A Look at the News

First, basketball. Jim O'Brien's gonna get paid $2.2 million for being fired for NCAA rules violations. This sends a positive message to the kids: write up contracts that don't reward cheating. The university plans to appeal, but I don't like their odds. The judge said that the contract sorta screwed OSU over:

"It is clear that this seemingly unfair result arises from the extremely favorable provisions of the contract," Ohio Court of Claims Judge Joseph T. Clark wrote in his decision.

"The contract is extremely favorable to the plaintiff but it is not unreasonable," Clark said in his decision. "The parties in this case negotiated a contract virtually guaranteeing [O'Brien] that he could not be terminated for an NCAA infraction."

It's not all bad news in Buckeye roundball. Well, I guess as far as actual news goes, it is, but still, Andy Katz thinks That Matta's pretty sweet, and that has to count for something.

As far as that sport with the funny-shaped ball and all the awesomeness, the Big Ten Kickoff's going on in Chi-town. The media picked OSU to win the Big Ten, and Troy Smith was picked preseason offensive player of the year. I think both are good picks (of course), but I think Drew Stanton deserves more love. That guy's good.

Ohio State Online says Jim Tressel told the media that Alex Boone is penciled in at starting left tackle. I hadn't seen that anywhere else, but there's a lotta places I haven't looked, and there's no good reason for OSO to lie to me, so I gotta say I'm disappointed in Tressel. I still think Boone (who was convicted of DUI earlier in the summer, if you've forgotten) should at least not start the Northern Illinois game, and I wouldn't object to a suspension. I'm not exactly in the loop on the whole situation, so I'm basically running my mouth about something I know very little about (your standard blogger, in other words), but it seems to me like the guy's getting off light.

Oh yeah, a note for Sooners fans: Sucks to be you. The Troy Smith situation wasn't much fun, and that was just $500. With Bomar's payments for a job not done being reported in the thousands of dollars, it'll be that much worse. Just think back to the glory days of the late 80's. Ok, forget those days, too. Instead, just avoid the forums for the next couple weeks. Go fishing or something.

Former OSU President Harold Enarson Dies

Harold Enarson, president of Ohio State from 1972 to 1981, has died at age 87.

I first heard about his death through this AP story on ESPN. Somewhat understandably for a sports site, it focuses on what Enarson was most famous for, firing Woody Hayes after the Gator Bowl incident. But, much like Woody Hayes shouldn't be known solely for punching a player, Enarson should be remembered for more than just firing Woody. The university's press release gives a more complete picture of his life and his career. I don't know much about him, but judging from the articles, he was definitely good for the university, and he will be missed.

Not much from me today, and possibly not tomorrow, as I'm currently feeling kinda sick. I'll pick up the posting once I start to feel less crappy.

A New Addition

If you get a minute, check out the link on the sidebar to Pfef's Sports Blog. I suppose you could also use the link in the previous sentence, or this link. The important thing is that you check out the site. He writes on the Buckeyes and the Cleveland professional teams, and he does it very well. Plus, his blog has a fantastic layout.

Tyson Gentry Update

Tyson Gentry met with the media a few days back, leading to a variety of articles on his current situation. There's the AP article, the O-Zone article, and the Dispatch article, among others. Buckeye Commentary also has a nice post up about his status.

They all say pretty much the same thing: he's getting feeling back pretty much everywhere, he has some use of his arms, but he still can't walk. He and his family are pretty upbeat about the possibility of him walking again, though. In fact, every article made mention of how positive he's been through it all, which is very important, I think. I don't know much about recovering from these types of injuries, but I do know that he has a lot of work ahead of him before he'll be able to walk again, and a good attitude will make that much easier.

I hope I'll be at the Horshoe the day he walks onto the field. I'd pay more to be at that game than any Michigan game.

All the News That's Fit to Print

Ohio Supreme Court blocks eminent domain project - Way to be, guys. If the government wanted to take my property to build a highway, I wouldn't like it, but I'd understand. But if they want my property so they can give it to some other guy, I'd have a problem with it. Thanks for not being idiots, Supreme Court.

Lance Bass of 'N Sync is gay - Not like you didn't know that already.

LeBron is 21 - Again, you knew that. C'mon, Windhorst, is this article the best you can do? I mean, I'll read any piece of LeBron-related material, and even I thought this was a waste of time.

Harold Reynolds fired, reportedly for sexual harrasment - I'm not a big fan of baseball in general, but lately ESPN's lost Peter Gammons (though it looks like that's temporary, thankfully), and now Reynolds, two guys I thought were pretty good. Why should I watch Baseball Tonight anymore?

And a piece of OSU recruiting news, maybe:

Taurian Washington might have committed (HT: AtO) - Scout says he did, Rivals apparently says "not so fast, my friend," so who knows? Regardless, Washington is a four-star wide receiver, so he'd be a welcome addition. He has offers from UM and Wisconsin, and was rumored to be a lock for Michigan, so if he is committed or does commit, that'd make it even sweeter. If it makes U of M fans unhappy, it makes me hapy.

They All Choppable: The 2006 Season Preview

With the start of the season rapidly approaching (though not as rapidly as we'd like), I figure it's time to begin my season preview. If you're reading this, you probably know as much about the team as I do, and if you don't, there's no shortage of places to go for information (I'll be pointing them out as I encounter them, just in case you want some more info in the upcoming weeks). As a result, my preview isn't going to focus so much on informing as it is providing my opinion and analysis.

I'll do this in Q&A format, just because I want to. Let's get started.

Is a national title a real possibility? And what's with the title of your preview?
Going into this season, the title race seems to be pretty wide open. Any of the top 15 or so teams have legitimate reasons to think this could be their year, and we're one of them. The team doesn't look great at this point, but neither does anyone else. Every title contender this year has legitimate weaknesses. So yes, at this point, a title is as possible for the Buckeyes as any other team. It's not unrealistic to hope for one.

To win a national championship, I think a team needs three things: talent, a favorable schedule, and luck. The Buckeyes are as talented as any team in the country, and the coaches are among the best, so the talent isn't an issue.

The schedule is a pretty reasonable one. Much has been made of this being a "two-game season," with the two games being road trips to Texas and Iowa. Those should be the two toughest games of the season, and are likely to be the only two games where Ohio State will be underdogs. However, it would be a mistake to overlook Penn State and Michigan, both of whom are always threats to ruin an otherwise lovely autumn afternoon. And of course, no game is a gimme, as was shown a couple years ago in Evanston against Northwestern. But the schedule doesn't seem too bad. Have a look:

9/2 - Northern Illinois
9/9 - @ Texas
9/16 - Cincinnati
9/23 - Penn State
9/30 - @ Iowa
10/7 - Bowling Green
10/14 - @ Michigan State
10/21 - Indiana
10/28 - Minnesota
11/4 - @ Illinois
11/11 - @ Northwestern
11/18 - Michigan

That's about six games that are as close to sure things as you can get, a couple that we should win, and four that I'll really worry about. But as the title of this post suggests, all the games can be won. There are several teams that could beat us, a few games that are 50/50, but there aren't any teams that should beat us this year. As the Genius said, "they all choppable."


He also suggests working to minimize risk in your portfolio.
As for the luck, well, that can't be predicted. A receiver coming down with a jump ball, a bad hold on a field goal, a cornerback falling down in coverage - all these things can change the course of games and seasons. The nice thing about this team is that they won't need all the bounces to go their way to win a championship. If luck has no impact on any of the games, OSU might lose a couple, but they might not lose any. If you have a team that could win it all without getting lucky, then I'd say you have a legit title contender.

What's all that mean? Well, the worst case looks to be an 8-4 regular season. I wouldn't call that a disaster, but it's definitely not a success. The best case is an undefeated regular season and a national championship. I'd call that a success.


Could we be in for more of this? Here's hoping.
How 'bout that offense? Is it gonna be explosive or what?
I know you mean that as a rhetorical question, Imaginary Interviewer, but I won't treat it as such. I don't think the offense will be as explosive as people seem to think. It will certainly be capable of scoring from anywhere at any time, but I don't think that will be Tressel's goal with the team. If Chris Wells comes anywhere close to meeting the very high expectations set for him, he will combine with Antonio Pittman to form possibly the best running back duo in the Big Ten. And with our inexperienced defense, I think Tressel will lean on the running game to maintain possession of the ball and keep his defense off the field as much as possible. That's not to say this will be a bad offense. They should be able to move the ball effectively on the ground and in the air, and they'll put some points on the board, but I think Tressel would prefer a 28-17 win with a big edge in time of possession over a 42-31 win with a more even time of possession.

So what's that mean for Troy Smith's Heisman campaign?
I expect he'll be out of contention for the Heisman by the Michigan State game. He'll be a good quarterback, and we'll be lucky to have him, but I don't think he'll put up the numbers to keep up with Brady Quinn, Adrian Peterson, and company. He will be Troy Smith, Game Manager, not Troy Smith, Ultimate Weapon. I expect him to put up solid, but not spectacular, numbers, around 260 yards of total offense per game, while not turning the ball over. He'll have his share of jaw-dropping plays and touchdowns, and he'll be near the top of the nation in passing efficiency, but I don't think it'll be enough to keep up with the Brady Quinns of the world.

