Notre Dame and Ohio State haven’t played much throughout history but when they do it tends to be a huge game at the time of kickoff. The Irish head to Columbus to open the 2022 season in what will be the 5th straight game in this series between Top 10 teams. And if we include the 1935 “Game of the Century” (the AP Poll began a year later in 1936) this Saturday would be the 4th out of 7 overall games between top 5 teams at kickoff.
For Notre Dame, they open the debut season of 36-year old head coach Marcus Freeman looking for a fresh start but thrown right into the meat grinder facing Notre Dame’s first season-opener against a top 5 team since 2001 (Nebraska) and first top 2 opponent season-opener in school history.
#5 Notre Dame (+17) at #2 Ohio State
Ohio Stadium
Columbus, Ohio
Date: Saturday, September 3, 2022
Time: 7:30 PM ET
TV: ABC
Series: 4-2-0 Ohio State
Ohio State promoted then 39-year old offensive coordinator Ryan Day to head coach and he heads into his 4th season with a bevy of accolades: 2 Big Ten titles, a Rose Bowl win, a Sugar Bowl win, and appearances in 2 playoffs. With a 34-4 overall record, Day’s winning percentage of .894 ranks him ahead of Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy for the best ever at the FBS level.
However, the Buckeyes head into 2022 with the highest of expectations still bruising from the first 2 regular season losses of the Day era last year and hoping for the school’s 9th National Championship this fall as the heavy favorite to win the Big Ten.
Ohio State’s Offense
The Buckeyes bring back last year’s 4th place Heisman finisher in addition to the Biletnikoff Award favorite, several other young players looking to make the jump into key starting roles, and a re-shuffled offensive line.
2021 Stats:
PPG: 45.7 (1st)
Points High: 66, Maryland
Points Low: 26, Nebraska
YPP: 7.96 (1st)
Returning Starts: 85 of 143
Out of the 6 Ohio State players to make a start in 2021 who are now gone, 5 were picked in this past spring’s NFL Draft, including: WR Chris Olave (10th), WR Garrett Wilson (11th), OT Nicholas Petit-Frere (69th), TE Jeremy Ruckert (101st), and OG Thayer Munford (238th). Rising senior lineman Harry Miller (8 career starts, 1 start last year) medically retired.
Projected Starters
Composite recruiting grades included
# denotes pre-season AP All-American
QB C.J. Stroud (r-SO) 0.9780 #
RB TreVeyon Henderson (SO) 0.9872 #
WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba (JR) 0.9856 #
WR Julian Fleming (JR) 0.9979
WR Marvin Harrison, Jr. (SO) 0.9583
TE Cade Stover (r-JR) 0.9487
LT Paris Johnson (JR) 0.9953 #
LG Donovan Jackson (SO) 0.9901
C Luke Wypler (r-SO) 0.9523
RG Matthew Jones (5th SR) 0.9652
RT Dawand Jones (r-JR) 0.8527 #
The offense revolves around redshirt sophomore C.J. Stroud who is coming off a freshman All-American season that saw the Californian set 17 school records while finishing 2nd nationally among Power 5 quarterbacks in passing yards per game and passing touchdowns while 1st from that group in passer rating. At 6’3″ and 215 pounds, Stroud isn’t much of a runner but slides around in the pocket really well with a quick and very smooth release. He’s hyper-accurate (71.9% completions last year) and throws an extremely catchable deep ball. Stroud will be in a season-long battle with Alabama’s Bryce Young to be the top quarterback in the 2023 NFL Draft should he decided to leave after this fall.
Stopping the Stroud to Smith-Njigba air connection will be priority number one for the Irish. The true junior caught only 10 balls as a freshman but exploded in 2021 finishing 1st nationally among Power 5 wideouts in yards per game, and really turned it on over their final 5 games where he caught an absurd 60 passes for 958 yards.
At 6’0″ and 198 pounds, Smith-Njigba isn’t a true burner downfield (think more Golden Tate than Will Fuller). He can certainly run away from folks at times but he’s elite with his first-step, acceleration, route-running, and thrives in the short-to-intermediate game where he’s terrific at getting separation or using surprising strength on contested catches.
