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Ross Fulton Analysis: How Will Bill O'Brien Improve The Ohio State Offense? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow morning for Sunday, January twenty. First, I'm your
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  host, Tom Moore. The Akron game is in two hundred and twenty three
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  days, the game against Michigan in three hundred and fourteen days. Ohio State
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  has made some changes. There's news. There's been a lot of news in
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  the Ohio State football world the last couple of days. We've kind of brought
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  you the news on this show the last couple of days and on the Buckeye
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  Weekly podcast. Now we're going to dive into a little bit more of the
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  Okay, what is it actually going to mean moving forward? And when we
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  want to find out the nitty gritty of you know, the schematic side of
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  things, we will talk to Bucky Huddles, Exis and nose Guru Ross Fulton.
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  He is one of our many scheme guys on the board. He helps
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  make our audience smarter football fans every day on the Huddle Board presented by Jeffruby,
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  Steakhouse, and when Ross is on the show, we also are presented
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  by Jeffruby Steakhouse probably offering nationally acclaimed USDA Prime Steak, seafood and Sushiet and
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  peckable service, live entertainment, and an attention to detail that is simply unmatched.
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  Go to Jeff Ruby dot com slash Columbus learn more, check out the
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  menu, and make a reservation today. All right, Ross joins me.
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  Now, Ross bill O'Brien. This was not a universally popular choice among Ohio
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  State fans, but there was a certain subsection of people that kind of pointed
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  at him and went, yes, that's the move. Absolutely. I think
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  one of the disconnects maybe is people looked at him and you know, well,
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  his offenses have sometimes been good and sometimes not been good. But I
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  think we the first question when we're talking about Bill O'Brien is when he comes
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  to Ohio State, is he running the Bill O'Brien offense or is he running
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  the Ryan Day offense with some input from Bill O'Brien. Yeah, I mean,
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  obviously remains to be seen. I think it's going to be the latter.
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  I mean that would be my assumption. Ryan Day has put a lot
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  of effort into developing and organizing his offense. I can't imagine that he's just
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  ready to check that. Aside, they do have differing schematic backgrounds. I
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  guess you would say Bill O'Brien has been traditionally more of a West Coast guy,
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  or at least that's where his lineage is. Whereas Ryan Day, I
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  guess you would say it's sort of a mix of some air raid concepts,
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  some like Shanahan esque play action vertical concepts. But you know, I just,
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  I mean, I feel like Bill O'Brien and Alabama didn't run like a
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  West Coast offense, you know, I mean that term is somewhat lost its
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  meaning even in this day and age. You know, I think he continued
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  a lot of what Alabama has been doing since Lane Kiffin. So I just
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  I personally think it's going to be Bill O'Brien running Ryan Day's offense with obviously
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  his input and probably some you know, enhancing it. I think is the
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  term that you know, Ryan Day and Ern Meyer before that like to use.
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  And so I think, you know, there may be some changes around
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  the edge is maybe some changes in the run game and emphasis. You know,
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  obviously when it comes down to third and six and you need to play,
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  they could have different thoughts. But like again, Ryan Day isn't going
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  away like he's going to have a headset on he's gone out in but I'm
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  sure they've Yeah, I'm sure they've talked through this at this marriage and how
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  it's going to work. But you know, I think that for Ryan Day,
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  it's even beyond just like, I don't think he necessarily thought he needed
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  to change the scheme to help him. I think the things that he wanted
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  to help in our organizationally and both internally and on game day. So when
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  you mentioned, you know, maybe enhancing things, where do you think Bill
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  O'Brien might be able to enhance the Ohio State offense? What is Bill O'Brien?
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  I mean, you mentioned West Coast offense obviously, but that's that's a
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  pretty broad term. I'm assuming they're not bringing Roger Craig back and Tom Rathman.
