Eleven Warriors

I'll take two. Thanks!

Who doesn’t love a pancake? Honestly is there anyone in the world who, when offered a disk of fluffy syrupy goodness says, “nah I’m good”? The answer to that question (unless you have some sort of medical condition up to and including insanity) is an unequivocal, “NO”.

Ask yourself this, when was the last time you loved something so much that you decided to make a hermit crab out of it. Wait…don’t ponder that, it might really shake up your worldview. But in all honesty pancakes…right?

Well I’ll tell you who DOESN’T love pancakes: The College Football Hall of Fame.

Yesterday in an act of pure lunacy the National Football Foundation made it known that former Buckeye beast/pancake machine Offensive Tackle Orlando Pace would be left out of the Hall for this his sixth straight year of eligibility.

Unable to cope with this injustice I turned to the only friend I have in times of utter confusion: The Internet. It was there in the vast garden of opinion and hearsay that I found this little gem from Ivan Maisel:

Urban Meyer and staff released the team's post-spring two-deep today and aside from Doran Grant moving into position as a co-starter with Travis Howard at one of the cornerback spots, not much else is surprising.

Ohio State lists three starting wide receivers: Evan Spencer, Corey Brown (slot) and Devin Smith. Michael Thomas, the breakout star of the spring game with 12 receptions, is listed as the backup to Smith.

Other true freshmen on the 2nd team include Jacoby Boren at center, Taylor Decker at right tackle and Luke Roberts and Josh Perry, both at linebacker.

Jordan Hall tops the running back slot, with Carlos Hyde as his backup.

The offensive line as it stands right now: Jack Mewhort (LT), Andrew Norwell (LG), Corey Linsley (C), Marcus Hall (RG) and Reid Fragel (RT). Backing those five up will be former defender Daryl Baldwin and Tommy Brown at left tackle and left guard, respectively, Boren at center, Antonio Underwood at right guard and Decker at right tackle.

Defense, where things turn fearsome, features a front of John Simon (LE), Johnathan Hankins (NT), Garrett Goebel (NT) and the combo of Adam Bellamy and Nathan Williams at the other defensive end.

Your first team linebackers: Curtis Grant in the middle, flanked by Ryan Shazier and Etienne Sabino. This group gets my heart rate up. Can't wait to see them on the field together.

While fall camp is still a couple of months away, Meyer's depth charts typically carry a bit more meaning than the two-deeps put out by Tressel in year's past. While a depth chart under the old regime was often a guideline and sometimes didn't change from week-to-week regardless of what actually transpired on the field with new starters emerging, Meyer has made it known that these are the guys that will have to be beaten to earn a crack at playing time.

Garrett grew up rooting for the Buckeyes

It is not uncommon for Ohio High School football stars to have grown up rooting for the Buckeyes. It is rare, however, to see top prospects from other states around the country growing up with a passion for Ohio State.

One of these rare cases comes in the form of 2014 Plainfield (IL) South LB Clifton Garrett. The 6-2.5/220 Garrett used to watch OSU on television while growing up and became a fan of the Buckeyes at a young age. That is paying off for Urban Meyer and the Buckeye coaching staff now that one of the nation's top linebackers in the class of 2014 is starting to get focused on his college recruitment.

While Garrett has just one offer in his pocket right now, things are starting to pick up from him. Some of the top programs in the Midwest have been checking up frequently on him and with the buzz surrounding him, it won't be surprising to see a nation wide pursuit of the Illinois star in the near future.

We caught up with Clifton to hear the latest on his recruitment, what his feelings on Ohio State are, what visits he has planned, and more. Join us after the jump to hear about a rising linebacker prospect on the Buckeye radar, Clifton Garrett.

Spencer was a beast carrying the rock.

The city of St. Clairsville, OH is a small town located on the Eastern border of the state, and in fact is considered part of the Wheeling, WV metro area. It is historically a coal-mining town, and one mine in particular was known as "Hell's Kitchen" because miners would emerge from it covered in red dust. As a result, players for St. Clairsville High School are called the "Red Devils". 

Back in the late 70's, Ohio State coaches traveled to St. Clairsville to see a local football phenom. Running back Tim Spencer finished his Red Devil career with over 3000 yards rushing and 50 touchdowns, with 1670 yards and 28 TD's in his senior year alone. For these exploits, he earned Parade All-American status and a scholarship offer from Ohio State's brand new head coach Earle Bruce. 

