Jim Tressel - OSU Football

After watching the OSU v. USC game on Saturday September 13th, I've had a lot on my mind about OSU Football. My concern is that the tradition of Ohio State football has been lost on Jim Tressel.

Don't get me wrong, I like Jim Tressel a lot. I think that he is a relatively good coach, and I like the class with which he conducts his on and off-field activity, but the problem is that Ohio State has always been a rushing team (or at least a rush-first team). There is a reason that we consistently recruit some of the biggest and best offensive linemen in the country, and there is a reason why we consistently recruit some of the best talent at the halfback/running back position every year. Think about some of the great names in our past such as:
Vic Janowicz (RB)
Howard Cassidy (RB)
Archie Griffin (RB)
Keith Byars (RB)
Eddie George (RB)
Orlando Pace (OT)

What we've seen lately is a trend in the NCAA which is moving toward the spread offense or west coast offense. Tressel seems to think that we need to move toward that trend, and although it has its merits, it needs to be employed more effectively against our opponents if we are going to use it. Part of that involves the caliber of team whom we are playing against. Since the passing game isn't our forte, why would we put our 2nd best option as our first choice against our best opponents? The better the team we are playing against, the more crucial it becomes to stick to the run. If you disagree, hold tight, and I will give more specific explanations why Tressel's offensive play-calling decisions have been embarrassing us in the national spotlight. Frankly, I'm sick and tired of watching my beloved Buckeyes get embarrassed, and I know that they are better than that. Give Florida, LSU, and USC their due credit, but we didn't help our own cause.

The problem Tressel has encountered is an unwillingness to bring our bread and butter run-first brand of football to the big games (ie: Florida in 2006, LSU in 2007, and now USC in 2008). Now, a lot of people are thinking, "Beanie Wells was injured, so we had to resort to the pass." That's why we recruit multiple All-American, highly skilled running backs every year. We're The Ohio State University, not Xenia Community College (if there is one). If Beanie is hurt, play one of his highly talented backups and play him often.

Now, let's review why an effective running game (or even mildly effective running game) is such an important factor for a lot of teams, but particularly, The Ohio State University Buckeyes:

• Running the ball minimizes turnovers. Yes, fumbles happen, but I firmly believe (and statistics would back me up) that fumbles per carry are far less likely than interceptions per pass. Furthermore, fumbles are often recovered by the team who fumbled the ball in the first place.
• Running the ball controls the game tempo. When a team runs the ball, it eats away at the clock, not to mention the fact that a running play takes a longer time for reset because of players piling up on the ball carrier. The effect of eating up more of the clock is that the opposing team has less time over the course of the game to score its own points, and it keeps the scores much closer and more manageable. Naturally, I have made the assumption that you have a pretty good defense to count on stopping the opponent on a regular enough basis to get the ball back (via punt, not kickoff). Also, a long offensive drive with a lot of running takes a lot out of the opposing offense because they lose rhythm and they get cold.
  
• The results of running the football are more consistent than the results of passing the football. If you have a bad game running the football and compare it to a good game running the football, it's typically not nearly as bad as the difference between a bad game passing the football compared to a good game passing the football.
  
• Running the football early and often helps open up the pass later in the game. If I were the coach of the OSU Buckeyes, I would run the ball more often than not in the first half of every game. I have no doubt that this would also be a smart strategy to follow in the 2nd half as well for most games.
• Running the football also helps field position steadily. Even if running the ball doesn't get the first down, more than likely, you're getting some yardage which is helping you with field position (something OSU does particularly well because we consistently have one of the better defenses in college football each year in addition to having world class kickers who regularly punt 50+ yarders).
• Running the football wears down heavily on opposing players. This is probably the single most important factor about the run. Defenses have to work significantly harder to stop the run than the offensive players are working to help block. The defense doesn't get to choose where it wants to meet the opposing players... they have to adjust and are often reacting to the ball carrier/blockers. Now this is truly where OSU shines. I couldn't imagine trying to get around blocks by 6'4"+ 300+lb offensive linemen while simultaneously trying to tackle a running back who is likely to be carrying a lot of speed when I try to tackle him. Over the course of a football game filled with running, defenses get tired, they get sore, and they just fail to keep their ability to keep up. If you combine this with bringing in fresh legs at the halfback position, you're probably going to make those defensive linemen and linebackers wish their athletic departments hadn't agreed to play the Buckeyes.
  

