Congrats to Ohio State students for having a magical snow day. Those were always my favorite days of college.
I think Florida State is going to put a dagger through the guts of our SEC overlords tonight. As a wild child of the most magical decade in human history (the 90s), I ain't ever had a quarrel with no Seminole. (If only Prime Time Deion Sanders still prowled that sideline.)
MIKE THOMAS SOUNDS OFF. The big Ohio State news yesterday was a player who was red shirted teeing off on late-season receiver production.
Yes, Mike Thomas went in on the Twitter yesterday, and the full rant was quite spectacular.
While Twitter isn't the best outlet for something like this — and it will certainly make for an awkward meeting the next time the gang gets together at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center — I back Thomas on this. (As Ramzy pointed out, Ohio State's receivers have been too average for too long.)
Unfortunately for young Michael, I am not Urban Meyer, nor am I Mickey Marotti. (And yes, I'm feeling even more confident about my prediction of Mike Thomas hitting the scene next year.)
COACHING CAROUSEL CHECK-IN. Yesterday, Al Golden was heading Penn State and then he wasn't. Turns out, he may have never been offered the job in the first place. Penn State will allegedly turn to the recently-fired Mike Munchak or Vanderbilt's James Franklin. Neither of those names do much for me, but this Munchak anecdote found by Eleven Warriors alumnus Luke Zimmermann is too comical not to share:
Penn State is going to be terrible for the next decade, aren't they?
In other news, Texas finally got its man, but don't worry Longhorns fans: Charlie Strong may be black but he's not a "hip hop coach." Some of his old players, however, aren't too pleased with how Strong left Louisville:
Its not that he left, it's the fact that prior to him leaving he told me not to worry because he wasn't going anywhere. #LiedToMeStraight
— Lorenzo Mauldin (@94sWorldPremier) January 5, 2014
That is one thing most sane people can agree on: it's bullshit coaches can move onto a richer sugar-daddy on a whim, yet players are bound by restrictions and penalties when they try to transfer.
These two will probably win a national title this year.GUS MALZAHN STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM. Unlike Drake, who started in the middle class suburbs of Toronto, Gus Malzahn really did start at the bottom. Tonight, however, he has his Auburn Tigers positioned as nine point underdogs against #1 Florida State.
Malzahn was my #1 choice for the next Browns coach, and that was before I read this great Grantland article by friend of the site Chris Brown (no, not the Napoleonic piece of trash/singer who beats women):
Junction City's star running back, Marcus Godfrey, exploded out of the gate for first-quarter touchdown runs of 39, 93, and 79 yards. "I looked at my defensive coordinator, Kevin Johnson, and said 'They're going to score a hundred points and he is going to run for a thousand yards.' He looked back at me with a blank expression," Malzahn wrote. "We were in a state of shock."
The ugly start proved to be an opportunity for Malzahn, who believes his wide-open hurry-up system is designed to physically and mentally wear down opponents. When better to test that belief than in a game that looked hopeless? Shiloh narrowed the gap to 51-35 at halftime, and though his team still trailed by a considerable margin, Malzahn knew the tide had turned.
"As I watched their players leaving the field, I noticed some of their athletes were jogging slowly, while others were walking laboriously to their dressing room," Malzahn wrote. "I told our coaches, 'We are going to win this game.'"
He was right, and not for the last time.
Gus Malzahn had never ran an offense when he got promoted to head coach after one season as his high school's defensive coordinator. He turned to a book about the Delaware Wing T and followed it "word for word." Almost 20 years later, the man now controls one of the most cutting-edge offenses in college football. That's pretty cool.
ADD HIM TO THE WISHLIST. You know what would also be cool? If Ohio State had a guy like Kelvin Benjamin for Braxton to throw to:
THOSE WMDs. Early enrollees are on campus... JR Smith, lmao... Old GQ profile of Mike Royko... Firework's misfire leads to dazzling New Year's photo... "‘And I Cannot Lie’: The Oral History of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s ‘Baby Got Back’ Video"... Hunter S. Thompson's Richard Nixon obituary... Tiny turtle chef... Most def true thing I've ever seen... Abandoned Columbus... Bynum's block is sad... Photo of NYC undercover cop taking down a mugger on the subway... Kim Jong Un riding a skilift solo...
