In an ultimate game of chicken, God has declined to reverse the inclement weather on a collision course with Columbus while Urban Meyer has refused to cancel his practice football game.
Weather be damned, there's gonna be football in the 'Shoe today, even if it costs 70,000 onlookers a few dollars and a mild case of trenchfoot.
I will not be in attendance – I'm sending my mediocre son Kevin in my place – but I can't wait begin my annual tradition of reacting to everything as if my 15 minute observance of a fake football game qualifies me to make all personnel decisions for the upcoming year.
The Dwayne Haskins, Demario McCall co-Heisman campaign begins today.
Here's everything you need to know ahead of Saturday's spring game:
- "Rocket" Ronnie Hickman becomes first commitment of the weekend.
- 11:45 kickoff due to incoming inclement weather
- Preview.
- Five things to watch.
- Mailbag.
- Predictions.
- Visitors list.
- Kickoff alteration approved by NCAA.
- Reserve your (or your business’) spot next to the life-size statue of Woody Hayes coming to Newcomerstown!
Be sure to follow @11W, @Dan_Hope, @JGrega11, and @AndrewMLind on Twitter for up-to-the-minute analysis from the big game.
Word of the Day: Portmanteau.
REDSHIRT FRESHMAN TO WEAR RED SHIRT. We won't know the complete rosters until LeDan Hope arrives on the scene early Saturday morning, but thanks to the delightful technology of Twitter dot com, we do know a certain redshirt freshman quarterback will be on team Scarlet.
React accordingly.
Team Scarlet
— TATE MARTELL (@TheTateMartell) April 13, 2018
Buckeye fans have seen Martell play just once in Columbus, for less than a quarter of last year's spring game when he took the reigns of the offense with a running clock. But he scored the first time he touched the ball and that was enough to drive the hype train for a calendar year.
With one less quarterback from last year and Martell fighting for a starting spot, we'll likely see a bit more of the Maybe we'll even get a peak at those special packages we've heard so much about. Time will tell.
PICK A FIVE STAR. We're all keenly aware of the local team's search for a quarterback, but they're also gonna need some linebackers if they want to keep middling Big Ten teams under the 55-point mark this season.
With the way he stepped up last season, Tuf Borland seemed to have a lock on one of those spots. But then he went and injured his achilles and we're back searching for a middle linebacker.
Thankfully, sophomore Baron Browning seems to be coming on.
From theozone.net
This is Browning’s second spring as a Buckeye. Urban Meyer and linebackers coach Bill Davis have both said that he probably should have played more last season, but the circumstances just didn’t allow it. Now he is in the middle of the second-most publicized spring battle for the Buckeyes, and even Justin Hilliard has been impressed by what he’s seeing.
“He’s coming along great,” he said. “It’s a clear competition, but we’re just constantly pushing each other and that’s good. That’s going to keep making us both better.”
Hilliard, of course, is the other favorite to win the middle linebacker job this offseason. Now that he's healthy, the former five-star prospect is looking to prove he's still every bit the player he was coming out of high school, and then some.
Basically, after Borland's injury, Ohio State will be forced to start one of two former five-star recruits instead. What a predicament.
PRYOR ALMOST HOOPED. The end of Terrelle Pryor's time at Ohio State was tumultuous to say the least. Ultimately, the NCAA's allegations and sanctions resulted in Pryor entering the NFL's supplemental draft, but it very nearly led to him joining the Buckeye basketball team instead.
From an interview with 97.1 The Fan:
“The year that all that NCAA stuff, all that B.S., the stuff that they had going on against me, I was actually going to join the basketball team that year and play with them. I was going to join the team and it obviously didn’t work out because of the investigation going on and the allegations and stuff like that. So we didn’t get to push forward and make it happen, but I had an urge in me to do it. I was ready to do it and I was going to be more than capable to be able to do it, but it fell through because of that.”
If I'm making a list of the most physically impressive humans on the planet, Pryor is up there, somewhere behind LeBron James and the dude who plays The Mountain on Game of Thrones. So I don't doubt him for a second when he says he's going to switch Division I sports on a whim.
Then there's also the fact that Pryor was legitimately a great basketball player.
Believe it or not TP was Top 100 hoop recruit. 3 spots behind Draymond. 14 spots ahead of Klay. https://t.co/jbrJ40y4J7
— Carpenter & Rothman (@971CandR) April 13, 2018
I'm not saying he'd win the Naismith, but I'd certainly pay multiple dollars to see him play with Aaron Craft, Jared Sullinger, Deshaun Thomas, David Lighty, Jon Diebler and William Buford.
THOSE WMDs. Punk-haired, genital-breathing turtle nears extinction... Singapore may install cameras that register 1.8-billion faces in seconds... Faithful stork travels every year to visit flightless mate... 200-lb Mike Wallace to earn $585,000 bonus for weighing under 250 lbs... Mummified monkey found inside Minneapolis department store...
