Stop bringing up how bad we were almost 20 years ago college football is a completely different game now than it was then.

Absolutely correct, and this year was the best chance we've had since 2012...even better because our injury situation isn't nearly as bad.

As has been mentioned before, Albin isn't going anywhere for now. Ohio probably finishes 7-5 or 8-4, goes to the Port-O-Let bowl and probably wins.

Isphording and Rudolph on the other hand; they should be polishing their resumes. Absolutely no excuse for the kind of running game performance we've seen this year - the cherry on top being the inability to get ONE yard on multiple occasions in the biggest game of the year on your home turf.

The players have to execute - I get that. But, if we have players that consistently fail to execute and/or are penalized - guess what? We have other offensive linemen. They may not be as experienced, but I bet they're hungry for playing time - playing time that they need to develop for the near future.

And no, it's not Bangura or Allison. We know that they can run the ball. They're being continually met by multiple members of the defensive front either at or behind the line.

And if he does that for 15 years, we name the field after him, right?

I was never on board with Albin from day 1. I've said here many times that he was in over his head and I still believe that. I won't even mention that he can't put 2 coherent sentences together. Should have never been hired and should be fired now.

I'm just curious, but on what do you base the statement that Ohio is "the most talented team in the division"?

One thing that has happened over the years is that 247Sports has actually put some effort into ranking G5 recruits, and as a result, they seem to have gotten better at it. For example, for a long, long time, it was a joke that the lowest ranked players were the ones who would become starters the fastest (e.g. Hagan Meservy), but now it is the top ranked players who shine early. The top ranked players in last year's class were Chase Hendricks 86 (starter WR-Z), Andrew Marshall 86, Kobi Gorman 86 (#2 NT), Ricky Hunt 86 (#3 RB), and Mason Williams 84 (#4 TE). Of the top 5, then, 4 are playing.

The 247Sports rankings arenn't perfect, obviously. Three Freshmen are playing who aren't rated by them at all. Khamani Debrow is the #3 WR-X, Dane Jackson is the backup Center, and Kadin Schmitz is the backup Jack. Note that all three of these, however, were late additions and/or came by unusual routs, and were thus never rated by 247Sports. Among the players they did rate, the only one who is playing who was low rated is Spetic.

So, if we use the premise that 247Sports recruiting rankings are no longer a joke, and now have some value, who has the best talent in the MAC? If you use the average rankings over the last five years, it looks like this:
1. Toledo 2.8 (4-0 in MAC)
2. Miami 3.6 (4-1 in MAC)
3. CMU 4.0 (2-2 in MAC)
4. WMU 5.4 (2-3 in MAC)
5. NIU 5.6 (3-1 in MAC)
6. Buffalo 6.0 (3-1 in MAC)
7. EMU 7.4 (2-3 in MAC)
8. Kent 8.0 (0-4 in MAC)
9. Ohio 8.2 (3-2 in MAC)
10. Ball State 8.2 (1-3 in MAC)
11. BG 8.8 (2-2 in MAC)
12. Akron 10.2 (0-4 in MAC)

Looking at this year's MAC games, the top 4 teams combine for a 12-6 record. The middle 4 teams have a combined record of 8-9. The bottom four teams (one of which is Ohio) combine for a record of 6-11. Thus, using recruiting rankings to predict which teams will do well, and which will do poorly appears to have some significance.

Does Ohio have the best talent in the MAC? That seems very doubtful. Does Ohio have the 9th best talent in the MAC? That's doubtful, too, in my opinion for a variety of reasons:
1. I think Ohio does a better than average job at finding under the radar players.
2. I think Ohio also does a very good job of coaching their players up
3. I think Ohio's stability has led to better player retention than at most schools, and in particular less top players leaving via the portal.

On the whole, I think Ohio has maybe the 4th or 5th best talent in the MAC, but has good coaching that gets a lot out of the players they have. I put Ohio kind of on a par with CMU/WMU/NIU, but below Miami and Toledo. As a note for the future, I also think that Ohio's recruiting classes the last two years are substantially better than in years past, so the future looks bright. Nearly every player in this year's recruiting class has 6+ other offers, and many/most have a few P5 offers in there.

Depressing. My whole self worth is tied up in our teams. I can't wear my Ohio gear and strut my stuff at happy hour.

Said it often will say it again…under Solich and now under Albin we have recruited enough good players to be a bit above average but not enough to win a MACC. Probably the most frustrating thing possible for a good fan base, the players, the coaches, and this University! The only way to get past this curse is for the coaches to set their sites higher when recruiting . Very good MAC players do make a difference! Let’s get more of them.

Brett Gabertt in the portal?

As someone who has followed recruiting for year, I totally agree that recruiting rankings a decade ago were completely meaningless at the MAC level. It seems, however, that the quality of evaluations has improved substantially over the years.

Current recruiting rankings no longer seem to be meaningless. Comparing the recruiting rankings over the last 5 years to the current wins and losses shows a 75% correlation. The data set is small, and I'm not going to get out my stats book to figure out if a 75% correlation is statistically significant, but I suspect it might be. I am, however, certain that it has to be significant for, in a sample of 17 players, the 4 players who end up on the field as true freshmen to all be included in the top 5 players. Taken together, I believe that recruiting rankings at the MAC level are no longer meaningless.

To summarize my earlier post, I made no claim that I "refuted" your opinion. Rather, I'm gave the reasons for my opinion that Ohio does not have the best talent, but rather, is somewhere in the middle to upper middle of the MAC. Instead, I asked you what the reasons for your opinion are, since it obviously is different than mine.

FWIW, which isn't much, I think that the one year when Ohio did have the best talent in the MAC was 2012. Take away 19 starters due to injury, however, and they were middle of the MAC by the time the MAC season rolled around.

Oh I 100% would choose Ohio in that scenario. I deeply value sustained competitiveness, where nearly each November you're still thinking about the chance to win the title.

But it is just astounding that we haven't somehow won a single one.

Exactly. We named our field after a guy who never won a conference championship.

And now his successor is performing exactly like he did, and people think we're going to fire him and buy out his contract? Not only is that not happening, but Albin will probably trigger an extension by winning 8 games. Which, by the way, is basically exactly on par with Solich, who averaged 7.5 wins a year.

It sucks, but we don't have a good football program. We're in the top half of one of the worst conferences in the country, but we've never won our conference. We're miles away from being relevant, but we were so bad for so long that it became easy to mistake above average in the MAC for good after years of futility.

This statement is true only if one considers only the FBS and then ignores the obvious gap in funding and support between P5 and G5. In fact, there are over 900 intercollegiate football teams, and Sagarin presently ranks Ohio University as #90 overall; the program is in the top 10%.