Eleven Warriors

We touched on it briefly last night but in case you missed it, Raekwon McMillan, the country's best inside linebacker prospect and Meyer target, is writing a blog twice a month to share thoughts about his life and the recruitment process.

Yesterday's edition had some pretty choice cuts, none finer than McMillan's excerpt of Urban:

Of all the head coaches recruiting me, I'd say Urban Meyer is probably the funniest.

He calls me "Bubble." That's because he said I have a linebacker butt. I have a wide butt with a great leg base. Every time we talk, he calls me that.

He says all great athletes have huge butts and great strength bases there. He was telling me about guys like Tim Tebow, Brandon Spikes and Percy Harvin. Guys like that. He said they were built the same way. That's a great comparison. I just hope I can pan out like that.

With Alabama also in hot pursuit of the freakish talent out of Georgia, he's had plenty of contact with Nick Saban. How does McMillan compare Nicky Satan to Urbz?

"Nick Saban is a lot more straight forward. He's all business when it comes to stuff with football. But when it comes to recruiting, he's not. He told me if he could go out and recruit more, he would do it. "

"He can be pretty funny, too. A lot of people don't think he laughs, but I've seen him laugh. I mean, it was surprising at first. But then you get to know him, and he does it a lot. He thinks it's funny what people say about him. "

"He talks about how people call him the devil. He just says he didn't know winning football games would give you that moniker."

It is pretty funny that Saban would bring up the devil stuff with recruits. Speaking of Tusca-Lucifer himself, Scott Pioli became the latest football man to stick up for Saban saying:

"I know Nick is a tremendous coach and he's a tough worker. He's a tough boss but I know a lot of people that are tough bosses."

"I'll say this about Nick: I think he's tough but he's fair. He doesn't ask anything of people that he hasn't done himself or that he won't do himself."

Works for me. I won't argue the man's methods considering all that crystal. 

After last season's 12-0 record, Urban's track record in year two, and a Heisman trophy candidate under center, it is easy see why expectations are so high for 2013. 

The Buckeyes are hoping for the next Gatorade dunk

There is not an obviously challenging game on the Buckeyes' schedule next season (though The Game should never be underestimated), where the toughest out of conference opponent is a rookie coach-led California. 

Even Wisconsin, who the Buckeyes have somewhat struggled with recently, are breaking in new head coach Gary Anderson and lost all-everything Montee Ball.

Even though going 26-0 sounds difficult, even the national media is bullish over the Buckeyes' chances:

Another perfect season isn't out of the question for OSU in 2013. It doesn't play Nebraska or Michigan State during the regular season and gets Wisconsin, Iowa and Penn State at home. 

However, who is to say that one of Ohio State's opponents doesn't have a big turnaround in 2013? A deeper look into the Buckeyes' strength of schedule in 2013 is warranted.

The problem with this endeavor is that strength of schedule is usually calculated after the first few games of the season. Who knows, maybe Cal comes out of nowhere and knocks off Northwestern on August 31? Or maybe San Diego State prevails over Oregon State?

Two weeks ago we took a closer look at the players most likely to become future Buckeyes on the offensive side of the ball. This week in your Wednesday afternoon Buckeye recruiting update, we'll move to the other side of things and peek at the best possibilities to sign with Ohio State in February on defense.

Born Blue, Damon Webb had his head and heart in Ohio.

In Urban Meyer's first two years at Ohio State (OK, 1.2 or so) he managed to reel in two top five recruiting classes for the Buckeyes, and the strength of each was undoubtedly on the defensive side of the ball. In 2012 and 2013, the Buckeyes have inked 28 defensive players including 10 defensive lineman, a handful of which saw significant playing time as freshmen during Ohio State's 12-0 2012 season.

This year, Ohio State will likely finish with anywhere between 18-22 players in their recruiting haul, and while the needs on defense are almost exclusively at linebacker, the Buckeyes are actively pursuing top talent along the defensive line, linebacker and the secondary. A relentless staff, the Buckeyes are offering scholarships and "planting flags" all over the country.

As noted previously, these are estimations based on the information that we currently have handy, and should not be taken as gospel. As things change, so do the projections. 

That being said, it's the same rules as last time. Current players in red, players I believe will end up Buckeyes in green, and the outliers who are still in the picture in your standard font.

Take a look after the jump.

It's the return of the summer Dubcast and 11W's own Johnny Ginter and I are back. It's been a month since you last heard from us, and they say that absence makes the heart grow fonder. We'll gladly test that theory.

You must be ready when the mighty Quinn drops by for a chat.

