Welcome to Wednesday, the first of May… it’s officially grilling season (unless you live in California, where it’s always that time). Here’s today’s soundtrack; if you don’t know why, then… well… keep reading.

Archie’d

Buckeye 411

• Is The Right Time- The ABC/ESPN/Disney schedule for college football came out on Monday, the the Buckeyes will get to show their stuff in prime time on at least three occasions this upcoming season: Against Wisconsin, at Northwestern, and again when Penn State comes to town. Some interesting history with those teams- Obviously, the Badgers and Buckeyes have loads of fun under the lights, and I think Jim Tressel is still trying to run up the score for the last night game in Evanston. The Lions were gracious hosts last year for a late game, certainly a payback for the darkness in the ‘Shoe back in 2008. While it hasn’t been announced as of yet, there’s also the possibility that the Cal game could end up as a 7:30 or so kick off on the East Coast.
• Why? Recruiting. Urban Meyer loves the big game atmosphere, and having the Buckeyes on TV with the eyes of the nation’s top recruits on them cannot be a bad thing. Also- With Ohio State’s “questionable” schedule strength next season, the more exposure they can build will certainly help toward addressing any rankings situations for the end of the season.  C’mon, Pasadena…
• Congrats- To all the 2013 graduates from THE Ohio State University, particularly the bros who got Heisman Bombed above.
• The Future- With top QB recruit Deshaun Watson sticking with his commitment to Clemson, it seems that Ohio State has started to look more closely at Louisiana’s Brandon Harris.  Worth keeping an eye on.
• Hoops Updates- Our friends over at The Buckeye Room are hosting Evan Ravenel for autograph sessions; and your Aaron Craft adorable meter needs recalibration.
• Also? Evan Turner doesn’t like geese. So there’s that.
• Design Du Jour- From the mind and computer of Ohio State’s graphics guru: Read More

Tags: 21013 Season, Archie Griffin, B1G, Brandon Harris, Duke, ESPN, Evan Turner, Mark Emmert, Mike Krzyzewski, NCAA, Northwestern, Oregon State, Penn State, Sammy Silverman, SBP, The Buckeye Room, Wisconsin
Categories: NCAA Investigations, Ohio State Basketball, Ohio State Football, Recruiting

After a weekend filled with excitement and disappointment, it’s a bit of a quiet mood at tBBC headquarters. We like baseball, and know that OSU sports are amazing even if not the “got to be on television” variety, but I’d be lying if I didn’t confess that there’s a bit of a let down these days.  Ah well… only two songs possible for today’s soundtrack. Onward.

Buckeye 411

• Injury Update- As you may have read, Ohio State offensive lineman Antonio Underwood will miss up to 6 months with a torn ACL that he experienced in Spring Practice this week.  There’s significant speculation that he’s going to red-shirt.
• Fired Up- The other “injury” news from Tuesday was Braxton getting blasted as a part of a scrimmage drill, in spite of the fact that he was wearing a black “no contact” jersey. He spent some time on the turf, but then got up and returned to drills later in the practice. There are reports that he tried to lower his shoulder on a run following his return, and that he approached the defense very heated about being knocked to the ground. After practice, Urban talked about the need to have a competitive spirit and to be the kind of quarter back that “want to go get in a street fight and get after it”.
• The Stable- Carlos Hyde sat most of the “team” portion of Tuesday’s scrimmage to get the Young Bucks more opportunities. Rod Smith and Brionte Dunn continue to impress, but Warren Ball seems to have not missed a beat by missing last season with a foot injury, and was a highlight for the second straight week.
• Make Them Pay- Linebacker Armani Reeves took an interception 71 yards in the team portion of practice, but was leveled at the end of his run by Chase Farris.
• Diamonds In The Rough- The Buckeyes showed a bit of the “diamond” formation that the 49ers have made popular since last season (and that Nebraska gashed OSU with in Lincoln two years ago). Today, Hyde was joined by Smith and Dunn in the backfield in a “broken wishbone” look. Woody would be so proud.
• Wither The Slot- Jordan Hall is still recovering this spring, so the “slot” position has fallen to Chris Fields.
• Jonesing- Saturday, Cardale Jones had one of his best practices; enough to make Coach Meyer say that he was confident that Cardale could play Quarterback at Ohio State.  While his accuracy continues to be an adventure, those who saw him in practice said that his running reminded them of a current Raiders QB (No, not Matt Flynn).
• Manning Up- Coach Meyer had good things to say about Patrick Elflein, who saw time at several positions on the offensive line.
• Sparing No XSpence- Noah continues to be the defensive lineman that stands out… man, we need to come up with a nickname for him.
• ‘Preciate It- As you can tell by today’s graphic, something special is in the air for Ohio State Students this week. Here- let Urban tell you about it: Read More

