Difficult Times for Buckeye Nation: 3-3 and Not Happy About It

When one talks about celebrated college football programs the Ohio State Buckeyes are always in that conversation. You cannot ignore the historical success of the program. When loyal Buckeye fans see our teams struggle on the field it is a bitter pill to swallow. Sure! We are "cry-babies". Yes, we whine! We are not accustomed to seeing ourselves at .500 six games into the season. 

We are truly spoiled. Every year we expect to be in a BCS game and quite possibly playing for that crystal football in the National Championship game. That is what Buckeye fans expect.

I have followed college football for a very long time. I have followed Buckeye football all my life. In my lifetime the Buckeyes of Ohio State have only had three losing seasons.  Compare that to Alabama with eight, Texas with eight, Florida with five, Michigan with eight, Notre Dame with nine, USC with seven, and Miami with ten. Oh.........by the way, I'm 57 years old. Since 1954 "The" Ohio State University has only had three losing seasons. Yes, the Buckeye nation is complaining and rightfully so.

We have enjoyed one of the most fertile recruiting bases in all of college football. Ohio is rich with talent as well as neighboring states, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York (a.k.a. Paul Warfield, Troy Smith, Pete Johnson, Archie Griffin, Eddie George, Mike Vrabel, Antoine Winfield, Jack Tatum, John Brockington, John Hicks, Orlando Pace, Terrelle Pryor   etc).  We are also able to pull major recruits from Florida, Georgia, and Texas (a.k.a. Chris Gamble, Santonio Holmes, Cameron Heyward, J.B. Shugarts, etc).

What young man would not want the opportunity to play for the Buckeyes? Even with suspensions and NCAA sanctions, our cupboard is not (and should not) be bare.

Our glaring deficiency is our coaching. We still have the athletes. We have the "horses". They are young and inexperienced but the biggest problem is COACHING or lack of there of.

No one on the OSU coaching staff is hotly sought after for a head coaching position at another major program. Does that not speak volumes? No one has an interest in these guys.....especially on the offensive side of the ball. They are inept at best. The offensive playbook apparently was contrived on Neanderthal slabs of slate and granite.

The offensive coordinator and the quarterback coach are holdovers from the Tressel era and I'm beginning to see how masterful a coach Tressel truly was. How did he enjoy the success he did while at the helm? He enjoyed the great success he had because of superior athletes on the field. That is the only reason. It certainly was not because of masterful tutelage and instruction. Terrelle Pryor allowed us to be competitive every game he took the field. We no longer have that luxury. It will take time and development for Braxton Miller to get to that point.

What kind of decisions are the coaches making? We owned Nebraska the first three quarters.  Why would we panic when they staged their comeback? You are playing in Lincoln. You should know that they are going to make a run at us. When they tied the score why would you panic and totally abandon the run when you have been running at will on Nebraska's defense with your 240 pound running back, Carlos Hyde. You get a 2nd and six and you attempt to throw with a quarterback that should be quarterbacking in an industrial flag football league. Know your players and trust what they can do. 

I'm not seeing the practices but I still don't understand how Kenny Guyton has disappeared from view. His Spring game last season was exceptional. Has he fallen that far off? When you have an inept offense and we have been inept for some time under the offensive (and it is offensive) guidance of Jim Bollman you have to have superior athletes at the skill positions. As nice a kid as Joe Bauserman might be; he is not the kind of athlete the Buckeye offense needs. He is not a superior athlete. He's totally ineffective. Kenny Guyton will give us a much better chance to win if Braxton Miller cannot go.

Our season is in jeopardy. There is a great possibility we will not be in a post-season bowl game. We may quite possibly have the fourth losing season in my lifetime. That would not be good. Already, we have lost as many games as I predicted we would lose over the whole season.

The Buckeye Nation is very concerned with developments in Columbus. Fickell and Co. need to turn this thing around. He cannot afford to lose another game and keep the job on the banks of the Olentangy. He is as good as gone........and that is a shame. Two of the losses were quite winnable.  We should be 5-1 instead of 3-3.

We are restless and ready for change. The offense actually was looking like something in the first half against Nebraska. What happened? 

I don't know but it better not happen again.  GO BUCKS!