The #1 recruit in Ohio made it official today picking OSU as the school he will attend college. Five star DE Adolphus Washington picked OSU today over Michigan St. and Cincinnati. The 6’6″ 240 lb DE from Cincinnati Taft HS is a pure pass rusher and is expected to get plenty of early playing time. He is ranked as the 3rd best DE in the country and is an ESPN 150 member and a Under Armor ALL-American and US Army player of the year candidate.

His teammate Dwayne Stanford a 3* WR was suppose to be a package deal but he was swayed last week on his trip to Oregon to pick the Ducks. I am sure the OSU offensive strategy of not using WRs this year probably helped his decision.

UPDATE: When Adolphus Washington was asked if he thought the next OSU head coach would be Urban Meyer. He responded, “I hope so”.

In only the second game of the 2011/2012 Mens basketball season the 3rd ranked Buckeyes hosted a fellow top 10 team. The Florida Gators ranked 8th in the nation came into a seemingly revitalized VCA where the students are grouped together and actually on the first level where they can make a lot of noise and disrupt the opposing team. The Buckeyes are extremely young with 11 freshman or sophomores on the team. OSU started 4 Soph. in Smith, Craft, Sully, and Thomas along with senior William Bufurd. The gators have a bevy of upperclassmen that they mix in with some younger players.

Early on the youth of OSU showed as Florida seemed to have their way driving the ball down the court and dishing it off to wide open shooters behind the line. The Gators hit 4 of 5 behind the arc before the 16 min TV timeout and had a sizable lead. Coach Matta quickly subbed in some other guys to give him a chance to calm the guys down and remind them to play better defense. It seemed to work well as OSU closed out the first half by going on a run and taking 35-32 halftime lead.

In the second half of the game the Buckeyes controlled the pace and played well on defense while hitting some big shots. OSU had gotten the lead up to 15 points late in the second half before OSU again showed their youth and inexperience by letting the Gators climb back into the game although it proved too little too late as OSU won the game 81-74.

OSU was led in the game by William Bufurds 21 pts and 6 rbs. OSU had 4 players score in double figures led By Buford with 21 and Jared Sullingers 16 pts and 6 rbds and DeShaun Thomas 15 and 6 and Aaron Crafts 13 pts and 7 assts. Coach Matta stayed true to his typical self not playing many bench players in big games. Evan Ravenel and Jordan Siebert got most of the bench minutes with 14 each. They gave the starters time to rest and played great defense and even a little offense.

It was a good win early in the year against a really good opponent. The Gators were an elite 8 team last year and are solidly a top 10 team this year. OSU will have plenty of time to get better before their next big game when DUKE comes to town on November 29th with 4 cupcake games. They will need to get these bench players more playing time and experience before then and rest the starters for tougher games. All in all OSU is off to a 2-0 start and the skies the limit this year.

On a blustery day in West Lafayette, the Buckeyes had the opportunity to put themselves into the driver’s seat for a spot in the B1G championship game.

Instead, they spent three hours reminding us why Ohio State will spend a lot of time this offseason in search of new coaching.

It can’t just be me who has noticed – since the Cooper era – that Ohio State often comes out flat in noon kickoff games, and today was no different. It’s almost a university tradition at this point, and there has to be a rational explanation for it. Given the stakes of every remaining game this season it’s incomprehensible that a team that had so much to gain – and lose – could come out looking like Zach Galafanakis in both Hangover movies. If anyone has thoughts on this I would absolutely love to hear them. My opinion is that it all boils down to coaching. And today was by far the worst display of coaching that I have seen in my fifteen years of following Ohio State football.

I had a 1500-word post written to recap this game, and that was before it went to overtime. I’m tossing the entire thing out and replacing it with the following:

7 Penalties for 50 yards – almost every one of them impacted the game at a critical moment, and that doesn’t count the ones that were declined or offset.

5 sacks for -19 yards – indicative of the completely uninspired performance put forth by the offensive line.

One blocked XP (which would turn out to be the biggest play of the game) and a missed FG – either of those being good wins the game for the Buckeyes in regulation.

About three thousand missed tackles – reminiscent of the Miami game

Completely unimaginative playcalling – especially in the first half.

I’m not going to rag on the players today, even though by halftime Antonio Underwood had played the worst game I’ve seen by a lineman since Alex Boone in the 2006 MNC. Most of them are extremely young and are going to make mistakes. Think back to when you were 18. I know I did a lot of stupid things back then, and I bet you did too. I don’t expect Braxton Miller to be 2005 or 2006 Troy Smith just yet and I know he’ll throw a few BauserBombs (5 today by my unofficial count) along the way, but he’ll be great some day. Ditto with Roby, Shazier, and Devin Smith.

The bottom line is that this team came out and underperformed in every aspect of the game. They came out and didn’t make a positive play until early in the second quarter. The lone phenomenal play – Miller’s magical touchdown pass to Jordan Hall with 55 seconds remaining – almost immediately was stripped of its importance as the Buckeyes allowed Purdue to block the PAT attempt.

The entire debacle was just a giant, rolling ball of suck. And I wish I had spent the day punching myself in the nuts rather than watching it.

