The Sports Rotation

Let me first say that I rarely if ever agree with college football fan bases.  Often they are illogical, uninformed, and sometimes spoiled when their team is a major program that is used to winning. So there should be some trepidation on behalf of outsiders when listening to, as well as joining in on Ohio State fans bashing Jim Tressel for his conservative play calling.  After all, year after year Tressel continues to win the recruiting wars in the Big 10.  His teams are consistently ranked in the top 10 year after year are always in the national championship hunt.  He has a national championship on his resume already (winning a surprising one in 2002).  Even beating Michigan has become all too common place for the Ohio State program.  But even with all of Tressel's accomplishments, the criticism over his conservative offensive play calling should be considered.

Realistically, Ohio State doesn't have the athletes to match up with USC or UF (and if you think they do you're lying to yourself).  Those programs have top 10 players who can't even get on the field. Mitch Mustain  who was the top rated quarterback in the nation is holding a clipboard at USC.  Emmanuel Moody was the Pac 10 freshman of the year, and he is just now getting playing time in Florida's backfield.  The depth of those schools is just amazing.  And for the most part in college football the team with the better athletes and the more depth win (except if your Illinois and Ron Zook is coaching your team). 

But the one glaring advantage that Ohio State does have over other schools is the freakish athletic ability of Terrelle Pryor .  And I can't understand why Tressel is so hesitant to unleash him.  Why  recruit a quarterback (who was never considered your typical pocket quarterback) and handcuff him to a vanilla predictable offensive scheme?    It just doesn't seem to play to Pryor's strengths.  And it doesn't put fear in the minds of defensive coordinators with top defenses like USC.  Defenses tend to stand up and take notice of a 6'6 quarterback that can run a 4.3 and has a great arm. 

Tressel can be conservative, play for field position, and talk about controlling the clock all he wants.  But those views haven't helped him win big games recently and that predictable nature might be his downfall.  Especially if he can't win against the highly unpredictable and highly successful Rich Rodriguez and longtime rival Michigan when they eventually meet.