Eleven Warriors

Busted Coverage, the kind of site that makes Maxim look like the Economist, stumbled upon some photos of Brian Hartline enjoying the spoils of playing football for a power program.

The photos appear to be from a costume party and while one of them is certainly worth looking at, the batch is really nothing more than a young man enjoying his last bit of school.

The site claims a tipster for the photos, but why the "DISCOVERED BY BUSTED COVERAGE" watermark? I realize this stuff plays in some parts, but is that what people are aspiring to be? A grown man that stalks Facebook for embarrassing photos?

(Sorry to get all Bissinger on everyone, but let these kids enjoy college a bit. This is a story. The Hartline party pictures are not.)

Digital ribbons coming to the Shoe? This is of course up for feedback in today's poll, but how do feel about the fact that Ohio Stadium may get some type of digital ribbon and/or other digital signage as part of the athletic department's new deal with IMG College for multimedia rights? This was something mentioned by Gene Smith that may be a part of the agreement and personally, I'm pretty agreeable to change (within reason), but would something like this cheapen the experience at the Shoe?

Perfect. And now to close on a lighter note, the Fab Five reunion spectacular that was to take place this weekend at Motor City Casino in Detroit has been canceled. Five days before the event. Could it have ended any other way?

Some good things come from Michigan

Now that we’re in the lull between the basketball season and the start of spring practice, it’s time to get back to some good old football. After having the chance to interview future Buckeyes Jamie Wood, Carlos Hyde, Jordan Hall, and John Simon, we were able to sit down with another class of 2009 signee, Reid Fragel.

Fragel, a tight end from Grosse Point South High School, is one of two prospects from the state up north to come down to play for the good guys next season. In addition to his excellent receiving skills, Reid is a very capable blocker at both tight end and tackle, where he played a little bit during his senior year, starting the buzz that he might one day move to the position full time (a la Andy Miller). Whatever the cards hold for his future, Fragel is one of the few freshmen with a chance to play right away because of the thin depth at the tight end position and at 6-7/255, he has the combination of size and athleticism to excel at either tight end or tackle at the next level.

In this segment, Reid talks to us about what he thinks about OSU’s recruitment of other tight ends after he committed, what position he thinks he’ll play in the future, and what it is like to be a Buckeye in enemy territory.

How does it feel to officially be a Buckeye? It feels great to finally have that weight lifted off my shoulders and be able to move on and focus on become a better athlete as well as being able to finish off my high school career.

What was your role as a Tight End in high school-did you catch or block more? As a tight end at my school I initially was 50/50 until I broke my left thumb the first day of pads. After that I moved to LT with a club on my hand until about 6 games into the season where I could switch back to tight end.

Are you excited to have a chance to play right away, being that Jake Ballard and Nic DiLillo are the only two other scholarship tight ends on the roster? I am really excited to be able to play with Jake since he has so much experience, and I feel that Nic and I will push one another to only become better players. As far as playing time goes, I will be ready when they need me whenever that may be.

What is the one thing you need to improve upon? Among the things I wish to improve on physically, I feel that my route running may be the spot I need to improve on most especially for the college level. I always find something that I need to work on though because my competition is working just as hard if not harder than I am.

Did it bother you that the staff recruited other tight ends like Ra’Shede Hageman and Dion Sims even after you committed? Not at all, I love competition. I feel that if they were to have signed another tight end, it would have only pushed me harder to be better. I was actually hoping we would land another tight end, it would only benefit the team and motivated me more.

What is it like to be a Michigan kid going to Ohio State? Well I was born in Illinois, and then moved to Toledo, Ohio. I moved here when I was about 7, so I never really became a full blown Michigan kid. I guess all the flak I got was expected though when I committed to OSU. It wasn't that big of a deal though to me.

There had been some noise during your recruitment that you could one day grow into an offensive tackle (like Andy Miller). Is this a future possibility or is it tight end all the way for you? I am all for whatever the program wants me at and can utilize my abilities at better. I've never had a problem with the tackle position but my heart is with tight end. It all comes down to where they want me though, and right now that is at tight end.

What will you be studying at OSU? I plan on studying business

What is an interesting fact you want Buckeye fans to know? I'm prepared to dedicate my life to the Buckeye family for 4-5 years.

And now for some highlights:

Sullinger 1, Sibert 0 with some controversy

Jared Sullinger and Northland may have captured the state championship in an instant classic Saturday night, but all people want to talk about is the foul called on Princeton's Marcus Davis with 2.7 seconds left sending Sullinger to the line for the winning margin. Though the call is debatable depending on which part of the state you live in (or your ability to combat homeritus-burstus), what's undeniable is that two future Buckeyes put up sick numbers battling to the very end. And they're only juniors!

Sullinger finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds including the decisive two at the end, while Princeton's Sibert finished with 21 points (11 of which came during the final quarter). If you didn't catch the game, you might be in luck because there's a pretty good chance the two Matta recruits will meet again next March.

Other highlights included Xavier-bound J.D. Weatherspoon pouring in 18 for Northland and finding out Princeton's coach is only 26. Mark our words: Josh Andrews will be coaching in the NBA before he's 29.

Thad Matta continues to be a hot name in the Kentucky coaching search though Calipari is getting the bulk of the heat right now. Izzo's name keeps popping up as well, but I just don't see that happening because not only do you have the fact that he's a Michigan native, but word is the UK athletic department wants to wrap this up sooner rather than later and the Spartan's win over Louisville pretty much throws a wrench into that.

Some good news for us -- over the weekend AD Gene Smith confirmed that the Wildcats had not contacted him for permission to speak to the coach. That, and the fact that several other coaches are also rumored to be on UK's list, providing cover.

