September 28th, 2019 at 9:15 PM ^
What was Georgia thinking not giving Fields the starting job last year? Fromm is good, but Fields is elite. OSU is lucky to have him, particularly with immediate eligibility. He makes them a CFP team. I would say Michigan has a chance because.... rivalry.... but it really hasn't been a rivalry the past 15 years.
September 28th, 2019 at 9:19 PM ^
Kirby smart is an oxymoron apparently. Like French war heroes, classy cooler poppers and modest 1980 Michigan fans.
September 28th, 2019 at 9:48 PM ^
It might have been a system thing. I haven't a clue as to what kind of offense UGA runs. Perhaps OSU's elite offense is just a better fit. It sure seems to be the case. Not that I give a shit about the most overrated award in sports, but Fields will be a finalist for the Heisman, along with Jalen Hurts.
September 28th, 2019 at 9:16 PM ^
Just a comparison:
In Michigan's best game this season, by far, Michigan led 24-0 at the half at home against a terrible Rutgers team.
Meanwhile, tonight OSU is leading a decent Nebraska team 38-0 at half-time in a hostile environment on the road.
I can't see any way that Michigan beats OSU in November, barring some major injuries to OSU.
September 28th, 2019 at 9:22 PM ^
I can see UM winning.
September 28th, 2019 at 9:27 PM ^
I also think Iowa will easily beat Michigan because Iowa beat MTSU by more than 30 points and Michigan only beat MTSU by 19 points. Just like how Michigan beat PSU by over 30 by 2016 and PSU beat OSU, and then voila Michigan beat OSU in 2016.
/s
September 28th, 2019 at 9:39 PM ^
But Iowa only beat Rutgers 30-0 at home a couple weeks ago where as we beat them 52-0. There. I just evened the playing field.
September 28th, 2019 at 9:30 PM ^
I can see UM winning.
September 28th, 2019 at 9:19 PM ^
Tattoogate was the best thing to happen to osu. May they all burn in hell after this life.
September 28th, 2019 at 9:50 PM ^
Yep. I have been saying that for years. It's insane. At the time, they got hosed, but in the long run, they benefited from it. That would happen to no other team. Of course it was OSU.
September 28th, 2019 at 9:20 PM ^
I f?ing hate ohio state so much.
September 28th, 2019 at 9:21 PM ^
Haven’t been able to watch the game but just saw the halftime score of OSU-Nebraska. For those watching: I trust that means Nebraska has been out-hitting OSU?
September 28th, 2019 at 9:29 PM ^
Decisively.
September 28th, 2019 at 9:25 PM ^
OSU will not lose a conference game this year
September 28th, 2019 at 9:27 PM ^
They use their freshman with no hesitation . Dax hill speed everywhere and they on th field
September 28th, 2019 at 9:29 PM ^
Looks like the Civil ConFLiCT trophy is staying in Orlando.
September 28th, 2019 at 9:32 PM ^
Nebraska needs to recruit players like Lawrence Phillips again.
September 28th, 2019 at 9:33 PM ^
As a coach, when exactly do you pull Fields out of the game?
September 28th, 2019 at 9:51 PM ^
I'm not watching the OSU game, but at 38-0, there is no need whatsoever to have any starter in the game. Why risk injuries? Games like that are a great time for your non-starters to get playing time.
September 28th, 2019 at 9:35 PM ^
Tressel and Urban never had the machine running this well- Day is an upgrade
September 28th, 2019 at 9:48 PM ^
I hoped Urban leaving might slow the train. Oh, well.
September 28th, 2019 at 9:49 PM ^
Way too early to say that. This program still has Meyer’s fingerprints all over it. How good of a coach Day is won’t be clear for a couple of years. Larry Coker started out 24-0 at Miami and ended up getting fired.
September 28th, 2019 at 9:53 PM ^
Stop. Day is not an upgrade of Meyer. This team would be doing the same thing with Meyer as coach. Day was just gifted an elite dynasty and lucked out with his first QB.
September 28th, 2019 at 9:55 PM ^
Meyer would have these "sleepy" days where he would do just enough to beat a weak team- and he got burned with Purdue and Iowa doing that. Day is wide awake (no pun intended)
September 28th, 2019 at 10:24 PM ^
This could not be further from the truth.
Last year Ohio State's defense was, statisically, the worst they had ever fielded in the entire history of the program. Bill Davis, the best man at Meyer's wedding, was an awful LB coach that was never going to be fired-- after Day told him to get lost, Davis himself actually said that Meyer should have fired him two years ago.
Schiano had turned into a head case after getting screwed out fo the TN job and was trying strange, incomprehnsible schemes. He and the other defensive coaches were playing petty games with each other, angling to get credit so they could build their resumes.
Meyer had never fired a single assistant coach in his entire coaching career until he was forced to fire Zach Smith-- who in addition to being a slime, was also a terrible WR coach. There was 0.0% chance he was going to clean out the entire defensive coaching staff the way Day did.
Day may or may not turn out to be a great coach in the long run, but in the short term, this team is undoubtedly better than it would have been under Meyer-- by a large margin.
September 28th, 2019 at 9:37 PM ^
Ha. Fields is an “online” Buckeye. Is this common?
September 28th, 2019 at 9:41 PM ^
Who gives a shit. His profession is football. You think Barcelona gave a flying fuck if Messi went to class.
Thats Michigans and the entire USA's problem right there.
September 29th, 2019 at 12:27 PM ^
Then why bother caring about UM at all? If the whole "school" thing is a needless facade, just follow pro ball.
September 28th, 2019 at 10:28 PM ^
WHAT!? Is this real??
