Welcome to the family

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.

• August 30: Navy (in Baltimore)
• OPEN WEEK
• September 13: Kent
… [Read More]

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
… [Read More]

Rutgers (9-3, 5-2 Big East) vs. Virginia Tech (6-6, 4-4 ACC)

December 28, 2012 5:30 PM ET ESPN

The History: Did you know the Russell Athletic Bowl was originally the Blockbuster Bowl and first played in Miami in 1990? In 2001, however, the game was moved to Orlando and renamed the Tangerine Bowl.  In 2004, it became the Champs Sports Bowl and early in 2012, Russell Athletic signed an agreement with Florida Citrus Sports to become the game’s sponsor through 2015.  The game features the top non-BCS selection from the Big East and the top non-BCS selection from the ACC.

Rutgers Scouting Report: Rutgers comes into this game with a 9-3 record including wins over Cincinnati & Syracuse and losses to Louisville & Pittsburgh. The key for the Scarlet Knights’ offense will be the play of quarterback Gary Nova and running back Jawan Jamison. … [Read More]

Buckeye 411

• “One time”-  Monday was the reveal of the fourth edition of Nike’s “special” uniforms, and the third time it’s been unleashed for The Game. This year’s a bit different than the past- the jersey won’t be made available to the public, but a number of other “rivalry” shirts and accoutrements are out there for public consumption- be sure to check out The Buckeye Room, where they’ve informed us that they’re also getting in a limited number of the gloves that will get your favorite player flagged on Saturday. Woot!

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 … [Read More]

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.… [Read More]

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.

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… … [Read More]

Safe Bet.  VTU over PITT 31 to 6; Role reversal and WRONG! PITT 35 to 17 (Some other time Fat Urkel)

Points Plus. Mizzou over Arizona St. 43 to 39; wrong on points Mizzou 24 to 20

Defensive Struggle.  Navy over Penn St. 9 to 7; WRONG AGAIN!! PSU 34 to 7

Best Match-up. USC over Stanford 34 to 28; Glad I was WRONG Stanford 21 to 14

Best B1G Game. MSU over Notre Lame 24 to 17; Sparty WRONGED me! ND 20 to 3

Ok… here’s what you’ve got for this week:

Safe Bet.  Maryland @ WVU. I’ll take … [Read More]

The Basics: Friday, December 30th from Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY at 3:30 PM EST. The game will be televised on ESPN pitting Iowa St (6-6) vs. Rutgers (8-4).

History: Last year saw the inaugural Pinstripe Bowl in Yankee stadium, which has tie ins to the Big East and Big 12.  The Inaugural game last year saw Syracuse defeat KSU in a thriller.

Iowa St: The Cyclones are led by freshmen standout signal caller Jared Barnett.  He put opponents on their heels both through the air and on the ground.  Don’t let their record fool you as Barnett didn’t take over the job till October, when he led them to 3 straight victories.  Obviously this team will be remembered for their huge upset win over then #2 Okie State and … [Read More]