Normally, our in-house rabble rouser Sylvester Yon-Rambo can be found on ESPN.com stirring up fans of opposing teams after another Buckeye beat-down (how many times have you been banned from ESPN, SYR? Five? Six times?) but recently SYR was nothing but civil participating in Adam Rittenburg’s weekly B10 chat. We normally wouldn’t link to Adam’s chats but the one’s with MotSaG input hold a little place in our hearts:

Jeremiah (Pittsburgh)

With all the expansion talk I have been trying my best to figure out how they would split the divisions. My best guess is East and West. But this completely makes the divisions unfair IMO. Is there a way to make the divisions where OSU and PSU and Michigan aren’t in the same division? Is there something I am missing where making 2 divisions wont be unbalanced to one side?

Adam Rittenberg (4:28 PM)

Jeremiah, I’m glad you asked this. Everyone needs to put the geography thing aside when trying to form the divisions. It’d be great if everything was neat and nice, but I’m more interested in competitive balance. Putting Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State in the same division would be a major mistake. I would either put Penn State in a division with Wisconsin, Iowa, etc., or split Ohio State and Michigan and maintain a protected crossover rivalry like the SEC does. You still run the risk of rematches in the championship game, but it’s not a terrible option.

We haven’t talked much about expansion around these parts (outside of the occasional rumor) but we all have our preferences (I’d prefer to see Pitt, SYR would like to see UConn) but when things eventually do happen, we’ll be ready.

But this business of playing on a Thursday night doesn’t feel right. Call me a football snob or purist, but I almost feel that playing Thursday nights is beneath Ohio State.

Flash Thomas is gone, which makes this MotSaG’er sad, because I always thought he could have been our version of Percy Harvin — fast, versatile, electric. But wherever he ends up, we wish him good luck.

OSU is the unanimous #5. Would you have believed this after the Purdue debacle? I don’t think I would have. But here we are. Oh! The Big Ten is also the only conference with three top ten teams (with Wisconsin filling out the sweet sixteen). Say hello to you 2010 Preseason #2?

Pete Carroll looks to be gone, which kinda makes sense if you read between the lines and could potentially set USC up for a mighty fall.

“big ten redemption” was the winner of the inaugural MotSaG Bowl Pick’Em contest. I would also like to take this opportunity to brag that I finished fifth, which isn’t too shabby in my book. Other MotSaG’ers didn’t fare as well, so we won’t bring them up.

I should have our final BlogPoll ballot up tomorrow and I’d really like to hear your guys’ feedback. I also realized I never posted my final thoughts on the Rose Bowl. I don’t know when (or if) I’ll get around to posting it, but I’ve watched the DVR’ed game numerous times and I really do have some great memories of that game. Man it was a good bowl season to be a Buckeye.

Adam Rittenberg at ESPN.com is reporting that Thaddeus Maximus Gibson will enter the 2010 NFL Draft:

Ohio State defensive end Thaddeus Gibson will forgo his senior season and declare for the NFL draft, according to sources.

Oh well. WWAHG (We will always have Gholston)

Update: It looks like Thad is the only junior leaving early. That means Cam Heyward (Thank the Maker), Chimdi Chekwa, Ross Homan and Jermale Hines are all sticking around for their Senior seasons. Shades of Mike Doss, anyone?

Just kidding! It was just really tough to find anyone with a good picture of Terrelle stonewalling someone with the Stiff Arm of Justice 2.0.

Yes, the Stiff Arm of Justice 2.0 (SAoJ 2.0) made occasional appearances this season, but never was it as in full effect as it was for the Rose Bowl. Thanks to a happy ABC producer, we got to see it over and over again. Hopefully this will trend continue throughout the year 2010.

OSU 26 Oregon 17


Jake Ballard is the new Bill Brasky. Goes about 8 foot, 400.

Last time the Buckeyes were playing in the Rose Bowl, most of the current Buckeyes were in the first or second grade. Hopefully some of them saw one Joe Germaine lead the Buckeyes down the field against Arizona State in one for the ages. We sure would like to see something like that again!

But we’re not here to talk about the past. (What am I saying? We Buckeye fans live for past glory.) Really, though. Let’s talk a little about tomorrow’s game.

While we’re at it, let’s see what others are saying:

A few words on the Oregon defense. Buckeye Football Analysis has a look at both their schemes and how they match-up with OSU. Oregon does do some interesting things on defense, but they are susceptible to the deep ball if Ohio State is committed to establishing the run. Ohio State should have the personnel to take Oregon’s CB’s one-on-one.

Sam @ WWAHT says:

I think Oregon’s defense is far, far better than most Ohio State fans are giving it credit for, and that anyone that thinks Ohio State is going to bulldoze the undersized Oregon front did not watch either team very much, and certainly did not watch Ohio State’s game against Purdue, or Oregon’s game against USC. The Buckeyes are perfectly capable of moving the ball on the Ducks, but it’s not going to be a walk in the park.

