Three Yards and a Cloud of Links

Three Yards and a Cloud of Links is Men of the Scarlet and Gray’s semi-regular curated look at items that would interest Ohio State fans. 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 TYAACOL? Drop us a line at motsag@gmail.com or through our Contact Page.

IT’s ALL COMING TOGETHER NOW: Urban Meyer’s new staff is assembled, and according to infamous Maryland High School coach Rick Houchens, one of Urban Meyer’s new coaches, Larry Johnson, Sr., is “going to haunt the Big Ten“. This is coming from a HS coach who saw the effectiveness of Johnson’s recruiting efforts in the Maryland/DC area.

We’ll have more on Larry Johnson’s hiring coming up from our resident Penn State agitator, YNBA. Needless to say, his take is going to be unlike anything you’ve seen thus far.

Urban also tapped ex-Bielema assistant, Chris Ash, as a new co-defensive coordinator to bolster the under-performing Buckeye defense. Our own Ronnie took a look at Chris Ash’s defensive philosophies and he likes what he sees, especially what the Buckeyes will do against the pass:

In Ash’s Tampa Cover 2 he likes to align his corners 5 yards off of the receivers and jam or re-route the #1 receiver on both sides of the field, and then release the receiver in to the next zone. So throw a small celebration Buckeye fans, it will be rare to see the corners lined up 7-10 yards off of the receiver any more.

Oh, and while we’re at it, Cody Hawkins, the son of Colorado coach Dan Hawkins, accepted an offer as a graduate assistant at Ohio State. Perhaps not quite as exciting as the other two hires, but good football minds attract and it looks like Meyer has attracted another one.

NO MORE TURNOVERS, PLZ: Don’t make Thad Matta angry, please. You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.

Thad Matta said the thing that bothers him the most about the past two games is the careless turnovers.

— Rob Ogden (@Rob_Ogden) January 15, 2014

Turnovers are definitely one thing. And they’re a bad thing. But as Ari Wasserman points out, the Buckeyes are still looking for a consistent scorer:

The Buckeyes are still looking for a player to find a certain aggressiveness, someone who knows the biggest shot of the game belongs to them.

Matta was quoted as saying, “I would say, your Jareds and your Deshauns, those guys had a knack for somehow, someway of finding way, via the free-throw line or getting inside the defense, to score. We did lack that down the stretch of, ‘Hey, let me make the play.’ ”

Luckily it’s January. Still plenty of time to figure this out and watch someone take the reins.

NOT EXACTLY SURE HOW I FEEL ABOUT THIS: Ryan Shazier posted this picture to his Instagram, posing with [dry heave] well [coughing] you be the [retching]…

I can’t do this. Just look:

MISC SHTUFF: Speaking of Instagram…