Eleven Warriors

A little something I put together. Enjoy!

A long, long time ago
I can still remember how
His coaching used to make me smile
And I knew if we’d had our say
We’d flip off the N-C- double- A
And maybe he’d be coaching for awhile
But February made me shiver
With all the news ESPiN delivered
Bad news on ev’ry website
The nation was joyed by our plight
I can’t remember if I cried
As we sang Carmen to him and his bride
Something touched me deep inside
The day… The Sweatervest… died
 

So bye, bye to that Sweatervest guy
Drove their loaners past the Olentangy acting so fly
Them good ol’ boys were busy watching ink dry
Singin ”aint it great to be a Buckeye”
Yes its great to be a Buckeye

Did you read the Book of Hayes
And do you have faith in running Dave
As the Vest would tell you so?
And do you believe that the Buckeye Band
Is the finest in all the land?
Will you stay to sing Carmen hand-in-hand?
Well I know you fell in love with him
After that Fiesta win.
We cried with Neutron Man.
“We got the best damn team in the land”!
I was a lonely freshman Ohio Buck
With a scarlet tee in a pizza truck
But it seemed to us we were out of luck
The day The Sweatervest died.
 

They were singin:
 

Bye, bye to that Sweatervest guy
Drove their loaners past the Olentangy acting so fly
Them good ol’ boys were busy watching ink dry
Singin ”aint it great to be a Buckeye”
Yes it’s great to be a Buckeye
 

For ten years in him we put our trust
A return to “three yards and a cloud of dust”
But that’s now how it used to be.
When Cooper coached against the Wolverines
He’d often lose to those bastard fiends
But The Vest went nine and one with much ease
Oh but while The Vest looking down
The Five were in the wrong part of town
Spring practice was adjourned
No verdict was returned
And while Tressel talked to Sarniak
About his 5-star quarterback
The details never were exact
The day, the Sweatervest died

And they were singin':

bye, bye to that Sweatervest guy
Drove their loaners past the Olentangy acting so fly
Them good ol’ boys were busy watching ink dry
Singin ”aint it great to be a Buckeye”
Yes its great to be a Buckeye
 

Behold! Behest! The Sweatervest
Led them again to the BCS
This time against the Razorbaaaaaaaaaaacks
In the first half we were beating their ass
As Mallett would try another forward pass
But Heyward got to Mallet for a sack
At halftime we were gloating loud
We’d silenced the opposition’s crowd
Then a botched safety call
And a punt block gave them the ball
But when Mallet needed a quarter field
The Silver Bullets refused to yield
Do you recall what was the feel
Before, the Sweatervest died?

The Five were singin':

bye, bye to that Sweatervest guy
Drove their loaners past the Olentangy acting so fly
Them good ol’ boys were busy watching ink dry
Singin ”aint it great to be a Buckeye”
Yes its great to be a Buckeye
 

Oh, and there we were all in one place
Reading reports in cyberspace
No one came to the Vest’s defense
So they damned the Scarlet, damned us Gray
All the haters had a field day
Because, scandals are a hater’s only friend
And as I read every transcript page
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
The committee tried their best
The break that Sweatervest!
And as Dohrmann typed his lies all night
To exacerbate the Buckeyes’ plight
I saw Mark May laughing with delight
The day, the Sweatervest died

And they were singin':

bye, bye to that Sweatervest guy
Drove their loaners past the Olentangy acting so fly
Them good ol’ boys were busy watching ink dry
Singin ”aint it great to be a Buckeye”
Yes its great to be a Buckeye
 

I met a girl who hated Blue
I asked her for some happy news
But she just smiled and turned away
And I went down to my favorite bar
Where I’d watch The Vest coach from afar
But the man there said the Vest, wouldn’t coach.
And in The Oval the students wept
The players cried and hadn’t slept
But not a word was spoken
The Vict’ry Bell was broken
And TP, who had done the most
To dishonor us and Woody’s Ghost
He took the last flight toward the coast
The day, the Sweatervest died

So bye, bye to that Sweatervest guy
Drove their loaners past the Olentangy acting so fly
Them good ol’ boys were busy watching ink dry
Singin ”aint it great to be a Buckeye”
Yes its great to be a Buckeye

Bye, bye to that Sweatervest guy
Drove their loaners past the Olentangy acting so fly
Them good ol’ boys were busy watching ink dry
Singin ”aint it great to be a Buckeye”

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7353605/south-carolina-gamecocks-not-disputing-rules-violations-cut-scholarships

Seriously? Where you at ESPiN? From a monetary perspective, these violations are WAY worse than the the Tat-5. The hotel even had a special rate for athletes! That in itself is a big NCAA no no. Six scholarships over three years? Whoa now! Let's not get crazy!

For anyone curious, this is the hotel: http://www.whitneyhotel.com/photos.asp

I know it's overkill at this point, but it's really getting annoying that violations are going on everywhere else, but they used all their resources to crucify Tressel. What's more, someone int he athletic department actually tried to dispute that the price is comparable to what they would have paid for off campus housing. What?! Are you joking? A hotel is not an apartment. If anything, their athletic department should be charged with extreme stupidity and failure to understand why a hotel and apartment are priced differently.

I have posted all year about how abysmal the SEC offenses are this year as compared to years past. Obviously, any SEC fan would counter that SEC offenses are down because the defenses are that good. Well, I decided to look into that. The simple numbers suggest that the defenses are slightly thus far in 2011 than they were in 2010 (about 23.205 yards per game better, on average). However, the offenses are worse by about 36.58 yards per game. Sure, the decline in the offenses is greater than the improvement in the defenses, but that's hardly conclusive. But check out the numbers against non conference opponents....

Both the offenses and defenses of the SEC have fared worse this year against non-conference opponents than they did last year. Three of the offenses that have thus far fared better (South Carolina, Florida, Georgia) still have their toughest non-conference games of the year this week (well, for Georgia, their second toughest non-con game), so those number stand to get even worse by next week. Vandy has the second-most improved defense against non-conference teams, and still they have to play their toughest non-conference game of the year (not that they had any really tough non-con games ot begin with). So basically, even though the numbers against non-conference teams are worse this year on both offense and defense for the SEC, they stand to get even worse by next week.

A couple more interesting tidbits:

- LSU surrenders an average of 219.7 yards per game in SEC play versus 297.25 in non-conference play. Sure, WVU hung up a lot on them, but Western Kentucky gained 226 yards on the Tigers, above their SEC opponent average. LSU did not bench their starters in the second half (it was a 14-7 game at halftime).

- LSU's offense averages only two yards more against non-conference opponents (378.25 ypg) than they do against SEC opponents (376.4 ypg).

- Alabama's defense is worse against non-conference opponents than SEC opponents, and Alabama hasn't exactly played offensive juggernauts out of conference (I'm looking at you Penn State).

- Against non-conference opponents this year, SEC teams are averaging almost 21 yards less and giving up almost 25 yards more per game. To put that in perspective, the difference between being in the top 30% in the NCAA in total offense and the bottom 40% is about 21 ypg.

The thing to take away from this is that the SEC has gotten worse on both offense and defense against non-conference opponents this year, and they still have four respectable non-conference games to play (Ga Tech, Florida State, Clemson, and Wake). I'll update this next week after those games. I hope to compare prior years 2006-2009 when I get more time as well.

Given the evidence, I strongly oppose an all-SEC BCS Championship game. This is not the SEC of 2006-2010. The dominance is not there.