"I'm optimistic ... I really feel like (with) our culture and the players we have, we'll fight." - Tim Albin's quote at yesterday's Kent State post-game press conference.

Albin's dillusional post-game 'culture' statement shows just how out-of-touch with reality he really is. I was able to get to Peden yesterday, then chose to sit near the OU sideline to watch not only the game, but also Albin's commandry of the ill-fated Bobcat Titanic.

The good news - coaches Germano, Collins, Smith and Faanes were seen intently huddled with their troops between every series trying to make as-needed adjustments. The bad news - the vast majority of everyone else on the sideline seemed disjointed and apathetic as, once again, the officer's in charge found a play style that didn't work well against our opponent, married it anyway, then stayed with its morale-killing spirit way too long.

Frank arrived on the sideline scene in an aggitated state somewhere in the third quarter. By midway in the fourth, he had quietly conformed to the dejected body posturing that had, many games ago, infected the consensus of the team. Maybe Frank's irritation had nothing to do with Albin & the OCs lack of insight. Maybe the expletives he was mouthing had nothing to do with the blatant mismanagement of the clock. Maybe Frank's silent internal screams (yet still outwardly visable) had nothing to do with the unhinged and incoherent yelling of the Receiver's Coach Dwayne Dixon that occurred EVERY DEFENSIVE series. (Yes - you read that correctly - when given the opportunity to coach his receivers after blown-up routes, drops or strips, this dude figures his best team input is to yell "DOOO YOUR JOOOB!!" at our defense who isn't paying attention to him. Nevermind the fact he looks like a geratric runaway screaming nonsensicals at passing cars outside his rest home - but there are NO receivers on DEFENSE coach! Please toss your sharpee and army helmet to the side Sir, pull it together and coach your receivers!! Incidentally, the season ticket holders sitting beside me chuckled after I muttered a jaw-dropped "wtf?!" to which they informed me that it's what Dixon does EVERY game; a point that further indicts Albin's assumption of a positive 'culture'. Coach Dixon, if you are reading this, please do your team a favor and DOOO YOUR JOOOB!)

Regardless - I'd like to report that the positive culture Albin alluded to in his press conference is Alive and Well - the problem is, I can't - because IT'S NOT! His misconstrued idea of 'team culture' is an imaginary cabin created for himself with a sign on the front porch stating, "No Student-Athletes Beyond This Point". Unfortunately, my observations from this weekend only support the theory that Albin needs to pack up some of his first mates, take one of the lifeboats and paddle it somewhere else - ANYWHERE ELSE - just not here.

With all that said, I DO believe Albin got one thing right in his post-game statement - his players WILLINGNESS to fight - but, after this game, I'm nearly certain that neither him, his OC duo or coaches like Dixon can provide the inspiration for them to perform a WINNING fight. Becoming a winning team starts with a winning culture, and a winning culture has to start with Albin. AND ... it also has to be legit. Unfortunately, his lack of awareness of his own inadequacies - and that of some of his coaches, won't allow his players to ever enjoy the type of culture he unfortunately thinks already exists within his program

Guys. C'mon. They're only losing by 7 points or less.

If that's not inspiring ....

Well, I'm not sure what you could possibly want!

In all seriousness, none of what you typed out surprises me. The titanic reference is spot on. This is only going to get worse before it gets better.

And it will NEVER get better with Awful Albin at the helm. Terrible Tim isn't cut out for this. Sadly, no one that matters has $550k+ to end this nightmare.

So let the countdown to 12/31/22 continue

You do realize that Frank is partially to blame here right? He obviously had zero interest in bringing along a replacement-in-waiting or he would have done that with a young up-and-comer. He obviously retired late and pushed for Albin to get the job. Frank will go down as one of the greatest coaches in OU history and perhaps MAC history but the dude screwed the pooch on the way he left this program. I don't care what his body language is or how disappointed he looks. He joined Cromer in doing this to our program so I'd rather he just sit in a skybox and think about ways to fix it (get donors or donate part of his huge salary).

This is a laughably bad analogy.

When you sign up to be a Division One college football (or basketball) coach ... and make upwards of $500k/year ... you know the life you're signing up for.

That's like Matt Damon whining he can't go to the grocery store without someone recognizing him.

Tough s**t. It comes with the territory.

