This weekend, something Buckeye-football-cool will happen in South Bend for the first time since 1996 when Ohio State put a 29-16 hurtin' on the Fighting Irish behind 173 yards and two TD's on the ground from Pepe Pearson and 173 yards and two TD's through the air from Stan Jackson, giving John Harold Cooper his 150th career victory.
At 7:30pm Saturday night in South Bend, Buckeye legend Eddie George will officially be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
As a prelude to the '96 beatdown, it was Eddie George who punished the South Bend inhabitants during the '95 season - this time in the 'Shoe - with 207 yards on 32 carries as the Buckeyes dominated the Irish 45-26, adding to the neck pain of then head coach Lou Holtz.
The outburst against ND helped Eddie rush for a school record 1,927 yards during the '95 campaign, one in which he eclisped the 100 yard mark in 12 consecutive games - also a school single-season record - on the way to locking up the Heisman Trophy.
Ranking 2nd on the school's career rushing list with 3,768 yards, Eddie didn't settle for just the Heisman in '95, adding the Doak Walker, Walter Camp and Maxwell Award to his trophy case in what was a truly magical season.
To add some color on just how tough it is to be enshrined into the College Football HOF, here's the details straight from the source:
Including the 2012 FBS Enshrinement class, only 904 players and 197 coaches have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame from the nearly five million who have played or coached the game over the past 142 years. In other words, less than one percent (.0002) have been deemed worthy of this distinction.
Clearly, Eddie is as deserving of this honor as any Buckeye in history. With that, we offer a sincere congratulations to one of the most dominant players to ever suit up for the scarlet and gray.
CURTIS GETS SOME LOVE FROM THE GOOD DOCTOR. Having been named Urban's starting middle linebacker earlier this year, Curtis Grant has gotten the attention of the orginal (and only true) Dr. Saturday, Matt Hinton, who named Grant to his 2012 All-Breakthrough Defensive Team.
Grant joins Devin Smith on the squad after Hinton released his offensive selections this past Monday.
Off the top of my head, it seems Grant is likely the most pivotal player when it comes to the projected success of this year's Silver Bullets. He came in with a ton of hype only to record two tackles a season ago, one that was admittedly a major struggle for a kid that was considered the crown jewel of Tressel's 2011 recruiting haul.
Regardless of how good the defensive line figures to be, without linebackers that can make plays in space it will be another trying season in Columbus. As such, the pressure is on Grant to make a huge leap from untested benchwarmer to trusted contributor.
STONEY STACKS UP IN POSITIONAL RANKINGS. Switching to the offensive side of the ball, Jake Stoneburner checks in as the 9th best WR/TE in the conference according to Brian Bennett.
That sounds cool and all but what really stood out as I scanned the list is just how unbelievably blah the league stacks up when it comes to proven pass catchers.
Jared Abbrederis of Wisconsin, Keenan Davis of Iowa and Roy Roundtree of Michigan give the list a I-guess-sorta-decent top three but after that you get to names like Purdue's Antavian Edison, Nebraska's Kenny Bell, PSU's Justin Brown, Kofi Hughes of Indiana and Bielema's tight-end Jacob Pedersen.
That list blow you away? I didn't think so. It did serve as therapy however as I feel a little better about the state of the receiving corps in Columbus. Any one of Stoneburner, Devin Smith, Philly Brown, Evan Spencer or Michael Thomas could end up among the top 10 WR/TE's in the league by season's end if Braxton has time to throw.
Minus his 2 best years, Ayers went 71-98 in six seasonsTHE MAN WITH 12 TV'S TALKS HEISMAN. Kyle's recent interview with Phil Steele did nothing if not further cement Steele's hero status as the premier college football analyst and season preview shaman.
The guy's work ethic has yielded some crazy accurate predictions over the years in addition to the information overload he supplies to fans by way of his magazine.
Impressively, his annual typically lays claim to a spot in the mag-basket next to every real man's throne for a solid four months.
Yesterday, he took to his blog to handicap the Heisman race. While he hasn't been as successful in channeling his inner Dionne Warwick to accurately tab the stiff-arm winner in recent years, his thougths on the matter are no less worthy.
This year, he might prove prophetic though many others could join him, including me, as he predicts Matt Barkley will take home one of the most prestigious awards in sports.
Here's how his top five shakes out:
- Matt Barkley - USC
- Landry Jones - Oklahoma
- EJ Manual - Florida State
- Tyler Wilson - Arkansas
- Marcus Lattimore - South Carolina
Steele's nod to the B1G starts immediately after with Montee Ball listed 6th followed by Denard Robinson. Braxton Miller is listed as a "Contender" in a group that also includes Knile Davis, Tyrann Mathieu, Rex Burkhead and Tahj Boyd, among others. Who you got?
RANDY AYERS EARNS HOF NOD. The Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame announced their 2013 class and former Buckeye basketball coach Randy Ayers is among those set to be enshrined next May.
Named as Ohio State's coach in 1990 after Gary Williams left for his alma mater, Ayers enjoyed some early success in Columbus before six straight years of mediocrity fueled by a brush with the NCAA after America's favorite four letter word determined Ayers and an assistant illegally recruited Damon Flint.
Athletic Director Jim Jones didn't immediately can Ayers following the 1992 incident that landed the Buckeyes on a year's probation along with various recruiting sanctions and Ayers responded with just one winning season, a 15-13 campaign in '93 that ended with a 1st round exit in the NIT before putting up season records of 13-16, 6-22, 10-17 and 10-17 to close out his Buckeye career.
I don't mean to hate on the guy that brought legends like Greg Simpson, Damon Stringer and Jon Sanderson to town but I struggle to find his tenure worthy of any Hall of Fame intent on recognizing greatness.
Ayers did earn National Coach of the Year honors in '91 and B1G Coach of the Year honors in '91 and '92 as the Buckeyes put up records of 27-4 and 26-6 in back to back seasons, reaching the Sweet 16 in '91 and the Elite Eight in '92 featuring a cast of studs including Jimmy Jackson, Chris Jent, Lawrence Funderburke, Mark Baker, Treg Lee, Perry Carter and Jamaal Brown. Oh, and Bill Robinson.
Again, no hate. Congrats to the guy but two years of elite squads combined with five straight losing seasons along with records of 17-13 and 15-13 in two other years simply doesn't feel worthy of a Hall of Fame induction.
[VIDEO GAME JOKE]. After flaming out at Ohio State and then Alabama, Duron Carter's next stop may be FAU:
According to the source, Carter recently applied for admission to FAU, but has yet to be accepted. He is also in the process of petitioning the NCAA for a transfer waiver, which would keep him from having to sit out a year before playing.
If Carter is given a transfer waiver, he'll get a crack at his newest ex-teammates on 9/22 when the Owls visit Tuscaloosa.
JOEY, DO YOU LIKE MOVIES ABOUT GLADIATORS? Indy won't bid on new title game... The new super-computer charged with tallying the lame duck BCS Standings... Coolest. Raft. Ever... Spanier won't sue Penn State... This damn heat is melting our dogs!... One building that refuses to drop the Paterno name... These.
