The Season Isn’t Over with Yet!!
After watching USC pound Ohio State, I’ve realized a few things. USC is obviously very, very good. I mean scary good. They aren’t perfect, but they have no weaknesses. They’ll capitalize on every mistake you make, which means you’re paying twice the penalty for turnovers, flags and such. They have the best athletes in the country – bar none. Yes, the SEC has speed, but the USC guys are as fast and as athletic as the dudes from the south, but the Trojans are much bigger and much stronger. Indeed, Ohio State was out of its league. Even if Beanie had been 100%, they would have had to play perfectly and USC would have had to shoot themselves in the foot - several times. But that’s neither here, nor there anymore. The game’s over, you can’t get it back – time to move on.
This frustration has led to a disappointed fan base right now, sad in some cases, angry in others. So much was expected from this group of Buckeyes. But remember folks, the season isn’t over with yet!! There is still an entire Big Ten season left to play and a chance to go to the first Rose Bowl in the Jim Tressel era. Perhaps a final shot at redemption. And who knows - we saw crazy things last year – what if the other contenders suffer multiple losses and/or are also blown out. Yes, that probably won’t happen, but we didn’t think USC would lose to 41 point underdog Stanford and Pitt would beat 28 point favorite West Virginia.
At the Ohio game last week – for the first time since I’ve been covering the Buckeyes (which I know hasn’t been very long) – people were cursing from the stands at Coach Tressel, demanding Terrelle Pryor enter the game. And that was against the Bobcats. I can only imagine what those same people were saying after seeing Todd Boeckman sacked four times and turning the ball over 3 times. But before you give up on Todd, remember this – he is a Big Ten champion quarterback, he’s a senior captain and he’s one of the leaders of this team. And while I am looking forward to the official start of the Terrelle Pryor era at Ohio State, I think completely changing quarterbacks at this time would tell the team that the coaches have thrown in the towel for the season. Because as great as Terrelle seems to be, he is still a freshman and if the ball were in his hands all the time, there’s no doubt in my mind costly mistakes would follow. My solution is to continue to alternate the quarterbacks, especially against the good teams. Keep the defense playing on its heels - much like USC’s was - when Boeckman and Pryor were alternating plays. Whenever Boeckman stayed in for consecutive snaps or more, the defense closed in and started to tee off. He tends to look downfield longer and doesn’t dodge defenders well who are in hot pursuit. Pryor adds the different dimension which keeps defenses guessing, and athletes don’t play as well when they are thinking all the time, instead of reacting. The Buckeyes need Boeckman to reach their full potential, and using Pryor more will help that cause. But what do I know, I’m just a caveman!
