allen, that others are using the old terminology doesn't mean much. Some people still use D-1a and D-1aa, and most readers understand what they mean, but it's not the correct name for those divisions any more. It's now FBS and FCS. I understood what you meant when you said BCS Bowl, and I suspect most others did, too. However, it's better to use the correct terms when you know what they are. Let's just move on. I see no value in rehashing this over and over.

For the record, I'd love t have Malik Zaire at QB for OHIO next year. I suspect he would guide us to a MACC. The dude from UMich might be able to do that too. Also, the JUCO transfer looks very good to me. We may go from QB-poor to QB-rich next year. That would be an unusual luxury for OHIO in modern times.

+1

LC, I agree with most of this, we need to shore up the corner back position. I can't wait to see Mayne Williams and Hagan at safety. We also need to add some wide receivers. I think Cherry may play right away and i hear that Odom is fast and good.

You made a mistake and were wrong. The AP obviously made a mistake (which they do a lot) and they are wrong. There is no such thing as the BCS anymore. It died in 2013. End. Of. Discussion.

What's meaningless is getting excited over 8-6. MAC East title aside, this was pretty ho-hum year...again in terms of wins and losses.

A couple games they should've won at home (TxSt, EMU)...and a bowl loss

It's like a broken record. Different year, same discussion.

Wake me when we break out of this rut and pull off a 11-3 season. Or hell a 12-2 year.

Too much to ask? Shouldn't be 13 years into this era

By most measures, Ohio's defense was the best in the MAC and by a good margin. It probably was one of the best run-stopping defenses in the MAC in many years. That part will be nearly impossible to repeat, but the pass defense no doubt should be improved. I'm just not sure it will be improved enough to make up for the drop-off that surely will occur up front. Still should be very good on defense.

Even if our defense is not as good talent or experience wise, how much would a more competent offense improve life for our defense? If our O-line makes a jump with their experience and we can get some decent quarterbacking, I think our defense could put up better numbers as far as points and yards go.

The whole point, Monroe, is that the defense has been pretty good, year in, year out. The exception would be right after they switched to the Cover-4. During the first 2 years of the Cover-4 they had an unusually high number of "crashing losses", or whatever you called them, as teams exposed flaws in Ohio's implementation of the Cover-4. They seemed to have fixed most of those flaws, and the Cover-4 is working better now.

Going back, the three best defenses in recent years in terms of Scoring defense have been 2009 (21.3), 2011 (22.1), and 2016 (22.6), all three of which were MAC-East Championship years. The average is 24.2 points, so if Ohio slips back to the average, as you suggest, it won't be a huge drop.

By the way, comparing the 2009-13 years (Cover-2) with the 2014-16 years (Cover 4), the numbers are:
Points: Cover-2=23.9, Cover-4=24.2
Total Yards: Cover-2=371.6, Cover-4=377.4
Yards Rushing: Cover-2=153.3, Cover-4=135.2
Yards Passing: Cover-2=220.8, Cover-4=242.2
Pass Efficiency Def: Cover-2=122.9, Cover-4=128.9

So... the net effect is about the same. The cover-4 stops the run better, the cover-2 does better against the pass.

How was this year's defense? With a great front 7, and a suspect back 4 you'd expect to find great run defense, and poor pass defense, and that's exactly what you find. Against the run, the 104.4 yards given up was the best, by far, while the 255.8 yards that it gave up against the pass was the 2d worst, while the pass efficiency defense was the worst at 135.2.

If next year's defense moves towards the norm, expect the yards rushing to move up to 135, and the passing to come down a little to 235 or so, and the points to go up tad, to about 24. That would make it about the same as 2010.

I think we will be stout, we rotated a lot of guys and we had five redshirts who look pretty good on film. Cornerback will be the biggest worry on defense.

I agree, and this is a place where my "splinter statistics" fall down. If the offense had been better this year, this year's defense would have looked even better.