JSN is a problem.
Ohio State is hoping for a big jump from Julian Fleming and Marvin Harrison, Jr. to surround JSN as depth and proven production behind their star receiver is a question mark. They’ll also sprinkle in former 5-star Emeka Egbuka who caught 9 passes last year and is a big return guy.
Running back talent hasn’t been a problem for Ohio State and they will be led by super sophomore TreVeyon Henderson who had a slow start last year sitting behind (then) sophomore Miyan Williams only to take over the the starting job in week 3. Henderson would finish with the 2nd most rushing yards for a freshman in Ohio State history and break the overall touchdown record for freshmen Buckeyes.
OSU was hoping for more depth from former top 100 recruit Evan Pryor but he is out for the season due to a knee injury. It’ll be Henderson carrying the load with Williams largely in a power-back role.
The Buckeyes are moving Paris Johnson from right guard out to left tackle with veteran Matthew Jones coming in at right guard. Replacing Thayer Munford at left guard is former 5-star Donovan Jackson who played a little bit in a backup role last year. Both Luke Wypler and Dawand Jones are returning starters at their positions.
Ohio State’s Defense
Ohio State’s defense let them down big time in both of their losses last season. They brought in Ohio native and former Ohio State assistant Kerry Coombs to coordinate the defense back in 2020 and his 2-year stint didn’t go very well, to be kind. They took away his play-calling duties early in 2021 (never a good sign) and fired him prior to the Rose Bowl last season.
2021 Stats:
PPG: 22.8 (38th)
Points High: 45, Utah
Points Low: 7, Akron/Indiana/Michigan State
YPP: 5.33 (43rd)
Returning Starts: 92 of 143
A total of 8 players made starts at Ohio State last year who are no longer on the team for 2022. Only one player, defensive end Tyreke Smith (158th overall) was taken in the NFL Draft. The journey for the other 7 players:
- DT Haskell Garrett (8 starts) – Undrafted
- DT Antwuan Jackson (6 starts) – Undrafted
- CB Marcus Williamson (6 starts) – Retired (ahem) during the Rose Bowl
- CB Sevyn Banks (6 starts) – Transfer to LSU
- CB Ryan Watts (2 starts) – Transfer to Texas
- S Bryson Shaw (12 starts) – Transfer to USC
- S Craig Young (1 start) Transfer to Kansas
In comes new coordinator Jim Knowles hired away from Oklahoma State following a successful 4 seasons with the Cowboys. He brings with him an aggressive 4-2-5 scheme with an emphasis on improving their secondary and filling gaps with down-hill disruptive defensive back play, particularly from the safeties. This is the same scheme Notre Dame saw in the Fiesta Bowl even though Knowles had already left Stillwater before the game.
Ohio State’s defense is decidedly not their offense in terms of proven talent.
Projected Starters
DE Zach Harrison (SR) 0.9933 or J.T. Tuimoloau (SO) 0.9989
NT Taron Vincent (5th SR) 0.9884 or Jerron Cage (5th SR) 0.9105
DT Tyleik Williams (SO) 0.9288
JACK Jack Sawyer (SO) 0.9980
LB Tommy Eichenberg (r-SO) 0.8966
LB Steele Chambers (r-JR) 0.9126
CB Denzel Burke (SO) 0.9214
S Ronnie Hickman (JR) 0.9485
S Tanner McCallister (5th SR) 0.8710
S Josh Proctor (5th SR) 0.9640
CB Cameron Brown (5th SR) 0.8971
Zach Harrison and Taron Vincent are former big-time recruits who haven’t quite lived up to expectations. Coming up behind them sophomores Tyleik Williams and Jack Sawyer are expected to be major playmakers for the Buckeyes.
Ohio State likes Tommy Eichenberg (younger brother of former Irish lineman Liam Eichenberg) and Steele Chambers but they probably aren’t the type of playmakers keeping Tommy Rees up at night. With an aggressive secondary, I’d expect Rees to get these linebackers into as many unfavorable matchups with Michael Mayer and Lorenzo Styles as possible.
