We haven’t done an open thread in a LONG TIME. What is an open thread? A place to unload anything that’s on your mind on the eve of this, one of the last weekends before football arrives. The opening of camp is sort of like the Black Friday of the college football season. It means that wanna-be holiday (Thanksgiving or the off-season, take your pick) is over and some serious football is about to be had.

Also, like Black Friday, there will probably be some collateral damage as large people stampede towards the goal (Thirty dollar DVD players or touchdowns, take your pick).

Normally we would be awaiting the arrival pictures from stalwarts like Josh Winslow but with a new regime change comes changes. As in “Arrival” is no longer a “thing”. Some players have been practicing since the wee-hours of the morning. How many gassers have you done already? Well the Buckeyes have done all of them.

So with that, here’s a lunch time thread to discuss the anticipation of the upcoming season: what’s got you excited? What’s got you nervous? Will John Simon be arrested at the fifty yard line for assault with a deadly weapon (his arms) on Denard Robinson? Will Mark May finally spontaneously combust on air? Or will this be the year Reece Davis chokes him out?

This newest recruit is pretty unknown to most OSU fans and to those on twitter though he is known as the guy who claimed to be a Buckeye but wasn’t a Buckeye. His story is strange and sad but ended with a story book happy ending. About a month ago he announced on his twitter account that he was OSU bound and was the newest member of the 2013 class the only problem was Ohio State wasn’t ready to accept his commitment. Coach Meyer asked the young man to prove he really wanted his spot and to lose 20 pounds before his next visit to OSU for Friday Night Lights. He did exactly what they asked of him and his commitment was accepted to the relief of him and his family. Crisis averted here is the info on the 16th member of the OSU 2013 recruiting class.

Tim Gardner is a 6’5″ 320 lbs OLman from Indianapolis, IN. According to ESPN he is rated a 3 star Guard who is tough and strong and will bring a physicality to the OL. 247sports and Rivals both have him as a 3 star as well but Scout lists him as a 2 star. He doesn’t really fit the body style OSU has recruited for OL but has shown he is willing to put in the hard work needed to get where they want him.

In what can only be described as mind boggling a few months after ESPN unsuccessfully sued Ohio State in Ohio they have decided to do a weeks long filming of OSU football training camp. Many OSU fans will no doubt be confused and pulled in both directions as I know I am. Do I continue my personal boycott of the media company that claims to be the World Wide Leader? Do I consider this programming as a live game which is the only thing I watch on their network? I don’t know about the rest of you but I am too intrigued at seeing this much OSU football info before the season starts to not watch it. To each their own though I fully understand if many of you choose not to watch but if you do below you will find a complete schedule as well as the press release from OSU.

Here is the press release from OSU-

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State fans will get a close-up on the 2012 Ohio State Buckeyes and new head coach Urban Meyer when ESPN debuts a series of All-Access specials beginning August 14 on ESPNU and additional ESPN platforms. The network is coming to Columbus the first week of fall camp to shoot ESPN All-Access: Training Days Ohio State.

With extensive behind-the-scenes access to on- and off-field play, team meetings and campus facilities, ESPN cameras will introduce players and coaches as they work through pre-season training across six days. Viewers will see four, 30-minute specials on ESPNU (August 14-17), a five-part series across College Football Live (August 19-23) and a one-hour special on ESPN (August 22).

Previously, ESPN All-Access: Training Days has spotlighted the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Oklahoma Sooners’ programs.

ESPN All-Access: Ohio State Training Days – Schedule

If ESPN is not your thing there will be a 1 hour special on the Big Ten Network on Aug. 19th at 10 PM EST. The special will be the BTN behind the scenes show giving you an inside look at OSU football training camp as well.

Olympic Spirit

Things are about to get crazy here in Buckeye Land. Fall camp opens tomorrow and the (un)official start to the Urban Meyer Era begins. I say (un)official because he has been granted what I will call the Bill O’brien exemption. He has a year where literally nothing “counts”. Don’t tell that to John Simon and his fellow seniors, but Urban has the unusual and enviable position of having a year to work out kinks before things like conference championships and BCS bowls come into play.

And speaking of Coach, I could sit and read Urban Meyer’s quotes all day. But we don’t have time for all of them, so here are a few gems (we are not responsible for whatever arousal you may feel after reading these):

“Don’t ask me about the enthusiasm next Friday [when practice starts],” Meyer said. “There are 125 teams in the country, and I guarantee you, 125 of them will be enthusiastic the first and second day of practice. Ask me the 10th or 11th day. The 10th day is the second or third two-a-day. They’re tired, sore and maybe their girlfriend told them to go pound salt. I want to see who likes football then. Because nobody likes two-a-days, except maybe John Simon.”

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer. No love for Division 1-AA, coach?

