It's hard to believe so many players don't want to play for Pope Tim and his 100th ranked offense. Don't they know how bad our record was in 1965???!

More players in the portal from ND and OSU and a few dozen other schools. You act like this is an OHIO problem. End of the day, I’ll wake up happy the Cats have a shot at a 10 win season and you’ll kick the neighbors dog.

Historically, the majority of ND and OSU players that enter the portal transfer “down” to much lesser programs (eg syracuse) or even down a division. majority of ohio and Mac players also do not transfer up. many go down a level. will be interesting to see. Bangura should be an exception and most in this board were surprised he stayed last year.

The conclusion I'm drawing is that these kids want to earn NIL dollars and Ohio, for the most part, doesn't have them. The top skill position players are probably in the best position to do that.

Here is my take on the portal situation. In the past, once a high school Senior made his choice, he was stuck with it, and had to live with his choice for the next four years, as it was difficult to transfer. Now we are in an era where players can easily come and go for whatever reason. It's new, so this all seems different and radical, but in time, it will sort itself out. In this new era, coaches need, in addition to skills they have always needed, to be somewhat good at convincing their best players to stay, and they need to be good at evaluating their needs, and then evaluating and recruiting new players from the portal, plus, of course, also good at weaving old and new players into a cohesive team in a short time period before the next season.

How will Albin and his staff stack up? Obviously, We have the right to sit here and bitch, and it is a normal fan reaction, a reaction probably occurring right now among the fan base of every P5, G5, and FCS team in the country. Bitching, however, doesn't answer the question. Only time, and actual real world results can do that. We've already seen teams eviscerated by portal transfers out (e.g. Kent State, going from contender to bottom dweller in a single year), and teams which tried (not entirely successfully) to use the portal to make an instant winner (e.g. Colorado).

Will these transfers out cause Ohio drop to the bottom, or middle-bottom of the MAC next year? Or, will Ohio simply go about it's business, and replace the players transferring out via the portal with other players transferring in? Will the turnover in the team, with some players leaving, and new faces arriving, result in better cohesiveness (as unhappy players leave), or will it result in more internal conflict (as new players don't understand Ohio traditions)? Any of the above are possible.

As for me, I'm not going to get too excited about players leaving, or about players transferring it. If Albin can continue to navigate these treacherous waters, and can continue to win 8+ games a year, every year, with all the craziness in the system, he deserves his automatic extensions. If he can't, his contract will run out soon enough, and Ohio can try to find someone else who can thrive in this new era.

Go Bobcats!

but you really think Cross doesn't think he can play at a P5, or higher? They don't know until they know. Most kids at G5 think they are going to the NFL.

What I do not get (not directed to anyone specific), but Bangura is no surprise, Rourke isn't a surprise either. But then everyone acts like the sky is falling because some middle of the road players are leaving.. Allison, he's likely done, easy way for him to walk away after a long and injury filled career that never allowed him to get into a groove.

I don't really know about Cross's thought process. My response was that NIL dollars reason does not really explain Walton and Allison leaving.

As for it being an easy way to walk away for Allison, wouldn't he want an all-expenses paid trip to Myrtle Beach to be the feature running back in a bowl game before he walked away?

Consistently among the most reasonable posters on BA

Cross will play P5 next year
Bangura will play P5 next year
Rourke will play P5 or pro ball next year
Thompson will play P5 next year

And god forbid and I don’t even want to say it, but half our DL, both our TEs, and half our DBs could all play P5 next year. Hopefully they all have nice girlfriends who go to school at Ohio!

What does that mean? A few things in my eyes:
1. This roster was really talented. Maybe not the best in the conference, but it had a lot of good players. Enough to win 9/10 games (and maybe enough to win more. We’re all disappointed we didn’t win SDSU, NIU, or Miami).
2. The coaches have done a really good job of identifying talent and developing it. We didn’t beat out Pitt and Vandy and IU and Minnesota for all these kids out of HS. They certainly worked hard to get better. But the staff and program also poured a lot of time and resources in to them to grow them into better players.
3. There will be more Keye’s and Kurtis’s. And I mean that two ways. There will be more players turned from under recruited MAC guys to P5 players. AND there will be more to leave. That’s just how it is. Until we move the university 60 miles closer to Columbus, get more investment from the fan$ and univer$ity…it will be more of the same

Post of the year nominee.

The Iowa St you are bashing beat CFP 20th ranked Okl. St and 25th ranked Kansas St. and lost to 17th ranked Iowa by a td. The Bobcats beat Iowa State. You can call it what you want, but that was a good win. But maybe you would rather berate the nine wins Ohio got this season. The Bobcats won 10 last year and 9 this season and have a shot at ten again this year. Maybe I'm crazy, but that is not chopped liver.

This football program won 77% of the games last season and 75% of the games this season and you are concerned about an extension for Coach Albin? What planet are you from? Would you be concerned if Boals and the Bobcat basketball team won 25 games yearly, because that is the equivalent of what just occurred in football the last two seasons. If Boals won 25 games this season, many of you would be irate if he wasn't given a 2 year extension.