Monday, November 24, 2008

The uMassacre at Ohio Stadium

Even though it was a brutally cold day in the 'Shoe, 105,000 fans still showed up (hats, gloves, jackets and flasks...) to witness a 42-7 beating. They also witnessed the first Ohio State 5-game win streak over Michigan and the last home game for the likes of Laurinaitus and Jenkins... It could have been Beanie Wells' last game in scarlet and gray as well. Other bright notes include seeing the last home game for Boozing Boone and Rasta Wells.

It was as convincing a win as I've ever seen as a Buckeye fan and it was good to finally see the playbook opened up a little more in spite of the weather. With all the big plays, I had to make sure I wasn't spilling my beer everywhere while jumping in elation.


Other bullets:
  • RichRod does not have control of his team. I believe what's going to befall this team going forward is the lack of a high-profile, intelligent QB. Pat White is a fantastic athlete, but I doubt he ever gets into the academic standards set forth at Michigan. DickRod will probably need to take his playbook down south were you can get by with 35 scholarships/year and low SAT scores. I'm just sayin'...
  • "I'm really sick to my stomach" - ICanHasCheezburgers Weis. Was this quote after he consumed one or two dozen Big Macs? He's a terrible coach. My point here about ND is simple: ESPN ANNUALLY rates Notre Dame's recruiting classes in the top 5-10. This has been the case for the past three years (all Cheezburger recruits). Why doesn't it translate into wins against football powerhouses like Syracuse, Navy, Stanford, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, and Air Force? Coaching. If you put Pete Carroll, Bob Stoops, Jim Tressel, or Urban Meyer in control and ND would return to at least a shell of its former championship self. Not gonna happen under Charlie. It makes you wonder how much cheating was really going on at New England while he was the OC...
  • The BCS is a mess. If you lob in the ideas that Oklahoma will lose to Mizzou in the championship game, Florida loses to FSU, Alabama loses to Auburn, Oregon State wins out... Then what? I challenge you to pre-pick the 10 teams that will end up in the BCS bowlgames this week... If you're 10 for 10, I'll buy you a steak dinner.
Looking back at the 2008-2009 OSU regular season which is already over, we may always wonder "what if" Beanie didn't get hurt in the 3Q of a meaningless game against Youngstown State. Beanie's injury did vault Pryor into his role of The Chosen One much earlier than anticipated, but we're beginning to see its benefits.

Boeckman peaked as a 4th year Junior against PSU and failed to maintain that high long enough to beat anyone else formidable (see: Illinois, LSU, USC). We'll miss Malcolm Jenkins a lot more than we'll miss Laurinaitus and Freeman. I want at #2 jersey solely because of Malcolm.

The expectations were unfairly high for this squad which over-achieved in 2007 and squeeked its way into the BCS Championship Game after Mizzou, WVU and USC all showed that they didn't want to go there badly enough (see: Oklahoma, Pitt, Stanford). And yes, one can safely conclude that Gholston was a force on the D-Line which we missed terribly this year. No one even came close to the 14 sacks he tallied in '07.

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