College Football Rankings Week 4: 5 Reasons Ohio State Buckeyes Are Overrated

After the Ohio State Buckeyes suffered their first loss of the 2011 season at Miami, the people are realizing that they are not exactly the team people believed they were when the preseason rankings came out in late August.

So far this season, Ohio State had a solid 42-0 win in Week 1 but the clouds of doubt starting rumbling over Columbus when Toledo took the Buckeyes to the limit last week at home, eventually ending with the loss last night.

The Buckeyes are an overrated squad this season and the following slide show will show five reasons that are leading to the team not playing up to their potential in 2011.  

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Luke Fickell

Even though Fickell has been with the program since the 2002 season, the players still haven’t adjusted to the play calling since he took over the head coach position after Jim Tressel resigned from Ohio State in May.

Under Tressel, the Buckeyes had one of the most successful runs in the history of the Ohio State program in his 10 seasons in Columbus, so the fans are used to winning and the expectations were much too high, even with a team that had a good deal of talent left from the previous coach. 

Expectations

Like I said in the previous slide, the Buckeyes have a new coach in Columbus following one of the best to don the scarlet and gray and Ohio State fans are not use to the term “rebuilding,” as they expect the team to be a national title contender every season.

Passing Game

You can blame the lack of a passing game on the coaching staff, the players or maybe even the opposing defenses shutting down the Buckeye offense, but the passing needs to be improved before the Colorado game this coming weekend.

The Buckeyes’ passing game ranks all the way down at 96^th in the nation with only 172 yards a game, so the need of a stronger presence through the air will be needed if Ohio State wants to make the Big Ten title game.

Joe Bauserman

With the loss of Terrelle Pryor, the Buckeyes needed to depend on Joe Bauserman after losing the starting quarterback they thought would be under center after returning to the team after serving his NCAA suspension.

Bauserman doesn’t possess the athletic ability of Pryor, so the play-making ability of a pocket quarterback like Bauserman limits the big plays that Buckeye fans have been used to after the play of Pryor and Troy Smith in Columbus.

Early Easy Competition

The game against Toledo on September 10^th showed you that the preseason ranking of the Buckeyes was too high when the Rockets nearly upset Ohio State in Columbus a couple weeks ago.

Followed by the Hurricanes' loss last night in Miami, the Buckeyes will have a difficult road to contend with in the remainder of the 2011 season, with big games against Wisconsin at home and road tests at Nebraska and Michigan in the season finale.