Eleven Warriors

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.

Today I pick up my examination of Urban Meyer's base offense, specifically his passing game concepts. I shift from the base pass plays that comprised Meyer's offense since he became a head coach at Bowling Green to those that have become prominent since his move to Ohio State and collaboration with Tom Herman.

Snag

Of those more recent concepts, snag is perhaps first and foremost.

Snag is an example of a triangle stretch that I described last week. In brief, an offense can never be sure what coverage a defense will run. A triangle stretch seeks to combat that by providing both a vertical and horizontal read that gives an quarterback options no matter what coverage is presented. The goal, in effect, is use three wide receivers to incorporate two route combinations into one play. 

Snag is generally run into trips (i.e. three receivers to one side). The middle receiver runs a corner route, the inside receiver a flat route, and the outside receiver runs a mini-curl, looking to sit down in available space.  

Last week a co-worker told me that he had gone to the commencement ceremonies for That School Up North to watch his niece graduate (why he allowed his own flesh and blood to attend that place is a question I left unasked) and he told me that the CEO of Twitter had been the keynote speaker. I derisively replied "Ha! The President of the United States is speaking at Ohio State's commencement but they get the CEO of Twitter!" Then someone else remarked that the Twitter guy was probably more interesting, and, working in the IT field as I do, I had to agree.

One of the greatest ever to wear the block O.

If either of those two had spoken at my graduation from OSU, it would have been more memorable than what I got, which was some cardiologist who put me to sleep. The truth is that most of us will never remember who spoke at our graduation ceremony, except those lucky few who get someone truly famous and/or beloved, like a friend of mine who graduated from OSU in 1986 and thus was treated to a commencement address from none other than Woody Hayes.

What makes for a great commencement speaker? At a minimum, it would be someone who has achieved something significant, and who could speak to how going to college and graduating helped him/her along the way. Ideally, that person would have some connection to the university, but in the absence of that, being famous is an accepted substitute. After all, if an American university can have someone like J.K. Rowling or Bono speak at their commencement, then the usual requirements are not binding for celebrities.

It would also be good if that person had some media experience, or at least some experience speaking in public. Politicians are frequent choices for this reason, but I'd rather listen to someone who has lots of great stories to tell, and could relate those to the experience of moving from one phase of life (college) to another (the world of work). 

And so, with some apologies for personal preference and a desire to be at least a little bit provocative, I present to you my list of the top 5 speakers I'd like to see at my college graduation. I do think I could stay awake for these guys.

Football remains atop the perch signifying America’s most popular sport. Over the past two decades, the country has displayed an insatiable thirst for the hard-hitting, rough-and-tumble game. Whether it’s spectating, fantasy football, recruiting or the NFL Draft, people can’t get enough. Anything that involves the sport is consumed at an enormous rate.

The NBA has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years, baseball remains popular, despite the 1994 strike, and NASCAR has carved out a large market. In America, hockey is lagging behind after multiple work stoppages, though some cities cling to the sport no matter what. Columbus became consumed with the Blue Jackets’ late-season playoff push. But alas, the sport faded once the curtain was drawn on the season.

There’s another sport, however, that’s gaining steam in the country, particularly in Central Ohio. Along with wrestling, it’s considered one of the oldest sports in the world, but few west of the Appalachian Mountains took up any interest in the game during the past century. The sport: lacrosse.

The B1G athletic director meetings wore on in Chicago yesterday and Gene Smith was at the forefront of the slow trickle of news coming from the Windy City. 

On the topic of November night games, Smith took a softer stance than we've seen in the past offering:

"I think it's going to happen, guys. We had a great discussion -- not this meeting, in our last meeting -- we need to be more amenable to that for our television partners, for our fans. The right matchups that make sense, we've got to put them in that prime time. And historically, we've been resistant because of weather, but we need to be more open-minded."

Though Smith is starting to feel the importance of primetime conference matchups in November, that doesn't mean he feels the same way about The Game. Should the greatest rivalry in sports be staged under the lights?

"Are you crazy? What's wrong with you? It'll be noon. I have to be open to 3:30, but noon is my favorite time for that one."

Agreed. I'm all for just about anything that shines a favorable light on a football conference that can use any positive vibes it can get but The Game should always be a daytime affair. Not only is the tradition of The Game sacred, I can't even imagine putting my nerves through a 10+ hour wait for kickoff. 

Regarding the B1G championship game, Smith was pretty definitive in his belief that the event should be held indoors because that option provides "the total package" for not only coaches and players but also the fans.