With Addition of Zaquan Patterson, Add Safety to Positions Transformed by Transfer Portal

I love what we're doing, hate that this is "college" football now, but at least we're adapting

Nice report Mr. Allen. For the past decade or so, I think OSU fans have, many times, gotten excited about the prospects for upcoming seasons, only to be disappointed at the end of the season because of the roster not living up to the hype. However, this pre-season anticipation seems to be different. With the new coaching staff being so aggressive and relentless in the portal, as Gundy has pointed out, I feel like the talent level for OSU's roster has risen considerably this year.. I truly believe that last years coaching staff and roster had grown very complacent over the last 3-4 years, and complacency reared it's ugly head and bit OSU right in the ass last year. I feel like there's an aura of motivation this year to change that complacency, which will lead to a surprising success. I'm not saying or predicting that OSU will win the Big XII title, but stranger things have happened. Remember Arizona State last year and where they were predicted to finish in the Big XII race, and where they actually finished.

I understand what you're trying to say, but considering we went to the Big 12 Championship game 2/4 years, it's hard to say our team and all the coaches were "complacent" over that entire period.

Cdub234 said:

---

I understand what you're trying to say, but considering we went to the Big 12 Championship game 2/4 years, it's hard to say our team and all the coaches were "complacent" over that entire period.

---

Gundy has often said that in Division 1 football, your quarterback play goes a long way in determining your success. Our QB last year couldn't make a big play out of a problem, couldn't run to keep defense honest with Ollie or help the OL and couldn't scramble to buy time for receivers/pass. There was Gundy's statement in practice!

---

Cdub234 said:

---

I understand what you're trying to say, but considering we went to the Big 12 Championship game 2/4 years, it's hard to say our team and all the coaches were "complacent" over that entire period.

---

Orangeheart72 said:

Gundy has often said that in Division 1 football, your quarterback play goes a long way in determining your success. Our QB last year couldn't make a big play out of a problem, couldn't run to keep defense honest with Ollie or help the OL and couldn't scramble to buy time for receivers/pass. There was Gundy's statement in practice!

---

yeah, other than it was the exact same QB, RB and OLine as the prior season... much more than that happened last year, but I'm not near enough to identify what made such a drastic difference

the only real difference I can see, is Gundy changed the way he approaches the portal. Buying better players instead of heavily rewarding the existing team members.

so far everything looks decent "on paper", but we really don't know what we've got to cheer for this season.

I think you're spot on about much more going on with last year's team than we know about. But Gundy s not going to spill the beans, and Mr. Allen is in a position where he can't really divulge anything either. But something was terribly wrong with how the team performed last year compared to the last half of 2023.
Whether it was some of the defensive coaches sabotaging the DC, or Kasey Dunn just running the same 5 or 6 plays repeatedly and being very predictable, there was something going on under the surface that was toxic to the team, and unfortunately we may never learn what was going on.