On the Moon, nerds get their pants pulled down and they are spanked with Moonrocks.

I added a couple more blogs over there to the side. Let's all say "hi" to the Sports Economist and SportsBiz. They are, believe it or not, blogs focused on the business side of sports. A stunning revelation, I know, given their names. I figured it was appropriate to add them, seeing as I'm a finance major, and also the sort of guy who analyzed Exxon's financial statements just out of curiosity (FYI: they made a lot of money last year). I swear I'm not a nerd.

Anyway, EDSBS's 2,000th post is about none other than NCAA Football 2007. Specifically, a minute-long preview video of it from YouTube. There's really not a lot new there, but it's still worth checking out, just because you are probably as ready for this game as I am.

Alright, that's all for today, probably. I have a weekend to go out and partake in. Make sure you watch the draft tomorrow, you could see Ohio State tie draft history with 6 first-round picks. I don't see it happening, but you never know.

Sometimes you wanna start higher, and sometimes you gotta start low

Deadspin's got an article here about Mike Nugent figurines and paintings on sale at a mall in Dayton. They, along with other people, seem to find our love of the kicking game a little weird. Two thoughts:

1. You gotta understand the phenomenon that was Nugent, and to a lesser extent Josh Huston after him. For the past four years, our kicking game has been fantastic. Imagine a world where almost every kickoff goes at least five yards into the endzone. A world where a missed field goal is a huge surprise, where you expect the kicker to make the 45-yard game winner. Basically, we're talking a world Hayden Epstein and Xavier Beitia will never know. This is what we've had as Buckeye fans. And when you end up in a lot of close games, as the Buckeyes have during most of the Tressel years, having a great, clutch kicker is invaluable. Plus, having a kicker with built-in theme music (Ted Nugent's "Stranglehold") and a cheer that confuses play-by-play guys ("Nuuuuuuuge") is a lot of fun. So yeah, we have a lot of love for the kicking game.

2. Where can I get one of those Nugent figurines? That'd be fantastic. I'd set in on top of my desk and seek advice from it.

Me: "Nugent figurine, I have a quiz tomorrow morning, but everyone's going out to the bar. What should I do?"

: "You must follow your heart, my son."

Me: "Thanks, Nugent figurine! To the bar!"

Stop and say hello

I've been linked to by the Cleveland Sports Animal. I can't say I follow Cleveland sports that closely (in fact, seeing as they drafted Kellen Winslow Jr. and Braylon Edwards in consecutive years, I think the Browns are actually trying to get me to hate them), but I don't have anything against the Cleveland franchises. And it looks to be a good site, with regular updates featuring commentary and analysis, which is always a good thing to see. So go check 'em out. They're also over there on the sidebar now, so you can check them out at your convenience.

So maye he's just Prince James right now

Well, after a big debut against the Wizards, LeBron was brought back to earth in last night's game. He still had a double double, but one of the categories was turnovers, so that's not a good thing. This wasn't entirely unexpected, though. I mean, you had to know the Wizards were gonna make stopping him their focus after he dominated them in Game 1. So, a new scheme to stop him, plus some hard fouls, plus the fact that he's 21 and playing in his first playoff series, equaled him having a bad game. It's interesting, though, that a 26-point performance is considered a bad game.

It's an interesting situation with LeBron. There's pretty much two sets of expectations that you have to have for him. On the one hand, there's certain things we expect of one of the best players in the league. He has to make his teammates better, make the big shots, and kick it up a level in the playoffs, for example. These are things he's started to do, but he gets criticized for not doing more of them.

But these superstar expectations are tempered by the expectations we have for a guy who's 21 years old. This guy we expect to have an off game, to make some bad passes, to get nervous, to still need to put a lot of work in on his game.

So by one set of expectations, we compare LeBron to Jordan, Bird, Magic, and so on, because he's one of the best in the league. But by the other set of expectations, we compare him to J.J. Redick, Adam Morrison, Andrew Bogut, and Chris Paul, because these are guys his own age, guys who have been playing basketball as long as he has. So it's important to show a little patience with the guy. We probably shouldn't expect him to save the city of Cleveland for at least a few more years. And he can't run for president until 2020, so he's probably not gonna save the country before then.

