In Case You Missed It

In case you missed it is Men of the Scarlet and Gray’s semi-weekly look at items that would interest the casual and hard-core Ohio State fan, be they news items, interesting blog posts or funny memes you probably saw on Reddit last week. It’s all here and it’s all for you. Have a tip that should be included in the next ICYMI? Send it our way!

With the first week in the bag we have nourished ourselves on the first offering of Meyer-ball. Throwing the ball downfield in the fourth quarter? That’s the Ohio State football equivalent of foie gras and Beluga caviar, a delicacy so fine it is only broken out during really special occasions. Let’s hope we never get tired of it.

POLITICS We’ll start things out with a quick Public Service Announcement: Students — make sure your professors are not participate in any class room electioneering! Also, please note: it is perfectly within your right as an American Citizen to write-in Urban Meyer for President of the Universe. It’s almost your civic duty at this point.

WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY This article from Stanford University, in my estimation, has some serious ramifications. I suggest you go read the whole thing but here’s the gist: Stanford researchers have discovered that if they can cool an athletes body quickly, they potentially don’t suffer from muscle fatigue usually associated with serious exercise.

The glove seemed to nearly erase his muscle fatigue; after multiple rounds, cooling allowed him to do just as many pull-ups as he did the first time around. So the researchers started cooling him after every other set of pull-ups.

“Then in the next six weeks he went from doing 180 pull-ups total to over 620,” said Heller. “That was a rate of physical performance improvement that was just unprecedented.”

The researchers applied the cooling method to other types of exercise – bench press, running, cycling. In every case, rates of gain in recovery were dramatic, without any evidence of the body being damaged by overwork – hence the “better than steroids” claim.

If you watched the ESPNU All-Access show (I believe in the first episode) you probably noticed everyone getting into ice baths at the end of practice. I assume that was for this very purpose — to use the articles words to “reset the muscle’s state of fatigue.” Now let’s take this a step further. Instead of the ice bath, you have a couple of these “cooling gloves” on the sidelines. Someone like, say muscle head John Simon, comes off the field after a stout three-and-out performance. The coaches know the quick-strike offense is probably going to score in the next couple of minutes, giving the defense a short rest. Simon gets the quick-cool-down and BOOM, back on the field like the first play of the game.

So yeah, I just wanted to bring that to everyone’s attention. There still seem like there are some problematic issues with this, but the article says the Stanford football team is using them already. Why not us?

MOTIVATION Hopefully you saw this earlier, but Jason pointed it out to me this afternoon: Ohio State (and ostensibly Penn State but LOL) can still be named the divisional champs of the Leaders Division. Yes, they will still be shut out of the Big Ten Championship Game but they will be in the record books as the Divisional Champs. It also means whatever team (read: Wisconsin) will go to the Championship Game as runner-up (or runner-runner up if by some act of God that Penn State finishes second in the division). This should definitely serve as added Juice for the senior Buckeyes to go out as champions.

MOTIVATION, PART DEUX The Buckeye offensive line is chomping at the bit for another shot from the one-yard line to redeem from their failure last week at the end of the first half. Doug Lesmerises from the Plain Dealer quotes OSU assistant coach Tim Hinton:

“Every offensive lineman has to get a little bit more loaded in their stance and come off the ball with the mentality that’s there no way we’re being denied. If we look at the whole game, that’s the number one thing we’re more disappointed in. … In some other games, you can’t miss that opportunity.”

THAT WAS A WOW MOMENT Urban Meyer called Devin Smith’s catch a “wow moment”. He also hopes that it will be the springboard for Devin’s progression as an athlete:

“He needed that,” Meyer said. “We needed that. I’m happy for him. Every great athlete at some point has that moment where he becomes average to good, good to much better than that.

“I don’t know where he is in that progression. It’s certainly not to great yet. But maybe that got him to being a really good player for us because he has to be. He’s got the God-given skills to being a really good player.”

Urban’s compliments are the worse!

IPADS FOR EVERYONE! Kyle Rowland over at Eleventy Warriorlings has a lengthy article about the Digital First Program that “will outfit every student-athlete” with an Apple iPad. When I first heard about the program, I thought it was all well and good but it seemed gimmicky to me. I didn’t see the upside, but Kyle’s article does a good job of spelling out what good they’re being used for, including:

Athletic Director Gene Smith told Eleven Warriors there is distance learning and team travel programming provided to act as a classroom away from home. Already, freshman volleyball player Katie Mitchell said iPads have been “a huge help on the road.”

Scholastics!

AND FINALLY Poor Denard. Things certainly didn’t go his way. Maybe these would cheer him up.