What I'm hoping to see with Fields this fall is progress in his reads and decision making, as well as his touch and accuracy throwing the ball. Game speed with a great stable of receivers will help, along with several excellent running backs to keep offenses honest. By mid season, I want JF to be able to find the open man and hit him in stride, make good RPO decisions and know when to break off a play and convert for big yards. I don't expect all of this in the first 3-4 games, but hope to see most of it in the last 3-4. 

We could probably go 12-2 with him completing 55% of his passes due to our balance and his legs. If he completes 60% or more and has a 3:1 td:into ratio or better we will make the playoffs. If we lose one game and win B1G we go (unless it's a blowout, which I doubt). Odds are in our favor. 

It's the Day/Wilson show. Tight Ends could well become integrated into the offense. If so, and I hear you, skeptics, we are well positioned with talent. 

TOUGH- ya gotta be tough to be a great football player cuz it's a tough game. Ebbs and flows, funny bounces of the oblong spheroid, both teams are on scholarship, etc...   LOVE- that character quality that puts TEAM first and team mates before self, while competing with them to play the game at the highest possible level. If Coach Day is able to get this team to commit to this mantra, we will perform like 2014. May not win it all, but we won't take a dump in IA or IN.  Love the plan, can't wait to see the execution!

Low life opportunists like McMurphy love to find a way to take down a true "good guy" like Tressell. Adds to the "pile on" effect by all the other sharks in the water (looking at you Forde) who get to bring the good man down, even it there's no "there" there.  The reason these stories go nowhere in the SEC is we all expect it from them. 

Sometimes it takes a while to grow up. I was about 30 when I started getting serious about doing something with life and relationships. I was working and raising a family, but not really putting them first. Life got a lot better for everyone around me as well as myself when that light went on in my head. 35! years later I've just retired from a successful career and ready to go back to "working around my golf schedule" again. Ain't life grand!!

It's gonna special this year. Will have a few hiccups early as Fields and Day iron the wrinkles out, then look out baby!!  Fields will get better at his reads and timing, and while he is, he will be Terrelle/Braxton on the ground which is scary good. Receivers will punish dbacks, JK will punish linebackers and defense will re-establish it's top 15 form.  We may lose a game and if we do it'll be a young team making mistakes. Won't happen more than once. But don't expect it. 

Last season was a sad romp through mediocrity, except for Dwayne Haskins and his receivers. We consistently underperformed and won badly (until we kicked ttun into Canada).  The Meyer/Smith situation and the goring by the media; the defensive scheme fubar, the Meyer/Day tension as Ryan tried to let DH do what he does best, except when Urban made him do what he does worst.  The slow motion train wreck that was Urban's deteriorating health and the entire team seeming to be hanging their heads with him, and Urban trying 'not to lose' instead of playing to obliterate lesser opponents. I believe it will take years to find out what the hell was going on in the defensive coaches meetings... it wasn't pretty, that much is certain. And after all that, we slaughtered XICHIGAN, won the B1G and the Rose Bowl and finished #3.   THAT IS WHY I'M SO PUMPED FOR 2019!!  This team is hungry for redemption and coached by a hungry new star who wants to leap to the top of the heap in a single bound. There will be no playing it safe, no mailing it in and no preserving a legacy. Watch the scores go up and up, the second string playing like most B1G starters and no 'trap games' where we aren't ready to compete and destroy. And our dominance over ttun continues. We can show mercy when we are up by 45 with 5 minutes to go.  It's gonna be the year we should of had last season!

I like the 3 pairs of challenging games and the timing of the byes. Keeps us focused so we don't end up complacent at week 6. Let's see how much rust comes off the first 3. Cincy will play us like it's their bowl game, a good early emotional test. Children of the Corn will bring decent talent but not depth. Cats will show great effort and a potential NFL QB for a nice test and we are used to a strong finish and should be ready to TCOB the final two games. Sure, we might lose a game or two, but I think Day will have the Bucks ready to show the world who they are. 

I like the 3 pairs of challenging games and the timing of the byes. Keeps us focused so we don't end up complacent at week 6. Let's see how much rust comes off the first 3. Cincy will play us like it's their bowl game, a good early emotional test. Children of the Corn will bring decent talent but not depth. Cats will show great effort and a potential NFL QB for a nice test and we are used to a strong finish and should be ready to TCOB the final two games. Sure, we might lose a game or two, but I think Day will have the Bucks ready to show the world who they are. 

Pretty nice Ferrari for Coach Day to inherit from UFM. Hope he has his racing gloves and shoes polished and his scarf starched straight back!

The execution of these concepts isn't difficult. They were just well ahead of their time. Now that nearly everyone recognizes and knows the basics of defending these plays, the key is in execution by the offense and great play calling by the Coach to keep the defense off balance. I believe Day and WILSON will be masters at this. Take what they give until they get a bit tired, then grind them to nothing with power. Then send in the freshmen. 

My take last year was that JK really tried to hit the hole the plays were designed for, open or not, then tried to pick his way through traffic and gain what he could, despite the less than stellar run blocking. Weber would look at the hole and if it didn't look open would try to pop outside and use his speed to get what he could. Weber looked better when he could beat someone to the corner, but I thought JK did the yeoman's work last year grinding out the tough inside yards that often just weren't there. His freshman year the blocking and scheming were suited to his style and he racked up the yards. This year I expect Day to build a strong inside run option game early to get it on tape and train this line in blocking it properly. Mostly JK with enough JF to keep defenses honest. From there we will see the RPO and straight passing concepts developed.  We should be able to win 10+ games this year with fewer than 15 passes/game.  We won't actually pass that little, but the run scheme will be strong enough to get away with it if we wanted to. When we start adding play action passes, screen game, TE releases etc, we will be multi-faceted and able to execute a number of ways to counter whatever opposing defenses do to load up the run game. JK will thrive, JF will look like a pro and tight ends will get drafted.  

