The Buckeye Blog

College football analysis and opinion with a heavy Ohio State bias

September 30th, 2006

Buckeyes Face Historic Rematch in Iowa

Just over 20 years ago today (1985), Earl Bruce coached one of the greatest games in his career as an Ohio State coach. On the sidelines was a young assistant coach, Jim Tressel. The Buckeyes, who had just lost their star running back Keith Byers to injury, defeated the number 1 ranked Iowa Hawkeyes.

Iowa, coached by Hayden Fry, was 7-0 coming into the shoe and were led by Heisman contending quarterback Chuck Long.

Although it was raining, the Hawkeyes were greated by over 90,000 Buckeye fans. At times, it was so loud in the shoe that Long could not call plays and before the game was over, the crowd was warned repeatedly over the stadium speaker system that they would need to quiet the roar or face OSU penalties.

The Buckeyes came out strong with a field goal and blocked punt to end the first quarter 5-0. It was the first time that the Hawkeyes had been scored on in the first quarter all season. By the time it was all over, the Defense lead by Pepper Johnson and Chris Speilman (with two interceptions) had held the Hawkeyes to a mere 13 points and forcing turnovers that resulted in 17 points for the OSU.

Woody Hayes watched the game at home as he recovered from a recent heart attack.

Final Score: Ohio State 22, Iowa 13.

I was a sophmore at Ohio State on that historic day and I was sitting in the closed end of the stadium along the track. As the game neared the end, the crowd surged from the stands and begin to chanting “Goal post, goal post…” When the final gun sounded, the crowd roared onto the field with the goalpost in its sights.

The year before (1984) as Ohio State defeated Michigan to win the Big Ten title and a Rose Bowl berth, OSU Administrators had decided that it would be best to defend the goal post. Police formed a line 3-4 rows deep around both goal posts and used both clubs and mace to keep a surging crowd at bay. Many were injured as the crowd from behind pushed forward and those in the front tried to avoid the clubs and mace of police near the goal post. I was there and what should have been a great college celebration turned into a horifying experience for some.

In an attempt to avoid the previous year’s experience, the plan was to let fans bring down the goal post, celebrate and pick up the pieces when it was all over. Those first to the goal post found the post covered in a thick layer of lard (don’t ask I how I know all this. I will just say that it took a long time to get the lard out of my shirt). The greased pole slowed things for a few moments but soon the goal post came down and was paraded around the field while the band struggled to complete their post-game show.

As my roommate and I left the stadium and walked up the hill toward University Hall, the crowd suddenly started running. Something was happening and thousands of fans were running up the hill toward the center of campus.

As we got to University Hall we could see that a piece of the goal post had somehow made it out of the stadium and police had formed a line in an attempt to retrieve it. In what seemed like a bizarre game of red rover, the goal post was used as a battering ram quickly breaking through the line and headed toward High Street.

For the rest of the night, you could look up High Street and spot the crowd as the goal post traveled from Lane Ave to 9th Ave. and back again. About two years later the goal post appeared behind the bar at Papa Joes to remain until the famous campus gathering spot burned to the ground. (I have heard the the owner of Papa Joe’s recovered the goal post the day after the fire.)
Today, the tables are turned. Ohio State goes into Iowa Stadium ranked #1 with a leading Heisman quarterback. The Iowa fans are ready and we may see a crowd that rivals the Penn State whiteout of last year.
This year however, Ohio State should be ready. Nobody knows what to truly expect from Iowa. They are 4-0 in tight games but haven’t really been tested. The Buckeye’s have already proved themselves in the hostile environment of Texas. Today’s Iowa, however, my may be more difficult and let’s face it, this is Big Ten football.

If OSU comes out and plays the game they all know they can play, pink locker room be damned. They need to strike early, put the Hawkeyes on their heels and quiet the crowd.

If they play like they can, they will win and they will win big.

Let’s just make sure that today’s goal post does not end up in a favorite Iowa City establishment.

BallHype: hype it up!
September 24th, 2006

Penn State vs Ohio State…The Return of Tresselball

It’s like deja vu all over again.

Preseason, I asked the question, “With an inexperienced defense, is Tresselball dead?” I think we got our answer yesterday.

While the rain really seemed to take the punch out of the Buckeye offense in the first half, the defense stepped up keeping Penn State out of the end zone and holding them to 3-14 on third down conversions for the day.

The defense also shut down Penn’s passing game keeping them to just 54 yards in 10 of 17 attempts and forcing three interceptions.

