The Armchair Blogger

Ohio Sports Randomness

2007-07-05T12:35:00.000-07:00

ODEN # 1
A lot has happened since my last post, and the biggest news was the Portland Trailblazers taking Greg Oden first overall in the NBA draft last Thursday. This was no surprise, because pretty much every media outlet had reported that Oden was going to be the number one pick over fellow freshman Kevin Durant out of Texas.

The big surprise to me was the Atlanta Hawks passing on Mike Conley, Jr., with the 3rd pick. I thought Conley would've been a great fit in Atlanta and he would've made a lot of their young players better. Instead of taking Conley with the 3rd overall pick, they nabbed Florida power forward Al Horford and with the 11th overall selection the Hawks ended up getting their floor general in Texas A & M guard Acie Law IV. I think Law could be a decent role player type PG in the NBA, but Conley will be a superstar and has the quickness that can't be taught. This will go down as another one of the Atlanta Hawks' bigger draft mistakes.

BROWNS BANTER
And I hear that Cleveland Brown tackle Joe Thomas, the # 3 overall selection from the April 2007 NFL draft, is set to hold out. Reportedly the Browns don't want to pay the former Wisconsin Badger the money that the past few # 3 overall picks have gotten, but they were aware of what the pricetag was for drafting that high. If they weren't prepared to pay a player that amount of money, then they should've dealt out of the 3 spot and picked lower in the draft.
I think that Thomas should get at least Braylon Edwards money, and his figures should land somewhere between what Edwards and Vince Young received. I'd say that 6 years at 52 million (with about 23 million guaranteed) will be what the two sides will agree upon.

I picked up my first college football magazine over the weekend. I'm about halfway through it, and already I can't wait for college FB. It'll be a long 7 weeks until kickoff.

It's Been Awhile

2007-06-12T10:42:00.000-07:00

So it's been awhile since my last post, and a lot has changed since February.

Joy and I had our first child on the night of the National Championship game, and you can read all about that day here. We named him Greyson Denney, and this new adventure called parenthood has been a wild and fun ride through the first 10 weeks.

The kid thing is really cool, and it's amazing how much it effects what your old schedule used to be. We still get to watch plenty of baseball on tv, but staying up late enough to watch the end of the Cavs playoff games? Forget about it. Bedtime is now no later than 11 pm, and I can't wait for the day when the little guy starts to sleep through the night.

But the Cavs playoff games bring up quite an issue, mostly because they looked so good through the Pistons series and now they appear lost against the Spurs. As for this being a true NBA finals matchup? Not so. The Cavs are not that good and until they can find someone who can complement Lebron they will not be considered a serious NBA title contender.

Daniel Gibson has been a very nice surprise, but as good he's been, Larry Hughes has been equally as bad. Hughes has become as overpaid as they come, and he would be much better off being a 6th man. If I am the Cavs, I'd hold tight until Gilbert Arenas opts out of his contract next year. I know that he and LeBron had their spat last year during the playoffs, but a Gilbert Arenas type would be the perfect complement to LBJ.

June 12th
So we're in the middle of June, which means that it will be football season before we know it. Throughout the summer I'll be tossing out some good football info, as we're only 10 weeks away from the start of Tailgating season.

And I promise I'll keep this updated at least 3 times a week from here on out. Happy to be back....

OSU 85, Minnesota 67

2007-02-18T14:54:00.000-08:00

Today's win at Minnesota was a solid victory, although I didn't expect a loss coming at the hands of the Minnesota Golden Gophers. This post isn't going to be so much about today's game, but more about what I like and dislike about the state of the OSU basketball team. I guess we could name this one State of the Matta or something corny like that.

Now that OSU is approaching 30 games played and the Big Ten and NCAA tourney's are in sight, we are starting to learn alot about this Buckeye squad. I like the way that this team is assembled, because it is starting to become more apparent that all of the pieces are in place for a Final Four run. Here are a few things that I like and don't like about the Ohio State Buckeye Men's basketball team as of February 18th, 2007.

1. The Ohio State guards/small forwards- I love the fact that OSU has Conley, Jamar Butler, Ron Lewis and Daequan Cook that love to run the floor and take the ball to the rack. Conley does a very nice job of running the point and also has lightning quick hands and phenomenal anticipation that lead to many backcourt steals and easy buckets. Butler, Lewis and Cook have the ability to be smooth behind the the three-point line, and if those 3 are hitting threes the Buckeyes are very hard to beat.

2. Greg Oden and Othella Hunter- The inside presence that Oden provides is a luxury that not many college basketball teams can match. In the NCAA tourney it is the guards that run the show, but a dominant big can open up open jump shots for teammates and limit easy looks down low for the opposing team. Keeping these two out of foul trouble will be of utmost importance if OSU plans on making any sort of run in late March.

3. Ivan Harris- "The Microwave" can be quite the x-factor, and it seems like opposing teams forget about him when they focus defensively on stopping Oden, Cook, Conley, Lewis and Butler. The open looks will be there for Harris, and his ability to hit the 3 will be huge for the Bucks down the stretech.

4. Matt Terwilliger and David Lighty- These two get overlooked quite often, but they have both supplied solid defense and invaluable minutes off the bench in the Buckeyes 24-3 season record. Keeping Oden fresh and out of foul trouble is a key to the Buckeyes success, and Terwilliger and Hunter have done a nice job of providing solid minutes off the bench.

Buckeye Basketball

2007-01-27T20:16:00.000-08:00

Bucks hang on for win over MSU

The Ohio State men's baskeball team held on for a 66-64 win at the Schott on Saturday. Ohio State blew a 20 point halftime lead, and barely snuck away with a win. Along with blowing the big lead, Ohio State's defense was shredded by Michigan State point guard Drew Nietzel, who had 29 points.
Nietzel was junk in the first half, but exploded in the second half for 24 of his game high 29 points. I was extremely impressed with the way Nietzel played as he was always hustling and played very hard all game long.
Ohio State's scoring attack was led by Greg Oden's 19 points, which included 8 for 10 from the free throw line in the second half. The Buckeye offense managed to only put up 23 points in the second half, and Jamar Butler's 12 and Daequan Cook's 11 points rounded out the scoring.

Thoughts?
I thought the Bucks played a complete first half. The defensive intensity was present and OSU seemed to be unconscious from outside the arc.
Conversely, the second half was a terrible 20 minutes of college basketball for the Buckeyes. Greg Oden did have 3 nice blocks in the second half, but that seemed to be the lone bright spot for the Bucks defensively. The Spartans were able to garner 10 offensive rebounds in the game, and I believe that OSU gave up at least 12 second-chance points tonight.
After utilizing the DVR and rewinding different MSU offensive rebounds, I noticed that the Buckeye defenders are in terrible position to get defensive rebounds. Our guards don't box out well at all, and the only defensive rebounding presence seems to be Oden.
It's good to see another Buckeye conference win, as Wisconsin is now 6-0 in the Big Ten and the Bucks are a game behind at 5-1. Indiana resides in 3rd place and is the lone 5-2 team.

Up next for the Buckeye hoopsters is a tough road game at Purdue on Tuesday night (7 p.m.). Purdue is a team that plays very well at home and this could be a trap game for the Bucks. Purdue is 14-7 this year and is 3-4 in conference play. On Saturday they destroyed Illinois for a 17 point win in West Lafayette. Purdue boasts a couple of guys that can fill it up in Carl Landry and David Teague. Landry, a forward, is averaging 19 points and 7 boards per contest. David Teague averages 13 points and 4 rebounds, respectively.
Purdue is a little shaky down low, and it wouldn't really surprise me to see an assertive Greg Oden put up 23 and 14 on Tuesday. I see Conley having a nice game, finishing with 9 points and 8 assists.
I'll call it a Buckeye win 68-61. Go Bucks.

Where do we go from here?

2007-01-12T19:54:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm not going to post a score because if you're Buckeye fan, you know what happened.

I've done a pretty nice job of blacking out Monday night, although that's a bad taste that will probably never go away. In regards to the '06 season, those are the types of college football seasons that rarely happen for any program, and we as Buckeye fans might not see a team that talented for another 20 or 30 years. My dad says that the 68 team with Rex Kern, etc. was the best team that he'd ever seen until this year (and I believe he maintains that the 68 team is still the best he's ever seen), and I feel that this is the 1968 team of our generation. Unfortunately, JT and the boys couldn't wrap up a National Championship trophy with all the talent they had in the cupboard.

In terms of game analyzation, I'll try to keep this short. OSU Coach Jim Tressel FLAT OUT GOT OUTCOACHED. I liked the going for it on 4th and 1, the one in which we didn't make, but I supported the decision. I felt that was the right time to make a call like that, but OSU didn't execute. Losing Ted Ginn due to an unexcusable injury did hurt how OSU was going to operate offensively, but JT's ability to game plan on the fly apparently didn't make the trip out to Glendale. First off, a ton of credit needs to be given to the Florida defense, but Tressel's play calling post-Ginn injury was ATROCIOUS. If you lose your best WR, and you quickly go down 21-7, it is mandatory that you run the ball and attempt to control the clock the best that you can. JT has that game plan in the arsenal, as only 4 years earlier he used it to beat Miami only 8 miles away in Tempe for a National Championship. If you'll recall, the Pittman 18 yard run for a TD brought our Bucks back to within 7, then the Buckeye D holds UF to a 3 and out. What did our offense do? A cold Troy Smith goes 0 for 3 to complete our own 3 and out, as the Bucks (who the posession before ran UF down the field for a score) put up their own 3 and out. That was the chance to get back in the game, and from then on the Buckeyes never really had a pulse.
Here's a couple of things I must relay: Florida played an awesome game, and Urban Meyer's game plan was phenomenal. Their defense was Baltimore Raven-scary, and OSU didn't act as if they had any desire to even be there. That being said, I'd also like to credit Florida LB Brandon Siler for playing well, but at the same time I must call him out for acting like the douche that he is and I hope he blows out a knee soon. Really classy way to handle the victory.

THE BUCKEYE FUTURE
If you're a Buckeye football fan, you know by now that OSU junior Anthony Gonzalez has declared to go pro. I am a bit surprised by this, especially after he said that everybody he knew that was playing in the pros was miserable (due to always being sore and injured). But I also agree with his decision to go pro, because his stock will never be higher and this is the best time for him to go pro. I see Gonzo as one part Ricky Proehl, one part Isaac Bruce, and one part Marvin Harrison. I don't think he'll go much higher than the middle of the second round, mostly because he'll be the 6th or 7th receiver taken (at best). Dwayne Jarrett, Calvin Johnson, SC's Rice, and Tennessee's Robert Meachem will likely go ahead of Gonzo, and you might as well throw Ted Ginn Jr. on that list as well. I do see him being a very good NFL receiver if he is fortunate enough to be in the right system (the Chicago Bears, St. Louis Rams, Tennesee Titans, New England Patriots, San Diego Chargers would be ideal destinations).
The announcement of Gonzo going pro pretty much makes Ginn's exit to the NFL a foregone conclusion. If Ginn stays, what does he really have to prove? His numbers would decrease with a new QB coming into the fold in either Rob Schoenhoft or Todd Boeckman, and would certainly see 60 minutes of double coverage on Saturdays next fall. So, I wholeheartedly believe that Ginn will not be returning for his senior season in Columbus, unfortunately.
This also brings us to the Antonio Pittman decision. He is to announce on Monday his intentions, but I think his return to play in his senior season is also doubtful. Super sophomore Chris Wells will be more than capable to handle the bulk of the RB carries, and there are a couple of big time RBs coming into the fold in 07. I see Pittman heading to the NFL, and all of the sudden we'll have to replace almost every skill position on offense.
So where does this take us leading into the 07 season? I think Ohio State will be ranked somewhere near 15, but no higher than 12 but no lower than 20. The loss of Heisman winner Troy Smith, center Doug Datish, Tony Gonzalez and likely Ted Ginn Jr. and Antonio Pittman will put alot of inexperience on the offensive side of the ball. The defensive line will have some holes to fill, as DE Jay Richardson and DT's David Patterson and Quinn Pitcock will depart to the NFL. Senior CB Antonio Smith played himself into being an NFL draft pick, and with a good combine Smith could go as high as the early 4th round (and the way NFL teams take chances on CBs, a 3rd round pick might not be out of the question). So there are some huge holes to fill on both sides of the ball, but a weak schedule will benefit the Buckeyes. The opener at Washington should be an interesting one.
Well, I hope you enjoyed the 07 football season. There were euphoric highs, and a Michigan game that no one will ever forget, but the sour ending will leave a bad taste in a lot of Buckeye mouthes for a long, long time.
We'll chat basketball in the near future, my friends.

Birthdays, Buckeye Basketball, and Troy Smith

2006-12-27T18:52:00.000-08:00

First off, a couple of happy b-days need to be recognized. My good buddy Dave Clark turned 30 yesterday (gees that means BDS' big 30 is within striking distance) and cousin AJ finds himself at 28.
So with that out of the way, I've got a few little random notes to divulge as we creep towards the new year.

The Florida/OSU basketball game
I was pretty shocked with the way OSU played on the hardwood on Saturday. I can honestly say that Ohio State played with very little emotion, and I think that is the first time I can say that about a Thad Matta coached OSU Basketball team. In the past his teams might not have been extremely sharp or might not have always played well together, but you could never accuse them of playing without passion.
I saw lazy defense (Daequan Cook primarily) and many more open shots than a Thad Matta team gives up. Toss in those two factors with a very sloppy game on the # 4 team in the nation's court and you've got the recipe for 30 point drubbing.
What good can come from this win? Well, when you've got that many young kids playing, this can be a good learning experience for them. Hopefully this gives the young kids (Conley, Oden, Cook, Lighty) some fire and passion for the Big Ten season and gives the Buckeye veterans (Lewis and Butler) the desire to become team leaders. In college basketball, you need that player or two that looks for the ball and looks to score/make the big play at critical points in the game, and I saw none of that from Ron Lewis and Jamar Butler on Saturday. And who better to want as leaders of team than a SG/SF and a PG/SG? Those are two guys who can handle the rock, penetrate, and either finish at the rim or kick out for an open look. The ingredients are there for Matta to be successful, now it is up to him to make them gel and play as a team.

Next up for the Buckeye hoopsters is Coppin State at the Schott on Saturday, and I've got a feeling that the Bucks will be there to play, and if the spread is 27 or under I'd take the Bucks. On Saturday, Coppin State played at #10 Alabama and got beat 99-49. Tonight, Coppin State traveled to UConn and lost 84-41. Playing #10 Alabama, #12 UConn, and #8 Ohio State-all on the road-is quite a three-game stretch for anyone. So much for happy holidays, huh?

Steroids in Baseball
I saw on the ESPN today that what were once "anonymous" testing results from 2003 are know going to probably be public knowledge in the coming days. There were a reportedly 100 MLB players that were anonymously tested, and now this list is to be made public knowledge?
I do think this will be very intersting and there will be some big names on it (hope you enjoyed the ride, Miggy Tejada), but I was wondering what the legal ramifications of this could be? (Can there be any since this is a gov't led decision/investigation?)