We start out by talking about the Big Ten's schedule for 2014, which was recently released. We scoff at Wisconsin's ease of schedule and we spend a lot of words talking about Rutgers and Ohio State's non-conference foes.

We also touch on a potential new B1G-ACC bowl game in...Detroit? Other topics for discussion include pre-season watch lists and polls, and whether or not we should care about non-revenue sports.

But the big news is that former Ohio State defensive lineman Quinn Pitcock (@QuinnP90 on Twitter) drops by the Dubcast to discuss his NFL Draft experience, playing for the Colts, his depression-fueled video game addiction, arena football with the Orlando Predators, and more! Keep in mind, you're getting all this entertainment completely gratis.

In our Ask Us Anything segment, Johnny and I try to figure out the whole Game of Thrones thing, relative to college football. Spoiler: we fail miserably. Don't forget, the Dubcast is in the midst of its Summer schedule, meaning you'll hear from us next in June. The good news there is every time there is a new Dubcast, you're one month closer to the off-season's end! But by all means, please keep sending us your questions! You can do so at elevendubcast@gmail.com.

Grab yourself an ice cold glass of your favorite beverage and lend us your ear for awhile. Here's the breakdown:

0:22 – The 2014 football schedule, bowl games no one wants to go to, pre-season watch lists and polls, and non-revenue sports talk!

23:00 – Quinn Pitcock jumps on and generously shares basically everything he's done since leaving Ohio State.

43:13 – AUA: Game of Thrones? OK, sure.

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This week's music includes Malignant Narcissism by Rush, New Song by Howard Jones, and Gentle Art of Swimming by RPWL.

Can you believe there's only 101 days until Ohio State begins its highly anticipated 2013 season against the Buffalo Bulls? Believe it. 101 days is still triple-digit days, but it seems like a countdown to Ohio State's first game of the season can now begin in earnest.

Timothy Gardner, being interviewed by ESPN.

With the anticipation of the upcoming season in mind, Eleven Warriors has been bringing you a new freshman profile every week in the fifth edition of the Better Know A Buckeye series. The fourteenth installment of that now 25-part series looks at Timothy Gardner. Gardner, an offensive line prospect from Indianapolis, Indiana, flew underneath the radar of even the most attentive Ohio State recruitnik. Most only heard of him when he committed to Ohio State, or at least tried to commit to Ohio State initially (more on this later). As far as anyone knew, his commitment was his recruitment, echoing the case of Kenny Guiton in the 2009 recruiting class. But, like Guiton, there's a little more backstory to it, which is retold here.

After retelling this story, I include a breakdown of strengths and weaknesses I could gather from watching Gardner's film. Thereafter, I show you some of Gardner's film and offer conjecture about a redshirt in 2013. I mention some miscellaneous things about Gardner that you may find interesting before concluding that Gardner is better known. He is put on the board accordingly.

Height: 6'5
Weight: 310 lbs
Fake 40: 5.1
High School: Lawrence Central High School; Indianapolis, Indiana

Follow @gardners_era

Good morning. For a Tuesday in May, yesterday sure was a busy day on the college sports news front.

Let's see: Three years later, Bruce Pearl's son still has Aaron Craft on his mind, Michigan uses footballs that are definitely not made in Ohio, TBDBITL keeps getting better, Braxton Miller now stands at 13/2, trailing just Johnny Manziel at 9/2 to capture the Heisman Trophy and the Detroit Lions want to replace the Little Caesars Bowl with a game at Ford Field that will match the ACC and Big Ten.

Then, last night, Bossier City (LA) Parkway's Brandon Harris, the nation's top-ranked dual-threat quarterback, announced plans to visit Ohio State as part of a stop in Columbus for the Elite 11 quarterback camp on June 1.

There are seven Elite 11 camps held throughout the country – Dallas, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Chicago and San Francisco are already in the books – with the top participants selected for five-day event at Nike headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. Notable alumni of the event include: Matt Leinart, Vince Young, Troy Smith, Mark Sanchez, Tim Tebow, Ryan Mallet, Landry Jones and Andrew Luck.

Harris, long thought to be an LSU or Texas A&M lean, had planned to visit Ohio State at the end of June, but will get a look at the nation's best campus much sooner. Following his announced schedule change, our Jeremy Birmingham caught up with him.

“I can't wait to spin it now,” Harris said. “Just looking forward to the chance to throw in that beautiful stadium.”

Yes, please.

While Urban Meyer and his staff are in the midst of building a very impressive 2014 recruiting class, it's hard to forgot about the top three class the Buckeyes signed in 2013.

