Why My Prediction Was Right (against Toledo) and Why We Should Not Worry

For those of you surprised about the game against Toledo, don’t be.  This is EXACTLY what I expected.  I even called this, as my exact quote from my pre-game predictions against AKRON suggests:

“OSU by 8 in a low scoring game.  Yes, 8!  I think our QB situation takes a serious toll on the offense (sluggish QB play, indecision of starter, two-QB system – Disaster d’ jour – take your pick) and it turns into a ground game that will sputter to start.  I love Fickell and hope dearly he wins the job, but just suspect a lot of kinks to iron out – QB, among them”

What happened against Toledo was this:

• Overall, a crappy day for Bauserman.  Unfortunately, Bauserman looked like the Bauserman Buckeye fans expect – smart, inaccurate often, inconsistent very often.  Sadly, he made numerous critical throwing errors that even an average D1 starting quarterback should make – but then again, he has never started before
• Our offensive line is simply a patch work of many young, inexperienced players that shouldn’t be expected to play well yet
• Because of the “expected” performance of the offensive line, the running game is bound to suffer regardless of the talent level
• Regardless of youth and inexperience on special teams, Saturday’s performance against Toledo is the one thing that should NOT have happened.  Simply, their performance showed a lack of intensity and preparation from the special teams’ coach.  On the blocked punt, the blocker literally was untouched.  Special teams coaching against Toledo: “F”  This needs to be addressed immediately
• Our defensive line play was inconsistent – at times good and other times they appeared confused and tentative.  Part of this was Toledo’s use of the Spread and Option play.  However, we have faced this often and it shouldn’t have thrown us off as much as it appeared to do
• As far as I am concerned the defensive play calling (I presume it was Heacock) was marginal (again) at very best; very conservative and not aggressive.  How many times have we made this reference to Jim Heacock’s coaching and play calling.  Clearly a good part of this was also due to having replace 7 starters on offense from last year and having several more players unavailable.

With all of the personnel changes, which are many and at key positions, I personally think this performance is reasonable to expect.  Of course no one wants it, especially the coaches and players.  However, there are simply too many massive changes at once to expect consistent play like we saw against Akron.  So what happened against Akron?  My guess is that we were fired up and ready, Akron is even more pathetic than anyone thought and we got a bit lucky.

I think a real significant measurement will be how well Fickell and company can patch up this group for a clearly better opponent this coming Saturday against Miami.  Miami is not a stellar team right now but they are no bargain either.

We played much like Penn State played yesterday against Alabama.  Both teams had significant consistency problems at quarterback.  Just this one thing alone is enough to throw off an entire team.

Of course, they are and will always be my team.  Overall I like the coaches and really like Luke Fickell.  If we can give him a reasonable chance in truly extraordinary circumstances, I have no question we have a superior coach here.  Let’s just try to have understanding and the correct set of expectations given the incredible circumstances this year.

Pat (PJSBuck)