I hope I'm wrong about the offense. I'd like to see a high octane offense that just toys with defenses, led by a QB that looks even better than Vince Young did last year. I just think that Tressel's the type to make full use of our running attack, and as a result, the offense won't look as good as it actually is. I expect we'll start hearing "Troy Smith was overrated!" talk about four weeks into the season, as the running game becomes the weapon of choice. You and I will know the truth, though: Troy wasn't overrated, Pittman was underrated.

Um, that was three paragraphs about the offense without mentioning Ted Ginn. What's the deal?
I believe the coaches when they say Teddy's more complete as a receiver. I hope he'll be an even more dynamic Santonio Holmes, but I'll be happy if he's a more consistent Ted Ginn. And I think he will be. He'll still do his usual "run by everyone" and his "juke everyone out," but we'll also see the "tough catch in traffic" and the "well-run route," and those will be just as important.

The passing game will be fun to watch, I think. I don't expect a ton of yards out of it, but it will be exciting to see Teddy turn a quick slant into a touchdown, or Troy keep a play alive while Anthony Gonzalez gets open downfield. It'll be interesting to see who the third receiver ends up being. Smart money is on Roy Hall, what with him being a senior and all, but Brian Hartline's looked pretty good, and I could see him taking over the job by the end of the season.

To sum up my predictions for the offense: very good running game, explosive passing game, but not as high-scoring as expected.

But won't it have to be high-scoring, to make up for the crappy defense?
Yeah, at first. Which is why the Texas and Iowa games scare people, and why the Penn State game should. The defense will be fine once they get some real experience and get used to the "several million people's happiness depends on your success or failure" thing. Eventually they will figure things out, and they will be fine then. See, people confuse "inexperienced" with "bad," and they aren't the same thing. Mike Nugent was once an inexperienced kicker, but he wasn't really a bad kicker. Hayden Epstein, by contrast, was once an inexperienced kicker as well, but he was also a bad kicker, and that endured even when he got some experience. Inexperience can be cured with time; being bad is more permanent.

Anyway, the question is when the defense will be good. It's unrealistic to ask for anything more than "decent" for the Texas game. But will this defense be good by Penn State? Iowa, at least? Or, worst case, not at all this season? I don't know for sure, but I expect we'll see a pretty average defense for Texas, an above average defense (like, a 6.83 out of ten) for PSU and Iowa, and a good, though not great, defense for the rest of the season. There's plenty of talent on defense, but not enough to offset the inexperience. Once they get some experience, they'll be fine.

Fortunately, we shouldn't need the defense to be better than decent. If they have to, the offense can score with anyone. Plus, as I said, if Tressel gets the chance, he'll control the game with Pittman and Chris Wells. That should be enough to keep the worst of the pressure off the defense.

What part of this team should people be talking about, good or bad?
The special teams isn't getting much attention, and I don't know why. The biggest question mark on the whole team is probably at kicker. Aaron Pettrey has a big leg, and Ryan Pretorius seems to be pretty well-rounded as a kicker (plus, he's a 27-year old redshirt sophmore from South Africa, and that has to count for something), so at first glance, we'd seem to be in decent shape. But neither has taken a kick in a meaningful college football game, so we don't know how good they really are. Mike Nugent and Josh Huston made the kicking game a major strength over the past few years. Will it continue that way, or will we experience a serious drop-off in kicker quality? Considering the number of outcomes in football impacted by the kicking game, this is the question of the summer for me.

The punting should also be getting attention, but for the opposite reason. I think that A.J. Trapasso is going to make a push for best punter in the Big Ten in this, his redshirt sophmore year. Right now, I'd say that Michigan State's Brandon Fields is the best, but I think Trapasso should be in the argument for the number two spot. I expect a very good year out of him, and the punting game should continue to be a strength for the Buckeyes.

And, of course, the return game has Ted Ginn. He's awesome. You knew that. Worth noting: the NCAA career record for most touchdowns on kick (punt and kickoff) returns is eight. Ted Ginn has six. I will say no more.

Which young players will have a breakout season?
On offense, Chris Wells is the easy answer, and also the correct one. I think he'll be real good before his career's over. This year, I wouldn't be surprised to see him getting 30 or 40% of the carries by the end of the season. I'd also suggest looking out for Brian Hartline, as I said above. Just a feeling I get.

On defense, Ross Homan's the big name freshman, and I think he'll play quite a bit, but I don't see him playing ahead of Marcus Freeman, John Kerr, Mike D'Andrea, and James Laurinaitis. He'll get some playing time, but not a whole lot. Lawerence Wilson will make some noise as a defensive end this year, I think. He's drawn some comparisons to Will Smith, and while I don't expect him to be that good, I think he'll impress us. I also think Kurt Coleman, an incoming freshman, will play quite a bit in the secondary. I don't think he'll start, necessarily, but he'll see playing time. He played very well this spring, and I think he's too good to keep off the field.

Will we win the national championship?
I refuse to speculate, of course. They're good enough, but a lot can happen. I hope we win it all, but one or even two losses should not be considered a failure. Anything less than a Big Ten Championship should be considered a disappointment, but it's silly to be expecting a national championship. So I won't predict one. I won't pick against one, either. I'll just hope.

You pansy.
I know.

Blogroll additions

I would like to direct your attention to the sidebar, where you will see a couple new links. There's Badger Sports, an excellent Wisconsin blog. Actually, it's the only Wisconsin blog I've read, so I probably shouldn't evaluate its place in Wisconsin blog rankings. Let's just call it an excellent blog in general.

Next up is Men of the Scarlet and Gray, a Buckeye blog. Before I started this site, I didn't think OSU had much in the way of a blogging community beyond Around the Oval and Buckeye Commentary. But now I've come to realize that there are a lot of good OSU blogs out there, and Men of the Scarlet and Gray is one of them. For example, they've got a preview of this year's linebacking corps that's as long as some previews of entire seasons. If they keep that up with the other positions, you will know everything worth knowing about the 2006 Buckeyes. Have a look.

Erik Haw to Jackson State

The story's here, but that's pretty much it. Jackson State's a 1-AA school, so he won't have to sit out a year. OSU seems pretty set at running back even without him, but three running backs can quickly become none, as we saw in 2003, when Clarett was Clarett, Mo Hall was injured, and Lydell Ross wasn't very good. With luck, we won't miss Haw, but you never know.

I wish nothing but the best for the guy. Hopefully he gets what he wants from Jackson State.

That's it for today, I gotta get back to NCAA '07. I'm trying to lead the Snakes On A Plane to a MAC Championship. Big nonconference game against Nebraska coming up.

NCAA Football 2007 Review

So, at about 11:40, I entered my local GameStop to wait in line for the midnight release of NCAA Football 2007. There were already about twenty people in line, and an additional 60 or so would show up by midnight. I timed things well and got home reasonably quickly with my XBox version of the game.

From what I understand, the XBox 360 version is quite a bit different from the other versions, so if you're considering going that route, you might want to look elsewhere for info. I went old school with my purchase.

If you want a quick review of the game, here it is: it's a lot like last year's version, but better. If you're the type of person (like me) who's purchased the game yearly since 2002, there's nothing that'll make you hold off. If you only buy every other year or so, there isn't anything in this version that makes it a must-have, so don't feel too bad about holding off.

Those of you hoping for major changes will be disappointed. This is mostly an evolutionary step, not a revolutionary one. The graphics are (near as I can tell) identical to last year's graphics, as is about everything else. Dynasty Mode's changes are minor; the most notable is probably the added spring game, which I haven't gotten to yet, but doesn't seem to be too important. Race for the Heisman Mode has become Campus Legend Mode, a change which consists of adding weekly practices, multiple choice "exams" which can boost your attributes if you do well enough, and a calendar (from Madden's Superstar Mode) that allows you five days of practices to simulate through. I honestly was hoping for a bit more from the modes, and maybe I'll be more impressed as I play more, but I guess there wasn't much wrong with last year's modes, so why change it?

The playbooks were also overhauled, and that's a positive. They've added reverses on kick and punt returns, and they're fun, if not terribly effective. The fake punts and field goals are also fun, and more effective than in previous years. The playbooks are bigger, too, which allows for almost too much variety, as I've taken a couple delay of game penalties trying to find that awesome play a second time. So far, I've had the most fun using the Nevada Pistol formation, but I'm still snooping around.

Overall, it's a good game, slightly better than last year's version. They fixed some bugs and added a few new features, but I was hoping for more. If this was any other game, I'd feel ripped off. But I'd probably buy this game if the only change they made was updated rosters, so I won't complain as much as I probably should. If you're the same way, buy the game and enjoy it. If you aren't so into the game, you may want to wait and go for next year's 360 version, which I'm assuming will be a significant upgrade over this XBox version.

Good Times, Good Times

I sort of assumed you were aware of it already, but you need to check out Blue-Gray Sky and their breakdowns of Notre Dame's defensive. . . well, breakdowns in the Fiesta Bowl on the four big scoring plays for our Buckeyes. Part I is here, and Part II is here. Aesthetic value of the plays aside, it's a good job of breaking down the film. I think. It's not like I would know a good job from a bad job.