Spencer committed to the Buckeyes, and arrived on campus ready to contribute right away. He was big for his age, and as a result he was immediately inserted into the running back rotation, despite being part of a logjam at the position. As part of Bruce's first recruiting class, OSU had also lured the services of highly-touted Kelvin Lindsey to add depth the the rotation of junior Calvin Murray, senior Ric Volley, and redshirt freshman Jimmy Gayle. It seemed that Spencer might get lost in the shuffle.

Murray got most of the action in that magical 1979 season, when the Buckeyes went 11-1 and lost a shot at a national title in the last couple of minutes against powerful USC. But Spencer managed to carve out a few carries during the many blowout wins that season, and he finished the season with a sparkling 6-yard average (37 carries, 221 yards). Still, Murray was returning for one more season and Gayle would be a solid back-up, and so the opportunity to start seemed like it might have to wait another year.

However, there was one option that Spencer hadn't considered previously, and suddenly his size turned to his advantage. OSU had no returning fullbacks with any significant experience, and promising freshman Vaughn Broadnax was not ready to start. The coaches asked Spencer if he wanted to try his hand at the blocking back. Traditionally, OSU fullbacks had been stars during the Woody Hayes era, but in modern I-formation offenses they mostly just blocked. Still it was a chance to start, and so being a "team first" kind of guy, Spencer made the switch.

Rise from your sleepless slumber, readers! After a week away (special thanks to Chad for pinch hitting for me), I'm here to guide you through another Wednesday Skull Session.

For a month with no college football or basketball, May always seems to be crazy busy.

Besides the warmer weather, what I most enjoy about this time of year, unsurprisingly, is TV related. The networks simultaneously air season finales and announce their new fall lineups, and while I'm thankful my favorites were all picked up for next year, many of them were only given a 13-episode order. I guess since they get cable-sized ratings, they're treated like cable shows.

I also like to check out the trailers for the upcoming shows to see which ones pass the gut check. Terry O'Quinn as the owner of a The Shining meets Rosemary's Baby hotel? I'm listening. Kevin Bacon as a former FBI agent hunting serial killers? It sounds interesting, even if it doesn't premiere until midseason. Mindy Kaling headlining her own series? Well, she's got an incisive sense of humor...but oh, the preview looks rather disappointing. Something called "Guys With Kids"? As many laughs as you think there are, which is to say none¹. 

Although it's the offseason, I'll spare you a complete breakdown of each network's fall schedule. Instead, let's move on to some video actually relevant to Ohio State athletics. 

HALL & NOTES. Remember last fall when some people speculated that Urban Meyer was interested in coaching at Penn State because he expressed his admiration for Joe Paterno or whatever? That was LOL-worthy. But was there ever any truth to it?

David Robert Jones of The Patriot-News addresses the question "Did Urban Meyer ever seriously consider the Penn State job?" and politely held back his laughter, replying with an "absolutely not." Basically, as an Ohio native who never outgrew his love for the Buckeyes, there was only one job that would bring him out of retirement². 

Meanwhile, Urban continued to court the student population, holding a town hall meeting last night. He was joined by Luke Fickell, Mike Vrabel, and their wives. Unfortunately, I have no idea if Urban was given the third degree about his favorite food, but Tim Jessberger did share video of Mickey Marotti, with an assist from Zach Boren, leading the coaches, their better halves, and the students in a high energy drill:

A strange recruiting year in 2012

I often get questions about basketball recruiting and the most common one recently has been, "Did the coaching staff actually try to recruit for the 2012 class?"

Since taking over at Ohio State, Thad Matta has been an excellent recruiter, pulling in national prospects and shelling out NBA draft picks like it's his job. Well in reality, it is his job.

In this day and age, the best teams in the country land the top recruits, let them play for a year or two, and hope that using scholarships on these upper-echelon recruits leads to championships (i.e. Kentucky since Calipari took over). For  Matta, it has been hit or miss once the prospects are signed and suited up in Scarlet and Gray. But, he keeps pressing on.

With the 2012 class, there seemed to be plenty of targets, but a lot of misses with commitments.

Many factors weigh into each class and those factors differ from year to year. 

In 2006, Matta used scholarships on the "Thad-5" which included three one-and-done, five-star first round picks in Greg Oden (#1 overall), Mike Conley (#4), and Daequan Cook (#21) and a loss in the National Championship. In 2007, Matta hauled in another Five-Star in Kosta Koufos (#23 in '08 draft) and in 2008, Thad brought in Byron (BJ) Mullens who left after one year and went 24th overall (also locked down Five-Star Will Buford). 

Koufos and Mullens did not bring the same success as the "Thad-5" and showed the casualties involved when bringing in an NBA-ready recruit.

