Eye of the Tiger

November 29th, 2011 at 11:57 AM ^

This is key:

"Meyer will need to hire two outstanding coordinators." 

Meyer's success at Florida has as much to do with his hiring great coordinators as it does with  his own innate talents as a coach.  We know now, from our own experience, just how vital this is.  

Late Carr: all-around great coach, all-around mediocre coordinators.  

Rich Rod: brilliant offensive genius, brilliantly incompetent defensive staff

I have this feeling that Meyer will have learned from Rich Rod, and make a splashy DC hire.  Given the talent in the state of Ohio, and the fact that most defensive starters return, he won't repeat our defensive sorrows 2008-10.  They'll be good on that side of the ball, starting next year.  

But I also wonder about his offense.  Yes, he's had wild success elsewhere, and yes, he has Braxton Miller (an impressive talent, even if it pains me to say it).  But who else does he have?    A mediocre tight end, mediocre WRs and a mediocre RB all recruited to play in a pro-style offense.  Sure Meyer will recruit his own guys, but we know that this takes time.  I think this offense, even if Meyer takes a "work-with-who-we've-got" approach, will take 3 years before it starts to look the way he wants it to.  Just like it did with us, and just like it's currently panning out for Brian Kelly.  

Will Ohio's spoiled, entitled fan base--which fully expects a national championship every year under Meyer--be patient during 2 or even 3 years without a Big 10 championship?  They got used to one every year under Tressel, and the new structure of the conference makes it considerably harder to earn one.  

Needs

November 29th, 2011 at 12:10 PM ^

OSU has to be the favorites to win their division next year, don't they? Miller coming back. Almost all of their defense returning. They have to replace 3/5 of their o-line and Herron, but Stoneburner's a good TE and Meyer showed with Hernandez that he can be creative with the TE. Their receivers are meh, but that offense doesn't need supremely talented receivers to do well. And look at the rest of the division...

Wisconsin's losing Wilson and the whole reason UW pursued him was that their existing QBs looked totally incompetent in spring practice. They also lose Toon and a good deal of their o-line. Penn State will still be feeling the reprecussions of their disaster and breaking in a new coach, new qb (I'm assuming McGloin is a senior, not that it matters), and lose a good deal of their defense.  Illinois, Indiana, and Purdue don't even really deserve mention.

They do have a tough schedule, though. They get Nebraska and UM in the horseshoe and have to go to Lansing, Madison and Penn State. Still, even with an entirely new coaching staff, they have the fewest questions of anyone in that division.

Phil Davison

November 29th, 2011 at 2:55 PM ^

This is almost suredly ESPN's reply to the article that Pat Forde (formerly of ESPN) wrote for Yahoo almost 24 hours before.

 

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=pf-forde_meyer_credibility_urban_myth_112711

 

ESPN would never be the first to bash Urban, OSU or Florida. But the Twitter world started calling them out for it after Forde published this and looks like they went to Schlabach and told him to rewrite the same article.