(Thanks to Paul for the reminder)

Sheesh. . .

. . . Writing previews is work. I'm trying not to half-ass it, so I'm doing my best to be insightful. However, "insightful" often becomes "rambling" for me, so there's a lot of rewriting. I'll have the opening to my season preview done before too long, I promise.

If you don't know (I really hope you do), NCAA Football 2007 goes on sale tonight at midnight. I will be at my local GameStop before midnight, waiting in line to pick up a copy. I will then play it entirely too long, and go in to work on probably 4 hours of sleep. Such are the depths of my addiction.

Some are even more addicted. Some will take tomorrow off of work. I envy these people.

Tomorrow, if I don't have the season preview done, I'll give you my first impressions on the game, not that they will influence your purchasing decision. But here's a piece of info that might do you some good before you head to the store: while the XBox 360 version has much better graphics, it's supposedly lacking a lot of features, most importantly (to me) the overhauled playbook. Needless to say, I'm going with the XBox version. I don't need the game to look awesome, I need it to be awesome.

More Commits?!

I was just telling a buddy of mine a few days ago that this seems to be a very slow recruiting period for the Buckeyes. At the time, it was. We had four commits, while Texas had 22(!), Michigan had 9, and Notre Dame had 8.

Well, things have picked up a little bit. In addition to the Herron commit, Dane Sanzenbacher committed earlier this week. I know hardly anything about the guy, but he's rated 3 stars by Scout and he had offers from Toledo and Iowa, so he can't be too terrible. I don't expect him to contend for the Heisman his freshman year, however.

Ohio State Online claims that Aaron Johnson of Louisiana will commit tomorrow, bringing our total to six. Johnson has offers from Florida State and Michigan, among others, so he seems to be a pretty big-time recruit. Hopefully the rumors are true, because OSO also says the coaches plan on taking five wide receivers this year, so they should probably get to work on that.

Is it just me, or is there a lack of star power in this recruiting class? Last year, there was Chris Wells. Before him, Alex Boone and Jamario O'Neal. And of course, there was Ted Ginn the year before them, and Donte Whitner the year before him. This year seems to lack that big time guy at the top of the class for the Buckeyes. Is Brandon Saine going to end up being that guy? Is there someone else who I don't know anything about? I don't know; that's why I'm asking.

Couple More Links

I told myself I wasn't going to start season previews before practices began in August, but since there's hardly anything to write about otherwise, I've begun work on mine. Hopefully I'll have the first part out in the next few days.

In the meantime, a couple links:

• Boom Herron commits - He's the second running back for the class of 2007. The Buckeyes now look to be pretty stocked up at running back, but things can change very quickly, so the more, the merrier. I liked this quote from him:
  

  "I am going there to compete. I know they’ve got a couple of backs. But they told me the best players are going to play. I love the competition.”

  You definitely like to see that from a player. I can see a five-star guy wanting to be the focus of a program immediately, but if you aren't a superstar headed into college, it's good to be willing to compete and work for a starting spot, rather than take a scholarship to a lesser school where you can be a big fish in a small pond. Or so I think, but then, I'm a little biased. He seems to have his head on straight, unlike the last OSU running back from Warren Harding. I'm happy to have him aboard, and I look forward to seeing him run over a few people in the years to come.
• Jurgen Klinsmann's stepping down as Germany's soccer coach - I've cooled down on him a little bit over the past week or two, and I don't blame Bruce Arena for the U.S. team's poor showing as much as I did, but still, it'd be great to see him coach the American side. The German team looked great for a lot of the World Cup, and he'd be a big name hire that'd be good for the U.S. team. I'm a little concerned that the German World Cup performance might have been a fluke, though, and the guy's not really all that and a box of crackers. But still, if the USSF decides to make a change, I don't think they'd do better than Klinsmann.
  

Links

I have no idea what I'd write about if I tried for a post today, so I'll just throw down some links to people that actually found something to write about:

• The O-Zone has pictures of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center renovations. There's still a lot of work to be done, but it's starting to come together, and everything's on or ahead of schedule, so that's cool. It's gonna be fantastic once it's done.
• There's also this article about Ron Lewis's offseason from the Dispatch. I'd like to see him make a leap to first- or second-team All Big Ten this season. I think he's got the ability to do it, and if he could perform at that level, it would take a lot of pressure off the incoming freshmen.
• And apparently we have no idea what LeBron's contract consists of. The intial report was supposedly wrong, and now Brian Windhorst says ESPN's report of a shorter contract is also wrong. I'm not too worried about it either way. Unless all reports (including LeBron's press release) are wrong, we're going to have LeBron in Cleveland for at least a few years, and that's good enough for me. And as we've seen time and time again, just because a guy has a contract with a team, doesn't mean he's actually going to play for that team. So why worry about this contract, when it's becoming clear we know very little about it?
  

Girls Gone Sort Of Wild. A Little Bit.

Did you know there was a "Girls of OSU" swimsuit calendar? I didn't. But I do now, thanks to this WKYC "news" story (HT: Ohio State Online). For the full story, you need to click a link to the video of the story, but in short: some people are putting together a calendar of OSU girls in bikinis, and OSU isn't wild about this. Near as I can tell, it was a slow newsday, and they needed to fill a couple minutes on the news, so they found this excuse to get girls in bikinis on the air. Not that there's anything wrong with that. On the contrary, I encourage it.

I'm wondering if there's anything OSU can do about this calendar, if they want to. I realize they could stop them if the calendar uses trademarks without permission, but can a public institution do much if someone's selling a product that uses their name? I'm not a lawyer (I don't even play one on TV), but I was under the impression that the government was generally along for the ride on things like this. Otherwise, couldn't they effectively censor literature they don't approve of?

I dunno. If someone who knows about this stuff cares to comment, I'd be interested to know. And whether you're interested in trademark law or not, the above link has a few pictures of women in bikinis, so you can check that out, if that's your thing. And you can buy the calendar when it comes out. If it comes out. Who knows, I may be in line with you.

Our Long Regional Nightmare Is Over

LeBron has accepted his 5-year, $80 million contract extension.

I don't know about everyone else, but I wasn't getting too worked up about this. LeBron had said all along that he wanted to sign the extension, and it had only been a week since the offer was made. I realize Cleveland franchises have been screwed over by athlete promises before, so a little nervousness was to be expected, but I wouldn't have doubted that he was going to sign the deal unless he remained silent on it for a couple more weeks.

All the articles (such as this one from the Sports Guy) that talk about how LeBron needs to go to New York, L.A., or Chicago to maximize his popularity just seem silly to me. This might have been true 25 years ago, but is there anyone in America who doesn't know as much about LeBron as they want to know? These aren't the days where all your information comes from three network TV channels and your local newspaper. Cable TV and the internet have made it possible to follow a player from anywhere in the country, if not the world. If someone anywhere in the country wants to know about LeBron, they can watch SportsCenter, read SI.com, and see the occasional game on ABC or ESPN. If they want more, they can read the Plain Dealer online, subscribe to the NBA's cable package, and read blogs. Nowadays, it's easy to see enough of LeBron to recognize him when he's selling shoes, gum, sports drinks, or anything else. And it's not much more difficult to become an obsessed fan anywhere in America.

Would LeBron's exposure be higher if he was in L.A., New York, or Chicago? Sure. It's easier to be in the media spotlight when you live where the major media live. But now, LeBron gets to be the favorite player on the favorite team of an entire state of roughly 12 million people and still get all the media attention he needs. And that's not so bad.

This Is Not About Me, Or How Many Times I Voted

Almost forgot, ESPN has a poll on college traditions going on right now. I suggest you go vote for everything Ohio State. Use your own judgement on questions where the Buckeyes are not an option, but I'd vote for the Ragin' Cajuns whenever possible if I were you.

Blog Poll Kiddie Table

There's not a lot happening to talk about right now, so I figured I'd participate in the latest Blog Poll Roundtable, devised by EDSBS. Sure, I'm not exactly part of the Blog Poll, but why would I let a little thing like that stop me?

1. Education. List the region of the country you were born in, what universities you attended and at least one other you would have attended if your alma mater didn’t exist.

I was born and raised in Ohio, and am currently attending OSU. I never really seriously considered a school other than Ohio State, but of the others I looked at, I'd have probably gone to Purdue or Toledo if the OSU campus fell into some sort of black hole. Unless I jumped into the black hole after it, which is a real possibility.

2. Sports Affiliations. List your top 10 favorite teams in all of sports in decending order. For instance, your alma mater’s football team may be number 1, but perhaps there is a professional team that squeezes in before you get to your alma mater’s lacrosse team.

1. The Ohio State Football team
2. The Ohio State Men's Basketball team
3. The Cleveland Cavaliers (or whoever LeBron's playing for)
4. All Other OSU Sports Teams
5. Whoever's Playing Michigan

That's about it. I don't pay a lot of attention to professional sports, aside from those employing former OSU players and LeBron. LeBron's awesome.