Tags: 'Da U, Antonio Underwood, Armani Reeves, Braxton Miller, Brionte Dunn, Cardale Jones, Chase Farris, Chris Fields, Deshaun Thomas, Ed O'Bannon, Mark Emmert, Noah Spence, Officially Awful, Patrick Elflein, Rod Smith, Rutgers, SBP, Spring Practice, Urban Meyer, Warren Ball
Categories: Humor, Ohio State Basketball, Ohio State Football

The offseason brings us another variation from the format of your midweek news and notes, as a couple of big stories have dominated the college sports landscape. That being said, it’s not like I’m going to deprive you of your Wednesday motivational tunes.

Might As Well Get Comfy

Lack Of Institutional Control

For those of you waiting for the other shoe to drop in the Hurricane Situation, you can breathe a bit now.  Kinda.

On Tuesday, the NCAA finally sent their Notice of Allegations to the Hurricanes, after a week  that saw the folks from Indianapolis as the well focused center of national ridicule. We’d be wondering what was taking so long in this process, given that the NCAA had been “involved” in the investigation for over two years- turns out that the time in question had been spent violating the NCAA’s own principals and going against the advice of their legal counsel in their conversations with Nevin Shapiro.

In addition to paying the attorney who was questioning Shapiro as a part of his financial issues, the folks at the NCAA also provided him with a “burner” cell phone to contact them and financial resources to his prison account. Again, not the best idea for an organization who prides themselves on holding people accountable because the “should have known” what to do and dings them for not doing it.

The fallout was immediate- NCAA folks terminated or “resigned”, and folks calling for NCAA president Mark Emmert’s head, which, given the recent friends that he’s made across the nation, completely seems within reason.

The news of the “injustice” done by the NCAA to the fine folks in Miami ended up finding many fans in an interesting place- turning to Da’ U as their white knight in the fight against the evils of Emmert’s staff. Tuesday’s official response by University President Donna Shalala continued to create the dissonance- she is right that the NCAA has overstepped themselves extensively, but seems to forget that the University’s representatives were involved things that led them to receiving what many say is the “lack of institutional control” label in their Notice. Read More

Tags: 'Da U, Johnny Manziel, Mark Emmert, Miami Hurricanes, Michigan, NCAA, Nevin Shapiro, North Carolina, Oversigning, SBP, TBPU
Categories: College Football, Conference Expansion, NCAA Investigations

I find tinsel distracting

Tuesday’s news gave us two hall of fame suggestions for today’s sountrack(s).  And no, it’s not Christmas music- we’ll get to that later.

Buckeye 411

• Major Awards- It’s the silly season for College Football, and sure enough America’s favorite collegiate popularity contest machine has decided to include some Buckeyes as a reward for the undefeated season. ESPN put Bradley Roby on it’s All American First Team. (FWIW, ESPN also tabbed TTUN’s Tyler Lewan to it’s All American list; you may remember Lewan from his impression of a turnstile against Ohio State’s freshmen defensive linemen.) The Associate Press had a little less love for Ohio State’s defense- Roby and Johnathan Hankins were on the second team, while John Simon was a third team award winner.
• More Love For Simon- He told a Youngstown paper earlier this week that he was planning on playing in the Senior Bowl; certainly a sign that his rehab is going according to plan. Simon was also named a finalist for the Fellowship of Christian Athlete’s national award for the Bobby Bowden Award.  We say this a lot, but I will honestly miss watching #54 lead his teammates on the field more than any Buckeye I can remember of late.
• Coaches, Too- Urban Meyer is a finalist for the 2012 Liberty Mutual Coach Of the Year, in spite of the fact that he couldn’t win the B1G CotY (an award that Ramzy nailed in his description of it as an award that’s  “granted only for temporarily overcoming institutional mediocrity.”).  Offensive Line Coach Ed Warriner has also picked up some hardware this week, being named the national offensive line coach of the year by his peers… pretty interesting what happens when you stop trying to run “Dave” every single play, ain’t it?
• Directions- “Well, you just go down to 12-0 Row and take a left…“
• Boom. Well, Cincinnati and their fans had a lot of fun with their brief success and stint as “Ohio’s BCS Team”- but any visions of being the premier program in the state ended on Tuesday, when it was revealed that Urban Meyer was asked to stump on their behest as they seek ACC membership. For those keeping score at home- Ohio State coaches don’t leave for other programs, and Ohio State doesn’t ask Cincinnati coaches to help hook them up.
• Pretty In Pink- There’s nothing more awkward looking than a middle aged guy standing in Victoria’s Secret during Christmas, picking up something for his special someone. Well, that “awkward” just got a little less so, ‘cause now you’re shopping for Buckeye gear.
• Best For Last- It should be no surprise that we’re huge fans of Sammy Silverman, the graphic design guru for Ohio State this season. So, we’ve got a ton of love for his “season recap” poster- check it out after the jump: Read More

