Eleven Warriors

Maybe Doug should pick up a Pacer in an effort to fly under the "radar"

While it's old news that Doug Worthington blew a .095 en route to charges of DUI, speeding and shady plates the latest question is whether or not it matters that Worthington was rolling in a 2004 Escalade.

The Plain Dealer's Doug Lesmerises appeared to take a shot at Ken Gordon of the Dispatch for not reporting the type of vehicle Worthington was driving when he was stopped. In defense, Gordon stated he thought the make and model of the car was irrelevant and to report that Worthington was driving an Escalade would unfairly feed suspicions of further wrongdoing.

I'm not sure where I fall on this topic. On one hand, with constant worries of impropriety at virtually all major programs it's probably worth a mention. On the other hand, many in the general public immediately take such news as a guarantee of wrongdoing so it might be better left unsaid in the morning paper.

You know how it is, as soon as your non-Buckeye-fan acquaitances heard the news did they not immediately act like a 2004 Escalade cost as much as a 2008 Bentley when, in fact, an '04 Escalade only blue books at 20-24k? Not exactly Lotus territory.

So, what do you think? Should the make of the car be newsworthy or do you even care?

As a tech worker, I'm a pretty big fan of Google Maps mashups. Ever since Google handed out the keys to the service, the web responded by creating a metric giga-ton of specialized maps. There are maps to locate cell towers, plan and find running routes and even a map that allows you to plot nuclear blast radii.

The map shown above just might take the cake, however. 700+ photos documenting pure Buckeye global propaganda efforts.

Additional photos and information here.

There's a good reason why you didn't hear a peep out of us when Michigan running back Kevin Grady was busted for a DUI: we don't like to tempt fate. Not only do most of us have our own stories making it home when we shouldn't have, but we're also pretty rabid about a major sports team that just so happens to have a roster consisting of nothing but college students.

More fun than a DUI class (AP Photo)

Though tackle Doug Worthington fell short of Grady's epic 0.28, he does earn style points for getting caught on Woody Hayes Drive. In addition, his effort was good enough for two Fulmer Cup points -- deemed "an appropriate charge for a generic, unremarkable Ohio" (that's rich coming from a state where these guys are the official outfitter). What, no bonus points for him being underage as well?

It's never easy guessing what type of punishment is in Worthington's future because unless the offense is a matter of public record (like, for instance, a DUI), nobody outside of the program would even have a clue if it happened at all. Still, I'm guessing he sits for the opener against YSU and is back on the field in week two. Just a guess, nothing more.

If Worthington is held out of games, the press will see an 11-game starter on the pine, while the rest of us know that he was actually part of a four-man platoon at defensive tackle. Against Michigan and LSU, the four turned in a total of 32 (Worthington), 28 (Abdallah), 28 (Larimore) and 27 (Denlinger) minutes. Hardly a dominate tandem in that group so far*.

Still, the play of the interior defensive line is the key to whether the 2008 Buckeye defense will truly be dominant. The other components are in place and any loss of playing time out of the tackles doesn't help.

We should be thankful that nobody was hurt and all it usually takes is one DUI to learn a hard lesson, so hopefully Worthington can get through this and we'll look back and see it for what it is: youthful indiscretion.

* Saying nothing of the fact that despite Worthington having the most upside of the DTs (HS Parade AA, plenty of PT as a sophomore), he's still 6-7, 276. Not exactly prototypical DT size. Yet.

Everything measured

With Big Ten media days in the rearview mirror, the weekend was spent catching up on what everyone fortunate enough to make the event had to say.

There was a little bit of an update on Donald Washington's situation. Tressel is sticking to his mischievous teen metaphor, saying Washington was "working hard to get his car keys back" after it was pointed out that sophomore Chimdi Chekwa is listed as a starter ahead of Washington in the media guide. The thinking is that D-Wash will have to sit out for the opener for the what-shall-remain-unnamed trouble he got into in the spring.

What do you do when your team has dropped two consecutive MNCs and you're worried about the group's psyche? You bring in guys that give off pheromones that exude clutch. Through his Y-town connections (former 49ers owner Ed DeBartolo Jr), the Vest arranged for Jerry Rice, Ronnie Lott, Joe Montana and Roger Craig to speak to the Buckeyes this summer. Even though that 49er group won five Super Bowls and is synonymous with greatness, they also dropped four NFC Championship games and that lesson wasn't lost on the players.