“Braxton has to pass the ball for us to have a chance for success. We had a non-functional passing offense last year. We had one game [Illinois] when we completed one pass, and won the game,” “I’ll see when we start practice if Braxton Miller is a leader, if he has brought the receivers together,” Meyer said.

Also from the Plain Dealer. Can I also just say how much I LOVE that Meyer is taking ownership of this team’s “shortcomings” from last year? It’s like he knew what was in his future.

“That was an angry team,” said Meyer, who won the first of his two national crowns that night. “Every coach’s dream is to coach an angry team. You can stoke that. I’m hoping [this is] a very angry team.”

From the Dayton Daily News

“Braxton Miller has a lot of skill set that Tim (Tebow, the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner) didn’t have,” Meyer said. “Braxton Miller is dynamic. He’s the most dynamic athlete I’ve ever coached. “What I just said, people should go ‘woo!’ And really, he is — and by far.”

“If you have to say what our offense does, it’s we’re trying to (put stress on) the defensive ends. We want to take their best player, which is usually the defensive end, and we want him to have to put both feet in the ground and go like this (look side to side wondering where the play is headed). And when we’ve got extremely fast people and extremely strong people doing that …”

Be still, my beating heart. (via the Dispatch)

So you already know that the Bri’onte Dunn “thing” went down this weekend. Because we’re not in the blogging game to be the first (most of the time!) we decided to hold off on any posting until the story came out. And we’re glad we did because jumping to conclusions was happening quite a bit over the weekend and most were woefully off the mark. From “The Sky is Falling” to “Meyer has lost control” to “ESPN hates us” (okay that one didn’t happen). We know this music. Here, more or less is how things went down: “Ohio State Buckeyes’ running back Bri’onte Dunn charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia”. Later: “Online reports elsewhere Sunday incorrectly said Dunn was arrested.” (See where this is going?) “Despite the circumstances that led to the traffic stop, the police report does not indicate that police gave Dunn a sobriety check, nor that they took blood samples. Both are indications that Dunn did not appear to be under the influence and there was no probable cause for such checks.” and finally:

“After a complete review of police reports, supplemental narratives from officers, witness statements and an approximately 30-minute police cruiser video, Alliance City Law Director Andrew Zumbar has authorized the filing of disorderly conduct and seat belt violation charges against Ohio State freshman running back Bri’onte Dunn and his passenger. He will not face drug charges.”

– From Todd Porter at the Canton Repository

Todd Porter did strong work covering this story, but I’m not sure we can forgive him for this: “It is the biggest tackle Dunn has broken in his young Ohio State career.” /groan

And in the end, “Ohio State freshman running back Bri’onte Dunn reportedly passed a team-mandated drug test Tuesday — a day after the five-star prospect from Canton GlenOak learned he will not face drug charges related to his weekend traffic stop in Alliance.”

The END. (Hopefully)

I do want to mention something, though, about this situation. I heard this on Twitter, on the local sports talk radio, and even people whose opinion I actually value: this nonsense about hoping someone else would take the blame. Whether it was his friend (who was a girl) in the car with him, or his mother (which she actually did) or whatever, I don’t feel that’s right. You do the crime, son, you do the time. Am I alone thinking this?

Finally, in non-Buckeye News, there were reports yesterday that five men roughed up star Wisconsin running back Montee Ball near campus early yesterday, inflicting head injuries serious enough to send him to the hospital.

All I can picture is Mama Boucher asking if they “ever found the gorilla that done punched you in the eye.”

The search continues, mama.

The other match-up in the Semi-final Round of the 2011 Football Moment Bracket is a bittersweet one, matching up Braxton’s life imitates video games 81 yard run against the defensive Goal Line Stand against Penn State. This game has gone down the proverbial memory hole.

It’s no secret to you that Ryan Shazier had his coming-out party against Penn State, but I just love watching him play in this sequence of downs.

#2 Braxton’s 81 YD Run (Indiana)

VS.

#3 Ohio State’s Defensive Goal Line Stand against Penn State

[poll id=”25″]

Hi there. You may remember me formerly as el Kaiser’s grand idea of having a little bracket competition of all the great Football Moments of 2011. Man, that was a great idea, wasn’t it? Things got kind of busy for us, but he’s bringing it back just in time for the weekend! We’ve moved on to the third round when things should be getting real interesting.

Round Three: #1 Braxton’s TD Throw (Wisc) vs. #4 Evan Spencer’s One Handed Grab (Akron)

This is sort of a win-win situation for Braxton. He’s going to come away with at least some part of this victory. But you go ahead and vote for your favorite moment between these two.

And I’m not trying to bias anyone’s opinion, but I am STILL getting chills from that Wisconsin play.

#1 Braxton Miller’s Touchdown Throw against Wisconsin:

VS.

