An Ohio State Sports Blog
Wa-hoo! Greg Oden, Ohio State’s twenty-three-and-a-half-foot-tall center & the country’s best recruit, will finally get his chance to play today for Ohio State.
He will not start, but will “get some minutes on the floor,” says Coach Matta.
OSU plays Valparasio this afternoon. Game time is 4:00 ET.
No word yet as to whether or not Valparasio has decided to forfeit yet.
Image credit & copyright: Brian Bahr, Getty Images
Ohio State’s Anthony Gonzalez, Stan White, and James Laurinaitis were all named to the 2006 Academic All-American team, recognized for outstanding performance in the classroom.
Penn State’s Posluszny took top honors as Academic All-American of the Year (an honor once held by OSU’s own Craig Krenzel).
In fact, the Big Ten dominated the Academic All-American team, getting 11 places. More first-team players were selected from Ohio State, Penn State, Indiana, Iowa, and Wisconsin than from all other Division I-A conferences combined.
It’s one thing to root for a given team on the football field, but it’s always great to see the players who take college seriously getting recognized. Way to go, Big 10!
With last Saturday’s crushing defeat at the hands of USC, has it been determined that Brady Quinn is not the legend the media hyped him to be? A fine quarterback – perhaps. But is Quinn worthy of the number one pick in the NFL draft?
El Kaiser and I were talking about this yesterday. Where, exactly, does ND actually fit in as far as strength goes? They’re ranked 12th this week, but who really knows how tough the Irish are? They either play the best of the best or the cellar dwellers. There’s no team in the middle to “benchmark” them against.
For example, we can benchmark OSU and UM, because they have played each other. We have a hunch that LSU against Wisconsin would make a good game — even though they’ve never played each other — because of how they matched up against similar opponents. Same for Oklahoma and Auburn. Etc., etc.
But where does ND fit in? We know that ND’s past three losses have been to the top three teams in the country: Ohio State, UM, and USC, and they were completely blown out in those games. So clearly, the Irish are not among the country’s elite. We also know they’re better than most unranked teams, based on their performance against the weaklings in their schedule.
The same goes for Quinn. Mention Troy Smith’s name to a Quinn fan, and they’re quick to point out his statistics, some of which are slightly better than Smith’s. But what does that really tell us? Quinn’s “legendary” career at ND has been built on 400-500 passes a season against the service academies, where Smith’s legendary status has been built in his clutch performances during the biggest games.
Phillips at Rumors and Rants does a decent job of analyzing Brady Quinn’s career. Among other points, he writes:
In four years at the helm of Notre Dame’s offense, Brady Quinn is 29-18 as a starter. Not too bad huh? Well, when you take out Stanford, BYU and the service academies that record changes to 17-18. That’s legendary?
…which is an excellent point. If we were to use points like this to “benchmark” Quinn against Smith, consider that Smith is 25-2 as a starter, and one of those two losses was in a game that he technically started, but did not finish. Furthermore, Smith is 10-1 against ranked opponents, 3-0 against his rival Michigan, and 1-0 in bowl games; all numbers to which Quinn could only dream of aspiring.
So what say you? Who would you rather see in a Cleveland Browns uniform: Brady Quinn or Troy Smith?
Sigh… Yet another shutout for the Jackets, their sixth this year (they only had five all of last season). Lots of frustrating things about this game… but Pascal Leclaire wasn’t one of them. The man was an absolute animal between the pipes, especially through the early second period when the Jackets were getting outshot three to one. Only one of 33 shots got past him, and that was from — who else? — Naslund.
The refs taking away a goal from the Jackets didn’t help, either. I don’t know what Toronto saw, it was plainly clear even in my small bedroom television that the puck crossed the goal line before Luongo swatted it away. Luongo got the shutout, but to this writer he was outplayed by Leclaire.
