Our very own Jeremiah was on Canadian Radio this morning on CJAD 800, joining Rick Moffat to discuss the recent signing of Troy Smith to the Montreal Allouettes.

They discuss why Troy might be signing with a CFL team and Rick brings up an interesting tidbit about another former Ohio State quarterback trying to win a starting position with the Allouettes.

You can listen to the segment here:

Have a safe, enjoyable and relaxing holiday with friends and family. (Don’t blow any fingers off with an errant crap-flapper)

This past Saturday, June 22nd, marked the seventh anniversary of the launch of this here little OSU blog site, Men of the Scarlet and Gray.

(Just for reference to how old MotSaG is, the freshmen joing the OSU football team this fall were in the fourth or fifth grade when MotSaG was launched. Twitter didn’t exist. At least we had YouTube.)

In that time, we’ve watched a Heisman Trophy winner grow up right before us, we’ve seen on of the most amazing human specimen to grace a Buckeye uniform, have watched a stiff-arm become a meme, saw the Buckeyes assume their rightful position as Rose Bowl Champs, and got the SEC monkey off their back (no matter WHAT the NCAA says, that game happened and you can not take that away from us).

Unfortunately, we also had to watch a legend fall from grace but along with that, got to watch a phoenix rise from his ashes.

Oh, we’ve also been on a couple amazing NCAA tournament runs, too. A couple Final Fours ain’t too shabby. This was pretty great (see also: here and here).

Oh, and this happened in that time, too:

We shared this Ted Ginn Jr. Highlight film in our first post, and I feel it’s only appropriate that we share it here again, for old-times sake, to remember how blessed we Buckeye fans have been in the 21st century, and to remember how badly Ted Ginn and company deserved that title in 2006. He did not deserve to go out like this.

Those teams of Ted, Troy and Gonzo were something special. I have a feeling Urban has been amassing a group of kids that are going to make Ted Ginn Jr. look like he was running in molasses.

Over the past couple of weeks, your humble blog site, Men of the Scarlet and Gray, has gone through some attrition lately with the depature of some recently added writers, which finds us a little thin in the writing department. With the potentially great 2013 season a little over two months away, the amount of content we want to bring to the masses is too much for us few remaining writers to deliver. We need your help!

We’d potentially like to add three to four new writers to our staff. In particular, we’re looking for an “X’s and O'” guy, a numbers guy and a possibly a couple more people that have blogged in the past or have some writing experience. If you’re a newbie but are interested in blogging or sports writing, we would also be willing to take a couple people under our wings to show them the ropes and give them a chance to express their fandom here on the site. We feel like we have one of the best communities in the “Buckeye Web” and are looking to grow that audience ten-fold as we embark on another season of Buckeye Football (and then Basketball after that).

So if you’re interested in joining the staff or would like to contribute, please drop us a line. You can reach us here in the comments of this post, our Contact Us page or by emailing us at motsag@gmail.com. We’re looking for a solid commitment, someone that can contribute consistent, thoughtful content on a regular basis. We’re not pros here, we’re just some fans having fun. We’d love to have you join us.

We look forward to hearing from you!

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.