Starting today, and mirroring the rounds of the NCAA tournament, we will be voting on the best football moments of 2011. (Stop, don’t laugh, there were a lot of them.)

These moments (not plays, as a couple of these are not a single play, but a moment in time) were chosen and ranked with a variety factors in mind: how that moment affected the outcome of the game, how big of a “Are you kidding me?” moment it was, and if that will be a moment we’ll tell our kids in a decade.

The team here has painstakingly pored over the highlights (again, stop snickering) of the 2011 season and have ranked them #1-16 and will pit them against each other in a bracket format over the next couple of weeks. You, the fearless MotSaG reader will be able to vote for your favorite plays and in the end, we will crown one moment The 2011 Greatest Football Moment of All Time.

As the newest writer at Men of the Scarlet and Gray, I am honored to have this opportunity to contribute in a small way to Buckeye Nation.  I didn’t have the privilege of attending OSU, but I have bled scarlet and gray for years and look forward to sharing that passion here on this site.  One of the things I enjoy is finding a wide-ranging perspective on the breaking stories we hear about our beloved Buckeyes.  On my Twitter account (@Buckeye_JJ, excuse the shameless plug), I often publish links to similar stories taken from websites across the country.  This helps in seeing the national perspective on our team, as well as occasionally uncovering an interesting perspective we may not get here in the Buckeye State.

Preiodically, I’ll be publishing a rundown of some of these stories broken down into the following categories:  Ohio State Football Team news, Ohio State Football Coaching news and Ohio State Football Recruiting news.  I’ll also try to share a quick story that I’ve heard or have an opinion on.

If you’re like me, you are beyond excited to see what’s happening in Columbus these days.  Not only have we gotten one the best football coaches in college football, he’s not disappointed in his drive, passion and commitment to change.  Although rumors circulated that the current players were not initially happy with this new mindset, it’s been exciting to watch how quickly even that has turned around.

Coach Meyer’s desire is to have the most competitive group of young men on the gridiron each and every fall.  Below, I feature several links to stories and videos about how the players are reacting to this offseason regiment.  But, to me, the most gratifying example of this is to follow the players on Twitter  and watch how they are responding each day.  Players are excited to workout, hungry to improve and seem to be enjoying the process, the coaches and each other along the way.  The coaches also seem to be playing up to it as evidenced by new Assistant AD for Football Sports Performance, Mickey Marotti’s (@CoacMickMarotti) comments, “Great workout this morning, Buckeye Nation should be proud. Not as many Loafs today … at the WHAC” (see story below for more details).

This has even filtered down to things outside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.  Take for example, Cardale Jones (@Cordale10) who stated recently, “Class at 9:30 can’t wait to see what I got on my math exam from Wednesday” to which he responded with “96 and whatever on my math exam.”  For a student athlete who has struggled with academics in the past, it sounds as if he is even winning in the classroom. That’s a very good sign to me.  Go Bucks!

