Oregon destroying UCLA.  UCLA's not very good but Oregon's gone point a minute over their whole schedule this year.

What's key to it?  What feature excites the fans in the stadium (best in college football), tv viewers and RECRUITS?  The total hurry up offense.

It's such a simple thing.  Anyone team can go hurry up.  It's almost entirely a mental approach to the game thing.  But we refuse to take advantge.  We refuse to discombobulate the defense.

I don't get it.

Oregon is light years ahead of everyone--certainly all but a few top teams will give them trouble.  Merely by reason of thinking, of applying a bit more brain power in employing an obvious tactic.

Oregon is playing a different game.  And it works so very well.

Wow.  A waterfall?

Someone asked Solich about the no huddle offense earlier this week.  I wasn't sure if you flew in and asked that at the presser or not.  You can have a listen to his answer on BobcatTV.

And when they finally went up against a top flight defense last year in the Rose Bowl, they looked very average. I suspect the same will happen this year.

There are times when Ohio trips over its own shoelaces on offense. The pistol give you flexibility though I think it makes the offense too complex to run at optimal speed. It is the kind of offense that helped programs like Boise State initially get going before they were able to recruit franchise RB, QB type players. Oregon only beat Arizona State by 11. They'll get challenged against the better teams in the PAC-10.

PAC-10 seems roundly considered the best conference this year...at least a pretty darn good one.  Yeah, those are amazing (Nike) facilities they have and we can't match that.  But...

I'm not saying that we should run hurry-up all the time.  And you can come up with all the reasons you want that we aren't equipped for it or shouldn't run it.

But if we don't have it as a tool to use once in a while, then we are not even considering what could be a very important weapon.

Let''s take a rough analogy.  Suppose we had a punter had abilities and skills which could bring us advantage. So, we let him free to fake punt and run when circumstances arose which indicated that change of pace might be effective.  Hmm, someone remarked last week the 'air went out of the 'kron sidelines when we did that successfully last week.' 

To me, the hurry-up can be physically and mentally devastating.  I view it, in fact (or in my overactive mind), as a way to charge up our defense....to give our team a feeling that we know and the other side doesn't.

It is bad business practice to view how devastating Oregon's offense is and to not incorporate some of that.

I mean it's not as if teams found the pistol and decided that was effective and that they would incorporate that.


Oh, about the remark that our 2-minute offense is well-planned and effective--You're kidding, right?

Everyone will be running the hurry-up next year with the same success as Oregon.

Exciting the fan base is definitely needed. My point was that the hurry-up isn't the be-all, end-all. I agree it would be nice to have in OUr arsenal and to use it on occasion. It's been done many times before by many teams. Props to Oregon for what they do with it. They have the players to run it well. Regardless of how it's done, winning regular season games and bowl games is the best way to excite the fan base. If that won't do it, nothing will.

Winning EARLY is the key.  Over the last five yars we are clearly a winning program.  Looks like our third bowl game in 5 years is coming.  The problem is in each of the bowl years we start off with losing records over the first six or so games.  So, we have no chance to excite the 'casual' fan, to get them attached to the program in a BIG, EXCITED way.  They see that we are 2-4 or 3-3 and figure, oh well, another season of lousy Ohio football.

Again, only two instances of genuinely involved Ohio fans over the the last 12-20 years were the end of the Pitt game and the last  home game last year.  Otherwise, Peden is, sadly--very sadly--like a library.

So, the hurry-up is a way to rouse the corwd, rouse the team and a strategic tactic to get over on the opposition.


There's every reason that we should have given columbus a better tussle and should be 7-1 right now.  That might excite even the casual Ohio fan.

Remember how great and exciting the Georgetown win was.  That.

Basketball fan support hasn't been that great either for what most fans would like to see, a 10,000 a game average with major donors coming out to fund a basketball practice facility. Ohio football would have more respect if it played more of a national schedule year in and out. A low level schedule with WAC and SBC teams doesn't equal national player.