Will Harrison finally break out?
With it being Knowles’ specialty, we should see improvement in Ohio State’s secondary. They welcome back corner Josh Proctor who missed most of last season after breaking his leg against Oregon. They also brought in veteran Tanner McCalister from Oklahoma State to provide experience in this new 4-2-5 system.
Ronnie Hickman is a really good, experienced safety. There’s also a lot of emerging hype for sophomore Denzel Burke who started all 13 games last year and was named to several freshman All-American teams.
Prediction
Does this rather large spread feel disrespectful to Notre Dame?
First, we have to admit that playing at Ohio State, at night, is one of the toughest places to play in the country. Their fan base’s reputation is well-known and we can expect some nerves from the Irish with a largely new coaching staff, plus a young quarterback making his first career start.
Since 2012 (after the weird Luke Fickell transitional year) Ohio State is 63-4 at home. Notre Dame is 31-2 at home since 2017 for a similar winning percentage, except Ohio State’s record is twice as long. Before that transitional year the Buckeyes were also 60-5 over Jim Tressel’s final 9 seasons with the program. Rarely do they lose on home turf.
But, it happened just last year against Oregon!
Yes, Ohio State’s defense did not play very well at all. They allowed 17 plays of at least 10 yards (including a 77-yard rushing touchdown) and Oregon scored touchdowns on all 4 red zone opportunities. Remember this for later.
On the other side, the Buckeyes offense just couldn’t seal the deal. They amassed 612 yards, 7.2 yards per play, 32 first downs, but failed on a pair of 4th downs inside Oregon’s 40, failed another 4th down from the Ducks’ 8-yard line, couldn’t get a field goal on a late drive to end the 2nd quarter, and Stroud threw a late interception in the 4th quarter.
Everyone starts somewhere. FEI preseason projections: https://t.co/otKZVrbhZV pic.twitter.com/r3WX2fCf1g
— Brian Fremeau (@bcfremeau) August 23, 2022
My point is, this Ohio State offense is extremely dangerous and Oregon needed a whole lot to fall their way not to lose by a couple touchdowns–and that’s with the Ducks having a very nice day on offense.
Notre Dame can’t just play well up front, the Irish defensive line has to kick ass, neutralize Henderson in the run game, and try to make Ohio State one-dimensional in the passing game with constant pressure on Stroud.
In a tight game, you have to like Ohio State’s kicking situation (2021 North Carolina transfer Noah Ruggles was excellent going 20 of 21 on field goals and nailing all 74 PAT’s) over Notre Dame’s but if there’s a door open to an upset it could come in the red zone.
Ohio State generally cleaned up against bad defenses in the red zone but whenever a game was close, a poor touchdown percentage followed. That includes going just 1 of 6 on red zone touchdowns against Penn State and a combined 4 of 9 in their last 2 games against Michigan and Utah. You can imagine limiting big plays and touchdowns will be huge to force Ohio State to lean on its running game in compressed territory only to settle for field goals.
I expect Notre Dame’s offense to be extremely hot and cold. Taking a page out of the Fiesta Bowl, I believe Ohio State will be very aggressive in their run defense but also struggle with a very mobile quarterback at times. That aggressiveness could also open up plenty of one-on-one opportunities in the passing game. The Irish have to hope they can make explosive plays, finish drives in the red zone, and find out that Ohio State’s defense isn’t quite that improved yet. Even more, if they bracket Michael Mayer I think a 7-catch, 130-yard night from Lorenzo Styles is in play with at least one long touchdown.
If Notre Dame shows they can stop the run early, the Buckeyes re-tooled offensive line proves overrated, and Stroud is under fire, then maybe Ohio State will discover the support through the air outside of Smith-Njigba isn’t quite up to snuff.
I can’t predict a win. Not with so much inexperience in crucial areas like coaching and quarterback for Notre Dame. I think there’s good potential to zag with a lot of jitters on both sides leading to a very low-scoring game but eventually Ohio State will get theirs. Smith-Njigba plays so much in the slot, can get the ball on short passes anywhere on the field, and will be schemed away from Cam Hart in what is going to be a nightmare matchup for the Irish.
