Buckeye Thursday's - A personal journey

Yesterday's announcement to Buckeye Nation went something like this in my head:

Ohio State Sports Information Office - "The first game of the 2010 season will be played on THURSDAY, September 2nd, 2010."

Buckeye Nation - "Huh? Wait ... say that again? "

Ohio State Sports Information Office - "The first game of the 2010 season will be played on THURSDAY, September 2nd, 2010."

Buckeye Nation - "The Buckeyes are opening on a Thursday?!?!?? OMG!"

Vitale: Carroll beat the posse

Dick Vitale has been playing the role of a good basketball analyst for a long time (as opposed to actually being a good basketball analyst). But when there is something he believes in he is pretty direct. I was watching the Georgetown/Connecticut game today and heard him say the following about Pete Carroll:

“Well, you know, to me, he beat the posse. Posse coming after him down there, the NCAA. He takes the money, the program gets hurt in the future. I really have a problem with that. These guys go on, they leave the program, take their cash and run. Because, you know, the NCAA is still investigating them for Reggie Bush. And I just feel that he beat the posse, got his cash, and off he went.”

It certainly sounds like the watercooler talk in Bristol is that USC is headed for probation. While I'm glad someone on ESPN is finally starting to talk about it I'm annoyed it has taken this long.

On the other hand, I feel for the honest players on the USC program. Whether Pete Carroll was actively involved in the scandal for him to leave them at this moment is the act of a coward. For his sake, he'd better succeed this time in the NFL because I don't know how he could ever look a kid's parents again and say, "Send your kid to me and I will take care of him." I have no doubt he could say it, I just don't know how anyone could ever believe it.

Thank God for Jim Tressel.

What college is the best at developing talent?

As soon as the whistle blows on the last bowl game, the college football world turns its attention to recruiting. There is an amazing amount of attention put on this and this is especially true when you realize we are tracking the whims of 18 year olds. The funny thing is every college team has 85 players on scholarship but can only start 22. This means that while every highly regarded high school player feels they are destined to be a star in the NFL that facts are that only about half will ever even be a starter in college. The problem for the college coaches is it is really tough to know just how good a high school player will be when they get to college. One thing to consider is the NFL has a lot more information on their draft picks and every year there are numerous player picked in the first round that never make it in the pro's. The college coaches have less information and have to account for varying levels of coaching instruction given to high school players and the fact that recruits are at least 2-3 years from reaching their body's maturity. Still ... there is an attraction to recruiting. Recruiting is the future of every program and since it is impossible to know the true rank of a class it can be fun to follow.

Southern Speed - What are they really talking about?

I'm going to write something you will never see on a major website because it is a taboo.

Every year during college football there is a term that is repeated ad naseum -- SOUTHERN SPEED. If you played a drinking game while you were watching College Gameday and did a shot every time they mentioned SOUTHERN SPEED you'd never be able to get off the couch by the end of the broadcast. Goto any Buckeye forum and there's no way to get a Buckeye fan's blood pressure to rise faster than to hear the word SOUTHERN SPEED.

10 Best Moments of the 90s

Yesterday I relived the 10 worst games of the 90s and by the end it I was exhausted. To be fair to John Cooper he only had 29 losses in the decade and 17 of those occurred from 1990-92 and in 1999. The years 1993 to 1998 put Ohio State football back on the national stage in a way that hadn't happened since the 70s. With 91 games to choose from it was quite difficult to pick 10 top moments but it was a lot more enjoyable (many thanks to Our Honor Defend website for many of the videos linked on You Tube).

How times have changed - Worst moments of the 90s for Buckeye Football

A recent post on the O-zone forums made me think back to Buckeye football in the 90s and how times have changed. I had season tickets from 1991 through 2004 and 2 of my 3 Buckeye road trips were to the 1993/95 Michigan games so I know from first hand experience how much things have changed in the last 10 years. It seemed like going into every Michigan or bowl game during that era that we were always thinking about how are we going to lose it this year and praying we didn't embarrass ourselves. Ultimately the blame has to be put at the feet of John Cooper whether it is fair or not.

Big 10 vs Superior Opponents

I originally posted my blog "The myth of Big Ten inferiority" on the O-Zone forums. Someone thought my comment regarding bowl matchups was backwards. My exact quote was this:

"Matched against superior opponents - The fact that we travel so well means that we get more bowl games but also that we are match against higher ranked teams. Every year Vegas then sets the line so that we are usually underdogs but nobody recognizes this fact."

Ohio State Buckeyes - 2010 Rose Bowl Champs!

Final Score - Ohio State 26 -- Oregon 17

Today's win was all about strong defensive play and Terrelle Pryor coming out to play like we had hoped when we recruited him. I love it when the "experts" are wrong and I am going to enjoy reading their mea culpas the next few days.

Random post game thoughts:

• Pryor improved over the last half of the year and it appears his progression continued during Bowl practice. The amazing thing is he still limited his throws to 5-10 yards, avoided the middle third of the field and he really didn't throw long. Even so he went 23/38 for 266 yards with 2 TDs and 1 Interception. It was Terrelle's best performance and something he can build from for next season.

• The defense held the high powered Oregon offense to 260 yards and most significantly limited their time of possession to 18:23 and 12 first downs. I expected the defense to stop the Ducks but I was impressed with both Masoli and James. The Oregon offense is impressive and broke a few long runs but ultimately it was held in check.

• Ohio State's special teams performance was decided mixed. The Bucks were 4/4 for field goals with both Barclay and Pettrey getting into the act. Thoma finished his career on a strong note with 3 punts for an average of almost 44 yds per kick which was definitely unexpected. On the other hand, our kickoffs were consistently short and our coverage teams continually put our defense in a bad situation by giving up 171 yards on 4 kickoffs and 28 yards on 1 punt. I think the starting position on our kickoffs had to be close to the 40. Without this the game is a laugher.
  

• Statistically this game wasn't close. Time of Possession - 42 minutes to 18. Yards - 419 to 260. First Downs 26 to 12. In fact it is a bit disappointing the game was so close but the Buckeyes left the door open by stalling in the red zone 4 separate times and settling for field goals instead of touchdowns. Then we had to kickoff again ....

2010 Rose Bowl: Ohio State vs Oregon

Today Ohio State plays the Oregon Ducks in the Rose Bowl. Just wanted to post a few thoughts and predictions on the game.

Most pundits seem to think that Ohio State is severely outmatched in the game in terms of speed and it seems the experts are about 80-20% in favor of the Ducks. ESPN fan voting is about the same. My feeling is most of this is due to the Bucks past performance and I can't blame them. But the past is the past and let's look at the facts about this game to make a prediction.