Eleven Warriors

Well, here we are again. Chris Carter, Buckeye and NFL great, on the HOF ballot for the 6th time. Thats right, SIXTH time. Tell me why an 8 time pro bowler who is 4th all time in receiving TD's (130), 8th all time in receiving yards (13899), and 4th all time in catches (1101) has been snubbed 5 times for the NFL's highest honor? Just to put it into perspective only 3 receivers have caught more passes and reached the endzone more times than CC. In fact, Carter has 31 more career TD's than Steve Largent, a first ballot inductee. Michael Irving and James Lofton, arguably 2 of the best players of all time, were each snubbed twice while Art Monk and John Stallworth were passed over 7 times before induction. Carter certainly deserves a spot before those two. A couple more accolades include 8 straght 1,000 yard seasons, 1st team All Pro twice, a member of the NFL's 1990's all decade team and recipient of the Walter Payton man of the year award. Does the hall have something against receivers? Were his off the field issues so terrible that his ensrinement is debateable? What gives? Tell me what you think. Will this be Carter's year?

In the Pixar movie The Incredibles, a beaten down Bob Parr (aka, Mr. Incredible) comes home and accidently damages his car. In a fit of anger he lifts the entire car above his head as if to throw the vehicle across town. When he looks down he sees a little boy on his tricycle watching the entire event.
The boy’s eyes open wide as the giant bubble he was blowing pops and explodes gooey pink gum all over his face. Embarrassed by his outburst and afraid his old super identity would be exposed, Mr. Incredible slowly lowers the car to the ground and goes inside, leaving the boy to draw his own conclusions.
The next day Mr. Incredible returns home from work, only this time he had been fired. It seems that Parr was fed up with being ordinary, being forced to fit in with everyday society when he and his family are gifted with great powers. In a fit of anger, he tossed his boss through several cubicle walls when his greedy boss stopped him from helping a man that was getting mugged.
As Parr pulls into the driveway and exits his car, he looks over and sees the same little boy in his driveway.
“Well, what do you want,” he bellows at the kid.
Rather sheepishly, the boy looks up at Mr. Incredible and says “I don’t know; something amazing, I guess.”
You see, the boy had been exposed to the amazing, the spectacular, and he wanted more. Life is dull when all we have to witness is the mundane, the ordinary. When we go through life and all we experience is profoundly boring then we have no appreciation for what is truly great.
And that is why I am angry with Lance Armstrong.
I know little about the Tour de France other than it is a really hard bike race. It is physically demanding and requires as much mental toughness as it does strong legs. I also know that it has been won by Europeans 99% of the time and is therefore most likely some kind of hippie socialist agenda trying to destroy America and our world famous Huffy bikes and banana seats.
So along comes an American (and a Texan to boot!) that does the impossible. He not only wins seven consecutive Tours, which shatters the record, he does so in incredible fashion. His climbs through the Alps were the stuff of legends. He would blow by the strongest climbers the world had to offer and as an act of pure sports ego, he would throw them a glance backwards as if to say “how do you like me now, son?”
He wasn’t just great at what he did, he was amazing. He was the neighbor guy that could dent his car by squeezing too hard and then effortlessly lift the car above his head. He was the basketball player that could jump from the foul line and slam the ball. He was the shortstop that reacted faster than a speeding bullet and knocked down a screaming liner, only to jump up and throw out a really fast runner at first base. He was the quarterback that sensed the pocket was closing in on him and, in an amazing display of training and ability, saw the open receiver downfield and threw a perfect touchdown pass a split second before the linebacker smashed him to the ground.
But Lance Armstrong was also a dirty cheater. It was always rumored he doped simply because most of the professional riders dope. His competitors said he doped, his teammates said he doped and eventually even his friends said he doped. Everyone said what was clearly obvious and now Armstrong has admitted to Oprah Winfrey that, yes, he used “performance enhancers.”
Again, I am kicked in the sports crotch.
I can handle cheating. I recall sitting next to the banker during one of the many nights our family would play Monopoly and when I was in desperate need of cash, I would quietly slip a 500 or two from the till. I used my friend’s project and presented it as my own in school. My team, the Buckeyes, didn’t get to play for the national title this year because the former coach cheated. Sometimes at work I take longer breaks than I should.
What I can’t handle is living in a world where the amazing is impossible without cheating. I can’t handle something that is “too good to be true” because it is. I can’t handle a world where we are all equally average.
I need that sprinter to be just that fast while using nothing more than great training and God given natural ability. I need scientists that are so damn smart they think up stuff that no human should be able to conceptualize. I need artists and musicians and writers that can create the sublime, the life changing.
I am angry with Lance Armstrong because he allowed me to believe that a person could be so mentally tough they could defeat cancer and dominate at professional cycling. I am angry because his form of amazing came not just with training and talent but with regular injections of chemicals. I am angry because he reminds me that my life is so lacking in the amazing and that most of what I have done in my 47 years of existence has been truly average.
Armstrong was/is an image of support and inspiration to millions of cancer patients and their families around the world. I doubt that cheating in a fancy bike race around the French countryside is going to change all of that. But what he accomplished on a skinny rock- hard bicycle seat will forever be gone.
I still hold out hope for the amazing, but Superman isn’t likely to zoom over the horizon anytime soon.
 

