As my wife and I were sitting at Voo Doo BBQ in the Garden District of New Orleans enjoying a couple beers and some bad-ass pulled pork, beef brisket and all the trimmings, we realized that Ohio State fans would be out numbered by at least 4 to 1 and it was probably worse than that.

This was a problem for one reason and one reason alone. The Arkansas Razorback “pig sooie” call they repeated before the game and during the game. It was done in restaurants, bathrooms, ATM machines, Bourbon Street, trollies, inside the stadium, outside the stadium….EVERYWHERE!

Here is a sample:

The above video, coupled with the fact that Arkansas fans were taking so much pride in the SEC’s 9-0 record vs. Ohio State in bowl games had us Buckeye fans craving hog blood. For the most part Ohio State fans were very quiet. It may have been do to being intimidated by larger numbers or the threat of yet another loss to an SEC football team. I think it was more of a quiet confidence. I think most Buckeye fans knew this team was different.

Our hatred of Arkansas and their fans only grew Monday night at Mr. B’s Bistro. As I’m knee deep in a bowl of piping hot gumbo ya-ya our table is passed by countless Arkansas fans. Some had painted faces, others had feather boas and all of them were doing “pig sooie.”

After dinner we headed to Bourbon Street and encountered more of the same. We started asking the hog fans what the meaning of the call was. Here are some of the responses we received:

(imagine these with very thick southern drawls and chewing tobacco leaking from their mouths)

“I don’t know”

“It’s just terdition”

“It’s cawl’n the hawgs….I don’t know”

“F__k Ohio State”

Their explanations of “pig sooie” left us more confused and irritated than before.

Bourbon Street was great for people watching and that was really it. The smell of vomit and urine wafted through the air. I felt like I was back in old Shea Stadium again or at least in El Kaiser’s cubicle. It was awful. We trekked over to Frenchmen Street where the heart of New Orleans music lives. Unreal music and people, we had a great time and the entire area was lacking pig sooie shouting hillbillies. Here is my father-in-law representing The Ohio State….what a trooper I tell ya!

After a cramped taxi ride back to our hotel it was an un-restful night of sleeping at our hotel. Morning was upon us as we shook off the New Orleans flu and went on our grave yard tour. This was a cool tour and gave us a ton of insight into the culture of New Orleans, we had a great tour guide. Below is a picture of a section of the grave yard.

We also met the voodoo priestess of New Orleans and wow. She came out to greet us and babbled on and on for about 15 minutes stringing together the most ridiculous incoherent babble I’ve ever heard since watching a recent Gary Busey interview. I was just happy she didn’t do evil on me.

After a much needed nap, 2 bloody mary’s, more self righteous Arkansas fans and a long walk to the stadium we were at the Super Dome. Game time!

The stadium was PACKED with Arkansas fans. There were only a few pockets of Ohio State fans  and we were drowned out by excited Hog fans. I honestly think they thought this game was a layup for them, simply because they are part of the SEC. Their confidence was unreal.

First half thoughts:

The Ohio State offense employed a no huddle hurry up offense, something they have done here and there with great success in the regular season. The Buckeye offense and Terrelle Pryor were almost unstoppable. There were many times the Razorback defense was out of position, winded and totally confused. Anytime Reid Fragel goes for over 40 on a simple jumper pass you know the defense has real problems. On the other side of the ball Arkansas also was able to move the ball, but thanks to their WR’s dropping balls and great pressure by the OSU front 4 the Hogs could only muster 10 first half points, to OSU’s 28. This one looked like a blowout. Hog nation got real quiet real quick. At the half Pryor had 255 yards total offense and was well on his way to another huge bowl performance.

Second half thoughts:

Yuck.

The safety was literally the worst call I’ve ever seen in a bowl game. I’ve never once seen a play like that called that way EVER. I was waiting for a booth review, sure it would be overturned….but nothing.

The unstoppable no huddle offense that was so successful in the first half was put on the shelf do to terrible field position the rest of the way. To me the most valuable Razorback was their punter as he continued pinning OSU in horrible field position all game long. The OSU offense only managed 3 points and had to rely on it’s defense to hold of the hard charging bacon offense.