A pair and a spare?  Seems like the strategy in QB recruiting is to hit one top talent each year and stack them up to start in successive years... which Meyer was doing nicely until JT decided to stay for his 14th year. Nobody's fault, but that led to a complete reshuffle in the QB room at OSU. Burrow, Martell, Haskins all got out of order.  If Day recruits one a year and they are all winners, they can wait their turn knowing they will get 1-2 years to start and compete for the Natty. Sure there will be the occasional Portal Jumper, but that will open a window for a more talented guy to stay an extra year. I'll be surprised if we have any senior QBs under Day, much less RS seniors. 

I think you will see very little of the UFM Offense this year. Day and Wilson have been chomping at the bit to not build an offense on the Zone read. Expect a bit of ZR, then a pro style pass run game: play action, TE as receiver (shocking I know), multiple run sets. The plays and approach will differ weekly as coaches game plan to the weaknesses of their opponent (whoa dude) and if we find a weakness to exploit, we step on their necks until they find a way to stop it. That's what you do when you're building a reputation as an offensive genius. 

TDTerry and Dwayne are gonna have a great year together. Unfortunately, it'll be for the Deadskins. 

Lots of good comments and I agree in part with many of them. OL was great at pass blocking but mediocre at run block, though it got better later in the season when DH committed to actually running on some of the RPO's. To that point in the season, NOBODY believed Dwayne was going to run, including our OLine!  A "break, don't bend" defense contributed to our dependence on the pass game to throw prodigious points on the board as well, limiting the run game, and our RB's were seeking HR's often when they had the ball instead of running the play as designed and forcing defense to come to them (JK admitted it, and Mike W was clearly ignoring the design of the play and breaking outside as the first sign of trouble).  

I want to see our offense be balanced and efficient enough that we can run when they are expecting the run and pass when they are expecting the pass. A 250 yd rush/game and a 350 pass/game offense is unstoppable, forcing the opposing offense to score bunches to keep up. That's where an improved (and I fully expect an improved) defense will bend when necessary and rarely break. That team will put us in the CFP where we get to go toe to toe with teams of similar talent.  And I like our chances!

Way to go Ramzy!  Got the Base all riled up a couple weeks before training camp over ttun instead of us pulling our hair out over our QB getting a dwi or some such nonsense (knock on wood).  As for Urban, he was a great coach with a great system if he had the athletes. If he didn't, he was a "system coach" who could be counted on to be competitive. I'm glad he was able to return to OSU to finish his career and hope he becomes a great 'elder statesman' in a few years... but I bet he can't just settle down and enjoy life.   Meanwhile up in AA, the Gift keeps on giving. 3 more years and the Bucks will be the Globetrotters to the scUM Generals!

Modern college offenses are designed to get favorable 1:1 matchups and exploit same. Spread, motion, RPO etc are methods that all offenses use.  College defenses have a couple of counters to all that offense; study like mad and discern tendencies, then beat offense to the point of attack; be faster and more disruptive than offense, taking away their advantage; exploit the weaknesses of the offense allowing better athletes to make better plays. We will be deep and talented enough to do all three. It won't be smash mouth defense ordinarily but it will be fast and dominant. Look forward to seeing it in action. 

We got some good coaches from scUM and they still have a bad head coach. That's about all I want to say about ttun. 

So isn't Larry Johnson supposed to retire this year?... YOU WISH!!!  Coach J is doing what he loves... pouring his time and wisdom into young men of character, discipline and talent. It's tough to walk away when you're top of your profession and 5* athletes keep lining up to sit at your feet.  Coach Day's best coaching decision so far. 

What's this???  They lost much of their defensive coaching staff?  Where did they go???  Oh, that's right; they came to The Ohio State University. 

So the offense is climbing out of the 1970's. About time, donchathink??  Time for the Silver Bullets to use their revamped, inside info defensive staff to work their magic on the maize and blue. 

He's clearly an overachiever with a great work ethic and the drive to be a champion. Maybe he will come back in 10 years and be our receivers coach?  Meanwhile we will count on him in 3rd down situations and to keep drives alive. Thanks for coming back, KJ!

Gonna give Urban props for recruiting and grooming Coach Day to take over for him. That was huge! 

Day has surpassed my expectations as a first year HC on the recruiting trail. I surmise that top recruits want to play for a coach that is building his legacy, like Dabo, or is a proven commodity like Urban or Little Nicky. Day clearly fits the former category, along with Link Reilly and a couple others. If the Buckeyes can put a top 4 product on the field this year, recruiting is only gonna get better, because in the end players will prefer the "new shiny toy" (Day) wrapped in a great legacy program like OSU over proven program/coach like AL/Saban or newly successful program/coach like Clem/Dabo.  Not to mention Day is running an "NFL friendly" system that won't force QB 's and others to spend 2 years learning Sunday football skills. 

We need a minimum of 8 "starting quality" O linemen going into the season, with a group of solid backups behind them. True, you don't want to break up the 'chemistry' of a starting 5, but with our 5th year guys, it's not tough for them to be 'chemically consistent' with the starters, if not homogenous.  Our line play will be key to JF success as a first year starter in the B1G.