Here for the Wins

Great. Is your national championship caliber K back? Because that would scare me. Perhaps change my view.

I understand I’m mixing it up here a bit. Many of the names I rattled off were Ohio State defenders so if those guys were in prominent roles, then I’d expect 3/5 of our Olinemen to be designated as such by the Ohio State contingent. I don’t really care except to the extent that you’re consistent. It was not a comparison of our Oline to yours. Now perhaps your interior Oline played prominent roles in the last month. Fine. But you also lost some pieces of that Oline. You also lost experienced RBs. They had experienced pieces around them in suppport. They’ve got ability sure. I hate to tell you (again it doesn’t really matter), but an independent source grading these dudes says these guys didn’t play quality football but rather their teammates picked them up. They aren’t the same players as last year. There is no reason to believe they’ll be dominant and certainly not against us.

No matter how it turns out your characterization of it all is off base. You lack in honesty and consistency. I get your point. Montgomery and his 300 snaps is different than Goosby and his 300. Hutson and his 1,300 doesn’t matter but Houston’s 140 is insurmountable. Downs can do the work of 3 safeties. Your fans no longer want to burn Day at the stake. You seem representative of my experience with Buckeyes. Well, at least those in my Columbus experience. Dallas was different.

They really didn’t play a prominent role. If you believe that, then you need to say we have 3/5 guys on the Oline because that’s how many have played “prominent” roles in championship or playoff games. I’m guessing a number of those reps are in the final one or two drives after it was game over. This is after you said they’ve played hundreds more snaps than Arch, which is clearly not the case. For a QB, two starts is valuable. There’s some value in the limited snaps versus UGa, A&M and OSU. For him, more than his lack of experience, is whether he gets good pass protection. Same for Sayin. Reps certainly matter, but his pedigree is wholly unique. By and large it’s evenly matched.

He’s probably a good player. Had 6 sacks in back-to-back games. Not sure what that means exactly.

McDonald has played 247 snaps. Houston 141. Hartford 253. McLain 107. Montgomery 305. Siev 495. Peoples 94. Sayin 27. Arch 260. Either act in good faith or don’t act at all. But you are correct that not all experience is the same.

Interesting. And ironic. True on the unearned hype for Arch. Yet yall are hyping Klare and his 4 career TDs. You’re hyping your 3 returning DLine guys with their total of 8 sacks or whatever. Your interior oline. All unearned as well. You didn’t just lose talent. You lost a lot, of not just starters, but multi-year starters from your better unit.

Perhaps. Was it you or someone else that shot down Endries? Similar size, similar profile. Same TDs, more catches, probably more actual experience. Until they prove it or that you have evidence to the contrary, the pass catching TE is about a push. It is difficult to determine on these guys how fast they are. Jatavion Sanders was highly thought of, really as a 2 way player out of high school. 3rd round pick. As far as Loveland is concerned, I’d concede his numbers against us to Klare. Personally, I don’t think Klare or Tate will win many individual matchups. That’s not to say there weren’t be opportunities to make plays. That’d be more a function of over playing Smith or the play fake. It’s just unlikely they’ll abuse us with their traits. Individually we match up well. Obviously things can change but neither has had a particularly big game in a big game. And no 7 for 87 in which Smith catches one ball is not a big game. You wouldn’t take 8 for 100 between the two, but we sure as heck would.

Bowers was a top 100 recruit. Caught double digit TD passes as a freshman. He had 3 seasons with as many catches as Klares best to date. 26 TDs to 4 TDs. Bowers reported a 4.5 40, 40 inch vertical. I did not find either for the top 1,200 recruit Klare. Bowers is rare. Of all the good TEs in the NFL, I’m not sure he has a comp.

You need to think about him wearing jorts and a Bobby Hoying jersey, maybe Andy Katzenmoyer and any perspective after that makes sense.

Perceptions are very interesting. As an opposing fan, I don’t know much about your backups from last year. I don’t know any team as well as my own. So I do make reference to 3rd party sources. PFF tells a different story than what you’re telling. I do agree that Ohio State and Texas put capable players out on the field at every position. This year will be no different. With Curry as the example, last year when on the field, he was an afterthought. And as a part time player, he could approach the game with a narrower focus. That’s potentially all different. Same for your other guys. They may be playing the same position but a much different role. Contrast that to Collin Simmons for Texas last year. He didn’t need to start. We had a front 4 with tons of time in the program. Sorrell and Collins over 1,000 snaps. Burke about 500 and Broughton around 800. So he could slide in and play his game. Burke our new starter at DE has the equivalent experience of a 1 year starter. So as you lose Ransom and Hancock that’s 3,500 snaps. You really aren’t replacing them with guys with significant reps in your system. I couldn’t find a good depth chart on your defense, but your two backup Safeties logged about 400 plays between them. Contrast that with our “new” starters this year that have more snaps than those two combined. And one of those missed 2/3rds of the season. It may not matter but our defensive philosophy relative to yours is that we’re less dependent on a few guys. The talent levels are likely comparable. You are not just replacing guys that were returning starters from the prior year I’d wager that in terms of true game experience they had a rare amount of play time. Over 10,000 snaps.

It’s inevitable. Were chasing too many things that’ll lead down that path.

There’s no doubt you have talent all over the board. You’re trying awfully hard to convince yourself that you’ll have a “nasty” defense. You are aware that this Curry of which you speak has 4 career games in which he’s logged 20 or more snaps. Against Western Kentucky, Purdue, Purdue and Northwestern. Him playing well in big games is no more a sure thing than our Oline being ready. Again one of your interior did not play infinitely more than Hero. A guy who likely sits about equaly on our depth chart, if not potentially lower. Your defensive line is not more talented/experienced than guys we’ve seen. Your stadium/crowd is not wholly different from places we’ve been. You are rotating out a front 4 that logged some 7,000 snaps for one with about 1,000. You lost considerable experience on the back-end too. But sure expect no drop off.

No, not very experienced. Only about as experienced as one of three members of the greatest of all time interior lines. Both with enough experience to prove useful this year.

I understand you Buckeye fans can’t help it. I never said your defensive line wasn’t good. Dominant, whatever, I don’t care. It’s winning and losing. But they were 4th and 5th year guys. And perhaps they were most responsible for your victory. However, they are now gone. It’s unlikely, in two weeks, that your new Dline will be as good. I gave you data. I gave you references. So then you tell me not all experiences are equal. No kidding but to act as though Goosby’s experience against 2 first rounders from Uga and 2 from A&M is not significant is interesting.