Tags: 2012 Season, aTm, BCS, Bradly Roby, Cincinnati, Ed Warinner, ESPN, John Simon, Johnathan Hankins, Johnny Manziel, LSUFreek, Mark Emmert, Money, Oklahoma State, Oregon, SBP, T. Boone Pickens' University, Television Revenue, Urban Meyer
Categories: College Football, Conference Expansion, Humor, Miscellaneous, Ohio State Football

Technically, in Beech Grove Indiana...

Welcome to Hoosier Week… accompanied by a soundtrack from Bloomington’s greatest artist (no, not JCM- although I would have accepted Hoagy).

Buckeye 411

• New Hotness- If you’re on the interwebs much today, you need to take some time and check out these two great Ohio State websites: CoachUrbanMeyer.com is a pretty user friendly insight into the program, while InsideOhioStateFootball.com is a 360 view of the locations that make up Buckeye football… you’ve got to think that recruits and families will appreciate the ability to “visit” campus before they actually get to the 614.
  
• Walking Wounded- We heard Monday that Etienne Sabino would be out for at least three games, having broken his fibula against Nebraska; he’s already had a plate surgically inserted into his leg, and Josh Perry will take his spot in the lineup.  We’re also aware that Jordan Hall will more than likely not be a part of the gameplan on Saturday as he heals from the knee issue suffered against Michigan State.  Otherwise, it sounds as if everyone’s good to go.
• Urb’s Verbs- (Ok, we’re still looking for a catchy title for Coach Meyer’s presser information… we’ll keep looking) In the B1G Presser this week, Coach Meyer talked about his respect for Coach Wilson at Indiana, and how they’d connected early in their careers as “spread to run” gurus.  He also stated the obvious, that Braxton and Harvin are the two most electric athletes he’s ever worked with. He also addressed the “AP National Championships” thing that started bubbling after Saturday’s win, and said that his hope is that his players don’t get caught up in the hype and people telling them how good they are.  Luckily, Michigan State being on the ropes to Indiana was enough to get the teams’ attention.

SammySilv At It Again

• Everyone Gets A Trophy! Nope, not talking about youth league soccer, just the reality of life in the WHAC these days, as each week brings more and more accolades to the Ohio State team.  For the Nebraska Game, Braxton was named the Davey O’Brien Quarterback of the Week, Carlos Hyde was the B1G Co-Offensive player of the week, and Corey Brown was the B1G Special Teams player of the week. John Simon really cleaned up this week, though- following a great showing on The Journey, Simon’s play against the Huskers resulted in being named the Lott Impact Player of the Week, the College Football Performance Award national defensive player of the week, and the Chuck Bednarik Award’s national player of the week. Read More

Tags: 2012 Season, Bradley Roby, Braxton Miller, Cardale Jones, Carlos Hyde, Corey Brown, Derek Dooley, Etienne Sabino, Hawaii, Higher Education, Indiana University, Jerry Sandusky, John Simon, Jordan Hall, Josh Perry, Kevin Wilson, Mark Emmert, SBP, South Carolina, Urban Meyer, West Virginia
Categories: College Football, Humor, Ohio State Football

Well... uh....

So here’s the thing.

The story of the day yesterday was the first episode of All Access, a behind the scenes look at the Buckeye program under the new regime.

The problem? It was on one of the ESPN channels… and you know how we feel about those fine individuals.

But… in a moment of weakness, I DVR’d it And watched it.

And loved ever second.

How can you hate quotes like “Abso-smurfly”, “Bozo the freakin’ clown”, “I’m glad you’re a Buckeye, bro…”, “I like coaching you…” and other admonitions to play “hungry” and “angry”.

And the precision of the offensive staff’s work, the pride that Coach Mariotti puts into his time with the team, and the focus and plan that Coach Meyer is instilling into the team… it’s a really good piece. If you missed it and don’t mind the spoilers, the gang at LGHL have a really good review with picture pages and everything.

I’d be really excited about this, to be honest, if all things were equal. Given the bad PR that my favorite program received over the past few years for numerous self inflicted wounds, it’s great to get excited about OSU football again- and to see a national response (including Southern Cal and Clemson recruits commenting on it) that was pretty positive.

