Not really sure how to start this since I am so confused on so many levels here. Let me start off with saying first of I, a man of great insignificance, have scored an exclusive interview. Before I start I will give you the back story leading up to how I landed this exclusive interview with the man, the myth, the legend Braxton Miller.

I am in Columbus for the Ohio Safety Congress & Expo at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. The city I work for has sent me down for the three day event to take some classes and learn some important information about safety that I can take back to make the division I am responsible for safer. After sitting through a few lectures then talking with some vendors I realized I was extremely hungry and had a craving for a lamb burger with a Guinness beer. The first place that popped into my head was The Pub over at the Polaris Mall, great place if you’ve never been able to eat there. After enjoying my dinner I decided to take a walk around the mall noticing that for a Tuesday night not many folks were there which was kind of nice.

I stopped at one of the two Starbucks for a coffee, seriously why do you need 2 Starbucks this isn’t Dublin. I’m walking around enjoy my extremely hot cup of joe then all of a sudden I notice someone, I’ve heard rumors he likes to hang out at Polaris also nobody mess with him like nobody recognizes him. It’s Braxton Miller sitting by himself looking at his phone. I’m not one to go disturb someone’s peace but something told me just to go shake his hand and say hi at least so I have something to tell my grandchildren one day.

Nervous for some reason, probably afraid he’s gonna yell at me for disturbing him, I walk up, say hi and introduce myself. Miller stood up, shook my hand and said it was nice to meet you. While he’s shaking my hand I tell him I am a contributor with this site he then immediately throws my hand down in disgust. I am shocked trying to figure out what all of a sudden went wrong.

Do you know Jeremiah he asks. My answer is of course yes. I explain he is one of the founders of this site. Miller goes on asking what is wrong with him and why did he have to break the Advocare news which has since made this last week a major pain for him. I explain that I wasn’t part of the process but explain that we really aren’t in the breaking news business just a blog but if we get or find information we go through extensive process of verifying stuff also we don’t just erroneously report things to get “hits”. I talked to him about the Carlos Hyde situation then discussed with him about some information that I received after he got hurt that we never ran. It seemed after we talked for five more minutes he knew I was telling him the truth which gained his trust so for some reason I took a leap into the unknown.

I asked Braxton if I could possibly have an exclusive interview with him if he had ten minutes. He looked at his watch which to my surprise said sure why not. I tried to hide my look of shock then grabbed out my Note 4 asking if it was ok to tape, it has a nice voice recording app on it. He was cool with it so we sat down, started to talk then about six minutes into the interview that’s when he dropped the bomb shell that I was never expecting.

“I am leaving Ohio State”

After the interview I shook his hand also telling him how gracious I was for his time. I walked away impressed about what a class act that Braxton Miller is and its going to be such a shame to see him leave when his career is over at Ohio State.

Thad Matta has won a ton of games at Ohio State that will never be an issue. Thad Matta is one of the best recruiters in CBB that cant be disputed. Thad Matta has has some high level recruits not pan out though and that caught up to him this season. Was Thad discouraged? I am sure but he just went back out and loaded up on his 2015 class with 5 top 150 recruits. Now he has his first big get for the 2016 class. So lets get to know this young man.

Derek Funderburk is a 6’9″ 210 lbs 4 star Center from Lakewood, Ohio. Derek is a Top 50 recruit with a 98 rating in the composite rankings. Derek will bring toughness and athleticism to the center spot at OSU something they have missed the last 2 years. He also will be the focus of the 2016 as he goes out to help recruit the rest of the class.

CSU: While you Adjusted Sails in the Winds of Change, You Blew Opportunities
for Dedicated Young Men

by Josephine Gartrell

“The decision to no longer fund wrestling at CSU was a very difficult one. . . ., said John Parry.
“Program prioritization,” it is called.
“Lacrosse is the fastest growing sport. . . .”

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Every cloud has a silver lining. When the winds of change blow, find opportunities. All good in theory, but I believe that the young men of the Cleveland State Wrestling Team are thinking more along the lines of, “Why is life so unfair?” Perhaps, the entire wrestling community is asking the same question. Perhaps wrestlers across this great nation of ours are wondering when their program will be dropped for the more popular kid in school.

I married into wrestling. I grew up with a mom and a sister, took ballet and tap dance, gymnastics, and gave it my all in Ponytail softball – a sport in which I demonstrated profound deficiencies. However, over the last three years, I have become an avid an Ohio State Wrestling fan, and have so much admiration for the young men on that team. Let me explain why.

Ninety percent of success in life is showing up. In wrestling, that figure moves to one hundred percent. It is not just the top of the house in wrestling to whom this applies. Those who have never seen a wrestler’s workout have no idea of the level of intensity. Every one of them is working harder than most of us could even imagine. Jump rope for seven minutes – see if that is hard. Watch a wrestler for seven minutes – there is no comparison. Cross-Fit – move over.

Those who have never watched young men on any stage, no matter how large or small, pace up and down the mats awaiting their bout (I think that’s what it is called), should have a look. Imagine being involved in a sport where you have been working at one hundred percent for years, where every nutritional choice could be a matter of loss or victory, where you are expected to quash the normal college experience in many respects, . . . and then imagine that the other guy pacing the mats could hand you your head on a platter in a matter of seconds. Your intensity and performance are only as good as your opponent’s lack thereof.