The Razorback offense gutted out 14 pts on a touchdown, a two point conversion and two field goals in the second half. And the blocked punt heard around the world set them up for the go ahead score with just over a minute left. Ohio State went to a familiar play call on defense What looks familiar in these two videos:

Arkansas and Ohio State fans went through an emotional minefield during the Sugar Bowl, especially the last minute of the game. I was drained after the punt block and in shock after the INT. All I could think about was the following:

1. The drive home the next day would be MUCH better with the Buckeye win

2. We were DONE hearing that stupid cheer Arkansas did

It was nice to finally get the SEC monkey off OSU’s back. The MVP could have gone to Dane or Cam but OSU doesn’t win that game without Terrelle Pryor. He made huge plays the entire night, with his arm and legs and deserved another BCS bowl MVP trophy.

It was a great ride this year and I can’t wait until it starts all over again.

Fickell, one of the best coordinators in the country could be taking his talents to South Beach (not really, but I couldn’t resist)

This would be a huge loss for the Buckeye’s as Fickell is one of their best coaches as well as one of their best recruiters.

Stay tuned…

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/firstup/2010/12/21/report-miami-considering-ohio-state-nebraska-assistants/

BcS

Part 2-What The Hell Is It And How Does It “Work”

What is the BCS? The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) is a system that was created in 1998 to ensure that the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in college football would always play each other for the national championship. It was also created to stop college football from having seasons with multiple national champions. The funny thing is, it hasn’t even done that. Please see USC/LSU 2003.

Hmmm…that sounds pretty awesome. Finally #1 and #2 will actually play for the title. It’s about time, right? Okay, how does the BCS ensure that the two best teams play each other?

It’s a three part system:

1. 1/3 of the ranking is made up from the Harris Poll. The Harris poll replaced the AP poll after the AP poll thought it was ridiculous to pick teams using polls to play a title game. The first poll will be released October 10, then weekly through December 5. A team’s score in the Harris poll will be divided by 2,825, which is the maximum number of points any team can receive if all 113 voting members rank the same team as Number 1. Example: 2,825 / 2,825 = 1.0. If a team receives a total of 113 voting points, an average of 25th place, their BCS quotient of this component would be .04. (1.0 / 25 = 0.04).

Sounds pretty legit, right. I mean, they use math and everything. The only problem is many of the voters in the Harris poll are former players or administrators, they have families and businesses and other interests. In other words, they don’t have time to watch 25 teams let alone 60 or so a week. How the hell can they possibly know who is the best team out there? And don’t forget…those former players and admins probably don’t have any bias…right? Here is an actual exchange between a Harris Poll voter and a columnist from the Oklahoman in November 2008:

Writer: Who is at the top of your poll?

Voter: Oh, I don’t know. Doesn’t really matter.

Writer: Really?

Voter: I think Alabama and Penn State will probably play for the national championship.

Writer: You do?

Voter: They’re the only undefeated teams, aren’t they?

Writer: Uh, actually, Penn State had a loss.

Voter: Oh, well…Those Big Ten teams have a lot of votes.

Keep in mind, this idiot is helping to determine who the best team in college football is, and I’m sure he isn’t alone.

2. 1/3 of the ranking is made up from the Coaches poll. A team’s score in the USA Today poll will be divided by 1,475, which is the maximum number of points any team can receive if all 59 voting members rank the same team as Number 1. Example: 1,475 / 1,475 = 1.0. If a team receives a total of 59 voting points, an average of 25th place, their BCS quotient of this component would be .04. (1.0 / 25 = 0.04).

Cool! More numbers and formulas and stuff. Must be totally legit! There is no way coaches would ever show any bias with these rankings, right? With all the time and effort that goes into preparing their own teams for battle, how on earth do they have time to watch all the other games going on during their own games and decide who the beset team is?

“I don’t know why we vote,” South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier said. “I guess we vote because college football is still without a playoff system. I really believe most coaches do not know a whole lot about the other teams.” Again, this makes up for 33.3% of the rankings.

3. 1/3 of the rankings comes from computer rankings, 6 to be accurate.