Oh, and Steve Nash winning the MVP? Ridiculous. The guy was no better than fourth on just about every list I saw, including my own.

College Football is No Place for Reasoned Discourse!

Three of my biggest hobbies are college sports, philosophy, and economics. Sunday Morning Quarterback manages to combine them all in this post about Reggie Bush. Apparently some sports radio host made the argument that, if guilty of breaking the rules, Reggie Bush should not be condemned for helping his family. In sort, his actions may have been illegal, but they weren't immoral. SMQ agrees, as I and likely you would, that actions can be illegal without being immoral, but rejects the application of those principles to the Reggie Bush situation.

I suggest reading his post, as I have nothing to add to it or disagree with at this time. I'm sorta like James Carville in Old School at this point.



Oh... It... We... have no response. That was perfect.

Sharing and its impact on draft status

I was thinking about Chris Wells and Antonio Pittman, and the whole issue of who'd start and when and who was better and all that jibber-jabber that we kill time with until the season actually starts, when something occurred to me: Cadillac Williams, Ronnie Brown, Reggie Bush, and LenDale White were collectively one of the best things to happen to the powerhouse schools in recruiting in years.

In years past, how often have two big-time backs split time in the same backfield? Eddie George didn't, Maurice Clarett wouldn't have if he was healthy. Ron Dayne, Ricky Williams, and just about every other great college running back of the past decade or so that comes to mind had the backfield to himself. Now, in two straight drafts, we'll have two running backs from the same school drafted in the first round (would have been "in the top 10" before White embarked on his draft sabotage quest).

Think about what this says to a high school recruit. In the past, a Chris Wells might have looked at Pittman's sophmore season and said "I'm at least going to split time for my first couple years there. I'm going elsewhere, where I can start immediately." Now a running back recruit can see an underclassman have a big season at his school of choice and still say "even if I split time, it doesn't have to hurt my draft stock." A prospect can choose on the basis of scheme, coach, and school, without having to worry much about the depth chart.

The end result? I wouldn't be surprised if we see more LenDale Whites and Reggie Ronnie [Thanks to CFR for the catch] Browns, and less DeAngelo Williamses. Bad for the second-tier schools, but good for us on the top.

Quick hitters

Been busy the past couple days. I have a project due in a Logistics class, and some tricky Finance homework due, so time's been short. I should have some time freed up starting tonight.

• I added Sexy Results and Straight Bangin' to the links. They aren't strictly sports sites, so I left them off the initial list o' links, but hey, they occasionally mention sports, and I read them daily, so on they go. First on my list of things to do to this blog is update the links, separate them out a little bit so they aren't so cluttered. But check out those two sites, if you don't already. Especially if you like rap music. In fact, if you don't, you might want to hold off on checking them out.
• I got linked over at College Football Resource. Rock on.
  
• Incredibly early SI Power Rankings can be found here. OSU's at the top, so I'm not gonna call it a bad list, but hell, we seldom know anything about who's good and bad the day before the season starts; what makes us think anyone has any idea in freakin' April? Still worth checking out simply because I think this is the first time in the Tressel Era I've read the phrase "offensive juggernaut Ohio State" when it wasn't sarcastic.
• Congrats to OSU's new undergraduate student government prez and veep (Lantern story here). That's gotta be one of the more thankless things you can do with your time here at OSU. The best student governments in my time here have been pretty much invisible, and the bad ones have been viewed as useless or actually making things worse (much like real governments, I suppose). "Little of the credit for the good stuff, most of the blame for the bad stuff" seems to be a decent description of the USG - yet these people put in a lot of work and spent a lot of money to be a part of it. Seems crazy to me, but then I'm not trying to launch a career in politics. As an aside, the future VP's dad taught one of my stats classes. Nice guy, good professor.
  

Trouble in Paradise?

Yahoo! Sports has apparently become a legitimate news source, as they've got one of the biggest pieces of college football news in months. According to the article, the family of Reggie Bush, that USC running back that you may have heard something about, lived in a $757,500 house until recently. That's not a problem in and of itself. The problem is that the name on the deed was Michael Michaels, a man notable for: A.) having a set of parents that must have hated him, and B.) being tied to a sports marketing company and an agent, both of which he was reportedly trying to steer Bush toward. Bush's parents, after being approached by some Yahoo! Sports people, up and vacated the premises. USC has asked the Pac-10 to investigate.

