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Hoping this will be the year it REALLY starts to come together. I feel like he's finally starting to get OL pieces in place and a few of them are in that RS So or true Jr age range where they are ready to take the field.

Now... If he stops playing QB roulette behind them, and get an RB, and the defense sheds all signs of its Diaco infestation... We might not suck?

my feelings about Frost almost exactly

Luke McCaffrey is young and fleet of foot, so you toss him in and ruin his confidence.

My "model", which is hard to do in college, is start with the OL.  Build an offense that gives your defense some rest.  Grind away at the opposing defense.  

Couldn't Purdue just task their Engineering Dept to design some OL cyborgs?

They built some brace for Isaac Haas' elbow, but not quick enough to avoid the stupid hook and hold rule from happening

Yeah that does look pretty good. I seem to remember the 2010's future schedules looking similar going in, but then a lot of it never happened. There was a cancelled series or two (with Georgia or Tennessee?), and then the TCU H-A series got restructured into a neutral site one off.

I can also buy that Miami and Virginia Tech were expected to be good when the games were scheduled, but Cal? They have always been awful aside from a brief window where they had Aaron Rogers, and even if that was when the game got scheduled I'm not sure that was enough data to project them as being any kind of a good team ten years down the line.

Just spit balling here, you are right. They haven't given up on the OOC Mega-bout yet.

Continuing the spit-balling, I'm happy with what they are doing.  An article I stumbled into when getting the future schedules noted that 2019 was a "scheduling quirk" and 2020's marquee matchup was nixed due to COVID.  You referenced 2019 when Cincinnati was tOSU's best OOC game (FAU, Miami, OH, Cincy).  2020 was supposed to be Oregon and that definitely counts as "marquee" considering that they won the PAC in 2020 and have been to the CFP.  

Prior years OOC:
2018:

• OrSU
• TCU - "neutral" site in Dallas
• Tulane
• I'll concede that neither TCU nor OrSU are truly "marquee" but having them both in the same year kinda adds up to a single "marquee" game, no?

2017:

• Oklahoma
• Army
• UNLV
• OU is definitely marquee

2016:

• BGSU
• Tulsa
• @ Oklahahoma
• OU is definitely marquee

2015:

• @ VaTech
• Hawaii
• No. IL
• WMU
• VaTech counts or at least they counted when scheduled

2014:

• Navy
• VaTech
• Kent
• Cincy
• VaTech counts, see 2015

2013:

• Buffalo
• SDSU
• @ Cal
• Fla A&M
• I'll give the AD a pass on Cal because I think that was scheduled right around the time they were looking pretty decent.  

2012:

• Miami, OH
• UCF
• Cal
• See Cal above

2011:

• Akron
• Toledo
• @ Miami, FL
• Colorado
• Miami is definitely marquee and Colorado can be

2010:

• Marshall
• Miami, FL
• Ohio U
• EMU
• Miami is marquee

2009:

• Navy
• USC
• Toledo
• NMST
• USC is definitely marquee

2008:

• YSU
• Ohio U
• USC
• Troy
• USC is definitely marquee

2007:

• YSU
• Akron
• Washington
• Kent
• Washington sucked that year (4-9) but they are usually a good program and it was obviously scheduled well in advance.  

2006:

• No. Ill
• @ Texas
• Cincy
• BGSU
• Texas is marquee

2005:

• Miami, FL
• Texas
• SDSU
• Texas is marquee

2004:

• Cincy
• Marshall
• NCST
• Eh, this one is pretty weak.  NCST was sub .500 while Marshall and Cincy weren't much better.  

2003:

• Washington
• SDSU
• NCST
• BGSU
• Washington was supposed to be the marquee match-up but they were mediocre that year.  NCST was not much better.  Still, two middling P5's isn't THAT bad.  

2002:

• TxTech
• Kent
• Washington St
• Cincy - "neutral" site in Cincy
• SJSU
• TxTech was decent (Pirate was there then) and WSU won the PAC so that counts I think.  

2001:

• Akron
• @ UCLA
• SDSU
• UCLA is a big name even if they weren't great that year.  

2000:

• Fresno
• Zona
• Miami, OH
• This was in the era when Fresno was one of the premier non-BCS schools in the nation and Zona is P5.  This isn't terrible.  

