{"id":145904,"date":"2021-09-13T03:54:53","date_gmt":"2021-09-13T08:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=145904"},"modified":"2021-09-13T03:54:56","modified_gmt":"2021-09-13T08:54:56","slug":"monday-mailbag-van-wert-osu-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2021\/09\/13\/monday-mailbag-van-wert-osu-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Mailbag, Van Wert, OSU, more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week\u2019s Monday Mailbag features questions about COVID-19 and the current high school football season, Wapakoneta\u2019s game plan, Van Wert\u2019s past vs. present, and complaints about Ohio State\u2019s defense and head coach Ryan Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: Is the high school football season in danger of being canceled? It seems like more and more games are getting canceled each week. Name withheld upon request<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: With COVID-19 numbers on the rise, I suspect games will continue to be canceled but I don\u2019t believe the season itself will come to a halt.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, nearly 50 high school football games in Ohio were canceled due to COVID-19. Many of the non-COVID affected teams quickly scheduled each other for games but still, that\u2019s a significant number of games.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, the only area games wiped out have been Lima Sr. vs. Mansfield in Week No. 2 and Edgerton vs. Ayersville last Friday. The Spartans missed a game while Edgerton hastily scheduled Cardinal Stritch as a replacement and lost 32-30.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s not fool ourselves \u2013 teams even closer to home may very well miss a game or two or at the very least, they may find themselves scrambling to schedule a new last-minute opponent.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: It seems like Wapakoneta had Van Wert\u2019s number on Friday night. I know the Cougars won the game but the Redskins rolled up a lot of yards and points. Was that a blueprint for other teams to follow? Name withheld upon request<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: I\u2019m sure future opponents will watch game video but trying to replicate what Wapakoneta did is another matter. How many teams have a quarterback like Wapak\u2019s Braedan Goulet? He was the main factor in his team\u2019s offensive success on Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With St. Marys Memorial and Ottawa-Glandorf on tap, I believe the Cougars will make the necessary adjustments, even though those teams have different types of quarterbacks.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: I\u2019m curious. How do you think last year\u2019s or this year\u2019s Van Wert football team would stack up against Van Wert\u2019s great teams of yesteryear? Name withheld upon request<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

A: Interesting question. I wasn\u2019t around to see those teams of the past (I assume you\u2019re talking about the teams from the 1950s) and it\u2019s sometimes difficult to compare teams from different eras, simply because the styles were different and the rules (especially pass blocking) were different.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps someone out there can weigh in on your question.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: Ohio State couldn\u2019t stop anything Oregon did on Saturday and it seems like the defense will be a problem all season long. Why doesn\u2019t Ryan Day pull the trigger and fire Kerry Coombs immediately? Name withheld upon request<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: You\u2019re right, the Buckeyes really couldn\u2019t stop the Ducks on Saturday. It wasn\u2019t fun watching their backs gain about nine yards a clip and it certainly wasn\u2019t fun watching their receiver run wide open all afternoon.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The defense is indeed an issue right now. There\u2019s been no pass rush to speak of, the linebackers appear to be below average and the secondary is a huge question mark.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As far as firing defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs immediately, that\u2019s a knee jerk reaction but for the sake of argument, let\u2019s say it happened.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then what? The job would most likely go to someone already on staff. Would that really make a difference? If not, where would you find an outside replacement that could come in and fix things within a few days?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong \u2013 I tend to agree that Coombs seems to be in over his head as a defensive coordinator. He\u2019s a great position coach and recruiter, but I\u2019m not sure he\u2019s meant to be a coordinator at the major Division I level.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firing him at this point won\u2019t fix the problem but if things don’t improve, it’s something that will likely be addressed at the end of the season.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: Ohio State was a disgrace on Saturday. It\u2019s time for Ryan Day to go, now! Name withheld upon request<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: Once again, a knee jerk reaction.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The guy just lost his first regular season game. Before Saturday, Day was 24-0 in the regular season. He had to lose a game at some point, right? Plus, let\u2019s not lose sight of the fact that Oregon is a very good team.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do wish his offense was a bit more balanced but outside of that, it\u2019s tough to argue with what he\u2019s accomplished so far.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have a question or comment for the next Monday Mailbag, please email it to sports@thevwindependent.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor This week\u2019s Monday Mailbag features questions about COVID-19 and the current high school football season, Wapakoneta\u2019s game plan, Van Wert\u2019s past vs. present, and complaints about Ohio State\u2019s defense and head coach Ryan Day. Q: Is the high school football season in danger of being canceled? It seems like more and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-18 19:25:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145904\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}