The last post ever on this blog

Most of you already know, I've moved The Buckeye Battle Cry to a new domain. It's been running over there for more than a week now, and the reviews all seem to be positive.

Here's that address again - http://thebuckeyebattlecry.com - put it in your bookmarks!

I've been writing truncated posts here and linking to the new site for the past week for one big reason - this blog is part of the Big Ten Bloggers, and we have a feeder (it's in the right column, a little bit down from this post). The new domain was not yet added into the Big Ten Bloggers feeder, but the old blog was. So I double-posted and remained in the feeder that way.

The new domain is now in the BTB feeder, so this old blogspot blog has no further use.

Therefore, this is the final posting on this specific blog. Come join the New BBC at http://thebuckeyebattlecry.com

And thanks for staying loyal to me. The BBC is what you make of it, and I appreciate all your support.

Big Ten Bloggers Pick’Em - Week 3

The Big Ten went a perfect 11-0 last week, the first time that has happened in….well, it was the first time ever. The Big Ten is actually 18-3 right now, but don’t get too excited…we were 18-4 last year, and they didn’t give us any credit for it. I’m not sure why, it’s not like any of us lost to a Div. 1-AA school….ummm, never mind.

However, the 11-0 record for week 2 was not entirely unexpected. We were favored to win in 10 of those games, so we must all pay tribute to Minnesota for pulling off a HUGE upset on the road. Congrats, Gophers!

This week’s games….not so easy. It’ll be tough for us to go 11-0, but we’ll give it a crack. Here is what The BBC is hoping to see in each Big Ten game this week.

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Big Ten Bloggers Roundtable, Week 3

This week’s host for the Big Ten Bloggers Roundtable is Dave from Maize and Brew, who doesn’t get the credit he deserves for his blog. His team blows but his words rarely do.

Here’s what Dave wants to know this week;

1. We’re two weeks in and everyone in the Big Ten, minus the two Michigan schools and Illinois, are unbeaten. This week marks the end of your early “tune-up” or serious OOC play. Are you satisfied with the way your team has played against the cupcakes on your schedule, or happy with the way they’ve competed against serious competition?

No. Any Ohio State fan who is satisfied right now didn’t see the first 35 minutes of the game on Saturday.

However, we are 2-0. I believe the only way we will get into the BCS National Championship Game is by going 12-0, and therefore we are on track to do that.

I’ll be satisfied when we are 13-0. But I’ll be happy and temporarily content if we go 3-0 first.

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Michigan players/fans overreacting to Weis comment

Courtesy Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.com’s Big Ten blog, we hear that the war of words between Michigan and Notre Dame (or “Cripple Fight ‘08″, as Brian from MGoBlog lovingly calls it) is heating up fast.

Apparently, Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis riled up the maize and blue as he was overheard saying “to hell with Michigan”.

We Ohio State fans recognize the complete redundancy in Weis’ supposed comment, but the words are not very popular in that state up north.

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The Nonsensical Ramblings of a Lunatic Mind

Here's what's rattling around the old brain at the moment;

Tom Brady

He played for the enemy in college, and he plays for the enemy now. Despite that, it was unsettling to hear that Tom Brady's season is finished after suffering a knee injury that will require surgery.

Best wishes on your recovery, Tom Brady.

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Should Terrelle Pryor have played more?

It didn’t take long after the game on Saturday for the text messages to start coming in on my cell phone. A couple of my friends were agitated, and believed that we should have played Terrelle Pryor a lot earlier (and a lot more) once the offense showed signs of trouble.

I wrote it off as anger and frustration. But then I started to see more signs of it. Later, a relative of mine said the same thing, then I saw a message board flare-up over Pryor’s minimal playing time.

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Ohio State drops to #5

The AP and Coaches polls have just been released. Ohio State has dropped to #5. Yes, I'm pissed about it.

