If it was just one thing, I think you could look at that and say ‘fix it’, like pass protection, bad quarterback play, receivers dropping passes, or offensive play calling.

It’s all of it. And there’s a feeling that Luke Fickell won’t do anything about it, because he really can’t. He’s a defensive guy that has given the offense to Jim Bollman by fiat, and Bollman is proving he doesn’t know what to do with the talent he has. In the past Tressel would take over for Bollman and put in the right personnel and call the right plays, but that’s gone.

Where Tressel did a pretty good job of putting the players in position to make plays, and building an offense around the talent he had at his disposal, Bollman seems intent on trying to force the square peg in to the round hole, and then blame the peg when he can’t get through.

OSU has a stunning dearth of playmakers—the go to receivers and best option at quarterback are wide eyed freshmen, and the quarterback is asked to play in a system that is not taking advantage of his natural running ability. They expect him to try and run an offense like an upperclassman, and when he doesn’t, the coaching staff seems surprised.

Give Tressel credit for this—he knew the ability and ceiling of his players, and rarely put them in a position where he would be forced to ask more from them than he knew they were capable of delivering. When he famously reigned in Pryor after the Purdue debacle, OSU’s offense might have gotten boring, but they won, to include MIchigan and the Rose Bowl…after they had an extra 6 weeks of practice and get TP comfortable with what they wanted him to do.

I sense that neither Fickell or Bollman have any idea what to do offensively, except to keep trying to push that square through that circle. It has failed miserably against quality competition, and I expect it to continue to fail.

They have already clearly stated that HC experience is a must. It is also important to hire a guy with connections to the program. They learned their lesson with Cooper in regards to outsiders. There is a pretty extensive list of former assistants now serving as head coaches. Regardless of what you may think, tOSU is regarded as one of the top jobs in the country.

No way I want Chryst as head coach. I’m not saying he isn’t a good offensive coordinator, nor am I saying he won’t make a fine coach, but right now OSU is not a program where you wear the head coach’s headset for the first time.

The program needs a well respected coach that’s run a big time school or pro team before.