It was also good to see a repeat of last year’s four man rush. If we can put that kind of pressure no the qb with only four players, that makes it awfully difficult to find an open man.
And we had at least one moment of true Tresselball with a punt to the 2-3 yard line. Unfortunately, Penn was able to push out and give themselves some room. A nice Penn State punt saved what could have been a messy situation for Penn.

But oh, it was nice to see that again. With a developing defense it is just a matter of time before punt once again becomes an offensive play. Yesterday’s “inexperienced defense” will only get better. Combine that with a Troy Smith/Ginn/Gonzo/whoever offense and you’ve got a dangerous team.
In true Tressel ball style, the same commentators who were praising the Ohio State offense pregame were questioning the number 1 ranking post game. In case you missed it, as soon as the game ended, ESPN/ABC went “back to our studio in New York” and Doug “I’m famous for one play” Flutie who instantly said that Ohio State did not play like a number one team.

Your right Doug. We didn’t run the scoreboard to 50 points like your beloved USCs or former Miamis. And yeah, it was a defensive struggle until the third quarter. However, never in the game did it feel like Ohio State was on the ropes. The Buckeye’s were in control. You can win with defense and still play like a number one team.

These of course are the same commentators who are right now writing about what a great team Notre Dame is and how great teams make great comebacks. I believe Corso was even talking about ND playing in the BCS Championship game. Please.

Watch Notre Dame’s ranking jump because Michigan State absolutely fell apart. The guy that sits next to Corso and Herbstreet (what’s his name again) said it best when he asked, “How much of this is Notre Dame playing great and how much is it Michigan State being Michigan State.

Next week, Iowa in Iowa. Anyone remember what happened in 1985? I’ll write more later..

Discuss it all in The Buckeye Forum. 

BallHype: hype it up!
September 23rd, 2006

Paterno Coaching Strategy Against OSU–”Go in There and Pray”

As reported in USA Today, when asked about defending against Troy Smith this weekend, JoPa replied that he wasn’t only worried about Ginn but also Gonzo and everyone else.

“Ted Ginn is a great athlete, but there is a kid by the name of (Anthony) Gonzalez on that team,” Paterno said. “There is a kid we tried like the dickens to get whose father is a great coach, (Brian) Robiskie. They have a great quarterback. The tight end is a big-league player. The tailback is a big-league player. What do you do? You go in there and pray. You got a good prayer to St. Jude for hopeless causes or something?”

Sounds confident doesn’t he.

(Oh yeah, he’s just playing head games…yeah right.)

BallHype: hype it up!
September 22nd, 2006

Lydell Ross’s 2002 Big Ten/National Championship Ring for sale on E-Bay

Say it ain’t so Lydell!!

Former Ohio State tailback Lydell Ross’s National Championship ring is currently up for auction on ebay!!!

The auction opened on Sept. 18th and as of Sept. 21, it has a bid of $6,002.11 with a little less than three days to go. Personally, I find this cheap. While the bidding started at $100, the current bid seems more like a starting bid. While I have grave concerns as to why this ring is on ebay, I cannot believe that this ring won’t go well into the five figure range.
It isn’t clear who is selling the ring, how he/she got the ring or why it is for sale but he/she is also selling a legendary gold pants charm from the 2005 OSU/Michigan game (currently at $565). The seller says that he/she will reveal the initials on the pants only to the winner of the auction after payment is received.

All bids are being kept private.

Discuss it at The Buckeye Forum

Update:

Final Price on the ring: $14,001

Final price on the pants: $1,469.

Both purchased by ebay username - obuck21

BallHype: hype it up!
September 22nd, 2006

The Penn State vs Ohio State Drinking Game

“Around the Oval” posted some good Ohio State links tonight but a sure winner has to be Double Deuce’s PSU vs OSU drinking game (not that a Ohio State fan needs any extra encouragement).
A couple of key penalties:

Drink once: Everytime they play highlights from PSU’s victory over OSU last year.

Drink again: When they make any reference to the “White Out”.

2 drinks: When the camera zooms in on Joe Paterno

Chug: When the graphic about how long Joe Pa has been coaching is displayed
(You know it’s coming)

Although that alone would be enough to put most under the table, I would like to add few more:

Do a…ahem…shot: Every time the name Maurice Clarette is mentioned, (this is ESPN so it may get rough)

Pass a shot to the person sitting next to you: Every time a comparison is made between Troy Smith and Brady Quinn.

