Eleven Warriors

Published reports say Iowa State transfer Wesley Johnson has committed to Syracuse.

Bob Baptist spoke with Johnson last week and the indication was he would visit OSU before July 6th but that's out the window as Johnson settled on 'Cuse without visiting any of the other schools on his list.

In other Buckeye Basketball news, 1460 just reported Matta's right hand man John Groce will take over as the head coach at Ohio University.

Groce had been with Matta for eight years and the fact he's leaving should not be a surprise. Bucknuts reported yesterday that Groce was in Athens on Wednesday to discuss the vacancy.

11W says good luck to Groce. He will definitely be missed but it's time for him to run his own program.

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

There are two main questions, surrounding this Hoosier squad. One, will they have Kellen Lewis back from his spring suspension and two, will they have a field to play on?

The loss of Lewis could seriously damper this team's hopes of back-to-back bowl trips, as he lead them in passing and rushing yards last year, giving the Hoosiers their first bowl trip since 1993.

The field was damaged by the torrential rains earlier in June and replacement construction is under way, at the cool cost of $1,000,000, but school officials are confidant the new turf will be ready for opening kickoff.

COACHING: Bill Lynch enters his second year at the helm, after taking over last summer for the late Terry Hoeppner. Lynch lead the Hoosiers to their first winning season (7-6) in twelve years and IMO has a good chance to do it again. With all the focus in Bloomington on the hoops program, Lynch shouldn't feel any type of heat if the Hoosiers go back to their losing ways in 2008.

OFFENSE: The Hoosiers will have to replace 3 OL starters, James Hardy and possibly Lewis, but they return their top four running backs, including speedster Marcus Thigpen, who rushed for 586 yards a year ago. Freshman Darius Willis may push for some playing time, along with juniors Bryan Payton and Demetrius McCray, who each averaged over 4 yards a carry in their sophomore campaigns.

Lynch's squad will be hard pressed to replace Hardy's production and beyond Andrew Means and Ray Fisher, who combined for 100 catches and 1,041 yards last year, there is no experienced depth. This offense can only be helped though by the return of all-conference kicker Ausitn Starr, who connected on 11 of 12 field goals from 40+ yards in 2007.

DEFENSE: The defense will be anchored by Greg Middleton, a 6'3" 275lb. DE, who enjoyed a breakout season in '07 by leading the NCAA in sacks with 16. He will be joined by six other retuning starters, including the Hoosiers top two tacklers from last year, Austin Thomas and Will Peterson.

Thomas lead Indiana with 112 tackles from the strong safety spot and should get all-conference notice this year. Their corners are going to be green, but experienced safeties and quick line pressure may give them time to develop. Peterson is the leader of an experienced linebacker corps that held opponents to less than four yards a carry last season.

KEY GAME: The key game for Indiana is the Big Ten opener, at home against Sparty. The Hoosiers play three cupcakes at home to start the season and they are 1-15 in their last 16 conference openers. A 4-0 start to the season, could propel this team to a surprising conference finish.

BEST-CASE: Indiana plays eight home games this year, four of which are against W. Kentucky, Murray State, Ball State and Central Michigan. They also get Iowa and Northwestern at home, two winnable games. If the Hoosier can man up and win their OOC games, there is a good chance this team could finish at least 6-6 and go bowling once again.

WORST-CASE: If Kellen Lewis doesn't play and they are hit with a few injuries, this team could take a few steps back and go 3-8, potentially winless in the Big Ten.

I just don't see that happening though. The stars may be aligned for this squad, as both Ohio State and Michigan are not on the schedule and they have 6 winnable home games, with roadies at Minnesota and Purdue. I'm not saying it is going to be Iowa 2002, but these are mostly Hoeppner's recruits and playing for the honor of a fallen coach can give the team a great sense of purpose and this team could have a surprise year.

