Ohio State Football: Loss highlights problems within program

The bad loss to Purdue highlights serious problems within the Ohio State football program. Why do those problems even exist?

The Ohio State football team’s 49-20 loss did Buckeye Nation a favor.  It shortened the inevitable.

This team is lacking the discipline and determination to win a Big Ten title, let alone compete against Alabama for a national championship.

I scratch my head wondering how a program with Urban Meyer, Greg Schiano and Kevin Wilson can perform this badly. How can a team built with Top 3 recruiting classes lose to Purdue?

I don’t want to hear about injuries.  If the classes are ranked properly, and I think they are, the second team could start at most Big Ten schools.

This is about coaching.

We can criticize Alabama for its schedule, but Nick Saban would not allow a loss like this to a vastly inferior team.  Especially not a 29-point loss.

That’s my measuring stick for Ohio State because that is what I have been sold by coach Meyer about the program. He said after the 31-0 loss to Clemson, “Ohio State is not used to this, I’m not used to this, and we will not get used to this. That’s not going to happen again.”

Well, the team got blasted by Oklahoma and Iowa last year.  Now by Purdue, a team that lost to Eastern Michigan.

That is not just four losses which would hurt, but would be acceptable in the larger picture.  These were four beat downs.

When can we expect changes?

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Bottom line, the latest loss represents a problem within the program. I think it has been more concerned with being a pipeline to the NFL since winning the championship in 2014.

At this point, barring some miracle, it will be four years without a national title when the season ends.  For some programs that is fine.  Not for this one.

I am sure many will try to compare this team to 2014 when it lost a game and went on to win the playoff. That would be foolish.

That team had an edge and killer instinct.

This team had a full week of being told Purdue could beat them and it responded by laying a colossal egg.

No amount of wishing or wanting will matter. Ohio State is a program filled with great talent that is underperforming.

That’s on Meyer to fix. Can he do it?