Archives for January 2015

National Championship Celebration Coverage

Some of us here at the MotSaG staff are packing up and heading down to the Shoe for the Celebration of the Undisputed National Champions today. There is a huge hope that we can meet up and do a semi podcast for you all and do some live streaming of the event. I believe the chat is enabled so if you want to talk with us live we can interact or you can hit us up on the twitter. The members that I believe will be down there will be myself (@smsommers84), Chip Minnich (@ChipMinnich), and Nate (@NateMotSaG). The event and some of the details are here. I will be doing some testing and maybe do a walk across the river to the Shoe depending on where I park at so feel free to tune in and let me know how things are going.

Hope to meet and see many MotSaG fans there and for those that can’t make it I am really hoping this will turn out and you will be able to enjoy. The event is also going to be on BTN just in case something goes wrong.

National Championship Celebration Details

OSU’s Greatest Victory In 2014? Denialism

As promised in my last post, I am devoting time and effort to effectively and loudly sing the praises of the 2014 Ohio State Buckeyes, the undisputed national champions of college football. I especially take great joy in writing the words “undisputed”, as I have long been a critic of the traditional NCAA method of voting on a national champion after the college football bowl season has concluded. For the first time in Division 1 college football history, or FBS level football history, or however one may wish to classify it, the national champion was decided by the results on the field. The way it should be. The way it should have always been.

As I reflect upon the many victories the Buckeyes earned on the field, I truly cannot say one was more important than the other. After all, it was because of each victory earned on the field that made the next victory that much more important. One could follow the string of games as they played out, one after the other. The Big Ten Championship victory over Wisconsin led to The Sugar Bowl opportunity versus Alabama in the playoffs. The Sugar Bowl victory over Alabama led to The National Championship against Oregon.

Of course, after the confetti had fallen, and the pictures of Ohio State Head Coach Urban Meyer holding the national championship trophy had been taken, one final victory had been secured over an opponent that had long tormented Ohio State’s coaches, players, and fans…

Denialism.

Denialism had taken a very vocal and persistent approach towards Ohio State football since the fateful evening of January 8, 2007. Aided by individuals within the national media such as Paul Finebaum, Pat Forde, David Pollack, Mark May, Gary Danielson, Clay Travis, Tony Barnhart, and Tom Luginbill, Ohio State fans were continually forced to defend not only the performance of the Buckeyes, but the entire Big Ten for a period of eight years. Eight years of being told the Buckeyes were not worthy of national championship contention. Eight years of refusal to contemplate Ohio State as being one of the best football programs in the country.

January 1, 2015 happened to confront Denialism in The Sugar Bowl. And even after Ohio State handed Alabama a 42-35 defeat that should not have been that close, Denialism was not going to go down without a fight…

To give credit, Mark Schlabach of ESPN, a long-time critic, offered a mea culpa. Lo and behold how surprised I was to read this on Twitter…

Mark May has seemingly gone into hiding after Ohio State won the national championship. I believe this Buckeye fan is asking a legitimate question…

Even after Ohio State had defeated Alabama, essentially in their back yard, and had defeated Oregon in The National Championship, Clay Travis was bound and determined to go down with the ship on this sad devotion to Denialism…

I have to agree with the following tweet wholeheartedly…

And this…

Has Denialism been completely eliminated? Sadly, I must state that Denialism is still alive and well. After all, ESPN has an entire off-season to prepare to discuss how the 2014 season must have been an aberration, and how the mighty SEC will come back with a vengeance for the 2015 season. In the meantime, I will content myself to all of the members of the Denialism camp with some wisdom, courtesy of Eddie Murphy, circa 1987…

Phil Steele Names Urban Meyer 2014 College Coach of the Year

Phil Steele, the well-known college football guru, awarded Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer the 2014 Phil Steele College Coach of the Year Award. It’s the fourth year he has handed out the award and a full-page will be dedicated on it in his upcoming preview magazine for the 2015 college football season (click here for a preview of it). The runner-up for the award was TCU head coach Gary Patterson. Here’s Steele’s reason for picking Meyer as his coach of the year winner:

In his third year as head coach at The Ohio State University, Meyer led the Buckeyes
to their eighth National Championship and second since 1970. Meyer also is the
only FBS head coach to post a perfect regular season conference record over the last
3 seasons (24-0).