Jason Lloyd of the Lorain Morning Journal scored an interview with Tressel and although the Senator deftly avoided a Eugene Clifford question, we do find out that he sent AD Gene Smith an email after the Tennessee series was announced that said "Shoot me if I'm on the sideline against the Vols." It's funny because when that game was announced, I'd have put money on the fact that it would have been Tressel still here over Phil Fulmer still being in Knoxville, but with Fulmer's contract extension (teflon Phil?) and Tressel's statement, I'm starting to wonder. I have honestly never contemplated life after Tresssel and now that I am doing that, it's scaring me a little. Even at Ohio State, most coaches aren't Tressels.

Brian Cook of MGoBlog managed to gain entrance to the Chicago event by producing 375 pages of printed UFRs. I think his first taste left him a little bit frustrated but he was able to ask an Illini about J Leman's American flag tie. That and he's the 948th person to come out of Jim Tressel press conference thinking the guy is boring. That's fine with us. You'll hear none of that "I'm a man! I'm 40!" coming out of Cbus.

Baltimore Sun Photo

It's looking more and more likely that Troy Smith will get that first crack at the Raven's open quarterback job. It's being treated as a three-man race, but Flacco is playing like a rookie and the team would be taking a step back by handing the job to Boller. I think he was the young guy I was grooming on Madden five years ago if that tells you anything about how many chances he's failed to win the job in Baltimore.

Smith is looking to build on what he showed as a starter in the last two weeks of last season. After dropping his first start against the Seahawks, Smith rebounded to lead the Ravens to a victory against the Steelers in the finale (video) -- and it wasn't even against the scrubs as it was a game the Steelers were trying to win in order to move up as a playoff seed. Smith helped lead the Ravens to a 17-0 lead -- their largest of the season -- and the win snapped a Ravens nine-game losing streak*.

If he does hold onto the starting spot this season, he'll have to pay a little more attention to his blind side. Left tackle and future NFL HoFer Jonathan Ogden rode off into the sunset and attempting to fill his shoes will be 2nd-year guy Jared Gaither out of Maryland. Todd Heap is a reliable commodity -- when he's healthy -- and Mason and Clayton on the edges are more than adequate. If Willis McGahee can get up to speed on the playbook, he'll become invaluable to Troy's success, despite a young line. And Baltimore is uniquely set up for a young quarterback to etch himself into the hearts and record books -- not every city has Trent Dilfer as an obstacle to such greatness.

A Buckeye getting reps with the first team at an NFL camp is significant for two reasons. First, it allows us to finally start fantasizing about all-Buckeye NFL teams (though we're a little thin at RB for the moment with only Pittman representing -- this, of course, is subject to change soon). Second, it's another move in the direction of establishing quarterback as a position top preps should come to Ohio State to play. Yes, Pryor is huge, but if you're a prototypical NFL quarterback, where are you going to go to school if given the choice between USC and OSU? The last time a Buckeye quarterback opened the season as the starting quarterback of an NFL team, gas sold for $1.03 a gallon. And that needs to change.

This is yet another example of Smith proving the naysayers incorrect. Whatever your thoughts on Inn-And-Out burger indiscretions, money from boosters or the curious play in the Florida game, you can't say that he hasn't excelled at proving doubters wrong.

* This win also featured the first of what figure to be many NFL games that see Smith and Santonio Holmes recording touchdowns against each other.

On what should be one of the top few days of a guys life -- when he's signing a fat contract to play the game he loves, all anyone in Vernon Gholston's new home town wants to talk about is Brett Favre.

Sorry, Vern

Gholston's contract, worth somewhere in the $30-$50m ballpark, with $21m guaranteed, was signed at 4:30AM and checks in at a whopping 250 pages. Big news for Gholston and the Jets, right?

Not quite.

After ESPN broke the news that the Jets had received permission to talk to Brett Favre, the press conference organized to discuss the contract signing turned into the Brett Favre show:

The Favre-related questions came at Mangini, one after another, and his facial expressions went from smiling to frowning. Finally, he pleaded for questions about Vernon Gholston, the Jets’ first-round pick, who signed a contract Friday.

Welcome to the Big Apple, kid.

There's no truth yet as to whether the Jets decided to buck the trend against prohibiting athletes from doing things in fear of hurting themselves in favor of clauses prohibiting Gholston from hurting others. Like no inadvertent flexing lest he shatter every window within a five mile radius.

