Eleven Warriors

Elizabeth Gee was just 46 when breast cancer killed her. She left behind an adopted teenage daughter as well as a grieving husband, who had barely been Ohio State's president for a year when she passed 22 years ago this December.

Elwood Gordon Gee and Elizabeth had been married 22 years earlier in Utah. They've now been apart as long as they were together.

The Gees had each other through college, law school and his rapid ascent into academia that saw him become West Virginia University's president at the age of 37, Colorado's at 41 and Ohio State's at 46. Suddenly, he was a young widower in Columbus, a town he barely knew.

And the town overwhelmed him with comfort during the most challenging time of his life. It rallied around Gee in 1991 and quickly calibrated his unique character with its idiosyncratic culture through the unwanted vehicle of his own personal tragedy. Elizabeth quickly became everyone's shared loss.

Gee was forever changed by this reception. Not just by losing his wife, but by Ohio State's impact on him during that difficult time. It shaped the way he still carries himself today when attending to the affairs of advancing his beloved institution.

In recent weeks, the Big Ten has been at the center of multiple public relations disasters. First came the hiring of Julie Hermann as Rutgers athletic director. The move was seen as a positive after the controversial ending of Tim Pernetti’s tenure.

Rutgers brass was hailed as progressive by hiring a woman, the first female athletic director in school history. When the Scarlet Knights enter the Big Ten in 2014, Hermann will be just the second woman AD in the 117-year history of the conference. That is if she is still employed.

Since her hiring, numerous controversies and scandals from her past have arisen. Former Tennessee women’s volleyball players have come forward and said Hermann, who served as the head coach of the Volunteers for six seasons was verbally and emotionally abusive. In a letter to documenting Hermann’s alleged abuses, 15 members of the 1996 Tennessee team stated that Hermann called them “whores, alcoholics and learning disabled.”

Welcome to another thrilling Skull Session. After securing season football tickets yesterday I'm so excited I'll use some colorful language: dadgummit, I can't wait for some goldarn football.

The window for student season football tickets opened yesterday afternoon for upperclassmen and will continue through ranks of underclassmen.

If any tickets are left (fat chance), they will be sold to the public. Estimated price: 1.5 kidneys per game.

In other pump-up news, Phil Steele released his Preseason All-Big Ten teams. Six Buckeyes (Christian Bryant, Jack Mewhort, Braxton Miller, Andrew Norwell, Bradley Roby, and Ryan Shazier) were on the First Team while sixteen were recognized overall.

At this point, everyone is scrounging for football news, so why not find out about three seasons from now? The Big Ten's 2015 conference schedule was announced, giving Ohio State the same combination as its 2014 slate with only a reversal of home and away games.

Afte heavy recruiting from Ohio State and just about everyone, top-ranked 2014 quarterback Kyle Allen committed to Texas A&M yesterday. On the bright side, it may open the door to fellow quarterback recruit Brandon Harris for the Buckeye. Ohio State and Texas A&M were both recruiting Harris, and with Allen's commitment it appear Harris has removed A&M from consideration in about the most gracious way possible.

Even if Elite 11 quarterbacks don't always pan out (see: Troy Smith vs. Justin Zwick) they don't grow on trees; OSU will have to recruit Harris hard between now and his announcement on July 18th. It also wouldn't hurt to land a good guard (or a good 2015 defensive lineman for that matter).

The month of June has just arrived and National Signing Day 2014 is over eight months away. It's never too early to start ranking the recruiting classes and seeing how the Buckeyes stack up against the other Big Ten teams, including Rutgers and Maryland. 

Michigan landed Jabrill Peppers this past week.

Ohio State and Michigan are unsurprisingly leading the way in recruiting for the Big Ten. Northwestern is having a very good year recruiting and Penn State has been able to recruit well despite the sanctions from the Jerry Sandusky case. 

It is still early in this recruiting cycle with many teams only having a handful of commits. Each week we will examine the latest movement in the rankings, the latest commitments, and up-to-date recruiting news for all the Big Ten teams. 

Check in each Monday evening to view our most up to date B1G football team recruiting rankings. Will Ohio State be able to catch Michigan? Where does Rutgers and Maryland stack up against the other Big Ten teams? 

Here is how we currently rank the fourteen B1G teams: 

Flags.

Everybody wants a flag. Schools, cities, townships, states, countries, whatever. People want a flag because it's a physical representation of what the people from whatever is being represented want you to think about then you're visiting. Sometimes they want you to know that they figured out how to make text effects in PowerPoint. Sometimes they want you to know that they are having an epileptic seizure (looking at you, Maryland). Other times it's that they want you to know that they're okay with being a flyover state, and the flag is really just a vehicle for their state logo, which we all know is really where the sausage is made.

Anyway, for whatever reason people get seriously attached to their state flags, even if in the back of their minds they have a sneaking suspicion that their state flag actually sucks. That can be rough, so this week I've decided to not just do my usual rankings, but also provide a handy, three step guide for people not in the B1G footprint to objectively determine if their state flag indeed sucks. I can't pretend to be definitive, but if your state flag meets two out of the three criteria, there's a decent chance that it sucks.

For anyone still unsure after reading this post, spoiler alert: it probably does.

The tale of Maurice Clarett is well-known among Buckeye faithful. The abridged version goes something like this:

Clarett's star once shone bright in Columbus

As a freshman, Clarett was an unbelievable talent, apparent from the moment he stepped on the field. 