We're a step beyond "where there's smoke," and we're not quite to "you officially did wrong." This story's in the zone of "you might not get punished for this, but you screwed up." I assume ESPN's gonna have some pretty decent coverage of this, seeing as they're already conveniently located on USC's metaphorical jock.

We are all witnesses

I am not a Cavs fan. At least, not first and foremost. See, my sophmore year in high school, I started to hear about this kid that went to high school in Akron that was supposed to be NBA ready right now. My friends and I decided that, as fellow Ohio high school students, fellow Ohio sixteen-year-olds, it was our duty to throw our support behind this LeBron James guy. We watched the games on ESPN, we defended his throwback jersey purchases, we discussed whether he could have singlehandedly ended the Cold War if he was twenty years older (of course he could have). One of my friends got yelled at by LeBron's aunt for touching his Hummer H2.

So it was real convenient when he was drafted by the Cavs. It meant I could watch just about every one of his games, between Fox Sports Ohio and ABC. But understand, I am a Cavs fan only so long as LeBron's on the team. If he leaves the team, so do my allegiances. I'm somewhat impressed by the Cavs' management, since they've made some intelligent moves, but I am by no means on any sort of Cavaliers bandwagon. I'm sorry, that's just the way it is.

As a LeBron fan, these playoffs hold a lot of interest for me, obviously. We may be looking at history in the making, the sort of player you end up telling your kids about. The guy starts off his playoff career with a triple double as the Cavs opened up with a win over the Wizards, 97-86. Now, I don't think this Cavs team has the talent to win it all, but I think they can win their first series, and that's what I'm hoping to see. I hope this not so much for the team, or for LeBron, but for me, so that I don't have to hear ongoing talk about how "LeBron still hasn't won a playoff series." It's not the sort of comment that will lend support to any argument, seeing as the guy's 21 and leading a team into the playoffs, but still it will be made by one of the talking heads at ESPN. If we can avoid all that with a series win, that's extra incentive for me to cheer.

And, of course, I'm also wanting to see LeBron get the MVP award. As I see it, the only two players that enter into the argument are LeBron and Kobe. Billups, Nash, Nowitzki, and Wade all had great seasons, but the MVP is gonna be one of those two. And really, I won't argue too much either way. If the guy who scores 81 points in a game wins MVP, it's not a shocking travesty of justice. I just think LeBron's a better passer than Kobe or Nowitzki, a better scorer than Billups or Nash, and just a little better overall than Wade. Basically, my argument was laid out by Dan Shanoff in the Daily Quickie on Friday.

That gave me pause. I have a rule: If I ever agree with Shanoff, Mark May, Skip Bayless, or Woody Paige, I must at least reconsider my argument. But to this rule I have attached the "Blind Squirrel" Corollary. And I think this is one of those rare situations where Shanoff got it right. LeBron is as valuable to his team as anyone, almost as good a scorer as anyone, and almost as good a passer as anyone. Add all that up, and I think you have your MVP.

I couldn't work it in anywhere up there, but it's worth reading Chris Sheridan's article about LeBron on ESPN.com, if you want some more LeBron lovin'.

Spring Game thoughts

First off, I got linked up at Midwest Bias, and in accordance with the Blogger Treaty of 1948, I must reciprocate. I considered putting them in with the OSU sites, but eventually decided against it. I'm open to suggestions, however. Speaking of suggestions, I suggest you go check out Midwest Bias, it'll be worth your time. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Ok, welcome back. 64,000 people went out to the Shoe yesterday to watch the Scarlet team get a win over the Gray, 12-0. I wasn't one of the 64,000, as I decided to watch on 10TV, so I didn't have to spend all the game saying, "wait, who was that?" It's easier to see what's going on on TV, though it was a fantastic day to watch a game at Ohio Stadium. Well, it's a fantastic day to watch a football game at Ohio Stadium even if it's raining tornadoes or something. But you know what I mean.

I don't really like drawing conclusions from anything other than actual games. I mean, in the Spring Game, you have a first-teamer going up against a third-teamer. So if the starter looks good, does that mean he is good, or that he's just going up against someone smaller and slower? Plus, between the extra rules, the makeshift teams, and the simplified playbooks, you can't really evaluate the offenses and defenses as a whole.