Since Ohio State began retiring numbers back in 1999, a total of seven legendary Buckeyes have had the honor bestowed upon them. The list is certainly an impressive one featuring the likes of Archie Griffin, Vic Janowicz, Hopalong Cassady, Les Horvath, Eddie George, Chic Harley and most recently, Bill Willis.

All that group did was combine to collect six Heisman Trophy's, 13 First Team All-American selections, six inductions into the College Football Hall of Fame (Eddie's will come) and one Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement, setting the bar for any future honorees.

So, that begs the question...Who's next?

Personally speaking, here's my short list of potential candidates. Do you think one of them is worthy of being next or are you going off the board?

Jack Tatum The Assassin was my Pop's favorite Buckeye growing up and between that and his incredible resume, I think Tatum's at the top of my list of Who's Next. The headhunter was recruited as a running back but switched to safety where he became a two time All-American and National Defensive POY known for laying wood with even more tenacity than Peter North.

Ohio State went 27-2 and won a national title with Tatum patrolling the secondary and his legendary status is cemented by the fact he was named a captain on the OSU All-Century Team.

Chris Spielman If not Jack Tatum, then my next choice is Chris Spielman. Others LB's like CFB HOF'er Randy Gradishar probably have a more impressive resume but this is my list and I have to put him in my top three.

Spielman did rack up two All-American selections and captured the '87 Lombardi Award while creating the template for what every true Buckeye should be. The maniac from Massillon still serves as a great ambassador for the university and no player before or since can say they love the program any more than Spielman. Plus, dude used to play tackle Smear the Queer on blacktop as a kid.

Orlando Pace The last of my top three candidates has to be Orlando Pace. He made the tackle position sexy on his way to an Outland Trophy and back to back Lombardi's before becoming the #1 overall selection in the NFL Draft. Bucknuts says the two time All-American registered 80 pancakes his junior year and I certainly can't argue.

Pace was the most dominating lineman to ever come out of Ohio State and that's saying something considering the names Hicks, Parker and Stillwagon also suited up for the Scarlet and Gray. In fact, he might be the best college lineman of all time. Oh, and he can hoop, too.

In the past three days, we've seen the '09 class go from a large-for-June 17 to an astonishing 22 verbals. A little advanced camp love and all of a sudden, it's late June and OSU is running out of spots already.

If you've missed any of the details, the recruitniks at OHD and DTI have the everything covered, but just to recap, the Buckeyes added the following players:

• Duron Carter, WR
• Carlos Hyde, FB
• Justin Green, CB
• Corey Brown, ATH
• Bradley McDougald, S

With the exception of Carter, who's a mega-legacy, each of the new prospects has earned four stars from Rivals and all rank within the top dozen or so players at their position in the nation. Still, would anyone really be surprised Duron turned out to be the sleeper in this group? His dad's quote is already legendary:

"This is kind of surreal. This morning I went for a walk and thought to myself that I can’t believe how great this is. I feel like I died and went to heaven because I get to go through the Buckeye experience twice."

Emphasis mine, to match the chub I got when I first read that quote.

The Buckeyes now have far and away the largest group of '09 commitments and to paraphrase JHC, they pass the looks test. With another five or six spots to fill, we could be looking at the largest class of the Tressel era. Granted, these are all verbals and a lot can change, but it's rare that a kid changes his mind after getting to know the Vest.

What's really interesting is that Tressel is now 7-1 head-to-head against Rodriguez¹ for this class. Give the guy some time to get his bearings and all that, but doesn't a new hire usually translate to some excitement and a small boost in recruiting (see Brewster, Tim)?

However, the more I read about Michael Shaw, the more I'm hoping he doesn't come back to burn the Buckeyes. Anyone else worried about that one?

¹ Bell, Hall, Fellows, Linsley, Bellamy, Jackson and Brown against Justin Turner.

As others have noted, the irreverent run of the MZone has come to an end. At times it seemed as if the MZone's only mission was to pile on Ohio State, and us, its fans (exhibit a, exhibit b and exhibit c).

