Eleven Warriors

The 11W Community Interview is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people. You submit the questions, vote on them, and then we pass the top ones on to the biggest names in the world of Ohio State athletics.

The subject of tonight's 11W Community Interview – our first – is Cleveland St. Ignatius junior linebacker Kyle Berger. After narrowing his list to Ohio State and Michigan, he chose the Buckeyes to become the 7th commitment in Urban Meyer's 2014 class.

We caught up with the 6-foot-2, 218-pound tackling machine a month ago, but we felt he'd be a great candidate to kick off this new series. He answers readers' questions on everything from nicknames, recruiting, school and the origin of his Twitter nom de plume.

The disappointment was brief. The dream may have been shattered, but in a matter of moments the end result was ultimately the same: an opportunity to play in the NFL.

Jake Stoneburner was not drafted. It came as a surprise to many, especially after an impressive series of workouts leading up to the draft. Stoneburner displayed the skills to front office personnel that made coaches and fans so giddy when he was being recruited. Ultimately, though, he slipped through the seven-round process.

But it’s a big boy business and that isn’t lost on Stoneburner. That’s why the mood was upbeat when the Green Bay Packers contacted him to become an undrafted free agent.  Stoneburner will keep that undrafted status in the back of his mind for a little extra motivation. 

“Teams didn’t pick you for a reason,” he said. “You’ve got to figure out what that reason was and you’ve got to take that and critique it. Take it with you to Green Bay and show teams they made a mistake in not drafting you. You don’t want to act too crazy up there and act like you’re some nut job that wishes he’d have been drafted, but you definitely have to have a chip on your shoulder.”

Photo: @OhioState_MTEN

The revenge tour for Ohio State men's tennis marches on. Two days after avenging an early season loss to No. 12 Texas A&M in the round of 16, Ty Tucker's squad knocked off USC, the tournament's four-time defending champion, in a 4-3 thriller at the University of Illinois' Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex.

The Trojans had knocked Ohio State out of two of their last four NCAA tournament appearances.

The two teams split in singles play, but the Buckeyes won the doubles point when Devin McCarthy and Ille Van Engelen won a 9-7 tie-breaker over USC's Emilio Gomez and Roberto Quiroz. The win was a bit of an upset as the higher-ranked Gomez and Quiroz had represented Ecuador in Davis Cup play in April.

The win was Ohio State's 25th in a row, but things only get tougher from here. Next up: a date with top seed UCLA (28-1) in the national semifinals at 2 p.m. Monday.

If it'll help you find these Saturday Skull Sessions any more enjoyable, just know that this feature will be replaced with game previews and afternoon open threads in just over three months. As it is, we'll talk about some miscellanous news items here and there in the wide world of college sports.

MAURICE CLARETT TRYING HIS HAND AT RUGBY. File this under the category of things of which Ohio State fans have known for some time. However, national media is picking up with this story on Maurice Clarett and running with it, so we can talk about it.

Relax: it has nothing to do with a stolen car from ten years ago, nor should it make Kirk Herbstreit afraid to send his hypothetical college age children to Ohio State to play football.

Though Maurice Clarett had a stint with the UFL's Omaha Nighthawks for two years following his release from his prison, his gridiron days may be coming to an end. Clarett is 29 years old, which is an advanced age for a professional football running back. Clarett takes diligent care of himself and the time in prison equates to less figurative tread on the tire, but that does not change his position much. As a result, Clarett is trying to make it in a similar sport: rugby. He announced not too long ago that he was serious about being an Olympian in the sport. The upcoming 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro will see rugby debut as a medal-awarding sport.

Yesterday, the Columbus Dispatch announced that Maurice Clarett will be playing in the Tiger Rugby-sponsored Ohio Rugby Sevens Invitational in Mechanicsburg on May 25. Tiger Rugby is the rugby development program, based in Columbus, Ohio, that has the task of selecting a team to represent the United States in Rio in 2016.

We obviously wish Maurice Clarett well as he pursues this shot at glory in 2016. He will be 32 going on 33 when the Rio games come, but this age should mean less in rugby than in professional football. What's more germane to the conversation is learning the differences between the two games that belie their prima facie similarity.

Really, one wonders if this is the next step for former college football players and NFL washouts. Professional football has no real development program like Major League Baseball's farm system, nor does it have the multi-layered hierarchy of professional squads like European soccer. If players don't land one of 53 roster spots on a given NFL team, the options are UFL, Arena League, or Canadian Football. This would be acceptable if college football wasn't churning out prospect after prospect every year. This could become a new thing, provided there is sufficient fan interest in rugby across the United States to keep the enterprise afloat.

It been a couple of weeks since our last edition of the Ohio State Football Recruiting Notebook and quite a bit has happened in the world of OSU recruiting over that time.

The biggest news occurred this past Sunday when Gary (IN) West Side wide receiver Lonnie Johnson made a surprise Mother's Day announcement and committed to the Bucks over Kentucky and a couple of other schools. We'll have a little more on his commitment later in the notebook.

There were also a couple of recruits on campus yesterday. This marks the first time in a while the Buckeyes have hosted any prospects on campus. We'll have a little more on the two visitors Noah Furbush and Hjalte Froholdt later in this edition notebook.

There is also a report that perhaps the best defensive player in the country will be committing in a couple of weeks. This player was once very high on the Bucks, but is likely to commit to a B1G rival.

