Buckeye Blogger NetworkThroughout this bowl season, tBBC’s team looks at all the bowls to give you enough info to convince your family it’s worth watching. Enjoy!
The History: Hey! It’s the third sponsor in four years! That’s a tradition that must be preserved… It’s probably a message that the “Gifts” include a black winter coat and pair of gloves- reminds me of my favorite edition of this thing- It ain’t south Florida, fellas- pray for global warming.
Toledo Scouting Report- The Rockets opened their season with an overtime loss to one of this morning’s competitors, the Arizona Wildcats, but didn’t see another loss until they fell to Ball State in week 10, which includes an upset of the University of Chick-Fil-A. Terrance Owens has thrown for over 2600 yards, and both Benard Reedy and Alonzo Russell are on target to both be thousand yard receivers. Toledo is 59th in the country in points against… it looks like they hope to just overwhelm the opposition offensively.
Buckeye Connection- Ohio State is 3-0 against the Rockets, including last year’s five point squeaker at the hands of Joe Bauserman and 2009′s “Dane Sanzenbacher Fiesta” in Cleveland. I have no doubt that this year’s team would fall to Ohio State, although an early season matchup might have looked similar to the Cal game in many ways
Utah State Scouting Report – The Aggies boast the 8th scoring defense in FBS, and almost upset Wisconsin earlier in the season. They did outlast Louisiana Tech in overtime, and haven’t lost a game since early October. Kerwynn Williams has over 200o all purpose yards, and quarterback Chuckie KEeton has a 67% completion rate that’s led to over 3100 passing yards.
Buckeye Connection- The Buckeyes have never played Utah State (home of impressive gender role research). We’ll just chalk this up as a “win” based on the majesty of the transitive property with Wisconsin as the common factor.
Predictions: Here’s what we think will happen
Utah State has proven it can play in shootouts and in close games, as well as having experience if the game goes into overtime (2-0 this season). I think that their defense will be too much for the Rockets to handle, and they’ll have the home field advantage on Southern Idaho State’s “Smurf Turf”.
Sure, there’s games on Monday, but the weekend has been so amazing that we just couldn’t wait to get back in the saddle for our reflections on the games of note. Plus, are we really all that excited about a game that’s all technical and stuff? I thought not. Obvious choice for this week’s soundtrack… happy Labor Day.
Whew… I’ve got to admit, I should have been working out with Coach Mick during the offseason. Saturday found me trying to knock the rust off of my college football regimen, although I can definitely say that I was well hydrated. I’m guessing that’s what happened during the livechat- I hadn’t prepared enough, and brought the jinxation. You can breathe a sigh of relief, though- when I caught the replay on Sunday, my presence made no difference in the outcome… Baby steps, right?
That Isht's Cray, Bray
From the looks of things, a number of teams were still in “preseason” form, and didn’t have their moves down pat just yet. For instance, while I’m sure that Dabo Swinney’s mom is sure proud of him for leading his fellers to victory over North Carolina State, she certainly couldn’t have been too excited that his first steps leading the team onto the turf ended up in a faceplant. That, combined with this excellent display of exuberance are enough to remind Volunteer fans that their team still has some work to do. Which is good… no one likes to peak during the first weekend of games- well, no one outside of the B1G, that is (more later).
Some of the butterflies were even evident in the Southern Idaho State University trip to East Lansing. Sure, the B1G represented well, as Michigan State showed many why they are a favorite for the conference title… but the game turned out to be “off-script” for both teams. For instance, no matter how hard they tried, Rob Harley’s new squadron couldn’t “Sparty” the game away. Shocker. Oh, and SISU broke their streak of beating out of conference teams when they have a ridiculously long time to prepare… effectively ending their bid at a BCS bowl until they join a legitimate BCS conference in the Big Eas…. I’m sorry. I just couldn’t bring myself to type that. The game also gave us a pretty amazing interception- as always, Tim Burke has ALL the great screencaps and stuff from the weekend’s events.
Saturday’s festivities kicked off with Notre Dame pounding the living stuffing out of Navy in their game in the Emerald Isle… Brian Kelly, why you no like America? And then, your boys let this happen?
Man, back in my day, we fought revolutions for less <adjusts tricorner cap>. Read More
Thursday’s cup of Mulligatawny, carefully crafted for the best damn fans in the land… since you know how to ask. Fingers crossed for good weather on Saturday!
Mr. Romance, That's Me.
Buckeye 411
I finally get to add my two bits into the bowl preview discussion. I couldn’t pick a better game to start it off with.
The Basics: Wednesday, December 28th, 2011, 4:30 PM EST on ESPN, from Washington D.C. Toledo (8-4, 7-1 MAC) and Air Force (7-5, 3-4 MWC).