We are not really competing in the same conference.
September 28th, 2019 at 9:45 PM ^
if a team is up by 40+ points they should just ban official reviews and move the game on- I would love to hear an official say "after further review its still a blow out- play ball"
September 28th, 2019 at 9:49 PM ^
After further review I just can’t give a single fuck. Please subtract the game clock to end of regulation.
September 28th, 2019 at 9:48 PM ^
Nebraska is average at best
September 28th, 2019 at 9:54 PM ^
OSU looks better than Mich right now but look what North Carolina almost did to Clemson today. Michigan’s talent is not that much worse than OSU’s when compared to Clemson and North Carolina. Just have to have a game plan like in 2016 and 2017 and hope Shea can hit our receivers and outscore them. Maybe get a few critical stops.
September 28th, 2019 at 10:00 PM ^
Hoke was able to take Meyer to the last play of the game- its possible. But JH's teams don't seem to have the same spirit in them to outplay their rankings.
September 28th, 2019 at 10:32 PM ^
Spirit?
This isn't about Harbaugh. He can only accomplish what any great coach would do, within some very unequitable parameters.
Can we offer top players from other states to just take classes online?
I promise you'd see some improved spirit!!
September 29th, 2019 at 2:39 AM ^
The difference is that Clemson doesn't spend time every day of their year preparing for and obsessing over North Carolina.
September 29th, 2019 at 10:22 AM ^
you think our talent is "not much worse than OSU's?" hahahaha...ummmm okay.
September 28th, 2019 at 10:03 PM ^
we can all take heart with one thing regarding ohio - sparty visits them next week and i suspect ohio will put sparty in the wood chipper....
September 28th, 2019 at 10:04 PM ^
Plain nasty what is OSU is doing to Nebraska right now. Just hoping the Huskers put up a couple TD's before this debacle is over. Beat Iowa.
September 28th, 2019 at 10:05 PM ^
And the balloons head to the sky. Glad N scored.
September 28th, 2019 at 10:07 PM ^
Those people held on to those balloons 2 1/2 hours before NU scored. Yikes.
September 28th, 2019 at 10:07 PM ^
Its also gotta kill Husker fans that the Sooners have been doing so well the last 20 years
September 28th, 2019 at 10:13 PM ^
Yeah...it’s a drag that with all the shuffling of universities to new conferences, some all-time great rivalries are dying: Nebraska - Oklahoma, Kansas - Missouri, etc...it’d be nice if the powers that be enabled some of these games to take place again. They’d be huge for the alum bases.
September 28th, 2019 at 10:11 PM ^
OSU has speed at the RB position. UM needs some of that. It also doesn’t hurt when their QB is dropping dimes.
September 28th, 2019 at 10:17 PM ^
I am surprised more fans haven't left the stadium- I guess there really isn't anything to do in Lincoln
September 28th, 2019 at 10:18 PM ^
Let's be real here, it will take a lot to even hang with OSU, a minor miracle to beat them. But that's in like 2 months time. Let's take it game by game. Personally I refuse to let everything be defined by the game against that well-oiled machine.
And for what it's worth, OSU now is the result of a program that has run virtually uninterrupted for two decades. Their coaching changes weren't disruptive 'hostile takeovers' where one regime gets canned and replaced by an outsider with the job to tear it all down. Tressel's Youngstown State-style setup was almost certainly allowed to continue without many major changes. His canning was more NCAA appeasement than any kind of concession that he did anything wrong. Meyer came in and could work with a program that reliably has new top end talent from their preexisting pipelines pumped into it. Now Meyer again leaves on terms where the successor basically gets to just carry on with what was built. Much easier to keep a Ferrari on the road than to build a Ferrari out of a Fiat 500.
OU by the way also had a similar situation where Stoops handed the reigns to a hand-picked dude who basically just had to continue down the road that Stoops had already embarked upon.
What people need to understand is that if you fire Harbaugh because he can't beat OSU, you're creating an even bigger distance between us and them because you got another guy in who will start from scratch as it will most definitely be a hostile takeover.
September 28th, 2019 at 10:28 PM ^
I'm confused though, OU went 3-8, 4-8, and 5-6 the years before Stoops, and was pretty bad most of the 90s. How did he win so quick?
September 28th, 2019 at 10:36 PM ^
His offensive coordinator was one Mike Leach. Without simplifying it, but it's obvious Bob Stoops was a heck of a coach and had an excellent eye for coaching talent.
In general - without claiming this is how OU did it - I wouldn't be surprised if we all severely underestimate the sheer importance of a great set up for processing illicit payments and a finely tuned approach to keep the guys with zero academic interest or aptitude eligible. If you read the great book Meat Market about Coach O at Ole Miss, you really get the sense that there's a lot of stuff going on in the background of college football that you'll never hear about on ESPN but that's massive. We all know from the scandals that Tressel was huge on those things - and OSU never gave us any reason to believe that changed after he left.
September 28th, 2019 at 10:29 PM ^
I'm not advocating (yet....it depends on how the season ends) to replace Jim, but feel that Lincoln Riley would have this team performing like it did today all season long. That guy really understands the modern day offense.
September 28th, 2019 at 10:38 PM ^
There are three elite programs in the nation — OSU, Alabama, and Clemson. Oklahoma is 1b, close, but defense limits them. Alabama was historically great, then fell off, then were good, then got hit with sanctions and sucked. Clemson won one NC in the 80’s, got sanctioned, sucked and took a while to climb out. Only OSU has had almost no drop off from Woody’s elite years. Cooper’s inability to beat Michigan is all that Michigan has since the 40’s.