The computer rankings percentage is calculated by dropping the highest and lowest ranking for each team and then dividing the remaining total by 100, the maximum possible points. (Example: the 6 rankers have Team A ranked 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, and 4. Take away the 2 and 4 which leaves an average of 3rd place. The BCS quotient of this component would be 0.92. (23 / 25 = 0.92).

Peter Wolfe
Wes Colley
Sagarin
Seattle Times
Richard Billingsley
Kenneth Massey

These guys make up the 6 polls. Some of them actually post more accurate versions of their polls online.

Okay, so there should be no bias here, I mean they are computers. It’s not like Johnny 5 is calling the shots or even that stupid ass robot from Space Camp. So what could be wrong with the computer rankings?

Well  for one, none of the models use margin of victory. A 73-0 win is the same as a 7-3 win. So it’s a good thing political correctness has leached into a friggin computer, isn’t it? I mean, why input important data like how dominant a team is. Only 1 of the 6 computer rankings are made public and that means the other 5 open to corruption. Kenneth Massey said “it would take a lot of will power to refuse that, to be sure,” when asked if he would accept a million dollar bribe to doctor his standings. And this is the guy heading up 1/6th of the CPU rankings?

So we are also using a watered down and possibly corrupt computer ranking system that has been changed three times since it started.

There isn’t a single aspect of the BCS makes me believe that they get it right every year. Last year 5 teams finished the regular season undefeated. Bias coaches, biased and incompetent former players and other dumb humans  and flawed computer systems picked the two teams that competed for the championship of the sport we all love.

So how does it work? It’s pretty simple…It doesn’t.

BcS

Part 1-The Regular Season

We are told that the beauty of the BCS is that the regular season IS the playoff, every game matters and two worthy teams are left standing at the end of the year to do battle on our beloved gridiron to settle once and for all who is the best damn college football team in the land.

This is a lie.

Ask yourself this question; is the college football regular season REALLY that great? Like most of you I’m a diehard Buckeye fan, and while you are pondering the question also take time to think about this:

Here is the Ohio State schedule and results from the month of September:

While you look at this, keep in mind the cartel behind the BCS has fed us for years that the BCS ensures that the college football regular season will be the most exciting sport in the country. If that is true then why is it the Ohio State 3^rd and 4^th string QB’s are seeing action in 3 out of OSU’s first 4 games? Is it really that exciting to watch Ohio State pummel East Lollipop Tech to the point that the 6th string running back is getting carries?

For me, it’s not.

I’ve sat in those stands and watched the crowd glaze over with boredom as Joe Bauserman hands off to Carlos Hyde while the Buckeyes are up by 40. Never in my life have I heard 105,000 people so quiet.

The reason Ohio State and every other big dog on the block schedules patsies is because of the BCS. See, it’s actually had the opposite effect than was being advertised. Most teams with the exception of USC and Ohio State and a few others have avoided one another during the regular season. Instead they schedule nothing but lesser schools from lesser conferences to ensure a shot at either a BCS title game or BCS bowl game.

The BCS does not guarantee the college football regular season remains exciting. It guarantees it to be mostly boring, highly predictable and for the most part far too average. Yes, of course there are amazing games throughout the season, but it could be so much better. Imagine a world where Texas isn’t afraid to play Alabama or Michigan is up for a battle against USC. This sport would have a far better regular season and far less drubbings if the BCS just went away in favor of a playoff. What if I told you that Ohio State could have a OOC schedule of Texas, Miami, Arizona and LSU and still have a shot at a national title even if they dropped 1 or 2 of those games? What set of games would you rather see:

OSU vs:

A. Marshall, Miami, Ohio, Eastern Michigan

or

OSU vs:

B. Texas, Miami, Arizona and LSU

If you answered A then you are a giant homer who most likely really isn’t that big of a fan of the game in the first place. Probably a closet bandwagon fan as well.

If you answered B then you recognize what COULD be. Imagine getting a SEC team to come up north for a change. Win or lose it would be a hell of a lot more exciting than watching a totally outmatched opponent collect a check.

Pretty good for a project QB.

