It’s time for the annual shattering of souls known as the Fraud List. I have painstakingly examined every* remaining unbeaten team to identify the handful who will inevitably crash and burn and finish the season with five or more losses. To prove that I’m not some sick sadist, I am writing this while listening to Frogstomp, the debut album from Silverchair, the imitation Australian Pearl Jam. See, I’m a sick sado-masochist.

*Mid-majors are ineligible for this list, as are teams who have played fewer than four games.

This year, I’m tightening up the list and giving you a top six that will not be broken down any further. All of these teams have a strong chance of losing five games this year. Any eligible unbeaten team not on this list should finish with no more than four losses. The list is in order of most-t0-least fraudy.

1. Louisville (5-0)

The Cardinals’ last three wins were by a touchdown or less and their five opponents have a combined record of 5-19 so far. Three of those wins belong to North Carolina.

2. TCU (4-0)

Half of the Big 12 is undefeated right now, but only the Horned Frogs make the list. TCU’s closest win was by 8 points, but none of their four opponents has a winning record.

3. Northwestern (5-0)

As much I would like Seth Meyers to be happy, things do not look good for the Wildcats. The best team they’ve played is Indiana and that pretty much says it all. Playing in a weak and unpredictable Big Ten helps (it kept Ohio State off this list), but it might not be enough.

4. Rutgers (4-0)

I don’t know if I really think the Big East will produce two frauds this year, but Rutgers’ numbers are atrocious and leaving them off would have been inexcusable. They’ve played one team with a winning record and that was Howard, who might actually just be a dude named Howard.

5. Mississippi State (4-0)

6. South Carolina (5-0)

No list of anything is complete without a couple of SEC teams, so here you go. There are a half-dozen unbeatens in The World’s Greatest Conference, but these two had some separation from the others. Mississippi State has been unremarkable against some pretty lousy teams and it says something when the other five unbeatens in your conference are in the top 10 and you’re #20. It says you suck is what it says. The Gamecocks are here because they are going to lose their next four games.

In the end, only three or four of these teams will end up as true frauds with five or more losses. If I had to guess who escapes that fate, I’d say Northwestern and one of the Big East teams. If I had to pick just one that will drop five for sure, it would be TCU.

So how about you? I go by the numbers my system gives me with a little gut feeling thrown in, but you can pick any unbeaten teams out there. Who loses five or more this year?

 Michigan State’s bruising tailback Le’Veon Bell will be the focal point this weekend for the Buckeye defense. Listed at 6-2, 244 pounds, head coach Urban Meyer described Bell as a “more athletic Ron Dayne.” Bell is second in the nation in rushing with 610 yards through only four games. He is a real workhorse, averaging 29 carries per game and he has reached pay dirt five times.

With the Spartans inexperience at quarterback, if the Buckeyes stop Le’Veon Bell, they will have a great chance to win the game. In Sparty’s only loss this year versus Notre Dame, the Irish held Bell to only 77 yards on 19 carries.

Primarily, Michigan State utilizes Bell as the tailback in the I-Formation and there aren’t really any surprises. They tend to run to the strong side and with their physical offensive line, they dare the opposing defense to beat them. Coach D’Antonio runs a prototypical “ground and pound offense.”

Bell has done most of his work in the first quarter this year, rushing the ball 43 times for 214 yards. In the remaining three quarters, he rushed the ball 74 times for 396 yards. Coach D’Antonio clearly wants to establish the run in the first quarter and wear out the opposing defense early in the game. Also, Bell is averaging 5.35 yards per carry on first down coming on a 62 carries. If Bell can consistently give the offense 2^nd and 5, that will put inexperienced quarterback Andrew Maxwell in a better position to get the first down.

Against Boise State in the first game of the season, Bell showed the nation his athleticism and what he can do with the ball in his hands. He showed a killer stiff arm, a devastating spin move, and he also hurdled a safety who ducked his head too early. The Buckeyes will figure out early that he does not go down easily and breaks a lot of tackles. Many times throughout the game, Boise St put their strong side outside linebacker on the line of scrimmage and it did not matter. The Spartans offensive line, combined with Bell’s vision allowed him to consistently make something out of nothing.