I was able to reach 2013 WR commit Taivon Jacobs to discuss his official visit to Columbus. Jacobs camped at Ohio State in June. He later committed to the Buckeyes in July. 

• On his visit: "It was a great time and I got to see a ton of things I had not yet previously which was very cool. I really enjoyed being able to connect with the other commits that were also on campus and the current players on the team. I felt like I was already on the team."
• On the coaching staff: "Coach Smith is a great man and the guy I connect with the best. I got to talk to all of them."
• On what commits he is closest to: "I really was able to develop a good relationship and got pretty close with Darron Lee and Chris Worley. I hung out with them quite a bit while I was there. I also hung out with Shelton Gibson and Vonn Bell. I was recruiting a 2014 linebacker too."
• On what his future role may be at Ohio State: "I have told them repeatedly I am willing to do whatever they ask of me. They have told me I will be playing in the slot and they also envision I will be returning kickoffs and punts as well."
• If he is solid to Ohio State: "I am a solid commit to the Buckeyes. Its where I can see myself playing. I am considering taking an official visit to Maryland though. It is a possibility."

I talked to Jacobs a little bit more extensively on the possible official visit to Maryland. He said they are not recruiting him all that hard but that he was interested in checking out another school.

He was not adamant or absolutely sure he would take the visit. In the end, I do not see it happening, or that it is a concern. The way that he presented the idea to me made it sound pretty harmless. I would not worry about it at this time. 

I've been wondering this for the last few days. Obviously this upcoming season we will have the nastiest, most explosive offense in the country but we loose so much on defense (esp. D-line and LB). Much of the defense's talent is unproven. Will X-Brax 360 and slew of returning offensive talent (plus new recruits) be enough to put us over the top? The passing game should be much improved and add in much more playbook including the 49'ers' 'diamond' formation. Should score the most points in a season since Smith/Ginn's '06 season.

Now for 2014, its kind of the opposite only because we lose so much on the offensive line, although we still have braxton, good RBs and WRs. However the Defense should be absolutely monsterous that year with plenty of built-up high end talent like Spence, Washington, Schutt, Pittman, Bosa, etc. And thats just the D-line! The LBs and secondary will be quite impressive as well.

For a long time I've felt like OSU has had really strong years either offensively or defensively but not at the same time. I feel like if we can get a good offensive line developed by 2014, that would be our strongest chance to have both only because Brax will be a senior beast. We can find some one to fill Hyde's shoes or a good WR, but Braxton is a very rare asset. I say in '14 our strengths will be more balanced between O and D. That being said, I believe we still win a NC in '13 for a # of reasons: 1.) Braxton will be much improved

                                                                        2.) Urban's secnd yr. plus entire coaching staff returns intact.