1999:

• Miami, FL - neutral site in Jersey
• UCLA
• Ohio U
• Cincy
• Maimi is marquee

1998:

• @ WVU
• Toledo
• Mizzou
• WVU and Mizzou both went 8-4 so neither was great but that is still two BCS schools, this was a quality OOC.  

1997:

• Wyoming
• BGSU
• Zona
• @ Mizzou
• Zona and Mizzou both went 7-5 so neither was great but that is still two BCS schools, this was a quality OOC.  

1996:

• Rice
• Pitt
• @ Notre Dame
• ND is marquee

1995:

• BC
• Washington
• Pitt
• Notre Dame
• This was a monster schedule on paper that kinda faded.  BC ended up sub .500 but they were generally at least decent in that era.  Washington went 7-4-1 but they are a traditional PAC contender.  Pitt was horrible that year (2-9) but they are usually better.  Notre Dame was decent at 9-3.  

1994:

• Fresno
• @ Washington
• Pitt
• Houston
• Washington should usually be at least close to a marquee match

1993:

• Rice
• Washington
• @ Pitt
• Washington should usually be at least close to a marquee match

1992:

• Louisville
• BGSU
• Cuse
• Today Louisville would be the marquee game in that slate but back then it was Cuse and they backed it up going 10-2.  

1991:

• Zona
• Louisville
• WSU
• This ended up being two bad PAC teams as both Zona and WSU finished 4-7 but that is still two major conference opponents.  

1990:

• TxTech
• @ BC
• USC
• USC is a marquee game and all three of these were in major conferences (B12, B-East, PAC)

1989:

• OkSU
• @ USC
• BC
• USC is marquee

1988:

• Cuse
• @ Pitt
• LSU
• This was a strong OOC at the time.  

1987:

• WVU
• Oregon
• @ LSU
• This was a great OOC.  LSU was 1/2 game from winning the SEC while WVU and Oregon were both major conference middlings.  

1986:

• Bama - neutral site in Jersey
• @ Washington
• Colorado
• Utah
• This was a great OOC but the Buckeyes suffered for it.  They lost to Bama in Jersey then got whipped by Washington in Seattle.  Then they won nine straight before losing to Michigan.  They finished as co-champions with M but lost the H2H tiebreaker and beat aTm in the Cotton Bowl to finish 10-3 because Earle lost exactly three games each year from 1980-1986.  

1985:

• Pitt
• @ Colorado
• WSU
• This ended up being pretty weak but on paper Pitt, Colorado, and Washington St should have been a good OOC.  

1984:

• OrSU
• WSU
• This was during the era when the Big Ten was playing a full round-robin of nine games and only 11 were allowed so the Buckeyes only had two OOC games.  Both the Beavers and the Cougars sucked that year but at least they were power conference teams.  

My point here is that the idea of having a "marquee" OOC game significantly pre-dates Jim Tressel's arrival in Columbus.  In my earlier post I listed OOC games out through 2033.  Above I listed past OOC games back to 1984.  Put together that is a 50 year stretch of tOSU's OOC schedules and nearly every year includes what either was or was intended to be a "marquee" opponent.  

Also, I stopped at 1984 because I thought that 50 years was plenty not because they didn't play marquee OOC games before that.  On the contrary they played Oklahoma in 1983, FSU in 1981/2, three major conference schools each in 1979/80, Penn State in 1978, etc.  

And we're still waiting on the NCAA eligibility waiver for the cyborgs...

...not to mention the occasional times where they go on murderous rampages trying to kill all humans to take over the world.

'tis a minor bug.

I mean Nebraska won a national title with Lawrence Phillips, so you just need to learn how to harness it

FWIW:
Brutus, if I were scheduling for tOSU I would generally prioritize the "helmet" schools that tOSU has:

• Played the fewest number of times, or
• Played the least recently, or
• Has the worst record against

From Stewart Mandel's old Kings/Barons/Knights/Peasants
Stewart Mandel's old Kings/Barons/Knights/Peasants here are all of the non-B1G Kings and Barons with tOSU's record against them, most recent games, future scheduled games, and my "priority" for scheduling them:


There are six Kings and Barons that tOSU has neither hosted nor visited.  They are my top four scheduling priorities along with UGA and Bama which are both on future schedules (2030/1 and 2027/8 respectively).  Then there are two more that Ohio State has hosted but not visited and they are my next two scheduling priorities (FSU, aTm).  After that my priority list is just a slightly modified list in order of how long it has been since the Buckeyes played them.