Ohio State Football Team News

• Ohio State Football 2012: Predicting the Pre-Spring 2-Deep Depth Chart – Here is a look at what the depth chart may look like before the start of the season, with starters in bold.
• Ohio State Football: The Buckeyes’ Strengths Heading into Spring – Last season was unlike most for Ohio State, and without the hiring of Urban Meyer, the 2012 season could have easily been below-par as well. Buckeye Nation is anxious to see what their new head coach can do with their team, and considering Meyer’s track record, who could blame them?
• Ohio State Football: 5 Reasons Buckeyes Will Dominate Big Ten in 2012 – Meyer, without coaching a single game to date, has already reestablished and rejuvenated the program, as well as the belief of the fanbase that there will be no rebuilding year; rather, the ribbon cutting on a return to prominence will begin in 2012.
• Ohio State Football: 5 Things the Buckeyes Learned from Last Year – Just about anything that could go wrong for the Buckeyes did go wrong as they regressed at times during the season and saw their Big Ten dynasty disappear in the blink of an eye.  But with a new era and a bright future under Urban Meyer—even with this year’s postseason ban—there is much the Buckeyes can take from last year and improve. Here are five lessons they will try to carry with them.
• An indepth look at who will be the replacements in the OSU rushing attack – A look at replacing key talent at the running back spot heading into 2012.
• Ohio State Football: Why the Offensive Line’s Growth Will Make or Break Offense – Ironically, it was current Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer that exposed Ohio State’s poor offensive line play when he was the head coach at Florida during the 2007 BCS National Championship Game. Now that Meyer has come full circle back to OSU, he is working to try to turn the position around after  having only one lineman drafted in the first round since Tressel became head coach (Nick Mangold in 2006)
• Meyer’s incentive-based system encourages growth from OSU players – A great read on how the new rewards system works in the football program at Ohio State and how some players, especially Jonathan “Big Hank” Hankins, are thriving under it.
• An Insiders’ Look into the Ohio State Strength and Conditioning Program – No secret here, these guys are working hard, but they have a ways to go. The ceiling is high. And I’m sure that’s right where Coach Marotti wants them. If effort and intensity is the measuring stick, expect big things from the Buckeye Football team come 2012.
• John Simon talks about offseason drills (Video)  – Beast
• Etienne Sabino talking about offseason drills (Video)
• Buckeyes Should Have New Edge In 2012 – Ohio State’s 2011 defense wasn’t bad, but it was missing big-play ability. Part of that was a lack of sacks, and one of the main reasons was OSU’s inability to bring pressure off the edge.  Here’s a look at what 2012 could bring.

Ohio State Football Coaching News

• Pleased With Winter, Meyer Looks To Spring – A recap of the latest press conference from Urban Meyer as he looks forward to Spring practices.
• Urban Meyer Press Conference, Part 1 (Video)
• Urban Meyer Press Conference, Part 2 (Video)
  
• Urban Meyer Press Conference, Part 3 (Video)
• Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer talks to The Salt Lake Tribune – An interview of Urban Meyer while on his vacation by some of the former press that covered him in Utah.
• Ohio State Football Coach Urban Meyer Is Escaping Florida And Selling His House For $1.7 Million – A sneak peak with photo gallery at how our illustrious coach previously lived in Florida (yes, there is no privacy)
• OSU S&C Coach Mickey “Coach Mick” Marotti speaking to Ohio High School Football Coaches in 2012 – A lengthy, yet informative video of Coach Marotti addressing the Ohio High School football coaches, showing them the new strength and conditioning program at Ohio State and encouraging them to do something similar.
• Assistant AD for Football Sports Performance Mickey Marotti on offseason workouts (video)
• OSU Defensive Coordinator Withers Doing DB Drills (Video) – Watch as the Buckeye defensive backs practice going for the ball at its highest point.
• OSU Coach Hinton Teaches Ball Security Drills (Video) – How many times did we get frustrated at Buckeye players’ lack of ball security?  Here, one of the new coaches at Ohio State teaches ball security drills.
• OSU QB Coach Tom Hermann’s QB Drills (Video) – Watch Braxton Miller and the other quarterbacks as they run offseason drills in the Woody.
• Ohio State’s new offensive coordinator ‘can’t wait to put the pads on’ in spring drills – An exciting story on Tom Hermann and his motivation.
• Ohio State Football: Hiring of Kerry Coombs Another Brilliant Urban Meyer Move – A great read on how the newest Buckeye coach will help recruiting in the Cincinnati area

