Archives for August 2012

This is a Guest Post from Chris Jason, a possible future MotSaG blogger.

College football fans around the nation may think that there is no motivation for a team that cannot play in a bowl game this year, which is the case for your 2012 Ohio State Buckeyes. But look no further than the Buckeyes west coast rival, the USC Trojans, for a blueprint for this upcoming season. USC was supposed to suffer for a while (not as bad as Penn State will, but that is a topic for a different day) after getting hammered with a two year bowl ban, a reduction of scholarships by ten for the next three seasons, the vacating of wins from the 2004 and 2005 seasons and a disassociation with Reggie Bush. Sound familiar? Well, instead of falling off the map for a bit after a poor 2010 season (8-5) the Trojans fought back and played spoiler to their rivals throughout the 2011 season (10-2, AP #6). This is how the 2012 Buckeyes need to play this season.

USC finished #1 in the PAC12 South Division with a 7-2 record in the conference, a 4-1 record against the South Division, and outscored their division by a combined score of 185-115. This also included a 50-0 drubbing of LA rival UCLA, the same team that then represented the South division in the inaugural PAC12 title game (since USC was ineligible). The Bruins really earned that title game berth (/sarcasm).

What better message would it be to send to the rest of the Big Ten and the Leaders Division than to go into Camp Randall week 11 (with OSU and PSU out of contention) and play spoiler on what is likely to be the national stage? Wisconsin has basically been handed a berth to the Big Ten title game, but how would they react in the title game (or the following season) if the Buckeyes handed them a USC-UCLA type beating? Ohio State could open the doors for one of the underdogs of the Leaders Division, who in all honesty have no chance while Urban is at the helm for the foreseeable future (yes, we are looking at you Purdue and Illinois). A win over Wisconsin will add fuel to the Meyer-Bielema fire that is going to be atop of the Leaders Division for a while.

The only thing sweeter than ruining Wisconsin’s post season/offseason would be to dash the lofty dreams of that team up North. Coming off a Sugar Bowl win and the return of Shoelace for his senior season, (he didn’t really have a choice) the Maize and Blue are picked to win the Big Ten this season. In all honesty Buckeye fans, would there be ANYTHING better than knocking Michigan out of the Big Ten title game, a chance of playing for the Roses and dashing Robinson’s quest for a Heisman in one game? Absolutely not.

The Buckeyes could roll over this season, play .500 ball, feel sorry for themselves and look forward to next season. Or, they could finish in the top 10 of the AP poll, be ranked pre-season top 5 next season, have a Heisman favorite at quarterback and play spoiler to their biggest rivals like Southern Cal did.

Is that enough motivation for this season? I think Urban and the crew believes so.

-Chris Jason

We haven’t done an open thread in a LONG TIME. What is an open thread? A place to unload anything that’s on your mind on the eve of this, one of the last weekends before football arrives. The opening of camp is sort of like the Black Friday of the college football season. It means that wanna-be holiday (Thanksgiving or the off-season, take your pick) is over and some serious football is about to be had.

Also, like Black Friday, there will probably be some collateral damage as large people stampede towards the goal (Thirty dollar DVD players or touchdowns, take your pick).

Normally we would be awaiting the arrival pictures from stalwarts like Josh Winslow but with a new regime change comes changes. As in “Arrival” is no longer a “thing”. Some players have been practicing since the wee-hours of the morning. How many gassers have you done already? Well the Buckeyes have done all of them.

So with that, here’s a lunch time thread to discuss the anticipation of the upcoming season: what’s got you excited? What’s got you nervous? Will John Simon be arrested at the fifty yard line for assault with a deadly weapon (his arms) on Denard Robinson? Will Mark May finally spontaneously combust on air? Or will this be the year Reece Davis chokes him out?

This newest recruit is pretty unknown to most OSU fans and to those on twitter though he is known as the guy who claimed to be a Buckeye but wasn’t a Buckeye. His story is strange and sad but ended with a story book happy ending. About a month ago he announced on his twitter account that he was OSU bound and was the newest member of the 2013 class the only problem was Ohio State wasn’t ready to accept his commitment. Coach Meyer asked the young man to prove he really wanted his spot and to lose 20 pounds before his next visit to OSU for Friday Night Lights. He did exactly what they asked of him and his commitment was accepted to the relief of him and his family. Crisis averted here is the info on the 16th member of the OSU 2013 recruiting class.

Tim Gardner is a 6’5″ 320 lbs OLman from Indianapolis, IN. According to ESPN he is rated a 3 star Guard who is tough and strong and will bring a physicality to the OL. 247sports and Rivals both have him as a 3 star as well but Scout lists him as a 2 star. He doesn’t really fit the body style OSU has recruited for OL but has shown he is willing to put in the hard work needed to get where they want him.

In what can only be described as mind boggling a few months after ESPN unsuccessfully sued Ohio State in Ohio they have decided to do a weeks long filming of OSU football training camp. Many OSU fans will no doubt be confused and pulled in both directions as I know I am. Do I continue my personal boycott of the media company that claims to be the World Wide Leader? Do I consider this programming as a live game which is the only thing I watch on their network? I don’t know about the rest of you but I am too intrigued at seeing this much OSU football info before the season starts to not watch it. To each their own though I fully understand if many of you choose not to watch but if you do below you will find a complete schedule as well as the press release from OSU.

