Ohio State Buckeye Monday: Fiesta Bowl Preview

Buckeyes invade Phoenix...Part IV.

Is it still bowl season? Is there a game tonight? I almost forgot. This has been the most forgettable bowl season I can ever remember. I was trying to avoid spending any time doing any in-depth analysis for this game, but just when I thought I was out…..Big House Bob pulled me back in.

Going into the BCS games, I was pretty comfortable that there were five teams that could legitimately claim a spot in the BCS title game on Thursday: Texas, Alabama, USC, Oklahoma, and Florida.

Those 5 teams were head and shoulders above the next five teams in the rankings. Alabama’s poor showing in the Sugar Bowl whittled that number down to four. I don’t think any of these teams would be too eager to take on the Trojans with the BCS title at stake. The system is flawed, we all know that, so I won’t get into who should be playing who.

Tonight’s game will be Ohio State’s fifth trip to the Phoenix area in the past seven years. While it’s still exciting for some, I’m a little down on the game...for three reasons.

1) See the above listing of schools. Ohio State is not even close to making that list. I think they are appropriately ranked at No. 10 in the polls. However, the gap between 1-4 and 5-10 is huge.

2) Ohio State’s performances in its last two BCS games have been disappointing on many levels. The Buckeyes were overconfident and outcoached against Florida. They were underconfident and outcoached against LSU. What combination can we hope for tonight?

A clue might be Tressel’s decision to hold Pryor out of media day. I think that was a mistake. His rationale was that TP would be better served spending time in meetings and watching film. I think that’s crazy. He is the leader of the team. He needs to be put in situations on and off the field that demonstrate the coach’s confidence in him.

Shielding him from the media just puts more pressure on him. Watching the Rose Bowl last week, I was so envious of the environment that Pete Carroll has fostered at USC. His players have soooo much fun playing the game. They just play. Their talent level just takes over games. Tressel, on the other hand, creates an entirely different atmosphere. Our players are tight because Tressel is tight. You can’t just change that approach over night and expect different/better results. This leads me to my last reason.

3) Coaching!!! I have been totally disappointed in the job the coaches have done this year. Yes, the defense has been solid, but the calls have been far too conservative in nature for my liking.

I am tired of 2-deep zones and limited blitz packages. Tonight is the night to lock Jenkins up man-to-man on Quan Cosby and send blitzes at McCoy from all over the field. The same can be said for the offense. Yes, Pryor lead the Big Ten in passing efficiency, but heck, that’s not hard to do when you only throw 15 times per game.

The lack of imagination in the passing game should be attributed to Bollman and the play of his O-Line. With four returning starters, I expected more from this group. I said it before and I’ll say it again, Bollman needs to be shown the door.

How will it go?

Not well. Beanie will get 25-30 carries in his last game as a Buckeye. I think he will pick up lots of yards between the 20s but will not see the end zone. We’ve already heard about special plays with Boekman and Pryor in the same formation. Why we heard about it before the game is beyond me. I like the idea, but it needs to be pretty special to work against the Texas defense.

I think we keep it close in the first half. Our defense can hang with their offense. Say, 17-10. We won’t have any answers for the McCoy-to-Shipley connection in the second half, and the final score will be 31-13.

Such is life……

Go Bucks!!!!

Buckeye John