As the offseason drags on, it seems Urban Meyer's Buckeyes are picking up more and more steam as the sexy pick to potentially topple [insert SEC team here] in the final installment of the BCS National Championship.
Jerry Palm jumped on the bandwagon yesterday, predicting Ohio State and Alabama to clash in the championship, just about a week after Mark Schlabach vaulted the Buckeyes to the top of his Preseason Top 25.
Yesterday, Dennis Dodd signed up for a Buckeye championship while Stewart Mandel chronicled Ohio State's undefeated 2012 campaign and examined how Ohio State could make a run at the crystal football this fall.
A huge factor will be the strength of the offensive line and as Tom Herman noted, an even bigger factor could be Braxton's evolution as a passer and his increased understanding of the offense now that he's got a full season of its intricacies under his belt. That school of thought is bolstered by the reality that more than a handful of Meyer's previous signal-callers blew up in year two of running his system.
Chris Leak, Alex Smith and Josh Harris all serve as blueprints for Year Two success and none of them were as naturally gifted as Braxton. Sprinkle in the plethora of weapons Miller figures to has at his disposal and the offense is primed to explode.
Obviously, the defensive front seven is where the potential heartburn lurks though it's expected Noah Spence and Adolphus Washington will step up to fill big shoes vacated by Johnathan Hankins and John Simon. At linebacker, it sounds like fans are dying to be sold on Curtis Grant being at least serviceable but even if he isn't, there's no question Ryan Shazier is ready to push for All-American honors and not only that he's embracing the expectations and a potential chance to take down the SEC:
"I hear about it all the time from my cousin -- SEC this, SEC that. There's one reason I came to Ohio State -- to beat up on the SEC."
[...]
"I'm not saying we're 100 percent ready yet... But once the season comes, we will be the best team in college [football]."
Emphasis ours.
One-hundred fourteen sunrises to go, y'all.
DISS-ASSOCIATION. Yesterday marked the end of the "original" 10-year disassociation ordered by the NCAA between the University of Michigan's hoops program and four players who were paid handsomely by booster Ed Martin for suiting up and taking care of business on the floor.
Former players Louis Bullock, Maurice Taylor, Robert "Tractor" Traylor and Chris Webber were found to have received a combined $616,000 in cash and other illegal benefits for themselves and their families from the booster and they weren't exactly cooperative with the NCAA.
The NCAA found that Martin operated a lucrative illegal gambling operation and one way he chose to launder his money was through gifts and "loans" to at least the four players and their families. This scandal occurred right under the noses of the Michigan athletics department as Martin enjoyed insider status within the program, giving him easy access to the players. According to the NCAA's infractions report:
During the course of the investigation, it was revealed that from spring 1992, and continuing through spring 1999, the athletics representative provided inducements and benefits in the form of cash, clothing, jewelry, transportation, lodging, meals and other like benefits to the four student-athletes and members of their families and at least one other unnamed former student-athlete. According to the report, the athletics representative characterized these inducements and benefits as loans. The representative intended that the student-athletes would repay him the value of these inducements and benefits upon their becoming well-paid professional basketball players after their Michigan careers.
While the school paid the price year's ago, the story remains compelling now that the door is ajar for David Brandon and company to decide if they want to welcome the disassociated players - and by extension the Fab Five - back into the good graces of the university. Brandon has been a little tough to read, saying recently, "there's nothing new to discuss on this topic" while also being quoted as saying, "I've never had an opportunity to interact with them to talk about anything and I am hopeful that opportunity will present itself."
Webber, unquestionably the biggest name in the scandal, has also been the most distant when it comes to extending an olive branch toward Ann Arbor. He's seemingly made it clear he has no intentions on apologizing for his misdeeds, feeling he did nothing to harm the university, once offering, "I didn't do anything, so I don't feel sorry for them."
Webber's flippant stance has always been puzzling considering how the other implicated players handled the situation over the years, fully admitting mistakes were made. More puzzling however, was the stance Dan Wetzel took yesterday. Obviously, Wetzel is a highly-respected voice in the sports world and I think this is first time anything he's written has boggled my mind:
What Michigan should be doing is calling Webber and saying sorry to him.
The disassociation worked well in pushing the spotlight of blame away from the system or the coaches or the administrators or the circumstances or even Martin, and right on the players. It's all Chris Webber's fault!
[...]
The NCAA and Michigan apparently never bothered to even consider that these guys were victims. They thought the players could just breezily walk away from a guy of that influence anytime they chose. Could they have done that? Could they have handled things better? Of course. To assume this was simple and easy, however, is wrong.
Yet when things didn't go as the NCAA rulebook demanded, well, the system couldn’t just punish the program with vacated seasons and other sanctions. No, it had to go further, it had to determine the players themselves deserved a special decade of shame courtesy of a scarlet letter of “disassociation.”
Yeah, all these years later, someone sure does owe a phone call and an apology.
It's not as if the school got off scot-free. Michigan's hoops program was dealt major sanctions and it took years to bounce back. In most cases, NCAA sanctions end up penalizing not only the school, but usually a bunch of kids who just happen to be playing for the offending program and the time the NCAA's ruling comes down. You know, kind of like how the kids in Columbus last year didn't have a shot at a national championship thanks to infractions committed by players (and the head coach) that came before them.