That said, I'm going to ignore all that and go ahead and draw conclusions anyway:

• Troy Smith did not get injured. He only played one (yes, one) series, and he went 4-4 on it and lead the Scarlet to the only touchdown of the game. So he looked alright, scored a touchdown, and didn't get injured. That's a successful Spring Game for a Heisman candidate.
• A.J. Trapasso looked worthy of his high draft position. For example, he had a punt downed on the six, but then had to retry due to a holding call. His second attempt was downed on the half-yard line. He could be key this year.
  
• Beanie Wells looks good. He was the best back on the field today, shedding tackles, hitting holes with authority, and doing all that stuff that running backs are supposed to do. The only thing holding him back right now is his pass blocking, which at times was reminiscent of a turnstile.
• Jay Richardson also looked good. He had my favorite play of the game, where the right tackle "blocked" Richardson's helmet off, and he still got by him to make the sack. He might have been helped by matchups, but Richardson was the best defensive end on the field yesterday
• The Brians will see a lot of playing time at receiver. Hartline and Robiskie both made some good catches. Roy Hall's gonna have a battle on his hands for the #3 receiver position. Though Roy also looked good. If I was kidnapped by some bizarre cult, and I needed to pick one of those three guys to catch a ball near the sideline, take a hit, and hang on for the first down, Hall's probably the one I'd choose. Though I'd probaly prefer to trade a toe to the cult in exchange for allowing me to select Gonzo. It depends on the sort of cult we're dealing with.
  
• The linebackers will be fine. They won't be up to last year's level, but I didn't notice any of the guys that played doing anything bad, which is a good thing, and a few times they even did good stuff. They should be at least decent, which is what we need.
• Todd Boeckman's probably our second-best QB right now. Zwick didn't play much, but he looked like he's looked in every game, meaning he didn't do anything bad, but he didn't do anything great. Boeckman made a few tough throws and led the Gray team to a score on a QB sneak, regardless of what the refs thought. Stupid refs. Schoenhoft looked like he wasn't as far along as we all had been hearing, as he struggled most of the game. Hopefully there's a lot of mop-up time this season, so that both Zwick and Boeckman can get work.

So there's my observations from the Spring Game. The O-Zone also has some notes, as does Bucknuts, and there's more forthcoming from several sites. I may update this post with more links as they become available. It depends on how lazy I end up being today. And it does look like a nice day to be lazy, I must say.

A reminder that there's more than football going on

Effort to find missing student continues (The Lantern)

An OSU med school student's been missing for about three weeks. He left a bar on South Campus one night, and hasn't been seen since. Nobody's used his cell phone or credit cards since then, and there's pretty much no evidence of what happened to him.

I don't know him, I don't even think I know anyone that knows him, but still, it's a strange, sad story. It's tough to figure how a guy could just disappear without a trace like that.

I just figured I'd pass it along, because you never know who might have importing information in a situation like this. There's more info in the Lantern story and at a page the Med School set up.

Sorry to bring you down a bit. I'll be back with more inane sports ramblings later.

Peepez le game

I done got linked up at Sunday Morning Quarterback, continuing the trend started by AtO of sites better than mine linking to me as though they expect me to be good. All this undeserved attention leaves me feeling a bit like Michigan when the preseason rankings come out. 9-3 record, here I come!

Anyway, I decided to add a few more sites to the links while I was adding SMQ. So witness the combined Irish might of Blue-Gray Sky and the House Rock Built!

Blue-Gray Sky + House Rock Built = Captain Planet?
that can't be right. . . someone check my math

Then there's also Dawg Sports, run by tkyleking, which is one of those college football blogs everyone must be aware of. It's in the Terms and Conditions when you sign up for a Blogger account. Take a look if you don't believe me.

That's all I got for now, but I intend to keep adding to that sidebar until it becomes incredibly unwieldy. So, I ask you: who else should I link to? What blogs should I be aware of? If you have a college sports blog that wants to do the whole "reciprocal links" thingy, or if you just know of a quality blog that I should be reading, do tell, either in the comments or through the e-mail address on the right.

