Eleven Warriors

Buckeye Commentary brings bad news via various message boards: defensive backs Donald Washington and Eugene Clifford have allegedly been suspended for the LSU game for the ever-descriptive "violation of team rules".

Since our most reliable insider source is a hobo that lives behind a dumpster on Chittenden, all we can do is pass along with what the tubes are buzzing about.

As Keith pointed out, Chimdi Chekwa, last seen getting toasted by Illini receivers and jawing it up with H2O-4, will most likely move into Washington's spot -- with either Andre Amos or Jamario O'Neal getting nickel looks. Not exactly the news you want to hear considering the Tigers' edge speed.

It certainly sucks if true, but you don't go to Ohio State if you can't play a little ball. Tell me you didn't experience a similar "oh shit" moment when Bobby Carpenter broke his leg against the Wolverines a few years ago and a green Laurinaitis entered the game.

But does this tie the Vest's hands a bit when it comes to how creative he wants to get with moving Jenkins around?

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UPDATE: The Dispatch has confirmed the suspension with little additional information besides stating that it is not a legal issue. Oh, and also pointing out that Clifford was busted in high school for possession of the tree.

I'm not really sure what Ali Baba and the 40 thieves means but I know the recently robbed Beastie Boys chant it during Rhymin' and Stealin' so it must be cool. Plus, I don't think any other headlines are left for blog posts about the phenomenon known as SEC Speed so deal with it.

By way of Toledo Talk, here's a comparison of 40 times for Ohio State, LSU and Florida and as you can see, the Buckeyes hold their own on both sides of the ball.

That said, 40 times don't win football games so this is pretty useless info but thought I'd share so I could officially join in the SEC Speed bonanza. Feels good.

Still wondering about the Big Ten officiating crew that came under fire for bad calls in the Penn State/Purdue and Ohio State/Illinois games and was subsequently suspended for the final week of the season? I wasn't either. But now I am.

Evidently, the crew chief, Stephen Pamon lived quite the colorful life.

And by colorlife life, I mean an alleged bankruptcy brought on by gambling debts, beating his girlfriend's kids with an electrical cord and allegedly trying to bone his 19-year-old niece.

Finally, to let you fools know that he's a business-meaning mofo, he got canned by the Chicago Police department for sexual harassment.

Get a load of this:

• He and his wife filed for bankruptcy in 2002 after the couple amassed $429,407 in liabilities, and two of the creditors were casinos.
• He allegedly has gambled at casinos as far back as the 1980s, and a sister-in-law said gambling losses incurred by Pamon and Pamon's wife led to the couple filing for bankruptcy.
• In 1997, he was charged with repeatedly beating three of his girlfriend's four sons with an electrical cord. He told authorities he beat the boys three times.
• He allegedly was fired by the Chicago Police Department in 1996 after two female officers accused him of sexual harassment, according to published reports that cited law-enforcement officials as sources.
• One of Pamon's former wives accused him during a court hearing in 1994 of striking her and sexually assaulting her 19-year-old niece, according to court records.

Take nothing away from the Illini. They played a fantastic game and when the Buckeyes had a chance to get the ball back and tie the game in the 4th quarter, they couldn't get it done.

But in college football, where emotion and momentum play larger roles than they do in any other major sport, it's hard not to wonder how that game would have played out if the fumble that was obvious to everyone, had been called. Down and to the left.. Down and to the left:

Jeff pretty much sums it up:

So what the hell was the Big Ten thinking by letting a guy with that much of a checkered past officiate a game, let alone LEAD a frigging crew? The child abuse and sex charges are alone disgusting....but you let a guy with a GAMBLING problem be in charge of an officiating crew?

Hello, fox. Here's your henhouse. Guard it well, OK?

Jim Delaney has a lot to answer for.

Indeed.

Missing in action for much of the season, both David Lighty and Jon Diebler found the range leading Ohio State to an easy 80-63 win over the Cleveland State Vikings.

Lighty set the tone early scoring 11 of his 15 points in the first half including three triples as the Buckeyes raced out to a 17-3 lead. The enigmatic Cleveland native had his best game since opening night shooting 8/9 from the floor to go along with 8 assists and 3 rebounds. Of course, it wasn't all good as he recorded a season high 5 turnovers.

D-Light had plenty of help in a first half that saw Evan Turner chip in 9 points and 5 boards while bigs Othello Hunter and Kosta Koufos actually both played well in the same game. The two combined for 10 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks in the opening stanza as the Buckeyes built a 35-25 lead on balanced scoring and a typically suffocating defense.

The second half marked the return of "Threebler" as the struggling freshman connected on 5/6 from downtown en route to a game high 17 points after hitting just 9 of his first 49 collegiate triple tries. I'm no scout but I certainly didn't see any changes in Diebler's game. He simply knocked down shots for the first time since his 7/16 performance against the Tar Heels back in late November.