#4 Evan Spencer’s One Handed Grab (Akron)

[poll id=”24″]

Last November 900 year old Joe Paterno, head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions was fired. He was fired for his lack of leadership which allowed former PSU defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky to roam freely and abuse children, over and over and over. Shortly after this news was made public there was a massive outpouring of emotion from fans. No…not for the outrage over what Sandusky had done and what top leadership failed to do at PSU…but because Joe Paterno was fired. Students did this:

And they went to Paterno’s home to show their undying support for the wrinkled, diaper wearing false idol:

Oddly enough I don’t remember them showing the same support for the victims in the Sandusky situation. Football, football and more football. It reins supreme at Penn State. It trumps all. From top to bottom it created a culture where even child rape was swept under the rug and forgotten about. Why you ask? To protect the football team. Football in State College spiraled out of control. The current powers that be knew they had to do something. So they hired the former director of the FBI (Louis Freeh) to investigate what happened at Penn State and this is what he found:

Excerpts

● “Four of the most powerful people at The Pennsylvania State University — President Graham B. Spanier, Senior Vice President-Finance and Business Gary C. Schultz, Athletic Director Timothy M. Curley and Head Football Coach Joseph V. Paterno — failed to protect against a child sexual predator harming children for over a decade. These men concealed Sandusky’s activities from the Board of Trustees, the University community and authorities.”

● “The Board (of Trustees) did not create a `Tone at the Top’ environment wherein Sandusky and other senior University officials believed they were accountable to it.”

● “Before May 1998, several staff members and football coaches regularly observed Sandusky showering with young boys in the Lasch Building (now the East Area Locker Building or `Old Lasch’). None of the individuals interviewed notified their superiors of this behavior.”

● “Janitor B explained to the Special Investigative Counsel that reporting the incident (a 2000 encounter during which a colleague saw Sandusky molesting a boy in a school shower) `would have been like going against the President of the United States in my eyes.’ `I know Paterno has so much power, if he wanted to get rid of someone, I would have been gone.’ He explained `football runs this University,’ and said the University would have closed ranks to protect the football program at all costs.”

● “The special investigative counsel found no evidence to indicate that Sandusky’s retirement was related to the police investigation of him in 1998.”

● Handwritten note, apparently from Paterno to Sandusky: “If there were no (Second) Mile, then I believe you … probably could be the next Penn State FB coach. But you wanted the best of two worlds and I probably should have sat down with you six or seven years and said look Jerry, if you want to be head coach at Penn State, give up your association with the (Second) Mile and concentrate on nothing but your family and Penn State. … You are too deeply involved in both.”

● “A reasonable conclusion from Spanier’s email statement (in 2001after a graduate assistant reported seeing Sandusky with a boy in a shower) that `(t)he only downside for us is if the message isn’t `heard’ and acted upon, and we then become vulnerable for not having reported it,’ is that Spanier, Schultz and Curley were agreeing not to report Sandusky’s activity.”

● “Neither Spanier nor the University’s General Counsel, Cynthia Baldwin, briefed the Board of Trustees about the Grand Jury investigation of Sandusky or the potential risk to the University until the Board’s meeting on May 11, 2011 and, then, only at the request of a Trustee who read the March 31, 2011 article” published by The Patriot-News of Harrisburg.

● “Spanier and (university lawyer Cynthia) Baldwin opposed an independent investigation of the Sandusky issue, with Baldwin stating that `(i)f we do this, we will never get rid of this (outside investigative) group in some shape or form. The Board will think that they should have such a group.’ Spanier agreed.”

● “The Board was unprepared to handle the crisis that occurred when Sandusky, Curley and Schultz were charged. This contributed significantly to its poor handling of the firing of Paterno, and the subsequent severe reaction by the Penn State community and the public to the Board’s oversight of the University and Paterno’s firing.”

Findings
● Penn State officials including coach Joe Paterno and university President Graham Spanier concealed information of Sandusky’s activities from authorities and the public to avoid bad publicity.

● Paterno, Spanier, Vice President Gary Schultz and athletic director Tim Curley “empowered Sandusky to attract potential victims” by failing to restrict his access to the university despite receiving two reports of illicit sexual contact involving him and children.

● Spanier failed in his duties as president by not informing the board of trustees about the allegations against Sandusky and the subsequent grand jury investigation.

● Once aware of the grand jury investigation, the trustees failed in their duty to the university by not pressing Spanier for details about Sandusky’s situation.

