An Ohio State Sports Blog
Ohio State finally released the official Depth Chart for this weeks game. You can click the following to view the Depth Chart.
Coach Meyer was on the weekly B1G coaches conference call today and here is a collection of tweets from the media members on the call with him.
https://twitter.com/ESPN_BigTen/status/372415024486039552
https://twitter.com/BenAxelrod/status/372413694988136449
Well it is finally here GAME WEEK. After what seems to be par for the norm for OSU fans an extremely long off-season we are at that point where we will see posts about actual football games. This post is to discuss the B1G Power Rankings and I will try to be as unbiased as possible :)…
1.) Ohio State- What can I say about OSU that hasn’t already been said 1000 times? Nothing is the answer. The only team on their schedule that could beat them is themselves. Sure there are a couple of tough games but on paper they are head and shoulders above everyone else.
2.) Nebraska- Nebraska is returning most of their offense from lasts years team. They have great talents at QB, WR, and RB. The OL is corn fed. The defense has to have gotten better then they were the last few years, right?
3.) Northwestern- Pat Fitzgerald is the second best coach in the B1G IMO. He has 2 really good QBs and knows how to use them. Venric Mark is the perfect Scat Back for his offense. They are better on defense then most will admit. Can they take the next step is the biggest question.
4.) Wisconsin- Wisconsin is Wisconsin. They will be starting a veteran QB although he won’t be great. The RBs are STACKED and run 3-4 deep most would start on any other team in the country let alone B1G. Jared Abbrederis is a blue collar WR who will make plays and be under covered. The Defense is an area of concern IMO>
5.) Michigan State- Mark Dantonio is a Tressel coaching descendant. He will play awesome defense and have a good running game. He may have a bit of a QB controversy right now but I think you will see a lot of both QBs early on.
6.) Michigan- Here is the thing for me… I know most will say I am just being an OSU homer and my bias has blinded my judgement. Maybe it has maybe it hasn’t. Truth is They have lost their best defensive player and offensive player from last years team. Jake Ryan is due back but how effective will he be? The WR corp lost its biggest member in Amara Darboh to a foot injury for the year. Hoke signed 11 really high ranked OLmen in the last 2 years and took until today to name all 5 starters and one of them is a walk-on. Devin Gardner has to stay healthy and play even better then he did last year. Stud freshman RB recruit Derrick Green showed up to school and was overweight and out of shape and he is now the 5TH STRING RB. Without Jake Ryan the LBers are less than impressive. The DBs are great on paper and will need to keep performing that way. The DL is good on the ends but the middle has been soft so that needs to change as well. Brady Hoke also needs to get his team to play better on the road.
7.) Indiana- Offensively this team will put up a ton of points on just about everyone. The problem will be and always has been the defense. If they want to move up this list they need to play better defense.
8.) Penn State- Last year PSU played inspired and determined. They lost a lot of senior leadership though and need a lot of young guys to step up and buy into Bill O’Brien’s program.
9.) Iowa- This is most likely Kirk Ferentz last year. The running game will be good and so will the defense. The QB is young and inexperienced.
10.) Purdue- I really hope Darrell Hazell can rebuild the Boilermakers but I think he is a few years away still. He does have some talent though to work with and could surprise some teams for sure.
11.) Minnesota- Jerry Kill needs a miracle and a ton of new players this team needs heck I don’t even know. They need Glen Mason back he seemed to know how to make the Gophers decent and a bowl eligible team.
12.) Illinois- Poor Tim Beckman he should have never taken the job with the Illini. He has 18 year starter Nathan Scheelhaase is this the year he isn’t horrible? They need to play better at every aspect of the game.
I am sure many will have opinions about this so feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section of this post and next week when I do this again I will take them into account or maybe I won’t you never really know with me.
Good morning Buckey Nation.
Monday Night Football: We will get to see Ohio State play against Virginia Tech in Lane Stadium on Labor Day 2015. According to elevenwarriors.com they posted the story from a Virginia Tech radio station. The game will be the ACC Labor Day (night) game on ESPN. The last time the Buckeyes played on a Monday night was on August 29, 1994 against Fresno State. There might need to be some schedule shuffling needed since the game is being moved from Sept. 19th originally to Sept. 7th. Will be exciting to see.
Football Week: Speaking of our friends from elevenwarriors.com they released a great video to get you in the mood for some Saturday football.
Last Exhibition Game: Buckeyes men’s soccer has conclude their exhibition season with a 1-2 record last night by dropping a close match with seventh ranked Norte Dame.
“I think the team played really well and stayed tough under constant pressure tonight,†John Bluem, Ohio State head coach, said. “Notre Dame is a very talented team and they played their first team for about 70 minutes. The final 20 minutes were pretty even as both teams substituted. Overall, I am very pleased with our effort and fight.â€
Buckeyes open their season this Friday at 7:30pm at Jesse Owens Memorial Season.