Drink 2 shots: Every time Herbstreet hides his true loyalities to Ohio State

and finally:

Everybody Drink: Every time the College Gameday crew tries to make it look like this will actually be a close game.

BallHype: hype it up!
September 21st, 2006

Downing looking for Whiteout Payback

According to The Ozone, Ohio State offensive linesman T.J. Downing has asked for payback for last year’s Whiteout at Penn State. The plan is for “The Sea of Scarlet” to take over Ohio Stadium.

This is all well and good but every weekend is a Sea of Scarlet, it won’t have the impact of those white shirts and it isn’t very original.

There is no question that paybacks are in order but I don’t know what it is. It may just be having to play in the Shoe. Regardless of what t-shirt fans have on, Ohio Stadium needs to rock.

That, however, shouldn’t be a problem. .

Discuss it in The Buckeye Forum.

BallHype: hype it up!
September 21st, 2006

Penn State fans abnormally quiet leading up to OSU game.

I write to you tonight from deep within enemy territory and at the moment, an unsettling quite has come over the normally outspoken Penn State fans. Normally confident, even the staunchest of the Litany Lions remain ill at ease and even seem to concede the coming defeat which is at hand.

Last year was good for Penn State. Students camped outside the stadium in the rain for a week leading up to the game. JoPa was so impressed with the support that he was sending pizza to the tent city that had formed. This of course culminated in what I will grant was one of the greatest demonstrations of home field advantage in college football history, and something I hope to never see again, “The Whiteout.”

Last year, the cards were stacked right for Penn. Penn had an exciting quarterback, a rejuvenated JoPa and most important, the above mentioned “whiteout.”

This year however, there will be no Whiteout. There will be no students camped out in the rain. The new quarterback hasn’t met expectations and JoPa is again, looking like the coach that stayed on a few years too many.

Also, they will be playing in the Shoe where Penn has an 0-6 record since joining the Big Ten.

Talk to the Penn State fans, read their websites and they seem lost. Notre Dame absolutely pounded them leaving them only with the consolation that it was early in the season and they had lost to the number 2 ranked team. Michigan, however, shook what little confidence was left as showed the world how overrated Notre Dame really was.

They did beat up on Youngstown State if that could amount to any sort of confidence boost.
If JoPa has any hope of beating Ohio State, he needs to spend every waking hour this week studying the films from last week’s OSU/Cinci game. As expected, Ohio State was playing down coming off the big win against Texas and looking forward a game to Penn. However, Cinci did give them a good first half.

If anyone knows how to play the Buckeyes, it’s Cinci coach, and former OSU defensive coach Mark Dantonio. Dantonio was able to capitalize at first but eventually, Ohio State adjusted, woke up and it wasn’t much of a match.

When JoPa isn’t studying film, he needs to figure out how to wake his players up. The Shoe is going to be a tough place to play, and with revenge in mind, it will be tougher than usual. Penn State is young, they will be out gunned by the the Smith/Ginn/Gonzo/Tressel/whoever show.

Bottom line, it will take inspired playing/coaching to beat the Buckeyes this weekend. This year, the national championship is Ohio State’s to lose and Tressel isn’t about to let that happen, at home, against Penn State.

BallHype: hype it up!
September 18th, 2006

The Buckeye Blog Featured on WBNS “Wall to Wall Sports”

So I get this email yesterday from the producer of Channel 10 Columbus “Wall to Wall  Sports” telling me they are “using my email tonight” and that I should contact friends and family so they can set the VCRs. (I sent them a link to this earlier post.)

Since I no longer live in Columbus, I faithfully called Mom and Dad and proudly explained that yes, The Buckeye Blog was making it bigtime.

If you haven’t seen “Wall to Wall Sports” it seems to fit a pretty basic formula for locally produced sports shows. You get a bunch of guys together on a set that looks like a sports bar, feed them pizza and talk sports smack for half an hour.

No problem, at least they will put up a link and it may generate some traffic.

From what I understand, they flashed my prediction of #1 OSU vs #2 UM in Nov. up on the screen but didn’t even give me the benefit of a plug. At least guide your Sunday night, beer drinking, pizza eating audience (not that there’s anything wrong with that) to the web page so they can read the full analysis.

Looking at this week’s poll, I wasn’t too far off.

BallHype: hype it up!
September 17th, 2006

OSU vs Michigan…a second #1 vs #2 Matchup???

