Game Thread: Orange Bowl: Ohio State vs. Clemson

[tshirt]

Meyer:
“I want the ball in the hands of our best player, Braxton Miller"

“He has been a spark for us his whole career here,” Ohio State offensive coordinator Tom Herman said of Miller

Miller on the loss to MSU:
"You got to come back and keep your head high, come back stronger.”

 

[tshirt]

Pennsylvania sportswriter David Jones who wrote five years full-time at The Columbus Dispatch in the late 80's (the flagship newspaper of Columbus, Ohio):

"If Michigan and Purdue have been the Big Ten’s cradles of quarterbacks, Ohio State has been the graveyard.
While the Buckeyes have continually produced teams worthy of national-title consideration for half a century, formidable dissection of defenses by their quarterbacks has never been much of an asset.
Think of all the OSU teams that either won national titles or were deeply in the mix. Then think of their QBs. They have almost exclusively been, at best, hybrid types (Rex Kern, Troy Smith, Terrelle Pryor), pure runners (Cornelius Greene, Rod Gerald) or occasionally underdeveloped pocket passers never taught any real sophisticated acumen (Art Schlichter, Mike Tomczak, Kent Graham, Bobby Hoying).

We’re talking about one of the elite programs in college football ever. And never once has an Ohio State quarterback become a complete player in maturity or enjoyed any sort of success at the pro level.
...
the best OSU can offer is either Tomczak or Graham, a couple of NFL journeymen who merely survived as backups rather than thrived. Pretty amazing when you consider it
....
Braxton Miller is one hell of a college football player ... But as a pure QB? ... I think Miller’s growth is being stunted by Urban Meyer’s spread-option system heavy on QB iso runs
...
Six weeks ago, I took all sorts of abuse for a column a couple of weeks prior about how I’d prefer UCF’s Blake Bortles over Miller.
...
But people missed the point, believing I was disparaging Miller as a great college player. Nothing could have been further from what I meant. Miller is a force of nature out there, as quick and strong-armed a combo as the college game has seen since Michael Vick was playing for Virginia Tech.
But that’s the thing: Vick never learned how to become a complete quarterback. And I think Miller is heading in that direction.

I’ll tell you the difference between a “mobile quarterback” of the Vick/Miller mold and a quarterback who happens to be mobile: It’s Russell Wilson. The former Wisconsin and current Seattle Seahawks field leader has the big arm and the mobility when he needs it. But he is not stunted by it. He is first and foremost a smart, observant orchestrator of the game able to see and make the right throws. That is Job 1 for any quarterback. If you can have the mobility on the side, all the better.
...
You can’t really blame Miller. He’s locked in a model in which QBs take a lot of abuse running the ball, one that’s based around spreading the field and then attacking on the ground. That’s been Meyer’s design way before Tim Tebow, back to Alex Smith at Utah and Josh Harris at Bowling Green.
I don’t think it’s a particularly good template for developing quarterbacks as passers. Meyer’s track record at sending QBs to the NFL bears that out; only Smith has really made a dent as a complete pro quarterback and his development has taken place mainly in the League.

So, fans of Miller can rightly extol his virtues all they want. He’s one terrific college player.
But against any really challenging defense, I think you need more. You need the whole quarterback package. I seriously wonder whether Miller will ever be that."

 

[tshirt]

ESPN:

Drop the Ohio State offense on the scales, and it looks comically imbalanced. (63% run, 37% pass...and of Ohio State's first downs this year, 62% were by rushing, 34% by passing, rest by penalties)
...
But when Tom Herman looks down at the field and sees the Buckeyes battering away on the ground against a helpless defense, the offensive coordinator has no problem. “When you see the productivity of the run game and where that’s taking you, then you continue to call it,” Herman said. “Have you seen 34 and 5 run it?”
That combination of RB Carlos Hyde (34) and QB Braxton Miller (5) has been hard to miss, and the way they’ve been carving up teams on the ground only makes it harder for Herman to dial up a pass play or two.
(both Hyde and Miller have run for over 1,000 yds this season, both average over 6.75 ypc, and Ohio State is the #1 rushing offense in the country by yards per carry with 7.03)
Miller's acceleration and body control as a rusher remain his most dangerous weapon. And with Hyde playing at easily the highest level of his career at tailback, the combination has served at times to make a passing game almost completely unnecessary.

Look at Ohio State's last four games: Ohio State completed just 8 passes vs. Michigan State, 6 vs. Michigan, 11 vs. Indiana, and 13 vs. Illinois; but Miller and Hyde rushed for a combined 1,330 yards and 15 touchdowns over that four-game span
...
Herman said, "I think we are a balanced offense"
“I think [the disparity] is [just] a product of how well we’re rushing. It’s not a concern.”
...
Meyer said, “we feel like we're getting some big yards per crack, and both Carlos and Braxton run the ball at a very high level.”
So the Buckeyes just keep doing it ... a whole lot of Nos. 34 and 5.

 

[Sox33OSU]

Lol. Waaaaaaay early gor a game thread. I can put that designation back on somewhere near gameday if you remind me.

Good point. We need more threads about how (fill in the blank team) was overrated/didn't deserve their bowl berth, fake reports on who is going to coach Texas and other important things like that.

 

[tshirt]

Meyer on Clemson:
"Their athleticism at receiver is ridiculous and their quarterback," Meyer said. "The element of the quarterback run and the throw is something we've lived on for years. Their scheme is terrific."