If a player such as an Albert Pujols took a steroids test under the condition of anonymity, and then 4 years later that the results are to become public knowledge, wouldn't you be concerned? What happens when the trickle down effect occurs, when a player such as an Albert Pujols or Alex Rodriguez doesn't get an endorsement contract or has their contracts terminated due to the outcome of what was once an "anonymous steroid" testing? I think there could be some serious legal ramifications coming, and I really doubt we ever see these names published because of the prospective damage it could do to the game of baseball.
And by the way, I was only using Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriguez's names as examples and was in no way accusing them of ever using steroids.

Troy or Buster?
I've been watching the Florida State/UCLA Emerald Bowl tonight. Geesus, these could be the world's worst announcers. Dan Fouts is fair (at best) as a color guy. He's been the play-by-play man tonight, along with Tim Brandt, and since the 2nd quarter I put the TV on mute and have had the MP3 player going. It's much better. This also makes me think that something had to happen to whoever the pbp guy was supposed to be.

Anyhoo, this game made me realize how much we, as Buckeye fans, should appreciate Buster Davis' decision that he made nearly 5 years ago. In '02, Buster Davis (a very good ILB for Florida State) was offered the last scholarship of that class. Davis, who is a stocky run stuffer/pass rusher at 5' 11", 240 pounds, turned down that last scholarship in favor of the Seminoles. The scholarship that opened up was then offered to Troy Smith, and I think we all know how that worked out.
So from everybody here in the heart of Buckeyeland, thank you Buster Davis for turning down the Buckeyes, and allowing number 10 to give Michigan fans nightmares for 3 years in a row.

That's really all I've got on a slow Wednesday night in late December. I'll try and post before all of the bowls on Monday (New Year's Day), so hopefully we'll talk to you then.
Happy New Year!!!!

Merry Christmas Bucks Fans

2006-12-19T12:56:00.000-08:00

This post is primarily a response to a few of the comments that were made after my last post that briefly touched on the National Championship game in which our Buckeyes will play the Florida Gators.

For the fella that wanted to know how many days it's been since Michigan last beat Ohio State....I've got it at 1,123 days since Michigan last beat Ohio State (and I did incorporate an extra day in there because I believe that 2004 was a leap year). The last UM victory came on Saturday, November 22nd, 2003 at Michigan Stadium. Braylon Edwards had 130 yards receiving and two receiving TDs, and Chris Perry ran wild on the Bucks for 154 yards and 2 rushing TDs.

Before I get into a long and winded blog, I'd like for everyone to know why I'm responding to a post. You can read the comments at the bottom of the Back Again post or just click on this link, but consider yourself forewarned as it is a pretty long comment....but it is well put together and Mr. Ferguson has some solid points.
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=33987512&postID=116604233707836591

A different era
I'm at a loss on where to start on this one. I'll kick it off by saying I've never had anything against the SEC conference. I know that the SEC has dominated the Big Ten in bowl games, as the SEC's record is 34-23 against the Big Ten in bowl games. Ohio State is 0-7 in bowl games against the SEC, and the most recent Buckeye loss was to South Carolina in the 2002 Outback Bowl.
All of those losses were from 1978 to 2002, and the Big Ten played a different brand of football than the SEC then. The team that Coach Tressel has assembled is far different than that of what Earle Bruce and John Cooper put together. In fact, this OSU team resembles a SEC team, and you could even say that Michigan has a SEC flavor to it now as well. The reason for this is that the upper echelon and elite college football programs have become somewhat homogenized in the brand of football that they all play. College football coaches across America have seen the National Championship recipe, and the main ingredient is being heavy on team speed. Ohio State is now considered one of (if not the) fastest teams in college football.

Response to Ferg
First off, I've read JD Arney's OSU blog, and I really haven't been on board with what he has said and his stance on some OSU related issues. It's been about a month since I last visited his site (http://www.aroundtheoval.com), mostly because if I don't care for his views, why should I visit his site? I've taken on some OSU media types in the past (Adam Jardy, then of The Lantern when I was part of OSU Student Radio), and I'm still not afraid to voice my opinions now. So Ferg, don't let all OSU media outlets rub you the wrong way, because there are some Buckeye idiots out there (I guess when you have 300-plus Buckeye experts, you're going to have your handful of morons).

As for you thinking that the "ratings are going to be a flop," well I'm not so sure on that one. Ohio State is one of the biggest ratings draws in America, and I can't see any National Championship game that tOSU plays in being a flop. Call me a homer if you like, but when you've got OSU Alumni clubs in every major city across the U.S. and one of the most entertaining football teams to watch, I that this would be the recipe for a ratings flop.

Another quote from Mr. Ferguson was that OSU "is not ready to keep up with the speed and athleticism of the Florida Gators." Ferg's point is valid on this one, because the Gators are very quick and athletic. I feel that with OSU's speed and depth on offense, mixed in with Tressel's scheming, that OSU will find ways to take advantage of mismatches and confuse the Gator defense. I doubt that Ferg has any idea of how good Brian Hartline, Brian Robiskie and Chris Wells actually are.

In response to the OSU schedule not being very strong, well a few of my buddies and I have had this conversation five times over with our one buddy who is a Wisconsin fan. When OSU has to travel to the then number two team, and beat them handily (24-7 win over Texas) on their own turf....that's a pretty big win to me. The Penn State win was kind of ugly, but every Buckeye fan and Columbus resident can tell you how crappy of it day it was here in central Ohio. And this is one thing that Mr. Ferguson failed to mention....and that is the weather being a factor in most Big Ten games. I'm sure he was probably just too busy putting on more suntan lotion on his SEC body to mention that conditions aren't always as pretty in October and November in Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan as they are in the southern part of the U.S.

And while I'm at it, all of Ferg's stats are accurate and factual, but many times you have to look beyond the stats to understand things. Ferg had a nice statistical breakdown of the OSU/Texas game and hit on the point that the OSU defense allowed just as many yards as the Texas D allowed. While that might be a great stat for your argument, you've got understand that OSU replaced 9 (NINE of ELEVEN!!) defensive starters for the 2006 season. Since the Texas game was only the second game of the season for the Buckeyes, this means that the starting defensive unit only had played 60 minutes together before their trip to Austin. It should also be mentioned that the James Laurinaitis strip on the goal line (and Donald Washington recovery) might've been the biggest defensive play of the year for the Buckeyes, and it came only 80 minutes into the 2006 season. It's also worth mentioning that the OSU defense has made drastic steps in the maturation process throughout the season.

Also, after reading Ferg's statement of "Kentucky would've given the top 5 (Big Ten teams) a run for their money," I realized that it was now time to take all of his SEC greatness with a grain of salt. I mean, Kentucky? Come on Tubby Smith, this isn't basketball. There is no way that Kentucky would've held it's own against OSU, Michigan and Wisconsin. The Wildcats might've hung with Penn State, but to think that Kentucky could've hung with the big three, well, as Cosmo Kramer would've said, that's cooky talk.

I'll wrap this up with a thank you to Ryan for posting such a thorough and well thought post that gave me motivation to so rabidly defend my beloved alma mater. I want to also state that the ENTIRE Buckeye team is predicated on team speed. The defense, special teams, and of course the offense has phenomenal team speed and I think that some of these SEC fans who didn't really see OSU play that much in 06 has underestimated what OSU can do in all facets of the game. I really think the X factor here will be Coach Tressel and the entire OSU coaching staff. Tress game plans, schemes, and creates mismatches better than any other coach in D-I, and his game plan will confuse the Florida Gators more than they think.

Back Again...

2006-12-13T12:16:00.000-08:00

Sorry for not posting over the last couple of weeks, as I'm apparently suffering from serious Buckeye football withdrawal.

Since my last post two weeks ago, our beloved Buckeyes have found out they will have a new opponent in the Fiesta Bowl on January 8th. The Florida Gators will face the Buckeyes in the BCS National Championship game, and they bring a very athletic squad to face the Buckeyes.

Their offense is very gimmicky, which is led by senior QB Chris Leak and freshman QB Tim Tebow. They've got a very speedy WR/RB in freshman Percy Harvin, and with these three players the Gators can run out of different sets and formations while incorporating a tricky playbook.

The Florida defense is very good, with good speed at linebacker and an All-American DB in Reggie Nelson. There has been a lot of hype around this Gator defensive unit, but there was also a lot of hype around the Michigan defense and our Buckeyes only posted 42 points during their November 18th matchup at Ohio Stadium. Many "so-called" experts have been giving the Gator run defense a lot of pub recently, saying it's really something while only allowing 70 rush yards per game. Keep in mind that Michigan was only giving up less than 40 rush yards per game entering the Buckeye game, and OSU only blew them up for 187 yards and 2 TDs on the ground.

I've seen that Buckeyes are favored by 7 and 1/2, but I'm seeing a Buckeye win by 13. Jim Tressel OWNS the desert, and is 3-0 in Fiesta Bowls since the 2003 National Championship game. I'm not going to buy into the post-Heisman jinx hype for Troy Smith, because he and the rest of the senior class have way too much invested in this season to lose focus on what is at stake on Jan. 8th. I expect the O-Line to play their best game to date, as Doug Datish's injured right hand should be 100% by the time the Fiesta Bowl comes around.

Also, at 3:45 on Saturday Ohio State plays Cincinnati in Men's hoops, so make sure you catch that one. A week from Saturday, on December 23rd, the Bucks play at Florida at 4:00 p.m., and this will be our first chance to see Greg Oden against legitimate D-I competition.

Chapel Hill Thrills

2006-11-30T14:10:00.000-08:00

North Carolina 98, Ohio State 89

Last night was the first night that I've been able to really watch the Ohio State men's basketball team and the "Thad Five." It's not that I am not a big basketball fan, but more so that OSU has been playing San Francisco, Eastern Kentucky, and all these other teams that I really don't care about. Plus, until last night it was still football season for the majority of those who live in Columbus.

So, what did I really take from last night's thriller in North Carolina?

First off I was amazingly impressed with the athleticism that OSU put on the floor. I loved what I saw from Mike Conley, Daequan Cook, and David Lighty. I thought Conley was very, very quick with the ball, and made sound decisions offensively. The Cook dunk seemed to come out of nowhere, and he also showed nice range with 2 three pointers in the game. Conley was sidelined for most of the first half due to foul trouble, but ended up with 10 points and 8 assists with only 3 turnovers.

The Buckeye veterans were nothing short of spectacular. Senior Ivan Harris was 5 of 8 from outside the arc, and ended up with 17 points. I'd like to see a little more physicality from Harris on the defensive end, and use his wingspan in an effort to alter some shots attempts from the paint. Jamar Butler was solid, as his 6 points were from on 2/2 from three point-land. Butler had a couple of nice steals and both of his 3's came at critical points in the game that were huge in silencing the Tar Heel crowd.

The best Buckeye performance of the night goes to Ron Lewis. His career high of 30 points helped the Bucks stay in the game, and at times Lewis was unstoppable. Lewis was 10 of 15 from the floor and 6 of 8 from the free throw line. I never really had been a huge Ron Lewis fan, but something must've clicked for this guy over the summer because I have never seen that Ron Lewis on the hardwood before.

The story of the night was that North Carolina was a lot bigger than us and their inside presence with Tyler Hansbrough and Brandan Wright was way too much for Matt Terwilliger and Othella Hunter to handle (UNC freshman Brandan Wright is the second coming of Tyrus Thomas-tall, long, quick and athletic, and when he learns how to fit into Roy Williams' system this team will be scary). When OSU gets super center Greg Oden back from wrist surgery in the next month, this will be a team that can win in Atlanta (the site of the 2007 Final Four). The key ingredient that OSU is missing is a solid defensive presence inside, and when Oden comes back this team should be sick.

I did think OSU committed some silly fouls and at times took some questionable shots, but you'll have that with a young team and as they mature their performances will as well. But in terms of basketball excitement on the campus of THE Ohio State University, things might have never looked this promising for a Buckeye team (my regards to Perry Carter, Jim Jackson, Chris Jent, Treg Lee, Jammal Brown, Mark Baker, Alex Davis, Bill Robinson, and the rest of those 91-93 team members).

Bring on the Trojans

2006-11-26T20:32:00.000-08:00

Much like the rest of Ohio was doing on Saturday night, I was glued to the TV and watching USC destroy Notre Dame as the Trojans moved much closer to a BCS championship berth. USC dominated the flighty Irish 44-24, and once again this was a case of Notre Dame's defense being so atrocious that it has no business playing with the big boys of college football.

USC is now a sure lock to play our beloved Buckeyes on January 8th in Glendale, Arizona. I am very impressed with the USC WR triumvirate of Dwayne Jarrett, Steve Smith and Patrick Turner. This USC offense is like no other offense that Ohio State has seen in recent years, which leaves me a little skeptical on how this one will turn out for our Bucks.

But here is what I took from last night's game:
1. John David Booty, USC's senior QB, can be erratic when pressured. I wasn't overly impressed by JDB's play when under duress, and I think that Ohio State's D-line should be able to put ample pressure on the relatively slow quarterback.
2. I didn't see anything too special about the USC rushing attack. CJ Gable and Chauncey Washington combined to rush for 131 yards on 26 carries, but against the Notre Dame Defense that is quite pedestrian.
3. The USC defense was moderately impressive. I really think they've got an awesome secondary, but they are young and the OSU spread offense might create some confusion for them.

I don't want to get too deep into what will happen on January 8th just quite yet, but these are just a few observations from last night's game. I do think that the Buckeye D should be able to have success in stopping the USC rushing attack, which will make the Trojan offense very one-dimensional. However, that might not be the best thing for the Buckeye D with that stable of stud WR's that the Trojans boast.

This National Championship game will be something very special however, and I am fairly certain that January 8th will be the most anticipated game of my Buckeye lifetime.

I haven't said much about Buckeye Basketball yet, but I will do so after the OSU/NC game on Wednesday night.

Buckeyes 42, other team 39

2006-11-18T19:07:00.000-08:00

"There's Nothing Special About That Defense"

Yep, that's what Michigan running back said in the post-game conference today....just after The Ohio State University beat Michigan 42-39.

Hey, Mike Hart......You've got one of THE best O-Lines in the country, and yes, you put up 3 touchdowns with 142 yards today, but let's look at what YOUR team did.

You had a couple of nice runs of over 20 yards. Your touchdown runs were of 1, 2 and 1 yards. Your 23 carries did average 7 yards a carry, but your team LOST.

Oh, and by the way, your so called NUMBER 1 rush defense in the country got ABUSED today. What happened on the two touchdown runs of 52 and 56 today? I think we know whose defense was exposed this afternoon Mike Hart, and I'm glad you got it handed to you today you piece of crap.