Very excited for the season, I love all of you, 12-0 EXCELSIOR
DESTINATION: GLORY! CHOO CHOO
14*-0 pls fix
Most years, I would say we should just stop after 12-0. But this year, that would mean beating tOSU and Clemson. If we did that, I’d think we could hang with the 3 or 4 seed in a playoff (50/50 chance we would get someone other than Bama/UGA).
Follow me on this: the SEC schedule plus title game gives each team in the conference two losses. ND is 12-0 with wins over 12-1 Clemson, 12-1 tOSU, and 12-1 USC. The playoff is number one seed Notre Dame and three also-rans the Irish have already defeated this season.
If it’s 11-2 SEC champ Bama, they’re probably still the #2 seed in this world. If it’s 11-2 SEC champ Georgia, say goodbye to USC or Clemson. It would be funny to see how many losses it would take for the SEC to be excluded. Committee would just contort to a “these are the best/strongest teams” and minimize record.
That score about sums up where I am at in predicting this game as well. For ND to have a chance, they will have to play lights out and Ohio State to lay an egg. I just don’t see that happening during the season opener at night in Columbus. That said, a 1-loss ND team come playoff selection time with that one loss coming from Ohio State is awfully enticing.
GO IRISH!
Hoping it’s slightly closer than your prediction. I jumped on ND +14.5 a month or two ago and then re-upped as a hedge when it moved to ND +17.5.
Forgot to post a score prediction: 3-0 OSU
The ghost of Woody Hayes will be pleased and also he will explain to us how My Lai was actually good.
How is taking ND again a hedge? Aren’t re-upping and hedging essentially antonyms?
Fair. I just meant a hedge in terms of, I’m sure ND will lose and I’m sure it will be between 10-20 points. So I’ve now got 75% of that range covered instead of 45%.
Pretty impressive even year regular season records for ND, by the way.
2012 – 12-0
2014 – 7-5 (what would have happened if OPI wasn’t called at FSU?)
2018 – 12-0
2020 – 10-0 (would have been 11-0 if the Wake Forest game wasn’t cancelled)
What happened in 2016?
In the words of the poet, “‘07 and ‘09 and ‘010 (and ‘016) didn’t exist”
This game could be as bad as 2017 Miami or 2012 Bama or any number of major bowl games. If ND tries to make this a shootout, I think that’s what we’ll get – OSU will be up three scores in a flash and the final will be like 45-17.
But it doesn’t have to be that way, and there are some reasons for optimism here:
-I don’t think this will be the type of across-the-board talent mismatch that we see when we play Bama. ND should match up evenly, and maybe even have a slight advantage, in the middle of the field on both sides of the ball.
-Because of that, ND can play a style of football that Ohio State struggles with sometimes, as they did with Oregon and Michigan last year. I think we need to be Super Navy – chew up huge amounts of clock, stress their LBs with speed options and quick tosses to the outside and then hit them in the middle with Mayer and inside runs. Go for it on fourth down often so we get to play with an “extra” down. Make this a painful and obnoxious game for OSU.
-Schematically, ND is sort of a black box right now. There’s no film of Buchner running a full offense as a starter in college. No one has seen Al Golden call a defense in 17 years. By contrast, we all know what Ohio State’s offense is, and we faced their DC’s scheme in our most recent game.
My guess is we’ll play Ohio State tough for about 2.5 quarters, then panic a bit when they hit some big plays late. 38-24 Ohio State final.
Mine is still stopping the run. Take out a 28-yard run and Henderson had 46 yards on 14 carries against Michigan. Even with the one nice run, overall the tOSU RB’s had 94 yards on 24 carries (3.9 per carry). I’d sign up for that right away if I could for Saturday.
Every time Notre Dame gets stomped by an elite team, it’s because Najee Harris or Travis Etienne can’t be stopped and reel off 7-8 yards on average. Then the defense is totally on their heels AND THEN the other team can pick and choose how to gash the defense, through the air or on the ground. (The game ND beat Clemson, Etienne had 28 yards on 18 carries and the costly fumble).
