OT: What is going on at Ohio State?

[Thunder]

Ohio State loses to an undermanned Michigan State. Ezekiel Elliott and Cardale Jones both say there’s no chance of them coming back to OSU next year. Mike Weber tweets out that he wishes he “could do it all over again.”

Is the program falling apart?

[TTB Andrew]

These OSU players obviously don’t know how to handle losing, which I suppose isn’t the worst thing you can say about someone.

Still, I don’t think it was a very smart career move on their part, whether or not they end up in NFL or the real world.

OSU’s probably better without Cardale Jones at this point, anyway.

[Thunder]

I agree on Cardale Jones. He did a good job at the end of last year, but I’ve never seen him as a high upside QB. With Barrett presumably returning next year, there’s no need for Jones to stay. Whether he goes to the NFL or transfers to another FBS program, OSU will probably be better off without him as a distraction.

[SGarv]

When I heard about Elliot trashing the coaching and talking up leaving the team, my first thought was hope that the team would be in disarray come Saturday. Next thought was, could this “me” mentality have been the cause of such a weak proforming season? The most exciting thought: will the recruits shy away from OSU?

[Thunder]

I don’t think recruits will shy away from Ohio State. It takes more than one game to change recruiting momentum. Now if they lose to Michigan this weekend and then lose a bowl game, then some people might start to wonder about the direction of the program. As it stands, they went from losing to Virginia Tech in 2014 to being undefeated through ten games this year, so that’s still an excellent run.

[DonAZ]

I have a co-worker friend who lives in Columbus and is a big OSU fan. After the loss to MSU I joked with him about letting me down. It was one of the few times I would root for OSU and they lost. His response — “We’ve been waiting for the bubble to burst all year. We knew it would happen, we just didn’t know when.” Interesting response … fans there had a sense this was not the juggernaut team some made them out to be. Good, yes; invincible, no.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the playoff system and the effect of that on the structure of college football. I’ll confess I have a bit of the curmudgeon old man in me that yearns for college football as I remember it in my youth. But that said, I often wonder if the pressure to get into the top four is not putting immense pressure on the top programs today.

The Purdues and Virginias of the world likely have no real hope for making the top 4. Yes, they could do it if they had a miracle season, but they likely do not start the season with an expectation of competing for it. But teams like Alabama, LSU, Ohio State, and soon to be Michigan do. Undefeated seasons are the goal, and if there’s to be a loss, let it be early and against a non-conference foe. A late-season loss against a conference opponent likely spills a team out of the top four. And that kind of pressure has to really grind on a coach, a team, and a program.

So I wonder if what we saw from Jones and Elliott after the loss to MSU was not simply uncorked emotions after having been — most likely — knocked out of the playoffs? I wonder if the talk of Les Miles imminent departure is due, in part, to his failing to be a serious contender for the top four last year and this?

In a sense, having an 8 team playoff might actually be better, if only because the top-tier teams have a better chance of getting into a field of 8 than a field of 4. I recognize that using that logic suggests a team of 16 or 32, but I’m not arguing that. I’m simply saying that 4 teams means the pool of perhaps 12 to 15 or so truly “elite” programs are under enormous scrutiny to make that field each year. The stress might be causing tears in the fabric of the game, with the OSU incident being simply one early example.

[Roanman]

Ezekiel Elliot screwed up. Everybody knew it, especially Ezekiel Elliot and the entire program went on a damage control mission for the entire week. The culmination of that mission being Urban and Zeke exchanging hugs and kisses during their postgame interview yesterday, during which Ezekiel proclaimed himself to be the ultimate “Team Player” while beaming Urban looked on.

I don’t think they care about Cardale so much. The mission was to restore to Zeke any sheen he might have lost in the eyes of the NFL. I’d say, they got it done.

[Author]

Posts