I did find the thread from last year:
http://tinyurl.com/p4l4b22
It's not the one that showed the correlation, but I do note that I used a different scoring system, 3-2-1 instead of 5-3-1, plus last year I gave bonus points for the special awards like player of the year. Last year's system is probably more reasonable, so I re-scored this year's awards to last year's system, and it cleans up the order a little bit, and the correlation to wins (except for Ohio) is more striking:

NIU 30pts 6 conference wins
BG 26, 7
Toledo 22, 6
WMU 21, 6
CMU 13, 6
Kent 12, 2
Ball St 12, 2
UMass 10, 2
Akron 9, 5
Buffalo 9, 3
Ohio 6, 5
Maimi 3, 2
EMU 3, 0

Also, from that thread, here's the Ohio history:
1990 - 0
1991 - 8
1992 - 7
1993 - 10
1994 - 4 (Average for Lichtenberg=5.8)
1995 - 4
1996 - 13
1997 - 9
1998 - 16
1999 - 8
2000 - 11 (Average for Grobe=10.2)
2001 - 3
2002 - 5
2003 - 0
2004 - 2 (Average for Knorr=2.5)
2005 - 10
2006 - 18
2007 - 14
2008 - 10
2009 - 21
2010 - 14
2011 - 9
2012 - 10
2013 - 13
2014 - 5
2015 - 6 (Average for Solich=11.8)

I think that part of the reason for this year's low Ohio numbers is that there is a strong bias towards giving these awards to Seniors. Many of Ohio's Seniors spent a lot of time hurt, such as Jovon Johnson, Devin Bass, Derrius Vick and Nathan Carpenter. Ohio has a lot of talent in the underclassmen, particularly the Sophomore class.

For what it's worth, here are the people they honored at ILB in addition to Poling, and they are almost all Seniors:
1st Team - Mays, Northern Illinois - Senior
1st Team - Valdez, Bowling Green - RS Freshman
2d Team - Ibe, EMU Senior
2d Team - Santos-Knox, UMass Senior
3rd Team - Dellinger, Kent Senior

Of course, and it says it quite clearly, but, what is it saying? To me, since the awards are mostly given to Seniors, I think it's another view in the rear-view mirror, and we see yet another view of the drop in talent that we saw in the recruiting classes of 2010-2011.

As noted above, there is a strong correlation between the awards and how many conference wins each team had, except that Ohio is far out of place both of the last two years, near the bottom in awards, but finished 2d in the East both years. That forces you to take one of two views. One possibility is that Ohio is being intentionally slighted for some reason. The other possibility is that Ohio is winning games despite not having top talent.

My personal view is the latter one. I believe that there was a big drop in the quality of recruits in 2010-2011, and that since then there has been a steady rise, with 2014-2015 being the best classes yet. I also believe that through coaching and teamwork, Ohio has continued to win games despite not having top talent. The next two years we will have much better talent in the upper classes than we had the last two years, and as a consequence, I expect continuing improvement in results.

Should Solich be fired for having those bad recruiting classes? Perhaps, but if so, shouldn't he have been fired in 2011 when the problem happened? Probably, but of course, what the fans saw was that Ohio was at the top. Fans, unfortunately, are always are looking in the rear view mirror, and they couldn't see the developing problems yet. Note, however, that Solich did see the problems and changed recruiting coordinators, and changed how they did things. By 2012 they were doing much more with online methods, like twitter, for example, and the results improved.

Note also, that if Ohio had not changed their recruiting, and they were still getting classes like 2011-2012, I would agree with those that want a coaching change. The reason that I don't agree is that I think there already was a change, and that change took place in 2011-2012, and that we will are already starting to see the results, with a better 2015, and we will see more of them next year.

It's not all on the RB. The line play has clearly changed throughout this season. Playing a full dose of Oullette during our 3-game skid would not likely have made much difference. I don't believe, over the past three games, Oullette suddenly became an All-MAC quality RB. He looked good on his own, yes, but you can't overlook the improved line play over those games.

On another point, one advantage to a committee of running backs is our response to injury. When Patterson went out, we were able to respond much better than if we had to break-in unproven backs.

Even though I follow recruiting, I don't claim to be able to truly analyze a class. The last few years I have started watching the film myself more, and seeing if I can do any better than the ratings services, who don't seem to do all that well. To me the most accurate gauge is probably the comments Solich makes about them in the fall. In 2013 he said that he thought that class was very good. In 2014 he said it was the best class he'd had at Ohio. In 2015 he said that there wasn't even one player that they got where he might be inclined to even think that there might have been a mistake.

As for QB recruiting and development, as you know there was not long ago a change in QB coach. Someone made the point that under Gdowski you couldn't see a lot of improvement in QBs from year to year, and noted as an example that TT's best year was as a Sophomore. Now, I think Spague and Vick both looked substantially better this year than last (at least while Vick was healthy), so, so far at least, Isphording seems to be doing a good job at development.

What about recruiting? The first real QB recruit with Isphording as the QB coach was Maxwell. I was very impressed with his high school film, and I think he's going to be great. No one else was impressed at all, so I'm alone in that opinion. Time will tell who is right. There is no QB recruit in this year's class yet, so I have no clue if there will be one at all, or, if there is, if it will be a JUCO. I'm just waiting, like everyone else, to see what happens.

Your question makes sense, and I can only speculate, but I assume the coaches planned to use Patterson and Oullette in different situations: Patterson as a scat-back/outside threat. Oullette as a power back.

When Patterson went out, Oullette's role was re-evaluated and he carried the ball more, expanding his role beyond just power-back circumstances.

Again, that's all speculation. I could be way off.

As for Patterson's history of carrying the ball more often, I suspect that has as much to do with his leadership role as his pure talent.

The coaches need to play the best players period. They are loyal to the backs that they and we know, they leave yards on the field every time they let our best backs sit. All of the backs can play, but they need to let the best back get in rhythm. The best back in my opinion is not AJ or Daz. AJ is pretty darn good, but we have a back that could be the best in the conference. Daz has tremendous heart and could start on half the MAC teams, but he should not have been starting on this one.

Why recruit when you won't play the best players?

We will see. We need to start winning in the living room and be courageous and play the best players. If we want to win, our players have to compete for their positions.

This is a puzzling comment. Obviously the players compete for positions, and equally obviously the coaches play the ones that they think give them the best chance of winning. Solich himself was a running back, and then was one of the premier running backs coaches in the country. He has coached many, many NFL running backs, so I tend to think he knows what he is doing and will develop running backs in an appropriate way.

I know you think Irons is great. I also know that, based on his comments, Solich thinks that Irons WILL be great. That's really the difference.

This is why coaches shouldn't read fan messageboards; other than LC does any of us know what we're talking about vis-a-vis coaching the team? I know for a fact I don't and I admit that freely.

Allen believes Ohio is crazy for not starting Maleek Irons I presume. Several posts earlier, BSHOT44 is just as adamant, but not that Ohio was stupid not for starting Irons always but for not starting AJ. Which one is right? Both I'm sure believe they're informed and truly believe they know what they're talking about. But one is wrong. By definition both can't be right.

I didn't say you were a coach (although I'd hire you); I said you knew what you're talking about! :) Me on the other hand, not so much......

We will see. had Russell not got injured, Poling would not be starting. Russell was a good player, but Poling is great.

Bcat2, we have already established that you are not in any emotional condition to accept the truth. If a player were to drop three passes in a row and somebody commented on it, you would cry and say that person was not a true bobcat fan. I don't know your deal, but whatever it is, it is not reality.

I will repeat again, I love our coaches, but they have their flaws. We sure have some people on this board that would make great political advisors or publicists. The way you spin 2-12 against winning MAC programs in the last four years, the fact we will be number 8 in the MAC in recruiting and baring witness to bigger and faster players riding the pine. I love the coaches, they have to make adjustments. They ask the players to believe and be relentless, I ask them to believe and be relentless in the kids living room's, admit that they do not know how to recruit quarterbacks and get someone in here that can. A strong arm does not make you a good quarter back. Ask Brown's fans about Spergon Wynn. The fact that we have four qb's who we offered scholarships to and a walk on, whom we only offered preferred status to beats them out.

These are the cold hard facts, we will not win a championship until we do this. Lets go Cats.

When Poling got injured, they moved AJ to OLB. The reason why was because they found a place where they could plug him into the starting lineup. You don't move your best running back to linebacker. They know they have better tailbacks, but they want to find a spot for AJ. Let's be honest, AJ did a great job last year and they feel he deserves to play somewhere. Daz was a senior that did everything right so he had to play. The coaches are loyal to their guys, Urban Meyer did the same thing with Jones, but at some point the best players have to play. AJ is a great back amongst great backs.