1. First, let me say that the outcome of the game itself should have very little impact on recruiting. Recruits don't look at the games the same way as fans do, because recruits are not fans (or, at least, they are not only fans). Choosing a college is a business decision for recruits, and the smart ones are not going to let the result of any given game sway their decisions. Now with that being said, what happens after the loss could affect recruits. For example, how do the players and coaches react to the loss? Are they fighting, pointing fingers, throwing each other under the bus? On the other end of the spectrum, are too nonchalant about the loss, or are they only concerned with their personal stats, indicating that they aren't really concerned about the success of the team? A recruit can learn a lot more about a team after a tough loss against a top-5 opponent than a blow-out win over a directional school.
2. After last year's loss to Clemson, I said:
At this point, it's quite clear that the firing of Tim Beck, while possibly warranted, was simply a symbolic move. Beck was part of the problem last year. But now Beck is gone, so why does the offense still look out of sorts? Kevin Wilson is supposed to be an offensive genius, yet his version of the Urban Meyer offense looks no different from Beck's. What is the common denominator?
3. Most people have a ready-made response to that last question: J.T. Barrett. Since leading the Buckeyes to a play-off berth in 2014 as a freshman, Barrett has not been the same player. At the end of the 2014 regular season, Barrett suffered an ankle injury that kept him from participating in post-season action. As we all remember, Barrett's replacement came in and led the team to a national championship, and based on that championship run, earned the starting job over Barrett to begin the 2015 season. Again, after the Clemson loss, I said:
At this point, I'm going to opt for #5: Barrett just isn't very good. He's tough and gritty with good leadership skills, but he lacks the physical tools necessary to play the position. And judging from his happy feet, indecision, late throws, and inability to hit a moving target there is something broken inside. Barrett has apparently lost confidence in his own game, and when that happens to a player he needs to be benched.
4. Barrett is part of the problem, but I feel that there is an equally good answer to the aforementioned question: Urban Meyer. In my opinion, Urban Meyer's offense is stale. We've seen the same plays over the years with very few new wrinkles. Oklahoma's offense looked dynamic, with all sorts of play action and misdirection that constantly confused the Buckeye defense and created endless mismatches in the secondary. For example, the Sooners' 250-pound fullback, Dimitri Flowers, had 7 receptions for 98 yards and a touchdown. Flowers was running free in the secondary all game long, beating linebackers in single coverage, and the Buckeye defense had no answer for him. Do you think the Buckeye offense could ever be so creative and force similar mismatches? Or is Dimitri Flowers simply a special talent, the likes of which does not exist on the current Ohio State roster? I think we all know the answer to that question.
5. There are two main problems with the Urban Meyer spread offense. First, if you don't have wide receivers who can beat single coverage, the safeties can jam the box and stuff the inside running game. The Buckeye wide receivers have not shown the ability to get open consistently. Now, there are ways around this problem, namely incorporating tight ends and running backs into the passing game in order to keep the safeties and linebackers honest. Of course, Ohio State doesn't do that, and they haven't consistently done that for years, which means that teams can cheat to stop the run and not have to worry about getting beaten by constraint plays that seem not to exist in the Urban Meyer playbook.
6. The other primary problem with the Urban Meyer spread offense is that it relies on quarterback runs. Perhaps the best example of the Urban Meyer spread offense hitting on all cylinders was the 2015 Michigan game, which Ohio State won 42 to 13. In that game, the Buckeyes rushed 54 times for 369 yards (6.8 average) and 5 touchdowns; but passed only 15 times (9 completions) for 113 yards and a touchdown. Even though Ezekiel Elliott was the Buckeyes' leading rusher (30 carries, 214 yards, 2 TDs), Barrett was the key to the ground game. His "keepers" in the option game (19 carries, 139 yards, 3 TDs) were essentially the constraint plays necessary to keep the Michigan defense from keying on Zeke. Barrett lacks elite physical skills in the ground game, but that has always been the case. Barrett has great ball control on the option, and he is a shifty and sneaky fast runner when he keeps the ball. I have no problem with the Buckeyes going back to a heavy option attack and ditching their attempts at a "pro style" passing game, but they have to do it the right way. And the right way would involve Barrett running a lot of true option and ditching the half-assed attempts at grafting a "pro style" passing attack on top of an option offense. After establishing the option running game, mix in a few passing plays that work well with the option attack - some play action would be a good start, as would quick throws to tight ends over the middle.
7. In football, you don't want your quarterback to get hit. When quarterbacks get hit, they begin to break down both physically and mentally - they become a step slow, they lose a little zip on their passes, their decisions become less instinctive. If a quarterback gets hit enough times during a game, he will be a shell of himself by the end of that game even if he is not visibly injured.
The entire NFL game revolves around hitting the quarterback. Defensive linemen get paid millions of dollars to hit the quarterback, and offensive linemen get paid millions of dollars to protect quarterbacks from getting hit. Defensive coordinators spend countless hours designing schemes to hit the quarterback, and offensive coordinators spend countless hours designing schemes to prevent the quarterback from being hit. When a team hits the quarterback, it tends to win. When a team lets it quarterback get hit, it tends to lose.
The entire Urban Meyer offense revolves around the quarterback getting hit. That's what the spread option attack is all about - the quarterback taking repeated hits in the running game to open up the rest of the option attack. It doesn't matter that those hits are on 10-yard runs as opposed to 10-yard sacks - they still hurt just as much and they still take the same toll over the course of a game. When we wonder why Barrett has happy feet, or is slow in his reads, or has no confidence in his throws, maybe it's because he has been hit too much in the option running game. And when we wonder why the running attack is no longer vibrant, maybe it's because Barrett (or the coaching staff) isn't as willing to sacrifice his body and is trying to transform his game into more of a pro-style passer.
8. The other "right way" to cure the problems with this offense would be to scrap the Urban Meyer spread altogether. Oklahoma's Baker Mayfield is a mobile quarterback, and he was very effective in the pocket with play action and misdirection, but he ran the ball only five times last night. Add in a couple of sacks, and Mayfield was hit only seven times all game. On the other hand, Barrett was hit 18 times (15 runs, 3 sacks), or two-and-a-half times more than Mayfield. Is it any wonder that Mayfield looked fresh and sharp in the 3rd and 4th quarters, and that Barrett looked shot and spent?
9. The offense will get a lot of blame for this loss, but the defense repeatedly fell for the Sooners' play action and misdirection. The defensive line failed to contain, and the linebackers and defensive backs, when they weren't completely lost in coverage, were beaten by a receiving corps which was not highly regarded.
10. The Buckeye defense used to be where Heisman hopes came to die. Now Baker Mayfield has catapulted himself into Heisman contention based on his shredding (386 yards, 3 TDs) of this version of the Buckeye defense.
11. Drue Chrisman is a good punter. Which is fortunate, because unfortunately this team needs a good punter right now.
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