Their team was getting pummeled in the series yet they served up bomb after bomb with glee. And you know what? We loved it. Yost was as funny as they come and this space will be less for his absence, but we can understand the grind and wanting to have, you know, a life.

Here's wishing him the best and hoping he finally gets to don that 'stache he's been wanting.

And we promise, this is the only time you'll ever be subjected to that image around these parts.

---

The Dispatch's Bob Hunter recently wrote about the way information flows in this digital age specifically relating to the Henton transfer and how the paper has a hard time keeping up with the various newfangled forms of content distribution:

If a blog reports such-and-such, is that newspaper-worthy? Are we sure that the blogger didn't make it up? Is it being reported or talked about anywhere else?

The truth is that they're going to have an extremely difficult time competing in this realm going forward. Tressel has done a scary job of locking down the flow of information out of the program and when it comes to rumors, there's that whole sourcing thing that blogs and message boards don't have to worry about.

Would it not be wise to devote more of the paper's efforts to write historical or analytical articles? Maybe take a look at the past or break down some statistics? Perhaps an interview with a Buckeye that's removed from the program? I have no idea what the paper's summer budget for OSU football looks like, but if they write it, we will come.

---

Purdue blog Off the Tracks had me over for an interview and being asked to name a weakness on this team was no easy task. Is weakness contextual?

---

Looks like Poe has been called-up. Congrats on the move -- his wit and insight will only strengthen Buckeye Commentary.

After herding us all into submitting ballots for the expected order of finish in the Big Ten, LTP has followed up with the results of our All-Big Ten Team. Ohio State lead all schools with eight players on the first team. Penn State had four players on the first team (though one was a punter), while Wisconsin, Purdue and Indiana (two special teamers) placed three players on the first team. Most satisfyingly for Buckeye fans, the Wolverines only had one representative.

	Big Ten Bloggers	11W Ballot
QB	Curtis Painter, Purdue	Curtis Painter, Purdue
RB	Beanie Wells, Ohio State	Beanie Wells, Ohio State
RB	Javon Ringer, Michigan State	Javon Ringer, Michigan State
WR	Brian Robiskie, Ohio State	Brian Robiskie, Ohio State
WR	Arrelious Benn, Illinois	Arrelious Benn, Illinois
WR	Greg Orton, Purdue	--
TE	Travis Beckum, Wisconsin	Travis Beckum, Wisconsin
OT	Alex Boone, Ohio State	Alex Boone, Ohio State
OG	Steve Rehring, Ohio State	Rich Ohrnberger, Penn State
C	AQ Shipley, Penn State	AQ Shipley, Penn State
OG	Kraig Urbik, Wisconsin	Kraig Urbik, Wisconsin
OT	Eric Vanden Heuvel, Wisconsin	Xavier Fulton, Illinois

The 1st Team Offense is shown to the right with differences in our ballot highlighted in yellow. Beanie, Boone and Robiskie were locks from our perspective, but we had Penn State's Rich Ohrnberger in over Rehring. The interior of the Buckeye offensive line still has a little something to prove and perhaps we were a little conscious of not packing our ballot with Buckeyes.

We wrestled with some of our selections. Ringer, Sutton or Hill for that 2nd running back slot? You can make a pretty solid case for each of them. What about Boeckman over Painter at quarterback? It may sound crazy, but outside of Beckum (who's damn good), Boeckman has more tools at his disposable. You don't think Beanie helps a quarterback's numbers?

We're not going to lie and say we broke down tapes of Wisconsin's Eric Vanden Heuvel and Xavier Fulton of Illinois to determine which tackle was better. Fulton has a (slightly) cooler name.

No real suprises on the defensive side of the ball. The ends are solid, but we had to resist throwing Heyward or Wilson on our ballot. They haven't earned the nod yet, but you can't be shocked if one of them makes this team at the end of the season.