3. Movies. List the movie you’ve watched the most, your favorite sports related movie, the movie you secretly love but don’t like to admit it (possibly a chick flick or b film), and the movie you were (or still are) most looking forward to from this summer’s season.

Most watched - I'm guessing it's a tie between The Big Lebowski, The Matrix, and Tombstone. I haven't seen the Matrix in a while, but I watched it all the time in my younger days.

Favorite sports movie - Rocky III. Sure, Rocky was the best in terms of actual movie quality, but I prefer III and IV, because they're more fun. He ends the Cold War in Rocky IV, and I appreciate him doing that, but III has some fantastic lines, including one of my favorite exchanges in all of moviedom:

Mickey: I seen wrestlers as big as dinosaurs. You ever fought a dinosaur, kid?
Rocky: Not lately.
Mickey: They can inflict a variety of damage!

Guilty pleasure flick -Commando. Pretty crappy and very formulaic, but dammit, it's fun, and it features the governor of California.

Movie I'm most looking forward to:

4. Music. List your favorite band from middle school, high school, college and today. Also, as with the movies, include the song you secretly love but don’t like to admit. If Nickleback is involved in any of these responses, please give a detailed explanation as to why, god, why.

Middle School - Aerosmith, but I also enjoyed the Wallflowers and Matchbox 20

High School - Nirvana and Jimi Hendrix

College/Today - Flogging Molly, Foo Fighters, and Jack Johnson

Guilty Pleasure Song - "Promiscuous" by Nelly Furtado. It's catchy, and I've always had a thing for female singer-songwriters.

5. Books. Favorite book you’ve finished, worst book you’ve finished and the book you really should read but haven’t gotten around to it.

Favorite - Either The Godfather by Mario Puzo or Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck. Though depending on my mood, there's probably 8 or 10 books that could go here.

Worst - Gotta agree with EDSBS on Their Eyes Were Watching God. Had to read it sometime in high school, and while I was able to enjoy most high school reading assignments, or at least appreciate them for their artistic merit, this one just sucked.

Should Read - The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. Globalization's kind of a big deal, and I dropped $30 on the book, so I should really get around to reading it one of these days.

6. Travel. Favorite city you’ve every been to and the one place you still must visit before you shuffle off this mortal coil.

Favorite - Chicago. Lots to do there.

Must Visit - Las Vegas. Also New Orleans.

7. What do you love most about college football in 20 words or less?

The roar of the crowd - at any point before, during, or after the game - and everything it represents.

Follow Me to Freedom!

Wow, big day here at the 614. A new record for visitors in a day, eclipsing the previous record set when I got a casual mention from mgoblog. To celebrate the occasion, I'm eventually going to add the previous post to the "Greatest Hits" section of the sidebar, mostly because something else needs to go there. I'm no one-hit wonder. I'm no Right Said Fred. I am not too sexy for my car. Not by far.

Sean: Also did not sing "Macarena."

In actual news, Fox has announced plans to create their own SportsCenter. It's called "Final Score," and it'll air nightly on FSN. Supposedly the focus will be on the highlights, and the press release takes a few shots at ESPN for making their shows about the hosts instead.

I'm cautiously optimistic about this. I don't really have a problem with the Sportscenter anchors being minor celebrities; the good ones make the show a lot better. I just think that a little competition will help to keep ESPN focused. Currently, if I want anything sports-related, odds are I'm watching ESPN to get it. If FSN's show leads them to become more direct competitors with ESPN, it will provide a viable alternative, which will mean ESPN will be able to see clearly what works and what doesn't. Everyone switches over to FSN when ESPN's college football studio team gets on the screen? Lou Holtz and Mark May finally get replaced. A significant portion of the viewing audience watches women's semi-professional darts on FSN over a Bill Walton clip? Maybe that ex-hippie gets the boot.

Odds are, this is gonna be a pretty half-assed attempt to compete with ESPN, just like a lot of FSN, and everyone will ignore it. But if it takes off, it could be fantastic, something that pulls ESPN away from mobile phones and their own movies and TV dramas and focuses them more on actual sports reporting and analysis. It's a long shot, but it's better than nothing.

You're So Money and You Don't Even Know It

Late last night, following Columbus's Red, White, and Boom fireworks show and aided by Bud Light and boredom, my roommate and I got on the topic of how to get girls. Being Ohio State fans, this boiled down to one question: What Would Jim Tressel Do? We decided that Tressel would not hurry things, wouldn't risk it all by trying to close the deal too quickly. Tressel would wait until he had a situation that played to his advantages, and wouldn't be afraid to punt if things started going haywire. That's how Tressel gets the women. And if fake blogs are a reliable source of information (and I think they are), Tressel certainly does get the women. Also the hovercrafts.

This got my roommate and I thinking: if a bunch of high-profile college football coaches walk into a bar to pick up women, how does it all play out? We came up with a few theories, which I have elaborated on below, assisted by College Football News's list of top coaches:

Jim Tressel - Tressel does not work quickly. He picks out a girl, introduces himself, talks to her, and sees how things are going, but he's patient. If he isn't making much progress, he settles for getting a phone number and trying again later, setting up a date where he could impress the girl more easily. Tressel doesn't dance that well, so he doesn't dance with the girl. He takes her bowling instead, because Tressel's a damn good bowler, and he can show off his athletic skills and incredible sense of humor at the bowling alley. Plus, when's the last time people didn't have fun bowling? Exactly, it doesn't happen. Everyone likes bowling. Anyway, you might wonder if Tressel's ever gonna get anywhere with the girl, you might make jokes about how he has no game, but when it's all said and done, he usually gets the girl.

Lloyd Carr - Lloyd doesn't even go to the bar anymore. He used to go out and do well for himself, but he doesn't seem to have it anymore. When everyone's planning a night out, they expect him to go out and do all right for himself, but he always ends up disappointing everyone. This may be because Lloyd finds himself competing with Tressel at the bar, and generally losing.

Pete Carroll - Carroll pulls in all sorts of hot tail without much trouble. Sure, it would be impressive, but considering he's hitting up bars with tons of hot chicks and has a great house with a great location, he should be doing that well. Petey's trips to the bar are like shooting fish in a barrel.

Bob Stoops - Bob's the sort of guy who does well for himself with women, but you can't help thinking that he's not gonna reach that level of that one night again. You know, that crazy night with the Patron, and those Swedish chicks, and that hilarious cab driver. You know what night Bob's talking about right? Sure you do, and it was a good time, but the past couple trips haven't been near that much fun, and you're starting to think that maybe you'd be better off going to the bar with, say, Pete instead.

Kirk Ferentz - The girls Ferentz gets never seem that impressive. You certainly didn't try to get them. Nevertheless, Kirk almost always has more fun with his girlfriends than you do with yours. The whole "diamond in the rough" thing is kind of wearing thin, though, and sooner or later he's gonna have to start setting his sights higher.

Charlie Weis - The first night you went to the bar with Charlie, he got a number from a pretty hot girl. Everyone was really impressed and started forming high expectations for the guy. You pointed out that the guy Charlie replaced in your group also started out well, and he ended up just falling on the grenade for the other guys. You are quickly assured that things are different now that you're rolling with Charlie, but you aren't quite sure how.

Urban Meyer - He walks in, stares at the girl of choice, and points. Success ensues.

Mack Brown - For a long time, Mack couldn't close the deal. He'd talk to the hot girls, he'd even get a number, but he'd always end up messing things up. Last time you all hit up the bar, though, he scored with an absolutely gorgeous chick (you might have gotten with her instead, but Justin Zwick, Ryan Hamby, and Troy Smith's greed conspired to screw you over). You're happy for your buddy, but the question remains: was that a once in a lifetime event for him, or a sign of things to come?

Steve Spurrier - Steve's got a system. He bought one of those mail-order books you see advertised in Playboy and the like (or so I've heard), and he always sticks to that strategy. For a lot of years it worked incredibly well, and it really pissed off a lot of people, especially your buddy Phil Fulmer. Then Steve stopped going to the bar with the guys for a while and started hanging out with some other dudes. That didn't work out too well for him, so now he's hanging out with you guys again. It remains to be seen if he'll reel in the women he used to get, but Phil's just glad he's not going to the same bar as Steve anymore.

And We're Back

That was the longest I've gone without posting here since I started the site. I don't intend to do that again. A tempermental cable modem and the holiday conspired to keep me offline over most of the long weekend. As a result, you were spared my inane banter.

If, for some reason, you consider that a bad thing, take heart in the fact that at least you weren't one of the 20,000 people awakened by a midnight call from an automated alert system run by their town. This call was meant to alert a neighborhood that a 94-year old man with Alzheimer's had wandered off, but the person who put out the warning didn't exactly know what he was doing, and didn't limit the warning to a neighborhood.

The problem with receiving this alert is not that it would have awakened you late at night, but rather that receiving it would mean that you live in Ann Arbor. I cannot imagine a fate worse than that.

Ok, that was pretty weak, I admit.


"Oh well, at least it's over now."
"What are you talking about? It's only just beginning!"
"Oh why are we doomed to suffer? And why are those people watching voluntarily?!"

