Friday, baby! And instead of preparing for a secondary trophy game in Indianapolis, the local team's coaches are recruiting. As always, it's a great day to be a Buckeye.
ICYMI:
- 2017 five-star LB Baron Browning committed to Ohio State last night.
- What Ohio State is getting in Browning.
- Mgoblog.com Browning reaction thread.
- The No. 9 women's basketball team fell to No. 18 Miami, 94-89.
This week's NSFW ANTI-WORK #BANGERS:
- Greg Jennings (broken leg) scores on the Saints.
- Deadwood: Best scene.
- Deadwood: Swearengen's best rant.
MAKES YOU THINK. Statistics are funny. When humans agree with them, they become a truth bullet. But when we disagree, we say things like "Statistics can be used to say anything," as if it's true.
A narrative of this season has been J.T. Barrett's regression as a downfield passer. But the statistics say he's been on par with his 2014 breakout season.
The narrative that J.T. Barrett has regressed as a downfield passer since his freshman year is simply not accurate pic.twitter.com/7K2aUBTUuw
— CFB Film Room (@CFBFilmRoom) December 1, 2016
Those deep ball numbers surprised me, but the bad isn't all be on Barrett. The caliber of his receiver matters too:
But he's always been good at 20+ yds when throwing to his NFL WRs:
— CFB Film Room (@CFBFilmRoom) December 1, 2016
7-15 to C.Samuel in '16
5-10 to M.Thomas in '15
11-19 to D.Smith in '14
My playoff wish list: long touchdowns to Noah Brown.
PEACE OUT, SCHIANO? Urban Meyer requires two-year stints from assistant coaches he hires. But Greg Schiano, a former NFL head coach, isn't an average assistant.
On top of that, Meyer and Schiano are boys from way back. Schiano probably won't be held to that standard.
From 247sports.com:
Why? Well, combing back through interviews from earlier this year, Schiano was asked in the spring if he did in fact have some type of handshake deal with Meyer to stay at Ohio State for at least two seasons.
[...]
"I don't know anything about that," Schiano said.
My take? Meyer and Schiano had a one-year agreement, with the caveat that Schiano would not leave OSU after just one season unless a good power-5 job came knocking.
It will be interesting to see what happens with Schiano. Some program will kick the tires on a former NFL and college head coach with a revamped image. Just a matter of fit.
Meyer could be replacing both defensive coordinators, too, as Luke Fickell looks more and more like he's ready to leave the nest.
BOSA PROUD OF SPENCE'S JOURNEY. Here's one of my favorite pipe dreams: Noah Spence and Joey Bosa book-ending the 2014 championship team.
Spence took the scenic route to the NFL compared to Bosa. But he's performing too; the NFL named the Tampa Bay DE Defensive Rookie of the Month last night.
Sunday, the former teammates meet when the San Diego Chargers host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Bosa, the No. 3 overall pick of the draft, is proud of his former teammate's transformation.
From espn.com:
"Coming in, I kind of knew he was the guy and he was who I’d watched -- him and Adolphus Washington," Bosa said. "I was a little intimidated, because I knew I was going to have to turn into that one day. But at the same time, it was great having some great players to watch as a young player at Ohio State."
[...]
"I knew if he kept his head on straight and kept working like he knows how to, he would make something of himself," Bosa said. "He is doing just that. I am proud of him.”
[...]
"Noah, he’s a testament to turning your life around," Bosa said. "I’ve always known he’s a great kid, and any coach that ever asked anything about him to me, I always gave him the best. I’m happy. I knew he would work as hard as he can to get into the position he’s in now, and I’m really proud of him and I’m excited to see him out there this Sunday."
As a Browns fan, it's heartwarming to know neither of these players had a place in Cleveland. And by "heartwarming" I mean it makes me want to throw up in my bathtub.
MENSA FULLY LOADED. Tom Herman, the founder of MENSA, the organization for geniuses, can be thin-skinned when faced with media criticism or reporting he doesn't like.
We'll see how that plays in Austin if Texas loses to the Big 12 equivalent of Memphis in Year 2, but there's no denying he's in a prime spot to inherit Charlie Strong's work of pulling the Longhorns out of a cultural black hole.
From uproxx.com:
And no wonder that teenage recruits seem to be, too. Unlike Strong, Herman has some local ties: He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Texas, under Brown, and spent the next decade in the state as a small-school assistant. At Ohio State, he was largely responsible for luring Texas native J.T. Barrett to Columbus after the Longhorns passed. Within a few months of his arrival at Houston, Herman landed a stunning commitment from one of the most coveted prospects in the state, five-star defensive tackle Ed Oliver, the catalyst for a recruiting class that ultimately ranked higher than the majority of classes in the Big 12. (In his first year Oliver has already emerged as the most disruptive interior lineman in the country, to which Lamar Jackson can attest.)
At his introductory press conference on Sunday, Herman echoed Brown’s silver-tongued overtures to local prep coaches, reassuring the stewards of the “best high school football-playing state in America” that Texas “is their football program.” With a little more than two months left in the 2017 recruiting cycle, six of the state’s top 15 prospects according to 247Sports remain uncommitted and on the Longhorns’ radar.
[...]
But the momentum also stems from the sense that Herman (again, unlike Strong) will inherit a roster that is built to win right away. Among Texas fans, in fact, that’s one of the primary reasons so many of them were genuinely rooting for Strong to survive the turbulence of this season: If he could just make it to year four, the outlook for 2017 was considerably brighter than it was for any of his first three, no mater who happened to be the coach.
I'm telling you what: Those Texas–Ohio State playoff match-ups will be bangers, and it will probably happen before the Buckeyes roll into Austin on Sept. 17, 2022 (two weeks after hosting Notre Dame; it's lit!).
PROBABLY LOOKING FOR OXY. We've all seen the movies where a nefarious criminal (or well-intentioned good guy) dons hospital scrubs and walks freely in a hospital where everyone is too busy to notice an impostor.
It's a bad idea to try that in real life.
From thelantern.com:
A 36-year-old man was arrested at the Ohio State University Hospital on Tuesday after allegedly fighting with security staff while dressed in surgical scrubs.
Arthur Joseph Allen was arrested by University Police at Doan Hall, located inside the university hospital. He has been charged with criminal trespassing, a fourth-degree misdemeanor.
[...]
Allen knowingly entered and remained inside a Doan Hall lounge restricted to physicians employed by the university, according to court records. There, while reportedly donning OSU hospital scrubs, he allegedly refused to identify himself when questioned by hospital staff.
How long do you think you could converse with a doctor in a professional setting before they realized you weren't a colleague? My hustle would be to say I am a janitor who took a wrong turn.
THOSE WMDs. Clay Johnston: Ohio University's biggest fan... Canadian police bust auto and nutella theft ring... The Ukrainian hacker who became the FBI's best weapon—and its worst nightmare... A rumor put Kirstin Labato in prison... 24 best fiction books of 2016.