Ohio State did not play like the #1 team yesterday, and nobody in their wildest dreams expected them to rise in the polls. But the talk for three straight months has been "whoever wins between Ohio State and USC will be #1". Now the voters have given themselves an out should the Buckeyes win this weekend. I have no reasonable expectation that they will allow us to leapfrog three other teams if we knock off the Trojans, and the voters will puss out by saying just that.

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Did you see what you wanted to see on Saturday?

Neither did I.

But let’s take a look back at The BBC’s weekly feature and see what we were hoping to see in the Ohio game.

1) A touchdown on the very first Ohio State possession - Fail. A quick three-and-out to start the game was a nasty foreshadow for what we were going to witness the entire first half.

2) A stop on the very first Ohio University possession - Success! OU got a first down on the drive, but we kept the Bobcats in check, allowing 17 yards on 6 plays.

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Trends (aka “grasping at straws”)

While stepping back and looking at today’s 26-14 win over Ohio University, I was reminded of 2007’s battle against Akron last year. We won that game 20-2, but looked bad for most of the game.

Is there a reason why Ohio State played poorly in both these games? They were both against weaker in-state opponents, and in neither game should we have had to sweat the eventual outcome. Perhaps there is no true theory behind why Ohio State looked bad today, besides the simple conclusion that we were overlooking the Bobcats towards next week’s USC game.

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Week 2 (so far) - quick random thoughts

Stuff that The BBC is thinking about right now;

Ohio State

• Since he became head coach, Jim Tressel’s all-time record against teams ranked #1….go ahead and take a quick guess. We’ll tell you the answer in a few seconds.
• Looking deeper at the game, our defense is NASTY. We held the Bobcats to 35% in the air. A few nice Bobcat broken runs was the difference between this game and a MUCH bigger win.

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Completely unacceptable

I’ll do a more in-depth look at this game later on, which I’m sure will have a slightly scarlet-colored look to it, but for right now I’m not quite sure what happened…all I know is I’m not pleased with what I saw for the first 35 minutes of the game.

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In case you're wondering why I'm still using the blogspot page and linking to my own domain, Ithe new domain is not yet linked into the Big Ten Bloggers feed, so I am putting fragments on the old page so the stories get more exposure. Cheap ploy, but it works.

Dude, where's my defense?

Penn State’s defense is in a little bit of trouble now. And it’s not because the store is closed and they ain’t got no more Doritos in the house.

Tuesday night, police investigated a noise complaint at the apartment of four Penn State players, and detected a “strong smell of burning marijuana”. Hours later, a serach warrant was delivered and marijuana was confiscated from the apartment. Charges are being filed against some of the party-goers in attendance that night, but no further information about that is known at this time.

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This blog has moved to The New BBC. I'll post pieces of stories here until the Big Ten Bloggers feeder file is updated with the proper linkage.

The BBC has officially moved!

We've gone pro, sorta. This URL has been good to us, but we've outgrown it and have moved to a new domain.

The new site can be found at http://www.THEbuckeyebattlecry.com

Yes, it's our own domain. Hell, yeah.

Change your bookmarks and come visit the new site!

Big Ten Roundtable Week 2

Each week, all of the owners of sites from the Big Ten Bloggers get together and answer questions about their own team, the league, whatever.

This week's Roundtable leader is Black Heart, Gold Pants. Adam's come up with five questions, and here they are. Let's get going!

1. Week 1's in the books. What surprised you about your team? Are you optimistic? Disappointed? (NOTE: Purdue does not apply here, so these fans must talk about Wake Forest instead)

The coaching surprised me a lot. Normally in a warm-up game, coaches put their starters in for a while, then bench everybody in favor of the second team, then the third team towards the very end. It usually means you're watching two JV teams go at it in the fourth quarter.

Not here. Tressel sat Beanie Wells after his first drive to give Boom Herron some work against starters, then pulled the entire first team for the third drive of the game, going with Terrelle Pryor and a slew of freshmen linemen. Wells, Todd Boeckman, and most of the starters saw more game time throughout the contest, but the backups saw plenty of time against YSU's starting lineup, and that will only serve them well individually and as a team down the stretch.

