I have purposely stayed away until now which is 5am on Sunday morning.  This is my rant so feel free to read it or skip it or delete it I just have some things I need to say.  First off I have been a member since 2010 which has to be close to this site's inception but I don't post much.  I have had a couple Chris Holtman rants but not to the extent of demanding he gets fired just general complaints about his style.  I really try to not "call out" specific players whenever I do comment but I am sure there have been instances where I have.  I told my wife when we first met 30 years ago that I don't drink or gamble or carouse but I have two vices that you will have to accept 1) Golf, I play, read and live for it 8 months a year. 2) OSU football, I read, watch and love it 12 months a year.

In no particular order here I go:

1) Coaching- I am OUT on this staff.  All we heard this season was how last year's debacle fueled everything they were doing and this was the game plan that we get?  I am far from a football mind but I am 50 years old and I have watched and been around football my entire life and I can't for the life of me figure out what they were doing. The personnel choices have been suspect all year, and yes I get that we fans aren't at practice and blah blah blah but we do see the results on the field and quite honestly they ain't good! If they are truly putting the best 11 on the field than obviously their recruiting evaluation and results are flawed. Every coach on the staff needs to be evaluated by their results.  What other profession allows this kind of performance?  There can be no excuse for what was put on the field yesterday.  That was an abject failure at every level and every unit, and is just unacceptable. 

2) Play calling- It was just awful on both sides of the ball.  Probably the two biggest offensive plays of the game and the best we have are to throw to the TE?  I don't understand and I am sure I never will.  I don't even want to talk about the toss sweep or the continued use of the WR screen.  Oh, and let us not forget about the run play on 1st and 35.  I don't think that situation called for 3 heaves deep but maybe something other than a straight run?  On defense why in the world were we consistently in 0 coverage on 3rd and long against a QB who has shown all year that he can't complete a pass a an even semi-covered receiver?  I truly don't feel like our players were put in a position to be successful and that is a coaches most important job.

3) Players-  I don't think this team has the mindset to win at a level that is expected at OSU.  They can certainly give lip service all year but quite honestly when the rubber meets the road many of them fell short.  I coached basketball for the last 30 years and one of my go to opinions was that all of the coaching in the world can't win a game (although it can certainly lose a game), only players can.  There comes a time when a player has to make a winning play and we certainly didn't make any of those and UM did.  Name a big defensive play that someone from OSU made? NONE!!  Name an offensive play someone made that stole momentum or just kept a drive alive or something to that effect? NONE!!  I really don't want to name specific players but I am sure many of us can pick opportunities that were there for someone to step-up and get an extra yard, make a great catch. make the extra block, knock down a pass or get a huge sack.  For whatever reason not one big play at a crucial time was made by a player in red.  That was also one of the least disciplined game I have ever seen an OSU team play.  The penalties were ridiculous in both the amount and the timing.  In what world does it make sense to head-butt an opposing player?  How is the outcome of that action ever going to help your team win?  Selfish beyond selfish!!  False starts at home are just unacceptable, comes down to focus.  PI flags because you are so out of position that you can't possible do any thing other than that is just bad.  The list goes on forever and it circles back to the OSU players not performing on the big stage yet again!!

4) Injuries- I am well aware of the fact that injuries occur in football but it seems like we have them in spades.  OSU pays Mickey Marotti $735,000 in base salary to get the players ready to play.  Why do they miss so many games?  Maybe whatever they (OSU training and S&C staffs) are doing isn't working.  My son just played a 15 game HS football season in a small school division here in Ohio and we had 1 injury all season.  The fact that there is a huge difference between small HS and OSU doesn't escape me but it is all relative.  Our HS doesn't have a staff with basically unlimited resources to get and keep kids healthy.  Most of our HS players played both-ways all season and only one had a knee injury that he missed half of the season with. OSU seems to have an incredible amount of lost time with players so I am curious where the disconnect is?  Are too many players not willing to play through an injury?  Again, I realize many of them have a football future past OSU but quite honestly OSU deserves the best version of them first.  

I am just going to take some time away from OSU for a while.  I don't enjoy being so upset at something that I have no control over and have nothing invested in other than being a fan.  I lived through the agony of the John Cooper era and I feel like that is where this relationship is heading and quite simply can't do it again.  I know that winning every game is never going to happen but losing ones like yesterday is just killing me.  I am going to find something else to occupy me and just walk away. I am finally broken and have no interest in continuing this relationship right now.  I really want to come back someday but for now consider us "on a break"!!