Consider this stat for men’s athletics at Ohio State: in the last twelve months, four men’s teams have reached the national championship game (basketball, soccer, football twice). Ohio State lost all four of those matches putting them in real danger of becoming the collegiate equivalent of the 80’s/90’s Buffalo Bills.
There’s nothing like a nine-hour car ride to bring the National Championship game into focus. Though I was disconnected from the internets for much of the day today, I was able to stay connected to the rest of the world via my trusty XM radio. As expected, the “I told you so” bandwagon was overflowing with Buckeye haters today, including Colin Cowherd and Pat Forde, neither of which have been very good at hiding their disdain for the Big Ten.
If you’re passing off the championship outcome as continued SEC dominance over Ohio State, you’re not only short-changing OSU but LSU as well. LSU simply out-executed Ohio State and Ohio State made way too many mistakes in too many key situations. And oh yeah- LSU out coached OSU.
Ohio State’s intentions going into the championship game were fairly straight-forward: 1.) control the clock, 2.) limit mistakes, 3.) take the crowd out of the game. They did none of the three.
1.) They certainly took the crowd out of the game with ten early points but that was short-lived.
2.) LSU controlled the clock having almost an eight-minute time of possession advantage.
3.) Regarding limiting mistakes, that didn’t happen either. Ohio State made mistakes at critical times including three turnovers, (another) blocked field goal attempt, a key dropped touchdown on third down in the second quarter (Robiskie) and loads of penalties, some of which were questionable at best. A minus two turnover margin is enough to spell defeat vs. any quality opponent and especially against one of the caliber of LSU. And yet with all of that, Ohio State out gained LSU, only lost by 14 and had several opportunities to close that gap.
As maligned as Les Miles has been during the regular season, he and his staff performed brilliantly in New Orleans. Neither team could get any deep passing threat down the field, neither team could consistently establish the running game, and both teams were getting solid defensive line play, yet LSU was the team that was constantly making in-game adjustments keeping (statistically) the best defense in the last ten years or so constantly on its’ heels. Where Ohio State chose on too many downs to line up in max protect formations sending only two receivers out, LSU constantly flexed different formations and used the screens, flares, and end-arounds in dizzying combinations.
And the best part is, LSU is stillundefeated in regulation…
Make no mistake about it, Senator Tressel and his staff were out coached on several occasions by Miles and company and the OSU coaches have some serious questions to answer in the off-season- starting with Quarterback.
Todd Boeckman comes back next year but he faltered severely down the stretch throwing only two touchdowns against six interceptions. The staff is going to need to honestly assess whether Boeckman is really the answer- particularly with an able Antonio Henton waiting in the wings, assuming of course that Henton can stay out of trouble. On Boeckman’s first interception, he floated a deep ball (which has been a trend), lobbing a pretty easy pick when receiver Ray Small had a step on Chevis Jackson. The second interception was simply a misfire.
The coaches didn’t do Boeckman any favors with play calling but the fact that Boeckman only got four different receivers the ball, and one of them only had one catch is a serious problem. On the flip side, LSU had eight different receivers with catches, including both tight ends, two of the running backs, and fullback Quinn Johnson.
All is not lost for OSU. For a team with only two Senior starters, just being a repeat participant in the national championship this year is a remarkable achievement, especially considering how many players matriculated to the NFL last year. Assuming OSU keeps some of their key Juniors from departing early this year, the Buckeyes will be in the top five again next year, with the matchup in week three at USC already looming large, plus road games at Wisconsin and Illinois.
As for LSU- Flynn, Hester, and Doucet will be gone, but the losses on the defensive side will make a bigger impact. With as many as nine starters to be replaced on defense, a repeat championship for LSU will be a tall order. The schedule will be a challenge with road games at Auburn, Florida, Arkansas and South Carolina, plus
Georgia and Alabama at home.
And as for the rest of college football, LSU is Champion. Period. As I posted earlier on Tuesday, the only team (I repeat- the only team) with a legitimate beef is USC. The Trojans though are discounted on two counts- first, the loss to Stanford and second the injury card. Of all the teams in the country that can play the injury card, USC is not one of them. Southern Cal is tripping over five-star recruits with an embarrassment of riches the likes no other program has. Sorry Trojan fans- better luck next year. And assuming they can replace Booty, they shouldn’t need much luck.
Georgia is pissed, and that’s fine with me. Their Administration is pushing for an eight-game playoff which if you’ve been reading us long enough, you know was my idea in the first place. So bitch on Dawgs, bitch on.
You’re welcome.