Ohio State Football Recruiting News

• Future Buckeye Athlete knows the importance of marketing – A great story on how future Buckeye Eli Woodard got his name out to the recruiting world and wound up at Ohio State.
• Ohio State Football Recruiting: Buckeyes Hoping for National Pull in 2013 Class – Ohio State’s recruiting tactics under Urban Meyer have already gone to another level from where Jim Tressel had been recruiting in his time as head coach.
• Ohio State 2013 Recruiting Overview – Ohio State currently has five commitments for their 2013 recruiting class, and all are among the highest-rated in the country at their respective positions. How does the Buckeye big board look as we are about to enter the spring evaluation phase?
• Ohio State Recruiting: 2013 Tight Ends – An early look at Ohio State’s efforts to recruit tight ends in the 2013 class.
• Ohio State Recruiting: 2013 Wide Receivers – An early look at Ohio State’s efforts to recruit wide receivers in the 2013 class.
• Ohio State Recruiting: 2013 Running Backs – An early look at Ohio State’s efforts to recruit running backs in the 2013 class.
• 2013 TE Commit Mike Heuerman Down to Ohio State and Three Others – Mike Heuerman’s recruitment took off in January and has not slowed down since. The four-star tight end has visited Ohio State, Miami, and LSU in the past month.
• Kerry Coombs already making headway with 2014 Conner QB Drew Barker’s recruitment
  
• Inside Ohio State Football with Camren Williams – Camren Williams is a linebacker prospect from West Roxbury, Massachusetts . After the Penn State scandal broke, Camren was recruited by a number of schools but chose Ohio State. He was a much-needed recruit to add depth at the linebacker position.
• Inside Ohio State Football With Frank Epitropoulos – Frank Epitropoulos was another Buckeye that committed early and did not waver in his commitment.  He was the MVP of the International Bowl, an All-Star game for some of the top players in high school football, and graciously took some time for an interview to help Buckeye nation gain an inside look.
• 2013 North Broward Prep High CB Jay Jenkins Has OSU as a Favorite
• Kent Roosevelt (OH) 2013 QB Recruit TraVon Chapman Set To Visit OSU In A Few Weeks
• 2013 Delaware WR Andre Patton will visit Ohio State in March
• 2013 Wichita Falls (TX) Rider QB J.T. Barrett coming to OSU for unofficial on March 12
• Bishop McNamara High (MD) 2013 ATH Milan Collins to visit OSU on April 14
  
• 2014 DE recruit and nephew of Dan “Big Daddy” Wilkinson of Trotwood-Madison: “I love Ohio State!”

Hit the jump to join the smartest portion of Buckeye Nation for an in-game chat as your Ohio State Buckeyes look to win a huge game against the Michigan State Spartans in the Big Ten Regular Season Finale.

[Read more…]

In what seems like years but is actually just a couple of weeks OSU and Coach Meyer landed another recruit for the 2013 class today. Maybe us fans had gotten spoiled by the frantic pace of the first 2 months of Coach Meyer recruiting to save his 2012 class and we got use to daily recruiting pick ups and news. Coach Meyer did warn us that he wanted to slow things down for the 2013 class and get to know the recruits on a personal basis before both sides decided to marry each other in the recruiting process. Well we are a month into the 2013 class and we landed our 5th verbal commit today.

Evan Lisle is a 6’6″ 265 lbs 4* OT from Centerville, Ohio. He committed to OSU today via phone cal to Coach Meyer and the news was broke by Marc Givler of BuckeyeGrove.com. Evan Lisle is a huge OT recruit and ranked in the top 5 of Ohio recruits by Scouts. He is an ESPNU 150 recruit and ranked as the 83rd best recruit by Rivals. Evan fills a need at position we lack depth at and has the size and agility to play either right or left tackle. He needs to put on a little more weight but he has the athletic lean look Coach Meyer wants from his OLmen. he will have every chance to play early and often.

It’s been way too long since I’ve posted one of these. In fact, it’s been way too long since any of us have posted any real new content (besides Sylvester Yon Rambo, who has been keeping the content flowing with his recruiting and coaching updates. I am very thankful for that).

I do have somewhat of an excuse myself. I had to make a trip to the emergency room in early December which lead to an emergency surgery which led to my diagnosis as a Type II Diabetic. Needless to say, that put my blogging activities on hiatus for a while. (The hundred plus hours I’ve put into Skyrim also may put a dent into blogging time). That accounts for most of my absence in December and part of January, but here we are now near the end of February. I don’t have a real excuse for that. But, as the longest tenured (active) Ohio State blogger, I reserve the right to take time off from time to time. It’s been nice to step back for a bit but now I’m ready to get back into the swing of the blogging things.