So anyways, I'm not going to get into the details of today's game right now, but let's just say that Ohio State dominated Michigan in most aspects of the game. The vaunted UM rush defense gave up nearly 200 yards rushing to Antonio Pittman and Beanie Wells (on 23 carries), and Troy Smith solidified his Heisman campaign with 315 yards passing and 4 passing touchdowns.

Hey Lloyd, thanks for showing up and congrats on getting outcoached again, and enjoy the 1-5 record that you've got against our boy James Patrick Tressel. I hope you and your running back like the way that one tastes for the next 365 days.

Happy Thanksgiving, Bucks fans. I'll have a more thorough recap in a day or two, but more importantly who is ready to break out the suntan lotion for Glendale?

Michigan Weekend....

2006-11-15T17:47:00.000-08:00

This may very well be my last post before Michigan, because as most people in Columbus know that the Michigan Weekend Party starts on Thursday night. Tomorrow night will be filled by a few fun activities, and on Friday a few of my buddies will be heading up to Eddie George's by 9:00 a.m. for the Colin Cowherd live broadcast. I fully expect for this to morph into an all-day High Street bar crawl with my buddies, so I'm leaving you with this Michigan preview.

When The Buckeyes are on OFFENSE:

I'll give Michigan some credit, as they do lead the nation in rush defense. They're giving up a silly 40ish yards per game on the ground, and only gave up 47 rushing yards to Wisconsin and their quality ground game. The UM front seven is very scary, and I'm hoping that Ohio State has just enough success on the ground in order to make the UM Defense honor play-action. Michigan hasn't seen a group of WR's with the skill of Ohio State's, and when Tressel goes to the spread there will be mismatches. Crossing routes will be key, and having a Heisman QB and senior at the helm will be huge for Buckeye success. The UM DB's are a shade above average, but when OSU goes 5 wide UM won't be able to hang.
Another key is the running ability of Troy Smith. I believe that this is and will be the X factor that will give OSU the edge. Smith's scrambling ability could force Michigan to have a spy on Smith, which would just provide another advantage for OSU. I see Troy Smith getting 50 yards rushing, Pittman netting 45, and Beanie Wells will play a big role with 50 yards on limited carries(9 maybe?). I know it is crazy to think 140 yards rushing on this Michigan D, but I think it will happen. The passing game will be successful, and that will open up the opportunities for the success in the running game. Once again Anthony Gonzalez is the key in the passing game, and I also see a Roy Hall TD on Senior Day, and Brian Hartline being a key contributor as well.
I see the Bucks putting up 23.

When Michigan is on offense:
I like the pressure that Ohio State brings week in and week out. The pressure is the reason for all the interceptions this year compared to last. The Buckeye knack for timely turnovers will continue on Saturday, as I think the Buckeye D and crowd will rattle junior QB Chad Henne. I haven't seen the progression from Henne to this point, and we're still yet to see if he can handle the pressure of the big game. In their biggest win of the year, Henne really didn't have to do much at Notre Dame as Michigan jumped out to a quick 21-0 lead in the first half. Mike Hart hasn't had much success against Ohio State, as he has only 1 career TD in 2 starts and had only 15 yards on 9 carries against the Bucks last year.
The Michigan weapon that does scare me the most is WR Mario Manningham. Manningham seems to be back close to 100% after knee surgery a month ago, and has had a very nice sophomore season. I like the speed in our secondary and I am fairly confident our corners will hang with him. With Malcolm Jenkins and senior Antonio Smith manning the corners, I think they should be able to keep Manningham, Arrington and Breaston in check. Michigan's offensive line is very good, and is probably just as good (if not better) than what OSU faced at Texas. The game plan should focus on being committed to stopping the run and forcing Henne into pressure 3rd and 8s when the Buckeye crowd will be going nuts.

What happens if OSU isn't having offensive success in the first half?
If OSU is somehow (I don't think it will happen though) not moving the ball in the first half, the halftime adjustment for Tressel shouldn't be too tough. He would need to look no further than what opposing teams did to the Buckeyes in '04 and '05, and that would be just moving the pocket away from the teeth of that Michigan D. Pull a guard and move the pocket to the opposite side that Lamar Woodley lines up on. We saw Cincinnati, Iowa, Michigan State, and Northwestern use this tactic against the Buckeyes and had quite a bit of success with it in '04 (see the Iowa beating we took at Kinnick Stadium, 33-7).

Where OSU's biggest advantage lies?
I think that there are three huge advantages for Ohio State in this game. The first is fairly obvious, and that is the home field advantage. Once again, Henne in a hostile environment/big game situation doesn't bode well for UM, SO BE LOUD BUCKEYE FANS!!!! The second advantage is having a senior qb running the show, and I am very confident that Troy Smith will play well enough to win on Saturday. The offensive weaponry that Smith has to work with is a touch better that what Henne has to operate with as well. The third advantage that OSU has is coaching. Tressel is 4-1 against Michigan, with the lone loss coming at Michigan in '03. Tressel seems to have Lloyd Carr's number, and that basically boils down to Tressel outcoaching Carr. I am 110% comfortable with how Tressel game plans and schemes, and I see good things happening on Saturday in The Horseshoe against Michigan.

I'll call Ohio State 23, Michigan 10. Enjoy the game Bucks fans, it will be one that you will never forget. GO BUCKS!!!!!!!!!

Revenge in Evanston

2006-11-11T19:06:00.000-08:00

Ohio State 54, Northwestern 10

The Ohio State Buckeyes ran their record to 11-0 today with a 54-10 thrashing of Northwestern Wildcats. It was a very convincing win for the Buckeyes, who posted 21 first quarter points to KO the Wildcats early. The Buckeyes took advantage of 3 early Northwestern turnovers by turning them into 21 easy points, which quickly negated any sort of late season upset that Northwestern might have envisioned.

Highlights of the game belong to, well, everybody. Buckeye quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate Troy Smith had another nice day, turning in 4 touchdown passes on a 12 of 19 passing performance. Smith passed for 185 yards but also threw one interception on the afternoon, which raises his season total to FOUR for the year.
The Buckeye ground game shook Ryan Field this afternoon. Freshman running back Chris Wells had 98 yards on 11 carries, which included a touchdown plunge from 2 yards out. More importantly, is that the young back from Akron did not fumble and ran with authority today. Antonio Pittman became the 5th running back in Buckeye history to rush for over 1,000 yards in back-to-back seasons. Pittman's 82 yards on 19 carries included one touchdown, and also put him into the record books with Archie Griffin, Tim Spencer, Keith Byars, and Eddie George.
The defense once again played extremely well this afternoon. It was one of those "pick your defensive highlight for the day" afternoons for the Buckeye D, which was highlighted by a 46 yard Brandon Mitchell interception return for a touchdown in the 2nd quarter. Other defensive highlights included an early first quarter forced fumble by sophomore James Laurinaitis (recovered by Antonio Smith) and freshman linebacker Ross Homan's first career pick. The play that I was superbly impressed by occurred in the second quarter. It was a wide receiver screen that Bacher tossed to his left, and Malcolm Jenkins was all over it. Jenkins shed the lineman that was blocking for the WR, and then managed to strip the ball and recover his own fumble. An awesome play by the Buckeyes best corner, and I cannot believe this kid is only a sophomore. It will be a heck of a matchup between he and Mario Manningham next week.
There were a couple of very minor miscues today that probably should be mentioned. Antonio Pittman did fumble on the Northwestern one yard line, and OSU did have a couple of errors on two extra point attempts (one blocked, one bad snap). Today was a good time for those to happen, primarily just to remind Ohio State how important ball security is and to work on PAT's this week in practice even more.

HOW TO BEAT MICHIGAN will come this week, probably by Wednesday afternoon. If Coach Tressel emails or calls me this week and doesn't want me to disseminate this critical information on how to beat Michigan on Saturday, that would be the only reason I would not post this information for you. However, Coach Tressel, my silence will cost your two tickets to this weekend's game if you'd like to purchase my silence. Love ya JPT.
More Michigan stuff all this week. GO BUCKS.....bds

Northwestern and History Lesson

2006-11-10T20:25:00.000-08:00

Ohio State @ Northwestern, 3:30 p.m., ABC

Here we are. November 10th, 2006, and only about a week and a few hours from the Ohio State vs. Michigan game. I know we're supposed to be focused on Northwestern at this time, but if you could show me a fan who is actually more concerned about Northwester than Michigan at this time, then I'll show you a liar. But this is the final road game for this class of Buckeye seniors, and let's look at this game a little bit and discuss what happened the last time Ohio State visited Ryan Field.

Old Memories
Fall quarter of 2004 was my last quarter as a student at The Ohio State University. I vividly remember this game and the entire afternoon leading up to it, but not so much the night before (bowling alley at our hotel=many pitchers of beer and the nickname of "The Rocket" for this guy). For those who don't know, I was the color commentator for the 2004 Ohio State football season for Ohio State student radio (visit their link at http:www.underground.fm) and this is where knowing Tressel's system comes from. My brother Austin and good friend D. Brown also took a class called Coaching Football EDU PAES 620 in the Fall of 03, which was taught by James Patrick Tressel and other Buckeye Coaches. In this class, Tressel schooled us well on his brand of football and also served as the genesis to understanding how he runs a football program.

Sorry, off on a tangent.....I get that from my dad.....but now back to football. What I remember from this game was that I expected us to go in and totally shut down Northwestern. They had a decent, almost poor man's Craig Krenzel-type QB in Brett Basanez, a shifty little back in Noah Herron, and a couple of WRs. But we were Ohio State, with a defense that only was yeilding something like 13 or 14 points per game to this point, and only giving up about 250 total yards.

And then we just got dominated by Northwestern. This game went into overtime, but from what I remember we were scrapping all game long just to get it into OT. Ohio State lost this game 33-27 in overtime, and if you didn't know any better you would've thought NU just won the National Championship after they beat us. Basanez threw a bunch of little passes across the middle of the field, and give the late NU Coach Randy Walker credit as they totally out-schemed Tressel and his staff. Noah Herron had a hell of a game, and Basanez and those WR's killed OSU with their well-executed crossing routes. That NU offensive line was probably the best they'd had in 12 or 15 years, that was led by 4 seniors, as Trai Essex is now in the NFL with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Northwestern defense was also anchored by DT Luis Castillo, who is now with the San Diego Chargers (altough check this out http://www.boston.com/sports/articles/2005/04/14/castillo_tells_nfl_he_took_steroids/ ...not very cool).

So, what should we take from the memories of this game? DON'T TAKE ANYONE LIGHTLY!!
This NU team isn't nearly as talented as the 04 version of the Wildcats, but they do have 2004 Ohio Mr. Football at running back, and his name is Tyrell Sutton. Sutton is an awesome back, althought the O-line isn't really that great this year. Sutton's numbers are handicapped because of their lack of a passing game, but is still capable of putting up solid numbers. Sutton is rushing for 83 yards per game, but is getting 5.8 yards per carry. There are no NU WRs that are in the Big Ten in receiving, and as a whole this team has nothing to offer on offense except for Tyrell Sutton. They have been unsettled at QB this year, and both times I've watched them they've had a terrible guy named Bacher (or some ridiculous French name that isn't as cool as Bobby Hebert). I watched the first half of the Michigan/NU game a few weeks ago, and whatever QB they had in there would repetitively shoot the NU offense in the foot.

What to look for....
Here is what I'd look for in this game:

Run the ball. Work on offensive line execution and build confidence back up after a horrible performance in Champaign last week. NU gives up 145 yards a game rushing, so let's work the clock, minimize offensive plays (partially to lessen the chance of injuries), and also get Beanie Wells 12-14 carries in which he doesn't fumble the ball once (talk about a guy who needs to build confidence!).
I really doubt we see much Troy Smith in the second half, that is unless we're only up by 10 or 13 late in the 3rd quarter. We will also rotate in some of the younger O-line guys in the second half, in order to give guys like Datish and Downing a little break (less wear and tear on the knees).
Get Roy Hall some touches. The fifth year senior from Cleveland deserves it, and who really knows how many times his number will be called next Saturday.
MOST IMPORTANT....COMMIT TO STOPPING THE RUN. This is and has to be the key for the defense on Saturday. I understand that Michigan's O-Line is 400 times better than that of what NU rolls out, but OSU should focus on stopping Tyrell Sutton and key on the fundamentals of tackling a very good running back. Next week when OSU plays Michigan, that will also be a day in which OSU will have to stop the run or they will not beat Michigan.

Fun Tidbit from 2004 NU game. We (Jeff Svoboda of the Buckeye Sports Bulletin, Ed Collari of the Winston Salem Warthogs, and myself) interviewed then Ohio State Athletic Director Andy Geiger during halftime of that game, and I noticed that he had his initials sewn into the cuff of his sleeve. I thought this was really cool, and when I become successful that is the first order of business for this guy's dress shirts. (Always amused by the little things).

So what am I predicting for Saturday? I'll take the Bucks, 41-6. The D will again be successful, and we will have the offensive swagger back on the offensive side of the ball. Enjoy the game Bucks fans, because we've only got 120 minutes of Big Ten football left this season.