                                                                        3.) dominant O-line, Hyde, D. smith, Philly all have unfinished business to take care of.

                                                                        4.) Dominant secondary led by Roby and co. plus fresh young talent at D-line and LBer.

If you had to vote for one year, which would be your choice to win it all and why?

2014 Cleveland (OH) St. Ignatius LB Kyle Berger was offered a scholarship by Ohio State back in November, right before making a visit to Columbus for The Game.

At the time it was Berger's first offer, but that was quickly followed by an offer from Cincinnati and then a few others. At the time Kyle was high on the Buckeyes and that still has not changed, as he made his second visit to OSU yesterday to see the Buckeyes' beat Michigan for the second time in two months.

• On this visit: "It was unbelievable. I loved it"
• Hung out with sevaral Glenville players who also went for the trip down I-71 including Marcelys Jones, Marshon Lattimore, and Eric Smith
• Itinerary: Luke Fickell took the whole Berger family around the entire day. They first met with Urban Meyer upon arrival for about an hour and then met with an academic advisor. After that they went to the game and afterwards sat down with Fickell, just talking for a while.
• What the coaches said: "A lot of it was just getting to know each other better, but they also talked about their plans for me. They told me they like me at outside linebacker, either SAM or WILL, and they think I'll grow an inch or two and they'll definitely be putting a lot of weight on me. They also spoke to me a lot about academics and what the day to day life is like being a student-athlete at Ohio State."
• Decision timeline: "I still am thinking mid-April or early-May. I want to take a couple of other visits to compare other schools to Ohio State."
• What other visits he may take: "Hopefully Michigan State soon and possibly Tennessee and Stanford."
• Current offers: Cincinnati, Illinois, Michigan State, Ohio State, and West Virginia
• Said Ohio State is in a really good spot at the top of his list

Rossville (GA) Ridgeland S Vonn Bell was on campus this past weekend for his much anticipated official visit. Bell has three schools tied at the top: Alabama, Ohio State, and Tennessee. Bell brought most of his family with him this past weekend so they could check out the school. It sounds like the visit went pretty well. I talked to Bell's high school head coach, Mark Mariakis to get the visit details:

• Visit: "I talked to Vonn's father while they were on their way home from the visit. They had a great time. It was a fantastic visit. Vonn and his family got all their questions answered."
• More: "His dad is stopping by the school tomorrow to tell me more about the visit, so I'll know more tomorrow."
• Upcoming visits: "He's still visiting Alabama next weekend and Tennessee the weekend after that."
• Alabama: "They've been winning a lot of National Championships. They're just one of the premier football programs in the country. Vonn has a really good relationship with Coach Saban. They've done a really good job recruiting him."
• Ohio State: "He really likes the relationship he has formed with Coach Meyer. He also likes that he feels at home at Ohio State."
• Tennessee: "He has been a fan his whole life. They have the emotional vote. He doesn't know much about the new staff, but is excited to meet them on his visit."
• Timetable: "He's going to announce on National Signing Day at 9 A.M.. at the school."
• Factors: "Relationships with the coaches is very important to Vonn. He also wants a good education. The kid is a competitor, so winning is important too."
• Bell was with Jalin Marshall for almost the entire visit. He also was around Shazier, Braxton Miller, and Bradley Roby quite a bit.

With the news that the Cleveland Browns have tapped former offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski to be the team's sixth head coach in 13 years, fans have shifted from speculation over who the new play caller would be to "why in the hell did they hire him?" As fans, it is practically our moral obligation to call into question the management decisions made in the running of our favorite teams (see similar conversation among Ohio State fans circa 2000 under heading "Jim who?"), and the Browns hire is no different.

The key question, posed by the always-astute TennBuckeye here, is what exactly is the appropriate expectation for the Browns moving forward?