USC started spring practice on Saturday and Pete Carroll loved what he saw. Granted, Pete Carroll loves everything, but how can you not be impressed moving the pieces of that juggernaut around. And thanks the the wonders of open practices, there are plenty of photos and the dish on who looked good. We love James Tressel like our own fathers and trust most everything he does, but is there any harm in opening a practice or 10 up to the public?

Elsewhere: The Silver Bullet has the new Guitar Hero commercial featuring one Robert Montgomery Knight, Greg Oden is hanging with Ronald McDonald and Tim Brewster is doing his best Pete Carroll on Twitter.

Like this, but you're buzzed

Friend of the blog, Officer Polgar of the Columbus Police Department, wrote in to let us know about a fundraiser event the CPD baseball team is putting together in conjunction with Getting Behind the Badge, a charity that seeks to assist families that lose an officer/fireman in the line of duty.

This Thursday from 7:30-10pm at Park Street Patio (Map), Kirk Herbstreit, Rick Nash, Mike Commodore and others will be your VIP bartenders for the evening.

Though Herbie's probably looking forward to drunks saddling up in front of him all night to explain how to fix the Buckeye offense/defense/uniforms, we can imagine Commodore and especially Nash might be popular mixologists in town these days.

Tickets for the event can be purchased at the door for $10. For more information, contact Scott at polgar115 (at) yahoo.com.

In demand

Not long after ousted coach Billy Gillispie decided it would be a good idea to race a news crew through his offices, rumors of who would be his replacement began burning up the internet.

And why not? It's one of the top jobs in sports. Head coach at the institution that has more NCAA tournament appearances than any other school. A rabid and knowledgeable fanbase. Ashley Judd. All that.

The first name that was tossed around as Gillispie's replacement was Billy Donovan, but Florida quickly shot that down. John Calipari, another big name on the early list, followed suit. Former Wildcat Travis Ford, currently doing good things at Oklahoma State, is a possibility, as isVillanova's Jay Wright and Xavier's Sean Miller, but two Big Ten coaches are rising quickly.

One is Tom Izzo and he's a hell of a coach. The other just so happens to be the coach of your favorite team. And while Izzo would be a better get for UK, he's a Michigan native and is likely using the episode as a bargaining chip for more love from the Spartans.

Matta, on the other hand, is not a native of the state he coaches in and quite frankly, has several reasons to be interested should Kentucky come calling. I realize that's probably blasphemy to some of you, but let's face it, Kentucky is a better job.

At Ohio State there's the morgue that's known as the Schottenstein Center, playing second fiddle to one of the biggest football programs in the nation and, well, no Ashley Judd.

There are certainly compelling reasons for Matta to hang around in Columbus (dollar-dollar-bill, y'all), but as long as he's putting up 20+ wins per season, this will be something to fret about whenever a big-time job opens up.

Outside of the two Elite Eight games tipping off later today, there are a couple of other reasons to tune in as the Lady Buckeyes square-off against #2 seed Stanford (in Berkeley, no less) at 11:30pm and the Ohio State hockey team meets top-seeded Boston at 5:30pm (ESPN2).

We're heading into we got nothing the offseason, so posts like this will become more frequent. Give the above photo your best caption and the winner gets to pull Corey's finger.

One half of the Big Ten's Sweet 16 contingent will be in action tonight when Purdue meets Connecticut at 7:07PM ET. We realize some of you have a tough time rooting for other Big Ten teams, but we've been caught up in the solidarity fever for the past year and a half or so and there's nothing we'd like to see more than JuJuan Johnson put up about 50 as the Boilers coast. UConn has a bit of a storm hanging over the program's head right now, so the timing is right and the natives are optimistic.

Twenty minutes after tipoff, the only Ohio team left dancing takes on another one seed when Xavier meets Pittsburgh (don't call us Pitt). You can do worse than cheering on one of Matta's boys, Sean Miller, and the Musketeers.

Unfortunately, both of the teams we'll be pulling for are comfortable dogs, but this is March and madness will happen. Or we hope.

On the bracket challenge front, C. James and his/her entry is currently leading the Eleven Warriors group, putting him/her in a good position to get their read-on. How is your entry faring?

Not really shocking to anyone that's followed this closely, but BJ Mullens has made it official: he's NBA-bound.

Best of luck to BJ.

Forcier can zip a mean four yard out

What started as a whisper yesterday afternoon has grown into just the latest significant setback of the Rich Rodriguez era at Michigan as Wolverine quarterback Nick Sheridan is hurt and likely in a bad way.

Though there are some skeptics among the faithful, word is flying that it's a broken leg and that typically shelves a guy for a while. At any rate, RichRod the Great will be holding a press conference tomorrow where he will most likely address the injury.

With Steven Threet's transfer last month, that leaves the Wolverines with exactly zero quarterbacks with any type of game experience. David Cone is still in the mix, but a) he's not really that good b) he's only thrown one pass in his time at Ann Arbor and c) he's rumored to be injured as well. There's sophomore Justin Feagin who saw some minimal action late in the season when Threet was hurt, but his problem is that he's Justin Feagin.

That leaves freshman Calista Flockhart Tate Forcier and his pythonic pipes. Forcier, as you might recall, is the Jimmy Clausen of the dirty north and comes from a family that is part Marinovich, part Brady, and kind enough to showcase his offer letters to cheer you up from getting laid-off.

Anyway, he's enrolled early and participating in spring ball and should be the #1 quarterback once fall camps hits. Assuming the whole Sheridan-leg-is-now-in-pieces rumor holds true, that is. All of this bodes well for those of us that like to see the Wolverines in pain because with the continuing transfers and now this news, more pain is definitely in the forecast for the 734.