Let me make the newspapers, and I care not what is preached in the pulpit or what is enacted in Congress.(Click to Embiggen)
I'm still decompressing from quite possibly the best trip I've ever had (hopefully a recap of sorts tomorrow) and by decompressing, I mean consuming every last drip of media related to the 96th Rose Bowl.
Pryor, as you can imagine, is receiving most of the accolades from the punditry, pretty much ensuring expectations will start at or near Vince 2.1 next season. Rose Bowl springboards and all.
The Dispatch's Bob Hunter thinks we're finally seeing what was advertised:
This was the composite running-throwing machine recruiters slobbered over, the dangerous either-or Pryor that coaches saw in their dreams. It was the Pryor that Buckeyes fans expected and even demanded almost from his first game as a freshman, and sometimes wondered whether they would ever see. This was the Pryor everyone knew he could be.
Doc Saturday reflects on Pryor's performance amid the run-first tendencies of the last two years:
Altogether, Pryor was the point man as a runner or passer on 57 of the Buckeyes' 88 offensive snaps and accounted for just over 80 percent of the team's 419 total yards -- easily the most Ohio State has gained against a ranked team since the 2006 win over Michigan. Not coincidentally, that triumph against the Wolverines was both the high-point of Tressel Ball and the last time the buttoned-down, run-first philosophy yielded to the exceptional talents of a multi-faceted quarterback.
Ivan Maisel is a believer:
Ohio State won because quarterback Terrelle Pryor silenced a few doubters of his own. If there is a dividing line between potential and performance, the sophomore stepped across it on the first day of the new year.
It wasn't a complete coronation, however. SI's Mandel slightly deviates from his 2009 theme of bashing Ohio State1 by begrudgingly giving props to Pryor:
Pryor's day wasn't perfect. He endured four sacks (three by Ducks defensive end Kenny Rowe), a third-quarter interception and a couple of near picks. But he also converted several key third downs, often by scrambling when the pocket collapsed, and connected with Posey on two long fade passes, most notably his last touchdown.
I don't think I'm the only one still concerned about his youth and what's sure to be an avalanche of offseason pub going to his head, but college football is so much confidence and momentum and the step Pryor took in the Rose Bowl Friday afternoon is a huge one.
The date with Miami will be challenging, but aside from that, he'll have five tuneup games to keep the swagger train rolling before he returns to Camp Randall -- the scene of his first signature moment as a Buckeye -- and a good barometer of whether or not next year's team is ready to make a run at it all.
Not a Borg, After All
Loved, loved, loved, loved the postgame segment Tressel had with the ESPN crew after the Rose Bowl. From the remark about sober Oregon fans to poking a little fun at his offense to finally coming clean on his disdain for utilizing the tight end in the passing game, you could tell the monkey was off his back as well.
There have only been a few of these moments when he's completely relaxed, having fun and soaking it up a bit, and here's to hopefully seeing a few more of them in the coming months.
- 1 Stewart must have been the guy in high school that was always the last to find out about parties and you know he was the last man in America still doing the Budweiser Wazzup, which he likely stopped doing last summer. Hating on Ohio State is sooo 2007, man.
Comments
I think that is the most appropriate description of Mandel that I have ever read. He is also a terrible writer/analyst, so that probably contributes too.
i missed that postgame segment, anyone have a link to it? I always enjoy Tressel's interviews, it's so hard to tell if he's being serious or just trying to mess with the reporters and see what they'll eat up
hahaha, as soon as i post it, the vid was put up, thanks Jason
"I don’t think I’m the only one still concerned about his youth and what’s sure to be an avalanche of offseason pub going to his head, but college football is so much confidence and momentum and the step Pryor took in the Rose Bowl Friday afternoon is a huge one. "
It is a valid concern, however, I don't think it's as big of a concern as it would be given the way the first half of the season went for him. I think that game which shall remain nameless really set things right and humbled him in a way nothing else could.
very true. most important, he was willing to be humbled. let's hope this continues through next year.