Playing right into Dodd's hands

If you read Buckeye Commentary (like a good Buckeye - nay, American - should), you've already heard that Dennis Dodd wrote an article about the Tyson Gentry injury and the wider concern of safety in NCAA football. The problem is Dodd's assertion that we, Buckeye Nation, care more about the recent uniform change than about the health of Gentry. His evidence consists of a poll which was, as BC pointed out, conducted before Gentry's injury, and a quote from Tressel:

"I got maybe two e-mails on that," Tressel said of Gentry. "(I got) hundreds of e-mails on what idiots we are for changing jerseys. ... You wonder about the psyche of today's person."

Now, here's the thing: if I want to encourage a change back to the old jerseys, what do I do? I write to the people in charge, hoping that if enough people write with me, we can make a change. Now, if I want to change the Tyson Gentry situation, the sad fact is that unless I'm a world-class surgeon, there's nothing I can do. No amount of letter-writing can heal him. And if I want to wish him well, why wouldn't I write to him directly? This explains why Tressel's e-mail box is full of messages on one topic and not the other.

If Dodd's argument appears weak at first glance, and gets more so the more closely it's examined, why did he use it? You're a smart person, I'm a smart person, we had no trouble seeing his argument sucked. Presumably he's a reasonably intelligent person; why didn't he realize his argument was weak? The answer: he did. It's that old (in internet years) tactic of writing something controversial just to gain readers. Blogs do it all the time, ESPN did it with the whole "USC = Greatest Team Evar!!!11" series, and now Dodd's doing it. Calling us uncaring, ignorant assholes is an easy way to get us to read him. It's just not a very good way to impress people and win their respect.

Listen, my priorities are as messed up as anyone's. I've been known to skip class for no better reason than it's sunny and I'm kinda hungry, yet I would miss my own wedding for an OSU football game. Regardless, it's still very obvious to me that football's just a game, jerseys are just jerseys, and both pale in comparison to someone's life. I have no doubt that this is true of just about every other football fan out there. Just because we enjoy complaining about jerseys, doesn't mean we've forgotten what's really important in life.

It's SI.com Day

First off, I got mentioned over at Around The Oval, so if you're coming here from there, welcome. If not, go check it out. It's like this site, but better.

I was going to do a few individual posts today on some of this, but this whole "news" thing just keeps happening, so I'm gonna throw out some more links to catch up. More posts to follow, however.

• Greg Oden partying (Deadspin) - Photography of our center of the near (and probably short-term) future getting down with a chick with a nonexistent skirt. Criminey. If this is what he's doing in high school, we're gonna have to lock him in his dorm from 7:00 Friday to noon Sunday to keep him off of Deadspin in the future. Glad he's enjoying himself, though. Just avoid the cameras in the future, Greg.
• Spring Game Draft (Bucknuts) - The Scarlet team chose a punter with their first pick, taking A.J. Trapasso. This means that either Tressel's got 'em fully brainwashed on the importance of the punt, or there's not a lot of quality behind Trapasso at punter. Other draft notes: Curtis Terry went at OLB before presumed starter James Laurinaitis, Erik Haw went before Maurice Wells, and the Gray team has 3 of the top 4 presumed starting WR's. It's tough to tell how the Spring Game will shake out, because there's a lot of 1st team vs. 3rd team-type stuff going on that creates unexpected matchup problems, but it's tough not to like the Scarlet team, with Haw and Chris Wells, not to mention Rob Schoenhoft backing up Troy at QB. If the Gray team's passing game gets going, though, they could put up some points in a hurry. There's also a decent article at SI.com about the actual draft, more so the process than who was selected when.
  