Less that two weeks after the Freeh report rocked Penn State and the rest of the country the NCAA stepped in and we all know how that turned out. 4 year bowl ban, huge scholarship reductions and a 60 million dollar fine among other things. Upon hearing this news the Penn State faithful once again showed their disgust:

Again, their disgust is solely football related. Here is another gem…and this time 9/11 is compared to NCAA sanctions on Penn State:

Lest anyone forget, here is a rundown of what Jerry Sandusky will be spending the rest of his life in prison for:

Cruising the blogosphere since the NCAA handed down arguably the harshest punishment in NCAA history to Penn State I’ve read some insane posts by Penn State fans. Here is a taste of what I’ve read from around the web:

From PSU’s Scout.com forum:

OP: “I propose that this year, in remembrance of the victims, Penn State wear all
black helmets with black face masks.

Thoughts?”

Reaction to OP:

“Dumb”

“When Saturday afternoons roll around I want to enjoy 3 hours of
football not remember victims.”

“Why black? They’re not dead. This isn’t Baylor.”

“NOOOOO!!! No more apologizing!”

“I propose putting “409” on the side of every helmet and
across the chest where some jerseys have the school name, in large letters
VACATE THIS.”

“The victims are not the players problem they have nothing to apologize for……
Erickson signed the papers it’s his problem!”

This is just a small, small sample of what I’ve read. The level of hatred these people have for Louis Freeh, Mark Emmert, Rodney Erickson and the NCAA are at a frenzied level. I will say that this isn’t every single PSU fan out there. Some of them are actually sane and accept people have done wrong and there are consequences to those actions. But most Penn Staters I’ve read up on, are living in a fantasy land and seem to be sheltered from reality in some way.

What they fail to understand, even with everything that has happened and come out against their false idol is that they failed to lead when it mattered most. Sure, it’s nice that Joe Paterno was able to fart his way up to the booth to “coach” games and all, but when his leadership was needed most…when innocent little boys needed protection from a monster…football was chosen, time and time again.

At the end of the day who cares what these Penn Staters thinks…they got blasted worse than any school in the history of college football. And did so because the highest ranking leaders protected a game over protecting children from a known serial rapist that once begged for death, because he could stop himself. They protected this:

I keep asking myself why they have so much hatred for the NCAA, Freeh, Emmert and Erickson, and not the same level of hatred for Sandusky, Paterno, Spanier and Curley? It’s because of what happened at the top for so long. It’s why the NCAA stepped in and did what they did. The fans in State College have been poisoned by these people. The culture from the top all the way down to the bottom is rotten at Penn State. Football trumped child rape for 2 decades at the highest levels of leadership…and today, after Paterno is disgraced and dead, Sandusky locked up for the rest of his life, Spanier and Curly waiting their fates in court Penn State fans still put football first.

If you look close enough…

…you can almost see the ghost of a liar and a coward.

We Are!

After what I assume most of you know by now was devastating sanctions leveled against the PSU football program you must be asking why I think the NCAA did them a favor. Here is my thought process in a nut shell up until 2 days ago most PSU fans and a lot of CFB fans didn’t believe the NCAA would do anything to PSU and that the courts would handle punishing them for their transgressions. But in a 48 hour span Mark Emmert President of te NCAA became judge, jury, and executioner. He relied solely on an outside investigation the Freeh Report.

The NCAA didnt have a long drawn out investigation and dig into all the things PSU may have covered up or to find out what rules may have been broken in the career of Joe Paterno. The NCAA didn’t make PSU and its fans wait months or even years to find out how they will be punished. The NCAA didn’t let a group of corrupt officials make their own findings and punishments. The NCAA allowed Emmert to come up with all of this based on a report payed for by the BOT of PSU. Sure the sanctions are horrendous and difficult to deal with for PSU and its fans. Some will say they are fair and others will say they are unfair but it is done and over with. PSU fans wont have to deal with 10 months of ESPN talking heads saying what they think could happen if the NCAA sanctions them. Below you can see a list of the sanctions levied by the NCAA and judge for yourself the harshness of them. But PSU fans be thankful the NCAA did you a favor and ended this today and didnt drag it out and your school for months or years to come.

Penn State has been hit with a 4-year bowl and-postseason play ban.

Penn State has been fined $60 million, which will go into an endowment for children’s causes.

The Big Ten also gave its punishments to PSU today because when there is a pile you better make sure you are on it. PSU is banned from B1G CCG for 4 years and will not be awarded any bowl monies for those 4 years. Roughly 13 million more. All of which will go to charities for children just like the NCAA fines. Penn St. was also hit with censure which means it has NO say on any B1G conference policy discussions.

If you want to see completely irrational and biased opinions on todays sanctions and the whole scandal stop by our friends at Black Shoe Diaries and just read the comments on their articles. Here is hoping they can all find closure soon and at least remember this is all about pedophilia and the cover up there of. If you do anything today remember the poor children who were devastated by the actions of Sandusky and the Big Wigs at PSU including one Joe Paterno.

Here is a video of PSU students reactions to todays sanctions live…. I assume they are so upset about what the kids went through right?

Video via Tony Gerdeman at The Ozone @GerdOzone