Congrats are in order for Chris T, the winner of this year’s College Bowl Pick ‘Em contest. His TangemansPicksofDestiny just edged out atjbuckeye’s picks 467-462. For winning this year’s contest, Chris also wins himself a 50$ gift certificate to Amazon.com.

MotSaG writer Trevor was the highest finishing member of the staff. For his good picks he gets NOTHING. (YOU GET NOTHING!)

Thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s contest. We plan on holding more contests in the future and hope you’ll join us again!

With just a week before the holidays, we thought we’d throw out a helping hand with all you Buckeye fans picking some gifts for all the Buckeye fans in your life. This time of year is stressful and the last thing you want is to be stumped for what you should get for the Buckeye fan that has everything. (You could probably start by grabbing that guy a couple rolls of Ohio State Duct Tape.) With that said, here are a few ideas we had perusing the vast assortment of Ohio State themed items at Amazon.com. (and seriously, if you’re not shopping entirely online at this point, what gives?!)

First up is a little advice to all you guys out there. If your significant other happens to be of the female persuasion, short of diamonds and pearls, there’s nothing better than a outfitting your fine lady in one of the many women’s clothing options at your disposal. This may seem like a gift that very little thought was put into, but just remind her you’ve gone ahead and made her decision of “what to wear?” for next fall’s Saturdays all in one gift!

We know that we have a beautiful, intelligent female readership, so if your gifts are going to that man in your life, you can never go wrong with one of these. (Just kidding, Mrs. Kaiser!).

Actually, us guys are pretty simple. Get us a grill cover, a meat brand and a pile of steaks and we’re golden. No reason to overthink this too much.

There are plenty of books about the history of Ohio State Football out there, but I’ve been meaning to read 1968; The Year that Saved Ohio State Football for a long time.

Memorabilia is another way you pretty much can’t go wrong, and this Eddie George Autographed Jersey would look AMAZING framed and hung in any Buckeye Fans mancave.

What about the Xbox 360 gamer in your life? This Ohio State themed Xbox 360 Vinyl is top notch:

Instead of going for a new console, these vinyls are designed to fit over your existing Xbox 360 console and pretty much announce to everyone in the living room that the gamer here in this household is also a Buckeye. For life. (or at least until the Xbox 720 comes out)

For your friend who’s stuck working with some Michigan grads, this framed “Teamwork” poster is a double whammy: A) People come by the office and see it’s one of the Motivational Posters proclaiming the virtues of teamwork. Brownie points from the boss and everyone else thinks your clever. But, upon further examination, the observer sees B) whoa that’s a big old pile up of Ohio State dudes smothering that little winged Michigan helmet. Double Brownie points!

Finally, if you subject your poor four-legged best friend to the humiliation of wearing human-like clothing, you could do worse than this. But please, think of that poor dog’s feelings. Hook him (or her) up with something a little more useful, like an OSU football dog toy or go the distinguished route and do even better with one of these Ohio State Buckeyes Stainless Steel Pet Bowls.

That’s a good boy!

We could go on, but let’s just finish up with a handful of the more quirky things you can find on Amazon including a Block O ice tray, a Block O toaster and the nightmare fuel that is that Brutus the Buckeye Bundt Pan.

And finally, I’m not trying to drop any hints or anything (Mrs. Kaiser I hope you’re still reading this) but I know someone really well who would love to find one of these under his tree this time next week: Vernon Gholston Signed Ohio State Buckeyes 8×10 Photo

(Note: All these Amazon.com links have our affiliate code embedded in them. If you purchase something through our link, we get a little commission and you support our site with no extra cost to you. It’s greatly appreciated.)