I guess I’m just resigned JSN is going to really hurt ND and get his, but make him be Drake London. Don’t let him take the top off the defense and even though they will pile up yards, try to make a stand and keep them out of the end zone.
Or make it like the Clemson win: let the other QB throw for a million yards, stop the run, get lucky on turnovers/big plays and who knows what could happen late.
—
Probably no right way to solve this riddle, first time starter in a super hostile stadium vs. the Heisman betting favorite. All the first round talent on the Buckeyes. In the above, their offense is built up to looks like NCAA14 dynasty, just pick out the 5-stars and develop them.
I think maybe 2 out of 10 times, ND can give them a game, but probably 3/10 it is a blowout that gets away from them. With the middle 5 chances being a relatively in control Ohio State win.
I’ll predict 31 – 20 tOSU, possibly with a backdoor cover to make the score look a little more respectable. I think it will be slightly lower scoring than most expect, with the ND plan being to try and control the ball as much as possible.
They have to stop the run of course but they have to do it with 6 guys in the box (with OSU is in 3 WR sets) because we need to be in nickel – even on first and second downs (again assuming 3 WRs) to stop the big pass plays.
It’ll be interesting to see how that unfolds, and I guess that is how tOSU gets ya. If you have the 3 LBs on the field, they’ll put JSN in the slot and burn you. If you have the extra DB on the field, the numbers shift to make running it favorable.
I think a big predictor after about two drives, if Henderson has 45-50+ yards on 7 or 8 carries then it’s going to be a very long night. (Or, maybe a short one for the competitive portion of the game). That’s what I dread is not being able stop the run and then they can just pick and choose. Which has pretty much happened in 3 of the last losses against Oklahoma St, Alabama, Clemson where the other team is in control and any option they choose is going to work.
Yea, exactly the difficulty. It’s why our DL needs to win big for us to have a chance.
But you are right we’d probably have to at least play “big nickel” and bring that third safety more into the running game if we couldn’t do it with 6 so that at least we have a safety in the slot. Maybe Joseph would have a chance to cover one of those guys in the slot but I’m not confident about that. We’d probably have to play a lot of zone in that case.
True. And why I’m curious about what Golden might bring to the table. tOSU has an NFL QB and not saying they have an NFL offense, but they probably have as much of a modern day pro-style offensive philosophy as much as anyone does in college. Could be a bonus to have Golden for this type of game, especially since tOSU has no real idea what he is going to throw out there against them. Will be interesting to see who figures who out, unless it just turns into Stroud picking them apart.
To your last point, it made me think of the depth chart. Might be nothing, but might be relevant that it has Joseph OR Henderson. I think I’d tweak it (didn’t Joseph struggle last year closer to the line? I think you want him back playing in space) but Henderson of course was a corner. So to your point, maybe ND does go 3 safeties on the field at one time.
Exciting to think about, just glad this game is almost here and over to be able to move onto the rest of the year.
I remember seeing comments about Golden and the secondary trying to disguise coverages a lot more – so we’ll see whether that NFL pedigree pays off for this game.
I thought the “ORs” for the safeties was done that way because they are telling the guys we have 4 starters.
Good point about Joseph struggling with tackling. A) I was thinking more about his coverage ability and guessing he might be most capable of covering a guy in the slot (but maybe that’s not true and maybe that’s Henderson). B) I would hope his tackling has improved so that it’s not really a concern.
It does seem we are deeper in the secondary this year – especially at corner. I’m still worried about strong safety. The old adage where you have 2 Qbs you have none might be true here – Brown and Griffith are both “starters” perhaps means we don’t really have a starting quality strong safety.
Could be at the end. I think Brown is mostly passable and gets a bad rap because he’s not automatic and doesn’t make a ton of plays, but is usually in the right spot and does his job. Has some bad moments, but overall I find him to be fine. I thought they just put Griffith with a nod that he will play a lot and as a reward to not bury the guy when they convinced him to not transfer.
