Eleven Warriors

As I sit here thinking back over this season and I enjoy the success this 2012 Buckeye team has enjoyed, I have to think, "What is the historical significance of this team?"  I started thinking about schools and programs who had success while on probation, or had a beloved team that maybe wasn't the best team in school history but was perhaps the fan's favorite team.  This thinking brought me back to 1 team in particular.  This 2012 Ohio State football team reminds me a lot of the 1992 UK basketball program(Yeah, the team that lost to Laettner's shot). 

How so? The 92 Kentucky team had 4 seniors who came from towns like Paintsville and Maysville Kentucky.  They were guys who grew up loving the school and gave their heart and souls to the name on the front of the jersey.  Also, the team had a hot shot coach(although at the time Pitino was NOT established like Urban is right now), who always said the right things infront of the camera, could recruit like a madman, and was a brilliant motivators.  Most importantly, they were coming off of the hardest time in their program's modern history.  One thing that made that UK team legendary was the iconic game they lost in the postseason, but I didn't say they were identical!

What's this have to do with anything?  That 92 UK Wildcat team is perhaps the most beloved team in the history of their program.  They weren't a champion, and they weren't a Final Four Team.  Think about that, a storied program like that's favorite team wasn't a champ.  Arguably, the biggest names in that program's history are Farmer and Pelphrey not Riley and Mashburn.  They were the guys who against all odds brought the program back from the wilderness and they'll be forever endeared to that fanbase.  

I know people talk about 12-0 and realize it's a big deal, and many love this senior class, but my point for this whole post is to say we just witnessed history.  This season is going to go down in Buckeye Lore.  We'll tell our grandkids about Kenny Guiton's comeback and Philly's punt return against Wisconsin.  What UK's crazy fanbase has taught me is, a season like this one can and probably should have this group elevated to the same level or perhaps even higher than some of the championship teams.  Guys like John Simon and Boren will be remembered and talked about more than All Americans and first round NFL picks.  Most of us know how special these guys are, but for goodness sake just talking about the group MADE URBAN MEYER BREAK DOWN CRYING!!!! Admittedly, I don't know a lot about Urban at Florida, but I have never seen the man shed a tear.  

UK fans call the 92 team The Unforgettables and the name is really fitting.  To me, the 2012 Buckeyes are the Unbelievables.  They weren't supposed to be 12-0, and we've heard all the reasons why over and again, yet here were are. Unbelievable.  It's been a season of Unbelievable comebacks, Unbelievable plays, and Unbelievable seniors.  I hope Buckeye Nation, a far superior fan base to those fools in Lexington, honor this team and love this team the way UK fans love that 92 team.  12-0. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!!!!

It's been ten years and I still remember the date of the most memorable game I never went to.  On November 22, 2002 my 21 year old drunk self decided at about 2am I'd be making the 100 mile drive to Columbus for The Game.  My beloved Buckeyes were 12-0 and a win assured them a trip to the Fiesta Bowl to take on the mighty Hurricanes.  I didn't have tickets or any money to get myself a ticket to The Game, but I was determined to at least take part in some tailgating and enjoy the festivities of the day.  So, going on about two hours of sleep I woke up on the floor of a friend's house, stopped to pick up a friend, and headed up 71 to get to campus.

We dropped our anchor (Our Coleman Cooler full of Silver Bullets) at the Game Day Set.  We decided with no tickets, this would be the ideal place for viewing the game.  We were right.  There were few people there at 9AM when we first got there, but come gametime it was packed full of people.  I don't know how many exactly, but we went from having plenty of room to no room on the grass and people were climbing trees to get a place to watch the game from.  It was quite a scene.  

I'm not really going to get into the details of the game because most of us saw it and to be quite honest, I don't remember a whole lot about the actual game.  It was close and I was really nervous the whole time, and from the feel in the air so was all of Columbus.  One silly detail of that day I remember were the Ohio State tins of altoids thrown out to us at the Game Day set.  I also remember idiots in Michigan garb standing up on something with a little elevation and acting like fools, then consequently getting pelted with beers and those tins of mints that everyone got.  