My Cubbies' Off-Season

2006-11-08T18:34:00.000-08:00

I'm throwing in a little baseball hot stove action today, since I've started to think about what my Chicago Cubs might do this off-season. The free agent signing period starts on Sunday, November 12th, and I doubt that I'll be much into baseball for a while once I wake up on Sunday morning. Keep in mind that there are 84 million different scenarios out there, and that these are just one man's thoughts.
First off, the Cubs situation is pretty atrocious right now. The Cubs elected not to lock up 3B Aramis Ramirez this past summer, and two weeks ago he opted out of his contract and is now a free agent. I've heard that the front runners for signing Ramirez are the Angels, with the Cubs still being in the mix. CF Juan Pierre is also a free agent, so there is currently a hole in center as well. The starting pitching is of course up in the air, because Kerry Wood is also a FA and who really ever knows what the heck is going on with Mark Prior's elbow.
So the Cubs really need 2 starting pitchers, a 3B, a CF, a SS or 2B and maybe even a LF because Matt Murton wasn't too great last year in full time duty. The bullpen was actually very good last year, as Michael Wuertz, Bobby Howry, Scott Eyre and Co. were effective last year. Ryan Dempster as a closer is still a debatable issue, but he's been relatively serviceable for the past 2 seasons.
So where do we really begin? I guess we should identify who the big time FA's are and then develop a reasonable wish list of players that the Cubs could feasibly sign. The biggest names available are OF/2B Alfonso Soriano, LF Carlos Lee, SPs Barry Zito, Jason Schmidt, 1B/SS Nomar Garciaparra, SP Adam Eaton, CF Gary Matthews Jr., SPs Mark Mulder, Jeff Suppan, OF Luis Gonzalez, and Japanese imports SP Daisuke Matsuzaka and Kei Igawa, and 3B Akinori Otsuka.
I think the first order of business is to get a big time bat that will help replace the possible loss of 3B Aramis Ramirez. I am foreseeing Ramirez in Anaheim next season, so I believe it is a foregone conclusion that he is not going to be a part of the Cubs future. Soriano will be seeking a 5 to 7 year deal, that will likely be in the neighborhood of 15 million per season. I don't have a problem with those numbers, and I would love to see the Cubs get him. But I'd want the Cubs to sign him only if he agrees to play 2B again....which I don't think would be a problem. Adding Soriano would give the Cubs the premiere leadoff hitter with great power and speed, which is what the Cubs haven't had in quite some time. (Another decent option could be a trade for Atlanta 2B Marcus Giles, who has reportedly been on the trading block but is a FA after 2007).
To fill the void at CF, I would sign ex-Padre Dave Roberts. He is also a guy who brings a lot of speed to a team, and can also handle the bat well and be a big part of playing small ball, which the Cubs haven't been able to do for 10 years either. So with Soriano at leadoff and Dave Roberts as the CF and in the 2 hole, but all of the sudden you've spent nearly 20 million dollars and still have holes at 3B and could use a starting pitcher or two.
This kind of goes against conventional wisdom, but I'd sign Luis Gonzalez to a two-year deal. Gonzo is a great clubhouse guy and would play left, and this would allow you to platoon Murton with either Jones in right or with Gonzo in Left, depending on pitching matchups. Gonzo really wouldn't cost that much to sign, as he could probably be landed for 3 or 4 per season. Now we're looking at having about 22 mill on the books.
I'd also go after Adam Eaton as soon as possible. If Barry Zito, Suppan and Jason Schmidt fly off the board early, then Eaton's price inflates dramatically in an all of the sudden thin pitchers market. So if you can sign Eaton early, you'll probably be looking at a 3 year deal for about 20 mill, or 6.5 to 7 mill a year. This gets your new payroll to roughly 28 mill of new payroll, but you now have to try to find one last starter and a 3B.
So if this all shakes out, you're still needing a 3B and could use a left-handed bat in the lineup as well. The perfect fit here would be Aubrey Huff. Huff is a .300, 20-25 home run type that would fit nicely into the Cubs lineup, and I'd prefer to have him hit cleanup behind Derrek Lee rather than Jacque Jones. Huff would probably be about a 5 or 6 million per signing, but he would be the perfect solution for third.
To round out the perfect bench (with John Mabry already on the pine for 07), I'd add Rich Aurilia. Aurilia, 35, is still very good with the glove and could play some 2b and 1b in order to give D. Lee and Soriano days off. Aurilia would be another 2 mill on the books, but would really give the bench phenomenal versatility.
With 35 mill in estimated new payroll, you still have to find another pitcher. I'd look at Randy Wolf or Miguel Batista, as you could probably sign these guys to a 1 or 2 year deal for about 3 mill per. I like Wolf, as he would be a crafty veteran lefty who has good upside but also had TJ surgery just over 2 years ago.
Now we've added nearly 39 million dollars in new payroll, and this outlook isn't sounding as feasible as it once did. But you have to remember the Cubs were looking at spending about 20 million before the loss of Ramirez to FA, so it's not ridiculously far fetched. Ramirez' salary was for 13 mill for this year, so we may be a little over budget, but that's okay, the Tribune has deep pockets.
The lineup would be: 1. Soriano, 2. Dave Roberts, 3. Derrek Lee, 4. Huff, 5. Jones, 6. Barrett, 7. Gonzo/Murton, 8. Izturis. The pitching staff would be 1. Zambrano, 2. Eaton, 3. Rich Hill, 4. Wolf, 5. Whoever (Donald Veal, Prior, Sean Marshall?).
Either way, this is a huge off-season for the Cubs and failing to land at least one marquee FA (Soriano, Carlos Lee) and a couple of other key components would lead to disaster for the Cubs. Keep in mind they are now fighting the White Sox to be "Chicago's team" and not by not putting a quality team on the field in 07 would be a critical blow to northside fans.

Bucks crawl by Illini

2006-11-06T09:06:00.000-08:00

The Ohio State Buckeyes survived a bit of a scare at Illinois on Saturday. Ohio State snuck out of Champaign with a 17-10 win on Saturday, but for Buckeye fans abroad it didn't really feel like a win. But so it goes when you're on the road in the Big Ten, just take your win and go back home and be happy.

A poor 2nd Half
This game was really a tale of two halves. In the first half Ohio State jumped out to a 17-0 lead, as the offense produced 13 first downs on 195 yards. The second half was another story, as OSU trudged to only 4 first downs and gained only 29 yards. Not exactly what you're looking for as you approach your final two games of the season.

On the drive to Champaign, my mind started to wander and I found myself thinking of different aspects of this Buckeye football team. I had realized on Friday night that this was easily the best offensive line we've had since the '02 National Championship season, which was anchored by NFLers Alex Stepanovich, Shane O'livea, and Rob Sims....and this made me feel really good as we were approaching the last few furlongs of the 2006 football season. Then, in the second half, I had to witness what was probably the worst OSU offensive line performance that I've ever seen.
Give some credit to the Illini defense. They made great halftime adjustments (something that Tressel usually befuddles opposing coaches by doing) and committed to stopping the run by putting 8, even 9 in the box. The poor offensive line performance helped the Illini D look awesome, as Troy Smith, Antonio Pittman, and the rest of the Buckeye O couldn't produce anything.

Smith, Tressel, Doug Datish, TJ Downing, etc. have too much invested in this season to get down on themselves over 30 minutes of football. This terrible half of football is probably the best thing for the 10-0 Buckeyes, who will visit Northwestern this weekend before playing host to Michigan on November 18th in what could be an epic battle. This will give the Buckeyes a chance to refocus and really is the perfect timing for a minor offensive meltdown. With a good and disciplined week of practice, the Bucks have the opportunity to get another win on the road and build confidence again as they move towards the last game of the season.

Worry not Buckeye fans, because a game like this only means what you take from it and how you learn from it. And I think most of us know that with Coach Tressel at the helm, The Ohio State University football team will come out with renewed motivation and an unseen dedication towards finishing off the last two games of the 2006 season.

Ohio State at Illinois, Saturday 3:30

2006-11-01T11:33:00.000-08:00

Ohio State travels to Champaign this weekend to take on Illinois, then will follow up with another road game at Northwestern before the big game.

What can you really say about the Ohio State-Illinois game from last year? Ohio State won that contest 40-2 last November, in what was a truly beautiful afternoon in Ohio Stadium.

For Illinois, there was nothing beautiful about that afternoon at all. The Illini offense never possessed the ball inside the Ohio State thirty yard line, and a Ted Ginn muffed punt was their best chance to score just before halftime when Ohio State's lead was only 13-0. Illinois subsequently had to to punt after losing yards on their offensive posession, and it was never a game from there on out.

OSU's offensive stars from that game were RB Antonio Pittman who had 2 TDs on 22 carries and 96 yards rushing. The passing game had a field day as well, as Troy Smith went 13 for 21 and 298 yards, and three of those 13 went for touchdowns. This was a definite case of Illinois not being able to keep up with the OSU team speed, as Ted Ginn had 138 yards receiving and one touchdown. Ginn's receiving touchdown was a 73 yarder in the third quarter that sent most of the Ohio Stadium crowd back to their tailgates.

So really there isn't too much to discuss about what this Illinois team will bring at OSU this weekend. Illini coach Ron Zook is doing a better job of bringing in talent, and he landed big time recruit Isiah "Juice" Williams last year. Most D-I programs that offered scholarships wanted to make Juice a running back, but convinced that he was a quarterback Juice selected Illinois because Coach Zook promised him a shot to be the QB in Champaign. It didn't take long for Juice become the starter, as his first start was the Illini upset over Michigan State five weeks ago.

Williams represents the majority of the big time talent that resides in Champaign. Zook has the program on the upswing, however, and taking back Chicago (where Juice is from) is high on the priority listing for Illini recruiting. There won't be much of a battle on Saturday when OSU takes on Illinois at 3:30, although injuries will be the issue of importance as we approach the Michigan game. Ohio State left tackle Alex Boone is questionable with a tweaked knee, and Quinn Pitcock probably won't play either (concussion). Anthony Gonzalez didn't play in the second half against Minnesota, but will probably gain clearance to play at Illinois. Roy Small is progressing nicely from his concussion, and will probably be held out of Saturday's action. I'd like to see Gonzo held out of the game, and give as many reps to Hartline, Robiskie and Roy Hall (along with Ginn) to get them as comfortable as possible as we head towards November 18th.

Happy Halloween!!

2006-10-29T19:56:00.000-08:00

I hope that all of you enjoyed the Halloween weekend, which included another dominating performance by The Ohio State Buckeyes.

Ohio State beat Minnesota 44-0 on Saturday, in what was Ohio State's first shutout since blanking Northwestern during the 2003 season. The offensive highlights were plentiful, and were led by Antonio Pittman and his 21 rushes for 116 yards that included two TDs. Pittman also had 47 yards receiving, as both of those receptions were on successful screen passes.

Troy Smith had another successful afternoon as he completed 14 of his 21 passes for 183 yards and one score. Smith also had a 6 rushes for 49 yards, which included a highlight reel 21 yard jaunt in which he made a Gopher LB look silly. Not the most amazing of stats if you're looking to bolster a Heisman campaign, but every week that OSU wins and he completes over 60% of his passes, there should be no complaints from anyone.

The OSU defensive effort was highlighted by 3 Buckeye interceptions, but what concerned me was that just before halftime OSU was losing the turnover margin at -2. One of the lost fumbles occured on their own 38, but the OSU defense was up to the task as they held Minnesota on downs to get the ball right back. However, turning the ball over inside your own 40 against a Michigan team would probably result in points, but this is the reason that Minnesota is now 3-6 and 0-5 in conference play. Speaking of bad turnovers, one of the OSU picks was a terrible, terrible throw by Minny QB Bryan Cupito that was picked by Jamario O'Neal. Under heavy pressure by the Buckeye D, Cupito rolled to his right, then throws across his body and across the field, into the wind, off his back foot and the ball hung in the air for what seemed like forever and O'Neal jumped in front of the Gopher receiver for the ball. A senior QB like Cupito should know better than to throw that ball, but that is why he is at Minnesota and you will likely never hear of him ever again after this year.

Anybody else concerned about Beanie Wells and his fumbling problem? I couldn't find how many times Wells has fumbled this year, but it's got to be 4 or 5 now and he's probably lost 3 of them. While I'm not overly concerned about this being a long term problem, I am concerned that maybe Michigan keys on him during the November 18th matchup. I remember during 1992 or 1993 that a certain Buckeye freshman had 3 fumbles against Illinois. That freshman was Eddie George and all he did was win a Heisman three years later.

Before I get into some stats, I'd like to praise the "other" Buckeye receivers. I am really liking what I'm seeing from Brian Hartline and Brian Robiskie. These are two guys that probably would be starting WRs for any team other than OSU, Michigan and Penn State, and now have combined for 28 receptions, 420 yards receiving, and 4 touchdowns. I am very confident in both of those guys abilities and I see Brian Robiskie as a mini-Tony Gonzalez right now. Both guys are deceptively fast and run well disciplined routes.

Alright, I'll leave you with a few numbers that you should be aware of:

7.3 Total points per game given up by the Buckeye Defense this year.
85 Amount of points OSU has outscored their opposition by in the last TWO games.
51% OSU's success rate on 3rd down this year.
10 Number of points allowed in the 3rd qtr by the Buckeye D this year
5.5 Antonio Pittman's Yards Per Carry in 2006

Also, I've noticed that OSU is outscoring their opposition 103-23 in the 4th quarter. In the second half, OSU has outscored their opponents 157-33. That stat shows that the halftime adjustments by Tressel and his staff have been very good and gives proof that he is the best coach in the Big Ten (if not the best in College Football).

OSU/Michigan Similarities

2006-10-18T21:36:00.000-07:00

My buddy Dan and I were talking OSU/Michigan stuff the other night, and it got me wondering how the OSU and Michigan stats compare. Since we are approximately halfway through the season, I thought it would be interesting to compare how the Numbers 1 and 2 teams in the nation (AP Poll) stack up against each other.

OFFENSE
Ohio State is 2nd behind Wisconsin and averaging 33.6 point per game. Michigan is 4th and putting up 31.1 ppg.
OSU is putting up 235 pass yards per game, while Michigan averages 188 pass yards per game.
Don't read too much into this, because since both teams have won all contests relatively easily there has been really no pressure for either side in terms of having to pass the ball to win.
Michigan is 3rd in rushing offense and averaging 188 yards rushing per game while OSU is 9th with 156 rush ypg. I will give the nod to Michigan at this point in having a slightly better rushing attack, because their offensive line is a bit better than Ohio State's. However, both teams average 4.3 ypc and are nearly equal in rushing touchdowns.
OSU is 2nd in total offense with 391 yards per game while Michigan isn't too far behind with 373 yards of total offense per game.

DEFENSE
Ohio State is 1st in the Big Ten in Scoring Defense in yielding a staunch 9 points per game. Michigan's D has been nearly as impressive, while giving up 13.5 points per contest.
Michigan's rush defense has been ridiculously good thus far, and they are only giving up 33 rushing yards per game. Their 1.4 ypc allowed is another stat that goes beyond belief, and giving up .33 rush TDS a game isn't bad either. OSU's rush defense has been pretty solid while giving up 110 yards per game on the ground. The difference here lies in the quality of competition and situations that both teams have been in. A lot of Garrett Wolfe's rushing yards came in garbage time against some of the OSU reserves, and Texas' running game is like nothing that Michigan has seen this year. I will say that the Michigan front 7 is one of the best I've ever seen at the collegiate level.
Ohio State's pass defense allows 176 pass yards per game. Michigan is slightly behind at 208 per game, but we'll see how Drew Tate fares against the Michigan secondary this week. Burgess and the UM safeties vs. Iowa TE Scott Chandler will be a matchup that will definitely be worth watching on Saturday.
Michigan and OSU are nearly even in sacks, as UM has 25 sacks to OSU's 24.
The Bucks do get the nod in turnover margin, as they are +1.50 in turnover margin per game, while UM is at + 1.3 per game.
Michigan has the edge in total defense in giving up 241 yards per game, while OSU is a touch behind at 285 yards per game.

SPECIAL TEAMS
Ohio State averages 13.4 yards per punt return, while Michigan comes in at just over 10 yards per punt return. OSU's return team is again starting to click, and it should only get better as they get more reps in the two-deep formation. Steve Breaston is nearly just as good as Ted Ginn, but I'm still giving the advantage to the Bucks here. Both guys (or all 3 if you include Gonzalez) could break one for 6 at any time, and after the MSU beauty by Ginn now sits at 6 career punt returns for touchdowns. The NCAA career record is 7, by the way.
I like what I've seen from AJ Trapasso and the Buckeye punting unit, and they are the only Big Ten team to net over 40 yards per punt. Michigan is right behind them with 36 net yards per punt, however.
Field goals are what could decide the monumental matchup on November 18th. Ohio State is only 6 of 10, while Michigan is a very good 10 of 12. Being at home for the contest should help whatever Buckeye kicker gets the opportunity for the OSU-UM matchup.

