Reflections on reflections of a reflection On the heels of consecutive blow outs, Ohio State can now spend their bye week... introspectively reflecting on a loss from some 3 weeks ago, or so appears to be the general message from the players and coaches when virtually every question answered post-Minnesota turned into some kind of reflection on a game well beyond everyone's control at this point:
Quarterback Terrelle Pryor said Tressel has focused on the players being both ticked off about that loss and invested in playing for the pride of Ohio State. Tressel always talks about learning more from a loss than a win, so he actually tested his guys on that this time. Pryor said after losing to the Badgers, Tressel had every player on the roster write about dealing with adversity.
"I had like a page and half, I had so many things going through my mind," Pryor said. "And I think that helped me out personally."
TP's Xanga be righteous, y'all. In all seriousness, I'm all for reflecting and learning from history as to avoid unnecessarily repeating it, but even if this team is the finest one loss side since the 1998 squad, spending *TOO* much time self evaluating and constantly going back to the slow start that Saturday evening in Madison may prove a bit undressing.
Bowl movements Much as last week we saw post-Purdue devistation turn into ruminations on the bowl futures of the Big Ten members, so too do a week later's shenanigans. Michigan State failed to make the charter to Iowa City and consequently we have the four way posturing for a trip to Pasadena showdown we hypothesized as being a possibility. Wisconsin has the edge for the time being, but should everything hold as is recordwise amongst the three at the top, Ohio State may be in position to jump the Badgers towards the tail end of the season.
Style points would essentially become the sole determinant with the "what have you done for me lately" pollsters prone to irrationally bump Ohio State if their margins of victory are more impressive than the Badgers down the stretch. Michigan State appears posied to play the role of 2008 Texas Tech in this scenario by virtue of their deflating, too-late-in-the-season loss suffered Saturday.Wisconsin's slate out of outstanding mediocrity left on their schedule certainly can't hurt Buckeye fans optimism as Wisconsin seems posied to suffer at least a minor drop on the computational side of the things.
So "who/what do I root for" you ask? Ohio State to unleash the force of Evil Tressel on all remaining opponents, Wisconsin to either lose or look poor in victory, and for Michgian State to win out. While seemingly everyone seems ready to bury Michigan State and bump a two loss Iowa ahead of them (you know, in spite of the team Michigan State handling with ease defeating the very same Hawkeyes; hurray priming), another MSU loss would be the only thing more devistating for Ohio State's Pasadena hopes than an Ohio State one. Go SpartyBucks, I guess.
Miss u Goldy Gophies The new Big Ten divisional alignment means the lot of y'all will be sorely deprived of the volume of Ohio State-Minnesota we've gotten acclamated to during most of our lifetimes. I know, I know; we're all heartbroken. The recent history of the two schools' meetings break down as such:
The Gophers and the Buckeyes played 24 seasons in a row from 1969 to 1992. There was one Gophers victory: 35-31 at Memorial Stadium in 1981, the shiny moment of Smokey Joe Salem’s five-year tenure as coach.
There was a two-year respite in 1993-94, and on Saturday night the teams played for the 14th time in the past 16 years. There has been one more Minnesota victory: the 29-17 upset for Glen Mason’s club in 2000 in Ohio Stadium.
It’s frightening, though. Since Warmath’s 17-7 victory over Hayes in 1966, the Gophers are 2-36 vs. Ohio State. They went 0-for-the Metrodome (0-11) and the change of home turf only made things worse in front of Saturday’s ABC regional audience.
That's a lot of wins to potentially eave on the table. Essentially the best hope to run into the Gophers may be under the guise of their forthcoming latest head coach in Indianapolis (or wherever after next season) and surely that has to be 3-5 years away at absolute earliest. I imagine this is a sacrifice Ohio State faithful will be satisfied in making.
Boom Herron knows kung fu He's seeing the 1's and 0's and zeros, y'all. In a span of three months, Daniel "Boom" Herron has transformed before our very eyes from a gritty third down'ish back into seemingly a refreshing Splenda-flavored version of Eddie George. For the second time in as many weeks Saturday we saw virtually entire drives commandeered by Herron. TP talks about #1's transcendence into 'the one':
"He's slowing down a little bit,'' Pryor said. "He's actually waiting for the blocks to occur. He's slowing his body down in a way and he's not cutting right away or anything. He's being very patient when he gets the ball and I think that's helping him on some of those runs.''
Despite the inherent sillyness of championing just Saine, Herron, or any of the fans of buzzbacks like Berry/Hall/Hyde/et al. (the bevy of 'OMG!@#*$&* plz don't transfer! UR BETTER THAN BEANIE' message board posts amongst them), it's certainly nice to have a primary dude toting the rock looking the part.
'The best metric for measuring social media? Happy customers. Happy customers = sales.' Finally, I present, for your consideration, the idea that maybe having Penn State and Indiana playing a neutral field contest in D.C. in November may not have been the best business decision ever made by the two schools. Just sayin'.