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  So you know what what is Bill O'Brien like known for as a coordinator,
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  as a play caller? You know what, what are some things that
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  he does well that might enhance the Ohio State offense this year? Yeah,
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  I mean a couple of things I think I would be looking for. Maybe
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  these are areas where I just sort of think that there's some room for growth,
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  and so maybe that's you know, coloring it. But I do think
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  these are things you've seen with Bill Brian. I mean, I think the
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  first thing I would point out is in the run game. I think more
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  of a diversification, more gap schemes, more downhill. You know, one
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  thing that'll be really interesting is Bill Brian's always like to use twelve personnel or
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  so two tight ends one run back, you know, which Ryan Days always
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  like to use. Also, now I will say, roster wise, I
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  would say the tight end group is the weakest on Ohio State's roster, and
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  you know we've talked about the blocking issues from that position, so that'll be
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  interesting. But I think you will see more of you know, pistol downhill,
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  gap scheme, run game from from O'Brien. You know, he's not
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  a he's not really a stretch guy like Kevin Wilson was. I mean,
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  he's run it, but I don't think it's that may not be as much
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  of an emphasis, but you know, I think he again, it's like
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  there's one thing that's like the ex's nose. There's an other things like the
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  execution, like just with like you know, you hope that he brings in
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  having someone else there who is in charge and organized can make sure the execution
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  of the run game in terms of like you know, offensive lineman, getting
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  to the second level, how just how things look get cleaned up. That's
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  one area. You know, Another one I would put in there is you
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  know, going to the west coast point, you know, quick game.
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  You know, I think there's obviously new England Patriot concepts that we've seen forever
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  that he saw at Alabama, you know, like why stick like very simple
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  you know, three step drop type routes that has not been again that's like
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  not been something that Ryan Days used much of. I mean you see occasional
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  like the double slants, there's some of it. But I do think that's
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  an area where there could be some enhancements, you know, things that help
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  move the chains and the past a game. And you know, I do
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  think that there'll be probably some you can bring some more RPO flavor as well,
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  but I think you know, again sort of more variety of that,
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  more consistency. But you know, again we'll have to see. It'll be
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  an interesting machine because he got a you're both machining their concepts. And then
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  obviously what will Howard could do well? And you know, I think the
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  Q run game is an element of that. You know, Bill Brian did
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  have Deshaun Watson in Houston, but obviously Ryan Days also has experience with Q
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  run game talking about doing more downhill running with Ohio State, having not just
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  Trevan Henderson this year, but also having added Quinchawn Judkins in the portal from
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  from Ole Miss. Is there one of those guys that you think maybe is
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  a better fit for the stuff that O'Brien likes to do on the ground or
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  is this just kind of you can tailor it to whoever, you know,
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  whoever is in the game at that point. I think I think both.
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  I mean, I think it probably would benefit Travon Henderson more because I think
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  that he is a better downhill gap runner than he is like a zone runner,
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  you know, particularly stretch. I think Judkins can do both of it.
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  I mean, I've seen him do all the above, and he's pretty
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  versal that way. But I do think that it would probably maximize Henderson more
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  to be able to do more gap scheme run plays. All right, And
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  so the scheme part is one part of this decision and the addition of Bill
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  O'Brien. The other part is something that we've talked about a bunch over the
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  last month or two, and that is they kind of needed to bring in
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  a veteran play caller to just kind of fill what was the Kevin Wilson role
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  for a number of years. Wilson left for Tulsa last year and they didn't
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  really fill that sort of veteran play caller guy does this? Does you know,
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  does Bill O'Brien fill those Kevin Wilson's shoes? And if so, why
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  is that an important addition? Yes? I mean, I think that's the
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  key thing is that you know he better. I guess even more so,
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  right because I presume that Bill Brian's gonna be calling the plays, whereas you
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  know, Kevin Wilson obviously had a big part of collaboration with Ryan Day,
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  but ultimately Ryan Day was calling the plays. I just I just thought that
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  they were so light upstairs during games, you know, and just in terms
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  of having eyes, both just in the terms of experience with who they had
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  upstairs and just the sheer numbers. You know, they only had like a
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  couple of guys, and so I just thought that was a huge weakness.
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  It's it's hard to see everything on the field and to not get input.
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  You know, Ryan Day just didn't felt like had someone up there that was
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  had the gravitass that he could trust for what he was seeing last year.
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  Like obviously he relies on Keenan Bailey a lot, but I just think that
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  they've just really missed that presence and you know, someone who can be a
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  bit more detached and it just, you know, I think gets less that
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  like Ryan Day is a bad play caller for you know, I think he's
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  a good play caller. It's just you have a lot going on on the
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  sideline that he needs to be responsible for. And so just being able to
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  take some of that burden off of him, I think should help on game
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  day not to mention like you know, we can talk about like during the
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  week and like the organization of the offensive staff, Well let's talk about that.