In this case, the player, Webber (and the other three), was actually punished by the NCAA, the school adhered to the sanctions and now, somehow, an apology is owed to Chris Webber? I don't think so.
THIS THING IS 15 YEARS OLD ALREADY? The lineup for the 15th annual ACC/B1G Challenge was announced yesterday and the Buckeyes will take on the Maryland Terrapins in Value City Arena, giving fans an early look at the program slated to join the B1G in time for the 2014-15 season.
Somewhat surprisingly, the two programs haven't met on the hardwood since 1985, when current Buckeye assistant Dave Dickerson was a member of the Maryland squad. In an impressive nod to Titus, Dickerson posted an eight-trillion in Ohio State's 78-66 win over the 19th-ranked Terrapins. The Buckeyes placed four in double-figures that night led by 18 from Dennis Hopson and 14 points and 19 boards from the slender rim-bender, Brad Sellers.
Jeff Goodman and Jeff Borzello took a shot at handicapping what should be some pretty nice early-December matchups.
Based on the CBS preseason poll, the top tilt looks to be #4 Michigan at #6 Duke. The Wolverines were hit hard by early departures but with GRIII, Mitch McGary and Nik Stauskas still in the fold, the Dookies will have their hands full. Of course, Coach K's roster is still loaded as he welcomes freshman Jabari Parker to Durham along with Mississippi State transfer Rodney Hood, a kid Thad Matta pursued to the wire before being left at the altar. In 14 Challenge matchups, Duke is an impressive 12-2.
Another dandy could be #8 UNC traveling to East Lansing to take on the #3 ranked Spartans. Tom Izzo still has a ton of talent in Adriean Payne, Gary Harris and Keith Appling and a year of seasoning shoud make the 2013-14 Tar Heels a threat to reach the Final Four.
Kehres: All I do is win, win, win...HAT-TIP TO LARRY KEHRES. Living legend Larry Kehres announced yesterday that he's stepping down as Mount Union's head football coach.
Kehres will remain the school's athletic director, a post he's held since 1985. It was also announced that his son, Vince, will take over head coaching duties for the storied football program.
A graduate of Mount Union back in 1971, Kehres was named head coach of the football team back in 1986 an has been making history ever since. The goods:
In 27 seasons, his teams won 23 Ohio Athletic Conference Championships (1986, 1990, 1992-2012) while posting 21 undefeated regular seasons (1986, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1995-2004, 2006-2012) and claiming 11 NCAA Division III National Championships (1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2012).
Kehres has a career coaching record of 332-24-3 (.929).
And that's not all:
Mount Union has not lost more than one game in a season since 1994, when it finished 10-2 and lost in the Division III quarterfinals. His teams won 100 games in a row in Ohio Athletic Conference play from 1994-2005; overall, Kehres went 230-8-3 in league play.
While Oklahoma's 47-game winning streak from 1953-57 set the FBS record, Kehres exceeded the Sooners' streak on two occasions, winning 54 in a row from 1996-99 and 55 in a row from 2000-03. In all, Mount Union posted 21 undefeated seasons.
Uh, hat-tip, indeed.
AMENDED HOOPS RULES ON THE WAY. Meeting yesterday and today to vote on proposed changes, the NCAA's rules committee will soon likely announce amendments to existing rules but it sounds like the 35-second shot clock will remain in place.
A sampling of rules expected to be implemented or modified, as reported by Jeff Goodman:
The automatic flagrant fouls for the swinging of elbows will almost certainly be amended. The new rule will give referees a measure of discretion rather than it automatically being deemed a Flagrant 1 or Flagrant 2 foul depending on the nature of the elbow and whether excessive contact is made. Coaches would also be able to ask referees to go to the monitor to review flagrant-foul calls.
The block/charge call could be slightly altered in an effort to help the offensive player. Under the existing rule, the secondary defender needs to be in legal guarding position before the player leaves the ground. The new interpretation would be that the defender needs to be set before the offensive player begins the upward motion of his shot. "We feel this would help referees and also reduce the number of charge calls," the source said.
Instead of a full 35-second shot clock following a foul in the frontcourt, it will likely be reduced to somewhere between 20 and 25 seconds in an effort to create a few more possessions each game.
It sounds good in theory but I'm not sure anything can help old school officials and their propensity to anticipate charging calls as soon as an offensive player reaches the lane. It's an epidemic that is killing the college game and breeding floppers at an alarming rate.
I do like the idea of not resetting the shot clock all the way to 35 seconds in the event of a defensive foul in the frontcourt. More possessions is a good thing.
END-O. "They're not the best but"... Brooklyn's Palmetto Park officially renamed Adam Yauch Park... The face of an ant... A brief history of rappers in soda commercials... It's like SEC Country is dominant at everything... Derrick Rose is out of Personal Days... But at least he has his own playoff controller... 1GB hard drive in 1981... Michael Jordan Accidentally Leaves For Honeymoon With One Of His Mistresses (NSFW)... Not exactly a Newsflash... Old school selfie... OSU baseball gets a huge win over Georgia Tech.