History: This is the second year that Northrop Grumman, a big military contractor, has sponsored this game. Not surprisingly we’ve already covered the history of this game in detail.
Toledo: The Rockets are a strong running team this year, ranking 14th in rushing behind Adonis Thomas’ 963 yards. They’re also a scoring machine, picking up 11 touchdowns from each of their top rushers, and 15 from each of their quarterbacks. This could have been an even better year for the Rockets if their defense had been a little more stiff.
Air Force: While Toledo is a strong running team, Air Force is a spectacular one. The Falcons are ranked 2nd in rushing with a 320 yards per game average. This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to anyone who has actually watched an Air Force game in the last several years. Adding a dimension to their attack, however, is QB Tim Jefferson Jr. who has picked up 12 touchdowns and 1478 yards on a 60.9% completion rate. While they won’t go call his number often, he’s successful enough to give defenses something to think about.
Fun Fact: While Northrop Grumman is most famous for their aircraft, such as the B-2 and BQ-4, and spacecraft, like the LEM (as Grumman), they are also big ship-builders. In fact, every US Aircraft Carrier, including the Supercarriers, has been constructed at the Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard. There’s a reason why they’re a major military contractor.
Who we got?
Time for the stroll through the week’s absurdity in college football… this week’s soundtrack is inspired by a conversation with a colleague and the Stomping in the ‘Shoe- Enjoy the Stone Foxes.
Spelling? Check. Planning? Meh...
The big game of the week, according to the folks at the four letter network, was Saturday Night’s matchup between LSU and West By God Virginia. When the smoke had cleared (not from burning couches, ironically), all we knew was how good the Tigers are, particularly on defense. That’s not a commentary on their O- it’s great to see Princeton HS star Spencer Ware excel- but the fact of the matter is that the LSU defense is the best in college football. In today’s poll has Les Miles’ team at the top, and given their victories over ranked teams (Oregon, Mississippi State, WVa), I can’t say that I disagree. You want to be the man? Beat the man… and LSU has done just that.
Those who might be wondering how LSU manages to both recruit top athletes AND to keep them motivated may have found an answer on Saturday night- I’m pretty sure that’s a benefit, although I will withhold judgement on if it’s improper (mostly ’cause I’m jealous). Read More
Following a win over Akron that left many giddy with anticipation for the rest of the season, Saturday’s 27-22 victory over Toledo brought expectations crashing back down to earth for Buckeye fans.
Are the Buckeyes the juggernauts we saw in week one? Are they the lackluster group we saw in week two?
How terrible is Akron? How good is Toledo?
The good news is that over the course of a season, a young team like the Buckeyes can improve from one week to the next.
This team may need to improve more than we would like this week, but they are certainly capable of it.
Is the team better than what they showed? Were they looking ahead? Were they overconfident?
And, of course, the question on everyone’s mind, why didn’t Braxton Miller play?
Unfortunately, these questions are impossible to answer after only two games.
It will take the rest of the season to fully sort them out… and even then the debates will rage well into the offseason.
Regardless of the questions, the bottom line is you take the win and move forward.
Hopefully the team learned about themselves, what they need to work on this week, and how they can improve each day.
Here are my expanded thoughts on the game. Read More
Well, that game was more than a little interesting. It’ll be hard to gauge this team over the next week, and I’m certain many are going to be expecting bad things in Coral Gables. Let’s see what the staff wanted to see again, and how much of it actually came to be.
Chris Fields gave the Buckeyes a boost when they needed it most.
- More of the same. I certainly don’t think we can qualify the entire game as “more of the same” as Akron. That first drive was a thing of beauty, but the rest of the game was a fight the whole way.
- New wrinkles. Nothing particularly new here, nope.
- Ebner Touchdown. Would it be too much to ask? For this game, apparently so.
- No False Starts. Shugarts took care of this one, and not in the good way.
- Continued QB play like the we saw this past Saturday. Miller never saw the field, and Bauserman didn’t have quite the same day he did against Akron. Though 16/30 for 189 yards and a touchdown isn’t bad.
- More speed from our team. We had our moments – such as Chris Fields’ punt return – but for the most part, I don’t think we saw a lot of speed anywhere.
- Big Plays. Outside of Fields’ return, the longest play was of 36 yards – one of which was Hyde’s first touchdown run.
- A three to four touchdown win. So much for that.
Read More
Eric and Mali at the BBC welcome Michael at Our Honor Defend back for another postgame show. The three breakdown the entire 27-22 battle between the Ohio State Buckeyes and their in-state brethren to the north, the Toledo Rockets. In particular, they talk about the excellence in the secondary for both teams, all of the good things to take from the game, and why exactly we didn’t see Braxton Miller enter the game.
Heading To The House
All this and more on this week’s Postgame Show!
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