Sad News

Northwestern coach Randy Walker died of an apparent heart attack last night. He was just 52. He had been diagnosed with a heart condition in 2004, and said afterwards that he was changing his diet and work habits.

There's nothing I can really say that doesn't sound incredibly trite and cliched, so I'll just say that this is very sad, and leave it at that.

Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires

Lest the esteemed gentlemen of the M Zone think that OSU fans are the only ones setting things on fire in the name of a rivalry, I present this video:



And it only took them two tries!

For any further commentary, see the linked M Zone post, making minor edits as necessary to apply it to the above video.

Raising a Superstar

It's kind of old, but the Plain Dealer had an article about receiver Brian Robiskie and his father, NFL coach Terry Robiskie, that's worth a read if you're into the human-interest angle of sports. It's a discussion of the work father and son put in on making Brian a better wide receiver, and the pressure they both put on him. Terry Robiskie expects a lot from his son, but it's clear that it's no more than Brian expects of himself. It seems to be a family situation that allows Brian to be as successful as possible, and if they're all happy with how things are going (and they should be, since Robiskie should see quite a bit of playing time this season), good for them.

The article got me thinking about what it takes to raise an athlete capable of competing at the highest levels. What is it that separates a Peyton Manning from a guy who never got past second string in high school? The simplest answer is talent, but that's not the end of the discussion. Even among individuals of similar talent, there's a wide range of degrees of success. What influences that success? For the purpose of this discussion, I'll limit the factors to those related to parenting.

In terms of athletes whose success was impacted by their parents, there are two ends of the spectrum. On one end, there's Tiger Woods, taught golf primarily by his father, tremendously driven and tremendously successful. He seems happy with his career and how things turned out. And why not? Have you seen his wife?


Who needs golf when you have Elin Nordegren?
On the other end of the spectrum, there's Todd Marinovich. Trained his entire life to be an NFL quarterback, he apparently cracked under the pressure, and a variety of off-the-field problems led to the end of his NFL career a year after it began.

So what's the difference between the two? Both were clearly talented, and both had fathers that pushed them to be the best athlete they could be. The difference, I'd say, lies in the desire. Tiger Woods wanted to be the best golfer ever. According to Tiger and his late father, it wasn't that Earl Woods made Tiger practice, it was that Tiger made his father practice with him. The decision to become a golfer was his own.

I don't know as much about Marinovich's situation, but I'd argue that he wasn't given nearly as much choice in the matter as Tiger. If he wasn't given a chance to say "I don't want to play football," then all he could do was go along for the ride, doing what he was told. Then one day, he realized he was on his own; nobody was telling him what to do. He didn't have to play football, and perhaps he didn't want to play football, but football was about all he knew. So he ended up with the variety of problems detailed in the article above.

So, the trick to raising a superstar is to have a kid that wants to be a superstar, and making sure the choice is his own. Pushing a child, or anyone really, to be someone that they aren't doesn't work in the long run. This is not to say that a parent shouldn't push his kid to get better. On the contrary, that's a very important part of it. Would Tiger have been half the golfer he is today if his father didn't care what his son was doing? Unlikely.

In conclusion, if you want to raise a successful child, all you need to do is have a kid with talent and desire, and push him to be as good as he can be. That's all it takes. You can trust me, I'm entirely qualified to have an opinion on raising children.

I Feel Like I'm Taking Crazy Pills!

I would have posted yesterday, but I was busy trying to set an NBA franchise back a decade. You see, I'm trying to get an NBA head coaching job, and that seems to be the way to do it.

Seriously, Isiah Thomas does arguably more damage as a GM than anyone in NBA history, and he gets more responsibility? What the hell?

Couple things to have a look at:

• Brian at mgoblog warns OSU fans about overlooking Michigan. There's a variety of comments I could make here, but I just see all of them being quoted in a celebratory post at a Michigan blog following their victory, so I won't tempt karma. I will say, though, that while Texas may very well be favored when we play them, and the Iowa game will likely be a coin flip or thereabouts, OSU looks like a favorite in the rest of their games, due in no small part to favorable scheduling. Having Michigan and Penn State come to the 'Shoe worries me a lot less than going to their respective stadiums. If UM or PSU is being overlooked by fans, it's because we assume that the OSU football team will win more often than not when playing a team of roughly equal talent at home.
  
  That said, yeah, don't overlook Michigan (or Penn State, or anyone else, really). They're still Michigan, and along with 9-3 seasons and naked gunplay comes the ever-present possibility of defeating the Buckeyes. The possibility has grown smaller, however, with the departure of John Cooper (or, as he was better known during the various Weeks After Michigan he presided over, That Dumbass John Cooper).
  
• This article in the Dispatch makes the claim that Terence Dials is better off not being drafted at all than going in the second-round, as it provides more options for him. Sure, if they say so. I'm still not sure I could see a Big Ten Player of the Year going undrafted. No, I don't expect him to be an All-Star, or even a starter, but are you telling me the guy couldn't provide help off the bench? With a little work, I expect him to work his way into the rotation somewhere.
  
  Also interesting is that J.J. Sullinger and Je'Kel Foster are hoping to latch on to an NBA team. Both are long-shots, but I wouldn't be stunned to see them latch on as role-players. J.J. could be your stereotypical energy guy off the bench, and if Je'Kel finds out where he left his shot at the end of the season, that might be enough to get him on a roster. But like I said, long-shots.
  
  And, one last random factoid from the article: Matt Sylvester grew up in Italy. I did not know that. I learned something today.
  

Ch-ch-changes

I just finished a couple modifications to the site.

First, I added a video of the OSU Marching Band's ramp entrance to the videos page. I get chills whenever I watch it, both on video and at the stadium. For me, the band is as much a part of the game day experience as the football team. I'll remember the ramp entrance, Carmen Ohio, "Hang On Sloopy" before the fourth quarter, and, of course, Script Ohio every bit as much as any Ted Ginn run or Mike Nugent field goal. If you haven't been to a game, play the video, crank up the volume, and pretend your watching the game through a very strange set of binoculars.

The second change is a minor one, changing "junior" to "senior" over on the sidebar. It's technically a little late, since I had senior status beginning spring quarter, but I figure I can't really be a senior until my fourth year. Symbolically, it was a pretty big change. By this time next year, I'll (hopefully) be a graduate of the Ohio State University, out in the world working a job that isn't ending at the end of the summer. I'll be starting that "rest of my life" that I've been putting off and ignoring for as long as possible. I'm sure that at some point I'll put up some touchy-feely post about ending my time as a student, but right now the prospect of graduation terrifies me too much to think about.

Saturday Reading List

Things to check out while wondering if you should still care about the World Cup. . . .

• Beaker over at Heavyweight Football Champs discusses the drawbacks of a playoff system in college football. Basically, a playoff would reduce the importance of the regular season and all but eliminate major non-conference matchups like Ohio State-Texas. He proposes a four-team playoff, determined by BCS rankings. Sounds good to me. There's still going to be a team left out that feels they're deserving, but any argument for the fifth-ranked team as a title contender is probably a weak one. And a four-team playoff doesn't extend the season too much for the players, which I also like.
• The Sports Economist has a post about how the United States World Cup team didn't have any members of the U-20 team (which had doen pretty well for itself in international competition) on it, and it probably should have. I don't really know that much about the U-20 team, so I suggest you follow the link if you want to know more, but the way I see it, a couple more young guys couldn't have made things worse for the U.S. side.
• On the topic of soccer, Brian linked to this Fox Sports blog that creates and discusses the rumor of German coach Jurgen Klinsmann leaving their team after this World Cup to take over the U.S. spot, assuming Bruce Arena vacates it (voluntarily or otherwise). It seems like a great move. The Germans weren't real happy with Klinsmann's approach leading up to the Cup, and the guy's pretty Americanized, living in L.A., married to an American, etc. Plus, he seems like a good coach, but that opinion's based on just this World Cup, so it's tough to know for sure. He could end up like the mid-major coach in the NCAA tourney that takes his team on a surprising run or two, gets the job he wants, and doesn't live up to expectations (I'm thinking Dan Monson here). But still, if we're looking for a new coach, the USSF could certainly do worse than hiring Klinsman, if he's available.
• Oh, and that whole new director of football performance has a criminal record thing. I'm not necessarily too worried about it. Here's his side of the story:
  

  "I was in school, working two jobs, one as a bouncer and one as a sales representative selling memberships to the gym," Lichter said. "Unbeknownst to me, (Williams) was involved in drug trafficking. One night he came up to me and said, ‘I’ve got a guy coming, can you hand him this envelope?’ and I said, ‘Sure, no problem.’ It turned out to be a locker key (where the drugs had been stashed).

  "My wife was pregnant, I was making pretty decent money and it was a job I really wanted to keep. I was 22 years old and impressionable; I figured I’ll do it (deliver the envelope) to stay in his good graces. That was the extent of it. You live and you learn."

