2-2 In HIs Last 4 Bowl Games?
...and I'm not EVEN talking about Tressel. John Cooper was 2-2 in his last 4 bowl games, after all, we are a "what have you done for me lately" type of society, so I'm looking at recent history.
TRESSEL IS 1-3 IN HIS LAST 4 BOWL GAMES.
Select Prominent Coaches - Bowl Record from Last 4 Bowl Games Played (or as otherwise stated):
Pete Carroll: 3-1
Urban Meyer: 3-1
Nick Saban: 2-2 (4-3 in last 7)
Mac Brown: 4-0
Joe Paterno: 3-1
Brian Kelly: 2-1 (3 bowls are all that's applicable)
Steve Spurrier: 2-2
Rich Rodriguez: 3-1 (including the bowl game right after he accepted UofM job)
Bob Stoops: 1-3
Lloyd Carr: 1-3
Charlie Weiss: 1-2 (only made it to 3 bowl games)
Ironically enough, I actually think Tress will probably win this year against the Ducks. Not because of Tress' coaching, but because the Bucks defense has become, "that good". I know the Ducks have a very potent offense, but unless they find some weakness to exploit in the Bucks defense (or if the defense doesn't show up), I think the Bucks can squeak this one out. Tressleball can possibly pull this thing off, and it seems some of the bookies think that way too since they have Oregon at only 3.5 point favorites. They apparently like the Ducks firepower, but not enough to make them at least a one touchdown favorite (or even 6pt favorite). That tells me if it comes down to a close scoring game, Tresselball will have a chance at winning. If the defense doesn't shut them down, watch out, we'll see what Tressel ball CAN'T do, and that's play with a prolific offense (unless there's absolutely no defense being played). If they pull this thing off, I don't want to hear all the blind followers writing unintelligible posts on this site about how great Tress is because he won a bowl game…let’s nip that in the bud right now.
Ultimately, I truly believe that the Bucks have a good shot at winning this thing (contrary to my friend Jimbo in SoCal's belief, take a look @ his comments/reasoning below), especially since they're only 3.5 pt underdogs. Even if they do win...I think most (rational) people will agree that it won't mean squat in terms of how good or bad Tress is as a coach unless he completely revamps the offense and has a solid game plan. Otherwise, Tresselball will do what it's made to do, beat similar or lesser matched teams and lose to similar talent that is better coached."
Thanks for reading.
(post edited on 12/12/2009)
BigM - Believe you me that I'd LOVE nothing better to see the Buckeyes win the Rose Bowl, especially since I'll be there to see it. (Sorry, had to brag maybe a little.)
However, I think I have to disagree on your assessment. Living out here I've had ample opportunity to see the Ducks play and of course the Pac10 in general.
I don't think the Pac10 is overrated so much as we've had more parity in conference than in the past. Clearly USC came back to the "pac", pun intended. But from top to bottom, the Pac10 is much better this year than in the past 4-5 years. The only weakling in the Pac10 is the perennial cellar dweller, Wazoo. The other weaker teams improved considerably. UW improved this year under Sarkisian, Stanford rode Toby to 8 wins and some big upsets and even 'Zona was hugely competitive and looks like a future threat. UCLA is improving slowly under Neuheisel and it appears all the coaching changes at USC have finally caught up to them. The point is, I think Oregon really is that good, I've seen it. HOWEVER, I will say this, the Ducks ride their offense to victory. When it stumbles, they stumble but believe me when I say, their not afraid to get into scoring battles and are supremely confident in their offense's ability to score late in games. If they've got the football late in the 4th quarter with the game on the line, they can and will get the job done.
The key to a Buckeye Rose Bowl win is going to be twofold: The defense will have to slow down their offense and get to Masoli and slow down their rushing attack. Don't kid yourself, their ground game is damn good. The second piece of the puzzle is the Buckeye offense will have to play ball control, eat the clock but most critically, SCORE POINTS. You stop a potent offense by keeping them off the field; Tresselball via the punting game will not get it done. Furthermore, our defense cannot, MUST NOT spend more time on the field then our offense. If that happens, we're dead.
I have faith in the Buckeye defense to do their job but I haven't the slightest belief TP and the offense can do their job. If we punt it more than 4 times I think it's another BCS loss for the Bucks. I hope not, I'm just preparing myself for the worst. Lastly, if the game is close in the 4th quarter and Oregon has the ball .... well, as Yogi Berra famously said ... it'll be deja vu all over again.
