Ahhh...today kicks off my favorite time of the year.
You know, that special time when not only is Buckeye football in full swing but the basketball Buckeyes also start to rev things up.
In case you weren't aware (or were pretending to be too football-elitist to care), Thad Matta's crew starts practice today with just four weeks remaining until they tip off the season in style on the USS Yorktown down in Charleston, SC against the Marquette Warriors Golden Eagles.
I know the non-conference slate causes many of you to wait until January to give a hoot but once again, the early season schedule does provide a few intriguing rematches.
First up, the Buckeyes, a year removed from waxing the Dookies at home in last year's ACC-B1G Challenge, will take their show to Cameron Indoor on November 28th. A few weeks later, Ohio State will look to avenge last year's loss at Kansas as they welcome the Jayhawks to the Schott for a 4pm showdown on Sunday, December 22nd before kicking off what should be an incredibly challenging conference slate.
Kyle will have more on the Buckeye ballers later this morning, who held their Media Day yesterday afternoon.
In the meantime, a hat tip to those of you joining me in anxious anticipation of seeing if a healthy Craft can take his scoring to another level, whether or not Thomas is ready to be the go-to scorer within the offense, if Amir can emerge into the 2nd coming of Ken Johnson, seeing what Lenzelle has added to his repertoire and most of all, if LaQuinton Ross can evolve into a complementary scorer both from the outside and off the bounce to take some pressure off Deshaun and Craft.
Of course, none of that even begins to contemplate what kind of expanded role Ravenel, Thompson and Scott might carve out for themselves. It's going to be another exhilarating season in Columbus.
For now, lets get back to football in an effort to limit the number of you cursing my name for not starting the Skully with talk of your undefeated Ohio State football Buckeyes.
PLAYING OUT THE STRINGS. Between his weekly presser and yesterday's call-in show, it seems pretty clear that Urban plans to approach the Indiana game in a similar manner in which he took on UAB.
That's to say designed runs for Braxton will be scarce as to minimize body shots on his most indispensable player. This is a kill two birds move of sorts as Urban has also talked openly of wanting to give more carries to Carlos Hyde (with some coming out of the Wildcat) and Rod Smith while also rewarding Kenny Guiton with some 1st half playing time. What will be interesting to watch is if Urban follows through on inserting Guiton, while again splitting Braxton wide, and actually attempts to involve Miller from that set.
I know some have expressed concern over splitting Braxton out wide but I have no issue with putting any additional formations or plays on film, forcing Wisconsin and Michigan to spend some practice time contemplating how Urban might decide to carve up their respective defenses.
Speaking of 2nd string, remember when Storm Klein was a backup kicked off the team for allegedly roughing up his lady and nobody cared?
Funny how life works sometimes. Taking advantage of being reinstated, it didn't take Klein long to overtake a not ready for prime time Curtis Grant, reclaiming the Mike spot after just a few weeks.
Now, with Sabino on the shelf for the balance of a month with a broken fibula, Klein will see even more snaps, joining Shazier as the pair of LBs that stay on the field when Ohio State is in the nickel which they'll employ the bulk of Saturday night against the (screen/bubble) pass happy Hoosiers.
As someone who admittedly didn't blink twice when Klein was given the boot, I will say I'm happy he's worked his way back into the staff's good graces after having the charges against him dropped.
In other news, C.J. Barnett is also expected back at his safety spot after missing the last three games with a bum ankle. Barnett's return means OJ will slide over to the Star spot, in place of Pittsburgh Brown.
MID-SEASON LOVE. Having reached the halfway point of the season, numerous outlets are completing pulse checks on players, coaches and conferences.
The BTN's Brent Yarina and Tom Dienhart took a look at the B1G Coach of the Year race and emerged with differing views. As you'd expect, these two see this as virtually a two-man race between Urban and Penn State's Bill O'Brien.
Dienhart is swept away by the job O'Brien has done keeping the team together in State College amidst the defections and bad pub that come with the university choosing to turn a blind eye to the unspeakable acts of an assistant coach or have the balls to stand up to the defacto school president / head coach.
