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February 13, 2009The Week That Was at WFNY
February 13, 2009
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If you know of anyone getting married on September 12th of this year, feel free to toss those “Save the Date” cards right out the window.
ESPN has issued their list of of broadcasts for the 2009 college football season. And to no one’s surprise, the rematch between Ohio State and the University of Southern California made the slate.
With OSU’s relative inability to win games against out of conference opponents, you can surely bet that this game will get plenty of coverage. I would also anticipate the College Gameday crew being in Columbus for this one.
Given that USC is returning a number of key starters and Ohio State will be relatively different, what are the early thoughts on this one?
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h/t: CFT
15 Comments
Too early to make any real prediction. Sanchez is gone, so USC will hvae an unproven QB. Pryor will have a year under his belt. Even with the losses on defense, OSU should still be pretty stout. How will USC’s defense be with 3 new LB’s? Probably pretty good anyway, but they’ll be lacking for experience. I doubt the game will be a blowout again, but other than that it’s too difficult to predict much else.
Mark May’s head just exploded. He cannot contain himself with glee.
So, USC loses it’s QB but returns most of it’s other prominent offensive starters. There entire defense will have to be rebuilt (though it would have been nice if Taylor Mays went pro…I’m afraid of what he might do to those Pryor moonshot passes downfield).
OSU returns the offense minus the WRs and LT (which both might be addition by subtraction). But, all the leaders on defense are gone.
I suspect USC will try to focus on their running game again…so our DL and LBs better do a better job of filling the gaps this year.
We could try to spread things out much more with Pryor and put in some gadget plays for our newest favorite player (thank you for choosing the Bucks Mr. Carter).
i like my presidents to be conservative, not my football coaches. ohio state will lose again..get an offensive coordinator please
Jim Bollman isn’t an OC?
And we were not conservative when we had Troy Smith with Holmes and Gonzalez…
Personally, I think our gameplanning the past couple years has been restricted because our WRs and OL have underachieved. We finally get a fresh start with both this year and hopefully it pays dividends. I’m looking forward to it.
mgbode – good analysis.
I do like the fact that both lines should be solid. Figure a solid year of growth under the belts of Brewster, Gibson et al.
New LBs, save Ross Homan. Can Dorian Bell step right in as a starter? If this group can peform, theres no way we should lose on the defensive side of the trenches.
/fingers crossed
Gonna be ugly
Prior just needs to get rid of the ball. The offense last year stinking was just as much on Prior as it was anything else. This was to be expected though from a freshman.
@mgbode – I don’t know if this group of receivers is quite Gonzo/Holmes/Ginn but having Pryor in the mix hopefully will help open up the offense a bit.
My favorite play call of the Smith era was the quick-snap big set against Michigan with Ginn at TE. Probably the ONLY quick snap I’ve ever seen from a Tressel offense, even when questionable (see: booth reviewable) plays happen. Need to learn the importance of not having plays overtuned.
That play was so unbelievable I’m getting pumped just thinking about it. I think I’ll have to pull that video up and watch it again.
we can hope that this group will match the Gonzo/Holmes/Ginn era, but that is an incredibly lofty goal for any team in the country to reach from their WR corps.
that quick-snap play was fantastic. I also liked the spread quick-slants to Gonzo that we killed their defense with that game (same play we lost to Texas on actually)
I’d like to see Pryor work on his footwork for the quick-throws more than anything else. If he can read blitzes and hit his dump-offs (too often missed them), then he could carry this team.
I have a lot invested in next year’s game (my wife and her family are from SoCal and are USC fans), so I’m really hoping we can pull this one off.
“Prior just needs to get rid of the ball. The offense last year stinking was just as much on Prior as it was anything else.”
Well it wasn’t exactly humming against Ohio U with TB behind center. I think there are a number of reasons why OSU’s offense has been lacking. And it’s true that we weren’t conservative three years ago, but then again, how is an offense with the Troy Smith/Holmes/Ginn/Pittman and Wells as a frosh not one of the top 10 in the country. That’s inexplicable. This team’s offense has always underperformed. Love Tress, but dude needs an offensive coordinator.
Every year USC comes in running up and down the field with their offense from day one. We don’t click till week 5 or worse. That’s a problem.
One day I will get his last name right too. P R Y O R.
I know it’s a slow sports month so the posts are limited, but here’s a little fun if anyone is interested. Hypothetical 2-2 matchup, James and Z vs. Lewis and Howard of the magic. voting is tied at 50%, throw some votes on your Cavs.
Vote Here
Nice link Chris – can’t believe how much Z looks like Wallace from Wallace and Grommit in that picture. Scary.
OSU lost last years game due to poor play on both the O-line and the D-line. The LB’s couldnt make plays becuase the D-line was pushed back into them. The O-line played so poorly that the Big ten MVP from the previous season lost his job. Both these units will be different. The O-line looks incredible…. Adams, Boren , Brewster, Browning, and Cordle will start left to right. The D-lne will be improved too, Gibson and Nathan Williams look like a GREAT set of bookends to put some pressure on the QB. Heyward moves to his natural postion at DT with an improved Worthington next to him shouldput a stop to what happened last year. BTW Sabino will make us all forget about Lil Animal!