Eleven Warriors

Good morning, you all look like you've had quite a night. Things got a little crazy around here, and for that I apologize.

Unless you liked it. 

Yesterday was the day that 25 young men officially joined the "sacred brotherhood" of the Ohio State football community. As good a day as it was for Ohio State, it was equally as bad for the majority of the B1G, who are destined once more to sit in the shadows of the two schools that matter in the conference.

As yesterday began, we knew that the Buckeyes would sign at least 23 players, but as I woke up at am California time to make sure y'all didn't lack for any info, it wasn't clear if Ohio State would add any new prospects on signing day. As the clock struck one in Ohio, the class had grown by two with the additions of Jamal Marcus and Kyle Dodson and the Buckeyes' afternoon of suspense was finished.

Or was it?

Mike Farrell of Rivals.com had reported early in the day that Scottsdale, AZ star Davonte' Neal had decided he would join the party in Columbus, but as the afternoon went on his tune changed. The Buckeyes were now, as he was reporting, refusing to accept the LOI from Neal. That news sent every Ohio State recruiting guy scrambling for information, and nearly every one turned up the same thing in response to Farrell's report. 

Nothing. Even Neal's father was surprised by the idea that the Buckeyes had turned Davonte' away. So, we are left to speculate. If Neal had decided to be a Buckeye, and he had an LOI in front of him, this was all he had to do and the Buckeye coaching staff would have no ability to deny him. Since that didn't happen, I assume that his decision wasn't finalized, and the Buckeyes are still waiting to hear definitively from Neal or Baltimore speed-burner Stefon Diggs, who is scheduled to announce on February 10th. Either way, I don't think this class is finished yet.

I know that Alex and myself and everyone here at 11W really enjoyed spending the day yesterday feeding the insatiable appetite of you freaky recruitniks. We spent hours on twitter, on a live chat, on the radio (Alex rocked on 92.3 out of Cleveland and 97.1 in Columbus) and on the 11W message boards to try and bring you the most comprehensive, interactive and informative Buckeye signing day we possibly could. 

If you enjoyed our work, and want to see ElevenWarriors.com continue to grow and improve, then please consider donating a little of your hard-earned money while you "Respect The Basement". We know we wouldn't be here without you, our readers, but we also know that you deserve even more than we've been able to do so far, so help us out, won't ya?

ONLY 365 DAYS UNTIL SIGNING DAY. You ready to talk more recruiting? I know that I am. I never get tired of this stuff. I love it. It's like breathing, eating, and drinking. I need it. I thrive on it. Let's do it!

According to most people who care about this stuff, Ohio State's 2012 recruiting class ended up as one of the nation's top five classes (and it could improve with the addition of Diggs or Neal). Alabama was the big winner if you had to name just one, finishing as the recruiting "national champion", but once again ruffled feathers with their roster-management finagling. The Tide finished first on ESPN.com, second on Scout.com, first on Rivals.com and first on 24/7. 

<RANT> There were a lot of surprises throughout the country yesterday as signing day continues to generate high drama and big money for an ever-increasing group of college football fans who are trying to bridge the gap between December and August, yearning for some nugget of information on their favorite school or alma mater. 

G'day, mates, especially Criss Angel Mindfreak, Siri, Bagger Vance, Grima Wormtongue, Roscoe the super-intelligent ferret¹, Chuck Todd, and a roll of quarters. It's the last Wednesday of January, so celebrate accordingly.

If anyone wishes to commemorate such a momentous occasion in a non-traditional way, I have a couple 11W-based suggestions for you.

We are less than three months away from the Spring Game, and since we'd ideally like to hire a full-time beat writer by that time, we'll accept any amount you're willing to give, even if it's a roll of quarters.

Secondly, if any long-time, or first-time, listeners of the Dubcast have any questions for Luke and Johnny, email them to elevendubcast@gmail.com. So, whether you want to know where they fall on the Sam Thompson vs. J.D. Weatherspoon dunk debate, or if they think another Ohio State football player can possibly best Philly Brown's Twitter game, or what their opinions are on how Leslie Knope is running her city council campaign against Bobby Newport, then hit them up. They'll tackle any subject as long as it's borderline appropriate. 