What is so good, is all the crap from the past few years has been erased...at least for awhile. There is no more yeah, but you can't beat anybody outside your conference in BCS games blah blah blah.
just watched the video, gotta love it. the sober remark cracked me up.
weren't many sober oregon fans before the game on the golf course though, i'll tell you that much. maybe a little too much celebrating in advance and a lack of respect for this ohio state team.
now we just need Ricky Bobby to not throw as many INTs as usual so the b11 can go 2-0 in the BCS this year.
go hawkeyes.(just threw up in my mouth)
2010 Rose Bowl Champions!!! I am still basking in the afterglow. Even my grandfather, one of the most negative OSU fans around, had praise for the team after the game. Loved seeing Tress get the Gatorade bath.
Shouldn't be a problem...with all that Kirk Ferentz has accomplished at Iowa, it is nothing short of amazing. The best coach in America today. No question why he keeps on getting B10 Coach of The Year honors over JT.
WTF???
WTF what?
and my sarcasm detector was going off, should it have been?
WTF why does the meeja keep kissing Ferentz's rear end?
that's what i figured.
i think it's because their visitor locker room is pink. PINK!!
So do you think Beanie taught LiC the Stiff Arm of Justice before he left so that it would carry on in OSU lore?
It sure looks like it. Those SAoJ's were BRUTAL.
I've actually found Mandel to be one of the least anti-OSU writers in the past several years, although him being the least among many who were much worse is not a glowing endorsement. I think his resistance to completely hopping on the anti-OSU bandwagon stems largely from the fact that he is SI.com's chief writer and so to create brand separation from the king of the sports networks he had to resist the E-SEC-PN's rush to the lowest common denominator of railing on the Buckeyes. Also, Mandel is from Cincinnati, and I suspect he appreciates how much the Buckeyes mean to the state moreso than most sports writers. I don't find him to be an especially talented writer, but I do think he deserves a little credit from resisting the impulse to slam the Buckeyes undeservedly when so many of his peers did the same.
The sober remark was hilarious. I think this had to be a universe sized load lifted from Jim's shoulders. You could tell how much he enjoyed giving this kind of post game interview, as interviews after games like Iowa and Penn State, still had the asterisk of well it's not a big team from outside the Big 10. They beat Miami next year in week 2 and there will be a lot of love for this team once again.
I seem to remember him dishing out a few last year too. There are quite Beanie-esque.
players should have held him and got the bucket right over his head!!!! That was great!!
Anyone else notice Lee Corso in the background, looking completely lost while Tress takes his seat? And isn't that Glen Mason that comes up to Corso and shakes his hand? If that's him, he looks pretty happy about the W.
Now we just need a BeanieHop next year from LiC.
i get hung up on the bad writing and circuitous logic. he irritates me bc like hinton and cook what he says sounds halfway plausible if you only know 50% of a story. if you know the whole story you recognize the dude is full of doodoo and jumping to lazy conclusions to make his story easier to write.
whereas people at ESPN like forde and schlachbach resemble the shamwow guy - so ridiculous that no one takes any of their claims at face value.
mandel has really been pushing it lately, but what finally got him on my shit list was his repeated insistence that having boise state and TCU play each other in the fiesta was somehow a way of showing those two teams "respect."
which is of course retarded, if you want to show them respect, line them up against BCS opponents. period. i don't care if boise would've been playing GT, after Florida's utter destruction of UC you're going to have a pretty hard time finding anyone who would tell you that TCU wouldn't give florida a better game.
BCS conference opponents i mean
agreed.... that was the chicken shit way out..... G-d forbid TCU beats Florida and Boise State beats Iowa..... then what??? The BCS would have to admit their whole system is nothing but a fraud...... this way they guarantee that their "Marquee" teams from "Marquee" conferences win and that One of Boise and TCU lose..... The fix was in on this one.