  It seems reasonable to me. The M-Zone doesn't buy it, claiming that if you didn't know you were committing a crime, why would you plead guilty to it, as Lichter did? It's a valid objection, but I imagine he was pretty freaked out, to be implicated in a drug ring for handing over an envelope. And let's say some FBI agents, looking for an easy conviction, came up to him and said "Hey, handing over that envelope means you were involved in the operation. You will get convicted if this goes to trial. Plead guilty, and you'll get probation. Not guilty, and you'll get jail time." If he didn't have a lawyer, or had a pretty bad one, it doesn't seem unreasonable for him to say "I don't know what's going on, but if you say it'll keep me out of jail, I'll do it." I just think the guys over at the M-Zone are drawing conclusions based on Lichter's so-called Buckstache. Stereotyping is wrong, guys.
  
  That said, his explanation does seem a little fishy. I'm just willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, because his story seems fairly plausible. He should, however, be kept on a pretty short leash. But then, so should everyone else associated with the football and basketball teams for the next few years, so that's nothing unusual.
  

CFN Previews the Buckeyes

I'm on my way out the door, but if you need some reading material, College Football News released its Ohio State preview today. It's a pretty good read, but it has its bad points. I'll break it down.

Likes:

1. They say that the kicker will be the key to a successful season. I'm inclined to agree there. It's one of the big question marks on the team, and it's an important position. How many games have been won by having a great kicker (e.g., Nuge), or lost by having a crappy one? If Pretorious or Pettrey can be anywhere close to as good as Nugent and Huston, that would be huge.
2. They're pretty high on the defense, rating each unit an 8. If they're right (I'm not totally convinced), that should be good enough to get the job done.

Dislikes:

1. CFN says that anything other than a national championship will be viewed as a disappointment. Maybe that's true, but I don't think it should be. If a team replacing five first-round draft picks and 9 of 11 defensive starters doesn't win the national title, I don't consider it a disappointment. Now, I'd be disappointed if we didn't win the Big Ten championship, but the undefeated (or 1 loss) season needed for a national championship requires a lot of luck, and I won't see the season as a failure if all the needed bounces don't go our way.
2. According the preview of the offense, "it's possible [Antonio Pittman is] the team's third best back." If someone tried to argue that Chris Wells is better than Pittman, I'd say "I'll believe it when I see it," but I wouldn't think they were crazy. But from what I've seen, I'm not convinced Maurice Wells is on the same level as Pittman. Hopefully he proves me wrong, though. Three quality backs would be a pleasant change from '03 and '04, when we had none.

Anyway, if you're like me, you're starved for news, you're reading any college football news you can get your hands on, so this is probably a welcome read for you. Check it out.

Ze Goggles, They Do Nothing!

So, it's already mentioned elsewhere, but Oregon's new uniforms are very ugly. They're ugly now, and they're going to be worse once they start mixing and matching. I sorta feel bad about all the bitching OSU fans did about the uniform change earlier this year. It's like complaining about being hungry, then seeing starving people in some third-world country. I mean, sure, I don't like the stripe change on our uniform, but at least they didn't put that diamondplate pattern on everything. Check out the Uni Watch blog for an exhaustive analysis of the new Oregon unis.

Looking at the pictures, I got to thinking: if you were an Oregon fan, how many wins would you trade a year to not have Nike tinkering with your team's uniform like that? I would seriously consider trading a win a season for some decent-looking uniforms. I mean, wins are great and all, but what good is a win if your team's uniforms are so hideous that you are unable to gaze upon their victory without being blinded by ugliness?

Oh, and sorry for missing another day on Wednesday. This job's taking a lot of time, and sometimes I'm not willing to spend even more time in front of a computer after I get off work. To make it up to y'all, I'll try to post on the weekends, so you can read the same amount of blathering from me, just more spread out.

You Know I Should Have Stayed in Bed

So, today did not go especially well. First, the U.S. lost to Ghana, getting themselves knocked out of the World Cup. I didn't see the game, since I was working, but I gather that Claudio Reyna, Bruce Arena, and the ref caused as much trouble for the team as Ghana. I still don't understand why Arena didn't use a second striker. I also don't understand the foul on Onyewu in the box. I also don't understand Reyna giving the assist to Ghana on their first goal. Basically, I don't understand a lot of that game. And now I'm left without a team to root for. I suppose I'll cheer for Australia, and maybe England, and maybe Brazil. But still, it was a let down.

And then, on my way home from work, I was ticketed by the Columbus Police Department for doing 37 in a 25, a zone which not so long ago had a speed limit of 35 mph. Now, my house here on campus has been broken into twice, and the police have made no progress in tracking down those perpetrators. But when I speed, they have no trouble tracking me down and hitting me up for $120. I wish they were so successful in getting my stuff back.

I guess I shouldn't complain, though. I knew the limit was 25 mph, and that it was a likely speed trap, but I was speeding anyway. No one to blame but myself. Still, not a good end to the day. But enough whining.

You know what just occurred to me? I'm a moustache away from appearing on the M-Zone. Or would be, if they took mugshots of people committing minor traffic violations. Which they don't. So I guess I'm not that close after all.

Busy Day

Sorry I didn't get a post in today. Between work and life outside of work, I wasn't left with much time to work in a post.

I did, however, want to direct you to Buckeye Commentary's interview with Bruce Feldman. You are likely aware of it already, but if not, you should read it. There were some good questions for Feldman, and he gave some good answers. There's no earth-shattering revelations (there hardly ever are in June), but it's well worth your time. That's right, I'm making judgments about how you should spend your time. And I don't even know you.

Feldman's one of the people that make me seriously consider becoming an ESPN Insider. His blog seems worth reading, and that, combined with the occasional other articles of interest, moves a subscription into the "seriously consider" category, especially now that I have some income. Insider's behind an XBox 360 (probably) and NCAA Football 2007 (definitely) in the things I'll spend my money on in the near future, but it's something I think I'd be interested in. Is it worth it, current and/or former Insiders? More importantly, would the money be better spent on cheap beer? Because cheap beer is very dear to my heart. My liver, not so much.


The fourth Google Image Search result for "sad liver." The surprising thing is that he wasn't first.

World Cup Thoughts

(First, a note: I started my summer internship today. As a result, until mid-September, there won't be any posts from me until after 6:00, generally. Unless I get ambitious and wake up early to post. But really, what are the odds of that?)

So, as you are likely aware, the U.S. played to a 1-1 tie against Italy. What's more, they did it with 9 players on the field. Italy was down a man themselves, but to play one of the best teams in the world to a draw when you have fewer players on the field than they have is impressive. Some of my thoughts on the match:

• The red cards: The Italian player deserved his for the foul against McBride. Mastroeni's challenge was of the sort that FIFA's supposedly cracking down on, but I still don't think it was worth a red. It was poorly-timed and reckless, but I don't think he was trying to hurt the guy or anything. Pope's foul would have deserved a yellow card if it had been his first, but I think the ref should show a little restraint in giving out second yellow cards.
• Arena's changes to the starting lineup were good, I thought. Bocanegra for Lewis worked out pretty well, I thought, and Dempsey was very effective. The new lineup let Donovan play facing the goal, where he looked more comfortable. I'd still consider starting Johnson over McBride, his supposed untouchability nonwithstanding. The guy hasn't been much of a threat thus far.
  
• Speaking of McBride, what a contrast to the Italians he was. It was a physical game, but the Italians were definitely taking some dives and doing the whole "Oh, get the stretcher, I'll never walk again, oh look, now that I'm off the field I'm fine" act. Meanwhile, McBride catches a big elbow, starts bleeding like he's in the WWE, and just walks off to get a band-aid and a clean jersey. You can see why the Fulham fans like him. Maybe he should be left in the starting lineup after all.
• What was the deal with Arena not using the last substitution? I'm not saying we should have put Johnson in for Reyna and risked losing the draw or anything, but why not bring in O'Brien or someone? Reyna looked dead at the end.
  
• Today on Around the Horn, ESPN's collection of clowns argued about whether the draw should be considered a moral victory. The consensus seemed to be "no," because the offense was no good and we should be past the point of moral victories, or something along those lines. I tend to agree more with this ESPN article. The team played a lot better than they did against the Czechs, and they tied one of the best teams in the world after spotting them a man for a half. If you had told me at the start of the World Cup that we'd tie Italy, I'd have found that acceptable. If you told me we'd manage a tie while being a man down, I'd have been very happy.
• It'll be interesting to see what changes Arena makes, since Pope and Mastroeni will be unavailable. Since Jimmy Conrad came in to take over Pope's spot, I kind of expect we'll see him on the back line.
  
  Replacing Mastroeni will be more interesting. The easy thing for Arena to do will be to just start O'Brien, and that's what he'll probably do. If he gets tricky, though, he might say that since Ghana will be missing two of their best attackers (Gyan and Muntari both picked up their second yellow cards against the Czechs), he won't worry so much about defense, and put in Eddie Johnson up front to replace Mastroeni, and go with a 4-4-2 or something along those lines. I don't really expect it, but I wouldn't think it's out of the question, and I think I'd prefer to see that.
  

Santonio Holmes Arrested. . . Again

Santonio gets in trouble with the law again, this time for some domestic violence. I was willing to let his disorderly conduct arrest back around Memorial Day slide, because that seemed pretty insignificant. This time, he's charged with domestic violence and simple assault, which are misdemeanors, but are still something I would consider serious and stupid.

