Buckeye Blogger Network
Wonder if it's a metaphor for something...
Well, here we are, at the second biggest shopping day of the holiday and fiscal season. It’s kind of sad, really- all those unwanted or mis- purchased gifts being dragged back to the mall, where “Good Will To Men” is certainly in short supply.
That being said… how hard is it to follow a list? And what part of “bullets” looks like “marbles”… grumble grumble grumble. Given what’s in the theaters beginning yesterday, you’ve got two choices for today’s soundtrack.
Buckeye 411
Ready to Lead, Ready to Follow, Never Quit
Lots of things to catch up on… Some of this has been around for a bit, but we’re not all edgy and trendy and stuff.
The Story Of The Week
Although it’s not really sports related, the capture/death of Osama Bin Laden did have some ripples throughout Buckeye nation and the sports world, particularly on the twitterverse:
Draft Update
Thankfully, Posey will be back in time to do this again.
Let’s cut right to the chase, Ohio State’s receiving corps will be extremely raw and inexperienced in 2011.
If losing Dane Sanzenbacher (55 receptions, 948 yards, 11 TDs) to graduation weren’t enough, the loss of Devier Posey (53 receptions, 848 yards, 7 TDs) to suspension leaves exactly two scholarship players with even the slightest amount of game day experience at the start of the season.
Losing Sanzenbacher’s production and consistent presence in the lineup will be particularly difficult to duplicate. Not only was he good enough to earn team MVP honors in 2010, he put together arguably one of the ten best seasons for a receiver ever at Ohio State.
Beyond his production, the intangibles Sanzenbacher brought to the field will be what the offense misses most. He was always in the right place at the right time and was the perfect security blanket for a quarterback in need of a consistent target.
His performance in the Sugar Bowl was the culminating illustration of his knack for the clutch play. Buckeye fans may look back on that performance fondly during a potentially rough start throwing the ball in 2011. Read More
There’s no way that we can start this week’s post without wishing Happy Birthday to Coach Jim Tressel. Ironically, it’s also the day of the ninja; although I can’t imagine the silent assassins being as polite or methodical as Senior Sweatervest- how would you write “Dave” in kanji?
Facing jUstiCe
While there were several significant games on the old telly this week, there were also off field doin’s that should not be left undiscussed. First, in this year’s addition of the River City Rivalry/Snow Bowl, Pittsburgh easily handled Ohio’s BCS team. That didn’t, however, keep the Bearcat mascot from getting arrested and escorted out of the stadium. Video and such, for those of you who are into that kind of thing, can be found here.
The Big lEast ended as it started, with a three way tie at the top of the conference. Pitt’s victory, along with West Virginia’s win over Rutgers that seemed to make their fans filled with glee, meant that UConn was still in the driver’s seat should they hold off South Florida. A late, long field goal meant that the 8-4 Huskies have earned themselves a bid to a BCS game.
As we mentioned earlier, this means that a team that only managed 10 points against the Wolverines will get to face off against, most likely, the Oklahoma Sooners. While we’ve given the Big lEast grief here in the past, it should be noted that the conference only has two teams that don’t have the requisite 6 wins necessary to go to a bowl game, a much better experience than our west coast stalwarts in the Pac-10. At this juncture, only four teams from that conference will be headed to the post season, since Southern Cal is on probation (sorry, that’s still awesome to write) and Arizona State’s 6-6 record includes too many victories over FCS schools. So, with two teams going to the BCS, this means that there’ll be four bowls looking for help with the automatic tie ins.
Scoping it out...
No press conference this week, but we do have Tress’ thoughts from after The Game and so forth
Buckeye 411
Michigan is among the elite programs and will be and their record will reflect that in the course of time but, you know, we all have our ups and downs in a period and so forth and it’s highly competitive. It’s going to become more competitive because we’re adding Nebraska. The world changed when we added Penn State. The world changes even more when we add Nebraska. The world changed when Dano (Dantonio) went over to Michigan State. There’s constantly changes, but Michigan will be back, we don’t have to worry about that.
REPORTER: Jim, obviously you talk all the time about you want to get better over the course of a year. To be 11-1, where do you feel like this team is in achieving this goal and just how good of a team do you think you are at 11-1 at the end of the season?
COACH TRESSEL: Not good enough to be the outright Big Ten champions and automatic bid to the Rose Bowl and all those things that you shoot for, but we’re pretty fair, and I believe we’re a top ten football team and probably going to get to play a top ten football team and see if we’re allowed to stay in the top ten is what I would guess, but I think it goes beyond that.
Sometimes the ball bounces funny and you end up undefeated or you end up losing however many, and our guys just kept working and whatever came their way, they handled it and pressed on and handled adversity and handled success as it came. They need a little break and they need to take a deep breath and then they need to think about playing against one of the top teams in the nation wherever we play, whoever it is. We’ve had — really we’ve had 13 games in 2010. We played a pretty good Oregon team on the first day of the year, so it’s been a lot of fun.
But who cares what I think. See ya
As always, Cole’s bringing us the plays of the week from Saturday’s big comeback victory:
The Golden Gophers, coming off their 7th straight loss of the season, ran into the #11 Buckeyes in the Twin Cities. Ohio State started slow, but eventually put the clamps down and killed the Gophers 52-10. The Buckeyes found success with a balanced attack, with Pryor throwing 18-22 for 222 yards and 2 touchdowns and Dan Herron carrying the ball 17 times for 114 yards and a touchdown. Herron’s 100 yard game was the first since Saine’s against Marshall during the season opener.
All Night Long. Photo courtesy Columbus Dispatch
The Buckeyes came out of the gate passing the football. The strategy was exactly the opposite to the previous game when they started out with 5 straight Herron runs. Pryor found some open receivers downfield against the Minnesota secondary early on but wasn’t able to connect on a couple of his passes. Intermixed with the passing game were a few runs to Herron that gained a few yards. The Buckeyes eventually got the ball down to the 3 yard line and took two Boom runs and a Pryor quarterback keeper for the touchdown.
The balanced offensive attack almost seemed like a first first the Buckeyes this season. Ohio State traditionally would attack in the first drive with either a vast majority of passes or a vast majority (or all runs). The change was clearly another step in the development of this offense after the Wisconsin loss.
Here’s another chance enjoy Saturday’s victory, to let it soak in and give yourself a chance to “get used to it”.
As always, thanks to Cole Blaney for his great work!
