Specific shoutout to everyone tending to their lawns on this beautiful spring Saturday. We are the guardians against the evil weeds that never sleep.
ICYMI:
- Cornerback Rodjay Burns is off to Louisville. (Ohio State now doesn't need to grayshirt kicker Blake Haubeil if it doesn't want to get to 85.)
- Report: A doctor's concerns about Dontre Wilson's foot sank his opportunity with the Los Angeles Chargers.
- The biggest questions facing Big Ten West teams after spring football.
- Help put a life-size statue of Woody Hayes in his hometown of Newcomerstown, Ohio.
Word of the Day: Treacly.
ELFLEIN VIKES UP. Pat Elflein is a Minnesota Viking now, which makes as much sense in 2017 as it would've in 1958.
The Vikings only needed a selection near the top of the third round to pick the Pickerington man, which is great value.
Elflein will try to become the latest King Slob to walk into a starting role his rookie year.
From startribune.com:
In 2013, when Elflein was a redshirt freshman and a backup guard for the Buckeyes, four of the five starting linemen were future NFL starters. Jack Mewhort, Andrew Norwell, Corey Linsley and Taylor Decker all went on to earn starting jobs as rookies when they got to the NFL.
[...]
"There's a lot of my former teammates that have done that. Hats off to them. Those guys are great players. They went into a good situation and played well all year," Elflein said at rookie camp last weekend. "I'm just coming in and trying to give this team everything I've got and whatever happens, if it's on the field or whatever, that's why I'm here is to help this team."
Elflein, whom the Vikings have put at center, said that one of the biggest keys to him being able to start right away will be learning the offense. He got his digital playbook last weekend and said the Vikings scheme and their offensive terminology "is not too much different" from how Ohio State did things. Still, learning a new offense "takes time."
The great thing about the list of former Buckeyes to earn starting roles is it includes undrafted free agents (Norwell) to first-round draft picks (Decker).
Let's pour one out for former Ohio State Slobmaster Ed Warinner. Gone but not forgotten.
LIMITED EDITION ZEKE BOBBLEHEAD. You might have heard by now: Ezekiel Elliott did big things as a Dallas Cowboys rookie last season. Now, according to something called the National Bobblehead Museum, which is apparently a real thing, is hawking limited-edition Ezekiel Elliott Ohio State bobbleheads.
From cbssports.com:
Limited edition bobbleheads featuring Prescott and Elliott in their respective college uniforms are on sale from the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum. The bobbleheads are $40 a piece and display Prescott and Elliott in their old uniforms at Mississippi State and Ohio State.
According to the Hall of Fame and Museum, there are only 144 Prescott bobbleheads produced of each player.
National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum
Yours for the low price of $40. No, that doesn't include any broken down Alabama bobbleheads to go with it. I checked.
N E V E R T W E E T. We make jokes about social media interns and managers but often forget there are real people reading the abuse hurled at corporate accounts.
Ohio State basketball has tried to dovetail on the social media innovation of the football team. Unfortunately, social media can be a hard time when your team isn't competing for a national championship every season.
From cleveland.com:
“When you looked at how the season was going, you just had to be cognizant of what was going on,” Davis told cleveland.com during an interview session last month with the team behind Ohio State basketball’s new social media push.
“It’s hard to be super creative and pump things out when you know the focus at the time had to be on winning basketball games.”
That’s just part of the problem facing Davis, Aaron and Joe Gemma -- a graphic designer recently hired to work for both the men’s and women’s basketball programs.
That article is worth reading in full if only to prevent you from cussing out the basketball program's Twitter account during a heated NIT game next season.
SHOELACE BACK? Denard Robinson, the greatest quarterback Michigan ever produced, is the last Wolverine player to strike fear into the burnt apricot that is my heart.
After playing with the Jacksonville Jaguars last season as an "offensive weapon," Robinson is trying to stay in the league with the Chicago Bears.
From maizenbrew.com:
Robinson is a part of the Chicago Bears’ 67-player 2017 rookie minicamp roster and is one of nine veterans who will attempt to make the team on a tryout basis.
“Shoelace” was selected in the fifth round of the 2013 NFL Draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars, who turned the former Michigan quarterback into a running back.
Crazy how the most prominent Michigan alumnus in the NFL to beat Ohio State is in the twilight of his career.
SHARK HUMPER IDENTIFIED. Great news: The psychopath who humped a dead shark has been identified. Bad news: It wasn't Florida coach Jim McElwain.
From orlandosentinel.com:
The naked guy on the shark may have finally been identified, and it is reportedly a man named “Shawn” from upstate New York who is a former New York City police officer. And, get this, he was was going to meet with Florida Gators coach Jim McElwain to share a laugh about the infamous picture.
That’s what David Pingalore, sports anchor for WKMG-TV in Orlando, told the Orlando Sentinel’s Mike Bianchi on Friday on Bianch’s “Open Mike” radio show on 96.9 The Game.
“This guy lives in upstate New York, that photo was taken two years ago off the shores of Long Island — not in Florida,” Pingalore said. “I have the man that’s fully clothed that’s naked on the shark, on the boat. Yes, normal photographs.”
I have bad news for Florida's coach: This won't stop SEC and Florida State fans from saying you humped a shark.
And so hopefully concludes the "SEC coach doppelgänger humps dead animal" portion of the season.
THOSE WMDs. Zune diehards still obsessed with Microsoft's colossal failure... Why your sense of smell is better than you think... The harmony that keeps Trappist-1’s 7 Earth-size worlds from colliding... The Strawberry Girls... What is lost when a calorie is burned?
