Indeed. Lanning played the system, but so did he.

I think a lot of people are forgetting with the loss just how truly close it was. The TCUN game last year was by one score, but they had momentum for most of the game and stopped our drive around midfield, so that felt relatively less close than this game.

THIS time it was very back-and-forth the whole time, plus it was an away game all the way across the country and we quite literally had them dead to rites until a penalty pushed us back. Repeat that game in Indy, or especially Columbus, and it’s easily a win for us in most scenarios.

All that to say: I think that the loss will push our team. I would be delighted to rematch Oregon in the Big Ten championship.

(edit: dumb repeat)

I think that makes it an even game at worst though, considering Oregon pretty clearly had an interception at the beginning that was ruled in our favor. We essentially had one drive-killing penalty in our favor and one drive-killing penalty in theirs.

Quoting an earlier comment, but you’d do best not to bring up Georgia if you’re trying to make a case against Day:

2017 L 23-26 to Bama in NC

2018 L 28-35 to Bama in CCG

2019 L 10-37 to LSU in CCG

2020 L 24-41 to Bama

2021 L 24-41 to Bama in CCG

2021 W 34-11 vs TCUN in CFP

2021 W 33-18 vs Bama in CFPNC

It took UGA a while.

It’s also worth noting that Georgia won their natties against a Bama squad after Jamo blew out his knee and an overmatched TCU squad.

I think we are letting the 1-7 figure influence our thinking too much. Look at all of the other “elite coaches” who have had recent playoff success or national titles:

- Kirby Smart still sucks against Alabama

- Kalen DeBoer just lost to Vanderbilt

- Hairball (if you even count him) lost to us for years, cheated, and then skidaddled

Several other natty/playoff-game winning like Sonny Dykes, Ed Orgeron, Dabo Swinney, etc have almost completely disappeared from the elite conversation altogether. Nick Saban is really the only coach I can think of that has a record vs. top 5 teams that would satisfy Ohio State fans.

The question comes down to: “Is there another coach out there who could bring us past these obstacles, or is it better to stick with Day and hope he overcomes them with more time (similar to Kirby Smart)?” Getting a new coach pretty much always involves reestablishing stability, and I think that firing day would simply blow up any foundations that we have for someone worse. I don’t think there is a guy out there with Nick Saban-level talent that we can get to replace Day.

You were pleased with his performance last night?

“You disagree with my belligerence and rudeness towards one of our team’s leaders who had a rough game last night, so that must mean you support mediocrity.”

Or perhaps he had a rough game against a top 3 opponent and our season is still alive and well, so being as dramatic and angry as you may be a little bit of an overreaction?

What are you talking about? I don’t think that Ryan Day can telepathically communicate with Howard mid-play and say “Okay, slide now!”

Howard was absolutely down before the clock hit zero, but it is just never a good idea to cut it that close. You don’t want to give the other team or the refs the chance to screw you over. I have personally never seen a team get a timeout off with only one second on the clock (though I have seen it with two).

Running was the right decision there. He just looked a little too long, which is perfectly understandable considering the scenario, as unfortunate as it is.

Agree with you on the interception, but I feel like the other two are balanced out by the fact that we lost arguably our best offensive lineman in the first half and we had to travel over 2,000 miles to get there. Seriously: there’s home field advantage and then there’s going from east to west coast.

Oregon was definitely the better team that day in my opinion, but I don’t think it’s accurate to say they “turned us over”. They made some mistakes too and it was about as tight as it could get.

I didn't mention that specifically since I felt like I covered it under the Zen Michalski section, but HOLY CRAP, that may be the most lasting consequence. I'm more worried about losing Simmons than I am about losing a game.

Definitely wasn’t always the case. See Haskins leading the Buckeyes to a 12-1 championship and not making the playoffs because the Sooners were lucky enough for their loss to be their B12 opponent in their CCG.

When you hit that arrow down, you are literally confirming you've never seen a vagina.

Compelling argument.

In all seriousness, the downvote is used for whatever the users on this site darn well please, and that’s not up to either of us. Someone complimented my signature the other day and got a bunch of DVs for it. Neither of us complained. Just the way of the forums.