In his first game as a Buckeye he tallied 175 rushing yards and three TDs against Texas Tech.

From there it was up-and-up as Clarett churned out 1,341 total yards, 18 total TDs, a game saving play and a national championship win.

As a freshman, Clarett helped a team reach college football’s pinnacle. Unfortunately, No. 13’s fall from the precipice would happen nearly as quickly.

The following season, Clarett was suspended from the team for accepting benefits. Around the same time, Maurice filed a phony police report alleging $10,000 worth of goods had been stolen from him.

Clarett then tried to enter the NFL draft, but was rebuffed due to the league’s rules stating a player must be at least three years out of H.S. to be eligible.

Clarett sued the league, and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court, where he lost.

Maurice spent the next two years in football purgatory. Unable to go to the NFL, he languished in a drug and alcohol induced haze.

In 2005, Maurice worked out at the combine and was drafted in the third round by the Denver Broncos. However, his partying lifestyle continued and he was cut from the team before the end of training camp.

We’re still nearly three months away from the start of the 2013 Ohio State football season. Everything is terrible and nothing is OK.

We can’t foresee the future and living in the now is unbearable. So why not relive the past a little?

The 12-0 season didn’t result in a conference championship or a bowl game but those weren’t in the cards anyway. The only thing the Buckeyes could do in 2012 was to win every game and force people to write stories like this and this. And this. They did that.

The Buckeyes completed just the 10th undefeated season in school history and just the sixth year without a loss or a tie. It was the first since the 14-0 2002 season that culminated in Ohio State’s most recent national championship (and boy do I have a story about that on Friday, but I digress).
By the end of 2012, the Buckeyes were battle tested and prepared for anyone, prompting head coach Urban Meyer to say, “At this point in time, Ohio State can go and play with anybody in America.”

It is extremely difficult to run the table in college football. Too many things can go against a team — an untimely penalty, a turnover, poor execution, etc. Almost anything can derail one game and one game can derail a perfect season.

Today we’ll look back at the five moments in 2012 that were pivotal in spelling the difference between perfection and just another year.

Bowl games are the gifts that keep on giving. Just when it feels like college football has been abandoned, the New Mexico Bowl pops up on your television. In hot pursuit are the New Orleans, Potato and Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl. Each game features 6-6 teams or mid-tier finishers from obscure conferences.

But people watch because even mediocre football is better than no football. We're so starved for football that we'll spend summer hours discussing freshly-published television schedules.

The latest twist to draw headlines from Lincoln, Neb., to College Park. Md., is the Big Ten’s new bowl lineup, which is set to include the Pinstripe Bowl played in Yankee Stadium. The Orange and Music City Bowls also have been added to the rotation, while the Holiday, Kraft Fight Hunger and a new game in Detroit are rumored to be new additions.

The speculation on new and old Big Ten’s bowl started two weeks ago at the conference’s meetings between athletic directors and commissioner Jim Delany. From the time the Pinstripe Bowl came into the discussion, there’s been an air of intrigue surrounding the game.

“New York City is the financial sports capital of the world,” Delany said. “It’s a global city like Chicago. We’ll have conversations with them.”

Welcome to Monday. We're fresh off a huge recruiting weekend with Ohio State hosting the Nike Football Training Camp (NFTC) and the Elite 11 quarterback competition, so we'll try to catch you up on the metric ton of news those events generated.

Four-star quarterback Brandon Harris, stopped by Ohio State to take an unofficial visit Friday before shining during the Elite 11 competition and liked what he saw. It won't be easy pulling him away from Texas A&M and LSU, but the fact that his Twitter banner is now an 11W photo has to mean good things, right?

Toledo Central Catholic quarterback DeShone Kizer performed well, too, capturing the "golden ticket" to the Elite 11 final Saturday. Kizer does not have an Ohio State offer at this point, but remains open to school, despite competing offers from Alabama, LSU, Tennessee and others.

Sunday's NFTC saw players of all positions compete for invites to The Opening, with two future Buckeyes capturing MVP honors at their positions. Kyle Berger of St. Ignatius was named MVP of the linebacker group, while Damon Webb of Detroit's Cass Tech – considered the best player in the state of Michigan – was judged to be tops among defensive backs. For their efforts, both were awarded golden tickets, as was fellow Ohio State commit Dylan Thompson, for his work on the defensive line.

You can catch up on Jeremy and Miles' full camp report here.

Da'Shawn Hand, the nation's top prospect in the eyes of some, was also in town, accompanying teammate Tim Settles. We caught up with both to discuss their trips to Columbus. Hand has moved on, but Settle, a 2015 prospect is in play for the Buckeyes.

For more video, see our interviews with Ohio State commits Dante Booker and Damon Webb, in addition to our interviews with camp wide receiver MVP Montae Nicholson and tackle Sterling Jenkins.

When it comes to recruiting camps, there are few out there that garner the attention that the NFTC, Nike's training camp series, does. The camp brings together hundreds of the best football players from all over the country, all competing for a spot in Nike's invitational camp on their Eugene, Oregon campus, "The Opening."

Today in Columbus that camp brought out roughly 500 of the midwest's best, and ten of them put in the work to earn their invitations to Oregon. While the parameters for selection to "The Opening" are not public – and I'm convinced some players are selected before they even work out – it's clear how important the chance to prove themselves against the best in the country are to the attendees. It's a matter of pride, both personal and for their high schools, prospective colleges, and their families. 

The ten players who received their invitation: