One of the characteristics of Ohio under Solich has always been to not lose many games big. I thought I'd go back and look at how the various teams have done. Here is a list of games where Ohio lost by more than 25:

2005 - #4 Virginia Tech 45 (11-2), Central Michigan 27 (6-5), Miami 31(8-5)
2006 - none
2007 - none
2008 - none
2009 - none
2010 - #2 Ohio State 36 (12-1), Troy 27 (8-5)
2011 - none
2012 - none
2013 - #9 Louisville 42 (12-1), Buffalo 27 (8-5), BG 49 (10-4), Kent 31 (4-8)
2014 - Marshall 30 (13-1)

Clearly one of these years is very different than the other years. From 2006 onward, the only games Ohio ever lost by more than 25 were to teams that finished with 12 wins or more, except the Troy game, and except for three games in 2013.

We've already discussed the many reasons why 2013 had special issues, so there is no reason to beat that dead horse anymore. The one thing you can really see from this metric is that it was very different than the other years. Even though 2014 wasn't a great year, it was just a normal rebuilding year, and the problems that plagued the team in 2013 appear to be behind the team.

Excellent analysis and insight here. (I hadn't read this prior to my PM.)

We lost a lot of games by more than two scores this season.

WMU - 21 points
Kentucky - 17 points
CMU - 18 points
BG - 18 points
Marshall - 30 points

None of those games were competitive.

The football team is trending up. For a team that unfortunately is not, see the Men's basketball thread. 15-16 in the last 31 games doesn't look so bad right now, eh Monroe?

It could also be said that the 2013 MAC East (and the MAC in general) was much better than the 2014 version. What would the score have been if the 2014 Bobcats played the 2013 BG team? I would guess pretty ugly.

I see what you're trying to do though...The 2012-2014 period is just an anomaly and 2015 will return the Bobcats to their rightful place as top-tier MAC team. I just don't see it. Frank will never let us slip too far, but a MAC championship looks to be a loooong way off at least for the time being.

I wasn't really "trying to do" anything. Someone pm'd me the various point spreads of the losses, and it stuck out like a sore thumb, so I commented on it. I hadn't really looked at it that way before, but when you line things up, it's remarkable how badly the 2013 team played in some games. An optimist would look at the data and say, "well, 2014 was a lot better than 2013". A pessimist would look at it and say, "see how bad 2013 was!"

Was the MAC East better in 2013 than 2014? I'm not so sure. BG was certainly good in 2013, and Buffalo and Kent were all better in 2013 than 2014, but the bottom teams (Akron, Miami, U.Mass) all went the other way and improved a lot from 2013 to 2014. Overall I don't know that the quality was a lot worse, but the league was certainly closer from top to bottom in 2014.

How would the 2014 team have played against the 2013 BG team? I don't disagree that Ohio would have lost, nor that it wouldn't have been close. Nevertheless, I think it would have been a lot better than 49-0.

Have you factored in the schedule? Marshall killed Ohio, and ironically, they were the only non-conference team we played with a winning record this year. The rest of the games were against MAC foes, and I have yet to hear anyone claim the conference was any good this year.

To summarize, we got crushed by the only good team we played, and lost a bunch of games to teams that range from mediocre to the worst in the nation. Thanks for putting this together LC. I am bursting with excitement about Labor Day weekend so we can continue seeing all this awesome improvement.

I realize you are being sarcastic.

Do you really expect for Ohio to not be improved next season?

Personally, I am very excited about next season. Not sure how you cannot be excited with what we bring back.

What's to factor in? I think people are trying to read too much into this. The one point that this data makes unambiguously is something that we already knew, that something was very wrong in 2013.

Sure, some really, really good teams, are sometimes going to beat you badly, but no one else should. If teams that went 6-6 (2007, 2014) and 4-8 (2008) didn't ever lose by 25 to teams that weren't 12-1 or better, how did the 2013 team manage to do it not once, but three times?

That's the bad news. Since I tend to be an optimist, I look for the good news. The good news is that the players and coaches also knew there were problems in 2013, and they took a lot of steps to try to solve them. They did things like changing the selection methods for Captains, and doing the Navy Seal training.

Were those enough to change things, and get things back on track? Was 2014 just a normal rebuilding year, like 2007-8? Or, was it merely a continuation of the problems of 2013? This metric says it was more like 2007-8.


I know you're being sarcastic, but actually, I'm very much looking forward to this fall. 2015 will not be a rebuilding year. Almost all the starters return. I presume they are working hard in the weight room, and this will be the first winter where they will be able to use the IPF, so I expect to see a very solid team this fall, and I expect a very exciting season with very good results.

I know I'm going out to the end of long limb with the following observation: After watching all or parts of many bowl games and keeping in mind how Ohio played in its final three games, I tend to think the Bobcats could have fared well against several teams that did play in bowls. In other words, at season's end, I was encouraged by what I saw from the Cats. (No, I haven't begun wearing rose-tinted glasses.)

I can't disagree with anything you've said here, Casper. There is much to be done, but the pieces are there. I hope they have a great lifting/conditioning season, get a lot of good work done in the IPF, and have a solid Spring, setting the stage for a much better season this Fall.