A MATTA OF FACT. Despite already dropping two conference games, the Ohio State men's basketball team is on a bit of a mini-roll after shellacking Indiana and Nebraska. They're currently #1 in both the Sagarin and KenPom ratings, thanks in part to their 22-point average margin of victory, which tops the nation.

While 14 of their wins have come by 20 or more points, in single digit games, Ohio State is only 2-3. The Plain Dealer's Doug Lesmerises points out that even though their strength of schedule is ranked #37, right now it's only the seventh hardest in the Big Ten. Michigan State, with the third strongest in the country, leads the conference. 

Matta has tried to warn his squad not to become too complacent because of these blowouts. According to him, "The major goal of every game is trying to get our guys to understand possession by possession, for 40 minutes, do your job. But human nature is also to relax. With who we have remaining on our schedule, if you relax, you could be in trouble."

After they host Penn State tonight, the rest of the Buckeyes' schedule is pretty brutal, including two games a piece against Wisconsin, Michigan, and Michigan State, as well as road trips to Minnesota and Northwestern. The Badgers have been uncharacteristically vulnerable this season at home, but the Kohl Center has proven to be the most inhospitable environment for the Scarlet and Gray. And recent success in the state of Michigan aside, Ohio State will have their hands full with the Spartans and Wolverines, both of whom are hanging atop the Big Ten standings with the Bucks.

FIND OUT WHAT IT MEANS TO ME!

Yesterday I was sitting in the Book Loft in German Village, flipping through a copy of These Guys Have All The Fun, which is basically a collection of recollections by ESPN personalities about the various goings on at The Network throughout the years. It's more or less a navel-gazing romp through some of the dumber moments in ESPN history (Sean Salisbury trying to explain away taking a picture of his junk and then showing it to other ESPN employees is particularly funny/sad/irritating, as is Dana Jacobson explaining exactly why she decided to get so incredibly drunk and make fun of Notre Dame and/or Jesus at a roast), and while the actual story of ESPN and how it came to be is a good one, it's not really an expose of any sort.

Not that you would expect to find one! ESPN loves narratives, and the one that they've constructed for themselves is how a plucky, daring cable network was able to work it's way up to being the most powerful and influential sports entity on the planet. Through it's on air aw-shucks demeanor and off air cutthroat marketing strategy, they've been mostly successful at preventing anyone else from challenging it's Nero-like reign over sports media. Hooray.

Of course, Ohio State fan who hates ESPN anyway, I do not have to tell you that ESPN is bad for sports in general. It's pretty self-evident that a monopolistic entity controlling the narrative of sports in any manner that it sees fit is pretty bad for athletics, especially when that entity has a financial stake in the success of certain aspects of a particular sport, like ESPN does with the SEC in college football.

Anyway, this post isn't about ESPN, which mostly sucks. It's about Eleven Warriors, why we're asking for your donations through our Respect the Basement fundraiser, and okay yes, I guess it is a little bit about why ESPN sucks.

At one point in time, this award was known as the Buckeye NFLer of the Week. Thanks to a typo and the ensuing LOLsession from the commentariat, it was renamed as the Houndie. Same intent, but now with a better name.

One of the great aspects of being a Buckeye fan is watching a player develop in Columbus for three or four years and then taking their respective talents to the NFL. I'm not very good at fantasy football and my beloved Bears took a nose dive towards the end of the season, so the only saving grace for me in 2011 was the number of former Buckeyes in the league.

The Houndie is quickly gaining attention as one of the most prestigious honors around the league for the Buckeye alum and for the second consecutive season, eleven different players took home the weekly award, but only one of them can take home the yearly honor.

James Laurainitis won the initial annual award in 2009 and A.J. Hawk took home the hardware in 2010. Will the defensive side prevail again? Before we present this year's winner, let's take a look at how others fared this season.

