Five Things: Michigan
Barton knows.
The New King of A2 Dominates in Pain
As a freshman backup last season, Beanie popped a 52-yard touchdown run to give his Buckeyes the lead for good in the huge stakes battle in Columbus. After nearly being stopped in the backfield, Wells spun through a Shawn Crable tackle and outran the rest of the Michigan defenders to the endzone.
Yesterday in Ann Arbor, he iced the Wolverines again. Immediately after a Ray Small punt return touchdown was nullified, Wells got it right back by breaking a tackle at the line of scrimmage before juking the shit out of Michigan safety Brandon Englemon and finishing the 62 yard score. On the day: 39 for 222 and both of Ohio State’s touchdowns. Money.
Going all the way back to the Washington game, Wells has been there to bail the team out all season. His 200+ and the way he ran out the end of the game against Michigan State, his 169 and 3 quick touchdowns to turn a close Wisconsin game into a rout and finally, when it mattered most, his performance against Michigan yesterday.
We’ve heaped love on the new receivers, given Boeckman his two weeks of crazy Heisman talk, but through it all, the Buckeyes have had one of the top running backs in the country chugging away through injuries and putting up monster numbers. His 1463 rushing yards on the season already put him at 7th on the OSU single season list. With a 100 yard performance in a bowl, he’ll move into 5th behind Eddie, Byars and two Archie seasons. Not bad.
Defense Thankful to Just Get After It Again
Following the loss to Illinois, Gholston and Laurinaitis were critical of the defensive game plan used against Juice Williams and the read option. Give the coaches points for listening at least.
Several of the players expressed that the key to neutralizing Michigan’s already limping attack was just lining up and playing with speed. Gholston expressed as much after the game:
“Sometimes, you run different schemes where you have to (lay back), do this and do that. This week, our game plan was just to go in there and play fast, and that’s what we did today.”
The Buckeyes will have to face an even better Juice-lead Illinois team next season in Champaign, so it will be interesting to see if the coaching staff learned their lesson from this season.
Mike Hart Goes Out Quiet
After saying the Buckeye defense was nothing last season and saying he’d rather lose another game to Appalachian State than lose a game to the Buckeyes earlier in the week, Mike Hart was relatively quiet after being held to his lowest rushing total of the season.
He had the following to say about the OSU defense:
“Give credit to the (Ohio State) defense. They came up with a great game and had a good scheme against us. The defense did a great job.”
Huh? Where’s the H20-4 we all know and who is this imposter? Mike’s easy to despise, but he can ball when healthy and is one of those guys that makes the rivalry so great. He’ll be missed.
Put on Your Favorite UConn Cap
With the Buckeye season over and the team needing some help to get back into the BCS Championship picture, we can look forward to a holiday weekend full of rooting for upsets. Lots and lots of upsets.
With Oklahoma expected to take care of the Kansas/Missouri winner in the Big 12 title game, and the very real possibility that if Georgia gets into the SEC Championship and dumps LSU, they could jump the Buckeyes in the BCS rankings, West Virginia is the team to actively root against. They have end the season with games against UConn (medium chance for an upset) and Pitt (near 0 chance for an upset).
If ever there was a time to get behind UConn football, it’s right now. Go Huskies!
Speaking of Kings
He may be a Yankee fan, but there’s no doubt where LeBron’s college allegiance lies. I knew it was a great early sign when the celebrity introduction matchup was LeBron James against.. Braylon Edwards. Edwards is eating the NFL up this season, but seriously. Was Derek Jeter too busy?
Any chance LeBron’s introductions planted a seed in a young stud hoopster’s mind?
5 Responses
the best part of the Lebron introduction was that he was totally into it. You could definitely see the Buckeye fandom in his eyes
svm - 11/19/07 @ 10:17 am - #
It’s interesting that this game really displayed what we thought about this team all summer. Pound it with Beanie and play lock down defense. The air attack was nice throughout the season, but it’s nice to be able to run and stop the run like they did in those conditions in that stadium. Overall it was a fantastic “rebuilding” year. Congrats to the team and the coaches.
Go Bucks!
Travis - 11/19/07 @ 10:24 am - #
Is it a given that Illinois will be better next year? Mendenhall is probably gone, along with two offensive linemen and five senior starters on defense. Ron Zook has recruited well, but they’ll be pretty green next year.
poguemahone - 11/19/07 @ 8:21 pm - #
Mendenhall is probably gone, but if he comes back..
Juice should be really difficult to stop next season. He finally looked like he could throw the ball a little these last three weeks.
Vontae Davis is back and should be a favorite for All-American honors at CB, but Leman is gone (thankfully).
I’m just assuming they’ll be better b/c of all the young studs (2 years of decent to great classes) and the team has expected to win now instead of hoping to win.
Should be the 2nd toughest game on next year’s schedule behind the USC tilt.
Jason - 11/19/07 @ 9:06 pm - #
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