...Friday, Nov. 10th, 2017...
Dear Diary,
Weapons crafted and trenches dug, we await the heathen invasion from the north.
ICYMI:
- Kevin Wilson: Offense needs better play calling and execution.
- Ezekiel Elliott suspended, and will probably have to start serving.
- November recruiting mailbag.
- Andrew Dakich: From Michigan Man to Buckeye.
- TOMORROW: COME DRINK BEERS FOR A GOOD CAUSE AT THE DUBGATE VII.
- Help put a life-size statue of Woody Hayes in his hometown of Newcomerstown, Ohio.
Word of the Day: Milksop.
B1G PLAYOFFS BEGIN THIS WEEK. The Ohio State–Michigan State clash this Saturday is a de facto Big Ten East championship game. It could also have playoff ramifications, if it came down to it.
From Billy Connelly of sbnation.com:
Right now, the odds of the Big Ten East champ finishing at 8-1 in conference (and 10-2 overall) are around 56 percent. If either Ohio State (51 percent chance) or Michigan State (12 percent chance) reaches Indianapolis at 10-2, then beats Wisconsin, they could end up at the top of the two-loss pack.
They would be behind a hypothetical Auburn that has beaten Georgia, Alabama, and Georgia again in the SEC title game, but AU’s odds of pulling that off aren’t good.
So really, the biggest threat to the “best two-loss team” claim might be if Ohio State and Oklahoma both finish as two-loss champs. Head-to-head might be a hindrance there.
I can live with it if a two-loss Oklahoma gets into the playoffs over a two-loss Ohio State due to a match that happened three months ago. It's not like that game was close.
Still, a long ways to go before I can use the word "playoffs" without half my readership rolling their eyes out of their heads.
Great to see the percentages favor Ohio State winning this weekend, too, because I need all the omens I can get at this point. At least we saw last week how hard it is for a team to win in a tough road environment a week after a big-time win at home the previous week.
TARGETING BARRETT J.T. Barrett isn't a home-run threat as a runner, which is why Iowa loaded up on the running backs last week and forced Barrett to keep the ball on read options.
But he's still a runner you have to respect, according to Spartan DE coach Mark Snyder.
From detroitnews.com:
“Experience,” defensive ends coach Mark Snyder said of Barrett. “It seems like he’s been there forever; he’s been there longer than I’ve been here. It shows on film. He’s very comfortable in the offense. He’s a game manager. He doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. You can tell he’s played a lot of football.”
[....]
“It goes back to, looking at the quarterback we faced last week, he can create with his legs, so you have to have a controlled rush,” Snyder said. “You can’t just cut it loose, or they’re going to hurt you. That was kind of the deal. We wanted to make sure that he didn’t hurt us with his feet.
“When you go into a game type like that, it’s going to be hard to get pressure. It is. Each game presents a different challenge or another opportunity and we go by it that way each week. Who are we playing? What are we playing? Can we cut it loose? Do we have to keep him in the pocket?”
Meyer said on his call-in show Thursday that Michigan State forces quarterbacks to go over the top of its defense to win.
That worries me. The deep ball hasn't been consistent all year, and Iowa laid the blueprint on the problems caused by jumping the crossing routes.
If Barrett once again looks average, there will be a zombie uprising of his critics in Columbus. When all is said and done, some people may not remember Barrett as the best QB in history, but we'll all agree he's the most controversial.
HERE COMES TEAM 119. Ohio State fired Thad Matta and hired Chris Holtmann, who begins his tenure tonight at 7 p.m. against mighty Robert Morris on BTN Plus.
From James Grega of Eleven Warriors, whom you should follow on Twitter:
Holtmann, who is in the midst of preparing for two games in a three-day span to start his Ohio State career, said as the head coach, he is more focused on making sure his team shows constant improvement each week.
"I am not honestly getting caught up in that," Holtmann said in the preseason rankings and predictions. "Let's just stay focused on what we are doing right now and that is to get better. That is going to be our continued focus. Hopefully out of that comes good stuff and we will get what we earn, one way or the other."
Holtmann had the smarts to show up to the 11W Friday Night Banger two weeks ago, so now our whole staff suspects he could turn water into wine if he willed it. (No idea why coaches try to take the dickhead road with media.)
As for my season prediction, it's not possible for for it to be less entertaining than last year's.
Also, the women's team, which has been the more exciting team two years running, plays Stanford tonight at St. John Arena on BTN at 6 p.m.
CHEATING SCANDAL ROCKS BUSINESS SCHOOL. I always hated cheaters in school because I worked too hard for my bad grades.
They say cheaters never win, but that wasn't true during my academic career. Their harebrained schemes actually worked.
That doesn't mean all cheaters prosper, though. Take, for example, the 83 Fisher Business Students ensnared in a cheating scandal.
From Jennifer Mola of the Columbus Dispatch:
An investigation by Ohio State’s Committee on Academic Misconduct resulted in 83 undergraduate students charged with violations of the school’s code of student conduct, the university said in a statement.
A professor reported in the allegations against the students, who were enrolled in a Fisher College of Business course, in April. The charges include “unauthorized collaboration on graded assignments,” the university’s statement said.
The students allegedly used GroupMe, a free group messaging app available on multiple phones and tech devices that supports calendar and document sharing.
You're cheating with 83 other people, and you somehow didn't think this would end up in flames? I hope the university expels them all.
THOSE WMDs. A pill to make exercise obsolete... A hit goes wrong in Bucyrus, and a murder case spins out of control 23 years later... Wall Street relives the Crash of '87... Disneyland with the death penalty... 40 years ago: A look back at 1977... Iran has a black market for kidneys... Searching the sea is like space... Five women say Louis C.K. crossed into sexual misconduct.