As a kid who grew up rooting for the other Ohio NFL team and who married into a family of rabid Steelers fans, I'm well aware that expectations vary widely among fanbases, and that expectations are the key to success in the National Football League.

Perhaps then it would be useful to examine recent history and pose scenarios that might be qualified as a "success" for a hire that appears to have summarily underwhelmed (or in some cases outright infuriated) fans looking for a bigger "name" to take the tiller.

With only a single playoff berth to their credit since 1999, is simply making the playoffs sufficient, and how likely is that given their divisional competition in Ohio and Pennsylvania? Is another wildcard-game appearance enough for fans to stop pondering who the next head coach should be?

Or perhaps a simple improvement in the W-L column is enough to keep the pitchforks and torches safely stowed for another season. But there again, as TennBuckeye pointed out, does that mean just six or seven wins, or is .500 the minimum standard of performance?

To give us some frame of reference, it would be useful to consider other coaches in the division for a moment, to see what the standard of excellence looks like. The other team with Paul Brown's fingerprints on its DNA, the Bengals, have traditionally underperformed fans expectations on a relatively regular basis (I grew up rooting for Boomer and hating the 49ers, for what it's worth), so we'll start with Marvin Lewis.

A combined 79-80-1 at Cincinnati (.496), Lewis has gotten the orange and black to the postseason just four times in 10 seasons: four wildcard games, and four losses. In fact, Lewis' Bengals only managed records better than .500 in those same four seasons, though he managed to break even in three additional campaigns, meaning he's only notched losing seasons 30% of the time.

Despite losing to the Houston Texans in last season's playoff attempt, the Bengals' front office was so thrilled with a 9-win season that they gave Lewis a 2-year contract extension, meaning he'll be at the helm through 2014. So perhaps, for a team that endured 14 consecutive losing seasons, Lewis' relative success is perfectly wonderful, and all is well in the Queen City.

Thanks to a victory at home against the Browns in the final game of the season, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin managed to avoid recording his first losing season, going 8-8 in the team's 80th year, and Tomlin's 6th at the helm. While the presence of a SuperBowl ring on his finger certainly sets Tomlin apart from many other NFL coaches, his record more or less speaks for itself.

He's taken Pittsburgh to the playoffs in four of six years, winning the AFC North three times and making it to the SuperBowl twice. For Tomlin, the playoffs are either make it all the way or bust out in the wildcard affairs, as his team has lost in its wildcard matchup twice, while making it to the championship the other two tries. His overall record is much better than Lewis', going 63-33 (.656).

Tomlin, by the numbers, would be the class of the Division, then, were it not for John Harbaugh.

Harbaugh, during his five seasons steering the hated Baltimore Ravens, has failed to miss the playoffs once. The Ravens will face the Denver Broncos and Peyton Manning this Saturday. The Ann Arbor native and Miami of Ohio alum has gone 54-26 thus far (.675), and failing to win at least 10 games only one year.

He's 6-4 (.600) in playoff history, and 2012 marked the first time in franchise history the Ravens have won consecutive division titles. God it hurts me to write that.

Despite having not made it to a SuperBowl yet, Harbaugh has been an unmitigated success for the Ravens, and his current contract runs through 2014; expect an extension at some point.

A perennial favorite among Browns fans speculating on future head coaching hires is former Steelers coach and former Browns player and assistant Bill Cowher. As one of only two men in NFL history to lead his team to the playoffs in each of his first six seasons as head coach, Cowher's credentials as an outstanding leader are well-known. (Bonus points: Know who was the first to hit the playoffs in each of his first six seasons? That's right, Paul Brown.)

In 15 seasons at Pittsburgh, Cowher went 149-90-1 (.623), winning the AFC Central six times and the AFC North twice. He went 12-9 (.571) in the playoffs, and won SuperBowl XL in his second-to-last season before heading to the bright lights of television analysis.