Marshall is expected to make an immediate impact

A couple of weeks ago we took a look at the players I felt would come in to Columbus and make the biggest impact freshmen year. 

Today is a first part of a three part series (defense will have two parts) that will take a look back at the players the Buckeyes got in the 2013 class. I will breakdown the impact the recruit could make in Scarlet and Grey.

First up is a focus on the prospects the Buckeyes signed on the offensive side of the ball. The offensive players signed include: quarterback JT Barrett, running back Ezekiel Elliott, athlete Dontre Wilson, wide receivers James Clark, Jalin Marshall and Corey Smith, tight end Marcus Baugh, and linemen Timothy Gardner and Evan Lisle.

Join us as we break down what these signees mean to the Ohio State program in 2013 and beyond.

For Ohio State to fulfill expectations of themselves, fans and the national media - aka winning the 2013 BCS national championship - the Buckeyes will most likely have to post an undefeated 13-0 record. 

Sure, a healthy smattering of one-loss teams have won the national title, including six of the last 11 squads to hoist the crystal football since Ohio State ran the table back in 2002, with Alabama taking back-to-back titles despite dropping a game each season.  

Not surprisingly, all six of those one-loss champs hailed form the Southeastern Conference. 

Meanwhile, the B1G was busy morphing into the nation's punching bag. That fact, along with Ohio State's unquestionably weak schedule, makes it pretty safe to deduct the Buckeyes must run the table if they have any designs on meeting the growing expectations by capturing the final installment of the BCS national championship. 

Looking at the unimpressive schedule, the march to 13-0 would have to feature a non-conference win at Cal, and shortly thereafter back-to-back wins over Wisconsin and at upstart Northwestern, both under the lights. 

Jared Abbrederis of the Leaders Division third-place five-loss Wisconsin Badgers celebrates the 2012 B1G Title.

The Big Ten's deteriorating reputation in football has been a tragic comedy in three acts.

First, there's the Southeastern Conference, which is 17-8 in BCS bowls and owns the past seven crystal balls. That kind of ruthless domination requires a counterbalance, and since no one seems to notice or care that the ACC is 3-13 (with landmark wins over Northern Illinois, Cincinnati and a pre-ACC Virginia Tech) or that the Big XII is 9-11 in those games, the Big Ten (13-14) gets to be the big slacker. Act I: Perception.

Second, despite the BTN money train and nationally-competitive athletics spending overall there seems to be very little appetite among the majority of B1G programs to join the arms race in football, which results in no fewer than seven programs who are consistently punching up in games against other major conference teams.

Michigan and Ohio State are the only two programs consistently recruiting with significantly higher aspirations than simply achieving bowl eligibility. Unfortunately Penn State had to replace its naked emperor with crippling sanctions, otherwise that could be a three-team league. Act II: Reality.

And third is Wisconsin, which emerged 20 seasons ago from the Big Ten's basement under Barry Alvarez and has overstayed its welcome recently with the aid of both a blighted conference blinded by easy television money as well as deliberately weak and fortunate scheduling.

The Badgers, the defending B1G champions, are pursuing their fourth consecutive Rose Bowl trip. In any other period this would easily be the mark of a dynasty. In this era, it reinforces just how far the Big Ten has fallen.

Act III: Historical context. If Wisconsin is what now constitutes the B1G's national protagonist, this conference must be pretty awful.

Ohio State has long had an acrimonious relationship with the Southeastern Conference. On the football field, the SEC has made a habit out of defeating the Buckeyes and, in some cases, embarrassing them. Tennessee and Kentucky added to the frustration on the hardwood, when the two schools bounced Ohio State from the NCAA Tournament in years that offered high hopes. Aside from Michigan, no one is more hated in Columbus than the SEC.

The competition is even entering band circles now. SEC bands have traveled extensively through the years, often attending every football game in a season. The Ohio State University Marching Band will soon be joining that list, thanks to a new source of funding.

Gordon Gee, Gene Smith and the powers that be at Ohio State got together and determined that the College of Arts and Sciences and athletic department would continue financing the band. But one key change would be the addition of the Development Office of the President. Instead of a miniscule $220,000 operating budget – ninth in the Big Ten – the Buckeyes will have $1 million, which vaults them to first. With it comes more travel.

The band will attend road games at California, Purdue, Illinois and Michigan. The Cal trip will include a performance in Los Angeles, a drive up the California coast and stops at Pixar Studios and Skywalker Ranch, home of Star Wars creator George Lucas. The journey to Pixar will be a reunion for some employees, as the film company has roots at Ohio State and is known to employ OSU graduates.