The amazing part of this day that I'll never forget was what happened when Will Allen caught the interception to clinch the win.  The pure joy I felt, the joy of everyone around me.  We were high fiving and bear hugging people we didn't know at all.  It was awesome. In the area around the set it was raining altoids and beer.  Several hundred people were shaking up their beers, cracking them and launching them in the air.  I know it doesn't sound like fun getting pelted with mints, tins, and empty beer cans while we're being showered with that beer, but to me it was like being in the locker room of a team after they win a world series and you see the champagne flying all over the place.  The most amazing thing after that INT though, was the sheer volume coming from the whole city really.  I once had a professor tell me the most incredible thing he's ever been a part of was sitting in a bar in Dakar Senegal when they beat their former colonizer France in a soccer game.  He said the whole city of 6 million people were all screaming at once.  I always though man that would be pretty neat.  Well I got a little taste of it that day.  The noise was like a wave.  You heard it come from the Shoe first and it just got closer and closer then hit the set and went on to Lane street.  It may not have been 6 million but I bet it was about 500,000 screaming at the same time.  I still get goosebumps thinking about it. 

Being the 10 year anniversary and this team going for 12-0 I thought it was appropriate to take this trip down memory lane.  The atmosphere of that day was amazing, and it was only my 2nd time on campus so maybe it was even more amazing to me because it was a pretty new feeling.  I'll never forget November 23, 2002, and it will always be one of my favorite memories from a sporting event.  

Last week's drive and the amazing comeback was awesome, and it's been a lot of fun comparing the drive to Holy Buckeye.  Just thinking back on Holy Buckeye and the emotions that came with that play, as well as the emotions Saturday led me to start thinking about other plays over the years that were amazing and got me fired up.  It's actually been a lot of fun going back and looking at YouTube videos, and remembering the high fives and hugs I've shared (sometimes with complete strangers) after these plays. So, the last day or two I've  come up with a top 5 list.  Here is my list and I'm curious to see what everyone else comes up with.  

5) Beanie Hurdling the Illinois defender. The game didn't mean much, Bucks were winning, but man oh man was that awesome.  Just in case everyone forgot it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUQxSMOvks8

4) Teddy Ginn returning the opening kick off against Florida for a TD.  It all went down hill after that, but man when he returned that kick I was so pumped.  I thought the route was on from that point, and I'm not sure I've ever been so excited about a play.  Ultimately, I guess that play made what happened next extremely disappointing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MuX24Iy7XU

3) Will Allen's INT in the 2002 version of The Game.  I made the trip to Columbus that day with a friend.  We didn't have tickets, but we stood and watched from the Game Day set.  When Allen made that INT to seal the deal, I'll never forget the Roar that the whole city of Columbus made.  It was like 2 million people screaming at one time.  It was an amazing scene.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b00JmN_BwXU

2) Clarett's strip.  What a key play, and probably a championship saver.  The duded always played with intensity and anger, this play emodied the effort and emotion he always gave on the field.  I will always remember that play.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0vrpMH1bk4

1) HOLY BUCKEYE.  We've been talking about it a lot the last few days, but I just don't think one single play in a Buckeye game has ever pumped me up so much.  I was still living with my parents then, and I was in their living room cheering, screaming, and acting a fool.  My mom thought I may be having some sort of mental breakdown.  It was amazing and looking at it now still gets me jacked.  I love the view of the crowd afterward too, awesome play in Buckeye History.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=julW9Eroqcw

Logging onto ElevenWarriors today after the game I expected there to be a lot of really exicted Buckeye fans out commenting.  Instead, I see forum topics about how many losses we'll have and how bad the D is etc.  To be fair, there were a lot of really happy campers out there just like me, but I was surprised how many "realists" there were out there.  It's like folks are scared to buy in or get totally behind this group because they are destined to be disappointed.  Maybe people just want to constantly point out the negative so when they finally do lose they can be right.  I don't know, I just don't get it. 

