No matter how long, unfun and exhausting this past week has been, it still brought us this: eight months after suffering a spinal injury and appearing to have no feeling in his legs, Ryan Shazier is walking unassisted.
Today was a great day. The team had a wonderful practice. But I also got to enjoy the fans If you were able to make it to the stadium, here if a little bit of what happened I promise you the lord is not done working yet Keep Shalieving 50 #shalieve pic.twitter.com/LHiRXHa5gN
— Ryan Shazier (@RyanShazier) August 4, 2018
ICYMI:
- Ohio State is better positioned in 2018 than it was in 2011 if a coaching change were to take place.
- Ohio State expects its investigation of Urban Meyer to be completed within 14 days.
- Sam Hubbard's family breaks Bengals team shop record for most custom jersey orders.
- Meeting the independent board leading the Urban Meyer investigation.
- A student perspective on the Urban Meyer situation.
Word of the Day: Ostensible.
NOT A TOP-10 TEAM? The preseason coaches poll came out this week, and with the tallies coming in long before Urban Meyer's situation began to unfold, Ohio State checked in at No. 3.
It's unlikely the Buckeyes would remain the No. 3 team in the country in the voters' minds if Meyer were fired.
From Stewart Mandel of The Athletic ($):
I’m told the votes were counted well before Urban Meyer was placed on administrative leave Wednesday. Best of luck to Ryan Day, but the recent history of interim coaches — most notably Ohio State’s Luke Fickell (6-7) in 2011, Arkansas’ John L. Smith in 2012 (4-8) and Baylor’s Jim Grobe in 2016 (7-6) — has not been great. The Buckeyes still have top-three talent, but it’s hard to believe they have a top-10 outlook unless Meyer gets cleared imminently.
I have takes.
First of all, with all due respect to unquestionably one of top coaches in the game right now, what exactly does Mandel think Meyer does? He's the head of the program, but day-to-day, he's not out here teaching defensive line technique, drawing up blitz packages or even calling offensive plays. From a pure football standpoint, Ohio State and its million-dollar assistants will be fine, especially for a single season.
Second, Ohio State just brought in the two best recruiting classes in program history in back-to-back seasons to add to a roster that already features two of the best running backs in the Big Ten and the likely No. 1 overall pick. Does he expect them to just forget how to play football without Meyer on the sidelines?
Look, I know losing Meyer would be a gigantic loss, especially in the long run. And I'm not saying Ohio State's a lock to go to the College Football Playoff this season without him, or even win the Big Ten. But ranking them outside of the top-10 seems like just a tad of an overreaction.
GRIMES GETS TO PLAY FOR MOM. Trevon Grimes' Buckeye career was not a long one, but it's impossible to blame him for that. Grimes left the team after just two games, taking a personal leave of absence due to a family health issue.
The plan was for Grimes to ultimately return to Columbus, but Grimes decided 1,000 miles was too far, and transferred to Florida to be closer to his family. At the time, he didn't know if he would get to play immediately, but the NCAA ruled in his favor and he'll be on the field for the Gators this fall.
And most importantly, his mother will be healthy enough to be able to watch him.
From GatorCountry.com:
Grimes got a call Wednesday morning, the day before the team would report for fall camp, from Dan Mullen. His head coach called with good news. He had been granted a family hardship waiver making him eligible to play this season. He wouldn’t have to sit out and with his mother’s health back she would be able to watch him play, something she couldn’t do last year.
Grimes hung up with Mullen and immediately dialed home.
“She cried like any mom would. She cried and she was just excited because she gets to go watch her baby play, doesn’t have to sit out a year,” he said of the phone call. “It was kind of hard because from transitioning from Ohio State, she didn’t get to watch me play. So she gets to watch me play. I’m excited to go out there and play for her.”
Grimes' early career hasn't been easy thus far. He suffered a knee injury his senior year of high school which made the transition to college that much more difficult, then the family situation forced him to transfer.
It's good to see things start going his way.
CURT MAKES A COMEBACK. It wasn't long ago the biggest storyline in Columbus was whether or not Curtis Samuel was getting enough touches in a prosiac Buckeye offense that only averaged 43 points per game during the regular season.
Those were simpler times, when blogging about the local team meant elucidating how Ohio State could be unequivocally better than a team it failed to actually beat in a head-to-head contest.
In any case, Samuel is at the next level now, and though he showed flashes his debut season, it was cut short due to injuries. But now he's back, and ready to fly.
From Panthers.com:
“It’s good to be able to catch a ball and burst off the line, show some speed,” said Samuel, who participated in training camp practice for the first time Wednesday. “When I feel that wind, that’s when I know it’s go time.
“I’ve already been fast. It just takes running a little bit, getting a feel of the turf a little bit. Then I’m gonna float.”
...
“This injury ain’t going to stop me; I’m not worried about it,” he said. “Being out for a couple of days, you’ve got to get back into the feel of the game, but it won’t take me long.
“I’m a player. I’m a baller. This is what I do; I play football.”
Samuel was legitimately one of the most complete football players I've ever seen. He was powerful enough to run inside the tackles in college, and is currently one of the fastest players in the NFL.
The key is to keep him healthy. And he looks pretty good right now.
Welcome back @CurtisSamuel4__ pic.twitter.com/lxKM64tfS4
— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) August 2, 2018
BUCKEYES GET PAPER. Ohio State's summer commencement was on Sunday, and a few Buckeye athletes including Kyle Snyder, Jashon Cornell and Sean Nuernberger completed the "student" aspect of the student-athlete obligation, earning their degrees.
@JayRock_9 @Sean4Heisman1 pic.twitter.com/dHg1iCOTnv
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) August 5, 2018
They did it, the college.
Coach Mick is so proud of them that he's throwing them a little graduation party.
Congrats and you will STILL have to make up the lift from this afternoon. Thats what we do !! Go Bucks https://t.co/wSbwWMT56F
— Mickey Marotti (@MickeyMarotti) August 5, 2018
DRAMA IN TUSCALOOSA. It seems it's not all sunshine and rainbows in Tuscaloosa this preseason.
Nick Saban told the media during SEC media days that he had "no idea" whether quarterback Jalen Hurts would be on the roster for the team's opener, which was news to Hurts, who told Saban back in June he planned to stay until December to finish his degree.
From the sound of Hurts' interview with reporters this week, it seems the whole situation has been handled just about as poorly as possible.
@JalenHurts: "No one came up to me the whole spring, coaches included, no one asked me how I felt. No one asked me what was on my mind. ... Now when we're trying to handle the situation now, for me it's kinda late. It's too late. The narrative has already been created." pic.twitter.com/adJS7UxmdL
— Alex Byington (@_AlexByington) August 4, 2018
Look, if we're going to talk preseason drama, Ohio State lives in the most frangible of glass houses, but Alabama had literally seven months to figure this out and they're acting like they never even had a conversation about it?
Good lord, the season hasn't even started yet and Nick Saban is already making Ohio State's handling of the 2015 quarterback situation look consummate in comparison.
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