Buckeye Blogger Network
Welcome to the family, Terrapins and Knights!
Ohio State will open the 2014 B1G season by traveling to College Park on October 4th for the n00bs first home conference game. Ohio State will then host Rutgers two weeks later as a part of the Conference Welcome Wagon.
Rutgers seems to have gotten the “Nebraska” treatment; wherein a new conference team has a bloodbath of a schedule. The Knights will play Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State (all East Division foes) as well as Wisconsin and Nebraska.
Maryland swaps one set of “Children of the Corn” for another, and will see Wisconsin and Iowa as a part of their cross-divisional experience.
The B1G 9 game schedule isn’t set to start until 2015, so OSU will still have four non-conference games this season. The full schedule is as follows.
You’ll note that Ohio State “misses” Wisconsin in 2014… Eric will just have to find another outlet for his loathing (or save it for basketball season). In fact, the Badgers don’t play Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, either… and you thought their 2013 basketball schedule was easy.
Well, howdy-do, Buckeye nation! Thanks for paying attention to my little neck of the sunshine state… hope it works out as well as last time Ohio State had a team out here. You know what? Since we’ve already got a visit scheduled to the Bay Area for September, what say we just go for the trifecta and come on back out this way in January. Multiple options for today’s soundtrack- Vintage, Old School, Hippie, Country, Top 40, Hip Hop, Rock. Oh, and I’ve got a great recommendation for a place to stay.
Silver Bullet, Knotts Berry Farm
Buckeye 411
B1G! B1G!
The college basketball season is winding down but that doesn’t mean that the excitement is too. More over time games, more losses, and more surprises continue to be story of the season. Duke kept the streak of Top 5 teams losing by dropping their game to Maryland. The Miami Hurricanes continue to turn heads and move up the polls and will most likely do the same this week after beating Florida State. The Big East and Big Ten are proving to be the two best conferences in the nation as they continue to beat up on each other. The week of games are becoming too much for me to wrap up in a paragraph so I will stop rambling so you can see how everyone did last week.
Here’s a look at the Top 25 Week Ahead and Week in Review:
1. Indiana (23-3, 11-2) Previous Rank: 1
Past Week: 2/10 @ (13) Ohio State, W 81-68 & 2/13 Nebraska, W 76-47 & 2/16 Purdue, W 83-55
Upcoming: 2/19 @ (8) Michigan State
So the Hoosiers lose and stayed number one this past week……No love to the Hurricanes. After knocking off Ohio State in Columbus they now travel to East Lansing to face a scorching hot Michigan State team.
2. Duke (22-3, 9-3) Previous Rank: 4
Past Week: 2/10 @ Boston College, W 62-61 & 2/13 North Carolina, W 73-68 & 2/16 @ Maryland, L 81-83
Upcoming: 2/21 @ Virginia Tech
Duke held their own on home court in college basketball’s biggest rivalry after beating North Carolina. They followed it up with a disappointing loss at Maryland. They hope to bounce back when they face Virginia Tech on the road. Read More
Major Award
Not gonna lie… got a pretty mellow vibe for this week’s updates.
Buckeye 411
This week, there’s only one song that will suffice for Buckeye Nation. Enjoy!
Shiny
Buckeye 411
The “reveal” was a part of the Beat Blue rally in the Student Union on Monday night, and saw former Ohio State running back Raymont Harris taking the catwalk at the party. The biggest question is about the Buckeye leafs awards on the helmet- the jersey will have seven of them to commemorate the seven national titles, but it’s unlikely that the awards the players have won this season will make the helmet. That being said, the official Nike blog has a Buckeye sticker on the helmet, so there may be something in the works.
My take: I like these the most of the ones we’ve seen, although I wish they’d stop screwing around with the gear for Mich1gAAn week. But, the students like them, as do all of the recruits who will be in attendance... and that’s the target demographic.
“You’re taught at a very young age who the enemy is, but you have a lot respect for the enemy.”