On the bright side, we now don’t have to worry about falling ass-backwards into a good bowl game and getting annihilated by a team with a competent coaching staff. So we’ve got that going for us. Which is nice.

Answering Jason’s questions from the preview…
1. Ohio State is averaging fewer than 9 completions per game and has earned honorary service academy status.  Will the Buckeyes complete double-digit passes this week? Nope. 8/18 for 132 yards.

2. Purdue gives up nearly 260 rushing yards in games against teams with a winning record, about 8 fewer than Indiana.  Last week, Ohio State produced 3 100-yard rushers against the Hoosiers.  Will it happen again? No. They had 18 yards rushing in the first half. Total. The second half was a little better, but ultimately Purdue’s playing with a 6-man front ended up being effective enough.

3. The game is on Big Ten Network, so we should hopefully be spared of too much moronic announcing.  Still, there’s only one topic in college sports this week and the team involved is playing at the same time as we are.  How soon after the opening stadium shot does someone mention Penn State/Joe Paterno, how many plays do we miss due to cutaway coverage, and does anyone compare a decade-long cover-up of serial child rape to lying about ineligible players? Not that I heard. The coverage still sucked, being BTN

The last time Ohio State visited Ross-Ade Stadium, things didn’t turn out so well.  Back in mid-October 2009, Purdue was 1-5 with only a season-opening win over Toledo to their name.  On the other hand, the Buckeyes were 5-1 with just a 3-point loss to USC against them.  Purdue won that day, thanks to some pretty hapless offensive play on our part (including 5 turnovers), and that is what makes Saturday’s game frightening for some.  After all, I’m pretty sure Bollman actually has a formation called “Hapless.”

This year, we meet a little later and Ohio State is 6-3 and on a bit of a roll with three straight wins since the return of the still somehow underappreciated Boom Herron.  Purdue is 4-5 and has lost three of their last four.  It’s tempting to argue that this Purdue team is better than the one that broke their five-game skid against the Buckeyes two years ago, but it’s just not true.

Of the five losses that preceded their upset victory, only one (the 35-20 drop at Minnesota) came by more than a single possession, including a 2-point road loss to an Oregon team that would end up taking on Ohio State in the Rose Bowl.  The Boilermakers would lose two more games that year, a 37-0 trouncing at Wisconsin and a three-point loss to Michigan State at home.  Only two of their wins were by less than a possession (and Ohio State would’ve needed the two-point conversion just to get to overtime).  With just a little shift in luck, 2009 Purdue could have easily been an 8-, 9-, or even 10-win team.

Meanwhile, this year’s version has a good chance of ending up with the same 5-7 record (remaining games: Ohio State, Iowa, Indiana), but is simply not the same team.  Already, the Boilers have two close wins this year (against Illinois and Middle Tennessee) and two close losses (at Penn State and at Rice) and have been blasted by Wisconsin, Michigan and Notre Dame.

Only two teams beat 2009 Purdue by a significant margin.  Three have already done it this year with three games left to go.  Luke Fickell, bound by the Coaches’ Code of saying things you don’t really believe in the name of motivation and focus, reminds us that Purdue is much better at home than they are on the road.  And that’s true, technically.  By the way, which of these teams would you say is the most like Ohio State:

Middle Tennessee
Southeast Missouri State
Minnesota
Illinois

Those are the four teams Purdue has beaten at home.

I get that the nightmarish memories of Purdue road trips in 2009 and 2004 make people nervous for tomorrow’s game, but keep in mind that the only player remaining that contributed anything of significance to the last meeting is Boilermaker RB Ralph Bolden.

The main thing that sticks out to me (statistically) is that in almost every game this year, Purdue is essentially a non-factor.  Teams tend to score and allow points near their season averages when playing the Boilers (only Illinois put up significantly fewer points than usual).  If that holds exactly true for Ohio State, the final score will be an appropriately vengeful 26-18.  Personally, I think the Buckeyes continue to improve and do a little bit better than that:  Ohio State – 30, Purdue – 14

Questions:

1. Ohio State is averaging fewer than 9 completions per game and has earned honorary service academy status.  Will the Buckeyes complete double-digit passes this week?

2. Purdue gives up nearly 260 rushing yards in games against teams with a winning record, about 8 fewer than Indiana.  Last week, Ohio State produced 3 100-yard rushers against the Hoosiers.  Will it happen again?

3. The game is on Big Ten Network, so we should hopefully be spared of too much moronic announcing.  Still, there’s only one topic in college sports this week and the team involved is playing at the same time as we are.  How soon after the opening stadium shot does someone mention Penn State/Joe Paterno, how many plays do we miss due to cutaway coverage, and does anyone compare a decade-long cover-up of serial child rape to lying about ineligible players?

4. And, of course, what do you think the final score will be?

I will go into more details later this week about the OSU vs Indiana game that we saw yesterday. Brief synopsis OSU can run the football really well and can pass the ball really badly. Nothing new there it has been the case all year. Defensively they continue to have let downs on occasion but do enough to win games. I will have a lot more on that later. Special Teams continues to be the most consistent part of this team. A win is a win right?

