Leaving ESPN? Latwan goes off? More USC? Captains? A few questions and some answers from Mr. B.
With all the brouhaha about conference re-alignments and USC getting whacked with long-overdue penalties, we have accidentally forsaken one of the time honored traditions here at Bucknuts during June:
Guessing who the Buckeye captains will be for next year!
We spanned the globe (well, went around the office) and I was surprised that a few of the Bucknuts Beat Boys actually went all counter-intuitive on me and suggested that it was Terrelle’s team, so he should be one captain. And they were high on Mike Brewster, as well. Now, that’s two juniors, both of whom would likely be back the following year so I said, "No sale."
Then I continued another time-bound Bucknuts tradition and asked someone who might actually have some insight: ex-Buckeye Captain Jerry Rudzinski. I asked Jerry his thoughts and specifically what about a Brandon Saine, for instance. Jerry went with “Cam Heyward and Ross Homan with the 2002 "Rotating Offensive Captain" on offense.” As to Saine?
“Saine is too much yellow jersey on the sidelines.”
When I asked who might be in that captain rotation, he thought that Justin Boren had too much Michigan baggage to be a full-time cappy but that the rotation would consist of Boren, Saine and Pryor.
We’ll go with that for now…
* * * *
Blaming the name game…Or is that “naming the blame game”? Getting these dad-blamed conferences re-aligned is tough on the logic and arithmetic. Well, calling them “re-aligned” pre-supposes that they were aligned to begin with, I suppose. And the arithmetic? So far, it goes something like:
The Big 10 has 12 teams.
The Big 12 has 10 teams.
That’s OK, because on the average, the Pac 10 has 11 teams; but going to 12, we are told.
So it does average out. And these are the guys in charge that we hoped would find logic in a college playoff? Wait – they need to go for input from the A-10, which has 14 teams. Two more and they could figure out a playoff, I bet!
* * * *
More expansion junk…Doug Lesmerisis, the occasionally bizarre and the consistently inconsistent college football columnist from the Cleveland Plain Dealer came up with a relatively logical argument on how to “split” the 12 Big Ten teams to keep parity and rivalry and history in check. He divided the two divisions into “Black” and “Blue” and listed their records over the past ten years and the past twenty years as follows:
Big Ten Black
Ohio State, 102-25 (.803) -- 230-74-5 (.752)
Michigan, 81-43 (.653) -- 222-80-5 (.731)
Wisconsin, 86-43 (.667) -- 170-129-4 (.568)
Michigan State, 60-62 (.492) -- 153-141-4 (.520)
Purdue, 67-57 (.540) -- 133-156-4 (.461)
Indiana, 39-78 (.333) -- 118-167-3 (.415)
Totals 435-308 (.585) -- 1026-747-25 (.578)
Big Ten Blue
Nebraska, 84-44 (.656) -- 242-71-1 (.772)
Penn State, 77-46 (.626) --218-86-1 (.716)
Iowa, 80-45 (.640) -- 182-116-5 (.609)
Minnesota, 62-62 (.500) -- 129-162-2 (.444)
Illinois, 45-73 (.381) -- 124-162-5 (.435)
Northwestern, 61-61 (.500) -- 116-172-3 (.404)
Totals 409-331 (.553) -- 1011-769-17 (.567)
A couple of interesting factoids from that split shows the relative decline of the ten-year fortunes at both Nebraska and Michigan with a countervailing progression made by Wisconsin. Ohio State? They were already good and just got better!
* * * *
Garretted from above…As the USC sports scandal continues to gain closer inspection, one must note that a number of the perpetrators have slunk out of town already: Tim Floyd banished to UTEP; Pete Carroll – just ahead of the NCAA lynch mob – to a new sinecure with his girlfriend in Seattle; and Reginald Alfred Bush II – kept warm by his millions – in New Orleans as a, well…Saint? The one rat still on the Trojan ship is the one guy as much to blame as any other: Athletic Director Mike Garrett, who has been in that position since 1993, has hired all the culprits, has over-seen (maybe the word is “over-looked”) all the shenanigans and, remarkably, is still there and unmistakably defiant about it!
