Buckeye Blogger NetworkWe’re previewing the bowl games! This is one of them!
Ohio Bobcats (8-4, 4-4 MAC) vs LA Monroe Warhawks (8-4, 6-2 Sun Belt)History: While AdvoCare 100 has only been sponsoring the Independence Bowl for a few years, this is 37th game in the bowl’s history. While the sponsors have changed, the Independence Bowl name has not. The 11th oldest bowl in the country started its tradition on 12/13/1976 with a payout off $50,000 and has grown to a payout of $2.3 million. Independence Bowl match-ups have been good match-ups in the past with 10 of the last 13 games being decided by a touchdown or less.
Ohio Scouting Report: The Bobcats started out the season 7-0 but finished it 1-4. Injuries have plagued the Bobcats throughout the entire season contributing to the reason for the slow finish. QB Tyler Tettleton has lead the team with his arm by completing 62% of his passes this season while racking up 2,513 yards and 16 touchdowns versus only 3 interceptions. Tettleton is backed up by a strong running game in Beau Blankenship. Blankenship rushed for a school record 1,500 yards while having 8 100-yd games in 2012.
Buckeye Connection: You know the drill. We’d say more, but we’re still a bit chippy. Brady Hoke is confused, as he thought Ohio was not eligible for a bowl game. Read More
Recruiting Hotbed
Ken weighs in on the Ohio/Mich*gan recruiting battles-
Last week, there was an article of Massillon Washington H.S. student Gareon Conley committing to Ohio State. This comes after the lad decommitted from TSUN. Of course, this led to some back-and-forth in the comments, generally on the theme of “Ohio H.S. players who commit to play football at TSUN“. I decided to do some brief research to find out if it is ‘Much Ado About Nothing‘, or MAAN.
I thought I’d see if there were something in the profile of Ohio players going to University of Michigan (Michigan). I used Rivals as my source and used the past six years as reference. I based the research on; number of players in Michigan’s signing class, number of players from Ohio, and how many of these Ohio H.S. players were offered by Ohio State. I used the signing classes of 2012-2007, inclusive.
For fun, because this is for fun, I compared Ohio H.S. players that signees with Michigan, that signed with Ohio State and those that had ‘cross-offers’. A cross-offer is where a high school player had offers from Michigan and Ohio State, but chose one or the other.
Below is a brief table, with notes, on the safari through Rivals:
The first three columns should be fairly self-explanatory; number of signees during the period, number of signees from Ohio and the percentage of Ohio signees to total signees.
Summary comments:
During this signing period (2012-2007), I wanted to look at relative Rivals ratings between Michigan and Ohio State signees from Ohio. At first blush the rating difference, Michigan-3.3 stars and Ohio State -3.6 stars seems pretty inconsequential. As expected, combined 4-star and 3-star signees comprised the vast bulk for each university; 92% for Michigan and 93% for Ohio State. Peeling the onion reveals something a bit different. The table below shows the Rivals rankings and number of signees ranked for 2012-2007.
The number of 4* and 3* signees by Ohio State (35, 31 respectively) are fairly well divided. Meanwhile, Michigan’s signees (11, 23) are weighted to the lower end.
It’s quite possible that Michigan and Ohio State’s offers to Ohio high schoolers could be judged on type of talent coming out of high school and each university’s needs. It’s also quite possible, if not more likely, that the ‘not as good players’, based on Rivals rankings, did not get offers from Ohio State, but did Michigan.
In spite of the huge win in Happy Valley on Saturday, I’m feeling a bit of the blues are in order for this week’s recap. So, enjoy some Collins, Cray, and Copeland.
It’d be easy to say that this week was “spook-tacular”, and “scary” for a lot of top teams, but that would be way to easy. So, let’s just admit that Saturday once again proved that we’re fans of the greatest sport in the world; because anything can happen once the ball is kicked.
Whoops
As a promise to a “friend” that’s a Notre Dame fan who I’ve been justifiably ripping for the last ten years, we’re leading off this week with the Irish’s huge win in Norman over the Sooners. Like most of America who pays attention to the sport, I imagined that Oklahoma would stomp a mud hole into Brian Kelley’s team- Stoop’s defense, high powered offense… not exactly playing Air Force here. So, because the Irish emerged victorious, undefeated, and “relevant” enough to bump up to the third ranking spot in the BCS, I tip my journalistic cap to them- particularly their defense, which is playing lights out this season. Although they gave up their first* (non-official assisted) rushing touchdown to Oklahoma, they were able to keep Sooner QB Landry Jones guessing all night long. That’s not to say that we’re not without some controversy, as the “luck of the Irish” continued when Heisman Candidate Manti Te’o intercepted the Sooners late in the game to seal away the victory. Your perspective of the play will depend on your hopes prior to the game- Irish fans were elated, others thought that the initial play was a case of pass interference resulting in a ball that clearly touched the ground. At any rate, complaining about the officiating is better left to other fan bases; the Irish are undefeated, and have overcome all but one of the games that had people pointing to theirs as the toughest schedule in college football. Congrats indeed.
Although… How much of this gets pinned on Bob Stoops? “Big Game Bob”, as we’ve discussed before, has built a reputation on an early BCS championship and his ability to beat his rival. However, given the state of his rival over the past few years, is it really fair to continue to give him a pass for his team’s coming up short in these types of games? The loss to Notre Dame is the second at home this year… although, to be fair, both teams are undefeated currently. So, Sooner fans- enjoy that BCS win over Connecticut a few years back, and hope that things can get turned around in the B12 for your squadron in the near future.