MY TAKE
So I know we've got 6 weeks between now and the matchup of a lifetime, but here are my thoughts on what would happen if these two teams played tomorrow.
It would be a classic battle, with Troy Smith having to make plays with his legs. I think the Bucks will have success passing the ball against Michigan, but that could be negated if the O-Line can't protect number 10. You know that Branch, Burgess, and Woodley will be applying the pressure and I hope that OSU can keep it's O-Line healthy between now and then. Michigan will probably have some early success running the ball, but OSU will have some key halftime adjustments and will come up with a critical turnover in the 2nd half that will be the turning point in the ball game. We're going to see some points in this one, and I think that if you're an OSU fan you should be praying for decent weather. If there is inclement weather (i.e. Penn State game), it would give Michigan a huge advantage in taking the air out of the ball for the OSU passing offense. Anyways, I'm saying OSU can move the football on the UM secondary and OSU wins, 27-23.
I'll come up with an Indiana preview on Friday, but since I was so enamored with these OSU/Michigan stats I thought I'd share them with you. And if you think this was a long post, well....too bad, as no one is putting a gun to your head to read this.

Michigan State Weekend

2006-10-12T14:30:00.000-07:00

I'm doing it. I'm putting my foot down right now.

This is and will be the last wedding that I'm ever going to between the months of September and December, EVER!!!! I still don't understand those who can't find time between April and August to get married? Eliminating January through March, that still leaves YOU PEOPLE nearly 27 weeks to find a weekend in which you can get married that won't interfere with FOOTBALL SEASON!!!!

So, now that is somewhat off my chest, here is a look at this weekend's Ohio State vs Michigan State from East Lansing, MI preview.

I see that the line is Ohio State is favored by 15 going into Spartan Stadium. I'm really thinking that OSU should cover that, because as I seem to say almost every week, the opposing team can't and won't keep up with Ohio State's team speed. Add in the fact that Michigan State is a little banged up and has an idiot for a head coach, and you've got the recipe for a giant beatdown on your home turf.

MSU ON OFFENSE
Michigan State seems to be an offense that is regressing instead of progressing. Nearly two weeks ago, MSU only managed to post 20 points against a very weak Illinois team in East Lansing. That team looked sloppy, unorganized, and were not playing well at all until their backup QB came in to replace an injured Drew Stanton (ribs) late in the third quarter. MSU came from 10 down to tie the game at 20, but Illinois kicked a field goal with less than a minute remaining for the dramatic W. That small paragraph pretty much sums up MSU's season to date.
Last week Michigan easily handled MSU in Ann Arbor, 31-13. I pretty much see more of the same for the Spartans even though it will be on their own turf on Saturday. Last week we saw what could be the key to hanging with OSU will be for the rest of the year. If Ohio State's opposing team is grossly outmatched in terms of talent, it is best to try and run the ball and to take time off the clock. We saw this as BG did their best in hanging with the Buckeyes by running the ball 30 times for 158 yards. This kept BG within striking distance throughout the first half and some of the second, but OSU has so much more physical talent (skill positions included) than BG which ultimately led to the 35-7 smashing of the Falcons. So, with this in mind- and if John L. Smith were a reasonably competent coach (WHICH HE IS NOT!!!)- I would expect a giant dose of running plays throughout the first 3 quarters. It is worth noting, however, that in the Illinois game MSU lost their starting RB Javon Ringer. The freshman from Dayton, OH, was having a pretty successful first campaign as he had rushed for 438 yards on 61 carries, which makes for a very gaudy 7.1 yards per carry. With Ringer's injury, it is a break for the Buckeyes as the Spartans will have to use Jehuu Caulcrick at tailback. Caulcrick is more of a bruising, not as quick or fast of a runner in comparison to Ringer, but is still a talented back that can break some tackles. If I'm John L. Smith, I'd run option left and right to utilize Drew Stanton's quick feet along with Caulcrick's talent. I'd also toss in some screens and use the Tight End over the middle in an attempt to keep the Bucks D on their toes. MSU will be without one of their best Wide Receivers in Matt Trannon, and this will affect their ability to pass downfield. However, they still have speedy WR Terry Love, (enter giggles here Svoboda and Collari) who as a freshman in '04 looked like he could be a very effective WR if his talents would be utilized correctly. If given the right direction and game planning scheme, Drew Stanton could possibly keep this a game through 3 quarters (and maybe 4). But with Smith at the helm, Stanton will not have that proper direction and game plan because of Smith being the football coach's equivalent of Wile E. Coyote.

Key matchup is the OSU Defensive Line vs the Spartan O-Line. Playing without starting DT David Patterson (knee surgery), the Bucks will rotate in Joel Penton, Lawrence Wilson, and some of the younger DT's in attempt to slow the Spartan running game and put pressure on Stanton. I think that the OSU D-Line should have success against the MSU Offensive Line, and that Jim Heacock will easily outscheme the MSU coaches with his defensive packages and blitzes. I'm feeling a big day for LB Marcus Freeman.
OSU On Offense
Tressel and his staff should have a field day with the offense. In '04 at Spartan Stadium, Ted Ginn had 3 touchdowns. One rushing, one on a punt return, and a late game clinching TD on a slant where he just outran the MSU DB for a 71 yard dagger to the heart of Sparty. I'd open up the game by letting Ginn run a deep post or fly pattern, just to remind the Spartan D and coaches of how fast # 7 really is. Even if it is an incomplete pass....who cares...it would send the message and put it in their mind that this could be a track meet if Tressel wants it to be.
Then I'd give Idiot L. Smith a solid dose of Anthony Gonzalez and maybe try to find him 3 or 4 times in one drive to remind them of how good Gonzo can be. Then, after the score is 14-3, I'd pound the ball with Antonio Pittman and just bi!ch slap them down the field to remind them that OSU can not only outrun them and beat them vertically, but that the Bucks can also push them around and beat them up physically.
So I guess I'll predict about 293 for Troy Smith with 3 TD passes. I'll also toss in a random TD for good measure, because there will be some sort of a special teams meltdown or some ridiculous play that only happens to Michigan State, because of what only their coach would call in a relatively critical point during the game.
I see the Bucks putting up 38 to 41 pretty easily against this team, weather permitting. Shouldn't be much of a game due to OSU just being that much better in TALENT AND COACHING, so I'll call it a Buckeye W 38-17.

And we've got another great SEC battle on Saturday night as well. # 2 Florida travels to take on # 11 Auburn in what should be a great game. Auburn is 20-1 in their last 21 SEC games, and will be looking to keep their SEC championship hopes alive after suffering a pretty good beating at the hands of Arkansas last week. Florida looks for real and has a very underrated defense, but Auburn will be ready to play and I'll take Auburn 20-17 in what will be a classic battle.

In other College Football Chatter.....
I'd also like to see Florida lose, becuase if they do travel to Auburn and win we will be hearing a lot more Florida should be #1 talk because of their wins at Tennessee, at Auburn and a convincing win over LSU at home. Buckeye fans also know exactly who the Ohio State Haters are, and how they (ESPN anyone?) love to put down our beloved Buckeyes and start anti-Buckeye controversy. If Florida wins at Auburn on Saturday night, you'll be hearing a solid dose of Florida for #1 despite the OSU wins at Texas and at Iowa......just wait, it'll come.
Anyways, I'm off to get my shirt and tie around, and for the first and only time this fall my Buckeyes football jersey will remain lonely and stagnant in my closet. Enjoy another great weekend of Buckeye Football my friends. Later...BDS

Going Through the Motions

2006-10-08T00:50:00.000-07:00

OSU 35, Bowling Green 7

So this afternoon officially began the "afternoon nap" portion of the Ohio State football season. Today's 35-7 win for the Buckeyes really never felt like anything more than just a Varsity-JV scrimmage, as the Bucks had this one under wraps once they received the opening kickoff.

As I'm writing this, I'm really trying to find inspiration for this blog, but there really isn't any. My buddy AR and I left by halftime today, and were betting beers on the over/under of total plays for Buckeye scoring drives. That's what kind of day it was in The Horsehoe and what kept us interested through the first half.

So in what was a pretty vanilla OSU game today, I guess we can take Troy Smith's 17 for 20 and be happy with it. He did have 3 touchdown passes, but I was mostly impressed by his scramble for a first down on a 3rd and long late in the 1st quarter. However, the 85 percent completion percentage was the 3rd best passing efficiency for an OSU QB.

I was kind of surprised that Antonio Pittman didn't have a better day. His 13 carries for 61 yards and 2 TDs was efficient, but I thought that Tress might feed it to him a little more. Today's game was mostly about just getting a win, staying healthy, and then cutting BG a giant check for coming down and enjoying a 28 point drubbing on a beautiful day in central Ohio.

Stats that caught my eye:
OSU was 7 of 12 on 3rd down conversions
Ted Ginn Jr had 10 catches for 122 yards, including a late 57 yard TD reception
BG averaged 25.2 net yards per punt. They were kicking it out of bounds so Ginn couldn't return them. 25 yards an attempt? Why not just go for it?

Since I'm pretty disenchanted by the weak OSU stats, I'm just going to toss out random College Football thoughts for the rest of this blog.

Florida State was beaten 24-20 by N.C. State on Thursday night. The Wolfpack is a team that is starting to mature nicely. Their young QB Daniel Evans and their talented RB (can't remember his name) are starting to play very well. I'm really enjoying the FSU as a football powerhouse demise.
Arkansas beat No. 2 Auburn 27-10 today. Arkansas played very, very well today and they proved that with a good, young QB in freshman Mitch Mustain and sophomore RB Darren McFadden, they're for real and will be another tough team to beat in the SEC. Speaking of number two, that's what Auburn played like. They weren't good at all today. This will be one of at least 2 or 3 losses for Auburn this year.
Tennessee showed quite a bit of heart tonight. Their 51-33 beatdown of Georgia was semi-impressive. I'd be concerned if I gave up 33 to a not very good Georgia offense, though.
Cal beat Oregon 45-24 this afternoon. Cal has been playing with quite the chip on their shoulder since they got handled by Tennessee the first game of the season. Nate Longshore had a nice 189 yards passing with 3 TDs in a Troy Smith-esque performance. The Marshawn Lynch injury will bear watching, however.
Florida is looking tough. They got by LSU 23-10 today in The Swamp, but I see at least one loss for the Gators as they make their way through the that treacherous SEC schedule.
Clemson looked weak today, and should've been beaten by Wake Forest. Clemson won 27-17 thanks to a strong 4th quarter in which they scored 24 points, which was keyed by 66 yd fumble return for a touchdown by Gaines Adams. Wake Forest head coach Jim Grobe is one of the most underrated coaches in D-I football, and I'm surprised that his team could play that poorly in the 4th quarter. Quite the balanced attack by Clemson, who had 214 yards passing and 214 yards rushing. Nice performance by Clemson Senior QB Will Proctor, who had 214 yards passing, one touchdown and 3 interceptions. Another game like that and Clemson won't be residing in the top 25 anymore.
Welcome back, Iowa. The Hawkeyes had an impressive 47-17 win over Purdue today. Junior RB Damian Sims had 155 yards rushing on 20 carries, which included 2 touchdowns. I was never really too impressed with Albert Young, and it appears that he's probably lost his job to the very talented Sims. For the rest of this season and next, Sims will be behind Pittman and Michigan RB Mike Hart as the best back in the Big Ten.

That's all I've got for tonight. Pretty tired after a long day of tailgating, so I bid farewell to you until the middle of the week.

MLB and More CFB Randomness

2006-10-03T21:35:00.000-07:00

The MLB playoffs started today, as the A's, Cardinals, and Yankees all took 1-0 leads in their respectives series. I was mostly impressed by the Yankees, because that lineup will mash even respectable MLB pitching. I think the Yankees take their series in 4 against the Tigers.
I see the A's taking their series against Minnesota now. Johan Santana was decent today, but by taking Game One in Minnesota today the A's have taken a huge adavantage. The Twins will take it to 5, but the A's played pretty inspiring ball today and I'm thinking they'll win with Haren on the mound in Game 5.
The Cards looked good today as well, but I'm not sold on them being a title contender yet. Their staff is pretty weak, but they'll get by San Diego. I also thought it was pretty funny that on ESPN the on field reporter, Duke Castiglione, was mentioning how passionate the San Diego crowd was. When Joy and I went out in early May for our Honeymoon and saw them play 2 games against the Cubs, there were more Cubs fans there than Pads fans. The way their fans acted it seemed like the Padre fans viewed baseball more as a social event than actually going to a baseball game. While we were impressed with the stadium and the tour of Petco we took, we weren't impressed with San Diegans as baseball fans.
I'll also take the Dodgers over the Mets. I don't see the Mets having the pitching to hang with the Dodgers, even with the Top 5 in the Met batting order being all All-Stars.
So I'll take the Dodgers over the Cardinals in the NLCS, and I think that one will go 6. The Yankees will play the A's, and I see the Yankees sweeping that series. A well rested Yankees team will play the Dodgers, and just to go against the grain I'll take the Dodgers in 7. The Dodgers should get some pretty good pitching from Brad Penny, Greg Maddux, Hong Chih-Kuo, and Derek Lowe and I think they can score enough runs to hang with the Yankees. However, if the Yankees average 7 runs a game in the playoffs I won't be suprised.

CFB Randomness
I have been doing some good college football ponderance, and the more I think about it, the more I like the team that Michigan has. I still think that OSU is a clear cut No. 1, but Michigan is my number two right now. I think that if Auburn was fully healthy they'd be my number 2, but they've got a couple defensive starters out along with their center. They will all get healthy over the next month, so it could get interesting as we head into the last 3 weeks of CFB.

As for Michigan, that team is scary. They've got what could be the best offensive line in the country and Michael Hart is healthy and running strong. Mario Manningham is one of the top 3 WR in the Big Ten (along with Ted Ginn and Anthony Gonzalez), and teaming him with Adrian Arrington and Steve Breaston gives them a WR corps that is just as good as OSU's. Michigan's run defense is awesome, and their defense as a whole is vastly underrated right now.

It's pretty eerie how both OSU and Michigan are pretty close to the same team right now. Both teams can run the ball very well (Mich might be a touch better), both have awesome WR corps, both have good O-Lines (Michigan again a notch better), but OSU definitely has the better QB. Both D-Lines are very good, and Mich. has a little more experience at LB. Both secondary's are getting better with experience, but the matchup on November 19th will be one for the ages. I see Michigan getting up to number three in the polls by the time we play them, and I already think they are better than Florida, West Virginia, and USC. The jury is still out if UM is better than Auburn right now, and but we'll learn alot about Auburn over the next few weeks as they run the SEC gauntlet over the next month . This will be one awesome CFB season to watch mature as we head towards November 19th.