We'll start with the Buckeyes who are left in the playoffs, which is down to eight, but we are guaranteed to have at least two in the Super Bowl.

The Giants surprised everyone when they let Kevin Boss walk in the offseason, but they knew what they were doing, as they are one game away from making the trip to Indy. Jake Ballard broke onto the scene this year, catching 38 balls for 604 yards and 4 TD's, starting 13 of his 14 games played. He took home the Houndie in weeks five and nine, as the Giants WR's were battling injuries. He sat out the final two games of the season and is still feeling the affects of his knee injury, but has returned for the playoffs, combining to catch 3 passes for 33 yards in the two wins. 

Also playing for the Giants, is Jim Cordle, who appeared in nine games after he was signed off the Giants' practice squad in early October. Look for Cordle to enter the game in goal line situations as #63 this weekend.

Across the field will be OSU-West, who will host their second straight playoff game. Since my Bears choked, I hitched my bandwagon to the 49ers in the playoffs, simply because they had the most Buckeyes on their roster. The combination of Ted Ginn, Larry Grant and Nate Clements took home four Houndies in 2011, with a fourth player, Alex Boone seeing significant PT, as he continues to turn his life around.

At one point in time, this award was known as the Buckeye NFLer of the Week. Thanks to a typo and the ensuing LOLsession from the commentariat, it was renamed as the Houndie. Same intent, but now with a better name.

The NFL regular season concluded on Sunday with all 32 teams playing divisional games and the final playoff spots coming down to the last games. 

I loved seeing New York take down the Cowboys on Sunday night to keep them out of the post season and I was happy for Bengals fans that despite having Mike Brown as an owner, the team can still get to the playoffs.

The funk of this Buckeye football season spilled over into the NFL this weekend, as former Buckeyes were either injured, had very blah games or made headlines for all the wrong reasons...once again.

No one expected Cincinnati to do anything this season, but Marvin Lewis got rid of the egos and brought in some key veterans and rookies to help lead the Bengals to their third playoff appearence in the last 21 years. The Bengals battled to the end, but Ray Rice proved to be too much in Baltimore's 24-16 win on Sunday.

Nate Clements, one of those veterans brought in, only had one tackle in the loss, as Joe Flacco threw the ball just 15 times. Mike Nugent made three FGs in his four attempts and hit his only XP. The former Buckeye kicker finally enjoyed a healthy season and connected on 33 FGs, second most in the league to David Akers, who just happen to set an NFL record with 44 made.

The Bengals caught a break in their playoff pairing, as they travel down to Houston, who have already lost Matt Schaub for the season and backup T.J. Yates went out earlly with an injury this past weekend. Yates, who beat the Bengals with two second left a month ago, says he'll play, but if he can't go, Jake Delhomme will get the nod against this stingy Bengals D.

Ohio's other team ended another losing season and may have more questions entering this offseason than they did last year. The Browns hung tough but fell to the Steelers 13-9 and finished the season at 4-12 which gives them the fourth pick in the 2012 draft.

Cam Heyward didn't have any stops for Pittburgh and Will Allen had an assist. The Steelers lost Rashard Mendenhall to a torn ACL and also missed out on a first round bye with the Baltimore win. Instead, they get shipped out to play a struggling Broncos team on Sunday afternoon.

Despite the raging success of Thad Matta and the men's basketball program, Ohio State is still a football school at heart. I don't need to tell you that 2011 was a rough year on the football front, but thanks to an athletic department that fields teams in everything from rowing to pistol, there were still plenty of good moments to go around.

We present to you our 4th-annual look at the top 11 Buckeye moments of the year.

11. Destroying Duke

One of the perks of averaging 27 wins per year -- as Thad Matta has been able to do in Columbus -- is getting a better draw in the annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge. This year, Matta's Buckeyes finally drew the Duke Blue Devils, the preeminent program in college basketball in the last 20 years.