HERO. A Penn State student was arrested in their indoor facility wearing only a pair of jeans and a team helmet, clutching a replica of the 2007 Alamo Bowl trophy.

More coverage:

• The official site has more video footage of Tressel and the players.
• Full footage and transcripts via the B10 conference website.
• Not surprisingly, Tress further downplayed the "Only between gentleman" comment.

Is this going to be Michigan fans by next year?

We're counting down the weeks until kickoff by profiling a different Big Ten team each week. Today, the Michigan Wolverines are up.

I think there was a coaching change at Michigan after last season, but I haven't heard too much about it.

Apparently some guy named Rich Rodriguez is taking over for LLoyd Carr and RichRod (as they call him), along with his posse of coaches are bringing the fastest, meanest, most unbelievable style of football the Big Ten has ever witnessed along with them.

There is no doubt this hiring has made a splash over the last eight months, but I think it is a good hire for the conference as a whole. The hatred for Ohio State and the Big Ten is evident and without a very strong Michigan team, this conference becomes even weaker.

COACHING: Rodriguez is going to be the most scrutinized coach in college football this upcoming season, after his abrupt departure from Morgantown and the fallout that ensued. Michigan is in the midst of 40 straight winning seasons and haven't missed a bowl game in 33 years. The learning curve for this team needs to be small, if those records are going to continue.

OFFENSE: It is anyone's guess how the offense will play out this season, as Michigan returns only 3 starters and breaks in a new system. Their quarterbacks have 1 career pass between them and Steven Threet, the Georgia Tech transfer seems to have the lead going into camp, but true freshman Justin Feagin may get some early season time.

The Wolverines do return Brandon Minor and Carlos Brown, the RB tandem who filled in for Mike Hart last year, each managed to average over 4.3 yards a carry when not battling their own injury bug. Freshman Sam McGuffie, the great White Hope, could see the field early on.

Greg Mathews (WR) and Carson Butler (TE) lead this young receiving corps. Mathews had 39 catches for 366 yards and 3 touchdowns last year, while Butler had 20 for 246 and 2 touchdowns. Darryl Stonum could be a freshman to watch.

The O-line has a combined 16 starts between the returners, which ranks 118th in the nation, but will be anchored by Stephen Schilling, who started 13 games as a freshman.

DEFENSE: One of Rodriguez's smartest moves has been the hiring of DC Scott Shafer, who coaches an aggressive style and was the engineer behind Stanford's defeat of USC last year. Shafer will have the benefit of 7 returning starters, including his entire defensive line.

The Wolverines lost their top four tacklers from a year ago, but return their next 11 and will be lead by sophomore linebacker Obi Ezeh, who registered 68 tackles in 2007. Shafer will have to replace his outside backers and both safties, while cornerbacks Donovan Warren, Morgan Trent and Brandon Harrison return.

KEY STRETCH: Michigan plays at Notre Dame Sept. 13th and after a bye week, will host Wisconsin and Illinois in consecutive weeks.

BEST-CASE: Michigan's schedule sets up a little weird. They play 5 of their first 6 at home and then finish with 3 road games in the month of November. Utah rolls into the Big House to start the season, while Miami, OH. and Toledo are also on the OOC slate. If Rodriguez is as good as advertised, this team could finish 8-4, earning another New Year's bowl.

WORST-CASE: Unfortunately for Michigan fans recently, there are no games that can be considered automatic, but I can't imagine the Wolverines going worse than 4-8. Wisconsin, Illinois, at PSU, and home against MSU is a tough opening stretch for Rich's introduction to the Big Ten and road games at Purdue, Minnesota and Ohio State await his team in November.

I always want Michigan to be highly ranked when they face Ohio State, but for the 2008 season, it would give me great pleasure to see Michigan repeat Notre Dame's performance of a year ago. They can climb back near the top next year, but if they are going to struggle, why not just make it a 3-9 season. After all, RR started 1-7-1 at Glenville St. and 3-8 at WVU in his debut seasons.

Finally: The Dispatch is reporting Eugene Clifford has been given his full release to play elsewhere. Clifford unfortunately just couldn't stay out of trouble and will probably seek the 1-AA route. This frees up another scholarship for Tressel to use on his crowded class for next year. Best of luck to Clifford and let's hope he can keep his nose and urine clean.

When will you retire? How soon? Retire?