Best Team in The Land

2006-10-01T17:41:00.000-07:00

Ohio State 38, Iowa 17
I hope that Ohio State fans are appreciative of this Buckeye football team, because it is truly something special. Seasons like this don't happen very often, and Buckeye fans should not be taking this one for granted.

What we, as Buckeye fans are witnessing is something phenomenal that we might not ever see again. This 2006 Ohio State football team is far and away the best team in the country and as I told my buddy JF on the phone on Saturday afternoon, the only team that can beat Ohio State, is Ohio State. Last night the No. 1 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes EXPOSED an inferior Iowa team that was ranked 13 in the country, on their home turf. The Buckeye offense, as fabulous as it was last night, has their defense to thank for all of the opportunities.

Laurinaitis and Co.
As you probably know, the defense played very well again last night. The defensive unit, led by sophomore linebacker James Laurinaitis, created 4 turnovers and held Iowa QB Drew Tate to a very pedestrian 19 of 41, with one touchdown and 3 interceptions. Tate was rattled early by the Buckeye defense, and was off target all night long, and he never really looked comfortable under center. The defense got interceptions from Laurinaitis, safety Brandon Mitchell and linebacker Marcus Freeman. The Laurinaitis pick was his 4th interception of the year, which ties him for 6th in the nation in passes intercepted. Laurinaitis and Freeman both had sacks in the contest as well.
Another stat that caught my eye was that the Iowa rushing attack only generated 5 rushing first downs. Much was said about Albert Young and the Iowa running game, and the Buckeye Defense held them to only 87 net rush yards. On 3rd down conversions, Iowa was a not too spectacular 4 for 12.
The defense pretty much drew it's line in the sand on Iowa's first possession, which netted 3 plays for minus 1 yard, and had the ball for all of 61 seconds. This first possesion was pretty much a microcosm of what was to come the the Iowa offense for the whole game.

The Unstoppable Offense
The offense was again spectacular last night. Troy Smith, Antonio Pittman, and Tony Gonzalez led the charge during the 38-17 drubbing of the home team. The offense got the ball for the first time with 13:58 left in the first quarter, and had good field position on their own 46. Troy Smith and Co. marched down the field in the next 2 minutes and 24 seconds, and put up 6 with a Smith to Gonzalez strike on 3rd and 9. On that play, Iowa looked lost and confused as OSU lined up 4 wide as Gonzalez ran a simple slant route for the easy score as he sped by a helpless Iowa safety. For a team that was trying to quiet the hornets' nest known as Kinnick Stadium, that wasn't a bad start.
What was probably the most telling statistic of the night, was the time of possession. Ohio State had the ball for 40 minutes and 30 seconds, while Iowa only had the ball for 19:30. When you're playing on the road at the number 13th nationally ranked team and you have a 2 to 1 time of possession ratio....that is entire game domination. I like to see the 10 first downs via the rush and 13 first downs by the pass. That is very good balance, and the total yards rush to pass (214 rush, 186 pass) is very indicative of an extremely balanced offensive attack. I've got a feeling that Tressel was even smiling in his sleep last night.

It should be mentioned that Antonio Pittman did rush for 117 yards and one touchdown, and Troy Smith did pass for 186 yards and 4 touchdowns. A dominant performance from the entire offense.

Where do we go from here?
Well, the next 6 weeks will be interesting for this football team. As September has expired into October, we find our beloved Buckeyes 5-0 and on top of the college football world. I wish that on October 14th we would be playing Michigan instead of Michigan State, because OSU is currently at the top of their game. The Bucks could go pretty much comatose and still end up 11-0 heading into Michigan in that third week in November. I hope this team can still keep focus and maintain motivation for the next month and a half, and not be flat as OSU takes on the weaker of the Big Ten teams.

Spitballing.....
At the end of August, I really thought that the Big Ten was the second best conference in America-next to the SEC. All of the sudden, Ohio State and Michigan are the only feared teams in what is now a suddenly watered down Big Ten Conference. John L. Smith has lost his Michigan State team, Penn State hasn't found itself yet, and Iowa's defense has it a mediocre-at-best squad. Penn State, MSU, and Iowa were all top 25 caliber teams at the start of September, and now could be fighting to be bowl eligible at the end of the season. I am kind of disappointed in this because I am a Big Ten guy, but for the time being we must anoint the SEC as the football conference king at this time. The only silver lining in this now is that with that idiot coach of theirs, playing at Michigan State on October 14th no longer scares me. And did anybody really understand why he slapped himself in the middle of his own end of the game press conference? John L. Smith is officially a mad man.

More Randomness....
When are we going to see the # 33 jerseys around? Saturday afternoon was new cell phone day this guy, and on the way to the Verizon we stopped to fill up the SUV. In the five minute span that we were at the gas station, I noticed 4 Troy Smith # 10 Jerseys (Joy and I included) and one Anthony Gonzalez #11. It really has only be a matter of time until we start to see the # 33 jerseys come out in droves....don't you think?

I will have a baseball recap mid-week, and the BG preview up on Friday for your entertainment as we head into the weekend. GO BUCKS!!!!!!!!!!

Iowa Preview

2006-09-29T11:02:00.000-07:00

THE GAME----Ohio State @ Iowa, 8:00 p.m., 9/30/06

The game is Saturday night, 8:00 p.m., from Kinnick Stadium. Iowa's home turf is probably the 5th best Big Ten home venue to play at (behind The Shoe, The Big House, Penn State and Wisconsin) and a lot of the so called "experts" have been saying that OSU needs to come out and put points on the board in the first quarter to take the air out of the crowd. I agree with that to an extent, because if Iowa gets off to a great start the game will be a tougher battle than OSU could expect.

However, I again don't really see that happening. Do I think there could be a chance that Iowa wins? Yeah, maybe a small one- but I'm not impressed with Iowa's body of work as a football team to this point.

ROTTEN OPPONENTS
Iowa's opponents to this point have been Montana, @ Syracuse, Iowa State, and @ Illinois. Iowa State was the best of that bunch, and Iowa beat them at home 27-17. I think that if that game would've been on the road, Iowa would've been 3-1 instead of 4-0. The Cyclones averaged nearly 5.0 yards per carry (35 carries for 171 yards) against Iowa, and the Bucks should be able to have similar success. ISU was also efficient with the pass as they were 15 for 31 for 171 yards and 1 touchdown.

The Buckeyes, to this point, are very battle tested. OSU has won at Texas and also beat a decent Penn State team in terrible weather conditions last week. This will be a big factor for the Bucks, who should be able to handle the Kinnick crowd.

Here's what the Armchair is thinking:

Hostile crowd, that will be excited for their revenge for a 31-6 drubbing at The Shoe last fall
Covering the tight end. Cincinnati TE Brent Celek has been the most talented pass-catching TE that OSU has seen this year, and he ended up with only 3 catches for 39 yards. Scott Chandler is the Iowa weapon that scares me the most, and at 6' 8" he will be the key to the game if Iowa if to hang with the Buckeyes. If he has under 75 yards receiving, OSU wins easily.
Albert Young is a decent running back. I'm not sold on him being a guy that can beat OSU, but with Drew Tate running the show he can be effective. Young will get his touches, but I'm not seeing a 100 yard day from Young. Young only has a 4.1 ypc average, which against the defenses he's played against is not very good.
Drew Tate scares the hell out of me. He completes nearly 63% of his passes, has 687 yards passing and 7 touchdown passes to only 2 interceptions. We've seen the Ohio State defense give up some relatively gaudy offensive numbers but have had timely turnovers from the opponent's offfense. If OSU doesn't generate those turnovers, everyone will be intently tuned into the ABC broadcast at 10:45 pm when this one is winding down. If OSU is to lose, it will be because of a Drew Tate type QB that runs an efficient, turnover free offense that doesn't beat itself at home. I guess that sentence basically sums up how a team is to beat Ohio State this year.

Now that I've talked myself into thinking this could be a closer game than I thought, let's look at the Buckeye Offense. I'm thinking that Antonio Pittman should be able to run pretty well against this Iowa defense. Last year Pittman ran for 171 yards and Troy Smith ran for 127 yards and 2 TDs as well. I'm not seeing the Hawkeye Defense stop the Buckeye ground attack, as opponents have averaged 93 rushing yards per game, and those teams that Iowa has played has had vastly inferior rushing attacks than OSU's.

We haven't really even mentioned Ginn, Gonzalez, Robiskie or Rory Nicol yet, and once again I think OSU is facing a team that can't hang with the speed of the Buckeyes. The Bucks should have success through the air when needed as well, but this will be a run-the-ball, clock management type Tressel game that will end up being a solid beating of an Iowa team that shouldn't be able to knock off number 1.

Crystal Ball.....

I think OSU should get by Iowa. If Drew Tate does play out of his mind (which he's capable of) and passes for 279 and 2 TDs, then Iowa will make it a game. I see OSU dominating the offensive numbers in this game and being control of this game throughout it's duration. I'm also seeing a blocked punt or punt return for TD that really turns the momentum of this game around for the Buckeyes. OSU is due for a big special teams play and I think we get it on the road this weekend. I think Antonio Pittman has a big night, with 140 rushing yards and 2 TDs. He is the key to the victory for the Buckeyes.

Prediction.....I'll take the Buckeyes over the scrappy Hawkeyes, 27-20.

Also, I'd like to thank Rob Dewolf at Buckeyextra.com for linking me into their blogdom. Check out their site, it has awesome OSU stats and photos that are worth perusing. Enjoy the weekend, Ohio.

Penn State Preview

2006-09-22T08:46:00.000-07:00

The Game----Penn State vs Ohio State, 3:30 p.m., ABC

I hope that I'm not overhyping our beloved Buckeyes, because sometimes I think I am. But I think that we can and should handle Penn State relatively easily. I don't see the Penn State offense really putting together many long, point producing drives against the Buckeye Defense this weekend. The PSU special teams is vastly inferior to that of the Buckeyes, and I say this while primarily referring to their rotten kicker. Kevin Kelly will cost the Nittany Lions points tomorrow, as he is only 6/9 in field goals and 2 for 5 from 30-39 yards out. Let's see if the Sea of Scarlet gets to him....

In other news concerning the game, it will be 6 years to the day former Penn State cornerback Adam Taliaferro left Ohio Stadium on a stretcher after shattering a bone in his neck and severely brusing his spinal cord while tackling Ohio State's Jerry Westbrooks. Did you know that Westbrooks was one of the last players (and I think the last) to wear number 27 at Ohio State before retiring Eddie George's number?

Say goodbye to your little friend.......
This will be the last time you see the perennial rye field in Ohio Stadium for quite some time. On Monday, Ohio State will be rolling out a brand new Kentucky Bluegrass sod. Ohio State has purchased the new turf from a company near Bowling Green, Ohio and will pay $75,000 for it. The special Kentucky Bluegrass is the Cadillac of playing surfaces as only a few universities have it (not Michigan though). The University of Iowa has this playing surface, as well as the Chicago Bears, Cleveland Browns and a couple of other NFL teams. Try getting that info from The Dispatch or ESPN. (thanks DA)

When tOSU has the ball...
I strongly feel the Buckeyes need to open it up to be successful tomorrow. The running game will be relatively succesful, but Troy Smith and Co. need to put the ball in the air to take control of the game. I haven't been impressed with the Penn State secondary this year, as Brady Quinn passed for 287 yards and three touchdowns in Notre Dame's 41-17 win over the Nittany Lions two weeks ago. I don't think there will be any way that the PSU defense will be able to contain 7, 11, 8, 9, 4, 88, or whoever the Buckeyes throw the ball to. Penn State has moved '05 Butkus Award winner Paul Posluszny from Outside Linebacker to Inside Linbacker, and I am not convinced that he is 100% healthy. They also moved last years starting MLB Tim Shaw to defensive end, and at 6'1", 237 pounds he's very undersized for a defensive end at the Big Ten level. The OSU offensive line shouldn't have much of a problem creating holes for Antonio Pittman, and that's where the running attack will be successful. The PSU defensive backfield is talented but inexperienced, and that reminds me quite a bit of the '04 Ohio State secondary that had a young Ashton Youboty, Nate Salley, and E.J. Underwood (who was probably the worst DB I've ever seen at Ohio State). There shouldn't be any problems putting up points against the Nittany Lion defense tomorrow.

When Penn State is on offense...
Keep an eye on PSU wide receiver Derrick Williams. Williams, who wears # 2, is the most dynamic of the talented PSU receivers, but only has 7 catches for 79 yards on the season. Jordan Norwood is the leading receiver for the Nittany Lions with 13 receptions for 152 yards, but Deon Butler is a very wideout as well. It will be up to the Buckeyes Defensive line to pressure PSU QB Anthony Morelli for the coverage to be successful. I'm not overly concerned about Penn State's rushing attack, although Tony Hunt does have a gaudy 5.8 yards per carry and 253 yards on 44 carries. Let's keep in mind that PSU's other two games besides Notre Dame were against Akron and Youngstown State, so those rushing totals don't scare me as much as they normally might. Hunt is a quality pass-catcher out of the backfield (6 rec., 60 yards), and that might pose a problem for the Buckeye Defense, as slip screens have been the achilles heel for the Bucks D for the past couple of years.
Out on a Limb...
I'll take the Buckeyes to win 31-10. I'll give PSU a touchdown and Kevin Kelly's bad luck continues as he will go 1 for 3 in field goals Saturday. Troy Smith has 265 yards passing and 3 TD's, and Pittman breaks 100 with one score. The weather is supposed to include a good dose of rain, so that's why I've got Troy Smith's passing yards a little lower than I normally would. The O-Line will have a nice day, and by mid-fourth quarter it will be Cincinnati all over again.
I also like Michigan State to upset Notre Dame on Saturday. This is the week that the nation gets reacquainted with the savvy passing skills of Drew Stanton as the Spartans beat the Irish 34-31.
Michigan will handle Wisonsin at home in a revenge game, as they get by the Badgers 38-17. That's all I've got for now. Enjoy another great college football Saturday.

Saturday's Recap

2006-09-18T12:55:00.000-07:00

I wasn't supremely impressed with Saturday's 37-7 against the University of Cincinnati. Cincinnati made a game of it through the first half, as the Buckeyes managed to tally only 13 first half points. The second half was a different story, as it was all Ohio State in the final two stanzas. Ted Ginn's second touchdown of the afternoon halfway through the 3rd quarter gave the Buckeyes some much needed breathing room, making the score 20-7 with 7:10 remaining in the period. With 10 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter Antonio Pittman broke a run from scrimmage off for 48 yards, which came right at Joy and I in our 13 AA Row 2 seats. Ted Ginn actually had a very good downfield block- around the 7 yard line- that paved the way for Pittman's jaunt to the north end zone. The Pittman TD gave the Buckeyes a 27-7 lead, and a late TD and 52 yard Ryan Pretorious field goal gave the Buckeyes the 30 point home victory.