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Hey Jimbo...thanks for the post and your reasonings. I agree with you in the fact that the Pac10 is fairly solid from top to bottom (more like top 6 out of 9), and I believe it's better than the Big10 top to bottom. But, I still adamantly disagree as to how good the Ducks and Pac10 are overall.
The Ducks finished top of the Pac10 ahead of 3 other teams had identical league records for 2nd place.
Here's a break-down of these top 4 team's PROMINENT (or worthwhile), OUT OF CONFERENCE wins/losses (in the order of how they finished in the Pac10):
Oregon (10-2): LOST to Boise State , Beat Purdue by ONLY 2 points, Beat Utah
Arizona (8-4): LOST to Iowa, beat 2 other gimme's
Oregon State (8-4): Lost to Cincinatti, beat UNLV by 2 points
Stanford (8-4): Lost to WAKE Forest, Beat Notre Dame by 1-Touchdown in a Shootout
Again, I'm not trying to say that the Big-10 is better than the Pac-10, I just think they are MUCH further behind the SEC and other top few teams in the country. But, everyone wants to talk about how great the Pac10 was this year and how it was one of the top 1-2 conferences this year. My big issue is that the Pac-10's top teams haven't beaten ANYONE of merit this year (outside of the Bucks, but we know that we obviously had a slightly down year, and USC finished 5th in the conference, so they're not even in the top). Someone please tell me, who has the Pac-10 beaten out of their conference that sticks out? Their top teams lost to Boise State, Cincinatti, Iowa, and Wake Forest. The quality "out of conference" wins for these top 4 teams are against Utah and Notre Dame, that's it!!!!!!
I admit Oregon's offense looks like a pro-caliber Offense when I watch them on TV...but I haven't seen anyone in that conference look impressive against ANY team of merit. When your best "out of conference" wins are against Notre Dame and Utah, which is comprised of your top 4 teams combined, you'd think I was talking about the MAC or some other mid-major. That's why I think the Pac-10 is overrated. If they all do well in their bowl games, I will gladly stand corrected!!
Thanks for reading and bantering.
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I'll be at the game as well and I'm actually 50/50 on this game.
Do we have the talent to beat Oregon? Yes. Are we a better team than Oregon? Yes. Can we beat Oregon? Yes. But those same questions could have been said about USC this year too (or Purdue, but we wont get into that).
Until I see Tressel prove that he can get the monkey off his back and win a big out of conference game I'm still going to have my doubts. I mean Oregon is very good on offense but our defense is better but than again we've never faced an offense this good so I'm really only assuming based on the eye test.
Oregon's defense looks pretty bad and while our offense isn't great, we have come a long way since the USC game and we have played better. But the fact is this game is going to come down to game plan and coaching and it makes me worried. It makes me worried because just when I don't things can get any worse for OSU it does. I don't know about anyone else but I'm looking at next year as a possible national championship year should Pryor take that next step as Vince Young did between his sophomore and junior year. I mean were not losing any big name players are we? Maybe 1 or 2 right? Florida, Texas and OU all lose big name players so the field seems wide open. The big out of conference game is Miami who seems good but not great. Basically what I'm saying is, by winning this game we kill this hex that we can't win big out of conference games and set ourselves up for a nice championship run next year.
Now should we lose the rose bowl... I am honestly too scared to think what might happen. New coaching staff for sure, a whole off season of being laughed at and we'd be setting ourselves up for another big time out of conference loss to the U. This bleak future cannot happen.
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Well folks get ready for a resurgence at ole Notre Dame. Brian Kelly will prove once and for all that he's a top shelf coach and he'll have them winning games sooner rather than later and no doubt NT contention in 3 years time.
So to all you Tressel defenders, the best coach in Ohio is now the best coach at a college football powerhouse and it ain't Columbus. Make my words, you will come to rue to fact that Brian Kelly wound up at Notre Dame and not somehow, some way at Ohio State.
Then again, maybe Urban Meyer will decide that without Saint Tebow, he's tired of Gainesville and in a couple of years we can make him a Buckeye. Dare to dream!
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Yikes, did it again. I REALLY need to proof read before I post!
I meant ... mark my words and ... come to rue the fact ...
Start the site now: UrbanMeyerforBuckeyes.com !!!
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