Buckeye Blogger Network
Prepared?
Time for Wednesday’s wander through the wonderment of college sports, brought to you by music appropriate for this week
Buckeye 411
@SammySilv, Excellent As Always
O’Brien The Lion- In today’s B1G conference call, coach O’Brien commented that they are preparing for Braxton to be healthy and leading the Ohio State offense. He spoke highly of his senior quarterback, Matt McGloin, calling him smart and tough and the reason that they’ve been so successful this season. Penn State’s “NASCAR” offense, which has been averaging 90 plays a game in conference play, is reliant on execution and communication, and O’Brien believes that his senior leadership has bought in totally- no “doom and gloom” in what could be a very dour locker-room, considering the off season events and team transfers.
Scheduling News
“Oregon has developed into one of the premier football programs in the FBS.We are excited to add them to our future slate of games.”
Unspoken, but inferred- “Plus, we’ve sold our soul to Nike anyway with our ‘one time tribute’ jerseys and such that this move only makes sense.” Read More
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
"You guys are picking like a bunch of weaklings!"
The picks return to the BBC after the interminable bye-week!
The last time we saw our intrepid pickers, Eric had the lead over Mali by two games. During week 6, our players came out with the following records:
Joe D: 4-6, Mali: 7-3, Jim: 5-5, Joe L: 8-2, Eric: 5-5, Chris: 6-4, Robby: 8-2
With his 8-2 record to tie for the lead in the week, Joe L succeeded in surpassing both Eric and Mali for the overall lead heading into the final leg of the season. The totals stand thus:
Joe L: 38-21, Eric: 37-22, Mali: 37-22, Jim: 33-26, Joe D: 31-28, Chris: 17-13, Robby: 13-7
It should be an exciting final couple of weeks!
This week’s games feature a couple of exciting divisional battles, particularly in the Big Ten race, along with a number of other fascinating matchups. Read on to find our picks!
Read More
Only weaklings get headaches making these picks.
I’m pretty sure that was the worst week of College Football picks for this crew in the five years of it’s existence. Maybe I’m over-exaggerating, but 75% of those who help me out with our Picks were at 0-5 as we headed into the evening on Saturday. Thanks to the Mustangs, I picked up some ground on everyone by a game! Beating those Horned Frogs like there’s no poison in their ummmm.. Bite.
It was Baylor this week that gave everyone a loss on their record. Thanks ESPN and RGIII for selling the hype on the clearance shelf. It was me digging in and looking for legendary 5 buck team.
Truth is Baylor still isn’t elite.
A team that is though is those damn Badgers. A huge win over Nebraska propels them into national contenders. As sick as it makes me to even think about a BCS championship scenerio with that team. What’s more disturbing to the mind? The Badgers holding the glass football, or Bo Ryan dancing on the court.
No Contest. I hate you Bo Ryan.
Anyways, we’re here to break down the games and talk about week six of the college football season. Let’s take a look at Week 5′s results.
Now that the proverbial dust has settled from the 2010-2011 men’s college basketball season, it’s time to reflect a bit on the season past and pick out of a few of the headlines, highlights, or otherwise newsworthy items that seemed to define this season. Obviously it was a great season for Buckeye fans, and one item of note for college basketball fans in general was the play of our team, and particularly Jared Sullinger, but for now we’ll save the Buckeye-centric comments and take a broader view.
There is always a lot of chatter about the different major conferences, comparing their strengths and weaknesses, arguing for which conference is the toughest, and celebrating wins over teams from other conferences early in the season. This season was no different in terms of the boasting, but in a number of ways this really was the Season of the Big East. This isn’t an argument for the Big East’s superiority – just an observation that week-to-week the Big East was getting a lot of attention due to its number of quality teams. Certainly the Tournament Selection Committee bought into that impression, granting 11 NCAA Tournament berths to teams from the conference, including a #1 seed for regular season Big East champion Pittsburgh. Although three of the four most highly seeded Big East teams lost in only the second round of the tournament (Pitt, Notre Dame, Syracuse), it was Big East Tournament winner UConn that took care of business, claiming the NCAA Tournament title as well. Read More
Immediately following the 2007 loss to Appalachian State, the most prominent Michigan blog, MGoBlog did the right thing and they took their lumps like men.
Oh, wait…..no they didnt. They shut down the site for two full days, much like what you’d expect out of complete cowards.
Expect similar behavior very very soon…..breaking news has the Wolverine faithful looking for another hole to crawl into.
Current Michigan players have recently described multiple situations in which their head coach, Rich Rodriquez, has knowingly violated NCAA rules and regulations.
The University of Michigan football team consistently has violated NCAA rules governing off-season workouts, in-season demands on players and mandatory summer activities under coach Rich Rodriguez, numerous players told the Free Press.
Players on the 2008 and 2009 teams described training and practice sessions that far exceeded limits set by the NCAA, which governs college athletics. The restrictions are designed to protect players’ well-being, ensure adequate study time and prevent schools from gaining an unfair competitive advantage.
Let’s get this straight…players from LAST year’s team were breaking rules that are designed to prevent schools from gaining an unfair advantage? So, they cheated and still finished 3-9?
Eleven Warriors tweets that San Diego State University was put on a 2-year probation after similar allegations were brought to light….and with actual CURRENT players making these allegations, it’s not looking pretty for Michigan to get out of this one unscathed.
Now granted, practicing on Sundays is not really up to speed with serious misconduct….like brokering a cocaine deal when you don’t have cocaine….but it’s the stuff that the NCAA does take action on. This one is not going to get swept under the rug soon.
Fortunately for Buckeye fans, this one will keep us entertained for a long time.
Unfortunately for Buckeye fans, we won’t likely get to laugh at Rodriquez for years to come, because if this pans out the way we think it will, the Michigan boosters will liekly run him out on a rail. After all, they didn’t pony up 4 million dollars to West Virginia to buy a 3-9 coach who gets their team banned from postseason.
Somebody get the popcorn, this one’s going to be entertaining!!!!