Around the B1G Iowa showed what most Non-scUM fans already knew this team is pretty much the same it has been the last few years. They are improved some but still have a ways to go and Denard still sucks at the QB position. Before the year started I picked Northwestern to win their division. Yesterday they finally showed me why I made such a bold prediction beating Nebraska in Lincoln. MSU escaped with a win against a revitalized Minnesota team. Wisconsin showed Purdue what a cornered Badger will do and Monte Ball proved he is a 1st team all B1G RB. Penn St. had the week off but I will have a note about them at the end.

The “Game of the Century” proved to be a worse game then PSU vs Illinois. Both Bama and LSU didnt score a TD as LSU won on a FG in OT 9-6. If ESPN thinks this is awesome football they would love B1G football but they really hate defensive games with horrible offenses right Mark May? The SEC bias is so huge they are drooling over a horribly executed football game.

Penn State fans before you go nuts posting replies on this post realize Pennsylvania State Law requires any suspected Child Molestation to be reported to the Dept. of Public Welfare by oral communication within 24 hours and written communication in 48 hours. So many people at PSU broke this law when they didn’t report Jerry Sandusky raping of a suspected 10 year old boy in the Football locker room witnessed by a Graduate Asst. back in 2002. JoePa was told and just casually passed the info onto his boss who had an interview with the Grad Asst. and then shoved the info under the rug. Joe Pa and several others in the know never contacted police and just “Banned Sandusky from bringing kids to campus” basically saying hey go rape kids just don’t do it in our locker room showers any more please. This story is just breaking and if even 1% of it is true is without a doubt the most horrific scandal to ever happen in the NCAA. If you want more info on this story read HERE and HERE as this story continues to unravel it will only get worse so look for more on this story later in the week.

So 2011 has been a roller coaster of a year for the Buckeyes. After a huge win over Wisconsin last week you just hope as a fan that OSU wont have a huge letdown and run off the tracks killing everyone on board. The good news is OSU has a flat track in front of them in the 1-8 Indiana Hoosiers. Their only win on the season coming against Div. Who knows South Carolina State. Indiana may very well be the worse team OSU has faced this year if not in the last 20 years. Their defense is horrible at 114th in the nation in points allowed at 36.2 points a game. their offense is nearly as anemic at 89th in the country scoring 23.2 points a game.

On offense the Hoosiers have turned the QB spot over to Tre Roberson a 6’1″ 184 lb. true freshman from Indianapolis. He is a dual threat QB with good speed and accuracy. He is completing 60% of his passes while rushing for 4.3 yards a rush. He has 4 total TDs on the season. His main issue will be WR. Late last week Indiana kicked DeMarlo Belcher off the team due to breaking team rules. They also lost their 3rd WR Duwyce Wilson to injury for the rest of the season. Offensive juggernaut they will not be.

On defense the Hoosiers are just plain awful. They can’t stop the run or pass with any consistency and they give up points by the handful all day long. They are led on defense by Ohio native Adam Replogle. Replogle has 39 tackles and 4 sacks on the year.

Ohio State will be without Devier Posey (suspension), Jaamal Berry (suspension), and most likely Jordan Hall (injury). If ever there was a week to let Braxton Miller throw the ball 20+ times this is it. The game should be a glorified spring game giving them a chance to keep Braxton’s on the job training moving forward. Boom Herron and Carlos Hyde will carry the workload of the running game which should please Hyde who has been down since losing his carries. Hopefully both will get 15+ carries in the game. Defensively OSU needs to work on closing out games strongly so look for Coach Fickell to work hard at keeping them focused and determined to keep the Hoosiers off the scoreboard.

So that leaves us with the weekly questions……

1.) Will OSU pitch a shutout on defense?
2.) Will OSU score any defensive or ST TDs?
3.) How many passing attempts will Braxton get?
4.) Who has more yards Boom or Hyde?
5.) What is the final score?
6.) Per SportsMonkey’s request a bonus question….. Will Guiton see any playing time this week?

Multiple reports out have confirmed that 4th string running back and El Kaiser’s main man Jamaal Berry has been charged with misdemeanor assault and disorderly conduct for allegedly punching a person in the face after getting into a verbal argument on October 21st at 2:30 A.M. A second witness says that Berry bragged about beating up a “White Boy”. No serious injuries were caused in the altercation. Arraignment is scheduled for Dec. 1. The alleged victim has filed a civil lawsuit in Franklin County seeking unspecified damages.

From OSU: Ohio State spokesman Jerry Emig said in a statement that Berry had been suspended from the team “for violating the university’s student-athlete code of conduct.”

The statement added, “Berry will remain suspended until charges filed against him have been resolved.”

This isnt Berry’s first run in with the law as a recruit he was charged with Felony Drug Possession. Also in September he was involved in a strange case where he allegedly wrestled a student to the ground and was incoherent when the police arrived. He spent time in a hospital but all tests came back negative. He was not charged with any crime from that case as of yet.

Clearly Jamaal has got some real inner demons. He has all the talent in the world but has failed to live up to expectations. Not sure he will survive this latest set back and remain on the team. A very sad situation for all involved for sure.