Tequilla's Ohio State Post Mortem Thoughts
Comments
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We have the players because we've seen them on the field playing football for parts of last 1/3 of the season now.
The most detrimental doog reasoning is that we don't have the stars. Our team composite talent in 2023 was 26th. In 2016 it was 24th. Does anyone here truly believe we were scrappy underdogs in talent especially after seeing both of those teams go to the NFL and play for years after?
Recruiting site give infinitely more information about these kids before they are on the field but the moment you have any tape at the college level that information because more and more useless. Not to mention the circle jerk of 3 star players that get offers from blue bloods that get bumped up to 4 stars because of the offer.
Nothing about that game indicated we didn't have the ponies and it's a complete distraction from the actual problems to say so. Probably 8ish starters from Sat get a sniff or more in the NFL.
All that being said I don't feel that negative about Jedds chances of figuring out the red zone. We're not talking about a stubborn old D first coach that can't adapt. LIPO but the talent on the team is not the problem.
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I think we already have the players to be an upper-middle or maybe lower-upper Big 10 team. Basically what Arizona was in 2023. That's not saying a ton though. One thing Ohio State feasted on for 25 years now is the other Big 10 programs being pretty pedestrian and almost always having dogshit at QB. Oregon is taking advantage of that now too.
The problem is we doog on our young guys, but remember Ohio State has them too. Jeremiah Smith is a second year player for example, and they have guys who are much more talented than our young guys who aren't even playing. It's why the we're building for next year shit doesn't work that well with catching these teams, then add now that those programs buy the best portal players on top of it now.
I could go over a lot of places where we didn't match up with dudes, but our pass rush going against their offense was the biggest one.
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I do think there were a handful of good things that showed in the game, and are reason for some optimism. But I also think some people here are delusional thinking of how competitive we were or like Fisch absurdly comparing it to an Oregon-Penn State heavyweight fight. How many times did a Don James team beat an opponent something like 24-6 and we'd hear the opposing coach talk about how close they were to beating Washington… but for anyone watching the game objectively, it was clear that UW was in control in the second half and played conservatively to stay in control, while relying on its defense and special teams. That was the case on Saturday. Ohio State took near complete control of the game following the hideous roughing the passer call, and it was pretty much over after that. I even said in the game thread at halftime that it now had the feel of a 31-6 game.
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It certainly wasn't devoid of things to be optimistic about. Conservative gameplan or not I was shocked how well the defense held up. I assumed their offense was just going to be able to gash runs at will, especially since their weapons at WR would make stacking the box and selling out the run really hard to do.
I'm not optimistic about how this means some Maryland RB who transferred in from University of Maryland Baltimore County next week is gonna go for 200+.
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Ohio State's possession's at the end of the first half and starting the second half were pretty clear indicators that our coaching is not great and there is absolutely a deficiency in talent. They could have scored another two touchdowns on UW in the second half if they needed or cared to.
I completely agree with Derek that the outcome of this game was never in doubt once tOSU took the lead (and probably before then for those of us who knew UW had to jump out early pray they could hold on late). The winning formula was not to go toe to toe for 60 minutes.
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Fisch didn't have much his 1st offseason besides bringing what he could from Arizona (both roster and recruits) …
I'm sure that the fact UW had 7 healthy OL for Spring 2024 was all on Fisch … right?
DeBoer's recruiting wasn't awesome … go look at the decommits in 2024 that left after the coaching change and it's a bunch of non difference makers to date.
I get it with the portal in that you can go throw around a bunch of money for a quick fix … but what about UW makes you think that we're going to outspend people with deeper pockets?
I know you hate patience but sometimes having some matters
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Nowhere have I said that UW doesn't have talent.
What I've said is that our talent isn't what Ohio State's is.
To win that game we needed a lot of things to go right for us … a lot did but not enough (some of that being self inflicted either through penalties or coaching decisions)
This team is good enough to have a chance to be a CFP team this year … I don't think they'd be a threat to win a National Championship but it's in the Top 15 to 20 range.
Penix, the WRs, and the OL masked a lot of gaps on the 2023 team that we were able to play through until Michigan dominated us on both sides of the LOS. Perhaps we beat Michigan with a coaching staff dialed into the game vs their ambition and a game plan that adjusted to what Michigan was taking away (they often dropped both safeties to the boundaries to take away the outside routes). But if you were there in person watching the game, the better team won the game.
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Indiana seems to be doing okay in year two of a complete rebuild. They must be spending more than UW.
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People that are bitching the most about Saturday to me are the ones that are probably over-inflating what this team is in terms of expectations. Top 15 for this team in Year 2 for Fisch would be really good given what he took over. It's really mind blowing to me that we have so many that don't recognize that.
We have a good amount of talent on this roster. There are still a bunch of JAGs on the roster though that get exposed when playing the likes of Ohio State.
It's not a "wait until next year" mindset as much as it is being that UW needs to continue stacking class upon class where we get good young players that are coming in, contributing and developing so that our floor is continuing to rise.
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Top 15 for this year is the expectation. Maybe even the minimum. We should be just on the outside looking in for Playoffs.
