Expectations

[funman]

When OSU gets back on the plus side of the turnover battle, the Bucks will get back to the win column.

 

[JXC]

Well they forced 3 fumbles last Saturday and recovered all 3...too bad the refs blew all 3. Only if we had instant replay...oh wait.

 

[AKAK]

Was there anyone on here that thought that we would miss players like Adrien Clarke?

NO... and I don't know that I miss Adrien. Stepanovich? Sure.

I have posted thison other threads, and some other people have mentioned it too... that as much as the Cupboard wasn't bare when Cooper left.. there was recruiting issue at OL at that moment in time. The guys who were there were pretty much already plaing or very close in '01 and '02 and there wasn't anyone behind them... Then the 'tweener' class (the Cooper fired, Tressel Hired Class) didn't have any OL talent in it... which... is no one's particular fault... and Tressel did address the issue in the next class.... (What 5 guys? Mangold, Sims, Downing, Datish, and now Shafer..6 if you count RJ Coleman I guess) and I think 4 of those were starting at the beginning of the season... ) but OL maybe develop's a bit slower than other positions... thus we have what? Zero? 4th and 5th year recruited players on the O-line... Barton is already playing... Hopefully Person, Rehring and Skinner develop quickly... and well at least one of the new Freshman might be ready made contributors.

 

[Carmen Ohio]

My 'expectations' now.. for the team... is to show marked improvement between now and a hopefully a reasonably good bowl game. On one hand, I'd like to see us win most of our remainingg games... on the other hand... if we lost a couple close games to good teams and blew a couple teams away, just to show that we can... So if I see a good team out there January 1st (or whatever day) I'm going to feel a lot better about having gone through this whole learning process. The one thing that we do NEED to do is make sure we're bowl eligible, because the practice time is crucial. Also, beating Michigan would of course, be very nice.

Anyway... I was thinking.. QB controversy aside... it may serve us very well in the long run to have had Zwick go through these rough times. [Edit-] the reason is that, with the running game situation as it is... we'll ahve an opportunity to see what Zwick can do other than Manage the Offense (ala Krenzel) but that'll take time to learn too... not just a game or two... but it seems we'll have time to experiment.

... and I think this is all we can resaonably expect this season. I'd love for this team to "figure everything out" this week and rip the rest of the teams on our schedule.. but there is something very wrong that needs to be fixed and it's probably a mix of everything - youth, inexperience, coaching and not enough talent to negate those factors. At least false expectations are off the list... at least off MY list.