I saw moments of great effort from the lines last night, but they weren’t able to string it together for an entire game. Luongo had a great game, but there were two or three opportunities where the hole was there but the forwards couldn’t find it, or couldn’t make the pass, or WOULDN’T make the pass (still not playing as a team), or whiffed the puck, etc., etc. Too many painful turnovers. I was hoping Anson Carter would find the net last night, just to silence the boos from the Vancouver crowd every time he took the ice.
Still, I think this team is playing with better effort than it was a month ago, so I guess it’s admirable that some sort of improvement is occurring. It hasn’t translated to the scoreboard yet, but I’m optimistic that isn’t too far off.
We know that MotSaG has been remiss in covering the CBJ as well as we would have liked to. It’s just that recently there’s been this other team in Ohio that has taken up most of our blogging space.
It was announced yesterday that Captain Kangaroo Ken Hitchcock has been hired as the new coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Hitch replaces interim coach Agnew, who replaced long-time coach Gerard Gallant last week.
<SARCASM>However, at least Doug MacLean is still with the organization.</SARCASM>
Hitch will coach his first game Friday night against the Philadelphia Flyers, the organization that fired him earlier this season.
I think it’s a step in the right direction. Hitchock is known as a hard-nosed disciplinarian, and if there’s one thing the Jackets need, it’s a kick in the pants. On Wednesday, Anson Carter was interviewed by Columbus sports radio station 1460 TheFan. Carter was asked about the pathetic 2006 season, and was unusually honest. Paraphrasing, he said that he understands the need for a coaching change, but holding one or two people accountable isn’t going to fix things. “The entire team needs to be held accountable,” said Carter. “There’s too many players missing practices on a regular basis.”
He didn’t elaborate on which Jackets were skipping practice *coughZherdevcough*, but if that’s true, then hopefully Hitch can set some new expectations. He’s won 408 of 750 games, including a stretch with the Stars that earned the 1999 Stanley Cup.
I was watching last night’s game (ugh, leading by a goal with a two man advantage, and they still managed to find a way to lose) and Hitchcock was interviewed during the second period. He said all the things that Jackets fans needed to hear, about his goal to build winning lines first, and his philosophy of how the forward lines play for the defensemen, and the defensemen play for the goalie. Seemed to me that we might expect to see some major shakeups on the lines & pairings.
So a new era begins. I think it might be too late to make the playoffs this year, but we’ll take any improvement we can get. I wouldn’t say they’ve hit rock-bottom yet, but they’re close.
Less than 24 hours after the “real” national title game, sportswriters are already clamoring for an OSU/UM rematch in Glendale. Clearly, they’re just upset that UM lost.
Some Michigan players are hoping for it, too. A classless Mike Hart said:
“It hurts. Whenever you don’t beat Ohio State it hurts. I’ve got one year left and I’m going to get it this year.
“We knew we could run all day on that defense. It ain’t nothing special.”
There’s no need to mock UM’s ‘vaunted’ defense. The numbers speak for themselves: Ohio State’s O-line totally owned the line of scrimmage. But let’s put Hart’s comments in perspective… Michigan was given every opportunity in the world to win this game, and failed to do it. Every break in the game went Michigan’s way, every bounce of the ball and every questionable penalty. Consider just a few opportunities given to UM:
In short, 24 of Michigan’s points came from the breaks that fell its way (including up to 17 points from breaks given to them from the officiating crew alone).
So here you are, the number two team in the country, given every single advantage you could possibly have. You have the intangible motivation from losing a legend in your program the day before, giving your players something to rally around. All the balls bounce your way. All the calls are going your way. You enjoy a +3 turnover margin. Your offense is firing on all cylinders, performing better than it has all year. And you have the best defense in the country, in fact, the best defense in the history of your school’s fine tradition.
Yet you still get soundly beaten in every statistical category.
