Want to write for MotSaG?

Neither the sportsMonkey nor I will be able to make it to the Spring Game tomorrow, much to our chagrin, but we’d really like to have someone on the scene that could give us some first hand thoughts and remarks about what goes on during the game.

If you’ve ever dreamed of writing for Men of the Scarlet and Gray (and let’s be honest — who hasn’t?) then shoot us an email to motsag@gmail.com and let us know. I know it’s short notice, but we’d love to have some immediate feedback to post from the sidelines.

Also, if you’ve got pictures to share from the Spring Game, send them here, too. We’d love to see them!

Tell us something we didn’t already know

First, observe:

Second, get chills all over again.

Third, read this.

Finally, smile knowingly and nod.

Beanie goes last in Spring Game draft

With the first pick in the 2008 Scarlet and Gray spring game draft Alex Boone and the Scarlet team selected sophomore Thad Gibson at Leo.

You can see the rest of the draft, along with the Scarlet and Gray line-ups here.

In a ceremonial move, echoing the Christian philosophy of “and the First shall be Last and the Last shall win Heisman Trophies”, Chris “Beanie” Wells was awarded the distinction of the last pick, going to the Gray team.

He will not, however, be allowed to play, in the interest of the safety of everyone on the Scarlet defense.

Monday Musings are swamped

Both the Monkey and I work in the same office, in an underground government facility deep within the bowels of the Marble Cliff Quarry. We are swamped with more work than either of us can handle. The stress is getting to us. I had to talk the Monkey off the ledge, telling he had so much to live for, that jumping wasn’t worth it. He would have only fell four inches (we are underground, afterall) but the kid has so much going for him. It would be a shame to see him throw it all away. He’s doing better now, but this is our way of saying that the blogging lightness will continue for a little while. You’d think we could blog from our Crays, but the powers-that-be kind of frown on that kind of online activity. So you get scatter-shot blogging for the time being. Apologies in advance.

We heard through the grapevine that Vernon Gholston was due to appear at a local Buckeye Corner this past weekend (wasn’t Easter a couple weeks ago?). Did anyone make it? I wanted to go, but I didn’t want my face to melt from the glory.

Toht

Hope everyone is having a good week. Mike Adams isn’t having one, but I’m optimistic. He’ll be pushing people around soon enough, making room for Beanie and his Stiff Arm of Tackling Fail. On his way to his Heisman.

On the blogging side of things, I recently upgraded to WordPress 2.5, which is a really nice improvement to the admin side of things for the blog. There is also a built-in image gallery, so I’ll be testing that out with all our pictures of our favorite #50. Look for that soon.

Our contact page is currently under repair, so if you want to get in touch with us, don’t hesistate to drop us a line at motsag@gmail.com!

LOLBucks

LOL

I tease because I love.

Congratulations, Buckeyes!

Speaking of chafing…

OSU FootballThat sound you hear is the sound of a million groans as Jason Bourne Justin Boren considers transferring Ohio State.

(On a side note, and not to jinx ourselves, but we Buckeye Fans are setting ourselves up for a major Schadenfreude-laden fall if (and that’s a mighty big freaking IF) things don’t go our way with Michigan this year.

Monday Musings are late again

CavaliersBlog/site newsOSU FootballOSU LogoIndians… For which it apologizes.

Who says the NIT isn’t exciting? I was at the Quaker Steak last night with my bro-in-law, having my way with a basket of chicken wings with the UMass/Syracuse game on in the background. The BIL commented that certainly UMass couldn’t come back from 20 down, right? I mentioned there were ten minutes left, anything can happen, but probably not. We watched in awe as UMass did the pretty much impossible.

It was a lot more enjoyable to watch than Duke embarrass itself last week.

Let’s hope tonight’s game is just as exciting.

Sometimes I wish I could be adopted in the Tressel family. Just kidding mom and dad!

One of my favorite stories about Tressel is when he explained to his kids what it means to take the OSU job, and said, “when dad lost games at Youngstown State, eighty thousand people would say he was an idiot. Once I’m at Ohio State and I lose a game, eight hundred thousand people would say I’m was an idiot.” I think he underestimated.

No one likes the Knicks. And no one likes desperate fans. This is just sad.

For your OSU football fix, Sunday Morning Quarterback preps you for a season of smack talk from fans of teams from other conferences. No matter how irrational or ignorant we all know this kind of talk is, be prepared to listen to it all season long.

It is going to chafe so many people’s hides when the Buckeyes are in the BCS title game yet again. I can’t wait.