Yes, I'm optimistic, but obviously that optimism will balance with the news on Beanie Wells' health. Fortunately, that appears to be leaning in favor of the Buckeyes having him back for the Ohio or the USC game.

I must say that I was very disappointed in our punter's complete lack of punts inside the 20-yard-line. You've got to win the battle of field position, and we never pinned them back with a punt. That's inexcusable.

2. Beanie Wells' right foot is definitely the top story in the conference. What's #2?

The #2 story is that late at night, while everyone else is asleep, Beanie Wells' LEFT foot has been hard at work at the Ohio State University Medical Center, harvesting it's OWN stem cells. By tomorrow morning, we should have completed the process.

We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world's first bionic man. Beanie Wells will be that man. Better. Stronger. Faster.

3. Admit it: you loathe DickFraudROFL (né Rich Rodriquez), but when Michigan scored that last touchdown, you were rooting for them to make the 2-pt. conversion.

Sorry, but I can't admit what I didn't do. I wasn't rooting for that 2-pointer, mainly for two reasons. One, my girlfriend went to the University of Utah. She cheers for my team, I cheer for hers. Two, it was SO much more cathartic pointing out that the only quarterback who could have led Michigan to victory that day had already signed with The Ohio State University.

4. Is this weekend's slate of games actually less interesting than last week's?

MUCH less interesting. Here's a chart to prove it, sort of;

Team	Last week opp	This week opp	More exciting?
Indiana	W. Kentucky	Murray State	no
Illinois	Missouri	E. Illinois	hell, no
Iowa	Maine	Florida Inter	no
Michigan	Utah	Miami (OH)	hell, no
Michigan State	California	E. Michigan	hell, no
Minnesota	N. Illinois	Bowling Green	yes
Northwestern	Syracuse	Duke	yes
Ohio State	YSU	Ohio	no
Penn State	Coastal Carolina	Oregon State	yes
Purdue	n/a	N. Colorado	yes
Wisconsin	Akron	Marshall	no

5. Don't you hate pants?

Why, no. I LOVE PANTS!!!!



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FYI, in the next 48 hours, The BBC will move to it's own domain. Stay tuned for the news and the official launch.

Deep thought of the day

Deep thought of the day;

Michigan lost their first game of the 2008 season 167 days before the season even began.

What? How do you mean?

Michigan's loss to Utah on Saturday can be traced back to a complete lack of leadership on offense. Their two quarterbacks struggled at best (50% completion rate combined), and their running game was downright awful (36 yards on 25 carries). Their longest drive of the entire day was 45 yards, ending with a fumble. Their longest scoring drive was 33 yards.

If they had one go-to guy on offense, there would have been some semblance of hope, and confidence in that huddle.

Unfortunately for Michigan, that go-to guy signed with Ohio State 167 days earlier.

Terrelle Pryor rushed for 52 yards (16 more than all of Michigan), and completed 4 of 6 passes for 35 more yards. And he did it in only three offensive series for Ohio State. Oh, and he led his team to 10 points, scoring a TD on a brilliant scramble for the end zone.

Is it fair to say that Pryor's talents would have led Michigan to victory? Absolutely. His talents are made for that offensive scheme, and RichRod's failure to sign him was certainly worth a field goal more. With Pryor, Michigan wins. Without him, they lost.

Buckeye Hotspots review - Winking Lizard

In an attempt to find the best Buckeye bar in the Akron/Canton area, The BBC is visiting a different location each week during the 2008 season. Each Monday, a review of the location will be posted, rating the following features; quality of food, quality of drinks, game visibility, and atmosphere.

10 different locations will be graded, and the best spot will become the place where we watch our bowl game.

