Best statistically, sure. Best in terms of throwing the ball accurately and on time? Probably not.
im assuming you missed the entire 2014 season... either that or you significantly underestimate the impact tom herman had on the offense.
How do we judge him if he doesn't win a B1G championship this year? Suppose he sets a bunch of school records but never actually himself wins a title? (Or tiger, as my spell check suggested.)
if he leaves his senior season having been responsible for more td's than anyone in b1g history, which seems rather likely to happen atm...... im going to go out on a limb and say less than sucky..? if he plays anywhere close to where he did his redshirt freshman year? i judge him as being on the short list for best qb in the history of tOSU. he's not on that list without a 2014 season-esque year mind you. but thus far the kid is a winner. period. anyone who doesn't see that in his play, i strongly question their football knowledge. he has had 2 years work against him pretty significantly in things he had very little if any control over.
1. 2 offensive coordinators that were likely promoted beyond their ability. thats not a bad thing. they deserved the benefit of the doubt and the promotions at the time. unfortunately i don't think they had the experience or imagination at the time for the job at hand. it happens sometimes and is unfortunate. i don't think people realize how significant this was. i am 100% certain no doubt what so ever that it cost us a nc in 2015. take a look at that 2015 offense and tell me that with tom herman as the oc we don't win a second straight nc. i wanna hear anyone who watched the 2015 offense say that offense could/should have been shut down by any d in the nation that year with herman calling the plays. there is a reason why the saying, "never be the man who follows the man" exists. tom herman was
the man *shrug*.
2. we haven't had a true deep threat at wr since devin smith. we need one, we don't have one yet. it doesn't matter how good or bad or indifferent your timing is. if you don't have anyone who can catch the deep ball joe montana is going to look like a scrub.
3. last year our oline got beat up by teams with really good dlines. thats not a dis on the kids in anyway. i think they all did an amazing job considering their ages. you shouldn't start on the oline as a true freshman at the college level. not ever. the footwork on the young guys is solid and the talent is clearly there. but the upper body strength for a couple of them just wasn't where it needed to be for this level of play. unless your name is orlando pace, thats asking way too much of a kid months removed from their high school prom. you can't pass if your flat on your back. and that happened a crap ton towards the end of the year. go look up the hurries, hits and sack stats per game for last year.
4. young and inexperienced receivers. i saw a lot of good routes ran last year. but outside of 1 or 2 route runners i didn't see anyone do anything after they finished their route. once their route was over i saw a whole lot of standing around not sure what to do next. especially when the qb broke the pocket trying to buy time. again, this is something you regularly see with young/inexperienced wr's. i have a lot of faith in the wr position, the talent is very clearly there. they just need more experience.
at the end of the day this is college football, not the nfl. you don't get to sign guys to 10 year contracts. nobody is getting a "franchise" tag. you get maybe 3 years out of an elite talent at most positions. imo we have missed on some recruits, we have had injuries at the wrong positions at the worst possible times that hurt development, we have had mistakes on the coaching staff both in choosing starters and coaching changes. all of that is just college football. these kinds of things happen to all teams. sometimes as a player your 3 maybe 4 years line up with the stars and you win multiple conference and or nc's. sometimes you go your entire career being the best guy in your conference and never win a championship. hell, the 2014 class was literally 1 loss to wisky away from going their entire career without winning any form of championship at all. i honestly think people forget that fact. go back and look at those names for a second and imagine them having never succeeded on that level. going into that game with wisky... that was a very loose-able game. we had an unknown at qb and wisky had a heisman contender at tb to go along with a very good defense. i don't remember if we were underdogs, but i know wisky was a popular pick.
how would you personally judge zeke or bosa if we loose to wisky and 2015 goes the way 2015 went? neither would have won a conference or nc either in their careers in that scenario. would you view them less so than you do now? while i personally wouldn't, i suspect a lot of people would.