While I don't have any doubt I'd have O'Brien 2nd in the voting, I just can't bow at his feet for managing to beat Navy, Temple and Illinois, though I do give him some props for beating Northwestern albeit in University Park. Bottom line, the team already has two losses and still has road games at Iowa, Purdue and Nebraska not to mention home tilts against Ohio State and Wisconsin. The way I see it, a 5-7 campaign is still very much realistic and that's not Coach of the Year worthy, even with the cards O'Brien was dealt.
Meanwhile, Urban has taken what was a 6-7 squad a season ago and molded them into a 6-0 squad currently ranked 8th in the AP Poll. He's totally revamped the culture, not to mention the offense, and has brought a mean streak to a conference that sorely needs it. The only way he doesn't win B1G Coach of the Year is if voters give it to Ferentz out of delirious force of habit.
Moving on to individual players, Yarina updated his Power Rankings and the Buckeyes are well represented.
Braxton continues to hold down the #1 offensive player slot with McMoxie, Venric Mark, Mark Weisman, Le'Veon Bell, Taylor Martinez and Denarded rounding out the top seven. Geesh. No wonder this conference is a joke. McMoxie, Mark and Weisman are the 2nd, 3rd and 4th most impactful offensive players?! Not cool.
On the other side of the ball, the list is more impressive with Kawann Short, Michael Mauti and Chris Borland listed just ahead of John Simon and Bradley Roby.
The only thing missing was GalagaA TIMELY PROMOTION. Forgoing my preferred game watching spot on a chair at my bro's to watch last weekend's game inside the 'Shoe, I was absolutely mesmerized by TBDBITL's halftime performance. Though I obviously don't get to see them often since I prefer to watch games on TV, I knew I had just witnessed something special.
As you know, the performance video has gone viral and with all eyes on what is truly The Best Damn Band In The Land, executive dean and vice provost of OSU’s College of Arts and Sciences, Joseph Steinmetz, announced that interim band director Jon Waters has been named the full-time Director of the OSUMB.
Taking over for 25 year Director Jon Woods, Steinmetz weighed in on the Waters' promotion:
“Jon has been an instrumental part of our university’s great marching band for many years, and it’s obvious today how successfully he is building on the band’s excellence, as evidenced by the outstanding performances that we have seen this season.”
The promotion should come with a hefty raise as Waters, a former sousaphone player in TBDBITL, made about $49k as assistant director last year while Woods hauled in over $111k.
LEACH SPEECH. The crazed Mike Leach, brought in to resurrect a flagging Washington State program, has struggled out of the gate winning just two of his first six games and recently made his feelings clear about what the team's seniors are providing in the way of leadership and production:
“Some of them have been great and some of them have been very poor,” Leach said of the seniors. “Some of them have had kind of this zombie-like, go through the motions, everything is like how it’s always been, that’s how it’ll always be. Some of them quite honestly have an empty-corpse quality. That’s not pleasant to say or pleasant to think about, but that’s a fact. That’s why it’s been necessary for us to have the youth moment that we’ve had.”
While we all appreciate the refreshing nature in which Urban opines about his team and actually answers questions asked by the media, I'm glad he doesn't take it as far as Leach.
I know Leach is a media darling but his act is wearing thin if you ask me. It's one thing to provide snarky commentary on opposing coaches or the hooker-killing father of a disgruntled player, but it's another to bash your players when your own resume isn't exactly all world. For all the love he gets as a coach, the fact is Leach has recorded just one 10+ win season in 10 tries.
TAQUITOS: CLEARLY SPANISH FOR "TASTY LITTLE LOGS OF HEARTBURN". A map of dry counties in the US... The instant of pain (NSF-Stomach)... If Athlete Ads Were Honest... Graduate-humiliating video reaches a new low at Oklahoma... Al Jefferson has a pretty big bed... 404 Error - Page Not Found... Aaron Craft, eat your heart out.