Week 1 location - Winking Lizard, Canton, Ohio

Quality of food - The menu is loaded. Tons of different appetizers, including the basic staples of apps. 15 different ways to order wings is always nice. Ribs, steaks, sandwiches, and a nice salad menu. They had to have had between 10 and 15 different burgers to choose from, plus all the menu items that makes for a good gameday hangout.

Special note - this is the type of menu you'd expect for a place to watch a game. I don't need creme' brulee with my football.....we're looking for "sports food" here!

I went with potato skins, and they were pretty damn good. Plus, they didn't get stingy with the sour cream, a major bonus. Later, I ordered a chicken caesar salad. Again, it was awesome. Although when the server asked me if I wanted the dressing on the side, I should have said 'yes'. That's my fault, though. The chicken was perfectly cooked. A guy near me got the steak caesar salad, and it looked incredible.

Quality of food - yes, I would recommend Winking Lizard.

Quality of drinks - In three words....oh, hell yes. They've got over 120 different beers to choose from, including their 100-beer World Tour. Ask the bartender for a recommendation, and they'll offer you samples to taste before you order.

You can go with a cheap domestic, or you can try an expensive import. They're all over the map on this feature, and if you're a beer drinker, you already knew about WL.

I tried a Hoegaarden because a cute girl two seats down said to try it. She was right. It was also kinda cool to hear her say "Hoegaarden".

Quality of drinks - yes, I would recommend Winking Lizard. Highly.

Game visibility - Above the bar is a full bank of flat-screens, which were perfect. Two large-screens on the corner walls, and a few other well-placed sets surround the area.

I took a stroll around the place prior to kickoff, and I couldn't really find a spot where I didn't have a decent view of at least one screen. If you're there and you didn't see the game, it's because you didn't want to see the game.

Game visibility - yes, I would recommend the Winking Lizard

Atmosphere - Here's the part where the review gets ugly.

When I arrived, things looked good. All the staff was wearing Ohio State shirts, and the TVs were all tuned to various sports shows (ESPN GameDay, LSU/Appy State, Big Ten Channel preview, golf channel, etc). The house sound was on Kirk Herbstreit, discussing how Bowling Green would upset Pitt. Nice call, Herbie!

Unfortunately, that was as good as it was going to get.

A couple minutes before Noon, each TV slowwwwwwwly changed channels. Just after kickoff, every other set was tuned to the Buckeyes game. The house sound, which was at a decent level when I arrived, could no longer be heard over the din of the crowd. They never bothered to turn it up.

Basically, what I determined from the experience is that Winking Lizard doesn't really get it. They just turned the TVs to a channel and called it a day. There was no real atmosphere for the Buckeyes in the place. They had the game on the screen? Congrats....so did my living room. Give me a reason to come spend money in your place if you want me to watch a game there.

They have a sound system in the place....they should have used it to play TBDBITL before kickoff. No "Sloopy" during halftime, nobody yelling out "O-H", no nothing.

When Beanie scored on the first drive, a fan took the initiative and did an "O-H". Twice. That was about it, though.

The building was between half and three-quarters full, and I think the atmosphere was the reason why. It's entirely possible that Buckeye fans in the area may already know that there are much more fun places to see Ohio State games.

I was so disappointed that I left at halftime and went home to watch the game there.

Atmosphere - No, I wouldn't recommend Winking Lizard in the slightest.

Overall grade - I think this was a great place to eat and have a drink. If you want to go out and meet your friends at a fun place on a Friday night, try Winking Lizard.

The BBC is dedicated to finding the perfect spot to watch an Ohio State game, and this is not the place to do that. If they take advantage of an opportunity and start doing more to fire up the crowd, maybe. But they didn't appear to be interested in giving people anything more than a seat in front of a TV set. Not good enough.

It's safe to say that the Winking Lizard will not be the location for our bowl game this year.

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Week One in the Big Ten

It's been a long time since I got see a full Saturday of college football (having worked in a sports-themed restaurant for the past 2+ seasons, it was impossible). Today was a real treat for me. I got to see large portions of more than a handful of games.