(Looking for tickets? Try: Ticket Solutions Click Here or:
Stubhub
for a wide selection of Ohio State/Michigan Tickets.)

I am going to say it here now and I will claim bragging rights in Nov. if it all comes true. We will see a second regular season game between the number 1 and number 2 ranked schools this year. Ohio State will be ranked 1 when they play Michigan who will be ranked 2.

While they may not make it into the top 5 on Monday, they should be considered. Herbstreet predicts Michigan moving to three but it will be hard.

In order for a historic matchup in Nov., Mich needs to win the rest and win big. They need to prove that they are that good. They also need Notre Dame to play big the rest of the season to prove that they are really the team many said they were.

At this point, I still think that Notre Dame (and especially Quinn) was overrated. Yes, they looked good last year and I still think they beat USC (how often does a fumble turn out to be a game winning play). While they played well in the Fiesta Bowl, they did lose. I don’t know what everyone saw in the off season that created the hype.

Unless of course, you consider that it is Notre Dame and whenever there is an opportunity for hype, Notre Dame will be at the center of it. (Have you seen the deal they get out of the new BCS format?)

In order to prove that Notre Dame is not the overrated team I am claiming them to be, they need to beat USC. Like I said before, they did it last year, this year they need to make it count.

As for USC’s number 4 (or 2) ranking, you can’t tell me that doesn’t have a big heap of last year’s leftovers in it. So far, USC does not look like the team the USC of past years. Yes, they are winning but what have they done so far to earn the top five spot? They ran the score on an unranked team and beat a 19th ranked Nebraska.

USC/Notre Dame will be a tough game and Notre Dame will be away (and we all know how much they love their beloved stadium..I know, an OSU fan should talk) but as long as they can bounce back from today’s loss and play like many say they can, they should be able to give USC a run for their money.

Next to deal with is Auburn. With their win over LSU today, Auburn should move into second place. Although I didn’t see the game, what a defensive slugfest that must have been. They have two big games left with Florida and Georgia. Georgia put up a good game opener against Notre Dame and Fl barely squeaked by Tenn today. I am not convinced that either game tells us much at this point.

Michigan will jump in the polls ahead of Texas this week. It doesn’t matter how many points Texas puts on the board against Rice. Fifty point games may become a rather pathetic pattern for Texas as they try to salvage BCS hopes.

That leaves West Virginia and Louisville. At this point, I’m going to predict that Louisville will come out of that one a winner. It is still a ways off and the season is still young. Louisville had the bus in high gear today and they drove Miami to school. I personally think that Michigan should jump ahead of at least West Virginia if not both. I doubt it will happen though. Both WV and Louisville put up big points this weekend.

Did I mention that Ohio State will need to do their part and win out the rest of their games? I don’t think they need to win big, they just need to win. They already beat the number two ranked team. An undeafted OSU is not a given in any way but the number 1 spot is theirs to lose. Unlike the others, OSU is in complete control of their destiny.

Finally, if Michigan is ranked third, maybe even fourth, and has a good games coming into the OSU matchup, you can’t tell me that the polls won’t give them a little bump just to create what could be called the game of the century? Never in the history of this historic matchup have the teams been ranked 1 and 2 at the kickoff.

So there it is. You heard it here first. If you’re really impressed, I would be glad to be your guest in the Shoe in Nov. (that is if you’ve got the tickets).

Want to add your two cents? Check out the discussion at The Buckeye Forum.

BallHype: hype it up!
September 14th, 2006

OSU Cinci…Where do we go from here

What is a Buckeye fan to do. The past year has been a build up to the rematch that was last weekend. The hype, the intensity, the concern, the national attention…it kind of leaves you hanging doesn’t it.

That brings us to this Sat. when the Buckeye’s take on Cinci. Mentally, this could be a tough game to get up for. The Bucks are coming off what may be the biggest win of the season and meet Penn State in two weekends. And don’t forget, Cinci gave us quite a scare in 02 almost ending our National Championship run.
As much as I want to say this will be a good game, it won’t. Yes, Cinci has former OSU defensive coach Mark Dantonio and he helped invent Tressleball. However, the Smith/Ginn/Gonzo/whoever will be too much for the Cinci Defense.

I wouldn’t look for a run of the scoreboard but everyone should get some playing time.

Unfortunately, I don’t even think the game is on out here in MD. But hey, there are other good games this weekend.

Let me ask, is it possible for both Notre Dame and Michigan to lose?

BallHype: hype it up!