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  I mean, this is something Eli, We've talked about this a bunch
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  of times over the last month or so. But the moment when Eli Drinkwotz
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  was sitting at the pregame press conference five feet away from Ryan Day talking about
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  all the wonderful things that giving up play calling allowed him to do at Missouri
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  last season, and Ryan Day sort of sitting there listening to it with this
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  like blank look on his face, not reacting in any way. It feels
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  like not only during the game day when it might free you up to be
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  able to not have to be doing three things at once, but just being
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  able to be a CEO, being able to glad hand and shake hands and
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  kiss babies with donors and all the other stuff you have to do as a
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  head coach. I mean this, this feels like that might have an even
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  bigger impact during the week during the offseason than it does on game day.
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  Yeah, I mean, I think the first parts we talked about, like
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  how they mesh up scheme wise, how Bill O'Brien does calling Ryan Day's offense,
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  assuming that's what happens like that, those are remained to be seen,
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  right, Like we'll have to see. But I do think like what undoubtedly
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  is improved by this is like the organization of the staff. And like you
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  know, he Ryan Day had to both be the head coach and essentially like
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  the middle manager of the offensive staff, right, Like you had a bunch
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  of young guys and I laughingly say young because they're all basically my age,
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  but you know, our age. But they didn't have sort of like a
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  veteran presence on the staff who could be in charge, right, So like
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  Brian Day has to be responsible for the position coaches, and like now you
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  know most people can relate to like an organization you're part of, where like
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  now Bill O'Brien can manage the rest of the offensive staff, and Brian Day
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  can then manage Bill Bryant and so that takes you know, instead of him
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  worrying about five or six guys, he's worried about one guy, right,
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  And like he doesn't need to be in every meeting like Tuesday after practice breaking
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  down every offensive snap from that practice. Like I don't want to suggest I
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  feel like people think this is like an either or right. It's like over
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  now Ryan Day gets to go out and raise money all the time. Like
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  I'm sure as a coach, like I know Ryan Day realizes he needs to
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  do that. That's probably not why he got into coaching. Doesn't sound as
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  fun. Like Ryan Day's not going to go away from the offense. It's
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  not going to be the same. I don't think as Jim Knowle's with the
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  defense, right, Like I still bet Brian Days in most of the meetings.
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  I bet he spends a lot of his time during the week working with
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  Bill O'Brien to determine the game plan for that week. He's gonna be on
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  the headset during the games, like he's gonna have veto power like all the
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  things that Erwin Meyer did right. Meyer didn't call the plays, but like
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  he was heavily involved in the offense. But it just saves him, like
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  he can go do other stuff. He doesn't need to have the clicker in
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  his hand pointing out, you know, did we block power rate on a
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  Tuesday rep Like Bill bran can handle a lot of that. Bill Branken could
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  then go to Justin pryor you know, the offensive line coach, the wide
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  receivers coach, et cetera, and be like, we need to do X,
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  Y and Z and so again. It just it takes a lot of
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  burden off his plate organizationally, so that you're not being you're not doing essentially
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  two jobs the same time. Well, this is just one of the ways
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  in which O'll house. It feels like it's addressed some of the shortcomings from
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  the end of last season. It has been quite a month of January.
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  This is not normally that busy a time. Now that most of early signing
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  Day takes care of the recruiting, this used to be a busy time of
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  year. It has not been a busy time of year for the last few
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  years. This year, holy smokes, has it been a busy time of
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  year in Columbus, Ohio with NFL draft guys returning for another season and transfer
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  portal additions and coaching staff changes. But also that means it would be a
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  great time to be a member of Buckeye Huddle dot com where we've been talking
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  about a lot of this stuff for weeks now, where we get you have
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  access to Ross and the rest of our team of x's and o's guys,
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  making you a smarter football fan on the huddle board presented by jeff Ruby Steakhouse,
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  has that been a busy place to be as well. This is all at
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  all for joining us. Have a great day. We will talk to you tomorrow