Buckeyes Fan to Buckeye Players

I am an avid Buckeye fan, I am an arm chair coach, and I watch anything I can on Buckeye football and I have done so since I was born. I say all of that because I hear that Buckeye players talk about fans being bandwagon fans, where we are only rooting for the Scarlet and Gray when we are winning. I, for one, believe that to be a slap in the face. 

I don't believe that players are trying to be disrespectful, but they are victims of the moment. They are emotional like fans are. I would still like to explain something to the players and coaches from a fan perspective though. I hear Urban on press conferences and during whatever interview he gives talk coach speak about improving and moving on and that is fine, but to fans that is not enough. 

This is what makes me mad..... we hear analysts on ESPN, sports shows, and on radio talk about the stars behind the name of another player coming to Ohio State. We have been #2 almost every year that Urban has been a coach here in terms of recruiting. We see coaching changes almost every year or it seems like it. Every year our pre-season ranking is #2 if not in the top 5. Buckeye fans take all of this into account when see how the team is performing. Keyword performing. I think that Buckeye Nation is smart enough to tune out the commentary before, during and after the game/season because we know what expectations are. 

Fans do not expect undefeated seasons year after year, but we expect to do our best each game, with that best being better than the opponents best resulting in a win. We hear about stars and talent but than we see an offense that cannot move the ball, a quarterback that gets more carries than our running backs, receivers that are not open at all during a game, and an offensive line that does not give good enough pass protection. We see a defense that is like a brick wall, but than our defensive backs can break up passes and are caught looking at the quarterback so passes go flying over their heads. So we hear about how good we are on paper but than none of that commentary seems to matter when the clock is ticking. 

We lost to Oklahoma not because of talent, but because our talent is not being used. There is not one offense that fears JT and they know that he will get carries during the game. Because they do not fear JT they know that there won't be much passing over their heads. If we have speed, than why not do a 5 step drop and launch the ball and let our speedy wide receivers run under it? JK and Webber had good runs against Oklahoma yet JT got the majority of the carries. 

Urban has a tendency of believing all of his QB's are Tim Tebow Jr's when they are not and news flash, that offense did not work much longer after it was used. In fact, the year we won the National Championship was predominantly running and throwing the ball. Urban looks at our team as everyone but the QB is a blocker. That is how he treated Florida when he had a Tebow and he is trying to do the same with JT.

I will end this post by saying this

Ohio State football gives any sports network record viewership and nearly every game we pack The Shoe for whatever team. Every spring game since the National Championship has seen attendance at almost if not over 100,000 and that is for a spring game. I don't want to hear about bandwagon fans when those statements are true.