As contrast, we have Gene Smith at Ohio State, conservative by nature and scrupulous to investigate any creeping shades of wrong-doing. The Buckeyes sic their compliance people on all new insinuations and have even been known to bring in federal authorities to sniff out alleged improprieties. Alien invaders with connections to sports agents and boosters and gamblers? There are a few vultures that menace the Columbus skies but Ohio State marks them early on and keeps them under scrutiny.
Which takes us back to Mike Garrett. The OED defines the man as “an instrument to strangle or throttle especially in the course of a robbery”. Oh, that’s “garrote”? Close enough. Mike Garrote is there to see to the execution of his plan which is about to kill the USC sports colossus.
The NCAA filled pages with facts and accusations detailing how USC officials knew of the infraction-spree they presided over. Nobody watched with more disdain than did Garrett. He watched as (in the NCAA’s words) USC built a program “in which student-athletes could feel entitled to special treatment”. He watched as Todd McNair – the Trojan RB coach – took no action even though he was admittedly aware that Bush was “on the take”. He watched Floyd entertain agents and the distribution of money to stars and their relatives.
As Sports Illustrated noted on this subject last week: “Trace the origins of almost every major NCAA scandal and the line eventually extends to the top. Infraction reports often refer to the “atmosphere” of an athletic department, as in: Is there an atmosphere of cheating or an atmosphere of compliance? The atmosphere at USC was one of hubris, of entitlement; of don’t ask, don’t tell. It was, in a nutshell, the personification of Mike Garrett.
“The positive spin after any NCAA scandal is that the offending school will emerge more diligent, wiser, cleaner. USC might, but progress will be slowed as long as Garrett is around. On the day of the COI’s ruling, he met with a group of boosters in San Francisco and said, “As I read the decision by the NCAA, I read between the lines, and there was nothing but a lot of envy. They wish they were all Trojans”. To understand the root problem at USC, that’s all you need to know”.
Back in the 1960’s, when Make Garrett was the Heisman winner for his coach, John McKay, Coach McKay was asked about “his team’s execution” and he famously replied, “I am all for it”. Now, the entire sports program has been executed. By a Garrett. And he seems to get feistier as more damning facts come out. We asked the world’s expert on USC, Garry Paskwietz from WeAreSC.com when he was on Front Row Radio last week, what did he expect from Mike Garrett?
Garry stated: I expect him to get fired over this.
I say: As it should be.
* * * *
The Boarding House…here we come again with warning labels and explanations!
Where five stories are blowing up and rumors are flying!
The Bucknuts beat boys bring you what they hear and see and are loathe to write about as facts. The House is a place for rumors and gossip and innuendo. We don’t treat it is if it’s “inside information”, like some people do. Yet – you guys love to hear the good stuff. To do that, we have to:
- Disclaim that we don’t know if any of it is true
- Not attribute it to any particular source
- Not attribute it to any particular reporter!
We hope it’s interesting and it’s all fairly entertaining and some of it might even turn out to be actually, well…true! So, forewarned is forearmed. Don’t write me and tell me that we shouldn’t publish rumors. We already know that.
|
* The mouth of the south…Latwander has remerged as “Miami Ad-Vice”. As you might recall, Ohio State never quite found room for Cleveland Glenville DB Latwan Anderson in its 2010 recruiting class. It’s unclear what the disconnect might have been. Perhaps it was academics-related. Maybe character-related, as Latwan was quite the character. Hard to say. But Anderson, who originally verbaled to West Virginia before signing a “track scholarship” letter with Miami feels like Ohio State disrespected him. Accordingly, Anderson has Sept. 11 circled on his calendar. That’s the day Miami travels to Columbus for a showdown with Ohio State.
