JPC

October 16th, 2018 at 8:19 PM ^

I hope we get both and Urban retires "for health reasons" at the end of their season and all their other recruits go somewhere else too. 

B1G_Fan

October 16th, 2018 at 10:19 PM ^

I don't remember if it was this site on another speculating that Urban would retire at the end of the year an Day would take over. I know ESPN was reporting Day was the coach in waiting but, they back tracked off that, then Urban had the "headache".. Take it for what it's worth, an internet rumor.

Wolverine91

October 16th, 2018 at 8:25 PM ^

https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-football-recruiting/2018/10/97749/looming-large-top-remaining-recruiting-battles-that-could-make-or-break-2019-class

evenyoubrutus

October 17th, 2018 at 9:52 AM ^

Yeah, I mean you're both right. Wisconsin did a lot of dumb stuff, but the reality is we left points on the board. And I'm not even talking about the missed field goals. We were moving the ball at will in the 2nd half, and we weren't really trying to pass on them. Talk about wearing down your opponent and grinding it out.

Champeen

October 17th, 2018 at 9:34 AM ^

Its the national media - their switch flipped and now they regurgitate how great Michigan is now ad naseum after beating an extremely weak defensive Wisconsin team.  And the sheep take it as gospel.

The thing i noticed is, on this site and 247 site and rivals site, how our offensive line is suddenly awesome!  Its a little better, yeah, but holy fuck look at the lines we have played the last few weeks - our line is still average (which is better than last year and beginning of the year i admit) but people are now greatly over-hyping our O-Line.

 

BTW, Purdue is going to beat OSU this week. You heard it here first!

EGD

October 17th, 2018 at 9:18 AM ^

I think there are lots of reasons for OSU fans to be apprehensive these days.  And not just about one game, or even one season.

OSU's whole program right now is built on a model of recruiting top-3 classes just about every year, playing simple concepts that young, inexperienced players can handle, and basically out-talenting their opponents.  It's worked great because their head coach is Urban fucking Meyer, who has three national championship rings and whose image was not seriously tarnished (in the eyes of most people) until the recent Zach Smith scandals.  On top of this, OSU has long been viewed nationally as the dominant Big Ten program, with Meyer having never lost to Michigan since arriving in Columbus.

Well, it's now been reported that Meyer was pissed off about the 3-game suspension--maybe pissed off enough to seriously entertain offers from elsewhere?  The headaches/cyst thing has happened, which is eerily reminiscent of his departure from Florida.  There are rumors of a coach-in-waiting.  And now Michigan is looking pretty damn good again.  

I'm not saying OSU is built on a house of cards.  But there are definitely cracks in the foundation  Meyer's image is already tarnished by the Smith scandals--not in Ohio, perhaps--but nationally.  That may not have much effect on his recruiting ability alone.  But a loss to Michigan significantly changes the national perception even further.  Right now the calculus is basically "yeah, Meyer is a scumbag but he always beats Michigan."  Well, what if he doesn't always beat Michigan?

These kinds of things aren't going to have seismic effects on their own, but even the difference between, say, averaging a top-3 recruiting class and averaging mid top-10 could be very significant given OSU's "play early, leave early" paradigm.

What could have a seismic impact, of course, is if Meyer leaves.  There is probably is no other coach OSU can realistically hire who will bring the same kind of recruiting cachet that Meyer has. Ryan Day sure as hell doesn't.  So it's unlikely that any other coach could keep Meyer's success going using the same "recruit like hell" approach. They'd still have plenty of talent on the roster, and would still recruit well--just not at the same Meyer level.  They'd need to shift to being a slightly more developmental program, or else be looking at 10-3 or 9-4 being the new normal rather than 12-1.

And to make matters worse, if Meyer was gone guess what Big Ten coach would clearly be the biggest name?  Yeah, they don't like that.

I don't even know how likely any of this is to happen.  But there does seem to be a decent enough chance that if I was an OSU fan I'd be at least apprehensive about it, maybe legitimately worried.   

 

 

EGD

October 17th, 2018 at 10:03 AM ^

I guess you never know, but Kelly is only 56, hasn't had any embarrassing episodes in a while, and has their team in the top-5.  So that job may not be coming open any time soon, which is strange thing to say for Notre Dame.  Plus ND is probably on the short list of schools that would take issue with Meyer's baggage. 

I think if Meyer leaves OSU then he'll probably go back into broadcasting or else to the NFL.  But I still can't bring myself to believe he'll actually walk away from OSU.

ThereWillBeNoHugs

October 16th, 2018 at 8:51 PM ^

Steve Wiltfong has Keegan going to Georgia. I know he's not always right, but his prediction is the newest at 9/14 while most of the other picks came over the summer. I don't know if we are in the driver's seat with Keegan. As for Harrison, who knows how that ends up. Hopefully he ends up blue. We just need to keep winning.

ThereWillBeNoHugs

October 17th, 2018 at 9:17 AM ^

Thanks for the link. I didn't know his family was from Livonia, especially his grandparents. I remember Nico Collins being drawn to Michigan for the opportunity to play in front of his grandparents from Lansing. I hope Keegan considers this as strongly as Nico did.
 

As Sam pointed out, I think being close to Illinois, having an OL that is improving week-by-week, and having family in Michigan (who are Michigan fans) will give us a strong chance. Again, we just need to keep winning. Go Blue! Beat State!