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?

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.

The other match-up in the Semi-final Round of the 2011 Football Moment Bracket is a bittersweet one, matching up Braxton’s life imitates video games 81 yard run against the defensive Goal Line Stand against Penn State. This game has gone down the proverbial memory hole.

It’s no secret to you that Ryan Shazier had his coming-out party against Penn State, but I just love watching him play in this sequence of downs.

#2 Braxton’s 81 YD Run (Indiana)

VS.

#3 Ohio State’s Defensive Goal Line Stand against Penn State

[poll id=”25″]

Hi there. You may remember me formerly as el Kaiser’s grand idea of having a little bracket competition of all the great Football Moments of 2011. Man, that was a great idea, wasn’t it? Things got kind of busy for us, but he’s bringing it back just in time for the weekend! We’ve moved on to the third round when things should be getting real interesting.

Round Three: #1 Braxton’s TD Throw (Wisc) vs. #4 Evan Spencer’s One Handed Grab (Akron)

This is sort of a win-win situation for Braxton. He’s going to come away with at least some part of this victory. But you go ahead and vote for your favorite moment between these two.

And I’m not trying to bias anyone’s opinion, but I am STILL getting chills from that Wisconsin play.

#1 Braxton Miller’s Touchdown Throw against Wisconsin:

VS.

#4 Evan Spencer’s One Handed Grab (Akron)

[poll id=”24″]

Welcome to Thursdays with Slyvester (and el Kaiser). It’s sort of like Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays with Slyvester (and Fridays, too). Basically, it’s when I get bored at work, open Microsoft Communicator and begin to bother SYR with whatever is on my mind. Sometimes we talk Buckeyes, sometimes it’s video games and Reality TV, and sometimes we share.

This time, however, SYR was asked to provide a contribution to the Buckeye Blogging Network’s Spring Game Preview. (I had told them earlier I was a little too busy to help out (busted!)). So what follows is a stream of conscious between the two of us. (You may notice I have a touch of the ADD and tend to go off-topic). It’s a bit long, so hit the jump for the full conversation

[Read more…]

Football Moment Bracket (Round Two): #4 Evan Spencer’s One Handed Grab (Akron) vs. #5 Posey’s One Handed Catch (PSU)

We’ve finally made it to the last matchup of round two, and we’ve got two one handed grabs going at each other. These catches are pretty stark in contrast to each other. You have, on one hand, Evan Spencer’s grab. It was during the Akron game, at the beginning of the season when everything was new a fresh. A new QB, a new coach, a new season. We hoped that this was the start of something great. On the other hand, you have Posey’s catch during the Penn State game. The season was still hanging in the balance and this most important game was still in the balance. But Posey, fresh off his suspension, gives us a glimpse of what could (and should) have been.

#4 Evan Spencer’s One Handed Grab (Akron)

VS.

#5 Posey’s One Handed Catch (PSU)

[poll id=”23″]

Football Moment Bracket (Round Two): #3 Goal Line Stand (PSU) vs. #11 Shazier’s Punt Block (Wisc)

A defensive showdown (sort of!)!

#3 Ohio State’s Defensive Goal Line Stand against Penn State

VS.

#11 Shazier’s Punt Block (Wisc)

[poll id=”22″]

Football Moment Bracket (Round Two): #2 Braxton’s 81 YD Run (Indiana) vs. #10 Boom’s Long Run (Wisc)

This first upset of round one, Boom’s scamper against Wisconsin, goes up against Braxton Miller against Indiana in his, in the immortal words of Shang Tsung, “… now for a taste of things to come.”

#2 Braxton’s 81 YD Run (Indiana)

VS.

#10 Boom’s Long Run (Wisc)

[poll id=”21″]

We’re back with the 2011 Football Moment Bracket with the Round Two match-ups. This was going to go up earlier to coincide with the basketball tournament, but I had a surgery to prepare for and ran out of time. Now that I’m recovering, I have time to get the second round voting under way.

Although there were a couple upsets in the first round, most of the higher seeded moments have made it through

Round Two: #1 Braxton’s TD Throw (Wisc) vs. #8 Urban Meyer Announced as Head Coach

Our first round basically matches up two of the more popular moments from 2011. Urban Meyer’s announcement may have been underrated but now it goes up against the juggernaut that is Braxton Miller’s amazing time-wizard throw for the ages.

#1 Braxton Miller’s Touchdown Throw against Wisconsin:

VS.

#8 Urban Meyer Announced as Head Coach:

[poll id=”20″]