They can’t do everything they’d like to do (bracket Mayer, spy Buchner) without leaving other things open. Buchner’s recognition of what’s happening and Rees staying a step ahead of Knowles being key.
ND has as good a defense as tOSU will see in the regular season. Hopefully being the first game tOSU has some kinks to work out.
Surely a bunch of things have to go ND’s way. tOSU 34 ND 27
Agree that Buchner’s reads on run plays are going to be just as big as his reads on pass plays. Too often over the years we’ve run a “zone read” offense where the QB seems to have already made up his mind before the snap. But last season, when Buchner would come in for a series or two, he was making crisp, decisive reads, that would lead to huge runs. Can he do that for a whole game, where the defense has had time to scheme for it? If he can, we have a chance to break off nearly as many explosive plays as OSU. But if he starts to panic and let’s the defense dictate the play before the ball is even snapped, we could be in for a long night.
Ohio State is going to have to punt more than people are crediting. The defensive line is going to get consistent pressure, the safeties will be able to rotate away from Cam and help with Smith-Njigba. DJ won’t make the mistakes the safety corp made collectively early last season and Clarence will be a bit better once he’s turned to run with receivers.
On offense we need good decision making from Buchner and great blocking from the offensive line. Tyree and Styles/Lenzy will have to match any explosive-play production OSU puts together on offense, but beside that we can be more efficient than OSU if Buchner’s ready to hit that third down curl to Mayer and not bury screens in the dirt in front of receivers.
Fighting Irish 31
Buckeyes 20
I think we will see a bit more flexibility out of the defense than in the past. Golden seems to be focused on training the LB’s, and DB’s to be able to fill in for each other, to know the whole defense, preaching position flexibility. It might be they can put Cam on Njigba in the slot due to this. I look forward to seeing what looks are presented.
The flexibility reminds me of a play Joe Schmidt made where he recognizes that the defense is misaligned, trys to correct it, nobody responds, so when the ball is snapped he flows from his position over to where the gap is due to misalignment and prevents what could have been a big play.
I think our defense will surprise a lot of people this year. Even when they are already projected to be the strength of the team. I just hope it all comes together in week one.
I’m with E on this one — lots of things would have to go right (or wrong, in OSU’s case) for ND to walk out with a win. I’ll say OSU 45 ND 23
I’m not sure Ryan Day is as strong a HC as people are giving him credit. I put him in the same category as Lincoln Riley. Both took over high end programs from Meyer and Stoops respectively and won titles in relatively weak conferences, but otherwise underachieved vs expectations.
Day in particular has been very slow to sort out his defense, and still may not have. He’s counting on Knowles to do that this year, but Knowles may not be as great as it seems on the surface. College Football Nerds had some interesting stats on his defense rankings in their Ohio State season preview. Not as hot performing as his reputation would lead you to believe, if their stats are correct.
I’d love to see OSU fall flat on their faces.
Ryan Day has lost four games in thirty-eight, plus his team this year going into the season (primarily stocked with his recruits) is #3 in SP+ and would be favored by a touchdown over the #4 team. To call that underachieving is pretty harsh.
With those high of expectations, it’s impossible to overachieve and very easy to underachieve so underachieving doesn’t exactly make one not a very good coach.
It’s possible that we’ll look back on Ohio State’s 2021 as the beginning of a post-Meyer slide, but there’s no way to know right now. It’s just as likely that 2021 was a minor blip for OSU that has been corrected by hiring Knowles.
Lotta five stars replacing the guys they lost in this preview. I suspect they’ll be fine.
Got blown out by 28 points by Bama in the ‘20 NCCG, lost his home opener last year to a bad Oregon team, and got blown out by Harbaugh, Harbaugh’s first win over OSU. Barely beat Utah in the Rose Bowl, with Utah playing an RB as a db trying to cover JSN in the second half.
Given the huge talent advantage he’s had, and playing in an over rated conference, I’d say his record is spotty at best vs the OSU standard.
His record is 34-4 and he’s made the playoffs in 2 out of 4 years and you seemed to have conveniently omitted the part where he beat Trevor Lawrence and Clemson by 21 in the playoffs (right after Clemson smoked ND).