While he continues to tease fans with hints that he would be open to returning to the coaching ranks, I'm not sure anyone seriously thought he would come out of retirement to take the helm at the Browns, which remain something of a riddle as an organization at large.

So now that we've looked around the AFC North and at one fantasy coach, let's go back to the man who broke the mold, the team's namesake. In the team's first 13 seasons playing in the NFL, Paul Brown earned a record of 111-44-5 (.694), certainly qualifying him among the elite coaches in the annals of football history. Brown won four AAFC championships with the team before it joined the NFL in 1950, and then coached the Browns to three NFL championships – in 1950, 1954 and 1955.

His teams played in four additional NFL Championship matches, losing to the Detroit Lions thrice and the L.A. Rams once. His teams failed to make the postseason once in his first nine years, but failed to do so in each of his final four seasons at the helm; despite winning records, he was dismissed following a contentious power struggle with the team owner whose name shall not be spoken.

Brown didn't do quite as well in six seasons with the Bengals, going 48-36 (.571) and winning the AFC Central twice. He was 0-3 in the playoffs during his tenure as the head coach in Cincinnati.

Since 1990 the Cleveland Browns have only made the playoffs twice, in 1994 and 2002. During that period, they have only notched winning records three seasons out of 20. It has not been a good run.

While the lowpoint of the modern era is almost certainly the three seasons Cleveland was without an NFL franchise in the late '90s, five straight seasons of winning only four or five games comes in as a pretty close second.

In one of the high points, 2007, the Browns finished 10-6, good enough for 2nd place in the AFC North. That year the Browns were the season's only 9+ win team to not make the playoffs. Braylon Edwards ended the season as the Browns' all-time single-season leader in receiving yards with 1,289 yards, breaking Webster Slaughter's 1989 record of 1,236 yards. It was the first time in more than a decade the team had won 10 games.

The offensive coordinator of that team? Rod Chudzinski.

Hired to lead a team that has such a storied history, the more recent benchmark for Rob Chudzinski's success now as a head coach shouldn't be too high at all.

The texts flood in, well past 2 a.m.  Fifteen hundred.  Two thousand.  Twenty-five hundred.  Most of them offer congratulations.  There’s hate mail — hate texts? — packed in there, too.  I’ll probably have to change this number, he thinks, after Signing Day.

Bedtime now.  Time to shut the damn thing off.  Another one lands before he does.  A 614 number he doesn’t recognize.  Who am I recruiting in The 614?  He opens the message:

Loose end.

—UFM

Saban humphs, peels back the flat sheet, creaks into bed, sinks back into the pillow.  Three BCS titles in four years.  A dynasty.  He is entirely satisfied.

Well, mostly satisfied.

“Who does that?” he asks, aloud.  “Who screws with my night?”  Answer: HE does.

The “ROLL TIDE” chants continue through the night, outside his window.  They wax and wane in volume as he drifts in and out of consciousness.  Then he sits up, abruptly.  He looks at the clock.  4:04.  Son of a bitch.  He reaches for his phone, flips it open, powers it on, calls up the text.  Replying:

It is what it is.  Whatcha gonna do?

—NS

Seconds later:

So you’re still up?

Saban thumbs out his answer:

Yeah.  You, too?

A minute later:

Sun is up here.  Shining right into the WHAC.

There’s a pause in the exchange.  About five, six minutes before the next text alert:

I said, LOOSE END, Brother . . .

He sighs and replies:

You know me, Urban.  I’d tie it off if I could.

Two minutes pass.  The phone shows him a blue progress bar.  It grunts across his phone screen and finally delivers a .JPEG file.  A flat field: grass and mud.

Saban:

???

Urban:

You still have that shitty flip-phone, don’t you?

Saban snorts.

Always.

Urban:

Kentucky bluegrass in January.

His mind’s eye places Urban on an elliptical right now.  Hands-free, forty minutes into a workout, crushing it, thumbing out texts in that manic way he has.  Why the hell am I not sleeping right now?

