Thursday, October 12, 2006

Me and Bobby Olive

Bobby Olive was a wide receiver for the Buckeyes from 1988-1991. Freshman year, he got his shot after making the team as a walk-on (he was recruited by Earle Bruce, then had to fight for his spot under John Cooper). Made two HUGE catches for OSU....caught the game-winning TD against LSU in 1988 when we were down 13 points with 2 minutes to play, and caught the game-winning TD at Iowa with one second left on the clock in 1991.

He spent 5 years in the NFL and now is the head coach of the Canton Legends, an arena football team in Canton, Ohio.

Yesterday, I got the chance to talk to him about this year's Buckeyes and what he sees in the near future.

His comments about Michigan State were pure Scarlet and Gray. He doesn't see a snowball's chance in hell for the Spartans, and when I asked about the historical factor of 1998, he scoffed. He blamed that entire defeat on John Cooper. Cooper called off the dogs and relaxed, and it cost the Buckeyes a National Championship that day.

"No way will Tressel ever let that happen to one of his teams," were his exact words. He also made it clear to me that Cooper didn't understand the Big Ten and he certainly didn't understand Michigan.

Now, we all know that as fans of the Buckeyes....but isn't it comforting to know that the players know it too???

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