I'm definitely not saying everyone smile and say everything is great all game every game.  Lord knows I was cussing and yelling at the TV many times today, and have much of the season.  We know this team has problems on defense, and haven't played perfect football so why keep talking about it???  Instead of getting upset about all the imperfections why not celebrate the perfect record?  I don't know that this team will go undefeated, but I'm never counting them out of a game again after today.  I have enjoyed each and every one of these 8 wins so far.  I'd say at least 3 maybe 4 of the wins this year would of absolutely been losses last year.  We have a new coaching staff, a new offense, a TE playing RT, a TE converted to WR, and a senior full back converted to LB which he hasn't played since high school.  One of the top players in the nation went down and this team fell behind 8 points and looked dead in the water with under a minute to go and found a way to win.  That is something to celebrate. 

This team may lose multiple games when all is said and done, but that doesn't take anything away from how much fun it's been in winning these first 8.  I know we expect greatness and awesome football all the time, but this isn't an elite team this year.  It's a good team with an awesome bunch of seniors, that constantly guts out tough wins.  It's a flawed bunch, but a tough group of kids that refuse to fail.  I wish as a group we could celebrate and enjoy this bunch a lot more.  I heard a great line last week after the Reds lost their playoff series.  Someone said, "In the long run most of the time a pessimist is probably going to be proven right, but the optimist will enjoy the ride.  How true that statement is!

After reading the post about ESPN's lawsuit against Ohio State, I started mulling over creative ways ESPN would be impacted by Ohio State fans being pissed off.  I read the comments after the post and have to say, simply avoiding ESPN is not the answer.  Maybe the ratings take a small blip one day, but overall they won't feel the impact at all.  Let's face it, we're pretty much all going to watch a game that is broadcast on ABC or any of ESPN's family of networks.  The way to hit ESPN where it hurts is the same way you hit anyone where it hurts, threaten their revenue. 

Ratings are important to any network to be sure, however they make their money off of advertising.  Find sponsors for certain ESPN shows and game coverage and write to them.  Tell them you will not buy any of their products as long as they continue to support ESPN and detail why.  The fan base of Ohio State is large enough that if people take this kind of action, as crack pot and hair brained as it may seem, the sponsors will have to lean on ESPN.  You can write the local ESPN radio affiliate too.  You can write the local ABC affilliate and your local cable provider. 

You don't think this can work?  Let me tell you, it will.  I used to love a show called Ed, which was on NBC.  It was on for 3 seasons and NBC basically said they were pulling the plug.  Well, there was a blog about the show, and a girl on there basically outlined this same strategy. She said everyone take the time to write a couple of letters, one to your local affiliate and one to a sponsor. Tell them how you love the show, and you tune in to their network or buy their product because you've seen on the show and you, and that if the show is gone you won't support them any longer.  It sounded really stupid to me, but the show got a 4th season. 

Buckeye fans are all over the USA and in many large markets.  There's a significant enough population that if even a fraction take this kind of action ESPN will feel some pressure.  Combine this with everyone tuning out one day and Ohio State fans can actually make ESPN feel it.  You may have to do a little homework to figure out who to send the letters too, but if enough people did this, it wouldn't just be dismissed I can guarrenttee it.

As referenced by Luke in today's skull session it will be 2926 days since Michigan beat our beloved Buckeyes when the two old rivals square off next season.  2926 days, roughly 8 years, is a lot of time.  So I wanted to make a post to give us a little perspective here. 

-The freshman who will be on the sidelines next year were in 5th grade last time Michigan won the game.

-When the game is played next year, there will be 3rd grade Michigan fans who have never experienced the maize and blue knocking off the Buckeyes.

-The last victory Michigan had over the Buckeyes was probably watched by most on a TV witha tube, in standard def.  Some may have even used rabbit ears.

-We had no idea what a facebook or myspace page was, and tweeting was only done by canaries.

There are many other things I could include, but I don't want to be too big of a douche, and I feel these four items are significant enough to reflect on.  Here's to another 7 in a row! Go Bucks!!!!