*Rises out of the weekend gutter like it's normal* Ahem...
ICYMI:
- The women's rowing team became the fifth team to bring a title back to Columbus this academic year, and it's the first team to three-peat in the sport. That's domination.
- Thee Buckeye commits are headed to Nike's The Opening after impressing in Columbus this weekend.
- Austin Mack: Good.
- Jonathan Cooper: Good.
Oh, and if you missed last night's Game of Thrones you should quit your job and go watch it...
DARRON LEE WILL EAT YOUR SOUL. When Darron Lee was a merely a high school quarterback destroying genetically inferior #teens on behalf of New Albany, Luke Fickell was the one OSU coach who saw a soul-eating linebacker.
Which is crazy, because that means Urban Meyer — a guy who knows a thing or two about football — was saying things like, "Actually, I think Darron Lee is bad."
Urban has since he's glad to be wrong (obvii), but I would pay a handful of crinkled up dollar bills to listen to the audio of Luke Fickell and Urban Meyer debating Lee as a prospect. Those are the kind of looks that the Unwashed like us will never see.
Lee, for his part, is a great lesson in the power of "betting on yourself."
From Doug Lesmerises of cleveland.com (on January 1st):
Last year, he told his roommate, defensive end Joey Bosa, that he was going to fill the hole of the departing Shazier, despite redshirting after barely getting on the field as an undersized first-year player.
"I was like, 'Sure, buddy you are,'" Bosa said. "He was maybe 195 coming out of high school playing quarterback, and he came in here as a safety or something and he played scout team linebacker and I just didn't believe him.
"All of a sudden, he comes in spring and he's killing people. He got huge, he's a fast physical guy, and he's going to be a special player."
A Michigan Man might read this and say, "Well, the obvious answer here is 'steroids,'" but that's only because player development is an art long lost on their peoples.
JAMES HARDEN 2.0? Manu Ginobli was the last NBA comparison we had for D'Angelo Russell.
James Harden plays a more hyper-athletic game than the majestic Argentinian, but Harden's game is still similar to Ginobli's. I hadn't made the connection until yesterday.
Max Sass of CoachSass.com believes Patient 0 is similar to Harden in two ways, scoring and creating.
It will be interesting to how much muscle Russell adds at the next level, because Harden is a ball of muscle.
But I believe Russell will be a more cerebral player than Harden, and thus, more valuable. Russell isn't backing down from the comparison, though:
SLOBRUSBALL COMETH . Quick reminder that an 11W reader made a Top 5 All-Time GIF.
... That GIF just gets better with age.
Of course, Jim Bollman was never as bad as fans made him out to be (check the stats), but I've never pined for Bollman to return for the booth since his exit. (I would be lying if I said I didn't find myself pining for #datmustache though...)
But lo! Another OL coach is set to orchestrate OSU's offense.
From Tony Gerdeman of TheOzone.net:
One of the ways he accomplished this feat was by being extremely demanding of his players. In fact, they called him a perfectionist. How will his demanding ways present themselves in his new position?
"I just do that with everybody now," Warinner said earlier this spring. "That's how you get good. If you graded out at 75%, then we want to grade out at 80%. If you grade out at 80%, then we're trying to get to 85%. If you grade out at 85%, we're trying to get to 90%. Is it realistic to be perfect? In football you can't be perfect. We just have a bar that is set high. We have high expectations. We expect guys to be focused, locked in, know their job, and do it really well.
"So my thing now is to make sure that mentality that we had with our offensive line permeates to all the positions, which we've always had that, it's just I’ve got to continue to carry that banner. So when I see things that I don't like, a receiver doing or a running back or a quarterback doing, now I can step in and say, 'Hey, I'd like to see this a little bit.' Or 'we need to do this this way, this way, so forth.' Just another voice, another set of eyes. Where Tom did that last year, I've got to pick up the slack on some of that this year."
OG Billy Price, one of the most improved Slobs last year from start to finish, said OSU doesn't beat Alabama without Ed Warinner.
Sure, not every talented position coach can make that leap to coordinator, and maybe I'm foolish for thinking replacing Tom Herman will be seamless, but that's where my confidence is at right now with this coaching staff and team.
Assuming Tom Herman and Houston ride out on their enemies, and OSU's offense keeps its torrid pace... Warinner is gone the year after, right? (Warinner's agent might already be fantasizing taking millions of dollars out of Illinois' vault.)
WHAT'S ALL THIS THEN? I'm not sure this is legal, sir.
UNLV commit dunked over four people. pic.twitter.com/3qbOaihj0n
— Inside Access Sports (@Inside_Access_) May 31, 2015
At this rate, I am going to be a bitterly crusty octogenarian banging things like, "IMPRISON ALL #TEENS; THEYRE BECOMING TOO POWERFUL!" into my shitty "smartphone" that my family disconnected three months prior. I can't wait.
THOSE WMDs. The time cats delivered the mail in Belgium.... I assume this shirt costs $30,000... Who owns London's most expensive mansion?... My father's kidnapping... Tourists tricked into paying $200 for free Staten Island Ferry ride.
