ICYMI:
- 2016 four-star ATH George Hill decommitted from Ohio State on Wednesday night.
- Notes (and video) from Urban Meyer's Wednesday presser.
- Meyer says PSU's passing attack is the best they've seen so far.
- Walt's Black Saturday poster may be his best work yet.
BORENS RULE! Braxton Miller is on his way out the door, but we're on the verge of another era's end.
I am, of course, speaking of "The Boren Connection," a family of Pickerington bear-people that have been pumping their mystical blood into Ohio State's program for (seemingly) the last two decades.
From YDR.com:
Nobody expects the starting center for national champions to be plowing snow at 3 in the morning.
But there is Jacoby Boren, the last of three Buckeye brothers. After a good winter storm around Columbus, he spends his nights managing snow removal crews in the family business or simply plowing himself (the stud lineman for No. 1 Ohio State has a plow on the front of his pickup truck).
As the sun comes up he'll pop a couple of energy drinks and head straight to those vicious team weightlifting and conditioning sessions.
Then he'll go to biology classes in his horticulture major as the team's top student with a 3.83 grade-point average.
Little known fact: Boren is Czech for "Boss Hog Outlaw."
When does Jacoby sleep? The profile does not make it clear.
They used to say you could doubt Boren's size, but not his heart. Let the record show: I am doubting his heart, because he may just be a football-horticulture-plowing cyborg that runs on energy drinks.
LOVE TO BE BLUDGEONED BY THE ADS. I work for a non-paywalled Ohio State site. Ads are just the name of the game.
College football programs are bigger beasts than independent websites, but they're out here wringing every cent they can out of advertisers. The new hustle is shaking down corporations for sponsored social media posts.
From BizJournals.com:
Ohio State University, which boasts a larger football-related social media reach than USC, is not paid directly for sponsored social media content, said Diana Sabau, an athletics department spokeswoman. Rather, its media-rights partnerIMG College manages the content as part of their 10-year, $110 million deal signed in 2009.
“All of our sponsorships are sold by IMG,” Sabau told me. “We as an athletics department are not making direct income. We do not monetize from the (social media) post.”
There is no agreed-upon amount of sponsored posts, Sabau said, and the university has input in scheduling so as not to be disruptive to fans.
In a recent example of sponsored content, the football team’s Player of the Week graphic on Facebook had a Mercedes-Benz logo at the bottom.
These schools just can't help themselves at this point. Joshua Perry is a classical human being, but last I checked he doesn't actually sell Mercedes-Benzes. I don't think that's right.
Now I have to pawn my fleet of Mercedes (that I definitely own) to be able to sleep.
BIG BEAR MAULING OFFENSES. Joey Bosa only has one sack to his name thus far, but the Big Bear is still out here moving weight like an interstate drug dealer.
Via @CFBFilmRoom:
And he missed the Virginia Tech game! What an absurd player.
ZEKE PERFECT IN BLOCKING. We all know Ezekiel Elliott is a monster in the pass protection game. But just how good is he? Try perfect.
From ProFootballFocus.com:
Ezekiel Elliott is still pass blocking at 100 percent efficiency (46 pass-block snaps). He is the only perfect pass-blocking running back in the country.
I don't understand running backs who don't want to block. Oh, you don't want to do that thing to protect your QB from getting broken in half? That makes sense.
GOOD LUCK WITH THAT. Penn State, like any college team worth its salt, is doing its best to prepare for a night game on the road:
Loud noises https://t.co/iObkl8kzg2
— Ben Jones (@Ben_Jones88) October 14, 2015
Looks like the PSU football staff scouted Ohio State's pregame soundtrack, too.
— Tyler Feldman (@TyFeldman) October 14, 2015
Piped-in music is one thing. The guttural shouts of the Loko'd-up legions ready to die over Ohio State football is another thing entirely. YOU CAN'T REPLICATE THAT, JAMES.
And say what you will about the black jerseys, but I think they're going to add a few pints of juice to the crowd Saturday night. The perfect football weather shouldn't hurt either.
THOSE WMDs. SPRINGFIELD STAND UP... From Jamaica to Minnesota... Infiltrating an egg-donation industry conference... The 7-foot Chinese tourist boxing in Oscar de la Hoya's world... FBI, Justice Department investigating Daily Fantasy Sports business model.
