I was listening to some talk show in the car yesterday and whoever it was made a good point. When JH went to his brother to get those 2 coaches from the Ravens, it was reported that he wanted to build a team to beat OSU, specifically, a team with a high powered passing offense. He went on to say that is exactly what they have done, and Washington is basically OSU west (when OSU was really good with Stroud). Great WRs and a great QB.
I think it will be a good game. UM should come out on top.
It seems to me that OSU has slipped a little as well. That is to say, they went all-in on the finesse game, recruiting more WRs, and tailoring their game plan to what would attract those guys, not necessarily what would win the games they needed to win.
I'm thinking of that Northwestern game last year, where Day kept trying to throw the ball in a gale, and didn't adjust until well into the 2nd half, almost letting NW score a huge upset.
Day doesn't have whatever Meyer had, and can't seem to get as much out of his team; he's just not a likeable guy, not that Meyer was, but Meyer was better at playing his role. Day's not. That footage from before the UM game in 2022 of him trying to rile his guys up was cringe-worthy.
although I'm really curious to see how things would've shaken out if Meyer had stayed.
There certainly would've been
a lot more pressure on OSU, given the Zach Smith thing; trying to sweep that under the rug would've caused more issues, so maybe Meyer would've been forced out anyway.
And then his abortive coaching stint in the NFL was kind of a "Wizard of Oz" moment, where everyone realized he was not really some coaching genius, just a guy who knew how to bully college kids and manipulate the advantages he had in
that game, which was changing anyways, with NIL becoming a thing.