I think I’m going to respectfully disagree with Sam here. With regards to Oregon’s defense, I will say that Ohio State should have its way with them. This is a defensive unit that feeds off the success and momentum of their offense. When their offense is able to put the opposing teams in a position to play catch-up, Oregon’s defense is able to do things they normally wouldn’t be able to if the game is close. If OSU’s Defense can stop Oregon from scoring, I think the Duck Defense could be in trouble.

As far as OSU’s offense going up against the Ducks D, BFA astutely notes:

Ohio State is fortunate in that their primary rush plays–Power (Dave,) Iso, Zone read–are precisely the plays that teams have had the most rushing success against Oregon with. Ohio State must establish the run game between the tailbacks and Pryor a la Stanford to open other things up. To do so, they need to mix and match between the pro and spread sets to keep Oregon off balance and not let them freely flip between their 7 and 8 man fronts. The Dave and Zone read plays, in particular, will provide big play opportunities versus Oregon that OSU must take advantage of.

I hear you rolling your eyes over there!

Ohio State’s offense gameplan is simple enough. Keep them off-balance and pound away. I’d like to see some more of that counter action with Brandon Saine. I think Brian spelled it out it best: TGDCD

Why the hell doesn’t Michigan have That God Damned Counter Draw in its arsenal? Michigan is now a shotgun team that uses a metric ton of rolling pockets and in my experience TGDCD is 80% touchdown, 20% fail. Ohio State didn’t even mean to call it and they scored on it.

We all know what Ohio State’s defense has been capable of. Shutting down Masoli and keeping him between the tackles will be the utmost importance. I’m still maintaining the belief that Blount looked like he wasn’t at game speed yet against Oregon State and could potentially be a non-factor. I also think Brian Rolle and Ross Homan are licking their chops thinking about swallowing LittleMichael James whole. These are two statements that could make me look woefully stupid, but I’m willing to make them.

See Corey at Eleven Warriors for a counterpoint to my statements.

It’s Masoli that makes my stomach hurt. Things he does with those stumpy little legs and shifty hips could break some OSU ankles and make people look silly. OSU’s back four will have to be ready to make some serious open field tackles. Sayeth James Laurinaitis (via PlayMaker Mobile [no link to actual content]):

Masoli concerns me. He is a true dual threat. He can run, he’s got speed, good shakes and he can throw. Plus he can run you over. He really is perfect for that system. They have two good running backs in Blount and LeMichael James, but if you focus too much on stopping them you lose site of Masoli. Larry Grant went to San Francisco City College and has been telling me about Masoli, because they played together. If he wins that game against Stanford he deserved to get his name in the Heisman talk. He’s that good. He’s not a prototype so he flies under the radar a little, but next year, he’ll have an opportunity to be one of the guys being talked about. The key to this game is making Oregon one dimensional, take away that zone read. You have to stop their running game and turn them into a passing team. If you don’t stop the run against Oregon you have no chance of slowing that offense down. Joe Bauserman is crucial. He’s got to give the defense good looks. He’s got good speed and good shakes so he can emulate Masoli, but you still have to stop the real thing. It won’t be easy, but that’s the key to the game.

Here are four words I thought I’d never hear: “Joe Bauserman is crucial“. But Little Animal should know a thing or two about preparing for an offensive attack like Oregon’s. Masoli concerns me, too.

So here we are, twenty-four hours (and counting) from kick-off. Time for Ohio State to regain some of that National Respect© and start preparing for a run at a title in 2010.

And now we’re looking for some final score predictions. Vegas has Oregon favored by 4 points, a line that hasn’t moved a whole lot since the game was announced.

I say Ohio Sate 31 Oregon 27

What say you?

Your first course: Statistics

As always, stats are grabbed from cfbstats.com.

Things are slow around these parts. How about some bullet points?

• You’ve probably seen this already, but it appears that Duron Carter and Robert Rose (oh, the irony) could possibly pull a Reggie Germany and make themselves ineligible for the Rose Bowl. No official word yet.
• Finally, SOMEONE gets it right. That SOMEONE is The Sporting News, as they rightly selected Ohio State’s Hurt Coleman for their First Team All-American Team.
• Jeff and his merry band of bloggers over to Sports Blog Nation, filling the vacancy left by We Will Always Have Tempe. We Will Always Have the We Will Always Have Tempe Blog.
• This Big Ten Expansion talk is getting heavy and outside my realm of expertise. I personally don’t see a huge upside outside of Notre Dame (never gonna happen), Pitt (I’d be okay with that) or maybe Missouri.
• There’s still a couple days to get in on the MotSaG Bowl Pick’em contest (complete with a snazzy prize!)