Buckeye Outpost

Yup, you heard me Pryor should be the league MVP.  If they actually awarded that honor, I think everyone would agree that no one player is as valuable to his team as Pryor.  This was painfully evident last weekend when he left the game.  The entire offense came to a grinding halt.  The already nonexistent running attack was feeble (until the end of the game) and Bauserman left little doubt who the number one QB on the team is.  Even hobbled, Pryor was better then Bauserman.  That said, Pryor is not a Heisman trophy candidate by any stretch.  He is still far too rough to be considered the best player in college football.  I wouldn't even have him in the top 10.

There was a glimmer of hope when midway through the 4th quarter the offensive line and Heron started to take over the game.  He was gashing the Illini defense for 10 yard carries right down to the goal line.  The best part was that everyone in the stadium knew we were going to run it because Pryor could barely walk and they couldn't stop us.  Maybe, just maybe this is the wakeup call the Oline has needed or maybe Illinois was that bad.  We have one game and one game only to get this worked out before we hit Wisconsin, who is going to be pretty pumped since they lost to MSU.  On this note, it is time for me to make my yearly proclamation:  Fire Bollman, please.  This guy has got to be the worse Oline coach ever and he somehow stays on year after year and gets raises to boot.  All he has ever brought to this team is underachievement of what should be a very good Oline. 

We need to start being very concerned about our safeties.  The loss of Moeller is huge.  He already loss Barnett and now add Moeller to the list and we are thin and inexperienced at this position.  Look for teams to start exploiting this in the very near future.  If there is a weakness on this defense, it'll be in the middle of the field.

Not seeing much improvement on kick coverages.  This has almost bitten us in the past and looks like it'll bite us hard in the future.   You can't win championships, if you can't cover kicks and run the ball.

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Technorati Tags: 4th Quarter, Barnett, Best Player, Coach, College Football, Doubt, Glimmer Of Hope, Goal Line, Grinding Halt, Heisman Trophy Candidate, Heron, League Mvp, Moeller, Offensive Line, Oline, Qb, Running Attack, Safeties, Wakeup Call, Yup

Tags: Announcements by swjessen
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It really seems like last Fall when expectations were so high for the Buckeyes and everyone was convinced that Terrelle Pryor had progressed over the offseason to become that special player everyone thinks he is.  We thought that Tressel could work his magic like he did with Troy Smith and we'd all be toasting another Natty.  We quickly learned that Pryor had regressed and appeared robotic and clouded with too much thought in both the USC and Purdue games.  The national media all cites the "special" performance Pryor had in the Rose Bowl and how that can only bring him to greener pastures this year.  Unfortunately, it may have all gone to his head (as it did last year).  Read my last posting, if you want my impressions on the Rose Bowl.  It looks like there's too much hype again this year behind Pryor.

That said, this year's team my actually be slightly worse then last year's.  We've lost defensive linemen as well as our safeties.  Our receiving corp is depleted with the surprising losses of Carter and Thomas and our running game has depth, but no special backs.  The strength of the team will remain the defense and all of our hopes on offense lie with Pryor.

The problem and solution is that all of our hopes lie in the mind and ability of Pryor.   I'm guessing that we lose one game this year because of lack of discipline on offense.  He'll have another Purdue game and, since our backs are average, we'll have no one to bail him out on offense.  Therein lies the problem when all of our offense really keys on Pryor.  

There does appear to be some encouraging (or discouraging) news in the announced two deeps for Thursday night's game.  Many freshman are showing up.  This bodes well for our future, but doesn't say much for some of our middle classmen. 

In any event, my gues is we go 11-1 (with a silly loss to someone like Purdue) and are on the outside looking in again on the Natty.  I also think Pryor will have another disappointing season making him one of the biggest busts in OSU history.  Here's hoping I'll be eating some crow in 4 months....

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Technorati Tags: Bigg, Buckeyes, Deeps, Defensive Linemen, Discipline, Freshman, Greener Pastures, Gues, Hype, Impressions, Offseason, Purdue Game, Purdue Games, Rose Bowl, Running Game, Safeties, Terrelle Pryor, Thursday Night, Troy Smith, Usc

Tags: Announcements by swjessen
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