That’s fine. The part where you make a HC hiring based on a coordinator is nuts. Rees could leave this off-season and then you’re “stuck” with a guy you would have never hired in the 1st place. I’m glad they went with Freeman just seems crazy they would have gone a different direction based on an OC.
Jack wanted to hire Freeman. Others needed to be persuaded.
Inferior to OSU? That’s most of the FBS.
Here’s what vibes I got from some posters after one game:
Idk if we would win but I think schematically Rees got his lunch money stolen. He called a boring predictable easy to defend game, and didn’t adapt to the obvious problems the offense was having.
So every team we are dogs to. Lets be clear
Yes indeed, lots of overreactions based on a small sample size. I think it’s fair to watch the next few games to see how the team’s play progresses. If we don’t see reasonable progress then I think it will be much easier to offer criticisms. We’ve had a significant staff turnover and quite a few players, on offense especially, with minimal playing experience playing together.
Imagine if we had lost by more than 11..... this would really be a poo show.
It's a combination of players and shit play calling. Matt Salerno running around against the #2 team tells us we need some players. Luckily they have some WRs for 2023. Tyree and Diggs we're not effective and stuffed. Player issue.
You can't "gameplan" around your C and RG being turnstiles against a defense as talented as OSU. We probably could have gotten better yardage with more screens and sweeps in the 2nd half, but putting this primarily on Rees feels like criticizing the arrangement of the deck chairs on the Titanic. Once it became apparent we couldn't win the LOS without Patterson, none of the other shit really mattered.
Yes Tyree And Diggs will be good against the teams that we out man. But they aren't going to beat the OSUs, Bama's, Georgia's. Making play calling all that more important. We need a Chuck Weis " Schematic Advantage" I'm not ready to fire Tommy but he needs to prove his worth. Let's revisit the next big game or the next time our offense pulls a no show. The defense is there at championship level. Our offense is bottom 3rd. We can't pretend our Oline is a strength bc the numbers from last year and this game show otherwise
I think keeping Tommy was important and I don't think he's the imbecile all the online Bill Walshs are making him out to be.
That was to make my point that we are lacking WR depth right now, is that even arguable Dale? Show me where our offense has been explosive or a top 20 offense with data. Show me where our passing offense has been elite. It's not hyperbole it's stat driven.
not to mention you cant suddenly have some brand new game plan that you would honestly expect to work after drilling the failing game plan in practice for weeks.
No one has said otherwise. You're not arguing in good faith.
Our offense doesn't play other offenses. Assuming you meant "top 20 defense"...
Rees called a great game against Clemson in 2020, which was a victory full of explosive offensive plays over the 3rd best defense in the nation
I think the fact the C and RG were so bad provides the precise reasoning for attempting something different in the second half when it was clear that their original game plan was failing and they were playing from behind. I truly believe that OSU's defensive line and overall defense was much more improved than most expected. But doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? Foolish, to me.
OSU didn't retake the lead until the final seconds of the 3rd quarter. Changing the game plan before then would have been very risky, and even in the 4th quarter, we had very few options with Patterson out and our lack of depth at the skill positions.
The demoralizing thing for me was watching our OL get whipped. OL and TE is where we're supposed to be able to go blow-for-blow with the Big Three. If we don't even have that, then Freeman's rebuild is going to take longer than I expected. There was a lot of talk about how Kelly left the cupboards well-stocked, which is true compared to what he inherited, but Alexander and Quinn created some serious holes that are going to take time to fill.
They were very different games. Rees and Coan did more than enough to win the Fiesta Bowl; it was Elston and our defense that completely shit the bed. Conversely, our defense played heroically against OSU, and that should have been enough for us to win. But Correll and Lugg are fucking terrible, so we couldn't get anything going offensively. You just can't beat elite teams with the sort of half-ass recruiting that Kelly saddled us with. Freeman at least seems to understand that and should have things turned around sooner than later.
That's fair. Dale mentioned it earlier in another thread, but that's the first time we've looked like we belonged on the same field with one of the Big Three in decades. People are mad not primarily due to the loss (we're all too familiar with that feeling), but because we could have won that game . That's a better place to be, but the pain is more acute.
It's an OL issue. Period.
- My first point was referencing after they fell behind, not before.
We scored enough to win that game comfortably. Sure, it would have helped to have a couple long clock-eating drives in the 2nd half so our defense could rest. But Kyren chose to sit out the game, and we didn't have the OL to control the LOS.
Completely agree. Tommy is pretty far down the list for me. But it’s his thread and I’m just playing devils advocate I suppose.
There will be growing pains this year. Too many youth having to start, all from Tommy's first and probably second classes once we see Merriweather. I expect Harry will clean up the miscommunication issues on the OL, but until Patterson is healthy and/or Lugg/Correll are either replaced or step up we'll see some physicality issues in the interior. Lesser teams shouldn't give us too many problems. This was always going to be a rebuilding year. '23 or '24 we should have the talent and depth to be firing on all cylinders. Until then, if we can manage another 10+ win season it would be impressive given the holes on offense and youth.