If you look at the Florida, LSU, and USC games, you should see a broken record. I distinctly remember agonizing over the play-calling in the National Championship game against Florida in 2006. I couldn't get over that game. I had countless conversations with my some of my best friends and biggest OSU football fans, Tony and Mike, about how we abandoned the run from the very beginning of that game and allowed ourselves to fall behind on the scoreboard very quickly. I couldn't have cared less that we had Troy Smith playing quarterback. I only wish that we could've played that game again and run Michael Pittman 3 or 4 times more often than we did. In that hypothetical situation, I'd be willing to bet a significant amount of money that we would have AT LEAST made the game very close, if not win the game. How do you beat defensive speed.... how do you beat that "SEC-speed" crap? You beat it by walking over them because you weigh 30+ lbs more than them! Run the damn ball!! Then rinse and repeat.

The LSU game was a mirror image of what is wrong with Jim Tressel's offensive play calling. He's trying to keep up with the Jones' of the league. He wanted to say, "Hey, we can throw the ball too!" Well Jim, let me tell you a thing or two about how OSU fans feel if you didn't notice in 2002 - we could care less about how we win ball games... we just want the W. If we're one dimensional, so be it. We can't stress that enough.

The USC game was another mirror image. Do I sound like a broken record yet? I feel like Jim Tressel is one of those monkeys that they perform the experiments with. There's a banana on the left and a button on the right. He keeps reaching for the damn banana even though it shocked him the last time, and the time before that. You get the picture.

The USC game was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I still "like" Jim Tressel, but I am losing my faith quickly. At a certain point in the game, it was obvious that the team lost faith in Boeckman and Boeckman had lost faith in himself. The offensive line started breaking down like an old Dodge Neon and Boeckman was delivering stat-padding gifts to the USC secondary if he wasn't being sacked first.

Anyway, I've said what I wanted to say about Tressel's inability to recognize his own team's strengths, his inability to adapt, and his persistence in trying to keep up with the Jones' of the NCAA. Let's learn from our mistakes.

Stay tuned for my next couple of OSU football blogs regarding:

1. Our bad defensive schemes (ahem, Jim Heacock)
2. Bad/stupid penalties
3. Feeling bad for Boeckman - Here's a senior who was pretty much booed off the field. I don't like Boeckman necessarily, but he was the fall guy for Tressel's bad decision. I don't think Boeckman deserved to get booed at home against Troy, but it had to happen so that Tressel could understand what the fans want and expect from him. The fans were merely expressing their hangover from their discontent with Tressel's decision to keep Boeckman in the game against USC. (I think) Boeckman was the fall guy, and it was necessary for the fans to tell Tressel that they don't care if he's a senior... we want to see our young, superstar-caliber quarterback who shows promise as a runner and passer. If the fans hadn't reacted to Boeckman's incomplete pass with such rampant booing, I have no doubt that Tressel would have played him more in the Troy game instead of keeping him out for the rest of the game. Tressel didn't have much of a choice after the booing. That must have been very embarrassing for Boeckman, and I bet that Tressel felt guilty for having played Boeckman at all. On the flip side, I am acknowledging that we (OSU) fans are ruthless about our Buckeyes, and we are extremely critical if you couldn't already tell. I feel bad for Boeckman. I hope he understands that he was just collateral damage. He was the victim of OSU fans needing to have their desires recognized by a coaching staff that may not understand it based on their primary outside contact - namely, the media.