Should have been Iowa vs Boise State in the Fiesta
Florida vs TCU in Sugar
Cincy vs Ga. Tech in Orange
aw look at this BS from mandel's most recent article about the fiesta bowl:
"'If the non-AQs don't want to play each other, that's not very helpful to their cause. If you're not good enough to play each other, why should you be good enough to play Texas and Oklahoma? Let's judge by the product on the field.'"
that quote is from a BCS rep, and hey guess what dumbass, the argument isn't "they aren't good enough to play each other," it's that they're TOO good to be playing each other. the simple fact that two of the best teams in the country this year who were both undefeated STILL had to get at-large bids to enter into the BCS is exactly why people hate the BCS.
the BCS system puts excellent teams at the mercy of computers and voters and selection committees simply because they don't come from traditional power conferences. that's stupid. in a pre-scholarship limit era of college football, the BCS might've made sense and worked. but there is way too much parity today to act like massive upsets the likes of Utah and Boise State were mere flukes; in the past USC or Texas could've just hoarded all of those players, but now it is entirely possible to create a juggernaut with some underrated recruits and a great staff, as Utah, Boise, TCU, and several others have shown.
Hell, NAVY won 10 games this year. prior to 2004 navy had never won 10 games in a year, and had won 9 games only once since 1978.
my point with all of this is that saying it's a sign of "respect" to have two undefeated teams from non-BCS conferences is completely asinine, because the whole notion of a "non-BCS conference" is inherently disrespectful. and the only way those teams can earn respect is by playing and beating the best teams from BCS conferences. when the BCS doesn't allow for that, something is wrong.
word
*two undefeated teams from non-BCS conferences play each other
very well put, i agree completely
seriously, LOOK AT THAT LINEUP. IT'S AWESOME. i would've actually been interested watching the orange bowl, the sugar would've been epic, and the fiesta bowl would've been straight up craziness. ugh.
we were one second, ONE SECOND, away from a massive kick in the groin to the system. damn you nebraska for not having any sort of offense
I still thought the bowls got their picks in a certain order as to who they would be able to pick. Isn't it conceivable to say that the Fiesta Bowl had no choice in who they took as the other bowls took their teams in a specific order. I mean will the Fiesta Bowl even be a sell out this year? I really doubt it, and the ratings will be horrible.
We're not supposed to use "wazzup" anymore? No one told me. Next you're going to tell me that Bon Jovi is washed up.
I still don't think it all really matters anyway. Utah handed it to Bama and people said it was because Bama packed it in and quit after the Florida loss. Perception wouldn't have changed and for that matter the BCS certainly wouldn't have changed. Until someone steps with a few hundred million bucks and says time for a playoff here's all the money you were making from the BCS, and we'll still keep 30 other bowls going because that's fun and brings in a ton too. We'll never see anything but the BCS.
Yes it was Glen Mason...looked like he had to introduce himself....Corso wanted his seat back. Mason thought the job was his after Cooper. Guess we are all happy with the decision !
its good to know that some people are not afraid of their jersey roots!
HEY OH! amiright?
the fiesta bowl guys went out of their way to get both boise and TCU in their game. they say it's because they were the two best teams available. i say it's because the BCS overlords figured they would rather take a bath on one game than suffer poorer ratings on several.
but apparently that makes me a conspiracy theorist to say that a system that gives notre dame and only notre dame a specific tie in to BCS bowls would care about ratings more than fairness
Agreed....but it still doesn't change their minds !!! Closest thing to a playoff will be, ranking teams after the 3rd week of the season. Imagine an unranked team or mid teens pre season....wins out ..& there are 4 undefeated teams ranked lower to start the season. There is no way they can jump the teams in front of them.
i completely disagree, if non-BCS teams make it a habit of beating BCS teams in BCS bowls, that's going to eventually change how people view these teams. remember, it was literally 5 years ago that people thought the notion of boise state even in the top 25, regardless of record, was hilarious.
this year TCU was 1 second away from the NC game. that's significant.
