Archives for April 2009

Get your football fix Open Thread

We’re planning on taking the kids to their first Spring Game today, so I doubt I’ll be able to watch much of it before they get bored, but the DVR will be working overtime so I can catch it on my own. Are you planning on going?

We’ll also be watching the NFL draft with interest when we get back!

Update: Spring game (the half I’ve seen already was great) but I just came in from some yardwork and saw that Beanie fell all the way down to the 31st pick? That was unexpected, to say the least.

Oops.

FootballDouble oops.

Compare and Contrast

OSU FootballFootballAs we are wont to do from time to time, we like to take a couple articles, clip a little nugget out of each and compare the two. Today’s articles look at the physical development of a couple of the future and present signal callers for the Michigan and Ohio State football teams, respectively.

First, we have Tate Forcier, commenting on his development, strength-wise, under the tutelage of Mike Barwis:

“Coach Barwis has definitely showed me a little bit of a different life,” Forcier said. “He’s doing a great job with it, and I’ve got to give a lot of credit to him. He’s trying to bring me along as fast as he can. … Coming here, you’re [bench-pressing] a 45-pound plate on each side, it’s kind of pathetic. He’s gotten me a lot stronger.”

To be fair, Forcier is a freshman and probably hasn’t had access to facilities or coaches like he will at U of M. But seriously? Benching one-hundred-and-thirty-five pounds? At 6′ 1″ and 187, he should certainly be stronger than that.

Compare that to what’s being said about Terrelle Pryor’s progress and growth:

“He’s been in there every day, and I am talking about two and three hours at a time,” Hall said. “What I see is how much bigger he’s gotten under Ohio State’s strength and conditioning program. He told me he weighs 238 pounds and, kidding him, I said, ‘You better watch it. They might make you a defensive end.'”

Again, we’re not exactly comparing apples to apples here. Pryor is a bigger guy with a year under his belt and an off-season with some of the best trainers in the country. So it’s to be expected that he’d not only get bigger, but stronger.

That being said, if Forcier does get any playing time of consequence, Big Ten linebackers are going to be licking their chops. I can hear Thaddues Gibson’s stomach growling already.

The Face of the Team

OSU FootballA real quick check-in post so we don’t fall completely off the radar.

As we hear the reports coming out of spring camp, I got to wondering how was going to be the poster boy of the 2009 Buckeyes. It’s no secret that a certain Mountain of a Man was our man-crush for 2007 and a particular Stiff Arm was the face (hand? arm?) of the Buckeyes of 2008. So who will it be this year?

I present two candidates. The first was an emerging beast of a man last year, one Thaddeus Maximus. He’s already on people’s radar with lines like “Destroy everything moving” and “You just have to know when to be aggressive”.

thad_gib

The other nominee, via The Silver Bullet, is incoming freshman Dominic Clarke who, as Drew says, certainly passes the “Look Test”.

Dominic Clarke

So who is your nomination for the 2009 MotSaG man-crush Face of the Buckeyes?

Spring is in the air

Blog/site newsAs often happens around these parts around the end of the NCAA tournament, things have slowed to a crawl in terms of posting frequency and snarkacy. We don’t officially go into hibernation mode, but past performance has pointed to a reduced number of posts.

This year may change that, however, as I have a travel assignment that will have me on the road for extended periods of time for the next 5-6 months. That frees up a lot of time for reading and writing, so hopefully i’ll be able to keep things going at a decent pace around here.

In the meantime, we are vigilant of all things Buckeyes, especially now that Spring Practice has started. I’m already getting a vibe of excitement around the Buckeye camp. What things have you excited? Besides the obvious (Terrelle Pryor’s sophomore effort) I’m anxious to see the new look of the defense, especially how the linebacker corps is looking.

We also didn’t comment much about the sad state of affairs that was the basketball team’s sole tournament game. What a horrific display that was. Here’s to hoping for something better next year.

And because we can’t end on a sour note, here is your Ohio State NFL Pro Day Vernon Gholston Shot:
vg_proday

You can’t see the pipes, but they’re there. They’re always there.

(via Ohio State Buckeyes dot com)