Oh, hello there. Happy Michigan State Thursday. I’ll be your host, DJ Jazzy Jeff, taking you on a wild ride around the college football world set to the smooth sounds of whatever it is you listen to in the morning.
Got that cued up? It’s Hall and Oates? Whatever…let’s roll.
LITTLE TEN. As you may have noticed, the Big Ten hasn’t been impressing anyone through four weeks of play.
Sportswriters from around the country were already having a feeding frenzy on the conference's shriveled carcass, then Commissioner Jim Delany came out and said this:
"The narrative is we've underperformed, and I can't argue with that. We haven't won big games. The narrative is about right. When you have big brands, expectations are high. I can't discount the facts, and I can't discount the critics."
It’s hard to disagree with Delany here (as much as I want to), but in many ways, the proof is in the pudding.
As expected, the comments have catalyzed a new wave of “WHY IS THE BIG TEN SO BAD?!” articles this week and prognosticators from around the nation are submitting their explanations.
ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg references high coaching turnover due to a lack of competitive pay as well as a severe drop-off in the talent at QB compared with other conferences:
A quote from former Purdue Coach Joe Tiller:
"The Big Ten Conference is a traditional conference, and they're slow to change. My last four years at Purdue, we struggled with retaining assistant coaches because the Big Ten just didn't pay. … As a result, top assistants leave and go to other programs. It's market-driven, if you will, but the Big Ten seems reluctant to step up there and pay. I don't disagree with that. Guys are paid way too much money today. But it is what it is."
and from former OSU Coach Earle Bruce:
"The thing I noticed most is a lack of great quarterbacks in the league. A team can't get cut short at that position. When I was [in the Big Ten], everybody had a great quarterback. That makes the league a little tougher.”
Dennis Dodd from CBS Sports blames a lack of overall recruiting:
"One player in the top 25 of Rivals.com's top 100 for 2013 is committed to a Big Ten school. Among the players in the SEC footprint in that top 100, one says he going to a Big Ten school. That is, if you consider Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. the SEC footprint. St. Thomas Aquinas defensive end Joey Bosa has pledged to play for Ohio State."
While the Dispatch’s Todd Jones calls out a lack of player development leading to a dearth of high NFL draft picks compared with other conferences:
"Besides OSU, the rest of the Big Ten has had 41 first-round selections in the past 10 drafts. Alabama, LSU, Florida, and Auburn have combined for 38 in that span."
With that said, I think everyone just needs to take a deep breath and step back from the ledge. College football is cyclical. Teams and conferences are bad, then they’re good, and then they’re bad again. The Big Ten just happens to be having its terrible streak during an era with a 24-hour sports news cycle.
At the end of the day, a conference truly needs only two or three good teams to be considered formidable. With the recruiting jobs Meyer and Hoke are doing (sans 59 more Robinson Arm Punts) the top dogs in the conference should be at fighting strength again relatively soon, ultimately halting this kind of talk…for a while.
IS THE DEFENSE BUILT FOR THIS? The Associated Press ran a story yesterday referencing Meyer’s Monday comments on Michigan State.
He'll punish you if you don't wrap."I think our defense is kind of built for this. It's not built for sideline to sideline.”
Thus far, the 2012 Buckeyes have faced lesser opponents (I think?) who have relied on screens, quick passes and sweeps to spread the Silver Bullets out and make plays.
The result: the Scarlet and Gray are giving up almost 400 yards per game, good (bad) enough for last in the Big Ten.
Meyer and company are hopeful that type of offensive production will slow this week, as the Buckeyes know what to expect with the Spartans: Le'Veon Bell...all day.
Handcuffed by a young, inexperienced QB, Michigan State has had to run Bell a whopping 117 times in four games (he had 182 carries total in 2011).
For the most part, the strategy has been successful, but has rendered the Spartans completely one-dimensional.
“The No. 1 thing is we’re going to have to stop the run,” linebacker Etienne Sabino said. “Their run game is the strength of their offense. They have a great running back. We have to stop them from running. If we’re able to do that, we can have a pretty good game.”
That might be easier said than done. Anyone who has watched the last four Buckeyes games noted tackling isn’t a strength. Cal and UAB wide receivers are one thing, but the 244-pound Bell is a completely different animal.
Still Sabino believes the defense will make the necessary adjustments:
“Honestly, looking at the film, I don’t think we’re that far off. We just have to shore up a couple of little things. It goes back to tackling and making sure guys do their jobs at all time. When we do our jobs, we’re actually pretty good.”
Le’Veon Bell vs. The Buckeye D: everyone’s key matchup to watch this Saturday.
CBS SPORTS PICKS. Here are four men and Ron Zook sitting in a futuristic living room talking about OSU v. MSU. Spoiler alert: only one of them picks the Buckeyes to win #UnderdogSwagger
POP PASS HISTORY LESSON. If you watched the Cal game, you saw Braxton Miller’s Tebow-esque pass to Jake Stoneburner for six:
But what you might not know is Meyer has been running that play since 2003 B.T. (Before Tebow).
The first recorded sighting of the “pop pass” was on Nov. 1, 2003. The now-famous play was called by Meyer during triple overtime of a Utah v. Air Force contest to win the game.
The only twist: the first pop pass was thrown by a running back, not a QB.
Following a TD deadlocking the game at 43-43, the Utes were forced to go for two per triple overtime rules. Ben Moa (who had just scored the preceding TD on a fourth and one) received the ball again, but this time faked a dive, stood upright and lobbed a pass over the line to TE Matt Hansen.
With that, the pop pass was born. Read the full write-up, as some of the backstories add a little drama to an already dramatic finish.
LINKEDIN. Desmond Howard thinks your boos are funny... Does the Big Ten deserve Gameday?... This is so true for me it's scary... Coke print ad doubles as iPhone amplifier... His calculations were off.