Urban:

That’s 319 miles from Columbus, 307 from Tuscaloosa.

For Christ’s sake.  Saban puts the phone down.  Feet on the floor.  He scrubs them into the hotel room carpet, gets the blood flowing.  Stands up, goes off to take a piss.  Two more texts land in the inbox while he’s gone:

Urban:

That’s a little more than halfway.

Urban:

(We know how you all don’t like to travel north.)

Saban:

Well, down south is where the action is.

Urban:

Not all of it.

Saban:

Can you give me an address?

Urban:

It’s a field.  There’s no address.

Saban:

Well, where?

Urban:

Just off I-65.  Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Saban:

Bowling Green?  Nice.

Urban:

: ) There’s a Miami up here in Ohio, if you like that better.

Ouch.

Bowling Green, KENTUCKY will do just fine.  Give me a date, and I’ll charter the buses.

Urban:

Your boys are beat up.  Take all the time you need, and let me know.

Saban:

I’ll be in touch.

Urban:

Oh, I know you will.

: )

Ok not literally. But the way these high school seniors create amazing ripples into the landscape of college football is undeniable. In my ever-persistent procrastinating, I decided about a week ago to write a blog post explaining how. Naturally, here it is.

College football to me, like it is to many of us, is a way of life. I was raised into it, even baptized into it. A framed picture of me as an infant being held by Archie Griffin has my back. Yeah, half of my blood is gray. I have been to the shoe, which is 3 hours away, for games at least 30 times, and half the trips were before I was even a teenager. I have an awesome family that shares my passion and that I owe it to. I was in middle school, waiting on every Wednesday for that Buckeye Sports Bulletin in the mail. First section I always flipped to? Recruiting. I couldn't get enough of it. I dreamt of being in that section one day. To be recruited and read about by freaks like me. And though I am physically blessed with great hair, precision eyesight, and Steve Perry's vocal chords, I am no D1 athlete. So I missed the boat on this one. What never left me was my passion to follow recruiting. I knew where everyone went to high school, I knew the ins and outs of guys before they were on campus, I felt a step ahead. I drove around the state, watching the likes of beanie wells, most glenville guys, micah hyde, Chris Borland, anyone I could go see play live, I was there. Weird right? I played a lot of NCAA football on my PlayStation, and would always sim seasons just to recruit. What is wrong with me? I don't know, I really don't. But I regress from reaffirming my buckeye fanhood and overall craziness atop the soapbox of a blog post.