But, I’ll be honest- It’s still hard for me to not be wary about this series. You kick a dog and reach to pet him, he’ll wince and cower even if he lets you stroke his head again. Given what we know about ESPN’s agenda (Entertainment Sports Programming Network), it safe to see that they are interested in a narrative of redemption up until the point that they bang the drums marking a fall from grace.

Just watch the history- 2002 upset their narrative, and then the 2003 Clarett story was a bottom. The 2006 season’s coverage was the apex of good vibes, and then this past year seems to be yet another trough in their coverage- again, a story that Ohio State wrote for itself, but one that got presented over and over and over again on the largest stage while others were way way off Broadway in Coral Gables and Columbia and Chapel Hill.

So- we’ll watch (yup) and see. And, if nothing else, this will give us the chance to celebrate the splendor and power of an Ohio State team on a very particular mission.  Buckle Buckeye up.

Buckeye 411

• Earning Your Stripes- Or, more correctly, earning their removal. Today Tommy Schutt became the next defensive player to have his rite of passage and his “newbie stripe” taken off his helmet by his big brother. He joined Noah Spence and De’Van Bogard as the first three who were “welcomed” to Buckeye football. This afternoon, their numbers grew as Taylor Decker was the next first offensive rookie to cross the line into “Buckeye manhood”.  Really excited about this process, and it sounds like it’s something that everyone has really bought into. Read More

Tags: 2012 Season, Academics, Alabama, Auburn, B1G, Brady Hoke, Cheerleading, Costumes, De'Van Bogard, ESPN, Fall Camp, Fall Practice, Fitzgerald Toussaint, Frank Clark, Jerry Sandusky, Julius Peppers, Mark Emmert, Michigan, NCAA, Noah Spence, North Carolina, Oregon, Penn State, Punting, San Diego State, SBP, Scandal, Taylor Decker, Tommy Schutt, UCLA, Urban Meyer, Virgina Tech
Categories: College Football, Humor, Michigan Football, NCAA Investigations, Ohio State Football

There has been much speculation about what was going to happen to the Penn State football program and it all came to fruition this morning in a huge way. The question isn’t will they recover, it’s can they? Let’s take a look at their punishment for covering up the crimes of a former assistant that needs not be named.

Statue is done . . , is the program done as well?

Tags: Joe Paterno, Mark Emmert, NCAA, Penn State University
Categories: Analysis, College Football

Pointed to the coming storm?

The quiet of this week around Buckeye Nation provides a moment of peace prior to August’s chaos of fall camp and Olympic dreams. It’s completely different than July of 2011… and I don’t hear many complaining.

What I do hear, though, are the thunder and raging winds still swirling from last week’s Freeh Report. Both the national news coverage and the responses from Lion Faithful and PSU alums are clamoring- and, like what passes for dialogue these days, neither side are really listening to the other. Civility seems to be yet another casualty of this situation- although, it can be argued that this merely highlights the fact that it’s been dead for a long while.

So, this week’s SBP will take a look at some of the interesting articles and reflections on this almost indescribable set of circumstances. The view we’ll be taking will be a bit farther out- looking not at the particulars but at the “culture” that’s seems to have been on everyone’s mind lately… although, I’m not sure we’re looking deep enough.

If you’re tired of this story, I hope you’ll at least stick around for the commentary after the jump- there’s a lot to learn and think about from this, even if you’re not Nittany.

Responses to  the Freeh Report

• It doesn’t get any better than this- The OZone’s Tony Gerdeman had some pointed words for the shadenfreude that many B1G fans were experiencing-

Everything about the crimes and the cover up is horrific, so please keep that in mind while you are celebrating Penn State’s coming reckoning. When you pop the champagne tonight in jubilation, try to remember that children were raped and grown men in charge of leading young men allowed it to happen. Then try to think of any reason why a human being should ever be happy that this could happen to a child, let alone children.
…
Don’t let football blind you, because that’s what Penn State did. They willingly let themselves lose sight of of what actually happened to these children, and then somehow found a way to ignore it. Hate Penn State for what happened here all you want, but don’t forget why you feel the way you do. And it should have nothing to do with football.

• Gregg being Gregg- CBS’ Doyel made a simple request of Penn State fans/staff, just say you’re sorry. Of course, since Gregg is somewhat of a hack at times (taking easy shots and controversial positions in order to gain pageviews, IMHO), the response on twitter was pretty well aimed-

The Greggster must have gotten what he was looking for, because his next comments on the matter were… get this.. a complete change in tone that went against what others were saying. Read More

Tags: Academics, E. Gordon Gee, Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno, Louis Freeh Report, Mark Emmert, NCAA Investigations, NCAA penalties, Penn State, Penn State Nittany Lions, Scandal
Categories: Analysis, College Football, NCAA Investigations