Around the Big Ten

[lineygoblue]

But Dantonio is going to be stuck at MSU. Gee and Smith as well as most citizens of OLieO have a man love attraction for Urban Meyer.

But, it would be fun to see future MSU v OLieO games

[Mike]

I would LMAO at Sparty if that happened. And osu, too. This needs to happen.

[lineygoblue]

I agree, Mike. It would serve OLieO right to take on Dantonio.

And it would steam everyone in EL so bad, I don't think they'd ever recover...

[hack]

I forget -- Linesman aren't you convinced Meyer won't go there or did I mix up your position with someone else's?

[lineygoblue]

I think Meyer is OlieO's first choice.

But if for some reason he becomes unavailable, it wouldn't surprise me to see them make a bid for Dantonio. Especially because of his "record" against Michigan.

I think there is less than a 1% chance that Fickell will be there next year. If he brown-noses the right people enough, they may let him coach thru their bowl game, but they're not going to keep him. He's as likely to be OLieO's coach next year, as I am to be in the swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated.

[hack]

Well I think it's clear that if Meyer is available that is what will happen. I was just saying that I think I recall you being somewhat certain he won't be.

Agreed that Fickell is grist.

[Dr. Strangelove]

If Meyer says he's interested, he will be our next coach. They aren't going to turn him down just to stick with Fickell.

I haven't seen a lot of MSU outside of their first game. Their offense seems pretty ordinary. Dantonio has built a nice program but is no offensive guru. MSU may be the best defense we have seen, but with all due respect to Notre Dame and Florida Atlantic, MSU probably has yet to play a defense as good as ours as well. (Although our defense isn't yet as good as in years past- still too young and inexperienced).

[Jamie H]

Considering Meyer left Florida due to serious health issues that he has had for years, the only way I could see him ending up at OSU is if he has had a significant reversal of his condition.

[lineygoblue]

But Meyer hasn't ruled himself out of coaching the schmucknuts. Every time he's been approached about it, and his health issues, he's been very vague. To me, that says, "of course I'm going to coach them next year".

He's probably found a doctor who has told him he can coach again.

[iam416]

It's either a home run hire or it's Fickell. Dantonio is not a home run hire.

TBH, I prefer Dantonio's style to UM's, but I consider Dantonio a blah hire -- like Ferentz or really almost any other coach in CFB. The coach I'd give DSL's left arm for is The Nick. There's no question in my mind that he's the best coach in the game. After that, I'd happily take Coach Meyer, even if it's a shorter term deal.

The reality is, though, that it will likely be Fickell. That makes me a bit nervous b/c next year's team should be hell-raising good -- standard Ohio State awesome. No more of this middling crap where we actually have to worry about beating shit programs like MSU.

[Jeff Buchanan]

The reality is, though, that it will likely be Fickell. That makes me a bit nervous b/c next year's team should be hell-raising good -- standard Ohio State awesome. No more of this middling crap where we actually have to worry about beating shit programs like MSU.

I'd like to hear a unit/personnel critique of the 2012 bucks. I have no feel for things like depth on the OL and DL and whether osu has it or the kind of starters needed to dominate.

Something else that none of us on the outside of our favorite programs know anything about but like to think we do is the subtleties of player/coach, player/player and coach/coach interactions that, if anything besides talent, has a huge impact on a teams' performance.

For example, the internal bickering that most M fans know went on inside the M football program under Rodriguez, in my opinion, had a lot to do with why he wasnt' successful. I imagine that tressel ran the osu program in an effective if not authoritative manner with great deference given to him by his staff and players. Obviously, staff continuity at osu played a part in osu's success but tressel's control over the game plan, his ability to optimize the players he had by scheme and development, I think, was key.

That is gone. I cannot help but think fickell is not the kind of dynamic leader tressel was. It seems to me that it is more likely that the program under fickell is run by committee/consensus rather than by a single decision maker who has the respect of his assistants.

So, while the talent may be there, the chemistry that tressel had going for him that I think contributed heavily to osu's dominance of the conference, isn't. I'd like to hear your take on that and what impact it might have for this greatness you predict for the 2012 season.

[iam416]

Fickell made his first decision last week. If reports are to be believed, it was not unanimous amongst the staff to start Miller at QB. That was on Coach Fickell. So, hopefully that's a step in the right direction to him assuming authority over a staff which, to be fair, is nearly identical to the staff under Tressel.

Developing the respect and confidence of players takes some time. Tressel didn't get it right away, either. 2001 was littered with losses that could have been wins and -- frankly -- would have been wins later in his career. Part of it is players weren't recruited to play for Coach Fickell (or Coach Tressel). Now, Coach Fickell is a great recruiter and had a big part in bringing a lot of the players to Columbus, so the continuity is by and large there (unlike, say, RichGOD). The other part is winning -- earning the players' respect. There's no real quick fix for that.

I'm not sold on Coach Fickell. I really don't know, either way, if he has what it takes to lead a pre-eminent CFB program. I'll have a better sense at the end of this year. The fact is that he's a "program" hire. There is, as noted, a lot of continuity. It is, quite frankly, akin to M hiring Coach Carr. Coach Carr, as we all know, struggled a bit in his first 3 years (struggling for M, back then, was 4 losses, heh) -- before fielding some really good teams and then, ultimately, fading a bit at the very end. Fickell, IMO, can be at that level. It's not exactly earth-shattering, but it's solid. And with next year's team, solid may be all it takes to put together a really good run.

[iam416]

Oh, as for 2012, OL will be thin -- that will be the area of concern. Well, that and QB. Defense will be stacked from front to back.

If Miller develops into a competent QB by the end of this season, I'll be very optimistic for 2012. Trips to Madison and Happy Valley are always tough, but I'll really like that team's chances to go 11-1 or better.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Fickell should replace Bollman with Rich Rod. Heh.

[iam416]

Don't even joke about that, DSL.