• The Carpenter Family and the NFL (SI.com) - Apparently Bobby Carpenter's dad was a running back in the NFL. I don't know if I never knew this, or knew this and forgot, but here's an article about how his dad's pretty much the anti-Archie Manning, letting his son do things his own way rather than running his life. It's a good article, but the most interesting thing is the fact that there's no quotes anywhere in the article. It talks about how Carpenter's dad would say this or that, but at no point is there a direct quote. Not saying that's good or bad, just sayin's all.
• Adrian Peterson's legit car deal (ESPN.com) - Oklahoma decided there was no wrongdoing when Peterson bought a car, drove it for a while, then returned it. I'm not disagreeing with them, I'm just asking: If this had been our A.P., Antonio Pittman, instead of Oklahoma's, what would the reaction have been?
• Alex Boone pleads no contest (SI.com) - He got a $300 fine and 10 days in jail, suspended if he completes an alcohol-education program. This guy should be suspended at least a game and not start at least the first two. I expect at least a one game unofficial suspension from Tressel, since it's apparently against athletic department policy to suspend first time offenders in this situation. If Tressel does any less, I'll be very disappointed.
• Another article about our running backs (SI.com) - Gotta be honest, I just skimmed this one. Didn't look like any new information, but if you've got some time to kill, have at it.

Lots of Sports Illustrated today, for some reason. Good for them.

Stick around for more later on. I have a feeling I'll be calling Dennis Dodd an idiot, and possibly an asshat. Stay tuned.

Ohio State Highlights

What you have here is a more-or-less chronological collection of OSU highlights I've found through hours and hours of painstaking research (or boredom, take your pick). I will update this post with more videos as I find them. If you see any videos on YouTube that should be here, you can mention them in the comments, but it would be better to drop me an e-mail at sean36osu@gmail.com.

Oh, and a note: several of these videos debuted on Buckeye Commentary before making their way to YouTube. So make sure to check out Buckeye Commentary and the Videos and Play of the Week sections there for even more Ohio State videos.

Onward, to the highlights!

Ted Ginn highlights (because I couldn't choose just one):



Troy Smith to Anthony Gonzalez, leading to the game-winning touchdown versus Michigan in 2005:



Matt Sylvester's game-winning shot versus previously unbeaten Illinois:



The Best Damn Band In The Land's Ramp Entrance:



The last four plays of the 2003 National Championship game and the trophy presentation:



"Holy Buckeye," Craig Krenzel's game-winning pass to Michael Jenkins in 2002:



Andy Katzenmoyer crushing Missouri QB Corby Jones:



Script Ohio:



Woody Hayes dotting the "I" in Script Ohio:

This Year's Addiction

IGN has some news on NCAA Football '07, and it seems to be mostly good. Now, this doesn't mean the game will be better, since they aren't gonna release bad news on the game. However, a lot of the changes seem to be significant improvements. You can check them out yourself, but here's a rundown:

• Momentum - This is probably the biggest one. You make big plays, you gain momentum, which means that your team starts playing better and making bigger plays. They're walking a tightrope with this one. If its effect is too significant, it could pretty much ruin the game, as giving up a big score and then fumbling the kickoff could take you out of the game. If it's not significant enough, then why bother? But I think it may add some realism to the game, if done well, so I'm gonna adopt the ol' "wait and see" attitude.
  
• Revamped special teams - Raise your hand if you've successfully blocked a punt or kick. That's what I thought. It's all but impossible. They're adding a new camera mode and some new features to improve your chances. However, they're also giving the kicking team the ability to abort the kick and turn the holder or punter into a QB if the shit hits the fan. They're also redoing the onside kicking, giving you more control over it. Again, these should make the game more realistic, since teams do occasionally block kicks and recover onside kicks in real life. Here's hoping it works well.
  
• Better A.I. - Here was my plan on offense when I needed a first down in last year's game: 1. Call a play with a corner route. 2. Scramble toward the corner route. 3. If zone defense, run toward the line to pull the cornerback toward my QB, then throw over his head. 4. If man defense, wait until my receivers run the secondary downfield, then run for the first. 5. Profit.
  
  The programmers are making it so that the defense is more aware of your scrambling, which might take this option away from me. It'll suck when I can no longer run up the score on good teams in Heisman mode, but again, more realistic is a good thing.
• Better playbooks - By "better," I mean "bigger and more realistic." There's more formations and more plays for each team, and supposedly they're more accurate, so your team will run offenses like they do in real life. Hopefully this means some options with Teddy G. and things along that line. There's also more trick plays and more options on defense. I'm not convinced they can get this right, because they've had trouble with it in the past, but mark me down as "cautiously optimistic."
• Race for the Heisman overhaul - It's now "Campus Legend" mode, and it's also more realistic, supposedly. Your new goal is to be the stereotypical Big Man On Campus, in addition to winning that Heisman doohickey. You have to pick a major, go to practice, take exams, and go to social events. If done well, this will be cool, but seeing as Race for the Heisman and Madden's Superstar mode both kind of sucked last year, I'm not too hopeful. But we'll see.