FB: Pryor Named Davey O’Brien Award Semifinalist

Junior leads the Big Ten with 18 touchdown passes; ranks 11 in NCAA in passer efficiency

 

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State junior quarterback Terrelle Pryor is one of 16 semifinalists for the 2010 Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award, which takes into consideration quarterback skills, academics, character, leadership and sportsmanship.

Pryor leads a Buckeye offense that is averaging a Big Ten-best 40.8 points per game and is one of six active FBS quarterbacks with at least 1,000 career rushing yards and 5,000 passing yards. He leads all Big Ten quarterbacks with 18 touchdown passes and ranks 11^th in the nation in passer efficiency with a 162.8 rating. Pryor has completed 66 percent of his passes for 1,775 yards and has thrown at least one touchdown pass in all but one game. He also has rushed for 408 yards and three touchdowns, which include three 100-yard rushing performances.

The Jeannette, Pa., native had his best all-around game against No. 12 Miami (FL) in September when he threw for 233 yards and a score and rushed for a career-high 113 yards and another score in the 36-24 win. In the win over Ohio, Pryor set a school-record with 16 consecutive completions against the Bobcats, the second most in Big Ten history. Pryor would go on to set another school record the very next game against Eastern Michigan by accounting for six touchdowns in a single game: four passing, one rushing and one receiving.

Against Indiana Oct. 9, Pryor threw for a career-high 334 yards and three touchdowns and is coming off a 270-yard, three touchdown passing performance in the win against Purdue in just three quarters of play – a game in which the Buckeyes racked up 415 total yards in the opening half.

Pryor joins three other Big Ten quarterbacks on the list: Michigan State’s Kirk Cousins, Michigan’s Denard Robinson and Iowa’s Ricky Stanzi.

2010 Davey O’Brien Semifinalists

Matt Barkley         SO           USC                         Pac-10

Kirk Cousins          JR            Michigan State      Big Ten

Andy Dalton          SR            TCU                         MWC

Blaine Gabbert     JR            Missouri                 Big 12

Robert Griffin III   SO           Baylor                     Big 12

Landry Jones         SO           Oklahoma              Big 12

Colin Kaepernick SR            Nevada                   WAC

Andrew Luck        JR            Stanford                 Pac-10

Ryan Mallett          JR            Arkansas                SEC

Taylor Martinez    FR            Nebraska               Big 12

Kellen Moore       JR            Boise State            WAC

Cam Newton         JR            Auburn                 SEC

Terrelle Pryor       JR            Ohio State             Big Ten

Denard Robinson SO           Michigan                Big Ten

Ricky Stanzi           SR            Iowa                        Big Ten

Darron Thomas     SO           Oregon                 Pac-10



Not only was Ohio State bitter about last weeks defeat at the hands of the Badgers, they were obviously still mildly upset with the Boilermakers over last years embarrassing loss in West Lafayette.

Ohio State opened up a 42 point half time lead on Purdue and put it into shutdown mode from there and shutout the Boilermakers 49-0.

Lead in the first half by Boom Herron and Terrelle Pryor Ohio State’s offense collected 415 yards of total offense and 23 first downs in the first two frames.

Positives:

• Boom Herron ran angry and is settling nicely into the starting tailback spot for OSU
• Defensive shutout, first one of the season. A great way to comeback after a disappointing performance by the defense vs. Wisconsin.
• Terrelle Pryor’s ho-hum 270 yards passing and 3 td’s….in the first half. He will end up breaking every passing record at Ohio State.
• No major injuries. Looked like everyone that mattered stayed healthy.
• No special teams letdown. Kickoff coverage was fairly good.
• The return of Brandon Saine! He ran very well today.
• Offensive line dominated on a consistent basis.

Negatives:

• Michigan State won.
• Still a lack of a pass rush. Does this DL miss Thaddeus Gibson that much?

Not too much to complain about today. Time to have another good week of practice and put together a dominating road performance next week in Minnesota, head into the bye week and bring on Penn State, Iowa and Michigan for the home stretch.

Gotta love Big Ten football!

As Purdue players walk by and pet the brown, pulsating and warm to the touch mole of Drew Brees they realize that not even the California shaped blob that gloms onto the badly balding quarterbacks head can give them enough luck to beat the Buckeyes this week.

