Ohio State's 2011 Offense: The Worst In A Decade

We've seen the games, heard the commentary, and noted the conclusion: Ohio State's offense is bad. As contentious as college football discussion can be, there exists little disagreement about the 2011 Buckeye offense. It's unacceptable that Ohio State, which has signed the best recruiting class in the Big Ten three out of the last four years, can perform so poorly. Yet there remains an undercurrent amongst some Buckeye fans that Jim Bollman's offense is simply an extension of Jim Tressel's philosophy, Tresselball to the extreme, if you will.

Ross has already debunked that thought schematically, but after the Illinois game, it popped up again, under the guise of "doing whatever it takes to win." That practical, results-oriented philosophy makes sense when the goal is to win an individual game, but the idea breaks down over a full season, when the goal is to maximize your chances of winning every game.

Ohio State's offensive staff has failed to implement an effective process for running an offense, and we're left with the goal of barely doing enough instead of confidently executing a defined system. We only need to look at the results to see the weaknesses in this results-oriented philosophy.

Prorated, Ohio State is on pace to run 750 plays for 3,643 yards, or 4.85 yards per play. It would be the lowest number of snaps since 2004 and by far the least efficient Buckeye offense we've seen in a decade. No Jim Tressel offense ever dropped below 5-yards per play.

Braxton Miller Era*

• 2011 - 438 plays, 4.8 YPP.

Terrelle Pryor Era

• 2010 - 896 plays, 6.5 YPP
  
• 2009 - 879 plays, 5.5 YPP
  
• 2008 - 807 plays, 5.5 YPP

Todd Boeckman Era

• 2007 - 883 plays, 5.8 YPP

Troy Smith Era

• 2006 - 820 plays, 6.3 YPP
  
• 2005-  808 plays, 6.4 YPP
• 2004-  751 plays, 5.3 YPP

Craig Krenzel Era

• 2003 - 860 plays, 5.02 YPP
• 2002 - 909 plays - 5.61 YPP

Steve Bellisari Era

• 2001 - 832 plays, 5.16 YPP
  

Yards per play (YPP) tells us how efficient teams are with each play they run. YPP has its limitations, and for more gritty analysis I point you towards Football Outsiders, but it offers an accessible number that is more intelligent than raw figures like yards or points. Teams with high YPP figures milk more value out of their plays, and teams with low figures waste downs.

The median yards per play this season hovers between 5.4 and 5.6. Wisconsin owns the best, 7.8 YPP, and Kent State unwillingly possesses the worst, 2.8 YPP. Ohio State lags behind teams like Minnesota, Boston College, and Iowa State.

According to YPP, last season's Buckeye offense was the most effective of the Tressel era. Troy Smith's final two seasons, 2005 and 2006, follow as the two next best. The respective developments of Pryor and Smith into mature quarterbacks had more to do with the offensive improvement than anything else, but Tressel's continual adaptation of the offense aided the success, as well. In both cases, we watched the offenses gradually mold themselves around their quarterback's best attributes.

While Tressel faced criticism for bringing his quarterbacks along slowly, and sometimes placing artificial barriers upon their natural ability, there was always an expected payoff. Troy Smith's dismantling of the 2006 Iowa Hawkeyes had 2004's bumps as an ancestor; Terrelle Pryor's MVP performance in the Rose Bowl owed much to his putrid play against Purdue.

Without Tressel, we can only hope that Bollman and quarterbacks coach Nick Siciliano offer the same payoff following Braxton Miller's painful first season. If they can't, we must find someone who will.

*The above information comes from three sources, CFBStats.com, ESPN.com, and The National Championship Issue Team Database.