In the red zone or short yardage situations, Bell will have the ball in his hands the majority of the time. He even took a direct snap out of the wildcat in the red zone that resulted in a few yards. He can also catch the ball out of the backfield and displays pretty good hands for a big running back.

The thing that is surprising is that they did not show as much play action as you would expect. The defense knows that Bell is going to get the ball the majority of the time, so one would expect play action on the goal line or short yardage every once in a while.

Overall, the silver bullets have their hands full this weekend with Le’Veon Bell. One positive is that if the Buckeyes can jump out to an early lead, they can take Bell out of the game. Putting the ball in Maxwell’s hands more than Bell’s has to be a big part of their game plan. If Bell has over 30 carries to finish the game, the score will be close, or in favor of the Spartans.

We are at the midway point of the High School football season and Ohio State fans should feel really good where they are at with this recruiting class. There are several bonafide stars in the class. Others who aren’t as highly ranked are showing they need to be reevaluated. Here are the results of week 5.

Jalin Marshall– His team Middletown Middies lost 34-20 to Lakota East. Jalin rushed 23 times for 159 yards with 2 TDs and was 7-of-17 for 80 yards and another score.
Eli Woodard– His team Eastern enjoyed a 31-20 win over Cherry Hill East. They stayed away from Eli all game.
Cam Burrows– His team Trotwood-Madison beat West Carrollton 20-0. Cam was part of a total defensive effort that kept WCHS to -3 yards total offense for the game.
Joey Bosa– His team St. Thomas Aquinas was on a BYE.
Marcus Baugh– His team John W North suffered a 17-14 loss to Rancho Cucamonga. Marcus played bothe TE and LB in the game.
Evan Lisle– His team Centerville enjoyed a 64-7 win over Greenville. As an O-lineman he helped his team rush for 446 yards.
Ezekiel Elliott– His team John Burroughs HS enjoyed a 55-7 win over Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day. He rushed 12 times for 222 yards scoring 5 TDs and returned a punt for a score as well.
Billy Price– His team Austintown Fitch beat Boardman 52-7. Te defense held Boardman to 198 total yards.
Jayme Thompson– His team Toledo Central Catholic won 56-27 win over Findlay. He helped his team with a fumble recovery.
J T Barrett- His team Rider was on a BYE.
Michael Hill– His team Pendleton beat Blacksburg 17-14. Pendleton beat Blacksburg for the 1st time in 28 years.
Taivon Jacobs– His team Suitland enjoyed a 41-6 win over Laurel. Taivon had 8 catches for 197 yards and added a touchdown in the win.
Darron Lee– His team New Albany enjoyed a 66-14 win over Franklin Heights. He 5 for 8 passing for 133 yards with 4 touchdowns.
Tracy Sprinkle– His team Elyria suffered a devastating 62-55 loss to North Royalton. Tracy had a monster game recording 14 tackles with 3 for a loss and two sacks and six quarterback hurries.
Tim Gardner– His team Lawrence Central enjoyed a weather shortened 42-7 win over Bloomington South. Tim helped his team win with excellent blocking all game long.
Johnny Townsend– His team Boone suffered a 30-7 loss to Timber Creek. No punting stats could be found. Johnny had had four punts of 45 yards or more yards along with one going 65 yards.
Tyquan Lewis– His team Tarboro HS was on a BYE this week.

What can be said about Ezekiel Elliott and Tracy Sprinkle that I haven’t already said. Both of those guys are absolute studs. Add in some of the other guys stats and there is a lot to be excited about. Every player on this list is someone OSU fans should be excited about even the punter :).

R.I.P Big Fella

BIG TEN NON-CONFERENCE WRAP-UP

With most of the Big Ten finishing up their non-conference schedules last weekend, it’s time to force ourselves to review where the conference stands. Try not to be too scared.

Combined record: 33-13. Hey, that doesn’t sound so bad, so immediately I am incredibly suspicious. Let’s investigate.

vs. AQ teams: 5-9. Honestly, that’s not as bad as I thought, but all 5 wins are courtesy of the conference’s three unbeaten teams: Ohio State (Cal), Minnesota (Syracuse) and Northwestern (Syracuse, Vanderbilt, Boston College). Add in the facts that none of those teams are elite and none of the wins was by more than 10 points and you can see why the Big Ten is getting zero respect. That’s probably more than we deserve.