	Big Ten Bloggers	11W Ballot
DE	Greg Middleton, Indiana	Greg Middleton, Indiana
DT	Terrance Taylor, Michigan	Terrance Taylor, Michigan
DT	Mitch King, Iowa	Mitch King, Iowa
DE	Maurice Evans, Penn State	Maurice Evans, Penn State
LB	James Laurinaitis, Ohio State	James Laurinaitis, Ohio State
LB	Marcus Freeman, Ohio State	Marcus Freeman, Ohio State
LB	Anthony Heygood, Purdue	Martez Wilson, Illiniois
CB	Malcolm Jenkins, Ohio State	Malcolm Jenkins, Ohio State
CB	Vontae Davis, Illinois	Vontae Davis, Illinois
S	Anthony Scirrotto, Penn State	Anthony Scirrotto, Penn State
S	Anderson Russell, Ohio State	Anderson Russell, Ohio State

Animal and Freeman aren't surprises, though we did think Martez Wilson deserved the other spot over Anthony Heygood. Even if he thinks the conference is slow, he is freakishly large and quick.

Scirrotto was named first team all-conference after his sophomore year of 2006 when he lead the Big Ten in interceptions with 6. Four months before the start of his junior season, he decided to get his brawl-on and was slapped with a felony. The folony was reduced and he plead to get back on the field where his level of play clearly declined. He is good enough for this team, but Coleman is in his rear-view mirror.

We briefly flirted with Iowa's Brett Greenwood at free safety before deciding on Russell. Again, trying not to pack the ballot and there's a suspicion that Russell may be benefiting from playing with superior talent and the press that comes with that. Don't get us wrong, he's great. But there remains doubt about whether he is the top free safety in the league.

	Big Ten Bloggers	11W Ballot
K	Austin Starr, Indiana	Austin Starr, Indiana
P	Jeremy Boone, Penn State	Jeremy Boone, Penn State
PR	Marcus Thigpen, Indiana	--

The all-conference special team members clearly illustrate the fact that if the entire season was played on fourth down only, the Hoosiers would go 12-0. Thigpen is solid, but there's a hope that a young Buckeye will make a name for himself in the return game this season. Going from Ginn to what Ohio State had last season was like trading your Boxster in for a moped.

So, who did we overlook? Is someone getting a little too much love? What young Buckeye could challenge to land on one of this team?

Michael Redd will be a member of Team America. Although it won't be official until later Monday, most of the team was known over the weekend as the NBA cemented its hold on the league that keeps secrets the worst. If you doubt that for one second, think about the last time you found out about the league's MVP award from the official announcement.

Redd's downtown game has been an element the national team has sorely missed during the last three marquee international events. In 2002, the team, coached by George Karl, finished 6th in the World Championships. That team holds the distinction of being the first squad consisting of NBA players to lose an international game.

In the 2004 Olympics, the team went 2-2 during opening round play and fought like hell to secure the bronze after losing to Argentina in the semifinals. That team featured some incredible guards, but none of them were genuine outside threats.

In the 2006 World Championships, Team USA once again advanced to the semifinal round before losing to Greece and settling for the bronze. LeBron, Carmelo and Wade captained this squad, but again, the team didn't feature a long-range guy.

Redd joined the national team for the 2007 FIBA Americas Tournament and bonded responded. Coming off of the bench, his 14.0 per game were good enough for 4th-best on the team and he developed a rapport with Kidd and Kobe, both of whom will be on the '08 squad.

I have fond memories of the original Dream Teams and want nothing better than to see the United States return to its place on top, but you keep wondering if athleticism will get it done against fundamentally sound opponents that have quickly closed the talent gap on us.

The projected roster, if you're interested.

Penn State quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno is evidently a pretty big Barack Obama fan. Disregard the fact that pops is a lifelong Republican -- Jay has started a blog at Obama's official website. Hilarity of epic proportions has quickly ensued.