Some analysts are saying that “the game was closer than the score showed.” I disagree. I think the “game wasn’t anywhere near as close as the score showed.” At no time was Michigan ever in control of the game. Again, subtract anywhere from 17 to 24 points from UM’s 39-point total, and that’s actually how well Michigan “played” on Saturday.
But enough about the game. Why doesn’t UM deserve a do-over?
It’s unfair to OSU. Just because the media doesn’t like the outcome of Saturday’s game, doesn’t mean they get to whine and stamp their feet until they get what they want. And, as Keith at Buckeye Commentary eloquently points out, OSU doesn’t need to, nor should be requested to, validate its victory against Michigan in the BCS title game.
For both teams, the title was played for on Saturday, November 18th. The winner earned the right to advance. Does it seem fair that the loser should earn that same right?
Besides, how could anyone think it is fair to leapfrog UM, who didn’t even win its conference, over a one-loss Pac10 or SEC conference champion? Especially when the Big 10 isn’t, shall we say, “anything to write home about” this year.
Congratulations to OSU and Michigan on a great season. Fans of both teams should wish OSU well in Glendale, and UM well in Pasadena.
Pictures credit & copyright: Jim Davidson at the O-Zone.
Crable and Burgess pwned by OSU line for Pittman’s winning TD in 2005:
Today’s “Memories” comes complete with bonus pic goodness; no explanation required:
This week, CSTV.com will be featuring a daily “debate” between rival OSU and UM bloggers. Make sure to check it out each day. There should be a healthy variation in the topics, from classic Xs and Os debates to abstract ones that focus on the rivalry.
We’ve been asked to contribute material for later this week, so watch this space for more details.
Today’s discussion: Today’s topic features our post, which answers the question, “Who wins: Ohio State O or Michigan D?” (Interesting side note, but originally the question was “Who wins: Ohio State O or Rutgers D”. Was CSTV being snarky, prescient, or did they just make a mistake? You decide). Anyway, we fellow bloggers presented our arguments (many of which you can find in this post) for why OSU’s offense should be able to give the business to Michigan’s D. The counterpoint comes from Dave of Maize and Brew. While Dave’s description of some of the Michigan personnel may be a bit … hyperbolic … he does a good job of looking at matchups. He mentions using “Pat White” as a fullback, but I think he means “Stan White Jr,” whom he refers to later. Overall, minus the prediction of a Michigan victory, Dave makes some valid points.
Advantage: Do we even have to ask?
Sunday’s discussion: Which program has the better game day atmosphere? Keith from Buckeye Commentary and David from Michigan Against the World participate.
Advantage: Keith
Monday’s discussion: Which stadium is better: the Big House or the Horseshoe?. Ryan from Pfef’s Sports Blog and the guys (I assume?) at M-Zone square off.
Advantage: Push. Both were good pieces, but the M-Zone had a little more meat to it. But since we toe the company line, we’ll call it a Push.
Tuesday’s discussion: Who wins: Michigan O or Ohio State D? Sean from The 614 and Kenny Chung at the Westsider Rider duke it out. I’m not sure what strength of schedule Kenny is looking at but Michigans is not #2 (I take that back, I noticed on Kenny’s site that he is using the NCAA SoS). I believe that honor belongs to Southern Cal.
Wednesday’s discussion: Which is better, Michigan’s Fight Song, or Ohio State’s dotting of the ‘i?’. Sean from the 614 and Frank from UM Tailgate square off.
Advantage: Sean. Frank loses points by talking about UM and Notre Dame in the first sentence. He then gets negative bazillion points for confusing “dotting the i” with “performing script Ohio” during the climax of his argument, claiming that UM invented “dotting the i.” Hey Frank: Just because the UM band once spelled out “OHIO” on the field in 1932 does not mean that UM invented the dotting of the ‘i.’ (Lots of bands were writing opponents’ names on the field.) It was OSU that invented “Script Ohio” and turned it into a march. And it was OSU that invented “dotting the ‘i'” at the crescendo of the song.