We here at MOTSAG are opening up our secret club house to a few new writers. We are looking for a professional hahaha, just kidding. I can’t believe I actually used that word. We are really just looking for a few people who love the Buckeyes and who have some free time to dedicate to writing for the world’s oldest (active) Buckeye Blog. You don’t have to be the best writer [but it helps! -ed] or know how to spell or put together coherent sentences — our resident editor and founding father el Kaiser will fix all your mistakes and barely shame you into checking your work before hitting publish. I assure you if writing know-how was important here they would never let me post. You do, however, need to have basic knowledge of writing and of what you are writing about.

Requirements:

1. Be able to name at least five Buckeye football players who played before Jim Tressel took over the program.
2. Be able to write weekly posts that don’t include all the words your momma wouldn’t let you say as a child.
3. This is a PG rated family blog (we want our wives and kids to read).
4. A good sense of humor is a must. We don’t take much of this seriously and want you to do the same.
5. A thick skin is required in order to deal with people who disagree with you especially those PSU fans.
6. Dedication to helping make this a better blog for all our fans.

If you think you are the kind of person we are looking for and you seriously want a shot to write with all of us and you want to be part of the awesomeness that is myself and the other humble MOTSAG writers then drop us a note (either using the Contact Us page or an email to motsag@gmail.com) answering the following questions below:

1. Who is your favorite Buckeye of all time and why?
2. Who is your least favorite Buckeye of all time and why?
3. Did we win the bowl game we were in the year you were born and what game was it?
4. Innie or Outie?
5. Other then TTUN which teams fanbase do you hate the most?
6. Have you ever or do you currently write for anyone else and do you have an example of your work?
7. Other then myself (obviously I am) who is your favorite OSU blogger?
8. Tell us your favorite joke (Please keep it PG)
9. Chicken Wings Bone-In or Boneless?
10. Honestly how many well thought out articles will you write a month?
11. Do you have a twitter account and if so what is it?

Thank you to each and everyone who applies our goal is to add as many qualified writers as we can before the season starts. If you are hired your compensation package will include the following: A key to our secret clubhouse as well as the secret handshake. There is also always the possibility that el Kaiser will share one of his many Groupons and take you out to lunch as well.

I never got clear instructions on how to handle this week’s ballot, what with the nail-biter Monday night game (even though I didn’t think I’d be ranking either team anyway) so here’s the ballot I submitted late last night. It’s loosely based on a one-week resume with a side of the previous week’s preseason expectations. I know by not ranking Oregon or TCU I’ll deserve some rebuking, but I’m willing to take those lumps. Those guys will earn their way back into the rankings.

Have at it:

Men of the Scarlet and Gray Ballot – Week 2

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU Tigers	17
2	Boise St. Broncos	–
3	Oklahoma Sooners	-2
4	Wisconsin Badgers	8
5	Baylor Bears	–
6	South Florida Bulls	–
7	Stanford Cardinal	-4
8	Florida St. Seminoles	1
9	Alabama Crimson Tide	-5
10	South Carolina Gamecocks	-3
11	West Virginia Mountaineers	14
12	Nebraska Cornhuskers	-2
13	BYU Cougars	–
14	Ohio St. Buckeyes	-1
15	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	-1
16	Arkansas Razorbacks	5
17	Mississippi St. Bulldogs	–
18	Texas A&M Aggies	-7
19	Houston Cougars	–
20	Florida Gators	–
21	Virginia Tech Hokies	-15
22	Michigan St. Spartans	-7
23	Iowa Hawkeyes	-7
24	Missouri Tigers	–
25	Penn St. Nittany Lions	-2
Dropouts: Oregon Ducks, TCU Horned Frogs, USC Trojans, Georgia Bulldogs, Texas Longhorns, Nevada Wolf Pack, Notre Dame Fighting Irish

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

Earlier today MotSaG contributor Jeremiah posted some of this thoughts on the topic of Morals vs. Wins. In that post he stated his opinion rather frankly and that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. I want to state that his views, while they are valid (they are opinions, people), are not the views of this site. Jeremiah acknowledges that he is speaking for himself and not for MotSaG as a whole.