Heres a story for you guys, and a little something to think about. We missed out on James Quick today, big deal? Yeah kind of. Will Ohio State survive? Surely. But when you miss out on a #1, a lot can change even if you have a #1B or #2 option. Here is what I'm getting at. In 2008, Ohio state had just finished a season where a big time freshman quarterback looked like he was bound to win a Heisman, and lead his team for 2, maybe 3 more years. But these buckeyes didn't have a back up. Todd Boeckman was graduating, and we needed a Terrell Pryor understudy. Tressel found his guy, in the #4 rated QB in the country, a 4 star guy from Virginia, one Tajh Boyd. The feeling of love, was mutual. Tajh Boyd loved Tressel, loved the campus and the program, and didn't want to go as far away as his second option, Oregon. In the middle of December 2008, he was a lock to be a buckeye. He was the perfect fit to learn under TP, take over the team as a RS junior, and look good doing it. But as he thought about it, and a team closer and with more of a need at QB, Clemson, moved in, he smartly decided to become a tiger, committing after an official in the middle of January 2009. He was looking at spending at least 2 years behind a clipboard at a conservative school and then stepping into the shoes of a QB destined for greatness. Ohio state turns around, needing a QB, and picks up a skinny kid from Texas with a last name no one knew how to say at first, a Kenneth Guiton. Tajh Boyd is now a first team all-ACC QB and pretty dang good one that will be drafted in April. But what if Boyd committed to the Buckeyes, as he admittedly almost did in that December? Think about this. He spends 2009 redshirting, as Ohio state rolls to a rose bowl victory, and in 2010 he sees the field a bit, and flashes greatness on a team that wins the sugar bowl. Then, amongst the turmoil of that next spring/summer, which saw JT and TP exit the program, Boyd steps up and becomes the QB he is now with 3 years of eligibility left and some experience. In steps Luke Fickell, and instead of throwing a true freshman Braxton Miller into the fire, Tajh Boyd steps up, composed and experienced, and makes that offensive coaching staff look serviceable. a 6-7 team is a 9-4 team. Luke Fickell is the answer at HC, no need to go find a new guy. Now, 2012, we have a RS junior Boyd, and a RS freshman Braxton Miller, with Luke Fickell as our head coach. this is in no way a scenario i would welcome, because i am completely caught up in a man-crush on urban Meyer, but is this not a strong possibility? had Boyd chosen the buckeyes, we could have not had the Urban Meyer-led undefeated season, our buckeye hopes maybe wouldn't be so sky-high. Amazing how one decision could hypothetically change so much. I, for one, would not change a thing. I love the ups and downs of this crazy college football life. I am in no way saying this is exactly what would have happened or that you absolutely have to agree with me, i am also not saying that missing on James quick and taking Timmons/Elder/Wilson/Gibson in his place is dooming or helping our program, just something to think about. and remember, these kids are making the biggest decision of their professional football lives, the only decision they really have. just pray that it works out with them if their intentions are good, and know that Ohio state football will rise every day with the sun, with or without them.

A rather heated discussion here got me taking a hard look at Ohio State head basketball coach Thad Matta from a statistical standpoint. While I am one of an unpopular minority who thinks the obviously outstanding coach is still a work in progress - or at least, that his work at Ohio State is not yet complete - my comparison of Matta to four legendary coaches and four coaches of current Top 10 teams proved that he is, on paper, the real deal.

It seems to me that, if one wishes to be critical of Matta's efforts or results in his first eight seasons in Columbus (for purposes of analysis I'm doing all my stats on the 2004-2012 seasons, setting aside the current work-in-progress), there are only a few areas worth examining. I think recruiting is an obvious area of strength for Matta, as is conditioning and strength training. I've also been impressed with his development of his assistant coaches, as a number of them have gone on to be successful in their own right away from the Matta bench.

So what areas are worth looking at with a critical eye? There seem to be three fairly oft-repeated lines of critique from Buckeye Nation:

1. Game management/play calling (or lack thereof)
2. Player management/use of "the bench" (or lack thereof)
3. Failing to win "the big games"

There may be other issues folks have with Matta, as well, but these appear to be among those I hear most often. Examining the first of these three is beyond my interests and abilities as an analyst, so I'm going to leave that to folks who are better at "Xs and Os" to decipher, though I'll admit that at times during the second half of the Duke game earlier this season I was frustrated that our plan of attack appeared to be "run down the floor and take the first shot you can force" (yes, that's over-simplistic hyperbole, just let it go).

The second issue is another that I think is highly subjective. While certainly there are stats that one can use to gauge the efficacy of the sixth, seventh or eighth men off the bench, these are also tricky, because in those seasons where Matta was somewhat notorious for only playing five or six men, the minutes simply aren't there to tell if the bench-warmers (not including the walk-ons and Trillionaires, obviously) would have made a legitimate contribution. This is the subjectivity I was referring to, of course.