Since we alluded to them, let’s talk Texas, shall we? It took some late game heroics by a McCoy (no, not that one) to keep from being beaten by Kansas. You read that correctly… the Jayhawks and their “Coach by weight” strategy were within seconds of beating the Longhorns and turning the heat even higher up on coach Mack Brown. I’m not one to jump on a dead bandwagon- check out the great “post a picture of our defense” thread on Shaggy Bevo- but I still can’t figure out how the flagship school in one of the most talent rich states in the nation continues to struggle on the field. Granted, it may be the competition in the conference and adjacent conferences, but you’ve got to think they’d be able to be successful whether or not there’s a prodigy at quarterback.
Also in the B12, Kansas State, the new #3 in the BCS continues to roll, playing even with Texas Tech for a half and then making the adjustment necessary to blow out the Raiders in Lubbock. Read More
The Buckeyes were just about caught looking ahead to MSU against a game Boilermaker squad the other night. They pulled out in the end and were finally able to focus on the Michigan State Spartans. Let’s focus on them as well.
Sparty has that look on his face every time he's in the Schott and it's NOT to look mean.
Pre-season Preview of Michigan State
| School: | Michigan State University |
| Location: | East Lansing,Michigan |
| Founded: | 1855 – The FIRST agricultural College in theU.S. Originally called the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan |
| Student Population: | 47,800 8th largest university in the country |
| School Type: | Public |
| Division: | NCAA |
| Conference: | Big Ten |
| Stadium: | Breslin Center |
| Seating: | 14,759 |
| Built: | 1989 |
| Head Coach: | Tom Izzo –Northern Michigan1977 |
| Experience & Accomplishments | 17th Year – 4 National COY awards, 6 Final Fours, 14 straight NCAA’s, 6 B1G Champs, 1 National Championship in 2000 |
Here’s the soundtrack for this week’s journey through the recent past. It’s from one of my favorite artists, and the greatest Thanksgiving movie ever ANDIWILLFIGHTYOUIFYOUDISAGREE. Ahem.
Although I usually don’t take requests, I almost made an exception for Coach Rodriguez.
What a great week of football- three days worth of collegiate goodness, interspersed with some NFL stuff, lots of food, and the occasional neighborhood game. Although, this year things ended up being a little messy.
There, there... let it all out...
I guess you could say that the mess all started on Thursday, when our friends in burnt orange managed to lose their rivalry game against the Aggies. As you can imagine, the good folks at Shaggy Bevo are taking this well, particularly given that most of the losses happened in Austin.
The Longhorn’s collapse is the first time in recent memory that a team has gone from the BCS championship game to not even being bowl eligible. As a “fun fact”; this BCS season will be without the following names: Pete Carroll, Mack Brown, Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, and Les Miles, with the jury still out on whether Bobby Stoops gets an invite. You know who’s going to be at the BCS Ball? Jim Tressel. Again.
Fridays’ games were just as exciting, with Auburn performing the “Greatest Iron Bowl Comeback Ever To Be Vacated” against ‘Bama after being down 21-0 in the first quarter. Granted, Alabama QB McElroy was injured in the second half, but the Tide followed their protocol and inserted the next person with the same haircut. Read More
Brian Rolle can fly. Who knew?
The Ohio Bobcats rolled into Columbus today to take on the Buckeyes and hopefully challenge them the same way that they did back in 2008. The Buckeyes weren’t having any of it as they raced out to a 43-0 lead before giving up a late touchdown in trash time to end the game with the 43-7 victory. Terrelle Pryor had another solid game with 22 receptions on 29 attempts for 235 yards and 2 touchdowns, though he threw his first 2 interceptions of the year.
The Ohio offense started out very poorly. After a short running play up the middle, Bates tossed a quick passing play to the left side of the field. Devon Torrence made a fantastic play on the ball by batting it into the air for Tyler Moeller to come down with. The interception gave the Buckeye offense fantastic field position. Unfortunately, after picking up a great game on their first play with a pass to Jake Stoneburner, the Buckeyes squandered their chance and was forced to kick a field goal in the red zone.
The Buckeye defense continued to be aggressive. With the Bobcats pinned close to their endzone due to a block in the back penalty on the return, the Silver Bullets made the most of the situation by not allowing Ohio any room to move the ball. On the ensuing possession the Bucks found plenty of room to move the ball. As usual, the offense promptly moved the ball into the redzone with confidence and authority. What was unusual was that Pryor found Saine over the middle for the Touchdown. It was exactly the kind of pass that Pryor needed in order to build confidence in his arm in scoring position.
Much was made about our current president’s visit to Ann Arbor last spring, especially his “touching the banner” on the way out to speak at commencement.
While recorded only in photograph (no, I will not be publishing it here), you get a sense of wistfulness and loss in the moment- as if he’s remembering better days.
Not true for the White House’s photo of the day, taken during the president’s recent visit to Columbus:
He certainly seems to be having an enjoyable experience.
this post is not intended to indicate support for any political party anymore than this is intended to support Texas football.
Hopefully this well help you all get through your day, watch each video 4 or 5 times and it will be time to go home before you know it.
I hope you enjoyed that, I know I did.