The 2014 season started without one of the Heisman front-runners in QB Braxton
Miller then OSU lost the 2014 FWAA freshman first team All-American QB JT Barrett.
Meyer and his staff prepared QB Cardale Jones for one of the games finest 3 game
performances winning the Big 10 Championship, the Sugar Bowl semi-Final and the
first ever College Football Playoff.

Meyer not only has a tremendous impact when tutoring student athletes, but coaches
as well. With the departure of co-OC Tom Herman to Houston the growing total of
assistants which he has coached that have become a FBS or FCS head coach now
stands at 10. The group includes 6 coaches who earned bowl berths with their teams
last year and one which took his team to the FCS playoffs.

Congratulations to Coach Meyer on winning Phil Steele’s 2014 College Coach of the Year Award.

What I Learned From the College Football Playoff

As a longtime playoff proponent/BCS hater, it’s tempting to do a victory lap right now. It would be easy to go through each year of the BCS era and question how often a different team would have won the title in a four-team playoff system. It would be easy to point to the various experts who have confirmed that this year’s BCS match up would have been Alabama vs. Florida State, the two teams who lost in the playoff semi-finals. It would be easy to beat the dead horse of the BCS for every time the system got it wrong, calling every championship won in the era out as questionable.

And if I had written this last week, that’s what I would have done.

But while I still think the BCS was the wrong way to determine a champion and that the current playoff is infinitely better, I hesitate to call the results of the BCS “wrong,” because that would have to mean that there was another, alternate result that was “right.” That mindset–that we can objectively assess which team of any pair is better, without actually seeing them play–is exactly what was wrong with the BCS to begin with.

Half of the BCS title games were won by the #1-ranked team and half by the #2-ranked team. Even though it’s a little surprising that it worked out so perfectly, we should have expected it to be fairly even. After all, the rankings weren’t (nor could they have been) based on anything concrete; they were simply an amalgamation of various opinions (yes, computer rankings are opinions just like human polls are) and opinions are a crap shoot of reliability.

This isn’t intended as a shot against the BCS rankings; they did as well as they probably could have. I expect the playoff to achieve a similar type of balance, with the 3- and 4-seeds winning about as often as the 1’s and 2’s do. I like the committee system’s ability to introduce discussion and divergent thinking into the mix, but at the end of the day, we’re still talking about a bunch of opinions.

And that’s all we’ll ever be talking about, no matter what form the playoff eventually takes. Besides the possibility of automatic bids for conference champions, there will always be some element of subjectivity involved. In fact, the assertion that every conference champion deserves an automatic bid (something I believe) is subjective in itself. The truth is no team deserves a national championship, because that’s not the point.

There is no “best” team. Ever. There is no right answer that the post-season must conclude on so as to be considered legitimate. If Oregon had beaten Ohio State last Monday night, that would have been acceptable; their championship would have been legit. The same is true if Alabama or Florida State had won. Or if Baylor or TCU would have made the playoff in our place and won.

So what I learned from the college football playoff is that the BCS-era titles are no less legitimate or more questionable than titles won going forward. They are nothing more (or less) than the result of the system in place at the time, just like every title has always been and always will be.

Update On Braxton Miller Status

As anyone who is alive should know the rumors of Braxton Miller are long and outrageous. Every possible scenario has been rumored to happen from going pro to transferring to any number of other schools as an instate qualifier graduate player. We learned today that most of that is false for sure with one simple tweet.

As Tim May is reporting Braxton is in school this semester and is taking classes. What does that mean?

It means the odds of him transferring to another school are zilch because he would have done that now and not enrolled in classes if he was.

It means he wont be going to the 2015 normal NFL Draft because why enroll in school he already has his degree.

It however leaves one other option other than returning next season. It allows him to train and get treatment with the team for the next 6 months and prepare his body for the NFL Supplemental draft. This option is viable but in the end I still believe he will finish his career next season with OSU and then go to the draft in 2016.

*UPDATE*

There is some question if he would be eligible for the supplemental draft. It seems to be for undergraduates with a specific reason they couldnt declare for normal draft. I.E. kicked off the team after the draft but before the summer. This doesn’t change much for my opinion because it has always been Miller will return to OSU and that hasn’t changed.