We also saw the staff continue their trek across America where they extended a bevy of offers. We'll tell you all the players who received an offer from OSU over the duration of the last seven days.

Finally we will tell you which former Buckeye targets committed to other schools and we'll take a peak into the future of Ohio State football recruiting in this week's edition of the Recruiting Notebook.

Around the Oval is Eleven Warriors' weekly love letter to Ohio State sports that don't get the coverage they should.

We begin this week with more on the success of the Buckeye men's lacrosse team, a subject that our own Kyle Rowland profiled yesterday. After clinching their first ECAC title last week, spirits were high when the team hosted Towson in the first round of the NCAA tournament at Ohio Stadium.

The visitors took a quick lead, giving the Buckeyes an early indication that this game wouldn't be easy in any degree. After five minutes of scoreless play, Ohio State was finally on the board through Logan Schuss. Towson scored again four minutes later, but they seemed to lose concentration towards the end of the quarter when Ohio State scored three in just over 100 seconds. 

It was a beautiful Saturday at the Horseshoe for men's lacrosse 

Four more goals in the second quarter gave the Buckeyes an 8-4 halftime advantage. Any chance Towson had of keeping the game competitive seemingly left at the intermission, their weak total of two second-half goals meant Ohio State won the game by a comfortable score of 16-6.

Logan Schuss and Jesse King anchored the Buckeye offense as usual, with six and five total points respectively. The win was OSU's first in the NCAA tournament for five years. Elsewhere Cornell beat Maryland 16-6 meaning the Big Red are the Buckeyes opponents this Saturday. The quarter-final is Saturday at 12:30 all the way in College Park, Maryland, and will be on ESPN2. 

The Big Ten athletic directors' meetings generally provide some mildly interesting tidbits of information in the midst of the desolation we call the off-season. It gives them a chance to congregate, discuss matters integral to college football, smoke stogies and eat endless supplies of Ro-Tel — at least that’s what I imagine happens at these meetings.

Among the many topics the ADs discussed was the current game day experience and how to make it more exciting. The B1G might be widely considered a stodgy, old boys’ network of stuffed shirts, and perhaps deservedly so, but at least the athletic directors are trying to change that perception, as Chad mentioned earlier this morning. They want to make the B1G fun again, which in turn should help the league’s coaches recruit better players and produce a more exciting on-field product.

Michigan State AD Mark Hollis said:

"It's not your grandfather's conference any more. There's so much greatness and so much tradition that needs to be continued and talked about, but also try to add a little unique freshness that's unique to young kids."

Making the football better is the critical factor in growing the B1G’s brand and changing the national perception that the conference’s best days are long gone. There are two ways to make that happen — improve the coaching and land better players in the recruiting process.

When it comes to success in relation to town size, few schools can match Amanda-Clearcreek. The village of Amanda, located in Fairfield County some 30 miles southwest of Columbus, is home to 742 residents. Not 7,000. Seven hundred.

But don’t let that fool you, this isn’t a district that fields a small team and gets steamrolled every week, only winning when an unimpressive opponent is scheduled. Instead, the Aces have etched their name among the top programs in the state of Ohio.

From 1981-2009, the entirety of the Ron Hinton era, Amanda went 285-90-3. That includes back-to-back Division V state championships in 1999 and 2000, as well as runner-up finishes in 1997 and 2003. Hinton, a member of the Ohio High School Football Coaches' Association Hall of Fame, turned Amanda into one of the premier high school programs in the state and south-central Ohio’s most consistent winner.

During one 11-year span, the Aces advanced to the state semifinals eight times. 

Last night was one of the worst nights of my life: The Office aired its final episode.

Sure, things have been a little different since Michael Scott punched out for the last time (Will Ferrell - not exactly the right fit), but The Office has been with me for a long time.

It was even one of the first things my future in-laws and I bonded over. 

But enough of my Office eulogy. I hope other Scranton fans enjoyed last night's episode, because now it's time to get down to some Buckeye news. 

 NEW FRIENDS. 2014 is going to be a big year. Besides being the trial run for the new College Football Playoff, the Buckeyes play Virginia Tech and Cincinnati, and the Big Ten receives some new friends in Maryland and Rutgers. 

The Big Ten released the 2014-15 football schedule yesterday, which includes new Big Ten punching bags valuable conference members Maryland and Rutgers.

The Buckeyes get to visit Maryland first on October 4, which will definitely be a treat for you D.C.-based Buckeye folks. Rutgers brings some New York attitude (I actually have no idea if that's true) to Columbus two weeks later on October 18. 

D.C. Buckeyes actually get all of the fun next year, as the Buckeyes will also play Navy in the August 30 opener at the Ravens' M&T Stadium in Baltimore. You lucky dogs. 

Setting the Scene

The year was 1988, and for the first time in 9 years, Ohio State had a new head man leading the Scarlet and Gray out of the tunnel.

On December 31st 1987, a 50 year old John Cooper was introduced as Ohio State’s 21st head coach.

He was chosen from seven candidates and was ultimately selected based on his sterling resume. 

Cooper served for 15 seasons as an assistant at Iowa State, Oregon State, UCLA, Kansas and Kentucky before accepting his first head coaching position at Tulsa in 1977. 

For 8 years Cooper served as Tulsa’s field general, and in each of the last 5 years of his tenure the team won the Missouri Valley Conference league championship.