There's not really much else to say. He messed up pretty good, and if he doesn't straighten himself out quickly, he's going to throw away an opportunity most of us can only dream of.

Those Crazy Non-College Football Sports

From the world of sports that think they matter:

• Ben Roethlisberger apologizes - Hey, don't apologize to me, man. Apologize to your face. If you hadn't been a moron, it'd be fine right now. A full discussion of the stupidity of risking an NFL career by riding a motorcycle helmetless has already been discussed elsewhere (more capably than I could manage), so I will not say anything further here.
  
  I thought that maybe his accident would have an impact on other motorcycle riders, but from the small sample of riders I saw on the highway today, that doesn't seem to be the case. I saw three bikers, two without helmets. And one actually had a helmet strapped to his bike. That's just tempting fate, dude.
• Ozzie Guillen yells at a rookie pitcher for not hitting a player - This is why I think baseball's stupid. In professional football, the written rules (specifically the ones against having fun) are what bugs me. In MLB, it's the unwritten rules. For example, a manager leaving the dugout to argue balls and strikes in the 4th inning, knowing full well he's going to get kicked out and not change anything. Or two teams deciding to have a benches-clearing "brawl," where both teams will meet in the infield and hope that nobody actually throws a punch. Or in this case, where a rookie pitcher is brought into the game specifically to throw at a player, and then getting yelled at by his manager when he is unsuccessful in his attempt. John Chaney did something very similar in a college basketball game, was suspended three games for it, and there was extensive discussion about how he should be punished worse, or be fired for it. Yet this is considered just part of the game in baseball. It's a game that doesn't make much sense sometimes. Plus, it's a slow game, with a lot of spitting and scratching. And the coaches wear uniforms. And Joe Buck is prominently involved. There's not much good about it.
• Bruce Arena's considering changes to the World Cup lineup -I'd hope so, otherwise the guy should be fired immediately. I definitely think Eddie Johnson should be in the lineup, and I don't care if he's too similar to Brian McBride. He's just about the only one that looked willing to make something happen up front. I'd like to see John O'Brien replace Pablo Maestroni, as Pablo seemed pretty much invisible, and O'Brien looked pretty fit and capable when he was in. I'd like to see Clint Dempsey play, but that just might be because he's the only one on the team with a rap video. DaMarcus Beasley didn't seem to contribute much, so maybe Dempsey could replace him, though Dempsey's defensive skills are a concern. The author suggests a 4-4-2 for the team, with Johnson and McBride up front, Claudio Reyna and O'Brien in the middle, and Bobby Convey and Landon Donovan at the left and right midfield, respectively. That seems pretty reasonable to me.
  
  I'd like to know, though, why Reyna and McBride are considered untouchable. I realize Arena loves McBride (and I can relate, seeing as he played for years with the Columbus Crew), but did McBride do anything against the Czechs? And has Reyna been all that impressive? I'd like to see Reyna replaced by a defensive midfielder, allowing Donovan to play attacking mid, but we don't really seem to have anyone capable of playing the defensive mid role, so I guess we have to make do with what we have. Hopefully Arena can put something together and get a win against Italy, but in reality a draw would be pretty impressive for the team.
  

We're Goin' Streaking!

The Washington Post has an interesting tale of love, nudity, and gun play in Ann Arbor (via the Bucknuts message board):

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- A marriage-minded man ran naked through his neighborhood, trying to show his hesitant girlfriend that taking risks is important. He got more than he bargained for when he ended up being chased and shot at.

Sure, the guy running around naked to prove a point is pretty weird, but equally bizarre is the man who carries a gun on a walk with his girlfriend and shoots a naked man that's running away from him. Generally speaking, naked men trying to avoid me is not behavior I would want to punish.

I suspect, sadly, that the man and his potential bride-to-be aren't Michigan students. Why, you ask? This paragraph:

The couple were discussing marriage early Wednesday when the woman said she wasn't sure if she was ready, according to Ann Arbor police reports. The man responded that taking risks is an important part of life and, to prove his point, jumped out of a first-floor window and ran naked across the street.

If his girlfriend attended U of M, he wouldn't be jumping out the window to convince her to marry him. He'd be jumping out the window to escape! *rimshot*


"Aw, that's mean, man"
But seriously, folks, I'm not one to spread false generalizations, but everyone in Ann Arbor is either a naked lunatic or a gun-toting maniac. Stay away from there.

Some Reading Material

• According to the Dispatch, OSU's working on a home-and-home with Alabama (HT: Roll 'Bama Roll). If it happens, it'll probably be a decade from now, because OSU's got a pretty loaded slate of nonconference games for the next ten years or so: Texas this year, Washington (meh) next year, USC in '08 and '09, Miami in '10 and '11, Cal in '12 and '13, and Virginia Tech in '14 and '15. It'd be awesome to add Alabama to that list. I can't think of the last time Ohio State played an SEC team outside of a bowl game, and if the team we'd play is one with as much history as Alabama, well, that's pretty cool. Hopefully they can get the deal finalized, and hopefully both schools are top-ten in the country by the time the games roll around.
• Stewart Mandel's got a new mailbag up on SI.com. On the second page, there's a question about the Big Ten creating its own channel on DirecTV, leading eventually to this:
  

  But in talking to league officials, I've learned that they envision a day in the not-too distant future when fans are watching games on their laptops and hand-held devices as often as they do actual television. When that happens, sports leagues will want the ability to control these potentially lucrative revenue streams, and I imagine eventually the Big Ten, SEC and every other major conference will follow the Mountain West's lead.

  Now, I'd like to know: would anyone out there choose to watch the Buckeyes on a computer over watching them on TV? Now, I admit this would be nice for times when you aren't around a TV or when you've traveled to a place where you can't get an Ohio State game on TV, but if the people in charge think fans are going to watch games on 6- and 17-inch screens "as often as they do actual television," they're crazy.
  
• Last up, a little-known fact: a Michigan Man does not have to show up at court appearances. It's true, ask Cato June. Just don't ask the Indiana legal system; they think that sort of thing should get you arrested or something.

ABC, You May Have Just Cost Me A Security Deposit

The folks in charge of scheduling at ABC, in their infinite wisdom, have decided to schedule the OSU-Michigan game at 3:30 (HT: Buckeye Commentary). For some reason (involving dollar signs, I imagine), the schools have decided to go along with this.

I think this is a bad idea. Some who agree with me do so because of tradition. The Game is meant to be played at noon, the argument goes. That's the way it's always been, that's the way it should be.

Wrong "The Game"

I don't make this argument. For starters, last year it was moved to 1:00, already breaking tradition. Further, I'd argue that traditions should be followed only if there's not a good reason to get rid of them. I'd argue that a three hour change in start time is worth it if it brings in a bunch of extra cash, which is it likely to do.

No, I argue against the move out of concern for my automobile. As you are aware, in 2002 Ohio State beat Michigan in a noon game, securing a spot in the national title game, and there was rioting. This year, we come in among the preseason favorites for the championship, so a repeat of that situation is not out of the question (furiously knocking on wood). Except that this time, ABC has decided to grant an extra three hours of drinking to potential rioters. I doubt the University and Columbus Police Department's well thought-out and effective (ahem) plan of ticketing people possessing open containers of alcohol will be enough to offset this additional drinking time. The end result?


Not entirely accurate; a significant orc presence is unlikely.
Of course, there is the possibility that students, citizens of Columbus, and the assorted multitude of thousands just in town for the game will have learned that it is possible to celebrate a big victory peacefully. Not likely, but not impossible.

I suppose, though, that if people are going to set things on fire, they're going to do it regardless of the kickoff time. A later start isn't going to help things, but it's probably not creating problems. And who's to say I wouldn't set my car on fire in exchange for a National Championship? I'm not sure I would, but I'd at least consider it.

Of course, there's the very real possibility that the Buckeyes will get to the Michigan game with a loss or more, and none of this will be an issue. So why worry about it before it happens? We'll burn that bridge when we come to it.

Highlight Vids

Inspired by Peter over at Burnt Orange Nation and his development of a Texas highlight section, I've created my own collection of highlights. Mine are, of course, of the Ohio State variety. Rather than clog up this main page with a bunch of YouTube vids pushing the rest of my insightful and witty writing further down the page, I've backdated the post of the highlights and linked to it on the sidebar, just below the links to the blogs.

If you want to see the OSU highlights, click here. And, as I mention on the highlights page, if you encounter any other clips that belong on there, please let me know.

Links

• The US gets stomped in the World Cup - I watched all of this one. It started bad and never got good. Other than a shaky defense, a midfield that couldn't start any attacks, and a set of forwards that were almost invisible, the team looked pretty solid, I thought. The Czechs are a good team, so I won't panic yet, but unless we can mount some sort of attack against Italy on Saturday and get a win, we're almost certainly out of the tournament.
• '06 Basketball commit David Lighty gets arrested (HT: M-Zone) - Dude shoots a guy with a BB gun, laughs with his friends about it, and fails to leave the scene before the cops show up. You have to be a pretty big jackass to shoot someone with a BB gun and laugh about it, and you have to be a pretty big dumbass to wait around for the police after doing it. Unless this is some sort of giant misunderstanding, he'd better be kicked off the OSU basketball team. This program needs to be cleaner than most after the O'Brien incident, and no team should have this kind of guy on it.
• Ben Roethlisberger injured in motorcycle accident - Details are still kind of sketchy, but it sounds like he wasn't wearing a helmet. Not very smart of him. Here's hoping he makes a quick, full recovery.
  

