Greetings Buckeye fans and happy day of rest.
The Buckeyes have a day off from practice but there should still be some news - or at least some decent photos - leaking out of the Woody as Urban and the squad host Media Day. Meyer is scheduled to meet with the media around 1pm followed by an open session with most of the players on the indoor practice field.
Kyle, Chris and Walt will be on hand to capture anything that goes down.
Another weekend nearly gone and now we are that much closer to football season. Oh my, have things really picked up.
A LOSING SEASON HURTS. People really jump off the bandwagon when their team has a losing season.
Ohio State reported that royalties from merchandise sales last season dipped about a half million bucks, a direct result of the Buckeyes' first losing season since 1988.
SportsOneSource chief analyst Matt Powell told the Dispatch how it nearly worked itself out for the Buckeyes, even with last year's scandal:
“It’s interesting. After the scandal broke, we actually saw sales go up. The fans actually rallied around. But the bigger issue is how the team does on the field. If the team does poorly, sales go down. If the team does well, sales go up."
Even with the Buckeyes' trip to the Final Four, which definitely boosts excitement and apparel browsing, OSU Director of Trademark and Licensing Rick Van Bimmer also told the Dispatch:
“Basketball, in general, does not carry the same impact for us as football does, in retail terms. The time frame is too short to really do much at retail — you don’t know you’ll be in the Final Four until a week before it happens.”
Now it's really easy to see how Penn State will be affected on all levels.
DAZED AND CONFUSED ON THE GRIDIRON. These freshman helmets with the black stripe are really becoming one of the hot stories of this training camp.
The respect-earning tactic is eerily similar to high school circa 1976 where the seniors-to-be hunted down the freshmen to teach them a lesson about who's in charge and for the freshmen to show respect to the upperclassmen (ref: Dazed and Confused). It's also like fraternity pledging and earning the respect of your older brothers.
In reality, there is no hazing involved and it sounds like we have another new tradition according to what Coach Meyer told the Dispatch:
“I wanted to put them through a ritual to become a member of the team, but not allow hazing. They had to earn it the right way, not through hazing and silly, dangerous stuff. They had to earn the right on the football field and by being accountable.
And it took off. It’s been a hit ever since every place we’ve been.”
Discussing the difficulties of adjusting to college life both on and off the field, Meyer understands the importance of receiving guidance from a seasoned teammate:
“One way to make it through it, among others, is having a mentor, a big brother they can lean on.”
As Jeff pointed out in yesterday's Skully, Devan Bogard, 'mentored' by big brother Ohrian Johnson, was the first to lose his black stripe after practice last week.
This seems eerily similar to my college fraternity experience.
Calipari is doing everything right, maybe.CHEATER, CHEATER PUMPKIN EATER. Once again, CBS Sports has published a golden nugget with their most recent series of poll questions for 100 random college basketball coaches called "Critical Coaches".
The most recent: Who is perceived to be the biggest cheater in the sport?
Now, this is extremely sensitive and I doubt many coaches felt comfortable answering this type of question but supposedly they did. CBS polled each coach anonymously to get the following semi-predictable results:
- John Calipari (Kentucky): 36 percent
- Scott Drew (Baylor): 34 percent
- Ben Howland (UCLA): 12 percent
- Jim Calhoun (Connecticut): 7 percent
- Tom Crean (Indiana): 3 percent
- Dave Rice (UNLV): 3 percent
Surprised? No, me neither. 36 out of 100 picked Kentucky's Calipari. Said one coach:
"Cal probably doesn't have to cheat now as much as he used to, but he's still the standard. The rest of us can't even deal in his league. He's the best."
How about Tom Crean? Tied for fifth most perceived to be cheating coach. Of course, if he ever starts winning big that rhetoric will ratchet up a notch. Hopefully, we never have to deal with that national nightmare. His twitter is annoying enough as it is.
Also, I'm sure you noticed Thad didn't make the list. There's never been any real chirping about how he gets blue chippers to Columbus though he's caused a few salty moments for lesser men like Crean and John Beilein.
Who would be your top three if this were a list of football coaches?
TO ROCK OR RHYME THAT'S RIGHT ON TIME IT'S CLICKY. Spurrier admitting to "stealing" from Urban... Heartwarming way to award a walk-on a full scholarship at Vandy... More LSUFreek gold with Tyrann... The Honey Badger was working towards a tough degree at LSU (warning: parental advisory)... First episode of Miami-FL's Raisin' Canes documentary... Ken Pom's projections for returning college basketball players with Deshaun and Craft... What a great feeling this is for Buckeye fans getting the mail... '13 basketball prospect Jordan Mickey liking the Buckeyes.