“All I keep hearing is what Ohio State is going to do to Miami, Ohio State has this, they have that, but I feel like—since my visit, a lot of players on the team in Miami feel the same way I do—I could care less about Ohio State with who they have or what they have,” Anderson told InsideTheU.com. “And the only way to shut them up is that day on the field. I feel like just because I have so much passion into this game that I know if they give me a chance I can be one of the reasons why we win that game because I feel I will just go off that game because I hate them so much.”
Many people in the state expected Anderson to attend Ohio State but he felt slighted by the home state team during the recruiting process. “I’ve liked Ohio State, I’m not going to say I’ve never liked them—I’m from Ohio, but during my recruiting process I kind of felt disrespected,” Anderson said. “Some of it may have been some of the things I have been through in high school, but I felt disrespected by that whole program.”
During his freshman season, he says he doesn’t have any particular individual goals, just the game against the Buckeyes. “Right now I don’t really have yearly goals, but the only thing I’m focused on right now is September 11th, that’s it, that Ohio State game.”
Now, back here in the real world, Anderson is on a track scholarship. For him to play football for Miami this fall, they would have to find a football scholarship and transfer him to one of those. We’ll see if that happens and whether Latwan will be in the ‘Shoe on 9/11 to try and back up some of these words. He did set my heart all a-twitter with this nasty tweet this week: “im in the zone who want some this college D get ready 9/11 tressel you owe me an apology” Oh, yeah…
* The iceberg wedge…Salad days might be here for the OSU offense this year as we look at one of the best offensive lines (in theory at least) in the Tressel Era. The key to this line is in the middle with the “Brrr Brothers”: Brewer, Browning and Boren. How good are these guys? Well, all three were put on the watch list for the Outland Trophy, three of just 63 players in the nation to be considered for the best lineman in the nation. The Outland trophy is given annually to the most outstanding of the nation's top offensive and defensive tackles, offensive guards and centers. Bollman is telling us that the quad-squad of Shugarts/Hall and Adams/Miller will be fine at the tackles so maybe, just maybe…
* And more tough calls…With each recruit that eventually bombs (see last week’s list of the carnage…), we are reminded of the players we called when they were still hot shots in high school. It wasn’t too hard to figure out which entitled kids were going to struggle at the next level! One such reminisce was of Lawrence Dampeer, the big tackle from Illinois back in 2003. He was a very highly rated kid and the Buckeyes were in good shape with him. We called and we called and we called for Lawrence but could not get him on the phone. I told our guys: one more time and then forget it. So, Duane Long was very surprised when someone picked up. As Duane tells it, “I asked for Lawrence as there was no way that this voice belonged to an 18-year old kid. I was wrong. It was Lawrence. I identified myself and he was ready to talk.....except there seemed to be a loud and dangerous riot going on in the background. I asked him if he needed to go, thinking he either needed to defend himself or run like hell - one or the other. He says no, he is fine. We proceeded to do an interview but it took longer because Lawrence was frequently talking to people who are screaming all around him. We concluded very quickly once the riot started sounding more like all-out war. I seriously considered trying to alert authorities in the area. It was that insane.” This is the player who nearly got sent home from the All-American game and was suspended for conduct that was caught on tape during an Oklahoma game. Last we heard, he was kicked off the team and out of school. We are part of a group that knows him, outside of Oklahoma that is not terribly surprised.
* Duck soup, warmed over…Some of you have seen this but it is worth reviewing since it seems to be a similar mind-set that affects (and infects) SEC fans, as well. There are two options when Ohio State plays your favorite football team. We either lose and that reinforces the image that we are slow, poorly prepared and Neanderthal in our origins or we – gasp! – win and that only goes to show that there were mitigating and extenuating circumstances.
We shot down the Oregon Ducks in the Rose Bowl and they have been making a big flap ever since. A few weeks back, John Hunt – an Oregonian apologist - obviously didn’t like the duck strangling that he witnessed so he framed some new, more acceptable realities. Here’s John’s theory:
Ohio State was so successful at stopping Oregon’s offense in its 26-17 win over the Ducks in the Rose Bowl that, at times, it seemed as if the Buckeyes knew what was coming.
Did they?