Random thoughts, Notes, Stats....
As I stated earlier, this really wasn't a great game for the Buckeyes. Of course, we as Buckeye fans were spoiled a week earlier with a spectacular win at then number 2 ranked Texas, and I suppose that coming out a little flat should not have surprised anyone. This game was for the most part relatively vanilla, with the exception being two Ted Ginn touchdowns and a nice fourth quarter Antonio Pittman touchdown run that iced the game.

I really thought going into this game that we'd blow Cincy out. We did, of course, but I thought it would be much sexier than what it was. I believe that Coach Tressel and his staff knew that they were much, much better than Cincy and they didn't really need to open things up against the Bearcats. I felt that Ohio State should've utilized their team speed much more, and we really only threw the ball deep a few times. (Come on Tress, don't you know fans are paying 62 bucks a pop to walk in the door this year? Let's give 'em their money's worth uh?)

The stat that really jumps out at me is the 10 passing first downs that Cincinnati had. If Penn State is to have success this Saturday at the 'Shoe, it's looking as if it will be through future All-Big Ten WR Derrick Williams and fellow WR Deon Butler. I think that the secondary is still cause for concern, but much like Texas, Penn State has a first year QB that will be able to be rattled.

One area of concern for the Buckeyes is the punt retuns. With having the best punt returner in the country in Ginn, I don't think that Tress is doing a good enough job getting him the blocking that he needs to be successful. To be successful, we need to look at what we did in '04 when at Northwestern Tress went to the two-deep punt return team of Santonio Holmes and Ted Ginn and there was instant success. We utilized the two-deep system for most of the 05 campaign and I think it is only a matter of time before we get back to it. In all likelihood I think we will see more of Tony Gonzalez in the two-deep with Ginn, but it wouldn't surprise me to see
"the new Santonio Holmes," Roy Small in that position at different times. Much like the '04 season's special teams, Ohio State isn't getting the quality of blocking to be successful in return punts. Antonio Smith, who has been a nice surprise at cornerback this fall, has not been getting it done in blocking the other team's gunner. Much like in '04 as well, with a lot of new faces on the punt return team (Carpenter, Hawk, Schlegel, Hamby, Holmes were 5 names that played a big part in the success of the punt return team) which is contributing to the lack of success at only 8.7 yards per return.
I've already started to break down how OSU and Penn State matchup against each other this weekend, and I'll get into that a little later in the week. Enjoy what should be a pretty good Monday Night game tonight between the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Jacksonville Jaguars. I'll take the Jaguars, 20-17.

Your First Look at Cincinnati

2006-09-13T13:22:00.000-07:00

Cincinnati Bearcats@ The Ohio State University, 9/16/06, 12:00 P.M.
Hello again and here's your first look at what the University of Cinicinnati Bearcats football team brings to the table when they will play at Ohio Stadium on Saturday, September 16th at Noon.

OSU DEFENSE VS CINCINNATI OFFENSE
The Cincinnati Offense is not good. I'm not even going to try and try to relay anything positive about this offense, because there is none. Against Pittsburgh last Friday the Bearcats had 30 rushing attempts for 35 yards, which is just over a yard per carry. Their two best players on offense are running back Bradley Glatthaar and senior TE Brent Celek. It shouldn't be a big problem for the Buckeye front four to consistently generate pressure on whatever QB is in there, as there has been a small qb controversy for the Bearcats. Sophomore QB Dustin Grutza did put some separation between himself and fellow QB Nick Davila last week vs. Pitt, as Grutza was 21/35 with 189 yards passing with one touchdown pass and two interceptions. It is doubtful that the Bearcat O-Line will give Grutza enough time to be successful, so I am not at all concerned about the Bearcat passing attack.
Against Texas, Ohio State did generate 2 turnovers (one BIG FUMBLE RECOVERY, one interception) but also allowed nearly 5 yards per carry while giving up 172 yards to the Longhorn rushing attack.
In the 2005 season, Grutza was sacked 40 times, although he has only been sacked once this year. That 06 season number should number should go up drastically this weekend. I'm seeing 6 or 7 sacks this weekend, to go with 3 interceptions and one fumble recovery for the Buckeye Defense.

The OSU Offense vs Cincinnati Defense
Here we can actually point out that the Cincinnati D had some bright spots versus Pitt last week. The Cincy D did have 3 fumble recoveries and held the Pittsburgh rushing attack to 90 yards (2.6 ypc). The Cincy D also held Pittsburgh to only 1 of 11 on 3rd down conversions, althought Pitt did pass for 267 yards. Pitt does have a poor mans Troy Smith/Ted Ginn, combo in senior QB Tyler Palko and WR Derek Kinder, as they hooked up three times for 172 yards and 2 touchdowns. If Cincy can't contain Derek Kinder and co. in the receiving department, what will the fastest offense in the country do to them? Ted Ginn, Anthony Gonzalez, and Troy Smith will have a field day against the Cincinnati Defense. The offense will easily put up a total of 500 yards, although once the score gets to be OSU 41-3 it's doubtful we'll see anything more than a lot of Chris Wells and Justin Zwick in the backfield eating up the clock.

Fun Stats That YOU Need To Know!!!
0 The number of interceptions by OSU Defensive Backs entering the Cincy game.
1 The amount of drives of over 50 yards that Cincinnati had against Pittsburgh.
2 The number of interceptions thrown by Cincy QB Dustin Grutza against Pittsburgh.
3 The number of minutes it will take Ohio State to put up their first Touchdown of the game.
7 The amount of beer pong games Dusty and I will consecutively win on Sat. AM.
10 The amount of beers I plan on drinking before the game on Saturday morning.
15.8 The average yards per catch for OSU.

In Summation.....
The game really won't be a game at all. The offense will roll, Troy Smith has a huge day that really intensifies his Heisman status (5 touchdowns), and the defense has a nice day. The final score for UC vs OSU will be 48-10. Thanks for coming, here's your giant paycheck for the beating, and enjoy a rotten year in the Big East.

PTP Trade Analysis....

2006-09-12T20:23:00.000-07:00

This doesn't deal with OSU, MLB, or the NFL but,.....
My buddy Andy Ruck has asked me to do a trade analysis of all of the overall trades that were executed in our fantasy baseball league this year. To make it easier on myself, I've cut and pasted an original copy of his post on our CBS Sportsline league message board and have dropped in my thoughts on each player's overall dealings. These grades may be a little skewed because it doesn't really take into account each player's needs at the time of their trades, as this is just an overall view of all the trades that were made for each team as a whole.

Kanish:
Gave - B Myers, Jer Weaver, J Giambi, D Eckstein
Got - R Sexson, R Oswalt, J Gomes, J Peralta
You could argue that Oswalt for Giambi would be an even deal, so I consider that a wash for the most part (even though Ruck dealt Giambi about a week before he got really hot in mid June). I still view the Myers for Sexson deal even up as well, and Gomes and Eckstein cancel each other out because neither has been healthy or productive since mid-May. His grade is a C, because Jered Weaver has been pretty good since he replaced his brother in the Angels rotation in mid-June and dealing Weaver straight up for an underachieving Peralta would just be a bad deal.

The Herd:
Gave - J Reyes, B Abreu, P Fielder, R Oswalt, T Wakefield, F Garcia
Got - C Delgado, V Guerrero, D Davis, Jer Weaver, A Kearns, F Liriano
I like the deals that Brian made this year. He had been deep at SS with Hanley Ramirez on the bench, so Jose Reyes was expendable. I'll call Vlad and Liriano for Abreu and Reyes a wash, because all four have had very good years (and coincidentally all have been streaky). You could also argue that Oswalt for Delgado cancelled each other out, leaving Prince Fielder, Tim Wakefield and Freddy Garcia for Doug Davis, Jered Weaver and A. Kearns. I'd have to give the edge to The Herd on this one because Fielder has been adequate at best at 1B and Wakefield hasn't pitched since late July. Getting Jered Weaver and Doug Davis for those guys would be a steal and give his efforts an A-.

Moustachios: Gave - D Davis, J Gomes, J Peralta, A Kearns, S Kazmir, J Vidro
Got - J Giambi, J Reyes, F Garcia, F Cordero, R Durham, D Eckstein
I like what Rashid did with his trades this year. He trade for Giambi just before he got hot this in early June and acquired F. Cordero just as he took the closer's role from his then top closer Derrick Turnbow. He also dealt Kazmir before he was shelved with a shoulder injury and dealt Vidro and his chronically bad knees at the right time too. I'm not really going to break this one down, but rather just say he dealt Doug Davis, Scott Kazmir and 4 underachievers for Jason Giambi, Jose Reyes, Freddy Garcia, Cordero, and Ray Durham. Great job Rashid. A+.

The Clap:
Gave - F Rodney, C Tracy, M Cabrera, R Cano, C Hamels, F Hernandez, G Jenkins, J Patterson, R Sexson
Got - G Anderson, E Bedard, L Berkman, B Bonds, D Bush, R Lopez, K Rogers, D Weathers
It's funny that we would go from an owner that had such success dealing this year to what was probably one of the weaker GM performances of the year. I think that Cabrera, Cano, and F. Hernandez would cancel out Berkman, Bonds, and Bedard. I'd probably go as far as saying that Tracy for the recently unhittable Dave Bush would be a wash too. This leaves us at F. Rodney, Hamels, Jenkins and Patterson for G. Anderson, Rodrigo Lopez, Kenny Rogers, and David Weathers. Weathers and Patterson have both been junk, so toss them out the window. Rodney hasn't really gotten any fantasy points (although he is a hell of a set-up man) and Rodrigo Lopez hasn't been productive, so you can throw those chumps out the trade window. Now we're left with Hamels and Jenkins for Garret Anderson and Kenny Rogers. Hamels has had some nice outings since August and he for Anderson and Rogers would be a fair deal. Actually Nida, my apologies. It's not really as bad as I thought, but when you have David Weathers, Geoff Jenkins, and Rodrigo Lopez being thrown into the trade mix, you just throw this guy way off. I'll give you a B- for the solid effort.

Arabian Sea Monsters:
Gave - F Liriano, L Overbay, B Bonds, A LaRoche, C Delgado, V Guerrero, R Durham, F Cordero
Got - C Granderson, B Abreu, P Fielder, T Wakefield, B Sheets, J Westbrook, J Vidro, A Pierzynski, P Wilson, J Gibbons
Jesus Christ. With all due respect Garver, what the hell were you thinking buddy? First off, let's eliminate the crap from the equation, and of course that would be Preston Wilson, Jose Vidro and Jay Gibbons (although Gibbons did have a nice 10 day stretch in June). Now we can say that Abreu and Sheets for Vlad and Bonds are about even (although to complicate matters, Garver held onto Sheets for most of the season while he was hurt and then when he became healthy he unexpectedly dropped him and then Sheets rolled off 2 wins in a matter of 2 weeks). We can now state that Overbay and LaRoche for Granderson and Westbrook would be pretty fair. This leaves us with Francisco Liriano, Carlos Delgado, and F. Cordero for P. Fielder, Tim Wakefield and AJ Pierzynski. All I can really say is that your heart was in the right place, Garv. Overall Grade: a big fat F.

Tiny Lidgets:
Gave - D Weathers, J Gibbons
Got - C Tracy, L Overbay, F Rodney
Wow, hey nice deals soon to be Mama Ruck. Overbay and Tracy had decent seasons and Weathers and Gibbons really never were fantasy baseball factors. BS is proud and would hug you if you were here. Well Done. If I could give out stickers I would (what about Buckeye Leaf's Rashid?). A+.

Team Ramrod:
Gave - M Ramirez, B Sheets, J Westbrook
Got - C Beltran, S Kazmir, D Baez
Bum got Beltran early in the year from Brent for Manny and Baez, and Beltran blew up this year. Good trades by Bumgarner all year long. Bum just had rotten luck with injuries and had he not I think Rashid and I would be chasing him for best record and points title. Solid performance: A.

Scoring at Home:
Gave - R Sexson, C Granderson, G Anderson, E Bedard, L Berkman, D Bush, R Lopez, K Rogers, A Pierzynski, P Wilson
Got - B Myers, A LaRoche, M Cabrera, R Cano, C Hamels, F Hernandez, G Jenkins, J Patterson, R Sexson, M Ramirez
I liked my acquisition of Miggy Cabrera a lot. He allowed me to plug in an All-Star caliber at 3B when Troy Glaus would be out for 5 or 7 days with various shoulder and knee ailments. The Sexson for Myers deal was made possible because I had LaRoche on the bench, and acquiring Myers deepened what was at the time a pretty weak starting staff. I love Manny and getting him early for Beltran and Danny Baez I thought was going to be huge. Cano gave me a solid 2B to back up Chase Utley, and he really hasn't even been needed this year. I never really had much use for Garret Anderson, Curtis Granderson, Rodrigo Lopez, Pierzynski, and Preston Wilson, so we can really eliminate those guys from my Gave list (for the record Granderson was decent, but with Manny, Miggy Cabrera, and Grady my OF was strong anyways). So we can look at Bedard, Berkman, Bush, Beltran, Baez, and Kenny Rogers for Brett Myers, A. LaRoche, Miggy Cabrera, Cano, Hamels, Felix Hernandez, and Manny Ramirez. I really liked my lineup all year, and I thought my haphazard deal-making prowess really benefitted my team this year. I'll toss out an A- to the amazingly astute GM.

I tried to be as fair as I could be and I think I did a pretty decent job. Feel free to defend yourselves on the PTP message board.

36 Phenomenal Hours

2006-09-10T18:35:00.000-07:00

Texas Sized Beat Down
Here we are nearly 24 hours after Number One Ohio State beat Texas 24-7, and I'm still trying to digest the colossal win.
To start- I will say that the Laurinaitis-caused/Washington fumble recovery and return to mid-field will be one of the bigger plays of the season. When you look back at an entire season for that year's National Champion, you can pick about a half dozen plays that make or break that year. With the '02 Buckeyes, you think about Krenzel to Jenkins at Purdue on 4th and 1, the Chris Gamble interception return for a touchdown vs. Penn State, and Number 13 stripping the ball from the Miami defender during the Fiesta Bowl. The teams that make these big plays are the ones that will have the chance to play for the National Championship. If Thanksgiving comes along and Ohio State is to play in the National Championship game, we will look back at this play as one of the turning points to the game and season.
Now that I have that off of my chest, I'll dive right into my thoughts on Saturday's giant win at Texas and discuss the season to date. As I said, THE FUMBLE was the turning point in this game, but the game was decided in a 5 minute (of actual game time) span. The Buckeye D gave up the game tying touchdown late in the first half, as a Colt McCoy touchdown pass to Billy Pittman tied the contest at 7. The Buckeyes take the ensuing kickoff and return the ball to their own 34. With a pass to Anthony Gonzalez covering 22 yards and a quick (and beautiful) 29 yard strike to Teddy Ginn in the end zone gave the Buckeyes their 7 point cushion right back with 15 seconds left in the half. Texas receives the kick and their first 2 plays from scrimmage are successful running plays that net them over 20 yards. On 1st and 10, the freshman McCoy drops back and throws a beauty right to James Laurinaitis. Ohio State gets the ball on the Texas 20 after the Laurinaitis return and gets 3 from a Aaron Pettrey field goal. 10 points in 4 and half minutes of game time, which also deflated the raucous crowd. Boom. Ballgame. Thanks for being such gracious hosts and we enjoyed your barbeque.

