Buckeyes lose bowl, finish 6-7. First <.500 season since 1988

Sorry. You failed

I figured Simon was leaving, and Posey is a major loss for a WR core that had some problems (though they are young, so I'm guessing they will improve).  Plus, Miller does look like a better fit for Meyer's offense compared to what RR inherited.

RR's two big problems stemmed from a lack of talent at some positions, but mostly a failed defensive scheme.  People rewrite history to act like that offense he ran with Threet and Sheridan was the worst ever, but it was competent against average to average+ defenses.  OSU's offense this year wasn't much better, and they had far more talent.  The problem was that this veteran defensive unit had little direction and even less talent/will/desire/coaching/whatever to really protect the young offense throughout the season.  Beyond the Wisconsin game, it was a unit that failed to stop anyone, and while part of that can be traced back to RR and the staff woes, it also seemed like a unit without much motivation.  That might come from up top, but I also have to believe that some of those players gave up on RR relatively early on, and it showed.  I know, Lloyd Carr and the stories, etc.  Nothing to get into here.  But yes, some of the problems were self-inflicted, and Meyer steps into a better situation in terms of talent and (presuming he retains most of the defensive staff or finds a competent replacement) coaching.

All that said, next year probably won't be that pretty in Columbus.  Miller looks like a talent but at the same time, he also looked lost at times against a mediocre Florida unit.  He's a hot-and-cold player right now, and Meyer's offense is sufficiently complex that there will be more growing pains.  And without a Tebow or Alex Smith-type veteran talent at the helm, Meyer's offenses have not been nearly as dynamic.  So I'm guessing there will be a couple of games where the defense will need to keep them in games, and as we saw this year that can be a mixed bag.

I still figure OSU will be good, but like UM people don't expect OSU to stumble through multiple growing seasons.  This year, while somewhat positive in terms of player development, seems a bit wasted - the new coaching staff will install its own schemes and preferences, and I'm guessing that will necessitate an un-learning of this year's (and really Tressel's) schemes.  I expect that OSU will be back to challenging for B1G titles and BCS bids soon enough, but some of the pie-in-the-sky claims from posters at other sites of how the bowl ban will preclude them from playing for the MNC seems silly to me.

They sang it in 2009.   I bore witness and will not forget.