“There were a couple times last year when we kind of felt like our signals were, maybe, compromised,’’ offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich said.
It very well could have been talent, hard work and preparation on the part of Ohio State, but the Ducks don’t like the idea of having their offensive code cracked.
So this spring, Oregon is instituting a new system of signals. In addition to the gesticulations from the sidelines, members of the team will be holding up poster-board-sized placards, each containing four images.
I will tell you the problem for Oregon as I saw it: Despite getting great special teams play and superior field position (often because of their special teams play…), they were lucky to be as close in that game as they were. We were better. We were hungrier. We were bigger and faster and better prepared. That’s what they need to “fix” this year…
* Big 33 has come and gone…and we are spotting a trend from the high school All Star games: Verlon Reed. Coaches from the Big 33 game raved about Verlon. One coach said, "I came in expecting a safety and found out we really had another Terrelle Pryor". According to this coach, he is gifted enough to play WR or even RB on offense because he is built so well and runs so fast. His arm and throwing motion were much farther ahead than expected, and he showed leadership immediately in the huddle and grasped the offense with ease. It was noted that Reed worked as hard as anyone on the field at the Big 33. "I just have a feeling this kid will be special at OSU after seeing him work for a week; he just has the "it" factor".
How to spot a trend? The photos below reveal one not-so-subtle piece of evidence: Verlon was the MVP in both the Big 33 and the North-South games!
|
That’s the Big 33. That’s the House for this Sunday. But we have a “big ten” coming up: Tuesday and Thursday; ten great stories, and breaking news and rumors a-building at the Boarding House. Stop be and take a look!
* * * *
ESPN is seriously screwed up when it comes to recruiting…OK, we admit it (again). I have worked them over like dumb muscle on a deadbeat bookie, and all to very little avail. A year ago, ESPN “came out” with their ESPNU Top 150 in August, when everyone else was out in February. This year? They are out in June. (Yes, everyone else was out in February, once again…). So, that some progress.
Two years ago, they anointed Brandon Moore (the tight end from Trotwood Madison) as the #1 player in Ohio and a top 60 player in the nation. We protested (after Tressel’s gang offered three other Ohio tight ends and not Brandon!) saying he wasn’t even the third best tight end in the state, yet alone the sate’s best player. While we can all have opinions (they are like armpits…), I simply suggested that maybe they could incorporate our cumulative local intelligence into their rankings. Or if not ours (and we understand the underbelly of that joke), then how about Ohio State’s?
No sale.
So, this year, was I surprised when they listed Michael Bennett as the #126 player in the country and also listed his primary position as “offensive guard”? Unfortunately, I was not. That’s the rub. They don’t know what they don’t know and I get tired of trying to cover for them.
Thus, it was with some relish that I fielded the following e-mail from one of their higher-up execs who doubles as a hardcore OCD Michigan fan. Here’s what he sent, cackling about the recent Michigan commit from Ohio-born Chris Rock:
Gentlemen:
At the end of Star Wars, the Evil Empire was not requesting a batch of X-Wing fighters.
No, they had their Death Star. They had their tie fighters.
And yet that did not stop the good guys from making use of their assets.
More importantly, let's look at the defensive players who are bolting out of the state of Ohio ... Latwan, Jordan Hicks, Spencer Ware -- all GONE! And now Chris Rock -- also GONE! The best talent seems to be flooding out of state.
Is it time to get concerned?
This was both funny and delusional, on a number of different levels. I almost didn’t know where to start, so our publisher, Dan Rubin, chipped in with an initial response:
Here are the top 10 players in the state of Ohio. See Chris Rock on here? There’s a chance all of them will be Bucks. A good chance. Your best chance is Jones at #9 because we may not offer. We should have 1 and 2 wrapped up by Thursday afternoon [we did…]. That would leave Grant as the only one of the top five not in the fold. Walker is coming. DePriest might go to Bama. But he is likely to join the fun as well.
Tell Admiral Ackbar we said hi.