What were they burying in the background of that video? Corso? Blount's NFL career?
I didn't see the vid but I think you are maybe referencing the guys who were taking out the sprinkler system before ripping up the turf?
I think they were burying receipts from the Reggie Bush/OJ Mayo/Joe McKinght era at USC.
Actually for some reason they are replacing the turf from the Rose Bowl to the BCS game...should be interesting to see how that works out, hopefully not like the PSU/LSU game.
SLAPCHOP!
The SAoJ shall not be replecated
I do believe that last year after Sparty game, that we dubbed LiC's stiff arm the:
Stiff Arm of Righteousness
TCU woudl've not gotten into the game people. The voters would've put UC in the game because they were an undefeated BCS team. Why do you think Brian Kelley voted UC number 1 in the coach's poll that week. If Texas would've lost, I guarrentee it would've been UC in the championship game, then probably Texas TCU in the Fiesta which would've been an interesting match up. In a system where the voters are told, you must vote this team the champion if they win this game, don't you think they are going to put one o ftheir own into that game?
Whether it was unthinkable for Boise to be a top 25 team 5 years ago or not, isn't the issue to me. Really this year, who else would they have put in a BCS game. no other team from the Big 10 or SEC could go, the Big East and Pac 10 had no one else worthy of going, maybe the ACC could make a push for Va Tech, who wasn't even in the conference championship game of the ACC.
So the BCS just decided that the Fiesta Bowl is getting screwed? I don't know. Seems to me that if you put Texas vs TCU and Iowa against BCS, you would have the crappy ratings being UC and Ga Tech, which I'm guessing would have higher ratings still than TCU and Bosie State.
That was the scenario if Texas lost. But every other matchup that would've resulted woudl still have higher ratings. Florida and TCU in the Sugar, Ga Tech and UC, Boise and Iowa in the Fiesta. I mean the only way there wouldn't be higher ratings thatn TCU Boisewould be Ga Tech against either as I'm guess Ga Tech's following is good but not huge.
TCU would've made the NC based upon their schedule and the way the computers would've graded it. and again, the problem isn't that there are non-BCS conference teams playing in the BCS, it's that these are undefeated teams who will never be given a chance to play for a NC simply because they aren't from a traditional power conference.
by the way, even if they DID put UC in the NC game, that just further proves my point because UC sucked but voters have their panties in a wad about putting a MWC team in the NC game they'd prevent the best matchup from happening.
I HATE THIS SHIT
we are gonna make america skinny again...
I don't disagree that the system sucks, my point is, it makes no difference if someone outside of a BCS conference is good or not, it's not going to change the system. This system is going to be around until at least 2013. The only think it will do is add another conference like the Mountain West, which may be an even more stupid idea in the end. I don't know. Adding another conference will do nothing, but leave Boise State screaming what about us. I see the MWC as similar to the MAC a few years ago, while the MAC only had one really truly dominant team that would give a lot of great teams a game, this conferenc couldvery well be irrelevant and soon.
But it boils down to money. And the schools, conferences, and bowl games affilliated with the BCS are making a killing. That group includes what 66 teams or just over halof of Division1 or FBS whatever they call it now. That group has too much power and too much to lose by changing anything up now.
you're gonna love my nuts
PASADENA, Calif. -- Oregon felt good about its defensive plan for the Rose Bowl Game presented by Citi.
The Ducks watched plenty of Ohio State film. They felt they understood what to expect from the Buckeyes offense. They wanted to run the ball and not take chances in the passing game because sophomore quarterback Terrelle Pryor was not a confident, consistent passer.
So the plan was simple.
"The plan was to make him throw the ball," Ducks defensive end Kenny Rowe said. "But when he threw it that good, the plan didn't go well."
