Not OUr personnel.  The problem was the BG personnel, three in 12 vs one in11, the absence of JT, TS, TC, Carlotta etc. Yesterday was not to be. Next week, Go Bobcats.

How is occasionally playing at a fast tempo and always playing with ripping confidence a personnel matter?

There are two possibilities here.  Either I'm seeing things or most of the rest of you aren't.  I've been in the world in a lot more situation for a lot longer than most of you.  And my instincts and ability to 'read the wind' have always served me well.  Most of you are being much too literal.  It's not the 'what,' it's the 'how.'

Not true. It normally shows up midway into the second quarter, and re-appears late in the third quarter. Taking some sample games, and splitting them that way, I split the games into 2 parts, and looked at yardages gained. The "competitive" part was about the first 20 min of the first half, and the first 10 min of the second half. The "fading" parts was the final 10 min or so of the first half, and the last 20 min of the second half.

First, two games where the foe faded:
Penn State (yards, theirs, ours)
competitive - 168,84
fading - 64,115
competitive, part 2 - 49,82
fading, part 2 - 81,224
total competitive - 217,166
total fading - 145,339

EMU
competitive - 115,143
fading - 58,158
competitive, part 2 - 42,20
fading - 68,233
total competitive - 157,163
total fading - 126,391

Now three examples where Ohio faded:
BG
competitive - 38,100
fading - 124,-11
competitive, part 12,95
fading - 106,106
total competitive - 50,195
total fading - 230,95

Ohio State, 2008
competitive - 60,125
fading - 52,-2
competitive, part -6,46
fading 198,75
total competitive - 54,171
total fading - 250,73

Akron 2007
competitive - 54,177
fading - 107,24
competitive, part - 61,-7
fading 195,153
total competitive - 115,170
total fading - 302,177

Note that when a team fades, where you see it is in their defense. Yards given up:
                        Competitive part(30min total)       Fading Part I (10 min)     Fading Part II (20 min)
Penn St                    166                                        115                                224
EMU                         163                                       158                                233
Ohio v. BG                   50                                       124                                106
Ohio v. OSU '08            54                                        52                                198
Ohio v Akron '07          115                                       107                               195


Note that in every case I cited above with the exception of OSU '08, the fading team gave up more yards in the last ten min of the first half than in the first 20 min of the first half, and there it was about equal. Yes, the biggest, ugliest number in almost every case is the yards given up in the final 20 minutes, but you almost always see it in the late part of the first half, too. In looking at the above numbers, keep in mind that the "fading part I" is about 10 minutes long, while the "fading part II" is about 20 minutes, so the yards give up per minute are about the same in both time periods.

Note - I used yardages instead of points because points were affected by such things as turnovers, kick returns for TDs, etc.

The other day I was thinking of Solich's first year here.  4-4 through Oct, but then the injuries starting catching up with us and went 0-3 in Nov.  With Boykin out now, it's eerily starting to feel like then.

I don't know about specific statistics.  I do know that the 2nd quarter was the worst for Ohio in Coach's tenure given the performance vs. the capability of the team.  Bad.


It's very much too bad that Ryan Boykin is out.  But, unless I'm mistaken, this team had some success earlier in the year when he was unavailable.

GO BOBCATS BEAT BALLIE!!!