Here is the press release from OSU-

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State fans will get a close-up on the 2012 Ohio State Buckeyes and new head coach Urban Meyer when ESPN debuts a series of All-Access specials beginning August 14 on ESPNU and additional ESPN platforms. The network is coming to Columbus the first week of fall camp to shoot ESPN All-Access: Training Days Ohio State.

With extensive behind-the-scenes access to on- and off-field play, team meetings and campus facilities, ESPN cameras will introduce players and coaches as they work through pre-season training across six days. Viewers will see four, 30-minute specials on ESPNU (August 14-17), a five-part series across College Football Live (August 19-23) and a one-hour special on ESPN (August 22).

Previously, ESPN All-Access: Training Days has spotlighted the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Oklahoma Sooners’ programs.

ESPN All-Access: Ohio State Training Days – Schedule

If ESPN is not your thing there will be a 1 hour special on the Big Ten Network on Aug. 19th at 10 PM EST. The special will be the BTN behind the scenes show giving you an inside look at OSU football training camp as well.

Olympic Spirit

Things are about to get crazy here in Buckeye Land. Fall camp opens tomorrow and the (un)official start to the Urban Meyer Era begins. I say (un)official because he has been granted what I will call the Bill O’brien exemption. He has a year where literally nothing “counts”. Don’t tell that to John Simon and his fellow seniors, but Urban has the unusual and enviable position of having a year to work out kinks before things like conference championships and BCS bowls come into play.

And speaking of Coach, I could sit and read Urban Meyer’s quotes all day. But we don’t have time for all of them, so here are a few gems (we are not responsible for whatever arousal you may feel after reading these):

“Don’t ask me about the enthusiasm next Friday [when practice starts],” Meyer said. “There are 125 teams in the country, and I guarantee you, 125 of them will be enthusiastic the first and second day of practice. Ask me the 10th or 11th day. The 10th day is the second or third two-a-day. They’re tired, sore and maybe their girlfriend told them to go pound salt. I want to see who likes football then. Because nobody likes two-a-days, except maybe John Simon.”

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer. No love for Division 1-AA, coach?

“Braxton has to pass the ball for us to have a chance for success. We had a non-functional passing offense last year. We had one game [Illinois] when we completed one pass, and won the game,” “I’ll see when we start practice if Braxton Miller is a leader, if he has brought the receivers together,” Meyer said.

Also from the Plain Dealer. Can I also just say how much I LOVE that Meyer is taking ownership of this team’s “shortcomings” from last year? It’s like he knew what was in his future.

“That was an angry team,” said Meyer, who won the first of his two national crowns that night. “Every coach’s dream is to coach an angry team. You can stoke that. I’m hoping [this is] a very angry team.”

From the Dayton Daily News

“Braxton Miller has a lot of skill set that Tim (Tebow, the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner) didn’t have,” Meyer said. “Braxton Miller is dynamic. He’s the most dynamic athlete I’ve ever coached. “What I just said, people should go ‘woo!’ And really, he is — and by far.”

“If you have to say what our offense does, it’s we’re trying to (put stress on) the defensive ends. We want to take their best player, which is usually the defensive end, and we want him to have to put both feet in the ground and go like this (look side to side wondering where the play is headed). And when we’ve got extremely fast people and extremely strong people doing that …”

Be still, my beating heart. (via the Dispatch)

So you already know that the Bri’onte Dunn “thing” went down this weekend. Because we’re not in the blogging game to be the first (most of the time!) we decided to hold off on any posting until the story came out. And we’re glad we did because jumping to conclusions was happening quite a bit over the weekend and most were woefully off the mark. From “The Sky is Falling” to “Meyer has lost control” to “ESPN hates us” (okay that one didn’t happen). We know this music. Here, more or less is how things went down: “Ohio State Buckeyes’ running back Bri’onte Dunn charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia”. Later: “Online reports elsewhere Sunday incorrectly said Dunn was arrested.” (See where this is going?) “Despite the circumstances that led to the traffic stop, the police report does not indicate that police gave Dunn a sobriety check, nor that they took blood samples. Both are indications that Dunn did not appear to be under the influence and there was no probable cause for such checks.” and finally:

“After a complete review of police reports, supplemental narratives from officers, witness statements and an approximately 30-minute police cruiser video, Alliance City Law Director Andrew Zumbar has authorized the filing of disorderly conduct and seat belt violation charges against Ohio State freshman running back Bri’onte Dunn and his passenger. He will not face drug charges.”

– From Todd Porter at the Canton Repository

Todd Porter did strong work covering this story, but I’m not sure we can forgive him for this: “It is the biggest tackle Dunn has broken in his young Ohio State career.” /groan

And in the end, “Ohio State freshman running back Bri’onte Dunn reportedly passed a team-mandated drug test Tuesday — a day after the five-star prospect from Canton GlenOak learned he will not face drug charges related to his weekend traffic stop in Alliance.”

The END. (Hopefully)

I do want to mention something, though, about this situation. I heard this on Twitter, on the local sports talk radio, and even people whose opinion I actually value: this nonsense about hoping someone else would take the blame. Whether it was his friend (who was a girl) in the car with him, or his mother (which she actually did) or whatever, I don’t feel that’s right. You do the crime, son, you do the time. Am I alone thinking this?

Finally, in non-Buckeye News, there were reports yesterday that five men roughed up star Wisconsin running back Montee Ball near campus early yesterday, inflicting head injuries serious enough to send him to the hospital.

All I can picture is Mama Boucher asking if they “ever found the gorilla that done punched you in the eye.”

The search continues, mama.