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Ridiculous criticisms arise around Nick Bosa’s departure from Ohio State

It’s 2018, can we stop with these Neanderthal takes now, please?

By Matt Tamanini
NCAA Football: Ohio State at Texas Christian Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

“Nick Bosa bothers me. Remember, I’m the cranky guy who wants everything to be the same way it was years ago, so my opinion might be a bit skewed. However, when a player announces that they will quit on their team mid-way through the season to focus on the NFL, I can’t help but being enraged.”

-Mike Farrell, rivals.com

In the immortal words of Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers, “Really?”

So let me get this straight; the best defensive player in the country gets injured during the third game of the season and undergoes surgery. Reportedly doctors tell him that he might be able to return during the final weeks of the regular season, but that’s not guaranteed.

In the meantime, his specific injury requires rest and as little physical exertion as possible; meaning that if he were to come back, he would not be in the same physical shape and conditioning that he was before he went down.

Therefore, if said player were to return, that means that he would be doing so at less than his 100 percent against the best, most physical opponents on his team’s schedule; thus increasing the likelihood of either exacerbating the original injury or causing another, potentially worse one.

If this consensus best defensive player in the country were to get hurt again, it could cost him tens of millions of dollars that he would never be able to recoup. For reference, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft was slotted in to make $32,682,980 over the life of his rookie contract. Let’s say that a second injury dropped this hypothetical player back a measly 10 spots in the draft. In 2018, that would have cost him more than $16 million on his first NFL contract.

So, I ask you, Mr. Farrell, would you be willing to risk $16 million? If you answer “yes,” you are either lying or dumb.

Only Nick Bosa and his doctors— and likely his family— truly know how close to being able to return he actually is. But for anyone to call an injured athlete out, especially one in the sport of football that routinely discards injured players like they are interchangeable drill bits is laughable, and, honestly, more than a little bit offensive. Do players have obligations to teammates, coaches, and fans? Absolutely they do. But do those supersede the obligations they have to themselves and their families? Not even close.

For Buckeye fans, it shouldn’t be hard to conjure up the exact, non-hypothetical scenario to explain why this is the only prudent move that Bosa could make. Do you remember the 2016 Fiesta Bowl (the first one, not the second one)?

Ohio State beat up on Notre Dame, 44-28. In that game, ND’s Jaylon Smith (the brother of Buckeye running back and current Dallas Cowboy teammate Rod Smith), who just a few weeks earlier had been awarded the Butkus Award as the top linebacker in college football, tore his ACL and LCL. Before the injury, Smith was projected as a top-5 draft pick, at worst. Meaning that in the 2016 draft, he would have received no less than a four-year, $23.5 million deal.

Instead, the Cowboys shocked the football world, and took him 34th overall; far ahead of where he was expected to go, especially considering that they knew that he would not be able to play until 2017.

Smith’s second-round rookie deal was also for four years, but was reportedly worth only $6.49 million. So, being completely healthy and playing in one, single bowl game, Smith lost $17 million. But knuckleheads like Farrell want Bosa to come back and play multiple games for their personal entertainment despite the fact that he couldn’t possibly be 100 percent? Please. Get out of here with that garbage.

“Hopefully NFL teams will take this lack of dedication to his teammates in consideration when making their selection, but you and I both know they won’t,” Farrell goes on. “Good luck in the NFL Nick Bosa, but you lost a fan here.”

Same, Mr. Farrell, same.

“There is little question that the Buckeyes are the class of the Big Ten, but West Lafayette has been a house of horrors for them this century. They have lost only 25 games in Big Ten play in that time. They have lost just 13 road games in Big Ten play in the 19 seasons so far since the start of the 2000 season. Four of those losses have come in Ross-Ade Stadium.”

-Travis Miller, Hammer and Rails

Turning our attention to this Saturday’s game against Purdue, I’m not going to lie to you, I’m scared. Way, way back in Twenty-Aught-Two, I was at Ross-Ade Stadium, sitting in the front row behind the very end zone in which Craig Krenzel connected with Michael Jenkins on the “Holy Buckeye!” play.

While that game doesn’t figure into Travis’ breakdown because the Buckeyes won, I am well aware that West Lafayette, Ind., can present some serious challenges for Ohio State teams; and I’m afraid that this year will be no different.

The Buckeyes have struggled all season in allowing opposing offenses to rack up obscene amounts of yardage via explosive plays. Unfortunately for OSU, the Purdue offense ranks ninth nationally in IsoPPP, which is the advanced metric used to measure explosiveness (it’s described as “How consistently successful were you, and when you were successful, how potent were you?”).

And, if you thought that that was bad, it gets worse, as they are sixth in the country in Marginal Explosiveness (the difference between IsoPPP** and the expected IsoPPP value of each play based on down, distance, and yard line).

So, that means that Ohio State’s defense— still pretty banged, and searching for an identity— will face an offensive unit that can pick up yards and points quickly. Quarterback David Blough is throwing for 282.5 yards per game, and head coach Jeff Brohm has found an elite weapon for his QB to get the ball to.

True freshman Rondale Moore is everything that the Buckeyes should fear from an offensive player. In just six games, he has already accounted for 697 yards from scrimmage and 6 touchdowns; not to mention another 310 yards as a returner.

Moore set a Purdue single-game, all-purpose yards record IN HIS FIRST COLLEGIATE GAME!

The freshman is fast, creative, and has fantastic hands, and Brohm has found different ways to maximize his athleticism throughout the season by moving him around and finding unique ways to get the ball in his hands. The Buckeye linebackers (heaven forbid) and DBs will need to know where Moore is at all times if they want to be able to prevent Purdue from boilering up the chunk plays.

Social Media Roundup

1) “O-H!” Come on Down! “I-O!”

2) See, not every Ohio State fan hates Penn State!

3) I’m including this just because it is the dumbest, funniest thing that ESPN might have ever aired.

OSU Non-Revenue Roundup:

Wrestling

Ohio State graduates Kyle Snyder (97 kg) and Logan Stieber (65 kg) make up 20 percent of Team USA’s men’s freestyle squad for the 2018 World Championships (Oct. 20-23). Buckeye assistant coach Tervel Dlagnev will be donning the Stars & Stripes in Budapest, Hungary, too, as a member of the World Team coaching staff.

Men’s and Women’s Cross Country

Both Ohio State cross country teams competed in the 2018 Pre-Nationals hosted by the University of Wisconsin. The women ran a 6k and earned 13th with 389 points while the man ran an 8k earning 31st with 814 points.

Field Hockey

The Ohio State field hockey team will enter its final weekend of regular season competition ranked No. 21 in the Penn Monto/NFHCA Division I National Coaches Poll.

Women’s Soccer

The Ohio State women’s soccer team begins the final week of the regular season when it travels to Purdue for a 6 p.m. Thursday contest in West Lafayette, Ind.

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