I was checking Great Lakes Region rankings, and it occurred to me that Ohio State was no where to be found. With a record of 4-10-4, I can see why. Since 1999, the Buckeyes' results have been as follows: 1999 11-8-0 2000 12-5-4 2001 10-9-1 2002 11-7-1 2003 4-10-4 Pretty big drop after four very consistent seasons. Any reasons or is this a temporary aberation?
Coaches... It starts with the head coach and then down to the assistants.... They have an awful coaching staff with very little coaching ability and even less knowledge about the game or recruiting. All that results in an average team which has been average for a long long time and got lucky to beat Indiana in 2001 in the Big Ten Final. Showed how good they were losing in the First Round of the NCAA's. It will get worse before it gets better.
Michigan is. The program is only in its fourth season and this is their third straight winning season. Last year, they made the Big Ten tournament final despite playing without their best offensive player, who was with the U20 team. In the final, they also had to play without their top back, who was out because of yellow cards. They are 13-5 this year and should make the NCAA Tournament for the first time this year. The team has several MLS-candidates on its roster, led by U20 forward Knox Cameron, mammoth defender Kevin Robinson and underrated forward Mychal Turpin. This is a program on the rise and it's intriguing that they have come on to the scene, and gotten better, at the same that OSU has been so-so and then gone down the tubes. As for MSU, I haven't seen them play but I know they have like 12 wins this year and should squeak into the NCAAs as the third Big Ten team.
OSU Had no funding (0.0 schollies), until the arrival of Coach Bleum before the 1999 season, when they became fully funded. Biggest problem this year is lack of offense, only 12 goals total in 18 games. The 'top' scorer has 2.
To his credit, Coach Bluem has managed to grab enough of the suddenly deep Ohio talent pool from the last 24 months to have credible classes. Three All Americans from last year, for example. But most of the big guns from this year, Israel Jones (SMU) Steven Sandbo (SMU) Eric Brunner (Maryland) John Mellencamp (Indiana - and yes, he's his Uncle) and Eric Noschang (Indiana) are packing it up and going with winning programs with top=notch coaching. This was the group he had to have to turn the program around. He has apparently gotten a committment from All-Everything Midfielder Xavier Balc, (Junior AA last year, Ohio POTY) who is probably the best of the bunch (this kid is a player) but he's the exception. And with other kids like Balc, who want to stay close to home, Ken Lolla is happy to have you at Akron, which is a better run, higher ranked and widely respected program. He picked up now-you-see-him-now-he's-scored-on-you All American Brandon Murphy last year, a kid Bluem wanted badly. There are some great kids coming up, like Kenny Walker and Okori Sarcofie who both just left for Bradenton, and Kai Kasurian and Kiki Willis (the only Sophomore All American last year). But the pool is pretty shallow after them. The AD at OSU is well known for giving you a long rope, but Bluem's sure ought to be getting a little frayed by now.
I suppose this is what's piqued my curiosity. It seems that the flow of quality players, if not away from Ohio, is at least away from Ohio State. Rather ironically, I see that the Michigan game winner was actually scored by a freshman from Cincinnati
OSU Recruiting Coach Bluem has done a better job lately of recruiting Ohio talent. When he arrived on the scene from California, he seemed to be of the opinion that there weren't any good players in Ohio. The recruiting effort locally was near zero. I'm not sure when the wake-up call arrived. It may have been when Columbus player O'Rourke went to IU, or the loss af Bertz(UMD), Pore(Tulsa) and Burch(Evansville) all the same year. It may have come when a local walk-on made the starting 11. First impressions are hard to overcome. The better players are not anxious to go to OSU. It doesn't seem to be on the top of the list for a lot of the local guys.
Re: OSU Recruiting And from what I hear, he may be getting the "Barry Gorman" virus. Bluem has apparently released one, and possibly as many as three players before the Big 10 tournament. I'm not sure that's a recruiting "plus" if true.
I was in Bloomington from '87 - '96 and I seemed to remember quite a few Ohio players on the IU roster so I'm not sure why Bluem would think there isn't quality and quantity in that state. I would think that Ohio St. along with Mich, PSU, and IU should be consistently in the top 25 and regular participants in the NCAA. Is the athletic department committed to making this a top program?
Noonan Are you the Noonan from the movie Caddy Shack? I loved you in that movie. Did you ever achieve "total conciousness" ?
No man...that was Carl who was after total consciousness from the Dalai Lama. Noonan was the brown noser caddy who sucked up to Judge Smales. Now, to test your caddyshack trivia, what was Judge Smales nephew's name?
Here is a prediction from Nostradamus Bleum out of Ohio State, Andrulis out of Columbus Crew. Andrulis takes the Ohio State job, (better collegiate coach for sure) and Bleum...who cares!
I think they'd say they are. I actually don't think they know one way or the other. To be fair, they have thrown a good deal of money into both the program and the facilities.