Yet, wrestlers are by nature workers. They are intense. They want victory. Every time they hit the mats, they know that there is no guarantee of a win. All they know how to do is show up and fight through seven minutes – with no one but themselves to fall back on. After seven minutes (assuming all goes relatively well), one is called a winner and one is called a loser. The loser should almost garner more respect than the winner because his sport will require him or her to get back in the saddle in no time to wrestle back and hope for a placement. Not easy after a literal butt-kicking.

This is not necessarily meant to be a knock on the character or dedication of lacrosse players. The sports are definitely different, and many would argue that lacrosse is more “fun” – to play and watch. However, it appears that CSU’s move is just another example of how our society blows whimsically through changing times without consideration of what grounds us. We value money and fun more than perseverance, self-reliance and discipline. That is the lesson that these young wrestlers just learned; unfortunately, as their scholarships just blew away.

The unit that improved the most last season, in my opinion, was the secondary. After being torched the last three games in the 2013 season, the hiring of Chris Ash and some young talent taking over helped turn the secondary into a formidable defense. It’s early, but here’s the way the secondary could shake out, with one spot to fill in the gradated Doran Grant.

Who To Watch

There’s a spot open at cornerback because Doran Grant has graduated. The two names I think we’ll here connected to that spot are Gareon Conley and Damon Webb. Conley, class of 2013, took a redshirt in the 2013-14 season. He was a four star recruit, and saw minimal playing time this season. He started the Michigan State game in place of Eli Apple, though Apple came in not late into the game. Damon Webb played as a true freshman last year, primarily on special teams. If you play on special teams as a true freshman under Urban Meyer, you’re probably pretty good. Neither Conley nor Webb has significant playing time at the cornerback position in college, so spring ball will be huge for them. Conley’s action was mainly in relief last season, and he got chewed apart for the portion of the MSU game in which he played. However, I still give him the edge to be the starter, because his minimal experience is more than Webb has, and Webb is younger. The wildcard in this position battle is senior Armani Reeves. He has primarily been the nickelback, and as a senior has the most experience of the group. However, the young talent on this team will prove quite a challenge for Reeves. The last name that might surface is redshirt freshman Marshon Lattimore, who sat out last year with a hamstring injury. While a highly touted recruit (right behind Damon Webb in the 247sports.com rankings), missing last year due to injury puts him behind in experience.

The Veterans

Safeties Tyvis Powell and Vonn Bell return, as well as cornerback Eli Apple. All three of these players will, barring injury, retain their starting positions. All three of these players played huge roles in the Buckeyes’ run through the playoff. Bell picked off Alabama’s Blake Sims in the end zone after a shanked punt, causing a huge swing in momentum. Tyvis Powell intercepted the Hail Mary at the end of the Sugar Bowl. Eli Apple intercepted the last pass of the National Championship Game. These three are going to have the secondary on lock down with another offseason together. Their communication and feel for each other will improve, and I expect these anchors of the secondary to lead this defense to be one of the nation’s top pass defenses next season.

The Depth Chart

Thanks to three returning starters, this isn’t as much as a guessing game as say, the quarterback position.

CB – Eli Apple; Marshon Lattimore

CB – Gareon Conley; Damon Webb

S – Tyvis Powell; Cam Burrows

S – Vonn Bell; Erick Smith

Apple, Powell, and Bell are solidified at their positions. As I said earlier, I give the edge to Conley to take the other CB starting position, but that could change at the end of spring practice. Cam Burrows will backup Powell, and Erick Smith, Bell. Smith saw some time on special teams last season, and should factor into the rotation in the secondary this year when Bell needs a breather/is injured.

Braxton Miller has been pimping a company called Advocare on his Instagram account lately and today he dropped this picture which clearly reads like an advertisement….

NCAA violation- Such compensation may not include any remuneration for value or utility that the student-athlete may have for the employer because of the publicity, reputation, fame or personal following that he or she has obtained because of athletics ability.

and

Student-athletes are not permitted to be involved in the advertisement, endorsement or promotion of a commercial product or service of any kind.

If you click on the link on Braxtons Instagram it lists Braxton as a Distributor.

What will come from this? Who knows maybe nothing. Maybe Braxton already plans on not playing in the 2015 season and is just working on his financial future. Stay tuned there will be more for sure.

CONSPIRACY THEORY

Braxton Miller didnt declare for the NFL draft. He has now been told he wont be a QB in 2015 for OSU. In order for him to get into the supplemental draft he has to be declared ineligible by the NCAA so he did this on purpose to get into the Supp Draft.

To far fetched?

*UPDATE*

From an advocare distributor…

https://twitter.com/AdvoDan/status/580730287547514883

*Update #2*
(This is Tony, not Jeremiah)

Advocare has some “guidelines” on their site, giving student athletes and coaches some guidance on their involvement with Advocare products (basically it’s ok to use them, not ok to appear to be promoting them). You can read the entire document here, but this little blurp is germane to the discussion of Braxton’s post:

According to OSU AD Gene Smith Ohio State will honor the @WrestlingBucks on Saturday at 11 am at St John Arena. I hope the place is full to the rafters to celebrate the young men who made Buckeye Fans so proud winning the teams 1st ever NC and having 2 individual winners.