Archives for February 2012

Billy Price picks OSU

After losing out on a top rated WR recruit on Friday Night Ohio States Coach Meyer and his staff went into complete hibernation and depressed mode….. NOT. They had a huge weekend lined up with Sunday being a one of many Junior Days that will occur this year. Some of those in attendance had already been offered and some walked away with fresh offers. One though came away very impressed and chose to end his recruitment early and committed to Ohio State.

Billy Price a 6’4″ 285 lbs DT from Youngstown, Ohio is listed as a 4 star by every recruiting service. ESPN has him as one of their ESPNU 150 players. 247sports has him listed as the 148th best recruit in the nation. Rivals has him as the 130th best recruit in the nation. All of them say the same thing he is a strong strong strong young man. He has the ability to play OT or DT at the next level and could play anywhere on either line if needed. He becomes the 3rd recruit in the 2013 class joining Jalin Marshall and Cam Burrows.

Michigan State drops Ohio State, 58-48

Some times it just isn’t your day.

Michigan State Live in Game Chat

The Buckeyes schedule starts to get real dicey here at the end of the Big Ten season, starting today with Michigan State. You can check out all the previews you want at the Buckeye Battle Cry, Eleven Warriors and Our Honor Defend.

(As you have seen, our Buckeye basketball coverage has been lacking. Interested in writing at MotSaG, focused on basketball? Drop us a line!)

Hit the jump and join us for our live in game chat.

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BBN Hoops Microscope: Coaching Staff vs. Purdue

While the rest of the Buckeye Blogger Network has been looking at the five starting Buckeyes and their performance against Purdue Tuesday night, we here at MotSaG had secretly deployed a mind reading device, hoping to get an insight into what goes on inside the head of one of the coaches on the bench during this game. We hadn’t anticipated the interference that Coach Matta’s erratic movements would cause nor the overloading of the sensors during his more expressive outbursts at the referees, so his readings were unusable. Coach Boals perfectly coifed hair was clearly the result of using some poly-metal-alloy hair product, completely blocking any readings from his mind. Luckily, the gritty thick skull of Chris Jent was easily penetrated by our sophisticated equipment and we were able to piece together a few of his thoughts during the course of the game. (Please note that even at his age, he is still red-lining our GRITMETER)

On the non-calls:

“Wow, that looked like Sully got hacked on that play. No call, ref? Oh well. Tough guys grit this stuff out.”

Rage-filled shouting from Coach Matta

“Yikes, I guess coach Matta not a fan of that call.”

Unintelligible shouting from Coach Boals

“Man! Coach Boals really thinks that was a bad call. I wish he wouldn’t use words like that! How does he kiss his mamma with that mouth?

Maybe Coach Crean is right! Maybe Coach Boals should settle down. Maybe Coach does draw too much attention to himself.

What am I saying?! Maybe Coach Boals should punch Crean in his smug face. Like all those times I wish I could have socked Damon Bailey right in his stupid face. Oh man, did I just think that out loud? Good thing no one can read my mind.

Play on, big fella!”

On Aaron Craft’s grit-factor

“Craft reminds me so much of myself. I wish more guys would play like we he does. Sure, Sam Thompson can jump and touch the rafters and yeah Buford’s got that silky smooth J but what I wouldn’t give to see some more floorburns out there. Sure, Ravenel does what he can but these other guys, sheesh. Let’s get physical out there. It’s like Deshaun is allergic to hustle. Diving for a ball never hurt anyone son! God gave you five fouls for a reason! And don’t get me started on Sullinger. ‘Oh, look at me and all this weight I lost! Who needs to bang when I got this new outside jumper in my repertoire?’ You need to bang, son! You do. The Good Lord blessed you with that backside. It was a gift. And now you think you’re Dirk Novitzki.”

On the reluctance of the bench players shooting

“I know the feeling, man. Just chill, dribble the ball around, don’t worry about shooting. Basketball isn’t just about putting the ball in the hoop. There’s rebounds and steals and charges to take. Let other guys deal with the hard things like making jump shots. Just pass the ball to Buford. There you go. Now hustle, Shannon. Back on defense. Square the shoulders, up in his face.

Atta boy.”

On the defense

“What are we doing on these high screens? Why! Wait no! Ugh no that. CRAP. Man, Byrd was open on that play. Shoulda bumped him”

“Whoa, Craft just got blown by there. Someone shoulda bumped him”

“Another blow-by on Craft? Shoulda bumped him”

“FORGET THIS. THIS IS OUR HOUSE. SOMEONE HIT SOMEONE. SOMEONE COMES DOWN THAT LANE YOU BETTER SMACK THE PURDUE OUT OF HIM! RRRAAAGGGGGGGE”

(At this point, the signal goes dead for a few minutes, during which we assume Jent blacked-out, due to rage.)

During time-outs

“I wonder how Katie Smith is doing?”

From the rest of the Network:

The Buckeye Battle Cry – BBN Hoops Microscope: Lenzelle Smith Jr. vs. Purdue
The Buckeye Blog – Buford Steps Up in Close Win Over Purdue
Buckeye House Call – BBN Hoops Microscope: Sully vs. Purdue
Our Honor Defend – BBN Hoops Microscope: Aaron Craft vs. Purdue
The Silver Bullet – BBN Hoops Microscope: Deshaun Thomas vs. Purdue

Purdue Live In Game Chat

Wisconsin Live In Game Chat

B1G Girls Do Cry

By now you’ve heard that Bret Bielema and Mark Dantonio are a couple of giant babies, each complaining to some degree about the way Urban Meyer recruits.  Dantonio called Meyer “unethical” for doing what every other Big Ten coach–including the head Spartan himself–does, namely recruiting kids they would like to have play on their football teams.  Bielema stepped it up a notch, because he’s the Earl of Douchebury, flat out accusing Meyer of “illegal” tactics and even asking Daddy Alvarez to escalate his concerns to Big Ten chief Jim Delany.