When I started MotSaG and invited people to contribute, I always wanted their contributions to stand on their own and I didn’t want to stop anyone from posting how they feel about the Buckeyes. But this post stepped over those bounds and I feel that it doesn’t reflect properly what MotSaG is and stands for.

I read this post after Jeremiah posted it and I didn’t think the reception would be so vitriolic. Jeremiah has told me he wishes he could have expressed himself more eloquently. He likes to pose questions that cause people to stop and think but sometimes those questions come out awkwardly. I know him personally and know where he’s coming from but you readers don’t know him the way I do. You can only infer what his point of view is through what he wrote. He wanted to pose a question about the dilemma college football fans are faced with but went about it in an abrasive way. It’s just how he is.

Jeremiah stands behind his statements. We debated taking the post down but decided it should be kept up for posterity. Comments have been closed but the post will live on. We may revisit this topic in the future with a more nuanced post. But for now we are going to move with our lives. Life is too short to get worked up.

I thought I should take a couple of minutes between filling out tax forms and wandering the halls looking for a vending machine to formally introduce myself and give you some insight into what makes me tick.  Obviously, I’m a huge Buckeye fan and if you’re reading this you probably are too.  If so, all that remains to be said is “O-H!”

There’s a small chance that you’re just some mischievous troll who pokes around blogs dedicated to teams other than your own looking for opportunities to take cheap potshots at whatever miscellaneous pseudo-scandal is currently plaguing them.  If that’s the case, I’m glad you’re here too.  Even though I’ll never understand your motivations, I like to assume that there is some value in everyone’s existence.  For instance, it was recently discovered that cockroach brains produce antibiotics far more effective than current medicines.  I would gladly support cracking open your skull in the name of science.

Anyway, here a few OSU-related things about me that may come in handy in the future:

1. I am 100% sold on Tresselball. Yes, it can lead to frustrating white-knucklers on a near-weekly basis, but it’s hard to argue with results.  We win a lot of games this way, and the underlying principles are sound.  Despite its inherent conservatism, it’s still flexible enough to take advantage of the individual talents of players.  While there’s probably no way to prove this, I’d bet that most of the breakdowns under this philosophy are on the execution side rather than the scheme side.

2. I hate the BCS. And that’s an understatement.  After more than a decade with the oft-tweaked system in our lives, I think it’s safe to say that it has not been a significant improvement over the old way.  It has created more problems than it’s solved and turned what was once a day full of top-notch match-ups into a weeklong excuse to employ Mark May during which maybe two good games occur.  It’s essentially the same thing that happens when someone at Saturday Night Live says, “We should make this into a movie.”

3. I think Sully should enter every game inside of a giant egg. Just saying.

4. I’m not sure I want Michigan to ever be good again. I know I’m supposed to want them undefeated when we play so that the win is more satisfying for us and the loss more heartbreaking for them, but have you ever actually tried to cheer for them against anyone else?  I just can’t do it; the hate is too strong.  There was a time when Michigan was always going to be at least good, and during that time I believed that was the best thing for the rivalry.  But now that I’ve seen what it’s like when they’re pretty terrible… I kind of like it.  With the new divisional format and Nebraska joining the fold, Michigan’s success may not be the requirement for national conference respect it once was.

Well, I better wrap this up and get back to orientation before I miss where they keep the highlighters.

Later.

A quick programming note: The MotSaG staff is growing as we add another writer to the staff. Here at the site he’ll be known as “Cloud of Dust” but if you’ve been reading Men of the Scarlet and Gray for a while you’ve already read his work on the “Poll Dancing” series during football season.

I’ll let him introduce himself however he likes but we should be seeing content coming from the Cloud of Dust shortly. Join me in welcoming Jason into the fold.

(via 30fps)

I don’t know for how long, but Jim Tressel’s The Winners Manualis available for free on the Kindle.

I should have done this ages ago, but I finally got around to modifying the site to handle mobile browsers like iPhones and other web-capable smart phones. It won’t look pretty but hopefully it will be a little easier. If there are any issues, please let me know.