So new site news:

I have been thinking of giving Men of the Scarlet and Gray a face lift. We have been using the current theme for at least four years now, and it might be time to change that. I really like the new look the guys over at Waiting For Next Year switched to and I’m considering along those lines for our site here.

It’s been a while since I updated the Twittering Buckeyes page so I’ve added a bunch of new Buckeyes and their respective Twitter pages. I’ll update the “current” and “former” lists after the Spring Game and the NFL draft when we have a clear idea of who’s on the team and who isn’t. I don’t follow as many athletes I used to but I’m still amazed at how quickly it has been adopted and how thoroughly Twitter has changed the recruiting game. (Just remember not to tweet those recruits, you booster you!)

I’ve added a little video widget that appears in the upper right corner from Total College Sports where you can find different highlights and sports shows. We get a little cut from the add revenue, so if you feel so inclined, check out a video or two and in turn support our little site here. (I was able to talk them out of auto-playing the videos because I hate that as much as you do.)

We’re also adding another writer to the site. You may know him as Buckeye JJ on Twitter and now he’ll be writing here, helping out with news and recruiting along with original content. We’re also looking to add a basketball writer, too. If that’s something you’d be interested in, please drop us a note expressing your interest and we’ll be in touch.

So what has happened since I last posted one of these?

Oh, nothing, just the usual, groundbreaking, earth shattering changes. You know, life in the day of a Buckeye fan. Since the last ICYMI, Ohio State has:

• Hired a new Football Head Coach.
• Flipped some of the highest profile football recruits, amassing a top shelf 2012 recruiting class.
• Hired some excellent new coaches (so excellent, in fact, some have already left for other jobs in the NFL).
• Got a bowl ban.
• The basketball team got off to a torrid start, cooled off a little bit, and now find themselves in a dogfight for Big Ten supremacy down the stretch.

Maybe I should be doing these a little more often!

UPDATE: In my haste to get this posted, I neglected two items I initially meant to include in this post. One has been pointed out in the comments: We were invited to, and have subsequently joined, the Buckeye Blogger Network. We join a Voltron-like amalgation of the best the Buckeye blogosphere has to offer including Our Honor Defend, The Buckeye Blog, The Buckeye Battlecry, Buckeye House Call and OSU Silver Bullet.

Also, in an attempt to form a more perfect Social Network Union, SYR has established the Official Men of the Scarlet and Gray presence on Twitter. You can follow us there @MotSaG. Of course you can still find us on Facebook and Google+, along with all our individual writers on Twitter, all linked in the sidebar.

From our friends over at Kegs ‘N Eggs comes this awesome video recap of Denard Robinson’s throwing and dunking prowess on the set of ESPN basketball Gameday recently.

For most of his life Eli Woodard was a giant Buckeye fan and he always had dreams and aspirations of becoming a member of the team he so dearly loves. Today he got one step closer. Becoming the 4th member of the 2013 Ohio State recruiting class and the 2nd recruit since last weekends Junior Day at OSU. Here is what he had to say on his Twitter account today when he announced he would be a Buckeye. “After much prayer and consideration, I’m proud to commit as a student-athlete to The Ohio State University! #BuckeyeNation”

Eli Woodard is 6’1″ 185 lbs CB from Voorhees, NJ. He is a consensus 4 star recruit. ESPN has him listed as one of their ESPNU 150 players in the 2013 class. Rivals has him listed as the 28th best recruit in the nation. 247sports has him listed as the 82nd best recruit in the nation. Eli has the cover skills and speed to be a dominant CB at the next level and the football IQ to match. He will certainly get his chances to play early. He also had offers from Alabama, TTUN, Notre Dame, and many others. This is a huge get for Coach Meyer and his staff but was made early by lots of ground work done by Jim Tressel and the past staff. Eli Woodard joins fellow commits Cam Burrows and Jalin Marshall and Billy Price. This 2013 class is taking shape nicely and is setting up to be a top 3 class again.