To Alvarez’s credit (wow that was hard to type guys), he basically turned the whining around his head coach, declaring that Meyer’s aggressiveness is not unscrupulous, a thinly-veiled way of lighting a fire under Bielema’s lazy recruiting strategy.

I imagine that most of you are like me, and find Dantonio’s participation in this Lifetime movie to be more surprising than Bielema’s.  As a Buckeye fan with fond memories of Dantonio’s suffocating defenses, I have always cheered for his teams after he moved on (unless they were playing us, of course).  I admired him for his no-nonsense demeanor and occasional major risk-taking in games.  Meanwhile, Bielema is Bielema; this is what he does.

If you hadn’t seen it, you would have never guessed that these were the two coaches who faced off in the conference championship game last season.  Oh wait, that’s the whole point, isn’t it?  Look at it from their perspective:  the Big Ten has just been divided in such a way that there are essentially three “powers” in each division.  Chances are that some combination of those teams (Michigan, Michigan State, and Nebraska vs. Ohio State, Penn State, and Wisconsin) will be featured in 90% of the Big Ten title games we witness.

So what does Dantonio see?  A Nebraska team that will still take a couple of years to adjust their new environment coached by a guy who is perpetually fighting the urge to FINISH his own players Mortal Kombat-style, and a Michigan team that had a nice turnaround under new coach Brady Hoke but still didn’t beat “Little Brother.”  The future was wide open.

And Bielema was probably just downright schoolgirl-giddy.  Both of his primary divisional nemeses had just lost their legendary head coaches to scandal.  It is still unlikely that Penn State will recover any time soon.  Things were going to be so easy for him: cruise through the Leaders, then tangle with Sparty every year for the BCS spot.

Then Urban Meyer showed up with a hungry staff looking to add a little spark to what was at the time a decent but not special recruiting class.  And then the kids started flipping like it was Cirque Du Soleil up in here.  If you think Penn State’s Bill O’Brien has been silent on the issue because he doesn’t care or is too preoccupied with the Patriots, you’re wrong.  He’s just trying to make it to Sunday without Meyer turning Gronkowski.

Finally, if there was any doubt as to the effect this would have on Meyer:

“You’re pissed because we went after a committed guy? Guess what, we got 9 guys who better go do it again. Do it a little harder next time.” – Urban Meyer

(h/t Brandon Castel @ theOzone.net)

U MAD BIEL-BRO?

National Signing Day: The Aftermath

With National Signing Day in the books, the finest football minds of America’s basements decided to pool their impressive brainpower and share their insights and thoughts of the day’s results. We decided to throw our $0.02 in as well.

As most of you almost certainly don’t know, I’m not one to follow recruiting all that much. I learned my lesson when I got all pumped about Erik Haw from NCAA Football ’04 or something and then never seemed to see the guy in a Buckeye uniform. Which was a damned shame because he was a BEAST in that game.

However, with a new staff taking over and going to work flipping recruits from Dantonio, Bielema, and whoever’s coaching Penn State (like it matters) it was hard to stay completely detached. When other Buckeye Bloggers started asking for thoughts, well, we couldn’t just let that opportunity pass.

  • Who are you most excited to see in the Scarlet and Gray?  – I’m curious to see how Bri’onte Dunn does in Urban’s offense. He’s a big kid and when I think of Urban’s usual backs I think of shifty little dudes like Demps or Harvin. Imagine Beanie in that system. Besides the players I’m pretty pumped about seeing Urban Meyer on the sidelines and – a little sentimentally – Fickell as well. Considering what he went through it’s amazing he stayed sane throughout the whole thing.
  • Who makes an immediate impact from the 2012 class?  Really any of the offensive linemen. Since the cupboard was pretty bare after last season that seems to be an optimal place for someone to step up. That or any of the beasts on the defensive line. B1G quarterbacks had better get used to the training room. I imagine a certain lineman who will be playing up North will spend a lot of time being tossed around come November.
  • Who do you wish that OSU hadn’t “missed” on? Honestly – and I may be the worst person to ask about this because I don’t follow recruiting as much as a lot of you clowns – I don’t have a single complaint. But it’s way too early in the process to start saying, “If only we’d gotten that guy” because none of these newbies have played a down of college football yet.

For other and potentially better perspectives from the Buckeye Bloggers Network:

 

Coach Meyer flips another recruit

Good News Penn State fans this one isn’t a loss for you guys as it appears Coach Meyer is done raiding your recruiting class. This flip is going to anger Bret Bielema and the Wisconsin Badger fans. After flipping 5 PSU recruits and 2 Notre Dame recruits Urban set his eyes on Wisconsin and one of their recruits.

Kyle Dodson is a 6’6″ 315 lbs 4 star OT recruit from Cleveland, Ohio. Dodson who always wanted to be a Buckeye but for whatever reason wasn’t recruited very much by the previous staff chose Wisconsin over OSU back in November but as soon as Coach Meyer took the HC job at OSU he started to recruit Dodson hard and got Dodson to visit OSU officially and unofficially. During the process Dodson also visited other schools and eventually choose OSU over Wisky, Michigan St., and Southern Cal. Dodson is a US Army All-American and is ranked as high as the 16th best OT prospect in the 2012 class. He has size and speed and a real nasty streak that will make him a good LT or RT but has the ability to play anywhere on the OL. This is a huge get for OSU as it helps fill a need and it takes a recruit away from a rival. Dodson becomes the 25th recruit in OSUs 2012 class.