2009 was an entirely different story and the Buckeyes were without one freshman going into the season. Luckily, the Buckeyes were lead by the National Player of the Year in Evan Turner and did not have to worry much about the holes left by those early departures from the previous classes.

2010 gave us five-star Jared Sullinger who will be leaving after a second season (and Deshaun Thomas) and 2011 was filled with future contributors, but clearly no "one-and-done" style players. At least we aren't so sure at this point, with the entire class going into their sophomore year for next years campaign. The staff had a lot of freedom with the '11 class with plenty of open scholarships to fill and relationships built early on.

It is now common knowledge that Matta and the OSU basketball program is at the top for desirability for top prospects across the country. The Buckeyes will continue to see interest from national caliber players that often are tagged as "one-and-dones" because Matta has shown that he can help get a player to the next level. He has the track record and the experience.

However, why is the 2012 class not filled with five-stars or even four-stars? OSU Basketball fans seems to be wondering if the Buckeyes even attempted to fill a class this year. There was much uncertainty about scholarship numbers, who to target, and who to offer scholarships to that made the recruiting year way more difficult than in the past. 

Taliaferro in 2001, reclaiming his strength (Hermitt/Patriot-News)

Given the choice of seeing a college football game in person or on television - and I've been fortunate to have the choice often - I'll go to the game every time. There is no adequate substitute for being in the stadium.

It isn't a guarantee, but sometimes the game is too good for the rigid confines a television screen: Keith Byars could run out of his shoe. Big Daddy could blow up the Washington Huskies' vaunted offensive line. Eddie could go for 314.

Less often but equally memorable, a devastating injury takes your breath away. In any circumstance, being there means it's impossible to look away. You cannot simply change the channel.

The Big Ten home opener 12 seasons ago was against 1-4 Penn State. Despite their record - which included a 24-6 mortification courtesy of Toledo - the Nittany Lions were still one of those no-substitute-for-being-there tickets.

Making that ticket slightly less-attractive was the unwelcoming Columbus weather that morning: Downpour accompanied daylight and refused to yield for the balance of the pregame. Regular ambient tailgating noise was dominated by the sound of rainfall.

As a result, our treasured and normally open-air September festivities heading up to the noon kickoff were instead held beneath tailgating tents, large umbrellas or five dollar red-hooded ponchos. It was a minuscule price to pay for the experience of a precious College Football Saturday.

The game itself - a 45-6 laugher for the Buckeyes - crept back into my consciousness last week upon reading the news that Adam Taliaferro, now a successful attorney practicing not far from where he grew up in New Jersey had just been elected to the Penn State Board of Trustees.

Taliaferro led all balloting, garnering more votes than were cast in the same election last year. Sure, there's heightened interest in the PSU BoT these days, but it's not as though he was the only candidate for the choosing.

And yes, he has name recognition, but not simply because he's one of thousands of men to have played for Joe Paterno. It's because he made his name synonymous with resilience, which is exactly what his beleaguered alma mater is actively seeking.

OSU sophomore Josh Dezse

Welcome back, minions, to Around the Oval, a weekly peek into athletics around the campus of The Ohio State University. Unlike other columns, I endeavor to avoid  money-back, satisfaction guarantees and other promises of fulfillment.  

On the subject of satisfactory accomplishment, Ohio State announced Monday that 548 athletes would be recognized tomorrow at the 45th annual Scholar-Athlete Dinner. The ceremony, which will be held at the Ohio Union, will honor these so-called "student-athletes" for their scholastic achievements. Pardon my emphasis on "student-athlete." It's an NCAA buzzword that must be given gratuitous attention when the opportunity arises.

Among the notable recipients of this year's awards were Aaron Craft, who is best known for solving the Rubik's Cube in  a minute; Andrew Sweat, who has elected to hit the books harder than he'll hit opposing runningbacks; and, also, Amber Stokes, who is arguably more tenacious than her father was as a former Buckeye guard. 

Now, not to be Debbie Downer, but I would be remiss if I didn't point out that well over half of nearly 1,000 athletes are receiving this honor. It's not quite 'everyone gets a trophy,' but I admit I'm feeling nostalgic over the days when I was picked near the end of the line for our gym class dodgeball games. That's OK. I was more of a fan of "steal the pin" anyhow. 

The bigger awards will come in the first week of June when the Academic All-Big Ten selections are made. Ohio State placed 66 athletes on the list for fall sports back in December (out of 788 total). For the winter sports, the Buckeyes accounted for 59 of the 615 total athletes selected. 

With all due respect to all these fine athletes, however, I feel there is one sport being snubbed: beer pong.