Saturday’s games were more of the same we’ve seen this season so far: Beat up on teams we should be embarrassed to play, look lackluster against teams we should beat up, lose to Notre Dame and a couple of mid-majors.

So how is the rest of the season going to go? Your guess is as good as mine, but here’s something that’s worth considering: Northwestern, the Big Ten team who has arguably proven the most so far with their 3 wins over AQ teams, does not play Ohio State, Wisconsin or Purdue, the three top teams (right now) in the Leaders division. At this point, it’s hard to imagine the Wildcats losing to Indiana, Penn State (their next two games) or Illinois (who could, conceivably, improve by the end of the year). With Ohio State ineligible and Wisconsin struggling to register a convincing win over anybody, we are now in a realm where a Northwestern/Purdue Big Ten title game is not at all unrealistic.

You’re scared now, aren’t you?

ESPN SUBJECTS HYPE MACHINE TO TOUGHEST CHALLENGE YET

Ohio State @ Michigan State is the site of ESPN’s College GameDay this week, which must mean the rest of the schedule is a dystopian wasteland that would put Cormac McCarthy to shame. The good news is that this will mean increased Heisman hype for Braxton Miller from the Worldwide Leader in Self-Serving Hyperbole. Expect high doses of this and this in the promos.

Wisconsin @ Nebraska may also be interesting, because at least one head coach is going to totally lose it on the sideline.

OTHER THINGS TO STARE AT

Thursday: Person of Interest season premiere (CBS), Forrest Gump (Cinemax), Arrested Development (Netflix), Browns @ Ravens (NFL Network). If you wanted an actual football game, then Stanford @ Washington is as close as you’re going to get.

Friday: Hawai’i @ BYU. Last week, BYU opted not to go into overtime against a team who had shown no ability or willingness to score in overtime-like conditions for the entire game and instead failed on a two-point conversion attempt to lose the game in regulation. And this after I was nice to Mormons last week. You know you can’t re-baptise that touchdown as an 8-pointer now that the game’s over, right? GO WHATEVER HAWAI’I’S NICKNAME IS!!!!

Saturday: Seriously, these games all stink.

As I sat around this weekend thinking about how I was going to write this recap post I thought about mostly all the things that bothered me the most. So I was writing down all the negative aspects to the game and my watching experience I was right around 3000 words when I erased the whole diatribe and decided I needed to change my entire thought process. So I will stay positive in this post even if it kills me. I asked myself one simple two part question.

Did Ohio State win the game and why can we as fans not just enjoy the victory?

First, the important part of the question. Yes Ohio State won the game 29-15. Here is how that played out.

The Offense

Braxton Miller continued to show why he was such a highly ranked High School recruit. Can the fans (myself included) just take a few minutes to enjoy how incredibly awesome he is? This young man is a true Sophomore leading this offense in nearly every category. In this game alone he completed 60% of his passes for 143 yards and no INTs he also ran 11 times for 64 yards and 2 TDs including this beauty.

Enjoy that short video OSU fans as we will have many more like that to enjoy for the next 2.5 years so smile and savor.

Jordan Hall in just his second game back from a bad foot injury rushed for over 100 yards in the win. Jordan had 17 rushes for 105 yards and had 2 catches for 21 yards. He is becoming that guy who everyone thought he would be in the Urban Meyer offensive system. With time and more reps I am sure we will see even more improvement in his game.

Honestly Corey Brown and Devin Smith have enjoyed having Urban Meyer become the HC at OSU more then anyone. They are finally having the ball thrown their way and making plays. Sure they both have had some bad drops but at least this year they will have more catches then games they played in.

The Defense

Doran Grant is a star in the making. With star CB Bradley Roby out with a shoulder injury Doran took full advantage of his first career start. Mr. Grant forced and recovered a fumble he also had an interception and for good measure he added a sack to the great day he had.

I wish there was more I could say about the defense but in staying with my keeping it positive my review of the defense will have to end here.