Diebler's first three capped a 16-6 run giving OSU a 51-31 lead with 16 minutes left. Then, leading 60-40 with 11 minutes to go, he supplied the only Buckeye offense for the next 6 minutes hitting three straight from long range to secure the win.

Though Lighty and Diebler were the stars tonight, the Buckeyes placed five in double figures and numerous Buckeyes did their part in producing another lockdown effort at the defensive end.

Koufos was a factor at both ends with 16 points, 7 rebounds and 5 blocks while Hunter offered 14 points and 6 caroms.

Evan Turner made some strides tonight showing a well rounded floor game producing 11 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals against just 2 turnovers after committing 12 miscues in the last two games. The kid has tons of potential and experience will certainly help him refine the details of his game such as learning how to feed the post. (It's called a bounce pass!)

Defensively, the Buckeyes employed the full court trap and a stifling matchup zone to pester the Vikings into 15 turonvers and just 36% shooting. Though this year's Buckeyes are a little tough on the eyes, they will find themselves in the thick of the Big Ten race if the defense can continue to hold opposing offenses in check. Matta's squad has yet to give up more than 70 points in a game and have surrendered an average of 55 points in their 7 wins.

Ohio State 6-3, 0-0 Big Ten Roster | Schedule

December 18, 2007 7:00 PM ET ------ The Q. Cleveland, Oh.

Cleveland St. 7-3, 1-0 Horizon Roster | Schedule

Opponent: Cleveland St. hosts the Buckeyes tonight in the inaugural McLendon Scholarship Classic, a recognition and fund raising event in honor of CSU's former coach John McLendon. Ohio St.'s own Gene Smith will be part of the ceremony, being inducted into the Legends Class of Minority's Athletics Administrators.

Cleveland St. has a roster similar to Ohio State's, returning five players from last year's 10-21 team and adding 10 newcomers. The Vikings are playing their first game in 10 days, having won 6 of their last 7 contests prior to their break. This team is averaging 73 points a game, shooting 46 percent from the floor and 30 percent from beyond the arc.

CSU is still learning to play with each other and will run 8 significant players at Ohio State, with the potential debut of sharp shooting Eric Schiele added to the mix. All eight are playing over 18 minutes a game, so I expect another trapping defense thrown at Thad's boys tonight. Beating Ohio State would be sweet for CSU's 9 native Ohioians and could propel this team into conference play.

Key Players: Cedric Jackson (#11 6'3" Jr.) is a transfer from St. John's and leads this team in scoring (17.9) and assists (5.4). He is also the Vikings leading three point threat, making 17 of 38 attempts thus far. Jackson is joined in double digits by J'Nathan Bullock (#35 6'5" Jr.) and Joe Davis (#23 6'0" So.), scoring 14.5 and 10.3 respectively.

Bullock is presumably the love child of his famous father Jim J. and this woman. Bullock also leads the team in rebounding, snagging close to six a game, while Davis seems to only score and shouldn't be a threat from downtown.

Chris Moore (#42 6'9" Jr.) and George Tandy (#21 6'8" Jr.) will challenge Ohio State's bigs in the paint. Moore is another transfer from UC Santa Barbara and chips in with 7.3 points and 5.2 boards per game. He has hit 16 of his last 22 shots and will be a shot blocking threat to the Buckeye's inside chances. Tandy transfers in from Eastern Illinois, recently cracking the starting lineup with 5.6 points and 5.3 rebounds a game.

Breyhon Watson (#13 6'3" Sr.), Kevin Francis (#5 6'8" Sr.) and D'Aundray Brown (#32 6'4" Fr.) all score around 5 points a tilt and will combine for over 10 boards and 5 assists per. As mentioned, Eric Shielle (#2 5'10 So.) will make his anticipated debut tonight after sitting out the first 10 games with academic problems. He lead the nation in scoring as a high school senior ('05-'06) at 40 points per and had 3 games with at least 12 threeballs.

Notes: Cleveland St. has over 16,000 students and was founded in 1964... CSU is coached bu Gary Waters... Some experts gave Cleveland St. the second best rated recruiting class in Ohio this year, trailing only Ohio St.

Buckeye Breakdown: Ohio State put their shooting woes behind them last game against the mighty Blue Hose and will hopefully continue that trend in yet another venue tonight. The Buckeyes set a Value City Arena record by hitting 35 of their 49 shots, good for 71.4 percent and the second best shooting night in Buckeye history.

Ohio State's overall field goal shooting has been raised to 45 percent on the year, but we'll see if a different arena will cause any problems and if this game will have the feeling of a home or away game. Ohio State has looked timid getting out of traps and their scoring slumps are well documented, any type of trapping D or a cold shooting streak could make this into a nerve wrecker.