Oh by the way Drew, here is a bit of advice for you good sir:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em-NI-b6tIE&feature=related

Ohio State has been busy this week picking themselves off the canvas after getting beaten up in Madison, Wisconsin last week. The injury riddled defense got a reality check last week as did the rest of the team.

Last year against this very same Purdue team, the Buckeyes let their guard down and let one get away from them. After having their tail between their legs the Buckeyes ran the table winning the Big Ten and the Rose Bowl. How will the Buckeyes answer the bell this time? Purdue is Ohio State’s first test.

Terrelle Pryor will have to regroup as he is what makes the Buckeye offense tick. He struggled with his accuracy and will look to rectify that come Saturday. But the Wisconsin defense will be a blueprint on how to stop Terrelle Pryor. For the life of me I can’t fathom why more teams haven’t played OSU like this more. For some reason most of the teams that have lined up to play defense vs. OSU have sold out to take away the run, time and time again. It lead to Pryor being a 10 QB in the nation statistically. Wisconsin took that away, but in the process OSU and Boom were able to run the ball with some consistent success from the tailback position. Something Ohio State has struggled with this year.

Look for Purdue to mimic what the Badgers did last week and take away Pryor’s passing game by dropping 7 and rushing 4. OSU will counter with Boom and Pryor getting more carries along with Dane making catches while getting thoroughly concussed in the process. Last week was a step back for the Buckeye passing game. No completions to any tightends or a 3^rd WR.

Purdue is hurting a bit themselves with their starting QB, RB and #1 WR all out for the year. They have been relying on freshman Robert Henry who has transformed Purdue’s pass happy spread attack to more of a read option zone look to take advantage of his athletic ability. Last week Henry was the Big Ten freshman of the week with his 4 TD’s vs. Minnesota.

This is an odd game to call simply because no one knows how OSU will react to the loss last week. This game was supposed to be a “revenge” game for last year, but now Purdue is just another road block to a Big Ten Championship. Since 2002 Ohio State is 4-2 with an average score of 16 to 13. For some reason the outmanned Purdue squad has played the far better Buckeyes pretty close. It’s at home, OSU is pissed, Purdue is outmanned and injured, OSU wins this one but its closer than it should be.

Predict the score of the mole:

Total Moles rushing/passing/receiving for Pryor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc5G04nJecI

Mole.

The 3-1 Indiana Hoosiers will ride into sun drenched Ohio Stadium (weather permitting) with one of the most high powered passing games in college football. The Hoosiers have the 12^th best scoring offense in all the land and the 4^th best passing offense to boot.

Norman Dale would be pleased. God, he’s handsome.

Luckily for Ohio State, the Hoosiers are not coached by Norman Dale (because he only coaches basketball and even that was just for pretend). They are coached by Bill Lynch, who is insane:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE8J7gZ6iC8

Lynch is more like Dennis Hopper’s character…the drunken slob that is forced to listen to the big game on the radio because he was an embarrassment to his team, the entire town and his own son.

But even Lynch, who is legally insane isn’t dumb enough to forget to call plays designed for his quarterback Ben Chappell to get the ball to one of the most underrated players in college football in Tandon Doss. Against the mighty Michigan defense (cough, cough) Doss had over 200 yards receiving. Last year against Ohio State Doss had 96 yards receiving and a score. Doss is also Indiana’s primary returner on punt and kick returns. He’s really good.

6-5 Demarlo Belcher is another weapon at Chappell’s disposal. Both he and Doss lead the Hoosiers in receiving. The running game which is ranked 99^th isn’t a concern. Indiana will run their offense out of the spread and pistol formations almost exclusively. I’m sure they will have some tricks up their sleeves as well…perhaps the old picket fence?

With all the injuries to the Ohio State secondary Indiana should be able to move the ball on Saturday. Expect a high dose of quick screens and quick hitters to the aforementioned playmakers. The longer Chappell holds onto the ball the higher the chance he will be eaten by the Ohio State defensive line. With Tyler Moeller out for the season his position of star will be taken over by Christian Bryant who had 5 tackles in Moeller’s absence last Saturday.

