All due respect Medina- but I don’t know where your getting your confidence from. I’m not saying that you may not turn out to be correct, I’m just curious as hell how you’re there already.
The Buckeyes we’re horrible last season on 3rd down conversions on BOTH sides of the ball.
on defense the issue was pretty obvious and that is because they ran the same exact formation on virtually every third down it was super easy for good teams like Oregon and Michigan to manipulate them, and outmanned them at the point of attack on running plays, or no well ahead of time before the snap where the openings were for a quick pass place success.
so enter the new defensive coordinator who has a reputation for doing extremely well at disguising the defense and running multiple different defenses from the same look. Yes I think eventually that should improve it but I’m not buying it until I actually see it in production.
Defense:
Some of this for me is simply lingering frustration but can you honestly say that you think there is more than a trivial chance that the defense will actually be worse than last year?
It is easy to forget this but it shows how insanely spoiled we are that we are coming off of an 11-2 Rose Bowl Championship season and Buckeye fans are near-unanimously disappointed with that.
My point here is to remember that our Buckeyes went 11-2 with a flat awful defense last year. I'd love to see a top-5 defense this year but they won't need that to beat Notre Dame. A merely competent defense last year would have put the Buckeyes in the CFP at 13-0 and Michigan will probably take a step back due to turnover so basic competence on defense would probably get the Buckeyes to the CFP this year as well.
On offense, Ohio State was incredibly predictable. I’ve been watching a lot of film study and it’s actually kind of sad. In the pistol formation they didn’t throw a single pass so the other team knew it was a run. Just look at the Michigan in Oregon games and all the critical third downs where it was third and two or third and one, and the buckeyes got stuffed. And it wasn’t just those two games, Penn State in Nebraska and other teams as well
so enter Justin Fry, new office of line coach who has a reputation of creative blocking schemes and physicality on the office of line. Also this season we’re going to have two guards and two tackles as opposed to four tackles, so I do expect improvement there as well but I won’t believe it until I see it on the field.
Offense:
The Rose Bowl showed (I hope/think) that the Buckeyes were so ludicrously loaded at WR that they can actually afford their losses and still probably have the best WR corps in this side of the NFL. The line (per your post) *SHOULD* be better at run-blocking, and the returning starters at QB and RB should be at least as good as they were last year. I certainly could be wrong but I think that all adds up to an offense that will actually be better than last year's best-in-the-country* unit.
*On that "best-in-the-country" thing, statistically they were. However, their inability to run in short yardage situations was a glaring weakness. I think that this year's offense will be improved there (both due to the line and due to the RB) but that might actually detract from their statistical success overall such that I expect the 2022 offense to be functionally better but statistically worse than the 2021 offense.
The Buckeyes we’re horrible last season on 3rd down conversions on BOTH sides of the ball.
There was a point during THE GAME last year when the Buckeyes faced a VERY long 2nd down. IIRC it was 2nd at 25. As longtime Ohio State fans you and I both know that for most of our years of watching Ohio State a 2nd and 25 was an opportunity to go get some food or a frosty beverage because Bruce/Cooper/Tressel was going to minimize the damage and punt.
I looked at my brother and said "Ya know, they'll probably pick this up and it doesn't matter because we can't stop them."
They did pick it up and they scored a TD on the drive and it didn't matter because after that the rules stipulated that our guts had to kick the ball back to the guys in blue and yellow and we couldn't stop them.
Your point about 3rd downs is VERY important. If the Buckeyes needed to convert a 2nd and 25 or a 3rd and 15 and I were given the choice of any tOSU offense I can remember to do it, I'd pick 2021. However, if they needed to convert a 3rd and 2 or 4th and 1 and I were given the same choice the 2021 offense wouldn't be anywhere bear the top of my list.
Of course I could be wrong but I think that the defense will be better in part simply because it would be difficult to be worse and I think that the offense will be better because the line should be better (at least at run-blocking) and the RB gas a year under his belt.