Oh I remember that fine. And I remember his team losing to Bama by 28 10 days later. The Bama that ND lost to by only 17.
Part of what’s informing kiwifan’s argument is his opinion that the B1G is horribly overrated and going 34-4 in that context isn’t as impressive as the numbers suggest. I tend to agree that the B1G isn’t the murderer’s row everyone hypes it as, but I also think OSU is a great team notwithstanding.
Yes, that’s exactly it. He’s supposed to beat the likes of Indiana, Maryland , Rutgers, Purdue etc. And bad Oregon teams.
Talent isn’t the issue. As you say, OSU is a great team. He doesn’t have any excuses about lack of elite talent.
I’m saying he’s an OK coach. Not bad, but definitely not yet deserving the fawning he gets.
Fair enough, but that’s still overly picking nits. tOSU is 13-4 in the last four years against Top 25 teams. To suggest they only beat up on the poor conference teams and do little else misses a lot of the picture of his multiple playoff appearances and wins. Not to mention the talent he’s brought in and what they’re setup to do this year.
Yeah, that happens when you’re the only team in the conference to really recruit and also get to play Maryland and Rutgers. Joking aside, he’s a upper middle class man’s Larry Coker. He can grab a whole lot of talent, but it doesn’t seem like he can make the team better that the sum of its parts.
This. And Meyer left the cupboard full for him.
Meyer’s been gone for 5 years and they’re still stacked. It was advantageous to start out in a solid spot, but that Day has kept it up (and arguably even improved the talent level at places like QB and WR) speaks to why he is still getting the results now that the Meyer influence is long gone.
David Shaw had a nice run at Stanford the first 6 or so years after Harbaugh left, but he has been regressing. I hope Day is on a similar path. The difference between the two is that Shaw’s recruiting classes started to drop in quantity. Whereas, Day has continued to pull in highly rated talent. So it could be Day never sees the Shaw slide because of the talent that is coming in. However, I tend to believe Day is to Shaw as Meyer is to Harbaugh (at Stanford).
Time will tell, but I find this to be a wild take given recruiting and results. I think this evidence is pretty clear Day is clearly the real deal with staying power as a modern elite college coach.
Agreed this is a wild take. The recruiting speaks for itself. They’ve had wildly successful offenses with struggles on defense the last two years. They’ve replaced their DC. It’s hard not to see that for them the only way to go is up, so to speak (with all that talent).
Meyer’s last season was 2018.
Yes, and Harbaughs last season at Stanford was 2010.
…Yes? Am I missing something here?
No, mostly it was my miss. I thought the statement about Meyer’s last season at tOSU was directed at me.
Yeah, I was a year off. But my point was more that Day has had 4 recruiting classes, he did inherit a well-oiled machine but is disingenuous to me to act like he’s only been the beneficiary of someone else’s work. I don’t understand a lot of the dismissiveness to where they’re at right now, when it’s almost universally agreed that they have either the #1 or at worst #1A team in the country this year, after going 34-4 in the last three years.
Also, in the “coach in ND/tOSU game that’s been fawned over the most in the last 8 months”, it wouldn’t be Ryan Day as the winner of that…I would only hope for as much praise as Freeman’s gotten that he could replicate the results Day has over his stint so far, even if that “only” means 1 playoff win and winning 13/17 games against ranked teams…
Oh I completely agree. Freeman having a Day-like tenure would be phenomenal.
No idea what to expect.
Pessimistic side thinks this is just a tough way to break in a new head coach and starting QB. Optimistic side thinks their last two games showed they (like any team not named Bama) have flaws and can be beat.
I agree with both takes. Also would add that the reason the spread is 17 is that under Kelly, other than Clemson and perhaps Oklahoma, we have not shown that we are a team that can win that game.
It is probably too much to ask of a first time HC and first time starter at QB on the road. However, to the extent we felt Kelly was not getting everything out of these players, this would be a good opportunity to prove that right.
I want to win. I won’t be happy with a loss, but I will be satisfied if we are competitive.