For someone who likes to put the data on the table and let the chips fall where they may, the third issue is one I can actually get my hands around. I went back and pulled the stats from the past eight seasons for the Buckeyes, as well as for four other coaches who have been outstanding this decade. Since the 2004-2005 season, six schools have won the NCAA Tournament:

• North Carolina (2005 & 2009)
• Florida (2006 & 2007)
• Kansas (2008)
• Duke (2010)
• Connecticut (2011)
• Kentucky (2012)

I selected those schools, excluding UK since John "I don't need no stinking rules" Calipari has not been at the tiller there since 2004, and compared their performance over the past eight seasons to that of the Buckeyes to see how big-time teams fared against top-shelf opponents, and indeed if Matta won or lost more or less than those marquee play callers. I pulled each team's record, including conference winning percentage, as well as each team's record against Top 25 teams, and teams with a Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) ranked in the Top 50.

Here's what I found:

The first thing that jumps out at me is that Kansas coach Bill Self is in a league of his own, winning more conference games by far than the other comparison coaches, and in a conference with an RPI ranked in the Top 3 in six of the eight years studied. Further, he had the highest winning percentage versus ranked and top RPI opponents. While the Tobacco Road coaches played more ranked opponents than the Jayhawks over the eight-year period, Self's teams dominated their conference in a way neither UNC or Duke could claim (of course, they do have the distinction of beating up one another year in and year out).

As you would expect from coaches who have won multiple national titles, Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski put up jaw-dropping winning percentages, and they each win 6 of 10 games against ranked opponents.

While it will win me no friends among the "speak no ill of Matta" crowd, those who want to criticize him for failing to "win big games" have a leg to stand on, at least statistically speaking. Yes, his teams have won some big games, but versus ranked opponents he scored the lowest winning percentage of any of the coaches studied. His overall record, of course, is second only to the two legends coaching in the state of North Carolina and the aforementioned Self, but his record against teams with a strong RPI was significantly lower than that of those three rock stars.

I found the tournament records interesting. Certainly winning 7 of every 10 games you play should put you in contention to win titles, and Matta has been close on more than one occasion. Coach K's record over the past eight tournaments surprised me a little, but no one will be shocked if he adds six more victories this season. His lifetime tournament record, by the way, is 79-23 (.775), and if he does win the tournament this year, his winning percentage from 2004-2013 would be right at his lifetime average.

Speaking of lifetime tournament records, here's how these six stack up:

• Matta: 16-9 (.640)
• Krzyzewski: 79-23 (.775)
• Williams: 58-19 (.753)
• Self: 28-12 (.700)
• Calhoun: 51-19 (.729)
• Donovan: 25-9 (.735)

Again, I think these figures lend some credence to that niggling suspicion that Matta hasn't quite figured out how to close the deal. Win lots of games? Sure thing. Win as many of the big games as Hall of Famers like Coach K, Roy Williams and Jim Calhoun? Not even close.

Again, this is not to say that Matta is not a good coach, that he wasn't a good hire, that Ohio State isn't infinitely better for him being here than it was prior to his arrival, etc., etc., etc. What the numbers tell us though is that from a cold numbers standpoint, those who question "what next" with regards to our basketball program have a legitimate issue, and should not be dismissed out of hand as troll-hugging bastards who just want to see the world burn.

The irony of the recent discussions and heated exchanges about Matta's success is that while I was researching and writing this, Ohio State lost an embarrassing contest to the #11 Fighting Illini, and are now 0-3 against ranked opponents and 0-3 against teams in the Top 50 RPI. This season could mark the first time since the 2004-2005 season we have a legitimate concern that Matta will not win 20 games. Looking at the remaining schedule, if he does not beat any of the ranked opponents remaining in the conference (an admittedly worst-case scenario) and wins all of the contests against the unranked conference opponents (none of whom are in the Top 50 RPI), he will finish the regular season 19-11.

Based on his string of 20-win seasons, I don't think this worst-case scenario is likely to happen. Ohio State will top one of these ranked Big Ten opponents, probably during a home contest. How he performs in the post season, of course, would also affect that streak of 20-win efforts.

Will Matta win an NCAA Title during his tenure? I sure hope so. As well as he recruits, I believe it is possible. Is it time to put up a statue outside the Schott and declare him the greatest coach in the history of the University? Not yet... Someday, maybe, but not yet.