Ohio State Football 2013

[New York Red]

Bruce Feldman tweeted this morning that a Vegas bookmaker, Ed Salmons, said that SIX SEC teams would be favorites against #2 ranked Ohio State on a neutral site. Last year Vegas said six SEC schools, besides Bama, would be favored over Notre Dame in the BCS Championship game.

That's why SEC teams don't need to schedule more difficult OOC opponents. The conference slate alone makes their schedules tougher than any non-SEC schools. It would be senseless to add to that for any reason other than playing a traditional non-conference rival.

[Danny Serafini]

For the record, Ohio St. replaced Vanderbilt with San Diego St. The Buffalo game was merely moved to make the schedules work better.

[joshua]

Bruce Feldman tweeted this morning that a Vegas bookmaker, Ed Salmons, said that SIX SEC teams would be favorites against #2 ranked Ohio State on a neutral site. Last year Vegas said six SEC schools, besides Bama, would be favored over Notre Dame in the BCS Championship game.

That's why SEC teams don't need to schedule more difficult OOC opponents. The conference slate alone makes their schedules tougher than any non-SEC schools. It would be senseless to add to that for any reason other than playing a traditional non-conference rival.

Welp. It's official. Some guy in Vegas said it. Might as well pack it up and stop playing football in Columbus.

[GAC]

You can make an argument that no Ohio school needs more athletic revenue than does UC, so if that's OSU's primary objective, why won't they schedule the Bearcats?

Ohio State and UC play next year and in 2018 and have played 2 or 3 times in the past 12 years.

OSU and the Bearcats have squared off a total of 14 times in their history. In more recent history they've played each other in 1999, 2002, 2004, and 2006. OSU won all of them, and the last two meetings weren't even close.

I watch Bearcat football, and respect Bearcat fans. I have no problem at all with them having pride in their football program and the great strides it has taken. A couple of my cousins are alumni. And it's understandable that a lot of the colleges (smaller schools) in Ohio want that opportunity to play the "big guy" in the state for the exposure it brings, as well as revenue. But some in the Bearcat fan base seem to think OSU should give them some sort of preferential treatment, to the determent (exclusion) of some of the other fine colleges in Ohio that are also developing strong football programs.

[GAC]

I have no idea how Clemson's schedule looks. I haven't checked. But if I take a look at the weekly conference schedules, the Big Ten has more "dead" weeks than they should have.

Take the time to then look at some of these other conferences (team's) weekly schedule and you'll see they have just as many "dead" weeks. Maybe they don't clump them together in the first few weeks, like OSU and others do, but spread them out over the schedule, but does that really matter? They still have these cupcake games on their schedule.

[bucksfan2]

Bruce Feldman tweeted this morning that a Vegas bookmaker, Ed Salmons, said that SIX SEC teams would be favorites against #2 ranked Ohio State on a neutral site. Last year Vegas said six SEC schools, besides Bama, would be favored over Notre Dame in the BCS Championship game.

That's why SEC teams don't need to schedule more difficult OOC opponents. The conference slate alone makes their schedules tougher than any non-SEC schools. It would be senseless to add to that for any reason other than playing a traditional non-conference rival.

Does that shock you? I was listening to an Urban Meyer interview with Colin Cowherd. The gist of the conversation was that right now OSU doesn't have Alabama speed. But they have freshman coming in who have top tier speed. Its going to be a process, but if everything comes together throughout the season OSU will have the talent to compete on neutral sites.

The one thing that has always struck me with the SEC is the unbalance of the divisions. It has always seemed like one side was loaded with talent while the other was experience a down period. It has led to less than stellar matchups in the SEC Championship game.

[Sea Ray]

Take the time to then look at some of these other conferences (team's) weekly schedule and you'll see they have just as many "dead" weeks. Maybe they don't clump them together in the first few weeks, like OSU and others do, but spread them out over the schedule, but does that really matter? They still have these cupcake games on their schedule.

I guess it depends on which conferences you're talking about. I admit that I mainly follow SEC and Big Ten seeing as I live right on the border of both but maybe it's not to compare any conference to the SEC in football right now. I n looking at future Big Ten weekly matchups, there are generally only about 4 or 5 games per week and of those, one is generally compelling.

As a non partisan college football fan, last night's season opener in the SEC of Ole Miss-Vandy was incredible. It did not appear to be sloppy as someone mentioned earlier in this thread. The lead changed several times in the last two minutes and there were heroic individual moments. The game involved two teams that may or may not end the season ranked in the top 25 but I would guess that both will be bowling. The Big Ten doesn't have a chance to start their season that way. If Buffalo-OSU go back and forth like that, the story is not going to be what a great game it was. It'll be what's wrong with OSU?

GAC, you put a lot of effort into your weekly college football thread and it's excellent. Have you ever noticed that records of those predicting Big Ten games rarely vary more than one per week because the games are so predictable? Sure, you'll have upsets and the MAC does usually win a couple every year vs the B10 but it's just that, an upset and those don't usually separate out the RZ participants.