1) Braxton Miller
2) Michael Bennett
3) Kenny Hayes
4) Doran Grant
5) Steve Miller
6) Trey DePriest
7) Aundrey Walker
8) Ron Tanner
9) Cardale Jones
10) Nick Vannett
And why would Ohio State not even offer the kid if he was so good? He goes to school about 10 minutes from campus and was a teammate of Archie’s son!
I followed up with a much more sober approach (as is my wont):
“Dan covered this point adequately. Chris did not rock anyone's world in Columbus. He is this year's Brandon Moore, without the unwitting hyperbole. The other thing that a Luke Wolverwalker would note is that of your four examples of kids we lost, OSU didn't offer three of them. You can't lose what you don't want.
It's nice to see you finally get excited about something “Michigan football” again even if it took science fiction to create that excitement!”
Mr. Bucknuts
Yes, fans, ESPN is still the four-letter word when it comes to recruiting. And, to that end, expect some big wholesale changes around here!
* * * *
ESPN and the ultimate recruiting question – should we stay or should we go?...OK, let’s talk about those wholesale changes now that I am thinking about it…
For the past three-and-a-half years, we have affiliated with ESPN, living through some vicious taunts and brickbats from the anti-ESPN crowd amongst you. Some of the criticisms were on target: Tom Friend, bad recruiting info and not enough Erin Andrews. Other criticism was way off-target: Kirk Herbstreit, conspiracy theories and too much NFL coverage.
We infiltrated their intelligence system on recruiting in both small and big ways over that three+ year tenure. Bill Kurelic is now the Midwest recruiting blogger and Bill Conley was one of the talent scouts until he left to rejoin the coaching ranks.
But we never fully realized our ambitions to have more timely and more considered recruiting information, and we took a ton of grief for just affiliating with the “four letter word”.
Now, I ask you: should we stay or should we go? Is it worth the “brand” without the cattle? Is ESPN more a hindrance or a help?
Please weigh in below in your own inimitable style(s). We really are thinking of a change and we really do value your input…
* * * *
From my nutritionist…I always wanted the chicks to go “Woo woo!” when I walked down the street. Unfortunately, my levels of discipline weren’t such to yield that visage. I decided then to turn to a world-renown nutritionist to get me back on track. While I couldn’t afford a “woo-woo” kind of doctor, I could afford at least one “woo” – a doctor Woo from a nearby village…
Q: Doctor, I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this true?
A: Your heart only good for so many beats, and that's it...don't waste on exercise. Everything wear out eventually. Speeding up heart not make you live longer; it like saying you extend life of car by driving faster. Want to live longer? Take nap.
Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?
A: You must grasp logistical efficiency. What does cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So steak is nothing more than efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef also good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And pork chop can give you 100% of recommended daily allowance of vegetable product.
Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?
A: No, not at all. Wine made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine; that mean they take water out of fruity bit so you get even more of goodness that way. Beer also made of grain. Bottom up!
Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?
A: Well, if you have body and you have fat, your ratio one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio two to one, etc.
Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?
A: Can't think of single one, sorry. My philosophy is: No pain...good!
Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you?
A: YOU ARE NOT LISTENING! Food are fried these days in vegetable oil. In fact, they are permeated by it. How could getting more vegetable be bad for you?!?
Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?
A: Definitely not! When you exercise muscle, it gets bigger. You should only be doing sit-ups if you want bigger stomach.
Q: Is chocolate bad for me?
A: Are you crazy?!? HEL-LO-O!! Cocoa bean! Another vegetable! It best feel-good food around!
Q: Is swimming good for your figure?
A: If swimming good for your figure, explain whale to me.
Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets. And reward you for the hunger you once had when you started to read this week’s Bucket…
* * * *
When it’s OK to drop the F-bomb…Since you asked a few weeks back:
Bombs away, guys. There’s lots to talk about out there and – even if I don’t seem to address worthy subject in an intelligent manner – it doesn’t mean that you can’t! Here’s your chance to add on, edit, correct or amend this week’s Bucket of Bullets.