Last thoughts

I just wanted to take a few moments here to remind my fellow fans how lucky we are. Ohio State is coming off a year of hell in the program and a 6-7 season with mostly the same players returning and very few new guys. We have a new coaching staff and new offensive and defensive schemes. Yet these guys are sitting here 4-0 and ranked in the top 15. They are learning and changing. Are they perfect? No of course not they aren’t even close yet. Are they improved? Heck yes they are. The offense is light years ahead of where they were last year. Sure they still have the occasional miscues or droughts in effectiveness. They are however exciting and developing. The defense has some serious issues most of which won’t and can’t be fixed with the personnel we currently have. Even saying that though the defense is giving up around 15 points a game and for the most part have been productive for nearly any other school in CFB just not up to par with what OSU is use to having. Can they get better? I sure hope so for their own sake.

Lastly, I have thought about this a lot Ohio State fans need to show a little patience. Given everything they have been through and all the changes that have been made a lot of fans need to maybe temper their expectations. Yes I am one of those guys who said OSU could go 12-0 this year and we would see a complete turn around in year one from last years dismal season. The good news is they still can go 12-0 but it will surely be more difficult of a season then many of us expected it to be.

One thing I hear a lot is the crowd at the ‘Shoe feeds off the emotions of the players in their crowd noise. Isn’t the exact opposite also true though? So next time you go to a game stand and cheer and be loud and maybe the team will feed off of it and play much better or maybe not but at least you tried right.

In conclusion Ohio State won the game and that’s all that matters right TTUN fans?

Four weeks into this glorious college football season and I think the better teams are starting to separate themselves. Some of the better teams are surprising and others were expected. Some teams many expected to be good are really bad. Some of the teams expected to be bad are honestly pretty good. And that folks is what makes CFB so exciting each and every year.

Men of the Scarlet and Gray Ballot – Week 4

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama Crimson Tide	—
2	Florida St. Seminoles	1
3	Oregon Ducks	-1
4	Georgia Bulldogs	2
5	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	3
6	West Virginia Mountaineers	3
7	LSU Tigers	-3
8	South Carolina Gamecocks	4
9	Florida Gators	1
10	Texas Longhorns	1
11	Stanford Cardinal	2
12	Kansas St. Wildcats	5
13	TCU Horned Frogs	1
14	Ohio St. Buckeyes	1
15	Louisville Cardinals	1
16	Oregon St. Beavers	5
17	Mississippi St. Bulldogs	6
18	Rutgers Scarlet Knights	7
19	Ohio Bobcats	3
20	Iowa St. Cyclones	4
21	USC Trojans	-2
22	Oklahoma Sooners	-17
23	Clemson Tigers	-16
24	Northwestern Wildcats	—
25	Minnesota Golden Gophers	—
Dropouts: UCLA Bruins, Arizona Wildcats

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

Time for me to explain my thought process. I value winning more then anything else. I do however recognize that some great teams will and do lose games. If you lose a game to another great team I will value that. I wish I could honor every undefeated team before I rank teams with losses but a few of the undefeated teams haven’t played anyone tough enough to make the list over teams with losses to other great teams.

I think I should discuss Notre Dame first. Let me just say I am not a Notre Lame fan and hate that I have to rank them so high. But dad gummit they are a pretty good football team. Surprisingly their defense is the best part of their team. Coach Brian Kelly is more known for his offensive juggernauts so I am sure he will find a way to get the offense up to speed and matching Manti Te’o and his defensive cohorts.

Florida St. did the one thing they haven’t been able to the past few years beat a really good team and prove they are worthy of their ranking. Their schedule looks pretty easy the rest of the way so maybe just maybe they will fulfill their trip back to glory this year.

The Big Ten has proven to be worthy of a few more ranked teams. They however are not TTUN with their second huge letdown on National TV. They also aren’t going to be MSU and their bad showing against Eastern Michigan or Nebraska and their blow out of Idaho St. (Are they div. 3?) It will be Northwestern and Minnesota so lets show them some love they along with Ohio St. are carrying the leagues banner at least for now.

USC, Oklahoma, and Clemson are the lone one loss teams in the rankings. These teams are great teams who just happened to lose to other great teams. They will have chances to prove they belong in the great ranks going forth.

I also thought I would add a brief rankings of the BCS conferences just for fun and for some insight as to where I rank teams based on their conference powers as well.

1.) Big 12
2.) Pac 12
3.) SEC
4.) B1G
5.) ACC
6.) Big East