Love to read headlines like "Heisman Overnight ties multi-year low." The Heisman, like Nebraska football, used to be worth something. Nostalgia coins have value in the arcade game of life, but like the well-respected quarter, they only go so far.
If America is moving on from the Heisman—was Derrick Henry the best player on his team?—then I'm with that wave. Let's ignore it next year and make a spectacle of how fast it's condemned to a Papa John's sponsorship.
This isn't to disparage past winners either. Just because nobody drives a Ford Model T doesn't mean it wasn't a game-changer.
WHERE OHIO STATE COULD LAND A KNOCKOUT BLOW. I'm not an octogenarian, so I carry no memory of a Buckeye loss to Notre Dame, a school people tell me is good but is always getting embarrassed when it matters.
That's not hate either, check the links.
You might be surprised, however, to hear the more I've researched this matchup the more I like the Buckeyes' chances.
From landgrantholyland.com:
Offensive standard downs
This isn't a single statistic, but more the entire group of stats that focus on how well the Ohio State offense does on standard downs. Overall standard downs S&P+, success rate, IsoPPP (explosiveness), and line yards (offensive line performance) are all in favor of the Buckeyes. That means that (especially) in short-yardage situations as well as run-of-the-mill early downs, the Buckeyes should find a lot of success with an efficient and explosive offense. Moving the ball and avoiding three-and-outs shouldn't be a problem (which will also be aided by Ohio State's decisive field position advantage, third on defense to 81st on offense). The Buckeyes should be especially deadly on first down, where they rank third in the country to Notre Dame's 63rd defense. The only area where Ohio State should be worried is in pass protection on standard downs, where Notre Dame has a statistical advantage built on the efforts of guys like Romeo Okwara (the sack leader with nine on the season) and Sheldon Day.
It would take Touchdown Jesus' divine influence for Notre Dame to beat Ohio State if the Irish get bullied on field position.
If the Irish are getting bullied on field position it means they're losing the line battles, and Ohio State basically can't be beat if it wins both trenches.
LOOK, IN THE SKY. IS THAT A PLANE? Ohio State football fandom is the cheat code to life, but rudimentary facts can still astonish:
Most Wins in last 30 years (P5): 289 - FSU 285 - Nebraska 276 - Ohio State 272 - Miami 271 - OU 259 - Michigan 257 - UGA 253 - BYU 252 - PSU
— Travis Johnson (@trapj99) December 15, 2015
Whew, some programs *cough*Penn State*cough* on that list have the aura of Jack Dawson's frozen corpse at the end of Titanic.
Not only is Ohio State third... is any program on that list in better condition? Oklahoma "arguably" but let's see if Bob Stoops pulls two rabbits out of his hat before we hold those talks. Even then, the Sooners are 13 wins behind the Buckeyes.
Ohio State may not win a title this year (I'm hopeful Urban Meyer and the Buckeyes ruin the championship with foreign objects), but there's reason to believe we'll all ride into the sunset with Ohio State as the winningest teams in our lifetimes.
It's just a damn shame our enemies won't be around in the afterlife to hear our chalices clink.
HOUSE DIVIDED. The "house divided" is a trope well explored in literature. It's because it happens in real life.
Consider the Smith family of Fort Wayne, Indiana. It could use those two-jersey abominations conjured by Laura Hawk for the 2006 Fiesta Bowl.
From ndinsider.com:
Rod Smith identified Ohio State as his dream school as a child. Jaylon Smith preferred to watch the NFL and picked the New England Patriots as his team.
[...]
Then Jaylon Smith developed into a five-star prospect and claimed scholarship offers from all over the country. But the decision came down to the two schools not too far from Fort Wayne, Ind.: Notre Dame and Ohio State.
“That was my second choice,” Smith said of Ohio State. “Being a great university, a fine university, with a rich tradition similar to Notre Dame. Very close to home. There’s a lot of factors that played into it. I just felt more comfortable with Notre Dame. Ohio State’s a great school.”
His older brother supported his choice.
You want to know why elite coaches are willing to bend break recruiting rules? Imagine the difference Jaylon Smith would make for Ohio State... a team that didn't start a slouch at linebacker.
That's how championships are won. Hell, that's how $4 million salaries are won.
THE PEOPLE. "Covering" Ohio State made me realize the true magnitude of Ohio State athletics. Some fans know the football team's roster by heart, but even they are ignorant to most of the names that go into coordinating and supporting the teams they love to know.
From dispatch.com:
[Eric] Buchanan, a longtime equipment manager with 20 years of experience at the university -- the past seven with the basketball team -- had just received a text message [16 hours before Ohio State's game with Connecticut] from coach Thad Matta. Associate coach Dave Dickerson’s sister had just died, Matta said, and the Buckeyes wanted to honor her memory in some way for a game on Saturday against the Huskies. It was around 11:30 p.m. Thursday, and Ohio State was scheduled to depart at 3 p.m. the following day.
So when Buchanan turned in a bunch of scarlet jerseys with a black, circular patch with the initials “GH” – for Gloria Heyward – above the Big Ten logo on the left breast, he breathed a sigh of relief.
“It’s family,” Buchanan said. “Just get it done. We knocked it out real quick, and it worked out. It sounds like maybe a lot of work from the outside, but for us inside, we were just trying to get it done.”
Sad but true: Thad Matta will never get the props he deserves as a coach or a human.
THAT'S WHY THEY CALL HIM SILK. Well, D'Angelo Russell did it; he moved to Los Angeles and hit it big. He's a celebrity hitting trick shots before Lakers games:
Even crazier: The Lakers beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 113-95.
Russell, again playing off the bench, finished with 19 points, 7 assists, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals. Unfortunately Byron Scott remains as head coach.
THOSE WMDs. The jet set life of Karl Langford's favorite male model—for now... They built it and no one came... 76 totally fake images from 2015... One night at Kachka... Ask a high school student who didn't do the required reading... Former locations of NYC newspapers.