The class of 2012 for Ohio State started off with a popcorn fart and ended with a thermal nuclear style bang. Ohio State had a disappointing recruiting class under interim head coach Luke Fickell. The Buckeyes were losing key recruits like Kyle Kalis, Kyle Dodson, Se’von Pittman, Taylor Decker among others that would have been locks to be Buckeyes. They were going elsewhere due to the resignation of Jim Tressel and the uncertainty of the impending NCAA ruling.

Then this happened:

Urban Meyer brought OSU’s recruiting class from being ranked 25th and fast approaching being outside the top 25 to the 3rd best recruiting class in the nation and did so in less than 2 months. Meyer brought in 11 prospects including getting 5 star RB Brionte Dunn to recommit to Ohio State. Without Meyer, Dunn was likely headed to Michigan.

During his introductory press conference Meyer talked about the need to bring in offensive linemen and linebackers. He did just that. He brought OT Kyle Dodson from the clutches of Wisconsin, OG Joey O’Connor and OT Taylor Decker who switched from Notre Dame. He then went out and got LB Camren Williams, LB David Perkins and Jamal Marcus who played defensive end in highschool but may end up playing the MLB position at Ohio State.

Kyle Dodson is a badass

Jamal Marcus is a player that Meyer coveted. Meyer called his highlight reel borderline ridiculous. You be the judge.

Meyer also went out and recruited one of the highest rated groups of defensive lineman to ever come to OSU. He started with Noah Spence, then added Adolphus Washington and then took Se’von Pittman away from Michigan State. Meyer also wrestled Tommy Schutt away from Penn State. Spence, Washington and Schutt are all 5 star blue chip recruits and Pittman is no slouch himself as a 4 star recruit.

Spence is a pure speed rush defensive end that had 3 sacks in the Under Armour All-American game, setting a record.

Adolphus Washington is a mixture of size and speed and will most likely play opposite Spence on the other side of the line, or he could move inside after he adds size and strength. Washington had 23.5 sacks as a senior.

Tommy Schutt will be licking his chops with Washington and Spence coming aboard. Schutt will play the interior defensive line for the Buckeyes. Schutt had 14 sacks his senior year.

Brionte Dunn is a player that nearly went to that school up north before Urban Meyer became head coach. Meyer fought hard for Dunn to stay a Buckeye and this kid who is a 5 star talent could very well be too good to keep off the field come September. He is already enrolled at OSU.

Here is a list of the full class for 2012:

QB-Cardale Jones-3 Stars
RB-Warren Ball-4 Stars
RB-Brionte Dunn-5 Stars
WR-Mike Thomas-4 Stars
WR-Frank Epitropoulus-3 Stars
WR-Ricquan Southward-3 Stars
TE-Blake Thomas-3 Stars
OT-Taylor Decker-4 Stars
OT-Kyle Dodson-4 Stars
OG-Joey O’Connor-3 Stars
OG-Patrick Elfein-3 Stars
OG-Jacoby Boren-3 Stars
DT-Tommy Schutt-5 Stars
DE-Noah Spence-5 Stars
DE-Adolphus Washinton-5 Stars
DE-Se’von Pittman-4 Stars
LB-Jamal Marcus-3 Stars
LB-Joshua Perry-4 Stars
LB-Camren Williams-4 Stars
LB-David Perkins-4 Stars
LB-Luke Roberts-3 Stars
S-Devan Bogard-4 Stars
S-Tyvis Powell-3 Stars
CB-Armani Reeves-4 Stars
CB-Najee Murray-4 Stars

The one thing missing from this class that Meyer coveted was an offensive play maker with gamebreaking speed. He was gunning for Stefon Diggs but Diggs chose to stay home in Maryland. But fear not Buckeye fans. In 2013, this kid will be coming to fill that void…Meyer will have his OSU version of Percy Harvin:

Jalin Marshall folks….remember that name.

How did the rest of the Big Ten do? Not so great. Outside that school up north (who finished just behind OSU at 4th overall nationally) Big Ten schools really struggled to attract top flight talent in 2012. The Big Ten really needs to step it up if they want to compete with Meyer and the Buckeyes.