In another sure sign that God's gift to red-blooded Americans is just around the corner, Big Ten media days kickoff today in Chicago. Jim Delaney and 10 coaches plus a guy in a wizard hat selling snake oil will take turns at the dais, but it's a safe bet that Hawkeye coach Kirk Ferentz is dreading this day as this will be the first time he's met the press since re-investigation-gate hit Iowa City.

The event, which begins at 11:15AM ET, will also feature Rich Rodriguez's first appearance (2:30PM) as Michigan coach and Joe Tiller's last at the helm of Purdue (12:15PM). Is this Paterno's last one as well? Tressel will follow Tiller at 12:30 and if you're lucky enough to have the day off -- or better yet, work at Best Buy -- you can catch coverage on ESPNNews. If you're stuck at work, the Big Ten will attempt to stream the event, but judging by the meltdown their website suffered during the spring game, this option is shaky at best.

33 players will be present and the Buckeyes will be represented by Boeckman, Laurinaitis and Jenkins but already one writer is complaining about the lack of Beanie. Said writer promised to get Jenkins' version of what happened at the Playboy Mansion, so you can't say he's not on it.

The guys that actually get paid to cover conference teams will release their picks for league champion and offensive and defensive players of the year. The Buckeyes will most certainly be the choice as favs to win the Big Ten, but what about offensive and defnesive POYs? Laurinaitis should be the selection on defense, but if Beanie gets the nod on offense -- and it's likely he will -- the Buckeyes will become the first team to have the preseason offensive and defensive players of the year since 1996 when... wait for it... Northwestern bagged the honor with Darnell Autry and Pat Fitzgerald.

Friday features a sold-out luncheon hosted by Brent Musberger. No word yet on any planned drinking games.

Finally, and this is completely unrelated to the Big Ten media event, but word emerged from the Big 12 media event (a three day affair, lucky bastards) that Jayhawk players are getting tired of the Mangino jokes. Like this one.

UPDATE: Eugene Clifford has been given his walking papers two and a half weeks after his Clifton altercation. Tim May is reporting that he's strongly looking at Tennessee State, where he'll have a chance to play right away. Best of luck to him.

Smith and Zwick battled for the top job in 2004

Bucknuts has an excerpt of Dave Biddle's upcoming Troy Smith biography up and if what I read is any indication of the book at-large, it should be worth picking up.

The excerpt looks back at the rough start of the 2004 season for Smith. He had entered the season battling with sophomore Justin Zwick for the top job and most within the program had given little thought to Smith as a starter. Advised by his former foster father to transfer if he didn't get the starting nod coming out of spring camp, Smith flirted with that option after seeing spot time in the first three games of the season:

Following the off week, OSU came out for its practice on Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2004. Smith was asked by the coaching staff to take some reps at wide receiver and it didn’t exactly go over well. He was already steaming mad from not seeing the field against N.C. State and this was the final straw as far as he was concerned.

The next time he spoke to the press, his thoughts were evident:

He stopped short of saying he wanted to transfer, but his true intentions could be clearly seen even through the sunglasses.

“I can’t say that right now,” Smith said of a possible transfer. “I wish I could, but I can’t say that right now.”

Which lead to:

You probably won’t find this hard to believe, but Smith was not made available for interviews the following week. Or the week after that.

Biddle went on to point out that after Barton spoke up in Smith's favor, he didn't see the press again for 18 months. Don't defy the Olentangy Kremlin, kids.

You all know how the story plays out, but this book looks to provide all of the details -- good and bad -- of a pretty unconventional ascension to the Heisman Trophy.

The Troy Smith Story will be released sometime in mid-August. You can pre-order your copy here.

Fans that love road trips will see that the price of admission to the November 15th game in Champaign just went up a little bit. And by little bit, I mean whatever the going rate is for a rare Illini sellout. Single game seats sold out less than an hour after going on sale.

With Lloyd Carr's exit, there's been a good deal written about various all-Carr teams. Those are great and all if you happen to be a fan of Michigan football, but finally there's an All-Carr team Buckeye fans can get behind: Lloyd Carr's All-Disciplinary Action Team.

Bobcat coach Frank Solich just inked a contract extension through 2013. Solich, like Willingham, has always held my sympathy for the way he was run out of town. It's good to see him having success in Athens and here's hoping for a good 2009 -- save for that trip to the 'Shoe, of course.