Who Owns Ohio?

I was recently e-mailed a link to this YouTube video, an old clip from the Today show discussing the Ohio University-OSU trademark fight from the late 90's. In 1993, OU filed for a trademark for their "attack cat" logo (seen on lots of their stuff, like their athletics website). The patent was granted in 1995, and Ohio State filed to cancel OU's trademark in 1997. The problem was that this might technically prevent Ohio from using "Ohio," which would be a problem, what with Ohio Stadium and Script Ohio and the Stadium Ohio cheer and so on and so forth. Things were eventually settled in 1998, with OU getting the trademark, and Ohio State getting to use the word "Ohio" in all the ways it's been using it. For the complete story, check out this old article from OU's student newspaper, which provided pretty much all the information for this paragraph.

The video itself is of pretty poor quality, with the audio about five or ten seconds ahead of the video, but it's interesting. It summarizes the lawsuit, then discusses which university is "Ohio." A couple Ohio State students seem to argue that we're Ohio, which seems kind of silly to me. I realize that we have Script Ohio, not Script The Ohio State University. I also realize when I yell "O-H," someone yells "I-O," not "I-O-S-T-A-T-E-U-N-I-V-E-R-S-I-T-Y," but those two cases are due to a lack of the band members and time needed to spell all that out. If I ask what school someone goes to, I know they mean OU if they say "Ohio." Further, I say I attend Ohio State (or The Ohio State University, if I'm feeling arrogant), because everyone knows Ohio refers to OU.

But maybe I'm just seeing the results of the settlement. I was in junior high when most of this was going on, so I had more important things to think about than lawsuits involving the word "Ohio." So it's interesting to look back on this situation, and see my university and OU getting so worked up about something that seems, at least on the surface, to be so unimportant.

Holbrook to Retire in 2007

Karen Holbrook, president of the Ohio State University, has announced she's retiring at the end of her contract in June 2007 (HT: Ohio State Online). At first, I figured it was some sort of crappy joke, but then I received the press release in an e-mail from the university, so unless the prankster has friends in high places, it's true.

Holbrook's not going to be remembered kindly by a lot of people. Tuition's been rising steadily, which upsets the students, and the crackdown on tailgating and ban on open containers was spearheaded by her, which upset a lot of fans. So a lot of people are going to say "good riddance."

I have a more positive view of her. The various academic strides made by the university are detailed in the press release I linked above, but in short, Ohio State's a significantly better university than it was before she got here, which means my degree is worth more than it would have been five years ago.

There was a discussion on some radio station about a year back about whether OSU should be raising its admission standards. The argument seemed to be that tOSU was meant to provide a college education to Ohioans who couldn't otherwise afford one, or couldn't gain admission to most colleges. I would argue that this is a role that has been taken over by community colleges, and to a lesser extent by other public universities in Ohio. There are plenty of options in Ohio for someone who wants to go to college; Ohio State can be more selective in admissions without costing someone a college education. I think that accepting higher-quality students (2/3 of this year's graduating class were in the top quarter of their high-school class) attracts better professors, as does the increased spending at the university. This results in a better university, better graduates, and a better pool of potential employees for businesses, which is ultimately good for Ohio. So I give Holbrook credit for improving the university.

The gameday crackdown I'm more ambivalent about. Something had to be done, the rioting and gameday behavior were not acceptable. However, I'm not convinced the solution worked (ask your average Texas fan whether Columbus is a pleasant place to be on gameday). It seems like the measures taken went after easy targets (tailgaters and people walking around with beers) without addressing the real issues. For example, I was once stopped on a gameday by some undercover cops and ID'd, just for carrying a 12-pack of Bud Light to my buddy's house. I was sober and minding my own business, yet they decided to stop me. I think they could have better spent this time going after some drunk screaming "Fuck the Spartans!" However, much of the problem with the gameday enforcement is more the fault of the Columbus Police than Holbrook, I think. I'm guessing they came up with the policy, and they're the ones that decide how it's enforced. She could have said "No, there's got to be a better way to do it," though, and she didn't, so she certainly deserves some blame for that.

Long story short, for all the blame Holbrook gets for eliminating fun on gameday, she deserves even more credit for improving the university. Hopefully her successor continues improving the university, while working to develop a more intelligent policy regarding fan behavior on Saturday.

More Links

Like I said, this is Finals Week at Ohio State. Contrary to what you might think, this isn't quite as bad as it's made out to be. If you have two (or three) finals without enough time to adequately study, or if you have a brutal final, then it's no fun at all. Other than that, it's not too bad a time. When you don't have to study, you have nothing to do, which for me means a lot of music video and game show watching, but for others results in equally unconstructive activities, like going to the bar or hanging out on the Oval. Basically, unless you go the route of sorrow and major in engineering, pre-med, or something similar, it's about 49% having fun and killing time, 49% studying, .25% happiness because you how to answer most of an exam, and 1.75% terror because you have no idea what any of that stuff on the exam is, and you are in fact unsure about whether you've been attending the right class all quarter. Good times.

There's a couple new (or new to me) Buckeye blogs out there for you to have a gander at:

• Buckeye Banter - For some reason, it doesn't look quite right in Firefox, but it's still readable. It's a great place to go for Ohio State news, and well worth reading regularly. Check it out.
• Death Cab for Woody - A more general blog, focused not just on OSU sports, but also music and that strange sport known as "hockey." I must admit, I don't quite understand it.
  
  
  Your Canadian sport frightens and confuses me!
  However, as a fan of a sport even less popular than hockey (joga bonito, baby), who am I to judge? And, I must admit to following hockey, however casually (even went to a Blue Jackets game and saw them get whomped by the Red Wings), so all is well. Besides, it's a well-written, entertaining site, regardless of topic. And that name is fantastic.

I just noticed that I got linked at mgoblog. Don't know how I missed that one, seeing as it's a mention from one of the biggest college football blogs. That deserves a "w00t!" even if "w00t" is very nerdy of me, and the link does come from one of those diabolical Michigan blogs.

It's That Time Again. . . .

Sorry I haven't posted, this is Finals Week at Ohio State. I'm currently on a break from studying for a Finance final. I'll try to work in a post tonight or sometime tomorrow. Thursday, at roughly 10:30, I'll be done with finals and free to forget everything I've learned until September.

Nothing good happens during prime-time football

As you've probably heard, the Iowa and Texas games this year are night games. As this Plain Dealer article points out, this is generally viewed as a bad thing. Ohio State's last four night games have all been losses, against Wisconsin, Northwestern, Texas, and Penn State. I guarantee you'll hear about this in the week leading up to the Texas game (I predict a brief piece on Gameday with interviews of Buckeye players, followed by Herbstreit saying the time doesn't matter and Corso sputtering through a retort that it does matter, probably mispronouncing a name along the way).

Thomas Edison and his light bulb: indirectly causing Buckeye defeats?

But do night games really cause a problem for OSU? Probably not. Let's look at the games one by one.

The result of the Wisconsin game was one everyone knew would come eventually. The offense that had been just good enough wasn't good enough for a game, and the defense made one mistake that cost them the game. If this game was played ten times, OSU probably wins 5 or 6 of them. I don't think you can chalk this loss up to the start time.

The Northwestern game seems to be great evidence for the "OSU sucks in night games" argument. It certainly looks like the Buckeyes should have blown the Wildcats out of the water. But then, Ohio State's offense was still anemic, and the defense tended to give up short gains while waiting for the opponents to get greedy or make a mistake, which played right into the hands of the Northwestern offense. These facts, combined with the Buckeyes probably overlooking an opponent, led to a loss that could have come at any time.

The Texas game was lost because of the quarterbacks. OSU played two of them, meaning they basically had none. Texas, meanwhile, played one, and he just happened to be the best player in college football. If Ohio State had stuck with one QB, I think they might have won that game. I must, however, acknowledge the very real possibility that the better team won that game. Either way, the night had nothing to do with this one.

Penn State might be a different story. This was a big game, especially for Penn State, and the Nittany Lions fans had a lot of time to get excited and loud for this one. It's tough to argue that the Buckeyes weren't rattled by the night game crowd. However, I think the bigger issue was that the offense in general, and Troy Smith in particular, hadn't regained the form they had at the end of the previous season. The defense held Penn State to 17 points, and the offense could only muster ten. With an offense that bad, you'll lose whenever you play.

That said, I'm still worried about the whole night-game thing. Here we have four examples of games that were essentially coin-flips or better, and Ohio State lost all four. It certainly looks like the team has a problem with night games. I don't think Tressel has a problem preparing for night games, but the more the evidence mounts, the tougher it is to explain it away. If Tressel wins both of the night games this season, all the talk of "Ohio State can't win at night" will disappear. If not, it will get louder than ever.