Random Thoughts: Cotton Bowl, more

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

The first installment of Random Thoughts for 2024 centers around the Cotton Bowl, Ohio State, Kyle McCord, bowl season and punts.

Cotton Bowl thoughts

Upon further review of the Cotton Bowl, two things really swung the game.

The first occurred midway through the third quarter.

Ohio St.’s running game finally got into a rhythm, with foour straight running plays going for 3, 11, 8 and 15 yards. The offensive line was finally getting a push. The Buckeyes were driving. Then…Ryan Day calls a pass play. Incomplete. Then a run for no gain, followed by an incomplete pass and a punt.

I’m not a “fire Ryan Day” guy, but his play calling sometimes drives me up the wall. In that situation, keep handing off. The Buckeyes were getting Missouri back on their heels, and there was no need to throw the ball there.

The next big swing came on Missouri’s ensuing drive.

A 7-yard completion on 3rd and 7 at their own 8 was huge. Prior to that, the Tigers had done practically nothing through the air. A stop there would have meant a punt and presumably great field position for OSU. Instead, Missouri gains 75 yards on the next three plays and goes on to score. Huge swing.

A couple of other things

People are asking “where is Ohio State’s quarterback depth?”

Folks, the transfer portal has changed all of that, and not just at Ohio St. Not named the starter? Ok, I’m transferring, goodbye. The transfer portal needs a serious adjustment. It wasn’t meant to be a free for all. The timeline needs adjusted as well, such as no one transfers until the season is over, period. It can be done. Just like NIL, this whole thing was slapped together after the NCAA dragged its feet forever.

Ryan Day isn’t getting fired, at least not now. Gene Smith won’t do that before he retires later this year. The next athletic director might think differently, but Day will almost certainly be on the sidelines in 2024. I do believe some staff changes are coming though.

McCord

As bad as the offensive line was, I still think Ohio State would have won that game if Kyle McCord had played. I’m just going to leave it at that.

Bowl season

As much as I hate to say it, most of this bowl season has been…sort of boring. There have been a handful of decent games but as a whole, the bowl season has been pretty blah, at least until Monday.

The transfer portal and opt-outs have had a huge effect on bowl games, and not for the better. I begrudgingly accept that if a player is a projected top-10 draft pick and is in a non-playoff game, it makes sense to sit out. I don’t like it but I get it. Take Marvin Harrison Jr. for instance – even though mum was the word until Cotton Bowl game day, there was exactly zero chance he was going to play.

I’m not sure how much can be done about opt-outs but as I said earlier, the transfer portal can be fixed in terms of criteria for transferring and the timeline. That needs to be addressed ASAP.

Punts

When did fielding punts inside the 10 yard line become a thing? We were treated to plenty of that during bowl weekend.

If you have thoughts or comments on any of the above topics, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com.