How The Buckeye Commits Fared: Final Rivals 250

TOP 250

Jerome Baker- #50 and 4 star
Mike Weber- #59 and 4 star
Justin Hilliard- #67 and 4 star
Jashon Cornell- #123 and 4 star
Nick Conner- #128 and 4 star
Eric Glover-Williams- #147 and 4 star
Matthew Burrell Jr- #155 and 4 star
Carlton Davis- #169 and 4 star
Dre’Mont Jones- #170 and 4 star
Kevin Feder- #190 and 4 star

FOUR STARS

Jamel Dean
Grant Schmidt
Torrance Gibson

THREE STARS

Denzel Ward
Joshua Norwood
AJ Alexander
Alex Stump
Robert Landers
Mirko Jurkovic
Joe Burrow
Branden Bowen
Joshua Alabi
Rashod Berry

TWO STARS

Liam McCullough

NFL Mock Draft Part 1 (Revised)

While we still wait for the Super Bowl to be played and the official draft order to be set. Here is my revised version of the Top 10 picks in this years NFL Draft. Since Mel Kiper has released his Mock Draft, I will include his picks instead of McShay’s because McShay still has not presented a Mock Draft with the updated Draft order.

1. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Leonard Williams, DT/DE, USC

The biggest need for the Bucs is more than likely QB. With that said let me convince you why Williams will be the pick. First let me talk about why Mariota is not the pick here anymore. Did you see the performance in the national championship game? There were several key throws missed by Mariota. Also durability to me became a concern after Bosa planted Mariota into the ground and Mariota stayed down. While he did come back, NFL linemen are bigger than Bosa so if he gets planted like that can he be counted on play to play? Let’s ignore Winston’s off the field issues because we know those are issues. With that said, look at his performance this season. While Winston did have a little less talent surrounded him this season. He had a high rate of turning the ball this season and there were several games this season inferior teams were able to hang around with Florida State because of Winston’s lack of execution. Now Williams did have a bit of an injury plagued season that should not turn the Bucs away from Williams. Williams can play inside and outside on the line. The Bucs were a middle of the road run defense and a horrendous pass defense. If Lovie Smith wants to keep playing his Tampa Two and play zone, then you got to get pressure on the QB ASAP because in every zone there is a hole and teams found that hole all day against the Bucs.

My Original Pick: Marcus Mariota

Mel Kiper: Jameis Winston

2. Tennessee Titans: Amari Cooper, WR, Alabama

I firmly believe the Titans want to upgrade their defensive line. However it seems that Titans have faith in Mettenberger. While Mettenberger did not light the world on fire, let me ask you a question. Can you name one wide receiver for the Titans? I have said this several times; in order to know what you have in a QB you have got to surround him with talent. Cooper will be a huge upgrade to Tennessee, also he will allow Tennessee to put Kendall Wright into the slot where if you look at the stats he has been an excellent player. With Justin Hunter’s deep threat ability, and Delanie Walker’s ability this could become a solid offense.

My Original Pick: Leonard Williams

Mel Kiper: Marcus Mariota

3. Jacksonville Jaguars: Randy Gregory. OLB/DE, Nebraska

Coach Bradley will find a way to get Gregory on the field. Jacksonville is in a position they just need to acquire talent and Gregory is a great place to start.

My Original Pick: Randy Gregory

Mel Kiper: Leonard Williams

4. Oakland Raiders: Shane Ray. DE/OLB, Missouri

The Raiders just hired Del Rio, a defensive mind. The Raiders are in the same position as Jacksonville they just need to acquire talent. That is why I see the Raiders taking Ray. With the depth at WR the Raiders can afford to wait til the second round.

My Original Pick: Amari Cooper

Mel Kiper: Amari Cooper

5. Washington Redskins: Jameis Winston, QB, Florida State

Washington will continue their circus. The owner will focus only about jersey sales and keep his team relevant in anyway he can because they cannot seem to do that on the field. They are in need of a quarterback and to their luck the best player talent wise happens to be a quarterback.

My Original Pick: Shane Ray

Mel Kiper: Randy Gregory

6. New York Jets: Marcus Mariota, QB, Oregon

New head coach, which usually means a new franchise quarterback. Mariota will be a great fit because the Jets have been known as a disaster the past few years. Which is why I think they fired Ryan, hired a less popular name Todd Bowles. Mariota’s personality will keep the Jets out of the papers for the wrong reasons. I think he will be disciplined enough to learn a playbook and be a serviceable NFL starting QB.

