I am having a difficult time relating to this conversation in that the Buckeyes are playing so well on both sides of the ball at this stage of the season. I hope no one takes the opportunity to quote me within the next few weeks!
So Don what do you remember about the Earl Bruce and John Cooper situations? While not exactly the same, but both Bruce and Cooper were successful, but I think neither could beat Michigan enough and thus were eventually let go, not because they had bad records. I seem to remember Cooper was let go after he lost to Lou Holtz and South Carolina badly in a bowl. I don't exactly remember what was the final nail in Earl Bruce's coffin. Were Buckeye fans as up in arms as ND fans are now with Kelly? Did it come on suddenly or slowly over a couple of years?
Terry, OSU fans have always been very demanding and coaching longevity here with the exception of Woody Hayes has always been a problem sooner or later. Coop could not beat Michigan and that was enough, although he over all was well liked. His 1998 team was an excellent team but he lost to MSU in the shoe and that ruined his season. Early Bruce was a very stubborn disciple of Woody and he irritated the President of Ohio State to the point he was fired. His tenure was 9-3 Bruce. Not good enough! He never backed down on his thoughts and was vey outspoken. Certainly did not provide much job security.
It doesn't matter who the QB is if ZERO WRs are open. It doesn't matter when team captains are jumping offside...
I can handle losing.....losing with dignity, knowing you played hard, were competitive to the end, and came up short to the better team. That's not what happened last Saturday. I can't imagine another top team like Alabama, Clemson, etc. tanking the way we did vs. Michigan. That's the rub.
I hope the team has put that debacle behind them better than ND fans. All the talk now is about getting Urban Meyer to ND for 2020. So much so that even Urban Meyer's wife, Shelly, has made a comment about it on Twitter or Instagram I forget which. This is reminding me a lot about the Davie years when there started a thing about Tom Coughlin coming to ND, he was at Jacksonville at the time. People were posting that they have heard that he's always wanted to coach at ND, that his agent was negotiating behind the scenes, when Kevin White took the AD job and started in the middle of the summer people actually thought his first act would be to fire Davie and bring in Tom Coughlin. Coughlin finally issued a statement that he wasn't interested, he was happy at Jacksonville.
Earle Bruce I remember as a good coach who I supported and did not like his firing. (I had a friend who was happy as a clam when he was fired.) As Don said, he was outspoken and was critical of certain things going on in other places. I heard that was why he was fired but the alleged straw was the loss to Iowa than put our record at 5-4. He got us 4 Big 10 titles. I admire the way that after his coaching career he continued to be a big Ohio State promoter. John Cooper first irked me early in his career when he criticized the fans for not being enthusiastic enough after a game where there was really very little the team showed to be enthusiastic about. I always thought he seemed to be encouraging his team to play for themselves and their future NFL draft potential rather than for the team or the school...and I thought that this showed in the big games. He REALLY lost me when we lost to Air Force in the Liberty Bowl (not so much that we lost the game...Kudos to the Air Force). Before the game a bunch of players were complaining that they deserved a better bowl in a better, warmer city and that they deserved a better opponent...Coop said nothing (at least in public...maybe he chewed them out in private)...myself, I would have told them if the starters didn't want to play the Air Force in Memphis they could stay home and we'd play the backups. Anyhow we got our ass handed to us. He did win 3 conference titles and had us finish #2 in the polls twice. I did come to appreciate Coop later as a football analyst...I think he's pretty sharp. Maybe some of the above isn't fair or true...just my impressions.