Zack Mills, Galen Hall, Anthony Morelli and RichRod are all commenting and as you might have guessed, they're all hammering him about football. It appears as if Jay is deleting these comments, even going so far as to respond to defend censorship accusations:

They were deleted because they have no relevance to this campaign. They are comments that belong on football web sites and not political web sites. If you want to discuss football feel free to e-mail me and I will happily discuss anything you want.

It is not censorship it is called relevance.

Still, many comments are getting through, including one asking Jay what he was doing tending to the blog at 10AM on a Friday morning (he defended this as well). You have to wonder how long they can keep this blog up.

Even when trying to tackle serious issues like offshore drilling, the first commenter wants to know if Jay has mastered throwing the ball over the middle yet. Later, in that same thread, RockStar Games was kind enough to offer copies of Grand Theft Auto IV:

Dear Jay,

We've seen a lot of press this past year about how you are using EA Sports' NCAA Football 2008 to help with your game-planning. Well we at Rockstar Games think we could be of significant help as well since the Penn State offense has seen more car crashes than our recent release of Grand Theft Auto IV. We'd like to help. If there is any interest, please give us a call.

If you have a few extra minutes, hit up the comments and you'll be in stitches. And please keep politics out of the comments here. This is a Whig Party blog, after all.

(Via Happy Hour Valley)

Released in February by the Chargers, former buckeye Shane Olivea recently tested positive for (allegedly) illicit drugs triggering a four game suspension to start the '08 campaign.

The positive test is the latest setback to what looked like a promising career in San Diego after the Chargers stole him in the 7th round back in 2004.

Olivea earned the starting right tackle job as a rookie and started 31 of 32 games before the Chargers gave him 6 years / 20 mil in August of '06. Since signing for big money, Olivea has been a major disappointment.

Team sources say Olivea's fat contract led to a lack of motivaton and it appears to be a poorly kept secret that he partied himself out of the league.

Reports had the Giants interested but that could change with the four game suspension looming.

Here's to hoping Olivea gets the help he needs so he can resurrect a once promising career.

Despite the SC game, the Buckeyes have only the 5th-toughest nonconference schedule in the Big Ten. This according to Matt Hayes of the Sporting News, who thinks the Michigan State has the toughest series with a game at Cal and home tilts against Notre Dame and Florida Atlantic, the reigning Sun Belt champ.

Though you can make an argument that going on the road to play the Trojans is worth about five trips to Berkeley -- ewoks aside -- OU and Youngstown State sit here staring at us like 2-7 unsuited. So give Hayes that, but what really struck me are his thoughts on Utah's upcoming visit to the Big House:

I don't know about you, but that Utah game at Ann Arbor in Michigan's season opener has upset written all over it. New system, new quarterback, new uniforms, first time in front of 100,000-plus with the new coach, etc. And Utah is pretty damn good -- No. 5 in the nation in scoring defense last year, and a ton of experience returning. One more thing: the Utes have a streaky, dual-threat quarterback (Brian Johnson) who can get hot.

Upset written all over it? How about that game will be darn near a pick-em when it goes off? Both squads should start the season in the "others receiving votes" camp and most importantly, the bot has Utah as his 14th-best team. No doubt due to all of their returning talent. Rodriguez Year One won't be the complete disaster some Buckeye fans are praying for, but this Utes team would probably be able to give a good Carr squad a run. Michigan blogs do seem to have taken notice of this threat, so it won't be the sneak attack we saw in last year's opener, but I don't think you can call a potential Utah win an "upset".

---

While we're talking nonconference schedules, have you seen LSU's slate? Appalachian State, a late addition, is the marquee game. The other three games are against Troy, North Texas and Tulane. I know, I know. They play in the SEC, which is like, three times as difficult as playing in the AFC. Or something.

---

If the Big Ten is looking for a 12th team, which I believe it should be, they can probably officially cross Notre Dame off of their list. Despite sagging ratings, the Irish have inked an eight year extension with NBC, effectively ensuring independent status through 2015. You hear Rutgers and Pitt and UC, but who would be your choice to become the conference's 12th member?

---

And finally, this is just brilliant.