I don’t talk much about the Indians here, but I couldn’t pass this up. When The Dugout did their thing with the Indians, I almost died laughing. This is probably only funny to me, but man are those guys good.

Pronky_Kong: then we could talk about how my dog and I can do the Fastball Special like Wolverine and Colossus and how Casey Blake is totally screwed

That, my friends, is absolutely pure genius.

Finally, your new blogs are: Our Honor Defend and Dotting The ā€œIā€

Go Buckeyes! Beat the Flyers.

Monday Musings are sad

FootballOSU FootballThe Buckeyes aren’t in the tournament? That makes MM muy sad.

But that’s just the tip of the old iceberg. What else is happening in the world of sports in the Ohio?

Anything you can do, we can do better: There’s a brief article in the FreeP about Ohio State (and Minnesota) sending some of its defensive position coaches down to South Florida to get some pointers on stopping the Rodriguez Spread Express. The USF Bulls shut it down two years in a row, they must be doing something right. Unfortunately, it looks like they’re rather tight-lipped:

Burnham said, though, “There are a few subtle things I keep to myself. We don’t give away all our secrets.”

Punks.

Terrel Pryor watch: The blogs were abuzz late last week with the announcement that Pryor would be making his decision this week, as he had narrowed his choices down to two schools. I think there’s a 98.43% chance he’s a Buckeye. 11W are a little concerned about him throwing around the word “just” as in “I may just play basketball” as in “I may just go to Memphis.”

Nah, that ain’t happening.

I’m majoring in Quarterbacking: I mentioned yesterday about the academic shenanigans going on up north. Part two of the story is up.

Roll the Bones: Don’t forget about joining us in our Yahoo Tournament Pick’em.

New blogs: Jim Tressel’s Head (They’re on top of the preemptive smack talk going down at USC) and Cleveland Frowns, who gets a big old tip-of-the-hat for a most excellent blog name.

And finally, because it’s been a while, it’s your Vernon Gholston shot for the week:

Vernon Gholston

MotSaG’s Pick’em as ya see’em

I know it’s not as fun to play the brackets without our beloved Buckeyes, but that won’t stop us from holding the second annual Yahoo Pick’em Tournament contest!

Due to circumstances outside our control, last year’s prize was not redeemed. I guess that means we’ll just have an even bigger prize now.

If your interested in participating, email us at motsag@gmail.com or use the contact form and let us know you’re interested. We’ll send the invite along straight away.

Where there’s smoke…

Football…there most likely is a psychology professor puffing on his pipe, teaching Shawn Crable the finer points of his Franklin Day Planner.

It appears that the layers of the onion that is Michigan Athletic department are being pulled back, and it’s causing people to cry. Part one of a four part series has been published today in the Ann Arbor News about certain *ahem* anomalies with respect to student athletes, their academic choices and opportunities made available to said athletes. The first article is concerned with John Hagen, a psychology professor and independent study leader to the stars.

Far be it from me, a fan of the team that once counted a starting wide receiver sporting a 0.0 GPA among its ranks, to call foul on any other program, but it appears that things have been cleaned up considerably since Tressel arrived. That, and the fact that special attention and opportunities are given to student athletes nationwide, whether it be at a powerhouse like Michigan or not. Pot, kettle, you’ve met, I’m sure. That being said, there are still some “uh, what?!” moments reading this article. A couple that stuck out most to me:

Athletes have enrolled in independent studies with Hagen several weeks beyond the normal deadline to add classes, which is 21 days after a semester begins. For example, in the winter 2005 semester that began Jan. 5 and ended April 19, two football players enrolled in independent studies with Hagen on March 18.

and

The News analyzed transcripts from 29 athletes who are either currently enrolled at Michigan, or left the school within the past three years. Twenty one of the athletes took 32 graded courses from Hagen – 25 independent study courses and seven standard classes. They averaged a grade of 3.62 in the professor’s courses, compared to an overall grade point average of 2.57 in the athletes’ other classes. No athlete received a grade worse than a B-minus from Hagen.

Maybe this Hagen character grades on a gentle curve and he really is worried about teaching some of these athletes life lessons. It’s possible. I took an engineering orientation class my first year at OSU. They taught us life lessons, how to study, how to use a day planner, stuff like that. It was also graded pass/fail, was worth one credit hour and had no bearing on our GPA.

This is going to get uglier before it gets better.

Mike over at BSD is all over this like Buckeye Leaves on Beanie’s helmet.