It will be a real challenge to stay healthy through that 2025 stretch against Rutgers, WVU and OSU, but depending on the game results, I imagine the players could really love this schedule.
Great to play OSU again though. It took them 13 years to get over the Rufus incident apparently. ;)
Also, excited to play Nebraska. I imagine this game would might not have been possible with a Solich-led OHIO team.
And the one match up I still want to see at some point is OHIO vs. Michigan. We still have yet to play the Wolverines in football. Might help their fans to tell the difference between the 2 Ohio schools too. ;)
Again I must ask why you'd be more concerned about our health here. Is there any evidence that g5/p5 games lead to more injuries? This conventional wisdom has never been backed by any actual information. I don't know why it keeps turning up.
Glad you called this out. It’s a complete myth. As but one example, I remember in one of the games we played against Pitt they had numerous players go down with injuries and we had virtually none. The worst single game for OHIO injuries was a game against Marshall in 1965 when we had something like seven season-ending injuries. I did not see that game as I was on active duty in the U.S. Navy at the time, but I read about it.
In this day and age, I would not be surprised that some sort of study hasn’t been done by some Masters student somewhere. There may not be much correlation because injuries seem to be pretty random, but simple physics would seem to support the theory that bigger/faster/stronger would cause more injuries for the smaller/slower/weaker players.
But, P5 guys are not always, or usually, bigger/faster/stronger than the G5 guy they are opposing. They may be better in one or two of those categories much of the time, but seldom all three at the same time. And, from my own anecdotal observations, OHIO and other teams I follow are more likely to have more and more serious injuries against lesser competition -- perhaps because they are less focused on what they are doing and therefore make an awkward move or allow themselves to be tackled in a less than ideal position because they aren't focused on the fundamentals.
Of course they aren’t always all those things, but I’m talking about averages. The P5 average all those things over most G5 teams’ players. I’ve checked for studies on this a little and can’t find any kind of definitive study, but there are dozens on studies on injuries in general. The raw data are available, nobody seems to have addressed this particular issue, but it almost certainly could be done if someone would be so inclined.
As far as your observations, they may be correct , just not sure how statistically valid those would be based on sample size, even though you go back to the first football game between Rutgers and Princeton in 1869.
Last Edited: 9/26/2023 1:16:51 PM by colobobcat66