Three Takeaways from OKC Dave’s OSU Postseason Survey Results

The more OKC Dave the better. After his exhaustive preseason survey, OKC Dave has followed it up with one taking the temperature of OSU fans following a disappointing 2018 campaign. You can read all of his thoughts and the data right here, but here are three takeaways I had.

1. Nobody Cares (?) About Defense

People either don’t understand how much worse OSU’s defense was this year than last (statistically speaking), don’t have any expectations for OSU’s defense to be anything but awful, hate Yurcich or think Jim Knwoles gets a free pass in Year 1. Or all of the above.

Here are the OC grades.

Here’s Dave’s take.

This is a head-scratcher to me. I guess it just shows that the expectations for the offense and defense are wildly different – but our defense was flat-out awful this year.

#84 in S&P+ and #99 in FEI (by comparison, Spencer’s last defense ranked #70 and #64 in those systems). Maybe Knowles gets a break because it’s his first year, but if you get essentially the same grade as Yurcich – OK, a C instead of a C+, for that kind of production, it basically means OSU fans have given up on the defense. Weighted average grade: 75%.

2. The QB Situation Was a Big Deal

At times it felt like a big deal only because we were (I was) making it a big deal. But according to the numbers, not a lot of people are real fired up about how Mike Gundy handled QBs 1, 2 and 3 in 2018.

I landed on neutral because I understand why he did what he did even if I never really fell in love with the decision.

3. We are Prisoners of the Moment

This is astonishing.

I think (hope? ?) this is simply a response to the season we just witnessed and not a referendum on Gundy’s job on the whole. I suspect this rises to somewhere around 90 percent come August 2019, but it does beg the question of what it might look like in 2020 if OSU goes 6-6 again next season … or worse. Gundy’s never endured two mediocre seasons in a row, and the rumbling (and grumbling) could get deafening if he does with a stud QB1 in 2019.

See the full survey results by OKC Dave right here.