs out there... so I would have to imagine that they spent install time during the week leading up to the game plugging in these plays that they'll likely never run again, and convincing their team that they can use this nonsense that they'll throw out of the playbook the following week, to compete with Ohio State...

So why do that? Why not use fall camp and the first few weeks of the season to really and truly identify what the strengths of your roster are, whether you're a solid running team, or your QB is ahead of schedule and playing well throwing from the pocket or if he's a scrambler and he can run the read-option... Why not hone in on that and spend time making that as good as it can possibly be, lining up against Ohio State with your base and your best options as far as what your playbook has to offer, and let the chips fall where they may?

It feels like to me if you've spent all this valuable time installing all this trickeration and stuff you really aren't going to use after this week, and building your team up to tell them "hey if we pull off these BS plays that we're not going to use again after this week, we'll compete with Ohio State," you're just setting your entire team up for a letdown.

I feel like instead you roll out there with your best stuff, what you know your team is good at, you play fundamentally sound football, you're probably not going to win anyway but at the end of the game maybe you've made it somewhat competitive, and instead of a 39 point loss maybe you have a 10-15 point loss that you can wipe the blood off your mouth and look yourself in the mirror and be proud that you made it a contest at least in comparison to other teams a powerhouse like the Buckeyes are going to see.

All this time spent on all the nonsense trick plays just to try and catch Ohio State off guard makes no sense to me... I think it's teams that have that level of desperation that do that stuff, then when it doesn't work that's when you see the teams post Ohio State have the big meltdown and not be able to do anything the rest of the year.