We're not degrading Tim Albin the man, the husband, the father, etc. This is all about Tim Albin the football coach. If you can't see that, you might need to readjust your reality.

He's making $1.1M guaranteed for running a pretty reputable program into the ground. And as others have pointed out, he's managed to do a lot of it in about 12 weeks.

C'mon. Get out of here with that self-righteous B.S.

Truth.

I am old enough to remember when there was serious talk in the Seventies after enrollment dropped significantly at the end of the Vietnam War about dropping the football program altogether, and we had the highly regarded and beloved Coach Bill Hess at the helm then. The arrival of Grobe and then Solich seemed to make a whole new commitment and infusion into a program that had been a National embarrassment throughout the eighties.

All of the talk of stability within the program throughout Frank's tenure seemed to support the idea that something would be left in place after he retired, which seemed to justify not only his salary, but the tremendous amount of resources being channeled into the program itself (much to the chagrin of many on the Academic side at Ohio). This is especially poignant now that the University is facing a huge financial crisis in the wake of the recent Pandemic.

I think that part of the frustration here is how undisciplined, unfocused, and how inconsistent the team has become without Frank leading the program. Albin and his nervous, goofy, and clownish demeanor does not instill much confidence in the fan base. It's sad when his players at the press conference seem more confident and articulate than the coach himself. Add this to the stupidity of cowboy hats and a throne on the sidelines and what is being witnessed by fans is more of a joke than an inspiring part of the Ohio experience.

Winning, of course, would minimize the negative scrutiny of this program, which is now even under more of a microscope than ever considering the current financial pressures and restraints at Ohio University. While the MAC is considered the cradle of coaching, Ohio seems to become the Graveyard of such at this time. It's hard to imagine who would want to hire Albin and his staff outside of Ohio. Likewise, it is hard to imagine who would want to come to Ohio and play for this Staff. Therefore, it will be interesting to see how recruiting goes this year, and how many of the players stay at Ohio vs. Entering into the transfer portal.

What exactly did we accomplish under Frank? He deserves all the credit in the world for getting this program out of the gutter, upgrading facilities, and raising the standards. But let's not kid ourselves, aside from a small handful of P5 and low level bowl wins, this program plateaued and couldn't take the next step. We lost to our rival in the only game we played as a ranked team. In the meantime, NIU goes to the Orange Bowl, WMU goes to the Cotton Bowl and gets Gameday to come to Kalamazoo. Every year, multiple MAC teams get 15-20 solid verbal commits before the season begins. I wouldn't trade our last 15 years for Miami's, but they at least have two conference championships in that time. There is absolutely nothing the NIU, WMU, and Toledos have accomplished that can't be done at Ohio. It's perfectly fair to be thankful for the level of success we experienced and also expect to ascend to the next step.

Also 100% Agree. Being happy with the progress for sure, but realize Ohio average 5-3 in the MAC for ten years in a row, never winning the conference. This from 2010-2019.

Good posts. Yes, as I said in another post, Albin is not Knorr 2.0, that sullies Knorr's reputation. He's Cleve/Tom 2.0.

We now have more players in the portal than verbal commitments.

I agree 100 percent. How anyone can defend Albin by saying that he should not be under scrutiny as someone who makes 500 grand a year as a public figure is laughable or a family member of Albin. I consider us a solid mid-major job and it was outright given to a dude who joined with Frank to produce one of the most vanilla offenses in college football the past 17 years. If I made 500 grand a year I would WELCOME a message board because I would work my butt off to serve those people who are passionate enough to post on it. If I did not succeed I would tender my own resignation and hope that someone would replace me who deserves to lead this program.

Wait that's a bad thing? haha

A perfect storm is brewing to have an awful recruiting class...I hope I'm wrong but it's hard to be optimistic.

New head coach who seems out of touch to reality...team is 1-7 and one of the worst in FBS...only 1 commit as of end of October...

Buckle up everyone. I'm just hoping we don't lose too many to the portal or else they will having to start asking people around campus to play next year.

Just because I was curious and you mentioned ESPN, which made me think of the "Next Boise" article in 2012.

After starting 2012 7-0 and being ranked for the first time in the polls at #23, Ohio lost immediately to Miami.

Ohio's record since the Sports Illustrated article came out is now 59-49 (.546)