[BuckeyeRed27]

Not to much chatter about the Buffalo game huh?

I hope the team just lost focus after that blistering start, but it wasn't a really warm and fuzzy game. Decker got abused and the defense looked suspect at times. Hopefully the defense will get fixed by adding Roby and Bryant back to the secondary, but I think this game showed how thin we are on that side of the ball.

[medford]

I read somewhere that the Offensive Coordinator took blame for OSU lackluster offense in the 2nd half. He decided to go w/ a ground and pound game, even though that was exactly what Buffalo was setting up to stop. He didn't let them "play to what the defense was giving them" or something of that sort. I didn't see much of the game, so don't know what to make of that...

I thought it was interesting that Urb went for 2 after each of the first two touchdowns. I'm not sure what the "message" was in doing that. Get something on tape for future opponents to worry about? A fued w/ Buffalo's coach or defensive coordinator or perhaps AD? Something else? Who knows, interesting though.

As far as their defense goes, a less than stellar performance should have been suspected. For a lot of those guys, it was their first start of their OSU career. I believe Grant started a little bit early last year, and obviously Shazier started a bunch, but they were replacing 6 starters to last season's front 7 following Grant's benching. There is talent there, especially in the front 4 (lineback could be a problem if people don't start stepping up), but for many of them, it was their first opportunity to get extended action of game film "on tape" for them to be the man, playing at the start of the game, and long into the game, not having guys above them to provide the answers, etc.. Hopefully all they need is expierence, to be the focus of self film study, instead of seeing what John Hankins or another departed starter from the last couple of seasons was doing for 85% of the game while you only played a handful of snaps, most in garbage time.

[bucksfan2]

Not to much chatter about the Buffalo game huh?

I hope the team just lost focus after that blistering start, but it wasn't a really warm and fuzzy game. Decker got abused and the defense looked suspect at times. Hopefully the defense will get fixed by adding Roby and Bryant back to the secondary, but I think this game showed how thin we are on that side of the ball.

A couple of things to consider.

Shazier missed most of the 2nd and 3rd quarters. I think he may have been off the field for all of Buffalo's points.

Their 2nd best defensive player was suspended in Roby.

Their best pure RB was also suspended in Hyde.

As for the 2 pt conversion plays it looked like Urban was telling every opponent that OSU plays that they must look out for it.

[Red Buckeye]

Sloppy first game, but I am not concerned. A lot of the starters, including All American Roby weren't playing.

I am concerned with Miller hanging onto the ball to long.

As for Meyer going for 2 pt conversions, I think he was simply trying to score a lot of points. All of the pundits in the media are being negative about OSU's soft schedule, and most have said OSU needs to put up big numbers in their games.

So Meyer was trying to put up big numbers. I loved it. No mercy.

[HeatherC1212]

As for Meyer going for 2 pt conversions, I think he was simply trying to score a lot of points. All of the pundits in the media are being negative about OSU's soft schedule, and most have said OSU needs to put up big numbers in their games.

So Meyer was trying to put up big numbers. I loved it. No mercy.

I agree and I also think Meyer was aware that his defense wasn't very experienced so he was trying to give them as much of a lead as he could to keep the pressure off them as long as possible. I think they'll get better as they get more reps in these early games and PLEASE let Roby come back this week!

BTW-I totally go into about a twenty minute argument on Twitter with actor Michael Raymond-James (he was in Terriers, True Blood, and is currently on Once Upon a Time) regarding the two point conversion thing early in the game and I'm still laughing about it now. Nothing mean was said on either side but we were TOTALLY on two different sides of the issue and eventually he just stopped replying to me. I must have hit a nerve in my defense of the two pt. conversions (and the fact that I'm a Buckeye fan probably annoyed him too since he's a Michigan guy), LOL

[RiverRat13]

I could be wrong but I'm guessing the 2-point thing is an automatic call. If the defense has as many or less players as the offense has blockers when it initially lines up, they automatically snap the ball and run it in. If the defense has more players than the offense has blockers, they simply shift the formation and kick the PAT.

[bucksfan2]

I could be wrong but I'm guessing the 2-point thing is an automatic call. If the defense has as many or less players as the offense has blockers when it initially lines up, they automatically snap the ball and run it in. If the defense has more players than the offense has blockers, they simply shift the formation and kick the PAT.

They actually ran two different plays. The first one I believe was a direct snap to Guiton and he ran it in for a TD. The second one was a snap to Guiton and then he threw a pass to someone standing behind a wall of blocking. I think both plays were intentional giving opposing coaches something to think about.

I have seen teams line up in formations like OSU did on every extra point only to shift back once the D matches up. OSU did not continue to do the odd formation on their subsequent TD's. They lined up in a a regular extra point formation and kicked the try like normal.

[RedTeamGo!]

I think both plays were intentional giving opposing coaches something to think about.

Something to think about on PATs?

Why would Urban Meyer intentionally give opposing coaches tape on his 2 point conversion plays? I don't understand the point of running 2 point conversions after those TDs.