He spoke fondly about this year’s senior class, and how he’s been impressed that they stuck around once the bowl ban was announced. He talked about the need to be ready for both Denard and Devin at quarterback on Saturday, and that there was more than likely a chance for something “interesting” to happen. On his own quarterback, Coach Meyer talks to him daily and reminds him that the goal is to be a QB that can run rather than a running back who throws the ball. “It’s a big week in Columbus Ohio”
Two things are now certain after rumors became fact today with regards to the University of Maryland. First and foremost, they’ll have to throw away those gawd awful Under Armor uniforms. Second, they just got an immediate infusion of cash that will surely help save a declining athletic department.
I am sure Under Armour will stay seeing how their president is a graduate of Maryland, but they’ll now have more money to spice things up even more. The Terps athletic department has been struggling of late and will benefit greatly from the more than $24 million a year they will get from the BTN contract with all schools. The Board of Governers met earlier today and University of Maryland President Wallace Loh had this to say:
“I did it to guarantee the long-term future of Maryland athletics,” university President Wallace Loh told Maryland’s student newspaper, The Diamondback. “No future president will have to worry about cutting teams or that Maryland athletics will be at risk.”
Patricia Florestano, the Maryland Secretary of Higher Education, shared her thoughts as well:
“There was certainly discussion about the tradition of the ACC. And the question is what’s the future. And we’ve got to look to the future,” Florestano said in Baltimore before a previously scheduled public meeting on education policy.
Florestano said the vote earlier Monday was not unanimous but that she voted for the move to the Big Ten. “There was a long discussion,” she said. Is Maryland’s future brighter in the Big Ten? ”‘We perceive it that way,” said Florestano. We had a majority in the room,” she said. She went on to explain the status of the meeting ”It was certainly an executive meeting without the public,” she said.
The speculation is running rampant as to whether this will be a premptive move for the B1G to realign their football divisions after only two seasons with the Leaders and Legends. They have already had to remove a name from the B1G Championship trophy for very unfortunate reasons, but have had to deal with backlash of the original alignment to start with. The possibility of Rutgers joining very soon (as early as tomorrow) could allow the conference to realign in a east/west format and put TTUN and the Buckeyes back together.
The B1G has scheduled a press conference for this afternoon to discuss the current events. Stay tuned to the BBC for more realignment coverage.
We’re going to do things just a little bit differently this week, given all of the amazing news and events that happened this past weekend. So, this will be part Silver Bullet Points, part Monday Morning Commentary, and the usual chunk of random observations from Saturday’s events in the world of college football. Here’s something to listen to while you’re fighting the urge to tl;dr- we’ve certainly got a lot to be Thankful for.
Prepping for Kiffy?
In this year’s edition of the Battle For Los Angeles, the upstart UCLA Bruins jumped out to a quick lead and held on to “upset” the Trojans by ten points on a gray day in Pasadena. While the Bruins obviously have been playing much better football this year, you’ve also got to wonder if the trajectories of the programs have now crossed, particularly given some of the issues that continue to swirl at Southern Cal.
As the team that was picked by many to contend for the national title, the frustration for many SC fans has been swirling since the loss to what we now know is a pretty good Stanford team. That game highlighted the Trojans’ issues with depth; injuries since then have continued to create problems and have certainly didn’t help in their back to back losses to Arizona and Oregon. The defeat by the Ducks made things even more problematic, since SC’s defense was a point of strength for them under current coordinator Monte Kiffin; their being gashed turned up the heat on the current coaching administration. And now, to lose to “little brother” has many wondering if it’s not time to make a change.
Coach Kiffin’s actions certainly haven’t helped this season- cutting media opportunities short, banning reporters outright… it certainly makes sense that he’d not want to leave the Rose Bowl via the obvious entrance on Saturday night. Other controversy swirls around Lane as well; while possibly not related, it’s definitely not helping matters at all. You may remember “inflation-gate” and the termination of a student manager following the revelation that game balls for kickers were under-inflated against Oregon. For those not infatuated with special teams- a “flatter” pigskin has a much larger “sweet spot”; as a great Buckeye Planet poster pointed out, the Trojan’s kicking game has not been anywhere near as efficient ever since they were penalized for this “mistake”.