OT Victory: Ohio State women’s soccer beat Eastern Michigan to go 2-0 on the season so far. The 23rd ranked Buckeyes got a goal from Ellyn Gruber in the 99th minute for the victory.
“The team showed a lot of heart which over time is difficult in the early season,” Ohio State head coach Lori Walker said. “We had a lot of opportunities and I’m pleased that we found a way to win. It wasn’t the most beautiful game we’ve ever played but we were able to get two wins in one weekend and that’s always a success.”
Academic All-Americans: Buckeyes women’s volleyball team announced 11 of their players were named NACGC/W Scholastic All-Americans for the 2012-13 school year. To be recognized for this honor, student-athletes must carry a grade-point average of 3.50 or better. The Buckeyes also finished 20 nationally with a 3.47 GPA.
That is awesome work ladies keep up the great work and representing Buckeye Nation so well.
Blue Colors Not Welcome: Zac Jackson of Fox Sports Ohio published an article about how Urban Meyer and staff will not even let scouts wear the color blue at Ohio States practice facilities. A lot of talk shows have been running with this and saying Urban has gone to far, who does he think he is, blah blah blah. One of the scouts claimed it was embarrassing and it could have been handled differently and they should have been notified.
I might be living under a rock but I thought this has been in place since at least last year and I’m sorry but if your at the Woody Hayes practice facility there should never ever be any blue worn in their. It is a facility that is named after the man who let it be know for his distaste for TTUN. What about the respecting his passion and namesake and don’t bring those colors around and besides you were given free Ohio State gear to wear I don’t get any of that.
4 Days: 4 Days till kick off so I will leave you with Number 4 intercepting a late fourth quarter pass from Gardner.
Until next time Buckeye Nation…
In a new book released recently by Armen Keteyian and Jeff Benedict titled “The System: The Glory and Scandal of Big-Time College Football
In this book they talk in depth about “Tattoo Gate” and how it was handled by both the NCAA and OSU.
Dan Wetzle wrote a nice piece on this book and gave the following excerpts…
• A thorough retelling of the Ohio State “tattoogate” scandal including the previously unreported transcripts of NCAA interviews by Jim Tressel and athletic director Gene Smith.
You can see Tressel hanging himself with his own words as he tries to explain his cover-up of the scandal that doomed his career and led to major sanctions against the program. Meanwhile, on a separate issue, Smith is vague on some details but claims he was forceful in multiple conversations with booster Bobby DiGeronimo, who was cited for overpaying players for work at his companies and later banned from associating with the Buckeyes for the next 10 years.
That leads to DiGeronimo, who speaks publicly for the first time, to slam Smith, claiming the two never had the conversations Smith claims they did.
“Never,” DiGeronimo said. “Never called me. Never called me one time. Never. We never had a conversation about that. There was nothing. He’s lying. He’s outright lying. Never any meeting. Never any voicemail. Everything he says is a lie. Everything.”
Smith declined to comment on the book.
Also in the book there was this nugget of info about Former Buckeye DeVier Posey…
“The System” also presents the case that NCAA investigators were overzealous in parts of their investigation against Ohio State, most notably in ignoring some pretty compelling evidence that DiGeronimo overpaid player DeVier Posey by a mere $3.07 and should never have received a five-game suspension for that. It also shows the seemingly differing and troubling standards for players and coaches/administrators, where the former must recall every detail precisely or risk eligibility, while the latter is allowed to struggle with specifics.
I will never understand the NCAA and what it does or doesn’t do. I have a horrible feeling that Posey had his OSU career ruined over $3.07. What an awful thing to do to such a really good person. Read the whole article linked above and if you want read the book I am sure there is a lot more info to be had.
We here at MotSaG are in need of someone or a few people who have the ability to make high quality (we will settle for decent quality lol) highlight films and .Gifs for our site. The person/people must have a love for Ohio State because that is why we do what we do. They must also be able to provide some basic knowledge through giving us examples of their work.
The duties will include weekly highlight recap videos of the Buckeye games and hype videos during the off-season. You will probably also be asked to make .Gifs for the enjoyment of mocking as many other teams as we can and to further build our reader base. The ability to write posts is also appreciated but not mandatory for this position.
The compensation package will include fame and no fortunes. Although if you live near our famous leader Tony (@i_aint_yer_pa) he will occasionally share half his Groupons over lunch or dinner.
If you are interested at all in doing this for our site you can reply to this thread or you can contact us here.
Here is the final Pre-Season Poll before the season starts this week. There was just a few changes which I will go over at the end. Injuries have played a part in those moves though.