Dabo on Ohio St:
"We're playing very possibly the best team in the country."

 

[sakau2007]

They could both fuck up Malzahn. That would be a treat to see.

troll

 

[7Samurai13]

troll

 

[tshirt]

Ohio sportswriter:

"With Braxton Miller at quarterback - hard to imagine he’s even on a draft board after his passing stats in the past four games - Ohio State could not overcome a troubling defense. Watching the Buckeyes down the stretch, the defense simply was helpless to stop anyone. Championship teams don’t have defenses that bad.
...
In retrospect, it probably was better to fall short to Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook in a tight loss than to be destroyed by near-certain Heisman winner Jameis Winston and Florida State in the BCS title game.
In point of fact, the Buckeyes and the Big Ten in general still are sporting a black eye from being outclassed first by Meyer and then by LSU in Tressel’s national championship poundings from 2006 and 2007.
Adding to that list of destruction would have been crippling for the conference and Ohio State. It will be tough enough for the Buckeyes to weather the Orange Bowl storm that Clemson, star quarterback Tahj Boyd and super receiver Sammy Watkins surely will bring on Jan. 3."

scoring offense
#2 FSU
#11 Clemson

total offense, ypg
#6 FSU
#12 Clemson

total offense, yards per play
#1 FSU
#31 Clemson

 

[sakau2007]

Ohio sportswriter:

"With Braxton Miller at quarterback - hard to imagine he’s even on a draft board after his passing stats in the past four games - Ohio State could not overcome a troubling defense. Watching the Buckeyes down the stretch, the defense simply was helpless to stop anyone. Championship teams don’t have defenses that bad.
...
In retrospect, it probably was better to fall short to Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook in a tight loss than to be destroyed by near-certain Heisman winner Jameis Winston and Florida State in the BCS title game.
In point of fact, the Buckeyes and the Big Ten in general still are sporting a black eye from being outclassed first by Meyer and then by LSU in Tressel’s national championship poundings from 2006 and 2007.
Adding to that list of destruction would have been crippling for the conference and Ohio State. It will be tough enough for the Buckeyes to weather the Orange Bowl storm that Clemson, star quarterback Tahj Boyd and super receiver Sammy Watkins surely will bring on Jan. 3."

scoring offense
#2 FSU
#11 Clemson

total offense, ypg
#6 FSU
#12 Clemson

total offense, yards per play
#1 FSU
#31 Clemson

has the big 10 really sunk so low that they'd rather just not reach the big game than get there because they are scared of getting blown out?

at least in florida state's case you can lose by 21 and say that you played them about as close as anyone in the country has thus far. it was just sad watching them get clubbed by teams that lost games to Kentucky, a 3 loss Auburn team (I think), and played several other close games in the SEC... but then just run over the buckeyes. It also didn't help to see Michigan... who people tried to argue might still be #2 get handled by USC.

 

[BucksFanInGA]

 

[Sox33OSU]

^^^^^^^^^^^^ NICE

 

[The Authority]

has the big 10 really sunk so low that they'd rather just not reach the big game than get there because they are scared of getting blown out?

at least in florida state's case you can lose by 21 and say that you played them about as close as anyone in the country has thus far. it was just sad watching them get clubbed by teams that lost games to Kentucky, a 3 loss Auburn team (I think), and played several other close games in the SEC... but then just run over the buckeyes. It also didn't help to see Michigan... who people tried to argue might still be #2 get handled by USC.

I find it even more sad to watch teams go from a national title to losing to 4 - 8 teams in just two years.

 

[cane_man]

Well, with the demise of big east football somebody has to take their place at the bottom.












Big ten raises hand.

 

[Sox33OSU]

Well, with the demise of big east football somebody has to take their place at the bottom.












Big ten raises hand.

Duke played for your conference title.

Duke.





Seriously, Duke.

 

[Runeman]

Yup; Ohio State talks the talk, but when it comes to playing a better school in a bowl game, they just can't put the "big boy" pants on and have a go. Beating Clemson does nothing to enhance their stature as did playing a bunch of cup cakes all year and folding when they got a little heat from Michigan State. Pretty weak, IMO.

 

[cane_man]

Duke played for your conference title.

Duke.





Seriously, Duke.

And even duke looks down on the big 10

 

[BucksFanInGA]

Yup; Ohio State talks the talk, but when it comes to playing a better school in a bowl game, they just can't put the "big boy" pants on and have a go. Beating Clemson does nothing to enhance their stature as did playing a bunch of cup cakes all year and folding when they got a little heat from Michigan State. Pretty weak, IMO.

cool

 

[night]

This should be a close one. I'm leaning towards Clemson but I could see it going either way.

 

[Shanemansj13]

troll

You should know the perfect definition.

Have fun watching a blowout in the NCG. It's Winston birthday and for a present he is raping Awburn.

 

[Shanemansj13]

Yup; Ohio State talks the talk, but when it comes to playing a better school in a bowl game, they just can't put the "big boy" pants on and have a go. Beating Clemson does nothing to enhance their stature as did playing a bunch of cup cakes all year and folding when they got a little heat from Michigan State. Pretty weak, IMO.

At least we get a chance to win another BCS bowl add to the record in the BCS era and the most appearances.

Make a bowl game, at least the meineke car care bowl and come talk then.