In that vein, I’d like to do a quick reader poll. I know I could dig into my logs for this information, but this is a quick and dirty poll — how do you visit the site (and read the content)?

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So I’ve never really done one of these before, but here we are at the beginning of the fifth season that has been chronicled here at Men of the Scarlet and Gray. I figured I would take a second to step back see what’s gone on and what we’ve got on tap going in to this season.

First of all, if you’re new to the site, Welcome! Drop a note in the comments how you found the site and what you think. Whether it was following a link from another site, from a Facebook or Twitter link or Google search, we salute you. You can learn a little more about the site, including our commenting policy (updated!) and our writers (hint: some of the writers need to update their blurbs). If you’ve been around for the last few years we thank you. We have the best readers in world.

As for the next few months, content here will take on a consistent schedule. We won’t be deviating from the format during the season we’ve had in the past. We’ll have game previews and reviews, we’ll have open threads and prognosticating contests and we’ll be reporting and commenting on most comings and goings in Buckeyeland. I’m not sure what we’ll be doing for the actual games each week. Last year we participated in the Live chats that a handful of sites participated in and had quite a good time. For now, we’ll probably continue that trend unless something else presents itself.

We’re also social. We love social networks! They provide so much, especially when you get essentially unfettered, uncensored access to people (athletes) we watch every Saturday. So that’s why I’ve got a Twittering Buckeyes page so you can see what current and former Buckeyes are on Twitter and what interesting or inane things they’re saying. You can catch some of us on Twitter (I’m i_aint_yer_pa, sportsMonkey is monkeyPi and YNBA is teamyzerman). Follow us! We also have a Facebook Page, because it’s 2010 and your dog has a Facebook page. For the love of all that is holy, Like us!

Another thing I wanted to mention was the increase in new OSU blogs that have entered (and promptly left) the Ohio State Blogoshoe in the past few months. I’m sure you’re aware of the new Sports Nation blog, Along the Olentangy (I would have went with “On the banks of the Olentangy” but that would be a rather unwieldy URL). Other new sites that have appeared on the Blogroll recently include Inside The Shoe, The Ohio Sports Journal (which is edited by a good friend of mine) and The Duane Long Report (I know Duane’s been around for a while but I just recently started following his blog). And we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention our good friends over at uber OSU blog Eleven Warriors just went through a major overhaul of their site.

So where does that leave us? I don’t know if it came through the past year or two, but the monkey and I got pretty burned out blogging about the Buckeyes. As anyone will tell you, it ain’t easy to do this week in week out. We have real jobs (and are doing EVERYTHING we can to keep said jobs). That’s why I brought on three new bloggers in the last year or so. We needed an infusion of new blood and excitement and I think we’ve accomplished that goal. I also think the monkey and I are getting back into the groove. At least we hope we are.

So that’s where we are on College Football Eve’s eve. Is it Thursday yet?

(Also: Don’t forget to vote for your favorite preview video! The polls close tomorrow!)

We are looking to add a news editor to write for Men of the Scarlet and Gray. If you’ve ever wanted massive amounts of fake internet fame and wealth (or you just wanted to write about the Buckeyes), now is your chance.

We are looking for someone that can commit to writing 2-4 posts a week, mostly blogging about the current Ohio State news. In keeping with the MotSaG state of mind, we’d like to keep it on the light side, humorous when appropriate and downright hilarious if it involves Michigan.

It’s also expected that the new writer participate in “the discussion,” commenting when appropriate and more specifically when your own posts generate comments.

The initial focus will be on news posts with the plan to eventually have you more involved in the editorial type content.

Pay will be initially in pats on the back and imaginary internet dollars with the hope that that will become more. (Don’t forget about that internet fame!)

If you’re interested, please send us an email to motsag@gmail.com or send us a note from our Contact Page. Please include a couple samples of your writing or links to things you’ve written online. Experience with WordPress is nice but not required.