Some things that need to be written about the future of the Ohio State football program.
Ohio State fans are a passionate but fickle bunch. It simply will no longer matter that the Buckeyes can win 10 games a year if the two or three they lose continue to happen in high-profile contests against big-name opponents.
There really isn't much left to write about Monday's game. But there are some things that need to be written about the future of the Ohio State football program.
First, let's go with what worked this year:
Positive No. 1: Ohio State won 11 games. It is the fifth time this century the team has won 10 or more games in a season.
Positive No. 2: The Buckeyes won the Big Ten outright for the second year in a row. If you count the title shared with Penn State in 2005, that's three conference championships in a row.
Positive No. 3: Ohio State made it to the BCS National Championship game for the third time in six years. Obviously, any school in the country would love to accomplish this feat just once.
Now, what is in need of a lot of work:
I still believe Jim Tressel is the best head football coach in school history. However, he has three tough areas of change that need to be addressed or I believe he will suffer the same fate as his last three predecessors.
Change No. 1: Tressel must remove himself from play-calling duties. Head coaches at major universities have too many things pulling them in too many directions to allow them the focus needed to coordinate an offense adequately. Urban Meyer did not call the plays that thumped Ohio State in 2007 and Les Miles did not orchestrate the offensive barrage thrown at the Buckeyes on Monday night. If a noted offensive guru like Jeff Tedford at California knows enough to step away then Tressel should as well.
Change No. 2: Ohio State needs to recruit a different style of offensive lineman and coach the position very differently. Without radical change at this position, look for what happened in January the past two seasons to start happening in future Octobers and Novembers. Recent Big Ten coaching changes almost guarantee it. This offensive line has been embarrassed one too many times to continue to recruit the same kind of player and coach them using the same scheme. The Buckeyes will need to move some smaller, quicker defensive linemen to the other side of the ball this spring. Is it really that bad? Don't take my word for it, just ask the folks from Florida, Illinois and LSU how much fun defense is against the Buckeyes.
Change No. 3: Buckeye defensive coaches and players? Meet the spread offense. Ohio State has lost five games in the last three years. An excellent record, except for the fact that each loss came against the same "spread" style of attack. And each time out made Ohio State coaches and players look like they refused to spend even one second in the film room or on the practice field. It is time to regroup, junk the zone blitz and start specializing in a spread-defeating scheme.
So what does the future look like if these changes aren't made?
With Michigan hiring a spread expert for a head coach in Rich Rodriguez, the days of beating up on the Wolverines are over. All-universe recruit Terrelle Pryor (the next Vince Young!) is very likely to sign with Michigan where he probably start, or at the very least get significant playing time. Sure, there will be growing pains up north and maybe the Buckeyes beat them this year. Don't count on many victories after that with the defensive status quo. Michigan will run the same offense you saw on Monday night, which you saw in November, which you saw last January, which you saw in 2005...
Though Ohio State will return plenty of players next season, the schedule's degree of difficulty is many notches higher than last year. The Buckeyes play just one team with a losing record from the 2007 season and a majority of teams will have played in a bowl game. The same USC team that lit up Illinois will look to do the same to Ohio State in a West Coast game in September. The Illini in turn will look to make it two in a row at home against the Bucks the week before "The Game."
Tressel should take note of the fact that his immediate predecessor was shown the door because his teams underperformed in the last two games of the season. He should nip this problem in the bud now before it turns into a pink slip. Ohio State fans are a passionate but fickle bunch. It simply will no longer matter that the Buckeyes can win 10 games a year if the two or three they lose continue to happen in high-profile contests against big-name opponents.
Ohio State has proven itself to be a very good football program but it is not great. The program will not be great until it proves it can succeed where it has failed, repeatedly. Ohio State will be obliterated by college football pundits and fans for the forseeable future. After Monday's performance, the program deserves a majority of it. What's worse is that the future will continue to look too much like the present unless Tressel and company embrace some significant changes in the way they coach and play the game.