In addition, earlier this week Tennessee was dinged for recruiting issues that occurred under Kiffin’s one year tenure in Knoxville- issues that involved Chip Kelly’s favorite videographer, Willie Lyles. Given the length of the investigation into Oregon’s program and this new decision at UT involving Lyles, you’ve got to think that there’s more than a few million good reasons for Kelly to take the Pete Carroll route and jump to the NFL ASAP.
What does this mean for Kiffin? At this time, it’s difficult to say, but losing Matt Barkley for the matchup against Notre Dame this weekend, combined with the continuing scholarship losses for the next couple of years would certainly be reason to wonder how warm his office chair will be getting this winter.
Sentient?
Interestingly enough, the other two programs involved in “affair du Lyles” also had difficult weekends. Derek Dooley’s Volunteers lost to cross-state foe Vanderbilt, and it wasn’t even close. The win ensures that UT will have a losing season for the third time in as many years, and was only the second victory for the Commodores in 35 years. Following the game, the inevitable happened… Dooley was fired, effective immediately. If you’re an Ohio State fan, you’ve got to wonder if this might have an impact on current recruits looking at both programs… Vonn Bell is the name that pops up, but there may be others in the 2014 class. This year’s season ending clash between the Vols and ‘Kats will feature both coaches in either interim or lame duck status… it’s going to be a fun coaching carousel for the SEC this season.
Lyle’s third “partner” in all of this felt the sting of their first loss on Saturday, at home, to a Stanford team that should be in the conversation about the top programs in the nation. Remember, they’re a botched call from extending overtime in South Bend and possibly ending the Irish Nightmare that we are currently facing. I was most impressed with The Cardinal’s defense on Saturday- disciplined, aggressive, and never seemed to give up the big play to an offense that most often looks like throwing kerosene on a bonfire… one blink, and it’s over. Not that I’m speaking from experience or anything. Ahem.
Does Nike gear wick away tears?
The loss can easily be attributed to a lot of things- Oregon being too confident, and this being the Duck’s annual brain fart game; Questionable officiating, A “trap” game, with the resurgent Beavers looming Thanksgiving week… But all of these would not do a service to the great work that the coaches at Stanford, starting with Jim Harbaugh, have done in building a program that can certainly play with anyone in the country. It’s also why I think that Alabama, if given the usual bowl prep to face Oregon, would beat them- I believe that the Tide’s defense is more athletic and much more disruptive than Stanford’s… and the template we’ve seen in the Ducks’ losses over the past four years is now pretty well known. You just need to have the horses to pull it off; Stanford did on Saturday, and now control their PAC12 destiny. They’ll need to beat UCLA twice in two weeks to do so, but doing so may have the Oregon Ducks on the outside of the BCS championship game AND the automatic Rose Bowl berth… along with USC. It’s been that kind of year.
Oh, and on Saturday Northwestern, Stanford, and Vanderbilt all won. Nerds, y’all.
Commentary: Polls and Playoffs Read More
Pretty obvious inspirational quote for this week’s Wednesday update, don’t you think? If you’re really interested in what I’m listening to these days, here you go.
Varmint
Buckeye 411
We See You Trollin', Hatin'...
Bert Blathers- Also in Tuesday’s B1G Conference Call, Coach Bielema talked about how impressed he is with Ohio State’s improvement as the season has progressed. He mentioned the offensive line in particular, and said that they are playing really well at this point in the year. He also addressed speculation that his team would be satisfied after last week’s win, which put them into the Conference Championship Game for the second straight year; and said that his team would not see a let down against the Buckeyes, especially given last year’s game. Added to the fact that it’s “Senior Day”, and it’s sure to be a high intensity game.
Uniform Updates Read More
