Buckeye Bits

NCAA justice misses the culprits

The NCAA slapped Ohio State with a 2012 bowl ban and scholarship losses over three years. The problem is that when these punishments take effect, the guilty parties will be long gone. Jim Tressel will be playing golf and collecting a fat retirement check, Terrelle Pryor will be getting paid to hold a clipboard in the NFL, and the other tattoo posterboys will be off getting paid to play football, just legit this time. The folks serving the penalties will have had nothing to do with the scandal. Why not fine Tressel $1 million and fine Pryor whatever amount he made in the NFL this season? If they don't pay, use that army of lawyers at OSU and sue them. I think the courts would rule favorably, given the evidence.

Meyer staff not likely to include any scratch golfers

Urban Meyer once said he would not hire any coach just because he was a friend, or one who had a low golf handicap, which meant the guy was playing too much golf. He was only kidding a little. Recently, when Meyer set out to start putting together his coaching staff at Ohio State, he seemed to follow those same principles. He has hired a couple guys he barely knows, and a couple more we can assume are lousy golfers. His emphasis from the start was to get the "best coach" in America at every position, if possible. We won't see the results until next fall, but as the staff comes together, we'll develop a pretty good picture of where the Ohio State program is likely headed.

Broken news had millions of errors in Meyer numbers

One of the more interesting elements to come out of the Ohio State news conference on Monday introducing Urban Meyer as the next head coach of the Buckeyes was the revelation that so many of those "breaking news" stories of the past couple weeks were actually quite broken.

In a reckless race to be first and therefore momentarily relevant, so many ran a huge number up the flag pole and told everyone to stand at attention and salute. Countless experts "confirmed" Meyer had a seven-year deal for $40 million "locked up." They puffed out their chests and strutted like prairie chickens. Only they missed it by a year and around $10 million. If I had been that far off on my fourth grade math homework, Sister Mary Clavera would have had me doing flash cards during recess ... for a semester.

A gaggle on Google had Meyer signed, sealed, and delivered at Ohio State a week before anyone actually put their John Hancock on any piece of paper. It was a "done deal" these boxer-shorts-in-the-basement authorities insisted, demonstrating the same level of restraint as a bunch of drunks at a bachelor party. Nothing was on paper at that point, nothing signed -- try buying a house with that kind of "done deal."

Monday, there finally was a deal and Meyer signed a contract. Using the frenzied ex post facto news model of the past month we can now safely proclaim this: "Meyer beats Miami". And when he does next September, we had it first.

Urban sprawl hits the media

Urban-mania hit in March. The Internet blew up with "confirmed" reports that former Florida coach Urban Meyer had purchased a home in the affluent Upper Arlington area. That story of sub-Urban development was wrong -- another Urban myth. When former Buckeyes' coach Jim Tressel slinked off the scene late in May and left the program in a state of Urban decay, the Urban area chatter resumed. Luke Fickell had hardly found his way to his new office but the Urban outfitters were ready to name his replacement.

Once the Buckeyes struggled and lost at Purdue, demands were heard for an Urban renewal. Three-yards-and-a-cloud of dust was as fun to view as Urban blight. With all of that talent and all of those athletes, the Ohio State fans wanted to see some imagination in the play-calling, some Urban sprawl in the offense.

The flood of Urban myths has grown silly over the past week or so with unsubstantiated claims that the Urbanization is already in place, funded for seven years at $40 million. The denials from OSU and Meyer about a deal being signed have been direct but not urbane.

If Penn State also covets Meyer to direct its tattered ship, Urban warfare ensues. The latest blog report from Columbus is that High Street has been rocked by distUrbances as a fleet of black SubUrbans rolled into campus. Guys wearing tUrbans jumped out and announced the Big Ten would now be called the Urban League. It all has to be true ... I read it on the Internet.

Urban anecdotes

No. 1:  Rather awkward moment when, just before Luke Fickell stepped to the podium for Monday's news conference, an OSU official announced that there was a vehicle with Ashtabula license plates in the parking lot with its lights on. Urban Meyer is from Ashtabula. (It wasn't his vehicle.)

 

No. 2:  Ohio State linebacker Ryan Shazier, a freshman from Florida, committed to the Gators but changed his mind when Urban Meyer resigned as Florida's head coach. Shazier could be reunited with his first choice as a head coach quite soon.

 

Penn State violated a sacred trust -- protect the children first

Some reckless individuals have lumped what's taken place at Penn State in with the previous scandals at Ohio State and Miami. I am certain of very little in this crazy world, but I am sure that this is the biggest tragedy in college football history. Crimes against children don't compare to anything, anywhere, ever. Joe Pa and Penn State should stop worrying about their situations and damage control, and focus all of the attention and energy on helping those poor kids. throw this monster Sandusky in prison and let the inmates take care of him. this whole mess makes you sick to your stomach.

 

 

 

Picking Posey's two-game season to be memorable

Ohio State senior wide receiver DeVier Posey, suspended for five games over the tattoo mess, then another five for getting paid too much and working too little on his summer job, will return to face Penn State and Michigan to close the 2011 season. Those could be the final games of his career, if the Buckeyes receive a bowl ban from the NCAA as part of their punishment for an accumulation of offenses. Posey has been practicing all along and is clearly the team's best receiver. No one should be shocked if he comes back, starts in the Penn State game, and makes an immediate impact. The Buckeyes need help at receiver, and Posey had all-conference caliber talent the last time we saw him play. In case you forgot, that was in the Sugar Bowl, more than 10 months ago.

The Earle of carping right to complain about Posey's punishment

Earle Bruce is the resident grouch of Ohio State football. The crusty former head coach of the Buckeyes is always around the program, and usually griping about something in his colorful and entertaining style. Picture one of the two old guys in the balcony on The Muppets barking about college football, and you've got Earle. Often it's tough to get a direct point out of a lot of what comes out of his mouth, but not when it comes to Earle's opinion on the NCAA dropping the hammer on OSU wide receiver DeVier Posey. Bruce said the NCAA "destroyed" Posey and that's not too far from the truth. Posey deserves punishment, but his sentence hardly seems to fit the crime. Earle's trip to the soapbox -- this time -- is appropriate.

Rough October ahead for the Buckeyes

You have to play them all, so I guess the order should not matter that much, but take a gander at Ohio State's next four games: Michigan State, Nebraska, Illinois and Wisconsin. Three of those four are undefeated four weeks into the season. They are all ranked, while the Buckeyes are not. The middle two games are on the road and will be particularly tough. Nebraska has been foaming at the mouth since the Big Ten schedule was released, targeting that home date with the dreaded Buckeyes. The Huskers want to stamp their Big Ten membership card in that one. Illinois has always been a troublesome place for Ohio State, even when the Buckeyes were very good and the Illini were not. And Wisconsin just looks so much better than everyone else. It would not be a stretch to see Ohio State go 1-3 in this difficult month.

Why the QB cupboard looks bare

In the wake of Ohio State's passing folly at Miami, a number of callers, emailers and Twitter-izers are asking how a program like Ohio State can not have several quality QBs in the system. The answer is Terrelle Pryor. Once they got Pryor, no top level high school QB would look at Ohio State for the next two years because they knew Pryor would get all the snaps. Kids want to play, so no stud was coming to Columbus to wear a baseball cap and hold a clip board for three years. Braxton Miller came in with the ideal set up -- redshirt his first year while he learned the system and watched Pryor go out in glory as a senior, then be the starter for four years. That plan blew up when Pryor skipped town. The collateral damage is playing out in front of OSU fans. Miller is not ready to be a starter in the Big Ten, and Joe Bauserman was never going to be.