If you want to share your opinion online, be ready for dislikes, deserved or undeserved.

(Abstaining from commenting on the post itself due to its political nature)

I’m not saying our nation’s leaders or parties are above criticism, but as a football guy, he’s risking unnecessary drama and potential friction with fans, recruits, etc. by posting things like this. Those guys aren’t following him for political statements.

Support his freedom to do what he wants with his platform. Slightly concerns me as a fan, and I hope this will not be a recurring trend.

And hopefully #1 in two weeks, after we beat Oregon in Eugene.

It’d be one thing if Bama lost a close one to Texas, but since they lost to Vandy, my guess is that Georgia will be above them and won’t fall much (maybe below Oregon).

We saw the same thing in 2021 after we lost to Oregon. They were ranked above us for a while, but then the Ducks dropped one to UR Stanford. After that, they were ranked below us again, presumably because they had a “worse loss” even if they technically had the H2H.

Forgot Texas A&M, who beat a definitely-not-overrated Mizzou team. They should be #10 above OSU.

The Michigan defense has to compensate for the joke they call a quarterback room, making limiting the opponent's scoring offense 1,000x harder because they have much better field position. Put TCUN's defense on any top 50 offense and I guarantee it will perform many times better. And about your two examples, Minnesota (who got 24 points, not 27) was almost entirely shut down until the 4th quarter and Washington had the massive advantage of forcing Michigan to travel 2,000+ miles to Seattle. And even then they picked off Will Rogers, who is INCREDIBLY safe with the ball and has never thrown double-digit INTs in 4 years starting.

So excuse me for acknowledging Texas' offense, which had 31 points, no turnovers, and nearly 400 yards when they had to travel from Austin to Ann Arbor.

Don't think he played well enough to be in the top 5, but Will Howard is worth mentioning. A shaky first half with a pretty questionable interception, followed by a very solid bounceback in the second half. He still needs to show that he can perform that well against better opponents for a full game, but his adaptation and perseverence are admirable and great traits for our starting QB.

Zero reason for OSU not to be #1... We took one of the nations best RB and made him a non factor.

Texas put up 31 points against a stout defense in one of the most difficult places to play in college football. I'm not saying they're better than us, but that game proves more about Texas than any one of ours proves about us.

Either way, our hope is that we can go to Eugene and stomp out an even better opponent, cementing our place as the #1 team.

It was funny watching people say Ohio State "is playing nobody" while simultaneously excusing Alabama for having a slow start against USF, and now THREE SEC teams have fallen after facing relatively middle/lower end conference opponents, while we have wiped the floor with Iowa and MSU.

Texas/Ohio State aren't going to fall below Oregon. Ohio State has looked better and played better against a common opponent (MSU), while Texas hasn't really shown much weakness even on a back-up QB. The question is whether the voters like Georgia or Oregon more.

Georgia:

• Blowout win over ranked Clemson
• Played a much tougher schedule than Oregon
• Only loss was a close away game to a ranked opponent

Oregon:

• 3-point win over ranked Boise State
• Has been playing better than Georgia the last 3 weeks
• No loss at all

My guess is that the voters go with Georgia due to "strength of schedule". However, with Alabama losing to Vandy, it's possible that they look at that loss less favorably and give Oregon the nod. The hope is that, regardless, on October 12th, Oregon will join Georgia in the teams with at least 1 in the losing column.

Go Bucks!

Aged like fine wine after Mizzou got obliterated by TA&M.

That TD throw reminded me of the throw Howard threw in the spring game, where Egbuka caught it with one hand. Everyone was eager to get on Howard's case on that throw too, but what they didn't realize was that was the safest place to put it. Any further ahead and it's uncatchable, but any further behind and it's getting deflected or picked. Tough catch, yes, but if you're going to throw it there, that was the place to put it. And with the receivers we have, that's not a bad bet to take.

Not a bad throw at all, and anyone that says otherwise is probably too hung up on Brown's previous disappointments to give him the benefit of the doubt on this play.