1.) Alabama
2.) Ohio State
3.) Stanford
4.) Georgia
5.) Oregon
6.) Clemson
7.) Louisville
8.) South Carolina
9.) Florida State
10.) Texas A&M
11.) Oklahoma State
12.) Florida
13.) LSU
14.) Notre Dame
15.) Nebraska
16.) Oklahoma
17.) Northwestern
18.) Texas
19.) Wisconsin
20.) Boise State
21.) Michigan State
22.) TCU
23.) UCLA
24.) Kansas State
25.) TTUN
– There are no new teams in the rankings for this week and no one fell out of the rankings either obviously.
– TTUN fell from 19th to 25th they had another starter go down with a season ending injury. Sophomore WR Amara Darboh went down with a foot injury that required surgery. This was already a area of concern for TTUN and Amara brought height to the position they don’t have anywhere else right now. They also announce they still dont know who 2 of their starting OLmen are going to be which is another concern. Things are trending down right now for the Wolverines.
– MSU mad a move up to 21 based on a true Freshman QB who is making waves in Damion Terry who brings to the table a dual threat that MSU didnt have before. Andrew Maxwell may still start but Damion will see plenty of playing time as he is an athlete that they need to get the ball in the hands of as often as possible to spread out the defense.
– Wisconsin also made a small move up to #19 this week. They named a QB and the Offensive line is huge as usual. The running game will be what it always is for Wisky… Great!!!
Coach Meyer was on ESPN today as part of their Sportscenter segment Sunday Conversation…
The only thing that is surprising about today’s newest commit is the timing. Coach Meyer usually doesn’t take any commitments for guys 2 years away until the current recruiting class is nearly or completely finished. Though the writing on the wall has been here for a while now as this new commit will be the face of the 2015 class. He is an Ohio kid with SEC speed and is a big time pick up for the Buckeyes.
Bill Greene of Scout broke the news on twitter a few minutes ago…
Eric Glover-Williams is a 5’11” 165 lbs high 4 star Athlete/WR/RB/CB from Canton, Ohio. Eric is better known as Superman because of his unbelievable speed and hops. He is a 4.35 40 guy who can play both sides of the ball and will most likely start his career at OSU in the hybrid WR/RB spot affectionately called the Percy Harvin spot. 247sports ranks him a 4 star and the 87th best recruit in the country. ESPN ranks him a 4 star and the 29th best recruit in the country. Scout ranks him a 4 star and the 67th best recruit in the country.
You can follow Eric on twitter by clicking @LastKing_Glover
You can see all of his highlights by going here HUDL.
At right guard, Marcus Hall, a fifth year senior, is one of 4 returning starters on the offensive line. His coming back to play his senior year shows his commitment to the team and will prove to be a valuable leader to not only the offensive line but to the whole team. 
His dominance and reliability allowed the offense to put up impressive numbers in 2012. The team rushed for an average of 242.2 yards, which was 10th nationally. The Buckeyes also lead the B1G in scoring, averaging 37.1 points a game. All those numbers allowed the Bucks to be the only undefeated team in the FBS. Even the precious SEC and their beloved Crimson Tide couldn’t pull that off.
And at left guard is another equally dominant and reliable member of the offensive line is Andrew Norwell.
His steadfastness and dedication to the team led him to post impressive numbers with the number of plays from scrimmage last season. He played on more downs than any other Buckeye on the team – 862, and was involved with 827 out of 837 offensive plays, which is 98.8%.
He has also received many accolades during time at OSU. Last year, he received honors as first team, all-Big Ten Conference. Was honorable mention all-Big Ten in 2011 and in 2010, was name on Rivals.com Big Ten all-freshman team. And as a side note, he has not cut his hair since coming to OSU in August 2010. He believes it brings him special powers. Are you listening, Stan Lee?
Up and coming guard: This year’s squad is chock full of talent and power. But just in case something should happen to the guards in particular, that position has more than suitable replacements if Marcus Hall or Andrew Norwell should succumb to injury. One of these fine players is Tommy Brown. He is a 3 star recruit (Rivals) from Akron Firestone High School. This is 3rd year on the team and, although he won’t see a whole lot of playing time, his continued development at the guard position and his size (6’4″, 310 pounds) should prove to be a valuable asset in case the unforeseen happens.
These two men have proven to be the immovable object and irresistible force on the Buckeyes O-Line. We will be watching intently and looking for similar results for this season as the Bucks bring home #8 in the trophy case.
I recently had the honor of speaking with 2015 Defensive End, Rashod Berry from Lorain, Ohio. Berry currently weights in at 215 lbs and is 6″4. He has a very quick outside rush move but needs to work on his run stopping abilities. He is continuing to grow and was said to be one of the most impressive ends at any of the Ohio State Camps all summer. Berry has a good chance of earning a Buckeye offer and would not be surprised to see this superb athlete wearing the Scarlet and Gray when its all said and done. Berry is not currently ranked by any site, however I expect this to change soon.
Q: When did Ohio State first make contact with you, and how did it feel?
