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?

Presented, always, without comment. But this bears stating: Ohio State has allowed opponents into the red zone five times in three games.

As always, stats are grabbed from cfbstats.com.

I think they need to check the furnace filters here at work — it just got REAL dusty in my cubicle.

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.

Quick programming note…

Google has (temporarily, we hope) suspended our G+ account due to “violations of the Google Plus names policy.” When we set MotSaG up, we used our standard Google account that has been in place since 2006.

Until Google rolls out their G+ business pages, this is technically a violation (since “first name: MEN; last name: OFTHESCARLETANDGRAY” is not a proper name). Go figure.

We’ll be trying to work this out and will keep you posted on progress. In the meantime you can always catch us on Facebook if you prefer.

Stay tuned for future updates.

This year marks the first ever Big Ten Championship game thanks to the addition of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. One of the reasons I absolutely love the idea of a playoff in college football is because I believe it would make the regular season that much more entertaining and add drama to an already action packed fall. The addition of a championship game in the Big Ten does the same thing. Right now there are 6 teams in contention for the B10 title game.

First let’s take some time to briefly list the pretenders:

Indiana
Purdue
Iowa
Minnesota
Northwestern
Illinois

Iowa may still be a contender, but have a tough road to hoe and we will learn a lot about them this Saturday vs. Michigan. The rest of them are just not going to contend…but could play the role of spoiler…but probably not.

A 3 team race has taken shape in the Legends division with Michigan, Nebraska and Michigan State all tied at 3-1 in conference play. This has been a very evenly matched division with the three top teams trading blows. November will decide it.

Michigan is left with Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and Ohio State. The first two games are on the road and they finish at home with two tough contests. Does anyone really know how good Michigan is? They have played 1 ranked opponent in Michigan State and were beaten up pretty much all day. Their defense is much improved and but their offense has come down to Earth from last years startling production. Denard Robinson has started to split snaps at QB with Devin Gardner. Robinson continues to struggle throwing the ball, while continuing to light in up with his legs. The question is; will he survive the rest of the reason:

Nebraska controls their own destiny. They have already played and beaten Michigan State and they have a road game at Michigan. If they win out, they will represent the Legends division in the championship game. This is another team I’m just not that sure of. They beat up on Michigan State and beat Ohio State (thanks ginger) but them lost badly to Wisconsin. Their offense is your standard college option offense. Their QB is very similar to Denard Robinson. Taylor Martinez lights it up on the ground, but becomes a turnover machine when he throws it. The finish with Northwestern, Penn State, Michigan and Iowa….certainly a difficult task.

Michigan State in my mind isn’t as good as their record indicates. They squeaked by Ohio State in Columbus and did so when OSU wasn’t quite jelled on offense yet. They also lost badly to Notre Dame and Nebraska. They did beat up on Michigan and have the tie breaker there. The may end up winning the division simply because they have a fairly easy remaining schedule. Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana and Northwestern…not exactly murderers row.

Should be fun to see these three teams duke it out, but I see Michigan State running the table and taking the division…simply because of their lollipop end of season schedule.

3 teams realistically have a shot at the championship game in the Leaders division. Penn State, Wisconsin and Ohio State.

Penn State is 5-0 in conference play and certainly control their own destiny. However, they are undefeated against Indian, Iowa, Purdue, Northwester and Illinois. They have barely beaten all of those teams. Their defense is outstanding as they have the best scoring defense in the Big Ten. They run the ball well with Silas Redd, but that’s about it. They run a two QB system, but Matt McGloin gets most of the reps. He is not a very good QB…Rob Bolden is worse. They finish with Nebraska at home and have Ohio State and Wisconsin on the road. Good luck with that. They have a bye week this week, so we will see just how good they are vs. Nebraska on November 12th. I just don’t think they are that good.

What on Earth happened to Wisconsin? Oh, that’s right…this happened:

Wisconsin is 2-2 in conference play and will finish with Purdue, Minnesota, Illinois and Penn State. They need to win out and Penn State to lose twice and Ohio State to lose one more time. They do have a very good offense, but their defense is suspect. I look for them to win out.

Ohio State has come on like gang busters of late. After two gut-wrenching losses to Michigan State and Nebraska, Ohio State is 2-2 in conference play after a thrilling homecoming victory vs. Wisconsin last Saturday night. Ohio State finishes out with Indiana, Purdue, Penn State and Michigan. I see wins vs. Indiana and Purdue and then something happens…Devier Posey comes back. When Mike Adams and Boom Herron came back from suspension this team completely transformed…I think Posey has a similar impact on the passing game. By them, Miller will have two more games under his belt and be ready for the stretch run. This has been missing from the OSU offense:

I see Ohio State winning out and Penn State losing twice. I just don’t think Penn State is all that good this year. Sure, Joe Paterno has done an amazing job coaching this year as always:

Sorry, but I don’t believe he coaches a thing…and I’m tired of him getting credit for wins. I’m tired of him getting credit for breaking records. He is the exact same thing as the Queen of England. They are both a thousand years old, they both wear the same brand of diapers and they are meaningless figureheads. From time to time they say funny things and make appearances here and there, but at the end of the day, they aren’t important. If anyone thinks Paterno is coaching Penn State they are crazy. He sits in a box in the stadium without a headset and watches the game while his assistants do the heavy lifting. End rant.

Even if Wisconsin wins all their remaining games, OSU has the tie breaker with them head to head. Plus I think Wisky losses to Penn State via a last second hail mary…again. It’s going to be an exciting 4 weeks of football to determine who goes to the first even Big Ten Championship game.

Buckle up.

