Archives for May 2013

In Case You Missed It is Men of the Scarlet and Gray’s semi-regular curated look at items that would interest the casual and hard-core Ohio State fan. These include news items, interesting blog posts and the occasional meme you’ve probably already seen. It’s all here and it’s all for you. Have a tip that should be included in the next ICYMI? Drop us a line at motsag@gmail.com or through our Contact Page. Today’s ICYMI is brought to you by Adam (@Bucks0331 on Twitter) whom we hope to add to our writing staff here at MotSaG. Be nice, this is his first post.

FIRST EVER FOR BUCKEYES. Thanks to a Junior from Slovenia, the Buckeyes now have a Men’s Tennis Champion. Blaz Rola beat Virginia’s Jarmere Jenkins in straight sets:

Rola won on a disputed match point. His forehand landed near the line and was called in. Jenkins jumped up and down and pointed at a scuff mark where he said the ball landed.

What is more impressing about Blaz winning the National Title is he only lost one time and was ranked outside of the Top 10.

The artice on SI.com also notes that, “After the match, Rola conceded the ball appeared to have been out.”

In or out, Blaz can now say he is the first ever at The Ohio State University.

BUCKEYES NEW UNIFORMS. There are some rumors “unconfirmed” going around the Buckeyes could be getting some new uniforms:

I have been told by people at Nike that they will feature multiple new and different uniform combinations this football season. They will have as many different combinations as Oregon.

If I had a vote in this, I would say, “No Thanks.” Yes, Oregon makes it work, but I like tradition a lot more and that is what the Buckeyes have.

The article goes on to say more about the Nike video that was created:

Assistant Director of Video Services at The Ohio State University Athletic Department, Russell Hoeflich. According to the video description, Hoeflich created the “to be used at tOSU’s 2013 presentation for Nike in Seattle.”

Yes, new jerseys would bring in a lot of money but you can’t tell me the Bucks are hurting in jersey sales. This is not the SEC where we dress up for football game, this is the B1G where we wear jerseys.

NO RUN SUPPORT MEANS EARLY EXIT. Thanks to the Buckeyes pitching staff the Buckeyes still had a chance to make a run, but the offense couldn’t put up enough:

“We’re incredibly disappointed in the results of today and the results of the tournament and the results of the last two weeks,” said Head Coach Greg Beals.

The Buckeyes were trying to make the NCAA Tournament for this first time since 2009. That dream fell short once again on Monday when the field was announced.

The article on The O-Zone had this as well.

“I still have a very bad taste in my mouth and the back of my head is spinning for the future.”

The Bucks will need to find some offense if they plan to make a charge at the NCAA Tournament in 2014. Pitching can only take you so far and if you don’t believe me, just look at the Phillies.

BUCKS MAKE THE LIST. The Buckeyes put together a very nice class for 2013, but something was missing.

When Urban Meyer signed just two true offensive linemen to Ohio State’s 2013 class last February, he knew that recruiting big guys to play up front would be his top priority during the 2014 recruiting cycle.

With only two in the class of 2013, the Bucks have already received two commitments for the 2014 class, but there is still work to be done.

The Bleacher Report also had this to say:

One of those targets—4-star offensive tackle Jermaine Eluemunor—announced his top six schools Monday afternoon, and the Buckeyes made the cut. Eluemunor made the announcement via Twitter

To land Jermaine the Buckeyes will have to beat out Bama, Arkansas, Ole Miss, USC and UCLA. No easy task but in Urban we trust.

This would be a huge get for the Bucks if they land Jermaine look for him to be a starter on the O-Line in 2014.

AND FINALLY. (el Kaiser here) We are still pitting the top football moments from the 2012 season against each other to pick the best defensive and offensive moment of the season, ultimately to pick the greatest single Football Moment. We are down to the final eight. You can vote for your favorite Offensive Moment here and your favorite Defensive Moment here.

Things are really starting to heat up now that summer is upon us and kids will be visiting and camps will be held. Ohio State recruiting is on track to land some really big commitments but to make sure they get the summer off to a great start they made sure they shored up the Ohio borders and landed one of the top players in the state today at a position of great need and a top notch national prospect. I imagine we will be seeing quite a few more of these posts before the season kicks off in 100 days.

DANTE BOOKER JR

Dante Booker announced he was committed to Ohio State today via his twitter account.

Officially commited to THE Ohio State University #BuckeyeNation

— Dante Booker Jr. (@D_Book47) May 23, 2013

Dante Booker Jr. is a 6’4″ 220 lbs 4 star LineBacker from Akron, Ohio. Booker is one of the top LB prospects in the country and was chased by schools like Notre Dame, TTUN, Penn State, and Nebraska. Dante brings a real nastiness to the outside LB spot combined with his top notch speed and power he could move to a hybrid of DE/LB at OSU depending on his body growth. Rivals ranks him a 4 star and the 108th best prospect in the country. Scout ranks him a 4 star and the no. 9 OLB ion the country. 247sports ranks him a 4 star and the no. 84 prospect in the country. ESPN ranks him a 4 star and the no 8 OLB in the country. Below you can see his highlight reel from his JR season.

The most iconic defensive plays from 2012 have been pitted against each other (there’s still time to vote!) and now it’s the offensive moments that take center stage.

The #1 vs. #4 match-up is a tale of two moments. Kenny G’s valiant comeback against Purdue is probably going to be the defining moment of the “broken” 2012 season. It had everything including the late game heroics of an unsung fan favorite, coming in cool like “I GOT THIS” and then Kenny GOT THAT. Going against the most spine-tingling moment was Carlos Hyde throwing the “Feed Me” gesture that Denard Robinson threw in our face during the ill-fated 2011 Game right back at him. It also had that “I GOT THIS” feeling, with Hyde telling the sidelines “FEED ME” while letting the fans know that he truly understood the gravity of The Game.