Now, while that all sounds good and all for Indiana, let us look at who they have played thus far:

It doesn’t take Jimmy Chitwood to see what sticks out with the above data. Ohio State has a really good defense, while the other teams on that list….suck. LOL at Michigan and their dead last pass defense.

On offense Ohio State will most likely be able to move the ball at will. Indiana has the 72^nd ranked scoring defense, the 88^th ranked defense for total yards given up, the 108^th ranked rushing defense and the 47^th ranked pass defense.

Look for Ohio State to look a lot like they did against Marshall. The weather on Saturday is supposed to be beautiful and with that comes a wide open offense. I look from Pryor to throw it 25-30 times and be limited by coaching when it comes to him running the football due to his injury. It should be a balanced run/pass attack with Boom Herron getting most of the workload and Brandon Saine and Jordan Hall fighting it out for carries after that. Don’t be surprised if Brandon Saine is the 3^rd option at tailback after his horrible performance last week. This may be Jordan Hall’s “tryout” for the #2 tailback spot.

Prediction time — feel free to play along.
Final Score:
OSU-41
IU-20

I think Indiana will put together a couple nice drives and put some points on the board, but their lack of defense will be evident.

Ben Chappell over/under 300 yards passing: Under – barely…I think he get’s close only because he is playing catch up.

Guess the rushing yardage for these 4 players:
Pryor: 15
Herron: 110
Saine: 20
Hall: 65

The last time Ron English was inside Ohio Stadium the results were very similar. In 2006 he was the defensive coordinator for the Michigan Wolverines. It was a matchup of 1 versus 2 and the winner would go to the National Championship. Back then English’s defense gave up over 500 hundred yards and 42 points and propelled Troy Smith to a Heisman trophy.

On September 26^th, 2010 Ron English was spotted giving that famous old fashioned Michigan Try.

Ohio State in their game against Eastern Michigan amassed 645 yards of total offense and 73 points and quarterback Terrelle Pryor accounted for 6 touchdowns, 4 threw the air, 1 on the ground and 1 receiving touchdown thrown by his old high school team mate Jordan Hall.

Ohio State’s offense is not what it used to be. At the end of last year, they were a run first power football team that averaged over 200 yards per game and threw the ball under twenty times per game. Terrelle Pryor then had a huge pre bowl practice and the “light” went on. We all saw what he did in the Rose Bowl.

Since then, Ohio State has turned into a pass first offense. The offensive priority is as follows:

1. Pryor pass/run option
2. His #1 priority is to throw the football
3. His #2 priority is to run the football if no one is open
4. Running game with tailbacks

This may or may not be popular with Buckeye fans, but the results are stunning:

Ohio State has also implemented a hurry-up offense, which puts even more pressure on a defense. It also allows Terrelle Pryor’s instinct to take over. The results have been impressive. Personally this is what I’ve been waiting for ever since Pryor came to town. I thought he would be most effective given the pass/run option and because Ohio State has taken off the Pryor cuffs this offense has been nearly unstoppable.

Okay, that is the good from the Ohio State offense, let’s take a look at the bad, the running back situation.

Boom Herron isn’t “bad,” he’s just REALLY average. Brandon Saine is a weapon out of the backfield, but he is an inconsistent runner at best. Let’s take a look at the production of each back yesterday and see what sticks out:

We have established the change in Ohio State’s offensive philosophy, but with the Big Ten schedule a week away Ohio State needs to find someone other than Superman to run the ball.

Draw your own conclussions from the above data. I come away thinking that Hall and Berry need far more touches every game and Saine needs less. Discuss…

The defense was gashed by playaction… badly. On the first drive for Eastern Michigan they had a dropped bomb off playaction and as the game went on, all three of their touchdown drives came off devastating playaction passes. Something I’m sure offensive coordinators around the Big Ten will be looking at. And something Ohio State better get corrected before Wisconsin. They live off Playaction and they can actually run the ball, unlike Eastern Michigan.

It wasn’t all bad for the defense:

Big Johnathan Hankins recorded his first sack of his career, hopefully the first of many.