Thoughts on how the Big Ten performed today? OK, since you asked;

- Ohio State 43, YSU 0
You've seen my initial thoughts, but I'll elaborate more over the next couple of days.

- Penn State 173, Coastal Carolina 10
CC was getting clobbered from the moment they fumbled the opening kickoff. I don't think I can get a full assessment of how good PSU is from that game, but I did see a lot (and I mean A LOT) of broken tackles by Lions players. It looked to be a combination of good PSU play and bad CC effort.
Penn State had 334 yards of rushing, and they were not running up the score. 8 different players carried the ball, and nobody had more than 10 carries. Also, 13 different receivers made the box score. Yes, I said 13.

- Northwestern 30, Syracuse 10
The Wildcats have the potential and they could be a bowl team. The issue is, nobody really knows what kind of damage they can do. Since they played a lousy Syracuse team today, we still don't know what they are capable of, but I've gotta give them an "A" for playing with heart. They were losing to the Orangemen in the 3rd quarter, and they turned it up a notch. You didn't see much of that from this squad the last couple of seasons when they were down in the second half.

- Indiana 31, Western Kentucky 13
Kellen Lewis is a monster. Dude had 144 yards and 2 TDs in the air and 185 yards and 2 TDs on the ground. Those 185 rushing yards came on 9 carries. Yeah, that's correct...he averaged 21 yards a carry.

- Iowa 46, Maine 3
Kirk Ferentz needed a big win after a summer of being beaten to death by police blotters and bad news. He got it.
I didn't get to see this game, and I don't think this game was actually broadcast anywhere. It might have been kept off the air because of some obscure part of Megan's Law. I'll have to look into that.

-Wisconsin 38, Akron 17
The Badgers used a bruising run attack (404 rushing yards) to jump out to an early lead, then got a little scare thrown into them in the second quarter when Akron came back to within 7 points. It didn't last long.
The team that can slow down Wisky's running game will probably be able to beat them. Their passing game is going to struggle (they know it, too, only attempting 10 passes on the day).

-Utah 25, Michigan 23
Don't let anybody fool you. Michigan was in this game only because Utah let them stay in it. The Utes committed 15 penalties on the day, and made stupid mistakes all day long. A pass interference took away a Utah interception and gave Michigan their first TD. Then in the 4th quarter, Utah thought they had won and decided to stop playing. Plus, if somebody doesn't teach Utes QB Brian Johnson when to throw the ball away (and to actually throw it NEAR somebody when he does), they're in big trouble.
Michigan was downright awful on defense, and they have no go-to people anywhere to be found on offense (203 total yards, only 35 yards rushing, and 3-14 on third down). Johnson had over 300 yards passing against Michigan, and because he refused to throw the ball out of bounds, he had negative-66 yards rushing.
Penn State and Michigan State saw this game and are salivating.

-Minnesota 31, Northern Illinois 27
The best game of the entire day. It stayed close all game long, and when the Gophers found themselves down by 3 with 5 minutes to go, they put together a bruising drive for the game-winner (then held on against a near-miracle finish).
Minnesota won't win more than 5 games this year, but their fans found a new love. head Coach Tim Brewster sent his offense onto the field at the 4-yard line on 4th-and-2 with 30 seconds to play in a 3-point game. He could have gone for the easy tie and sent it into OT, but he wanted to send a message to his offense. the offense responded and got the first down and the win. Brewster could have been a major goat if his Gophers had failed that play, but this team needs confidence, and Brewster gave it to them. Kudos.

-Cal 38, Michigan State 31
This was a really exciting game, and MSU nearly won it. The Spartans are on the verge of being a great team. Right now, they are a good team and they will beat you because they take advantage of breaks when they go MSU's way. Sparty needed one more break tonight and couldn't seem to get it. The only problem is see with Michigan State right now is they lack defensive speed. It'll hurt them down the road, but they have the weapons on offense to make up for it.
Side note - ever seen any team thump their chest so much over basic plays like Cal did tonight? Outside of Miami, circa 1980s, of course.