My Original Pick: Devin Funchess

Mel Kiper: Shane Ray

7. Chicago Bears: Landon Collins, S, Alabama

The Bears lack talent at the Safety position. Collins can not only be a ball hawk and a play maker, but he is willing to come up and make tackles in the running game. The Bears D has been an embarrassment for a few years now and drafting Fuller in the first round last year this defense will start to be solid once again.

My Original Pick (Bears Picking at 9): Landon Collins

Mel Kiper: Landon Collins

8. Atlanta Falcons: Dante Fowler Jr, OLB/DE, Florida

As mentioned by a comment made in my original draft. The person was not happy I had the Falcons drafting a OT. With Dan Quinn looking to be the next head coach of the Falcons and his experience in Seattle. I look the Falcons be built from the D-Line and Fowler will be a great place to start.

My Original Pick: Brandon Scherff

Mel Kiper: Dante Fowler Jr.

9. New York Giants: Brandon Scherff, OT/G, Iowa

The Giants really struggled this season to not only protect Manning, but run the ball. Scherff is an excellent run blocker. While he may start at RT, I think he true position is a guard. I believe that he will dominate at this position.

My Original Pick: Vic Beasley

Mel Kiper: Brandon Scherff

10. St. Louis Rams: Ereck Flowers, OT, University of Miami (FL)

The Rams have a good defense, but a terrible offense. Questions are QB cannot be answered here because the talent level is not worth a top 10 pick after Winston and Mariota. With Greg Robinson moving to LT, the next best thing for the Rams is to partner him with another massive tackle. Whoever plays QB in 2016 should be well protected and have a good running game to rely on. A guy you will hear a lot about is CJ Clemmings. He has only played one year at OT, came to Pittsburgh as a DL. I feel that The Rams need a guy who is more experienced on the OL and a who is going to bring result now.

Original Pic (Panthers Pick): Cedric Ogbuehi

Mel Kiper: C.J Clemmings

Former Defensive End to Transfer

John Owning of footballinsiders.com is reporting former Buckeye defensive end Noah Spence will be transferring to Eastern Kentucky.

A source close to the situation has told Football Insiders that former Ohio State defensive end Noah Spence will transfer to Eastern Kentucky for his senior season.

There were many like myself wondering what Noah was going to do especially after seeing he didn’t declare for the NFL Draft.

Walk Down Memory Lane

Junior defensive end Noah Spence was suppose to be a big part of the defensive line this season after he served his final two game suspension. He was suspended three games by the Big Then Conference after the Michigan State loss. When it came time for Noah to join his scarlet and gray teammates this unfortunately happened. Spence never got to join his teammates for their magic run this season. Ohio State stuck with Spence and helped him try to win his appeal to rejoin the team but the Big Ten ruled that he failed 2 drug tests and was banned from the league.

Noah’s final Buckeye Stats

Spence’s final numbers while wearing the Buckeye uniform was 62 tackles (31 solo and 31 assists), 15 tackles for loss, 8.5 sacks, 3 passes defended, and 1 forced fumble in only two seasons.

Final Thought

Ohio State did a great thing by standing by this young kid and helping him get the help he needed. Going to Eastern Kentucky was a shock only for the thought he was going to be a definite NFL Draft pick this year. Nice to see the choice that Noah Spence has made for the reasons of showing he has something to prove and he should earn a degree so no matter what happens on the gridiron he will come out a winner. Keep your head up young man go tear up that Ohio Valley conference and know that once a Buckeye always a Buckeye. Godspeed and good luck.

How Did Buckeye Commits Fare: Final 247Sports Top247

TOP 247

Justin Hilliard- #20 and 5 star
Jerome Baker- #61 and 4 star
Dre”Mont Jones- #68 and 4 star
Torrance Gibson- #74 and 4 star
Matthew Burrell- #93 and 4 star
Jashon Cornell- #98 and 4 star
Eric Glover-Williams #102 and 4 star
Mike Weber- #131 and 4 star
Denzel Ward- #140 and 4 star
Joshua Norwood- #206 and 4 star
Joe Burrow- #210 and 4 star
Carlton Davis- #214 and 4 star

FOUR STARS

Nick Conner
Alex Stump
AJ Alexander

THREE STARS

Robert Landers
Mirko Jurkovic
Branden Bowen
Rashod Berry
Joshua Alabi
Kevin Feder
Grant Schmidt
Jamel Dean

TWO STARS

Liam McCullough