#1 Kenny Guiton’s last drive [Purdue] vs. #4 Hyde feeding himself [UM]

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And then of course there is The Catch, 2012 version. This play just speaks for itself. (Sorry, Braxton’s Goaline TD)

#2 Devin Smith TD catch [Miami] vs. #3 Braxton’s goaline TD [PSU]

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We’ve made it to the Elite Eight. Four Offensive plays and four Defensive/Special Teams plays remain.

These are the defensive matchups, and they are doosies. Good luck picking your favorites:

#1 Shazier’s goal line hit [Wisconsin] vs. #4 Shazier’s INT TD [PSU]

Shazier going up against himself was not initially intended by the selection commitee, but it’s fitting that only one Shazier can make it to the Final Four. Which will it be? The game-saving goal line stand/caused fumble against the Wisconsin Badgers or the interception of the Moxiest Ginger against the hated Nittany Lions?

[poll id=”57″]

And

#2 Kenny G’s 2-point conversion [Purdue] vs. #3 Boren hit on Garnder [UM]

This is almost unfair to both Kenny G and Zach Boren. Kenny saved the perfect 2012 season and Zach encapsulated everything we love about The Game. Just sit back and enjoy them both.

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Things have been slow on the recruiting trail the past few months to say the least. There have been lots of offers given out all over the country and lots of interest shown by some of the best recruits in the country. Until today’s bizarre happenings though there wasn’t much to report. This newest recruit though has had OSU as his leader for months and many thought he was going to announce to OSU last year but he postponed. Then this morning he announced he was ready to commit but nearly every recruiting expert from every service had a different take on who his final 2 teams were. Apparently the communication issue was solved and today he did in fact become OSUs commitment #8 for the 2014 class.

LONNIE JOHNSON

Lonnie Johnson announced his commitment via his Twitter account today.

Im happy to say that I will be committing to THE OHIO STATE University I would like to thank all my family and friends and my coaches I love

— Lonnie Johnson 11 (@lonniejohnson20) May 12, 2013

Lonnie Johnson is a 6’3″ 190 lbs 4 star WR/Safety from Gary, Indiana. Lonnie is a running back/wide receiver/safety at his HS but most project him to play the Wide Receiver position at the next level. His size will suggest he will play in the outside and combined with his speed he will surely be looked upon to become a down the field deep threat. He will have to work on his route running and stamina but all those are coachable aspects that with his rawness can lead to success at the next level. 247sports ranks him a 4 star and the no 29 safety prospect in the country. Rivals ranks him a 3 star. Scout ranks him a 3 star and the 47th best WR prospect in the country. ESPN ranks him a 4 star and the 5th best recruit in Indiana. Below you can see his highlights.

Our friends at Football Study Hall do a great job with advanced statistics and I just wanted to share some of the Buckeye related statistics that the guys over there have found. Today we will be looking at last year’s ball carriers (anyone who carried the ball last year) and see how many yards they gained after the line “did their job.” These are the type of plays that separate a great ball carrier from a good one.

This is going to look and sound like a new language so here are some definitions:

Highlight Yards: The portion of a given run that is credit only to the running back; after a certain number of yards, the line has done its job, and most of the rest of the run will be determined by the running back himself. For more information, start here. An important note, however: a player’s per-carry highlight yardage is now calculated as follows: Highlight Yards divided by Opportunities. In this case, Opportunities mean only the carries in which the offensive line “did its job,” i.e. carries that went at least five yards. With a different denominator, then, it is possible for a player’s Highlight Yards per carry to be much higher than his overall yards per carry.

Block Success Rate: Highlight Opportunities divided by total rushes. Basically, how many times did the offensive line get the ball carrier to the second level (five yards).

Adj. POE: POE stands for “Points Over Expected.” The idea for POE is simple: It compares a runner’s production to the production that would have been expected of an average back given the same carries against the same opponents. A runner with, say, a plus-6.0 Adj. POE produced the equivalent of a touchdown more value than the average FBS running back would have with the same carries.For more information on Adj. POE, start here.

Using the above definitions, lets see how the Buckeye ball carriers performed last season. The far column on the right “Rk” takes all of the ball carriers in the nation (roughly 1,500 players) and ranks them versus each other based on Adj. POE. Overall, we are looking at how effective the ball carrier is after the first 5 yards. It’s the difference between a negative to 5 yard gain and a back breaking play in a big game.

A few things stand out here…

• Braxton Miller gains a ton of highlight yards and he is also helped by his offensive line (%50 block success rate). He mostly runs outside of the tackles, but without good blocking by the wide receivers and the line’s ability to get him past the first 5 yards he does not have a chance to make plays in the open field. Miller is using his offensive line to gain positive yardage, then he is making defensive backs miss in the open field. It sounds obvious but it takes a special talent like Miller to make the best athletes on the defensive side of the ball look foolish in the secondary.
• He was playing through injury last year but I expected Jordan Hall to have a higher Adj. POE. He never got into a good rhythm after missing the preseason and I do expect him to be better next year in the open field, using his speed and his new position.
• I thought Carlos Hyde would have lower highlight yardage due to his “power back” persona. Not only is Hyde gaining the tough yards but he is also doing a good job gaining those extra yards once he gets to the second level.
• We saw a few glimpses of Rod Smith last year and the statistics show he should get some more carries this season. If Hall or Hyde go down, Smith has shown big play capabilities and he could flourish in Meyer’s offense.