-Missouri 52, Illinois 42
Damn, but I was having a tough time flipping back and forth between this game and MSU. I need a new remote control now.
Like offense? You'll love Illinois this year.
Like defense? You'll hate Illinois this year.

By the way, I think Purdue had a great weekend too. They didn't do anything wrong at all!

What are your thoughts on the Big Ten this weekend?
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The new Michigan tradition

Bookend losses. One at the beginning of the regular season, one at the end.

I'd say to tell Rich Rodriquez about this other Michigan tradition, but he's just going to have to learn it for himself.

Seriously, dude....Mormons?

Did you see what you wanted to see?

Putting aside the scare we have going on with Beanie Wells, was the game what you expected it to be? Obviously the score indicates a blowout (and it could have been MUCH worse than that for YSU), but what about the intricacies of the game....were they good enough for you as a Buckeye fan?

Mid-week, I posted 8 things I wanted to see in the game. Here's what happened with them;

1) A touchdown on the very first Ohio State possession
Success. We made it interesting, but Wells ripped off a big run on 4th-and-1 for the score.

2) A stop on the very first YSU possession
Success. We got a three-and-out. YSU actually only got one first down in the entire first half, on a penalty.

3) Beanie Wells needs 100-120 yards in the first half
No, but with good reason. Tressel mixed up his game plan, giving second-and-third stringers early action, then putting starters back in throughout the second and third quarters. Beanie, had he played the entire first half, would have easily accomplished this.

4) FG kicking must be perfect on the day
Success. I'm impressed, too. We connected on a 51-yarder and a 54-yarder.

5) 4 to 6 sacks on defense
Not today. We got two, but it should be noted that we forced so many 3-and-outs that YSU didn't get an opportunity to try enough pass plays for us to sack them a lot. OK, so that's a weak argument.

6) 65%+ passing from Todd Boeckman
Success. 74 percent passing for Boeckman. He looked good.

7) At least three possessions for Terrelle Pryor
Success. He got three possessions, and led us to 10 points. His TD was really nice, too.

8) A TD pass for Joe Bauserman
Let's be honest, Hartline got his foot down in the end zone. But it doesn't count, so this one wasn't a success. He'll get one against Ohio.

For the day, I'd say I saw plenty of the stuff I was hoping to see. I'm happy with the 43-0 win. Now it'll be complete when I hear that Beanie's OK.

How about you?

X-Rays negative on Beanie, and oh yeah...we won

First of all, the news you're really wondering about;

Beanie Wells had x-rays taken, and they came out negative. No broken bones, and the immediate diagnosis is that we can eliminate the deepest fears about his right foot. Jim Tressel is giving a press conference now and is upbeat about him. Just said that they'll monitor him and it's a day-to-day thing.

As for the game, some things that stand out for me;

- I LOVED the fact that we mixed in a lot of backups early in the game. Boom Herron was the featured back on our second drive, Terrelle Pryor was the QB on the third drive, and we had three freshmen linemen in on offense (a LOT) in the first quarter.
- Tressel was determined to not let our punter play, wasn't he? Going for a 54-yard FG in the 4th quarter, and having Pryor go for it on 4th-and-7 in YSU territory late showed he was giving everyone (but the punter) a good look.
- Pryor is the real deal. I know he was playing against substandard competition, but he's got some game.
- The Penguins never their deepest penetration on the final play of the game...to the Ohio State 46. They only had one snap on our side of the field the entire day.
- The defense was so good, it was almost boring.
- Total rushing yards, Ohio State 251, YSU negative-11

Nice.

A full review later.....

(as I'm typing this, Michigan is running onto the field for their game. OOOH, Vernon Gholston just got another sack against them)