There's more changes beyond these, but those are the highlights. It sounds like they're putting in some work on this one to make it more than just a facelift. If it works, it could kick ass. If not, then they've butchered my favorite game, and they will pay. And this time. . . It's personal.

NCAA Football 2007: The Revengening, Starring Steven Seagal

Linkity link link

Let's get this thing started with some links.

First up, there's this SI.com article on OSU's defense, where Stewie Mandel says that a successful rebuilding of the defense will be key to any potential Buckeye national championship run. This is not exactly an earth-shattering revelation, but it's still a pretty decent article. There's not much in the way of new information in this if you've been paying attention to OSU news, but if you've ben out there living a life or something, this is a nice summary of everything you've missed. Basically, the team's talented, fast, and strong, but pretty inexperienced. If they pull it together quickly, the team could go undefeated. If they have trouble, so does the team.

Next up is a couple articles from the O-Zone. The first is an article discussing the awesomeness of Antonio Pittman. He's missed some time with a hamstring injury, but the coaches aren't too worried, and neither am I, mostly because this is spring practice, people. It's not like the Texas game's tomorrow. Besides, I do think he's one of the best backs in the Big Ten. Mike Hart and Tyrell Sutton might be better, but I think that's about it for the Big Ten. Pittman put up 1300 yards last season, a fact that I think a lot of people have missed. He's kind of a big deal.

The second article is about how Pittman had better not suck, because dangit, we got a lot of awesome running backs. I'm inclined to agree with this one. Mo Wells was not good last season, but as the article points out, neither was Pittman during his freshman year. Chris Wells is apparently the greatest thing since sliced bread. I heard one of his runs in high school was so awesome, it restored a blind man's sight. And Eric Haw won the Heisman for me in both NCAA 2005 and 2006, so clearly he has something going for him. Even if he sucks, he can meet my expectations by just not smoking pot outside dorms. High standards, I know. I'm tough, but fair.

Welcome

Welcome to my new site, The 614. You may be aware of my other site, Sean's Site (see, I'm Sean, and I wanted a site, so I made one, and I called it Sean's Site. I'm so creative). Well, see, I have two interests in life: OSU football, and everything else. So I decided to create a separate blog dedicated to my first interest (the football), and leave the other site for my other interest (that pesky "everything else" that keeps getting in the way of football).

You might say, "Sean, there's no shortage of OSU sites and weblogs." You might also say, "Hell, Sean, you even link to some of them over there on the side! Why are you wasting your time and mine?" You might even say, "I'm a little hungry, where can I get a good BLT around here?" Well, my bacon-loving friend, you're on your own for the sandwich. As for the rest, sure, there's no shortage of OSU sites. I read a bunch of those sites. They don't update every day. I want new Buckeye info and opinion daily, if not hourly. I'm guessing I'm not alone in this. So, the way I figure it, if I add my opinion into the mix with the guys at Around the Oval and Buckeye Commentary and the rest, even if I don't do as good a job as they do (and I guarantee I won't do as well as those two), I'll still help scratch that itch we all have for Ohio State news, opinions, and ramblings.

But that's not all. I'm a student at OSU, for at least the next year, which puts me in the position of being able to offer different information than the rest do. "Which campus bar should I check out?" "What's the student opinion on the latest stupidity perpetrated by the OSU leadership?" "It's 2:00 in the morning on a Saturday and I'm drunk, naked, and on the Oval. Where's the cheapest place to eat?" These are questions I'll be able to answer. These are questions I intend to answer.

So, if you want measured, thoughtful opinion on U.S. foreign policy, you've come to the wrong place. If you want to type in all caps about how much you hate Mark May, you haven't come to the wrong place exactly, but you'd probably be better off in a forum somewhere else. If you want opinion on the latest goings on around Ohio State, and in the sports world in general, hopefully this'll be worth your time. If not, you'll always have that BLT. Unless you couldn't find one. Then you're pretty much out of luck. I'm sorry.