No, it didn't. Ohio State piled up 419 yards in its 26-17 triumph, while making the Ducks fancy-pants offense look mostly pedestrian.
Pryor threw 37 times -- six more attempts than he had in any game this season -- but the critical problem was he completed 23 of them for 266 yards with two touchdowns and a mostly meaningless interception on a deep ball on third and long.
"It was surprising to us," coach Chip Kelly said. "We felt, watching their last couple of games where they didn't throw it very much, they were rather conservative. They came in and opened it up. Obviously, Terrelle beat us."
Said end Will Tukuafu: "I was surprised. I think [Pryor] was surprised. But they were feeling it. He threw up the right balls to the right guys. They made the big plays."
Not only did Pryor beat the Ducks with his arm, he was able to do things the defense expected but couldn't stop. Pryor also was the game's leading rusher, gaining 92 yards on 20 carries. Most of those yards came on scrambles, many of which featured Pryor just eluding fairly solid pressure from the Ducks.
"He's big and he's fast and he's tough to bring down," linebacker Casey Matthews said.
And that passing and running helped the Buckeyes convert third down after third down -- they were 11 of 21 on the night -- and to possess the ball for 23 more minutes than the Ducks.
"You're breaking your neck for two plays and this guy scrambles and stuff," Tukuafu said. "It's frustrating, but he's a great athlete."
Kelly reiterated that he doesn't care about time of possession. But his quick-strike offense does need the ball. It only ran 53 plays on the night. The Ducks averaged 69 plays per game this season.
"If I were to draw up anything that could stop us, it's keeping the ball out of our hands," tight end Ed Dickson said. "Their offense kept the ball out of our hands."
Pryor kept the ball out of Oregon's hands.
Every Oregon player and coach seemed surprised that Pryor was able to play such a complete game, to look like the dual-threat quarterback that his talent suggested but his play rarely produced.
In the other locker room, however, at least one guy wasn't surprised with Pryor's performance.
"I always thought I could have a game like this anytime," Pryor said.
Sorry, I only meant to copy and paste the last part.
It was the single greatest trip I've ever taken. Unreal, and I don't know if I'll ever get over the fact that I was there.
The Rose Bowl needs a lesson in crowd management, but aside from that, what a day, what a view, what a game! GO BUCKS!
Nice!
lol
Best Tressel interview ever. Now America has finally had a chance to see the real guy rather than the Senator Sweatervest caricature drawn by d-bags like Chris Fowler (and occasionally Herbie).
I kind of touched on it the other night, but why would a team base there defense on the fact that the QB is going to mess up? They practiced and prepared for Pryor to play poorly, instead of finding ways for their guys to attack. I just think that's a terrible defensive p lan.
I was looking at the schedule for next year and it has ohio state having 9 home games. I know i aint crazy and might be making a dumb comment but dont we play penn state at penn state. kinda how minnesota played at osu for two years in a row. I think its like the year we played at wisconsin 2 years in a row
8 home games, 4 roadies next year. Schedule sets up well for a run at the MNC. Penn State is in the 'Shoe. Roadies at Illinois, Wisky, Minny and Iowa.
I'm a little late to the party and all but has anyone managed to find a torrent for the game online???? I missed most of the game due to a rehearsal dinner for a wedding (my own).
Not a valid excuse funk!
you can purchase from itunes. though, that negates the fun of the internet.
you're dead to us. what kind of buckeye fan are you?
ten yard torrents has one, i'll try to seed as long as i have the space on my hd, then it goes to the external
i support you jfunk. i missed the game too...
i was flying back from visiting family and my flight took off 90 minutes before kick off and arrived over the LA area about the time they were showing the sunset at the start of the 4th quarter.
In my defense, after Purdue Harbor how many of us were predicting Rose Bowl?
Thanks for the tip about 10 Yard Torrents. I'll try and hit that up tonight.
You're right Ski, it was the Stiff Arm of Righteousness but its been missing for so long everyone forgot what it was.