We’ll have the Wisconsin game recap (Spoilers: we won!) up soon but for now:

The huge exciting win on Saturday against Wisconsin is already starting to pay off big time on the recruiting trail. Ohio State was hosting several top football recruits and they all have been very vocal about the experience and atmosphere. Some going so far to brag about rushing the field with the team and fans after the victory.

It didn’t take long for one of those recruits to give his verbal. Michael Thomas a 6’4″ 203 lb WR from Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia gave his verbal today after his father gave his endorsement of the young mans decision last night after the game. Thomas is a 4 star player according to rivals. Thomas played High School football at California Taft and enrolled at Fork Union due to grades after being an Under Armor game player last year. He just happens to be the roommate of Cardale Jones an OSU QB recruit who will be enrolling in January with Thomas as well. Thomas is also the nephew of Keyshawn Johnson. Fork Union also should be well known to OSU fans as they once upon a time gave us a player named EDDIE GEORGE.

Another update on the game and recruits Bri’onte Dunn the highest ranked recruit in this years class who has been rumored to be questioning his verbal to OSU by a lot of the pundits continues to show his love and support for OSU. He wears a Go Bucks wristband in every game and was fully decked out in all OSU gear for the game on Saturday. He always says he is 100% committed and his actions have backed that up to this point no matter what those pundits say.

The 2 biggest recruits OSU are chasing HS teammates Dwayne Stanford and Adolphus Washington from Cincinnati were at the game and they are scheduled to announce their verbals after Stanford visits Oregon on Nov. 10th. All signs seem to point to the tandem signing with OSU this year.

Lastly, Se’Von Pittman the no. 1 recruit in Ohio this year who has verballed to MSU earlier this summer was at the game and refused to say his commitment to MSU is solid and that he loves Ohio State. Causing many to wonder if Fickell can steal the recruit back since Pittman was always a heavy OSU lean before verbally committing to Dantonio and Co.

It is amazing how playing good football and winning a big game can do to help heal some wounds and get things going in the positive. OSU still awaits their fate from the NCAA before some of the better recruits will make a final decision but for now kicking some Badger Butt and making Bret Bielema cry on Barry Alvarez’s shoulder all night has gotten everyone excited about OSU football especially the future recruits.

OSU and Wisconsin have brewed themselves a strong rivalry in recent years. Of the past ten matchups between Wisconsin and Ohio State, half have ended in upsets. The other half have contributed to the outcome of the Big10 championship race, in one form or another. This includes last year’s game, when the top-ranked Buckeyes suffered a special teams meltdown that gave 18th-ranked Wisconsin the victory.

The Buckeyes have been very clear: This date has been circled on their calendar for an entire year. Wisconsin. Payback. Night game. Script Ohio under the lights. Homecoming. Old school Big10 pro-style power. Nike Pro Combat uniforms.

Adventures in Optimism
Fans of both teams well know that, in recent years, schedule and ranking are meaningless. Overconfidence in this game invites psychological pain. Concerned about Wisconsin ranking in the top six nationally in both offense and defense? Well, OSU was ranked there last year and it didn’t give them an advantage.

Of course, the comparisons to past years can only go so far. Ohio State is under new management, and predicting what a Fickell-led, full-of-freshmen team is capable of when we only have Tressel senior-led teams against which to compare is tenuous at best.

But, for a moment, let’s allow ourselves some room for optimism. Bollman aside, Ohio State’s offense may very well be better than we all think. Until the injury to Miller caused a team-wide meltdown, they were moving the ball at will against Nebraska.

The rushing performance against Illinois has not gotten the attention it deserves. Sportswriters, bloggers, and armchair quarterbacks have focused on the poor passing game and ignored the more impressive issue: that Ohio State ran where it wanted, when it wanted, against a solid Big 10 defense, that knew what was coming and had put ten – TEN – defenders in the box in a futile attempt to stop it. Excluding the sacks (which were passing downs), OSU only had two negative plays rushing the ball all afternoon.

I don’t care if OSU was rushing against JoeBob’s Tire and Lube University – it’s almost impossible to run against a box stacked with ten defenders. And yet OSU did it for the entire afternoon… with no magic, no trickery.

OSU is 19-1 when Boom Herron gets 55 yards. Do you think Boom will get 55 yards this week? I’m betting he can.

The bye week came at the perfect time. Coaches have been reporting that OSU will unveil a new short-passing game to better complement Miller’s strengths. Against Illinois, Bollman called 12 passing plays; that number is expected to rise significantly.

For all of Wisco’s success over recent years, it should be noted that Bret Bielema’s success in “big” games is really poor. He’s 1-5 against top 10 teams (the lone win courtesy of OSU’s special teams meltdown last year), and more often than not tends to cave when the stakes are high.

Have I mentioned that the Badgers’ special teams belong in special class? Wisco is ranked 98th in field goal accuracy and 118th in covering punt returns.

Adventures in Reality
If ever a beatdown looked better on paper, this is it. The stars aligned for Wisconsin this year. They have a team full of veteran leaders and star skill players, who get to play the (statistically) worst offensive OSU team in history for what should be a cakewalk to the B1G East title (no I’m not using that other term).

By this point it’s a broken record: OSU’s defense is good enough to keep the team within reach of any game this year. The poor offensive coaching, combined with a team full of first-year starters and #3 backups, is maddeningly unpredictable and what will determine a close OSU win or a humiliating blowout.

Jump for joy if:

• OSU’s special teams and/or defense score
• Miller completes double-digit passes
• Two OSU RBs get 100+ yards

Doom is nigh if:

• Wisconsin gets up big early
• OSU’s offense is pulling three-and-outs in the second half, leaving the defense on the field for Wisconsin to wear down

I think I’d rather predict an upset and be wrong than predict a Wisco annihilation and be right. Therefore, based on matchup potential and rivalry issues only, I’m going for the upset: OSU 27-24.