With both teams ranked in the top five of polls -- the Buckeyes at 2nd and Duke at 4th -- the matchup at the Schottenstein Center was the highlight of the intra-conference slate, though the Buckeyes entered as 7.5-point favorites.

If only the game lived up to the advanced hype. The Buckeyes placed four in double figures led by 21 from Jared Sullinger and 20 from William Buford on the way to 85-63 stomping

The game was so lopsided, Coach K could only say the following: "Sometimes you get your butt kicked. I've had my butt kicked and we've kicked butt. Tonight, my butt is sore."

10. Eat Too, Brutus Gives Back

Granted, this isn't exactly a Buckeye moment in the purest sense, but indulge us for a second.

In 2010, we held the first Eat Too, Brutus, a tailgate to bring the site readers and writers together for some food, suds and fun prior to the Miami game. The turnout was better than anticipated and the game might have been even better as the Buckeyes handled the Hurricanes in the Shoe.

We already knew that we wanted to turn this event into an annual affair, but we decided to add some spice to it this year by raising money for the Stefanie Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer Research. After months of planning, things came together for the event, held prior to the Wisconsin game on Homecoming and through the generous contributions of our corporate partners and the awesome readers of this site, we were able to have a blast while raising nearly $6,000 for the charity.

If you were lucky enough to have attended, you know what I'm talking about. Chances are, you also got to meet Greg Oden and Mark Titus.

If you were unable to make it, don't fret. We'll be doing it again for the Nebraska game on October 6, 2012.

At one point in time, this award was known as the Buckeye NFLer of the Week. Thanks to a typo and the ensuing LOLsession from the commentariat, it was renamed as the Houndie. Same intent, but now with a better name.

Before I get started, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas weekend and make sure you are safe this NYE.

I would also like to take an opportunity to personally thank each one of you for tuning in everyday and making 11W what it has become today. As someone who has been around these parts since the beginning and has spent many a nights in the basement typing away, while yelling for mom to bring me some more Mountain Dew and Fudge Rounds, it has been awesome to watch this little site grow into a daily destination spot for Buckeye fans.

I can only hope that 2012 will be a better year for all of us and that with Urban at the controls now, the Houndie will turn into a weekly two-part series with all the Buckeyes in the NFL.

As we wind down the season over the last two weeks, you are probably in one of three camps.

If you're like me, your fantasy season was over long ago and your NFL squad is officially out of the playoffs, so there's not much rooting interest the rest of the way, except for Buckeyes.

Or you've won your fantasy league and your squad is either in the playoffs or fighting for the last few spots this weekend.

Or you're a Bengals fan and you've missed the entire season along with everyone else in the greater Cincy area, because blackouts are a bitch.

Either way, the last weekend of the season should be a good one, as there are still three spots left for the post season and home field advantage to figure out.

We'll start down in Cincinnati, where the Bengals really are having a good season and really do have a chance of making the playoffs. Thier only problem this season has been getting people to show up to the games. This week, another less than capacity crowd saw the Bengals hang on to a 23-16 win over the Cardinals to keep their playoff spirit alive and well. 

Nate Clements once again had a nice game, coming up with his second pick on the year, to go along with four tackles, including one for a loss. He was also credited with a PD and a QB hit. Mike Nugent made 3/5 FG attempts and both his PATs. The two misses dropped him to seventh in FG percentage, but his 30 FGs made has him third in the league, is a career high and is 11 more than the last four years combined. There is no question Nugent has been a big part of the Bengals suceess this year, it's just too bad the fine folks of Cincinnati have to drive up to Columbus to watch it happen.

Stay tuned Bengals fans, if you can beat Baltimore this weekend, you're in and we'll let you know about it here at 11W.

For the Cardinals, the loss officially ends thier slim playoff hopes, but Beanie Wells eclipsed the 1,000 yard mark for the first time in his career, with 53 yards on 14 carries, to go along with a catch for eight yards. Beanie now has 1,047 yards on the season and sits 11th in that category. A strong final week could push him into the top 10.