After watching a dominant display by the Badgers and a depressing outcome on Saturday night at Wisconsin, I began thinking to myself what is the bread and butter of the Ohio State offense? I will even take that one step further what is Ohio State's true offensive identity through Tressel's era? When I think back to the last 10 years that Tressel has been here, I think of QBs like Craig Krenzel, Justin Zwick, Troy Smith, Todd Boeckman and Terrelle Pryor. All of these guys had their own way of running the offense while under center. Ohio State generally revamped their offense to better suit their play caller. Your probably thinking to yourself that's the way it is suppose to be but are you sure about that? I'm not, especially when I sit back and think of the other top teams in this decade and how their offensive system does not change QB to QB like OSU.
Let's take a look at the other top teams over the past 10 years under their current coach then and now:
Texas: Under Mack Brown the Longhorns have basically implemented a spread attack utilizing their QB to make plays with both his arm and feet. Their QBs Applewhite, Simms, Young and McCoy. Yes during that time table Cedric Benson was a Longhorn but for the most part Mack did not even try to use the running game. The QB used his legs to run for big gains while using five receiver sets to make plays through the air.
USC: Under Pete Carroll the Trojans used a pro style offensive attack relying on balance in both the running and passing game. The QBs under Carroll were Palmer, Leinhart, Sanchez and Barkley. The first common theme is all the QBs were drafted high in the NFL Draft. They also were successful pocket passers while in college and continued in the NFL. Carroll never changed his philosophy with his QBs.
Florida: Urban Meyer brought his spread attack relying on the legs and arm of the Quarterback during the Chris Leake era and then continued under Tim Tebow. Meyer also used the same offense at BG and Utah. The use of speed and the QBs ability to run made his offense extremely hard to handle, just ask Ohio State.
Oklahoma: The QBs under Bob Stoops have all been extremely accurate and use the short passing game and high tempo to move the ball. The QBs White, Thompson, Bradford and Jones. In this offense the QB is asked to be accurate in finding the open receivers.
Now go back to the Ohio State QBs and schemes over the past 10 season's. While the offense was directed by Krenzel, Zwick and Boeckman, Tressel relied heavily on his running attack to make up for any lack of offense that these QBs could perform. During Troy Smith's Heisman season the Buckeyes spread teams out and threw the ball all over the field to take advantage of their receiver's Ginn and Gonzalez. Now go to the present and the use of Pryor. He has never been a truly gifted thrower and usually uses improv to make big plays with his feet. Do we three years later have any identity what this offense is? I think not, one game we are throwing the ball all over the field and then there is the end of last season where the OSU offense ran for over 200 yards in four straight games. Obviously Tressel has done an amazing job over the past 10 seasons but I think the lack of an offensive identity is hindering the growth of the OSU offense. When I look at the stability of the other big names in College Football over the past 10 season's they have all used similar QBs to run their teams. Only Ohio State changes their whole identity to every QB under center. The day that Tressel sticks to one system will be the day that Ohio State truly finds its offensive identity.
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