I have been anxiously awaiting an unveiling of this team's man to man defense, but I don't know if that is going to happen. This zone defense is starting to grow on me, I like the pressure on the wings and Ohio State has held opponents to 37 percent shooting, including 28 percent from 3land. However the flaws are quite visible.

Any team that overloads one side of the zone can score. While the wings are extended, the corners are left wide open and teams can get open threes from that spot all night. Also Coppin St. worked the baseline and free throw entry passes to keep the game close. Ohio State's rebounding has been effected by the zone as well, giving up numerous second chance opportunities per game and barely out rebounding their opponents. It makes me nervous if this team can not man up at any point.

Key Players: Kosta showed signs of reemerging against an under sized Blue Hose team, scoring 21 points in 21 minutes. He lead a 16-0 run with 9 points in the first half and closed the game missing only 1 of his 9 shots. His dwindling rebounding numbers are starting to concern me though, knowing how physical play is going to get after the New Year's.

Jamar Butler played with great energy and needs to bottle some of that for every game. His penetration in the second half fueled Ohio State and Jamar finished with 8 assists and 16 points. He connected on another 3 threes and is shooting a torrid 45 percent from the arc.

There was a David Lighty and Othello Hunter sighting last game and Buckeye fans are hoping the don't miss another game tonight. These two are critical for this team, their combined 21 point, 10 rebound effort last game has to become the norm for these two if Ohio State is to have any success this year.

I believe the rest of the freshman are getting closer to contributing significantly to Thad's squad. Evan "Turner-over" has done just that the last three games, but has injected some scoring and defensive help. Diebler is going to break out soon, I can feel it and Eric Wallace got some confidence with 6 points and 4 boards.

Notes: Sportstime Ohio will televise tonight's game... Jamar Butler is now 6th on Ohio State's all time assists list, with 405, 14 behind 5th place Ronnie Stokes... Thad Matta is 3-0 all-time against Cleveland St...

Once again, Anthony Gonzalez earned 11W's Buckeye NFLer of the Week. Gonzo had 7 catches for 86 yards, leading the Colts in both categories. With less than 5 minutes left in the contest, Gonzo's 7th catch of the day was a game-winning 20-yard pass from Peyton Manning as the Colts rallied late to beat the Oakland Raiders 21-14.

Week 15 was the 3rd time Gonzo has won 11W's weekly award. He also nabbed this prestigious award in Week 5 and Week 12. Arguably, Gonzo could've been Week 14's recipient as well.

Anthony Gonzalez has had a promising rookie season. Being a 1st round draft choice by the Colts and with the departure of Brandon Stokley, you kind of got a feeling that Gonzo had a chance to be a very productive rookie. It didn't hurt that Manning was going to be the QB throwing to Gonzo either.

Considering Gonzo started his first game in Week 5 due to Marvin Harrison's injury, as well as the intangibles listed above, Gonzo started out the season kind of slow only having 15 catches for 207 yards and no TDs in his first 8 games. But since his return 4 weeks ago from a broken thumb injury, Gonzo has steadily improved and has become another weapon for Peyton Manning. His numbers since his injury are an impressive 21 catches for 347 yards and 3 TDs.

Nothing but good things are being said about Gonzo around the league right now. Peyton Manning is impressed with Gonzo's ability to be coached. Manning also does not want to rest in able to gain a better rapport with new players like Gonzo even though the Colts are locked as the AFC's 2nd seed in the playoffs. The fantasy world is also abuzz with Gonzo's rising fantasy stock.

It's looking more and more like Anthony Gonzalez will have a Ted Nugent-style stranglehold on this season's Buckeye NFLer of the Year. Matt Wilhelm and Joey Galloway still have a chance to tie Gonzo with awards won as they both own two of them themselves. Only time will tell.

Bob Hunter had a pretty interesting piece in yesterday's Dispatch about the current state of national hate following the program. He shared a Barton quote that sums up what we've all seen plenty of online:

"In all likelihood we will be the underdogs, because we know that pretty much everyone on Earth hates us."

I usually take it with a grain of salt online. College football fandom has nearly reached the ridiculous level of politics to the point of "If your guy does it, think of the children!! However, if it's my guy, it's overblown and things are under control."

Gordon Gee took his turn at running some smack when Hunter asked him about the hate:

".. hate would not be the word I would use. Admiration. Fear. Jealousy. Envy. Try those words."

Buckeye fans can certainly be obnoxious, but these days, trash comes in all colors.

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Meanwhile, the DDN reports that fans are just as cautious as we are heading into the Championship.

Michigan West Virginia North finally found their guy.