School/National Recruiting Ranking:
Ohio State-3rd
Michigan-4th
Michigan State-37th
Iowa-45th
Northwestern-48th
Nebraska-50th
Purdue-51st
Indiana-52nd
Wisconsin-62nd
Minnesota-67th
Illinois-69th

After losing out on a top rated WR recruit on Friday Night Ohio States Coach Meyer and his staff went into complete hibernation and depressed mode….. NOT. They had a huge weekend lined up with Sunday being a one of many Junior Days that will occur this year. Some of those in attendance had already been offered and some walked away with fresh offers. One though came away very impressed and chose to end his recruitment early and committed to Ohio State.

Billy Price a 6’4″ 285 lbs DT from Youngstown, Ohio is listed as a 4 star by every recruiting service. ESPN has him as one of their ESPNU 150 players. 247sports has him listed as the 148th best recruit in the nation. Rivals has him as the 130th best recruit in the nation. All of them say the same thing he is a strong strong strong young man. He has the ability to play OT or DT at the next level and could play anywhere on either line if needed. He becomes the 3rd recruit in the 2013 class joining Jalin Marshall and Cam Burrows.

By now you’ve heard that Bret Bielema and Mark Dantonio are a couple of giant babies, each complaining to some degree about the way Urban Meyer recruits.  Dantonio called Meyer “unethical” for doing what every other Big Ten coach–including the head Spartan himself–does, namely recruiting kids they would like to have play on their football teams.  Bielema stepped it up a notch, because he’s the Earl of Douchebury, flat out accusing Meyer of “illegal” tactics and even asking Daddy Alvarez to escalate his concerns to Big Ten chief Jim Delany.

To Alvarez’s credit (wow that was hard to type guys), he basically turned the whining around his head coach, declaring that Meyer’s aggressiveness is not unscrupulous, a thinly-veiled way of lighting a fire under Bielema’s lazy recruiting strategy.

I imagine that most of you are like me, and find Dantonio’s participation in this Lifetime movie to be more surprising than Bielema’s.  As a Buckeye fan with fond memories of Dantonio’s suffocating defenses, I have always cheered for his teams after he moved on (unless they were playing us, of course).  I admired him for his no-nonsense demeanor and occasional major risk-taking in games.  Meanwhile, Bielema is Bielema; this is what he does.

If you hadn’t seen it, you would have never guessed that these were the two coaches who faced off in the conference championship game last season.  Oh wait, that’s the whole point, isn’t it?  Look at it from their perspective:  the Big Ten has just been divided in such a way that there are essentially three “powers” in each division.  Chances are that some combination of those teams (Michigan, Michigan State, and Nebraska vs. Ohio State, Penn State, and Wisconsin) will be featured in 90% of the Big Ten title games we witness.

So what does Dantonio see?  A Nebraska team that will still take a couple of years to adjust their new environment coached by a guy who is perpetually fighting the urge to FINISH his own players Mortal Kombat-style, and a Michigan team that had a nice turnaround under new coach Brady Hoke but still didn’t beat “Little Brother.”  The future was wide open.

And Bielema was probably just downright schoolgirl-giddy.  Both of his primary divisional nemeses had just lost their legendary head coaches to scandal.  It is still unlikely that Penn State will recover any time soon.  Things were going to be so easy for him: cruise through the Leaders, then tangle with Sparty every year for the BCS spot.

Then Urban Meyer showed up with a hungry staff looking to add a little spark to what was at the time a decent but not special recruiting class.  And then the kids started flipping like it was Cirque Du Soleil up in here.  If you think Penn State’s Bill O’Brien has been silent on the issue because he doesn’t care or is too preoccupied with the Patriots, you’re wrong.  He’s just trying to make it to Sunday without Meyer turning Gronkowski.

Finally, if there was any doubt as to the effect this would have on Meyer:

“You’re pissed because we went after a committed guy? Guess what, we got 9 guys who better go do it again. Do it a little harder next time.” – Urban Meyer

(h/t Brandon Castel @ theOzone.net)