LIGHTNING AND.........LIGHTNING!!!!
Anthony Gonzalez had the statline of the night, as he had 8 grabs for 142 yards and seemingly caught everything that was thrown his way. Ginn ended up with 97 yards on 5 receptions, including the 29 yard breathtaking bomb from Troy Smith just before the end of the first half. Through two games in the '06 campaign, Ginn and Gonzalez have combined for 415 receiving yards and 5 touchdowns on 21 receptions. For those of you who went to Michigan and aren't too numerically savvy, that's nearly 20 yards per catch (19.76).

BEND BUT DON'T BREAK
Ohio State's first two opponents have been Northern Illinois and Texas. They have arguably 2 of the top 10 rushing attacks in college football and the OSU defense has given up how many rushing touchdowns? ZERO. The OSU defense has given up an average of 5.0 yards per carry and have yielded 23 first downs on the ground, but let's keep in mind the opponents. Ohio State hasn't had the luxury of playing North Texas or Central Michigan yet.

Plenty of O at tOSU
Through 2 games, Ohio State has averaged nearly 30 points per contest. The offense has generated 39 first downs and is averaging 7.1 yards per play. If there is one concern about the offense, it would have to be Red Zone efficiency. Ohio State has ventured inside their opponent's twenty 10 times already but has only scored on 7 of those ten attempts. The Buckeye D has held their opponents to only 6 Red Zone visits and have allowed only 2 touchdowns.

Stats are Fun!!!
A few more fun stats for your enjoyment:
Ohio State is holding their opponents to 17% on Third Down conversions (4/23).
James Laurinaitis' Saturday Statline: 13 tackles, INT, 2 Forced Fumbles. He's got all the physical attributes of a dominant LB and now seems to have the mental part down as well. He seems to always be in the right position and has a motor that doesn't stop.

Let it Fly......
This morning I hopped on CBS Sportsline to check my fantasy baseball progress for the week. On the front page for Sportsline had a big picture of Troy Smith and said something to the theme of "A Perfect 10." Conversely, at ESPN, they only had an article about the fires that were set on campus and headlined in a side story as "Fires, Injuries on campus mar big win for OSU." Leave it up to the douchebags at ESPN to put a negative spin on what was a dominant performance by number one The Ohio State University in the toughest of settings against the number 2 team in the country. While checking things out I also found this as part of the Gameday Final website:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/gamedayFinal?page=gamedayFinal2
Notice Ivan Maisel's rating of Selvin Young's performance, then only to read what king d-bag Mark May said about Colt McCoy's supporting cast. I hope college football karma goes Trev Alberts on you Mark May.
Anybody else see Colt McCoy's mom last night? She is definitely MILF Material.
Bob Davie has been added to my list of world's worst sports announcers. Add him to the Pam Ward and Chris Spielman booth and you've got an instant recipe for suicide. Bob Davie is the Randy Cross of college football.
Aaron Pettrey scares me. At this point I have no confidence in him, as he is 1 of 3 in FGs this year. He barely connected on a 31 yarder vs. Texas on Saturday and has missed from 28 and 44.
So ABC is going with round two of the Dancing with The Stars? They should've laid that one to rest after they kicked Kenny Mayne off last spring. Godspeed, Emmitt.
How about Matthew McConaghey jumping around like a 5 year old with ADHD last night? Hope you enjoyed the beating, hippie.
And what business does Lance Armstrong have shaking hands with Mack Brown 15 seconds before kickoff? Maybe Mack should've been focusing a little more on the game (and what happened to his lip at halftime?).
Selvin Young and Lamar Charles looked great last night. I don't even know why Mack put it in the air at all last night?

What are you doing, Willie?
Other thoughts from Saturday's College Football Action:
My boy Willie Tuitama, QB for Arizona, didn't have a great game. No. 8 LSU pounded Arizona at home on Saturday, 45-3. I really thought the supposedly tough Wildcat D would contain LSU and give Arizona a shot at the upset. Superstar in the making Tuitama had a rough go of it as Arizona only had 54 total yards through 3 quarters in Baton Rouge. Alright, I believe in LSU now.
Speaking of SEC love, Auburn crushed the Fighting Crooms. No. 4. Auburn dominated Miss. St. 34-0 and I think Auburn is THE BEST TEAM IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL OUTSIDE OF OHIO STATE. I'm not sold on Notre Dame yet. I think that they were just the better of two mediocre teams on Saturday. I expected PSU to really give the Irish a game but it didn't happen. I wasn't impressed by Brady Quinn or the PSU defense. I think that ND is a good football team, but it is not a top 5 team at this time. Anthony Morelli was junk yesterday and made some atrocious football decisions during their 41-17 drubbing at the hands of the Golden Domers. And welcome back, California. Nothing like playing a Minnesota (or generally Indiana or Illinois) to get your program back to winning football ways. Cal beat Minnesota 42-17.
Break up the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. They've got 2 running backs that can feed it to a defense, and have a solid O-Line to pave the way. They've got Louisville at home on Thursday, November 9th and I'm telling you right now that they'll win that game.

I'll come up with an NFL update after MNF tomorrow, as well as another college football preview on Thursday or Friday.

The Weekend's Preview

2006-09-06T20:15:00.000-07:00

Previewing Your Weekend, Ohio.
Before we get to THE big game this weekend, let's dabble in what else will be shaking out in The Great State of Ohio throughout the weekend.

The "playoff chances are on life support" Cincinnati Reds will play host to the Pittsburgh Pirates this weeked with three at the Great American Ballpark. If the Redlegs don't sweep or take at least 2 of 3 this weekend you can stick the proverbial fork in them. On Saturday first pitch is at 6:10 and it's "Kroger/Fuji Team Photo Night." I'm sure that'll compete with what could be the best college football game of the season, Wayne.
I also noticed that on the site you can vote for the Marvin Miller Man of the Year Award that is given to players who contribute to their community off the field. The Cincinnati Reds nominee is Ryan Freel-and I'll be honest- I'm not getting this one. No doubt this is a guy who plays his can off and I love to see him as a Cub, but for a man of the year award nominee? It is well-known that he has an imaginary friend living in his head that he refers to as "Farney," and oh, not to mention the TWO DUI'S he's had in the past two years. Nice selection Marge Schott. Why not Scott Hatteberg for this one? If you're confused you can read the article here http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060905&content_id=1646613&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

The Cleveland Indians will take on the White Sox for a four game series on the south side of Chicago this weekend. The Tribe has been playing much better baseball recently by going 12-5 since August 19th, and has a chance to play spoiler against the 2005 World Series Champions. Go get 'em, Tribe!

Other college football games of interest this weekend will be:
Friday
Pittsburgh @ Cincinnati, 8:00 p.m.

Saturday
Miami, OH @ Purdue, 1:00 p.m.
(18) Clemson @ Boston College, 3:30 p.m.
(14) Iowa @ Syracuse, 3:30 p.m.
UPSET WATCH!!! Arizona @ (8) LSU, 6:30 p.m. Brent's Upset Special for the week because Arizona can bring it.

And before I really get the crystal ball rolling on the Buckeyes Texas game, I would like to state how excited I am to see Penn State take on Notre Dame (3:30 pm, Saturday). This will mark the first time ever that I'm happy that NBC covers Notre Dame because now my College Football Saturday eases me into my Texas/OSU game with both Penn St./ND and the Clemson/Boston College game (3:30, ABC) at the same time. HELLO, DUAL TV's. Before I forget, the marquee matchup of the afternoon is Penn State QB Anthony Morelli vs. the supposedly improved Irish defense. If Morelli and the O generates 24 I think there will be a lot of disappointed fans in South Bend after the game.

The Ohio State University @ the University of Texas, ABC, 8:00 P.M.
So here is what we've been waiting for. The matchup of number one Ohio State vs. number two Texas kicks off just after 8:00 EST.
I don't really know where to start except to say that I'm bitter at my younger brother for being part of a crew that is driving down and will be attendance on Saturday. I intently watched and re-watched the 1st half of the Nothern Illinois/OSU game from Saturday (didn't pay much attention to the 2nd half because there is no way James Patrick was going to show Texas anything he had in store for them) and I noticed a few little tidbits that you might want to pay attention to.
WHEN OSU IS ON DEFENSE
I really like our front seven as a unit. I think that the potential for something special is there and all they need is more experience. Ohio State needs Jay Richardson, Vernon Gholston, Lawrence Wilson, etc. to generate pressure from the edge for this team to be successful from a defensive perspective. If OSU has to bring their linebackers on blitzes to generate pressure on the young QB Colt McCoy, then the Bucks might have a problem keeping the home team's score under 28 or 31. While I was breaking down the Buckeye first half against NIU, I noticed how the swing pass killed the Buckeye D. This has been a recurring theme (not so much last year with all of our speed/experience at LB), but we can date back to 2002 and 2003 and how teams like San Deigo State, Bowling Green, and N.C. State (with T.A. McClendon) killed the Buckeye D with swing passes and bubble screens. I see the bubble screens and swing passes the achilles heel of the Buckeye D on Saturday night. If OSU has to bring LBs or corners toregularly apply pressure on McCoy, this game will be no game at all.

Thank you DVR On the screen to NIU RB Garret Wolfe that went for 60+ yards, OSU blitzed Marcus Freeman as the guard pulled. The pulling guard picked up Buckeye MLB Larry Grant, the WR on the play had a solid block on the DB, and there was nothing but green for Wolfe to work with. Here's to hoping that Colt McCoy isn't as experienced as Horvath was a recognizing blitzers and defense (and let's hope that Free can do a better job of not showing his blitz).

I was impressed on how Brandon Mitchell supported the run. He was quick to recognize the NIU running plays and made some very nice open field tackles. I was also impressed with the way the way the Defense tackled as a unit, but tackling has always been a forte of Jim Tressel coached teams (with the exception of EJ Underwood 2 years ago). We'll see how Malcolm Jenkins has progressed as a corner when he has to take on Sweed (#4) one-on-one.
Total prediction for OSU points given up by the defense: 23

WHEN OSU HAS THE BALL
What is very eerie to me is the similarities between Vince Young last year and Troy Smith this year. We can start with the obvious with both wearing number 10, both are/were the most athletic players for their teams, but the biggest similarity for me is that they both have the knack for making the big play. We've seen Smith's running ability against Michigan in both 04 and 05, and again this will be huge in OSU sustaining drives (remember Troy Smith scrambling on the last drive @ Michigan last year before finding Tony Gonzalez? That still gives me chills. Awesome.). The Texas defensive line is ridiculous in terms of size, but luckily for the Buckeyes their ) O-Line averages 6'5", 320. I think the Buckeye offensive line (with the help of Rory Nicol) can keep the Texas D-Line in check enough for Pittman and Chris Wells to be effective running the ball. I think that OSU rushes for 220 or so yards in this one and that Troy Smith ends up with 70 plus rushing yards.

What is this, The Last Boy Scout? From a college football fan standpoint, the arrest of Tarell Brown (CB who was to cover Ted Ginn, Jr. primarily on Saturday) is a very unfortunate one, and Brown's suspension for his weapons charge will definitely alter Tressel's game plan. As a Buckeye fan, I think it's a huge break for the offense and for number 7 and I now see him having a big day. I remember EDU PAES 620, Coaching Football which was taught by Coach Tressel himself and he stressed that you can't teach speed. We've really seen this the past 2 years with Santonio Holmes and Ted Ginn, Jr. It was extremely obvious against Notre Dame last year and again on Saturday against NIU as those two teams just couldn't keep up with Teddy. I see more of number 7 stretching the field and letting Tony Gonzalez do his work in the middle of the field along with Brian Hartline and Brian Robiskie opening some eyes on national tv. I'm predicting 298 yards passing and 2 passing touchdowns for Troy Smith. Look for red-shirt sophomore Rory Nicol to suprise some people as well.

Brent's Offensive Playbook Outlook:
Look for Tress to open the first couple of series with more traditional, Tressel-ball plays. I see the first few passes being safe, easy passes like 10 or 12 yard outs to Ginn or 10 yard ins to Gonzalez. The purpose behind these will be two-fold, as it will build Smith's confidence and calm down any jitters he may have as well as setting up their DBs for what will be a killer double move (out and up) that will go for a touchdown early in the second half. You heard it here first.

One of the more overlooked parts of this game is how I believe Tress will put Ginn and Gonzalez back in two-deep punt return formation. Once Tress started doing this at Northwestern in October of 2004 was when Touchdown Teddy began his reign as the best punt returner in America.

Total Points Scored by the Buckeye Offense: 30
Brent's Final Score Ohio State 30, Texas 23

HEY BRENT, WHAT'S ON TAP FOR THIS WEEKEND'S BLOGS?
I am thinking about possibly doing an In-Game Blog, but not sure if my level of commitment will be up to it or not. I am thinking that I will be so into the game that I won't want to do it, but at the same time it could be really fun to do and I could add some comments and updates on how much Dusty and I have been drinking throughout the course of the night. This may be something to watch for and if there is enough interest I may just pull it off.
I will definitely toss out an update on Sunday afternoon at some point and probably address the NFL and the Fantasy Football. Enjoy the games football fans.
BDS

Hello and Welcome

2006-09-06T19:35:00.000-07:00

Thanks for Stopping By!!!
So for the past few months, I have really been thinking about creating my own website. Actually, it was the first full day of our honeymoon when I told Joy about how I wanted to set up my own site. Since I am not extremely computer savvy, I have decided to half-ass it by using the old blogspot where they do most of the work for you. So here we are now, with one foot submerged in the bathtub that we call college football and I'm starting to get things rolling.
The content of this site will basically just be one man's thoughts. Stories, predictions, and witty banter about all things life will be tossed about on my blog and I hope that maybe a few of you will enjoy it.

HOLY COW!
As most of you know by now, my wife Joy and I are expecting first child on April 1st, 2007. This will be one of the few things that I will chat about randomly, but I think that mostly I am going to keep this pretty heavily sports related. At this time I feel much more comfortable discussing all things sports, but this will be a cool opportunity for me to pretty much just throw whatever I want to out there. So I hope you enjoy the blog and toss me some feedback if you feel applicable.
GO BUCKS!!!!
BDS