Only 8 months after hiring Mountaineer basketball coach John Beilein, the Wolverines plucked football coach Rich Rodriguez to replace Lloyd Carr and become the schools 18th head football coach.

No word yet on whether they'll also make a run at the "King of Pork", in an effort to get the stadium renovation funds cooking.

The hiring finally ends the 28 days of pain endured by Wolverine fan as they come out of the ordeal with a good hire. Maybe not the guy they wanted most, but in the long run, probably a better selection. In one move, Michigan advanced their offensive scheme 20 years.

As SVM pointed out in the comments, Terrelle Pryor is now in play for Michigan and the thought of going from front-runner to potentially having to gameplan against Vince 2.0 is not exactly inspiring pleasant thoughts. They better hope they can land him because the thought of Luc Longley Ryan Mallett running that set is inspiring inspiring pleasant thoughts.

Rodriguez has a pretty hefty buyout clause ($4m) with Michigan expected to pick up most of that. He's also taking some heat on the way out for deciding to leave the team prior to their Fiesta Bowl matchup with the Sooners.

UPDATE: Rodriguez will reportedly be making $2.4m per.

Playing their first D-1 season, the Presbyterian College Blue Hose actually led OSU 14-11 nine minutes in before a 16-0 Buckeye run led to a 40-20 lead at the half. The second half was more of the same as the Buckeyes came out with a 12-0 burst leading to an 87-43 rout.

The Buckeyes were scorching from the field (71%) including 10/15 from downtown and the full court press produced 18 turnovers but the 'game' was such a mismatch that it's hard to get too excited about what we witnessed.

Kosta Koufos bounced back from his recent benching with 21 points on 8/9 shooting but continued his trend of avoiding contact at all costs, it just didn't matter against the overmatched Blue Hose. Koufos moved freely along the baseline against the PC zone defense notching easy buckets on nice feeds from Jamar Butler and the high post passers to fuel the 16-0 first half run.

Butler dropped in 16 points (6/8 FG) but more importantly, his 8 assists gave the offense some flow allowing OSU to scale back on the ridiculous amount of three point shots they took Monday against Coppin State. In that game, the Buckeyes attempted more threes (22) than two's (19) because the offense lacked movement. Today, only 15 of the 49 total shots came from deep although the level of competition most certainly had a lot to do with the offense looking like, well, an offense.

At the other end of the floor, the Buckeye defense continues to get the job done. Taking away penetration and anything on the low blocks, Thad's matchup zone held the Blue Hose to 34% shooting forcing them into 32 three point attempts out of 44 total shots. The Buckeyes also had a good day on the glass with a 30-14 edge.

Individually, Evan 'Turner-over' made his second straight start and lived up to the nickname Corey bestowed upon him last week committing 7 turnovers in 17 minutes of action. That makes 12 miscues in his two starts and marked the third time this year he had atleast 5 in a game. Turner's got the skills to be a double digit scorer but he's been consistently careless with the rock, most notably on some of the laziest post entry passes we've ever seen.

Othello Hunter added 13 points (6/8 FG), 5 boards and 3 assists hitting double figures for the 4th time in 9 games. Fellow starter David Lighty hit a couple threes and finished with 8 points and 5 boards.

Jon Diebler came off the bench with an active 6 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists in just 13 minutes. In total, the reserves added 24 points and 12 boards after scoring just 4 points in the last 3 games combined. Besides Diebler, Eric Wallace (6 pts, 4 reb) and P.J. Hill (5 pts) gave Thad the most off the pine.

Again, I have no reason to believe today's win is a sign of growth based on the opponent but the Buckeyes did what they were supposed to do and remain on track to be no worse than 8-4 when the conference season begins.

Cleveland State is up next (Tue 12/18) so secure your valuables if you see former Buckeye/Viking Damon Stringer hanging around.

Coach Tressel announced yesterday that Antonio Henton has replaced Rob Schoenhoft as the backup quarterback, at least for the championship game.

Horny Henton still has plenty of work to do with regard to the passing game but his running skills looked good early and that hasn't changed according to DL Doug Worthington:

"He has been juking cats in practice. He had a couple of good runs today. He is looking tremendous."

I'm glad to hear Henton's coming along but I agree with Brian Hartline's assessment of the situation:

"It's a major move but I think it wouldn't really matter if Boeckman goes down anyway we might be in some trouble. Both guys are going to be good but they're not ready yet."

I wonder if Henton might get a snap or two on plays designed especially for the LSU defense? Another long term consideration (credit reader Harold) could be that Tressel needs to free up some room on the QB depth chart for the arrival of Terelle Pryor.

As for "Schoenhop" (inspired by reader Zach), he's helping out at TE on the scout team. Nobody is saying whether or not this is a permanent thing but based on his few opportunities at QB, I don't think anyone is worried about losing Schoenhop to scout team duties.