I like to imagine the above photo is C.J. Stroud blocking out the haters as he begins his 2022 Heisman Trophy campaign. Cause lord knows he's gonna be feeling a chip on his shoulder.
Word of the Day: Abhorrent.
“I SHOULD HAVE WON.” Time heals a lot of wounds, but as it turns out, having college football's most prestigious award stolen from you still stings almost four decades later.
“I should have won,” Byars said this week, still annoyed that he finished second in voting to Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie, whose famous 63-yard Hail Mary pass to wide receiver Gerard Phelan on the final play gave the Eagles a shocking 47-45 win against Miami on Nov. 23, 1984, eight days before Flutie was named the Heisman winner.
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“I can’t watch the Heisman Trophy ceremony anymore,” said the Dayton native, who 37 years later remains disappointed at not having heard his name called at the New York Downtown Athletic Club. “I can’t watch it because I know whose name they’re not going to call.”
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It still chafes. Byars set a goal his freshman season at Ohio State of matching Archie Griffin by winning two Heismans.
“I was on the right track with the season I had in 1984,” he said, his voice trailing off, then picking up. “I was happy when Troy Smith won and Eddie George won, but we should have had more.”
I also love how he talks about the disappointment in terms of "we." He recognizes that it wouldn't just be *his* Heisman Trophy that he won for him, it would have been for every Buckeye everywhere. He's not just sad that he didn't win the Heisman for himself, he's upset that he couldn't notch another one for Ohio State as a whole – but tries to take solace in trophies won by others.
What a wildly unselfish way to be distraught about not winning an individual award almost 40 years later.
Don't worry, Keith. Mark my words – there will be more.
DAY DENIAL. If you haven't noticed, the Chicago Bears are kind of ass, and there's simply not a chance that Matt Nagy is still the team's head coach next season.
Well apparently, according to a report (from an "NFL Insider" named Jason La Canfora, who I have heard described as "almost never right") the Bears are considering hiring prominent coaching agent Trace Armstrong for a top management position as a package deal with... Ohio State head coach Ryan Day.
Armstrong, who played defensive end for the Bears from 1989-94 and has remained close to the franchise as a prominent alumnus, is a huge proponent of Ohio State coach Ryan Day, league sources said, and Day has been open to considering NFL possibilities in recent years. Armstrong also has strong connections throughout the scouting world and represents numerous current NFL executives. Raiders director or pro personnel Dwayne Joseph, a former teammate of his in Chicago, would also be a top candidate to join a restructured front office with the Bears should ownership opt to go in this direction, sources said.
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Day, 42, has had a wildly successful run since taking over Ohio State after Urban Meyer departed, and he has been on the NFL's radar. Armstrong deeply believes that Day, who spent time with the Eagles and 49ers as a quarterbacks coach from 2015-2016, could be a winning NFL coach. Last year the Bears moved up in the first round to select quarterback Justin Fields, who played for Day at Ohio State and whose development is absolutely paramount for a franchise that has not had an elite player at the position for generations.
From the Bears perspective, this would kinda make sense on some level – Armstrong played for Chicago for five years and Day is one of the most coveted names in coaching and his former quarterback is set up to be the franchise quarterback.
The problem is, it would seem that this information was simply not correct.
I have the utmost respect for the Chicago Bears organization, the McCaskey family and Ted Phillips. However, any assertion that I have engaged in conversations with them about joining the club in any capacity is simply not true.
— T Armstrong (@TArmstrong93) December 12, 2021
And if it was correct, I would expect Day to use it as leverage for a sizeable pay raise (which to be clear, he was going to be getting anyway) and move on with his very comfortable and happy life as Ohio State's head coach.
BEATDOWN ON ICE. I'm still a bit rattled at this "new normal" where Michigan enjoys a win over Ohio State in football and I'll probably be unsettled about it until the world becomes right again in a little under a year.
But Saturday night the men's hockey team got at least a little bit of revenge, and it was glorious.
Buckeyes 6, Wolverines 1.
— Ohio State Men's Hockey (@OhioStateMHKY) December 12, 2021
Take a look back at last night's B1G victory over TTUN!#GoBucks https://t.co/enKH1IL666
For context, this Michigan team is absolutely loaded. The Wolverines have the most first-round picks from a single college team in history in the last NHL Draft. So slapping them around 6-1 ain't a small thing.
THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY... I've always been pretty cool with UGA. Aside from the occasional blatant bag drops and generally skeevy recruiting culture, I have very little beef. In fact, I very nearly went to school there. It's a beautiful campus, a good school and its dining halls are better than most actual restaurants I've been to.
That said, I've got a whole new reason to be a Dawg this month.
And as another sign of respect, they didn't just do it, they reached out to get permission and make sure they did it right.
"We came up with the idea to do this after the SEC Championship and a lot of us were still hung on what happened with the loss," The University of Georgia Spike Squad said in a statement provided to The Dispatch. "So we decided the best way to move on was to focus on Michigan and we thought it would be cool if we changed out the M's on campus to X's like Ohio State does."
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"We reached out to The Block O (the OSU student section) to see if we could do this without stepping on any toes because we understand this is a big tradition," the group added.
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"So once we got the ok we started changing M's to X's," the group said. "We've gotten mostly positive feedback from UGA students and OSU students and it is fun having OSU backing us. UGA and OSU have never really had a mutual enemy until now and it’s fun to build a relationship through it."
I strongly disagree with the sentiment that we've never had a mutual enemy when every single year I hope against hope that your football team can finally beat Bama for the sake of everyone, and I'm admittedly a little salty that it hasn't happened since 2006.
That said, pantsing Jim Harbaugh in the playoff would make me feel better.
SONG OF THE DAY. "White Winter Hymnal" by Pentatonix (Fleet Foxes Cover)
NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. How West Side Story inspired real-life gangs in 1960s Madrid... A prisoner exonerated after 43 years tries to start life anew... A man's hand was saved by using a wartime technique of stitching it to his chest... Chemicals that disrupt the sexual development of children are everywhere... Two artists have been charged with faking Native American heritage... I accidentally hacked a Peruvian crime ring... Turns out, meat-eating dinosaurs were terrifyingly fast... Why Americans are eating more cilantro than ever...
