11 Comments

  1. Mike

    Re: Ohio State
    They don’t play @Penn State. The Nittany Lions travel to Columbus.

    “Another 10-2 season” They’ve had sooo many of those. (The program has lost six regular season games the past seven years, FWIW…)

    The three third year players on the right side of the OL are all top 50 recruits appearing to live up to their recruiting hype.

    No mention of the outstanding talent at CB.

    Justin Fields might not have to be excellent to get results. He can be a 2016, 2017 Jalen Hurts’ type player.

    • ianaboyd

      I didn’t list the OL as a weakness, Jalen Hurts held back Alabama in 2016 and 2017, and Ohio State got rekt last year leaning on their corners in man coverage.

        • ianaboyd

          I’ve heard that, but at any rate I listed overall talent and athleticism as a “championship gear” trait and don’t really feel strongly past that. Anyways, athleticism on the edge usually matters if and when you have veterans up the middle.

  2. Daniel

    Hey Ian, I’m an avid reader of yours.

    I do believe that OSU is my favorite out of the Big Ten. I think they’ll be the strongest team in that conference at the LOS. I think if Justin Fields can become more than a one read QB they go 12-1 or 13-0 and make the playoffs. I’m not high on Michigan’s tackle play or Shea Patterson in general. Their CBs did get torched but for whatever reason Sheffield got more snaps than Okudah (the better man coverage corner). Idk if that’s an endictment against Urban Meyer or not. (Also considering Knox started over Davis).

    • ianaboyd

      I’m pretty close to where you are.

      Overall I just think the Justin Fields offense is a year away. Watching him in the spring game it seemed like some of the mesh and pro-style passing was moving too fast for him. He throws an outstanding ball outside though and the last time they had a guy like that they won the title and he couldn’t even run like Fields.

      So I guess it’s more about if they can hold up over the season without taking Ls as Fields figures some things out and the new D comes together. If you want to call them the favorite from this region to make the playoffs I think that’s fair.

    • ianaboyd

      I think they’ll re-up their emphasis on shotgun option and play-action with fields at the helm. I don’t think he’s nearly as comfortable yet in the mesh stuff as Barrett or Haskins but he can hit targets outside the hash marks and run.

  3. Mike

    Remember when you thought Ohio State was going to lose two games and that the secondary of Okudah, Wade, Arnette, and Fuller were going to do poorly this year merely because they got “rekt” last year? (Nice call. All four of them will be in the NFL a year from now…)

    Big fan of your work and I really like the framework of your championship traits. It’s a good formula to see who can compete. Your evaluation of Ohio State’s talent and their ability to develop that talent pretty much sucked, though.

    • ianaboyd

      Seems fair to note that all of the players you’re mentioning made simultaneous and significant strides. It wasn’t clear what Jeff Hafley was even doing and a lot of the guesses were wrong, obviously what he’s done is be really simple and nail down technique and fundamentals. Which is working great.

      Wisconsin putting Coan in the pistol 4 yards off the line was incompetent tho. Might as well cook him and feed him to Chase Young.

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