*crawling through the desert of the offseason*
11W WEEK IN REVIEW. Here is some stuff written this week by people more talented than me:
- FlashBuck: Dan "Big Daddy" Wilkinson.
- Gareon Conley's fresh start.
- Dolodale knows there's work to be done.
- Urban says his QB decision would be harder if they were bad.
- Video: Urban presents the darkest timeline.
- Big Ten Media Days are 22 days away. Your primer.
- Austin Mack is so dang good.
- Braxton Miller: "This is where I'm going to finish it."
- Wayne Davis, a four-star CB out of Virginia, committed to OSU this week. (What it means.)
- What kind of tweaks will Ed Warinner bring to the offense?
- OSU controlled field position in 2014, and look for that to continue.
- Ohio State RBs win Heismans every 20 years. It's been 20 years.
- We'll never forget you, Keanu "Shane Falco" Reeves, a lifelong OSU fan.
HARBAUGH UP AGAINST IT. I wouldn't want to compete against Urban Meyer. I certainly wouldn't want to compete against him after giving him a three-year head start.
Preseason award lists might not mean much, but they do offer insight into how national pundits see teams. Spoiler: Ohio State is good, and Michigan is bad.
From Ben Axelrod of BleacherReport.com:
Meanwhile, at Michigan, the names of Wolverines players have been popping up less frequently throughout the past week—and have been entirely absent save for just one of the watch lists for college football's major awards.
No Michigan player could be found on either the watch list for the Maxwell Award (80 players) or the Nagurski Trophy (88 players), an alarming sign for a Michigan roster that appears short on talent heading into 2015.
To put those numbers in perspective, Ohio State had nearly half of its starting defense named to the Nagurski Trophy watch list, while the Wolverines weren't deemed worthy of having one player selected to a list that had enough room to represent 88 of the 128 FBS programs.
Unless Harbaugh's psychosis is also a resovoir of deep magical powers, then I just don't see how Michigan will ever close to the talent gap with Ohio State at this point. They're worse than OSU's 2011 team, and by the time they reached Ohio State's present level (which is no small task) the Buckeyes will have brought-in legendary 2016 and 2017 classes.
I'm not wishing good luck on Jim Harbaugh, but he's going to need it. Then again, Michigan fans would commit seppuku if it meant their kids could suffer through Michigan's own John Cooperesque decade.
Tressel and Meyer (with a special assist from Dave Brandon) hurt them bad. Real bad.
URBAN ON THE MOVE. I believe Urban Meyer will retire as one of the greatest coaches to ever coach — in any sport. He's climbing the charts in his own profession for the time being.
From Bill Rabinowitz of Dispatch.com:
Consider: Meyer ranks fourth all time among coaches with at least 10 years of Football Bowl Subdivision experience with a winning percentage of 84.5. He leads all active coaches with at least a decade of experience by a wide margin. Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops (79.2 percent) ranks second. (Washington coach Chris Petersen, who has been a head coach for nine years, has a slightly better winning percentage, 84.7, than Meyer, thanks to his success at Boise State.)
When it comes to national championships, only Paul “Bear” Bryant with five and Frank Leahy, John McKay and Nick Saban with four apiece have won more consensus titles than Meyer. Before the Bowl Championship Series era, multiple teams could claim a national title in a season because there was a plethora of polls and no official champion.
But Meyer’s titles are not in dispute. Only Leahy won them at a younger age, winning four titles at Notre Dame in the 1940s before he turned 42. At age 50, Bryant had won just one national championship. Saban didn’t win his first until he was 52.
The worst case for Urban Meyer is that he retires as the best coach of his generation. That's quite the floor for a career.
JAMES LAURINAITIS TROLLS THE TROLL. The 2014 loss to Virginia Tech was a thing that happened. It used to enrage me during the season (despite all OSU's issues), Virginia Tech was just flat out bad. It finished 7-6, which is why its players will forever hang their hats on that one night in September:
@JOEL9ONE @JLaurinaitis55 plus James probably didn't wanna come after that loss OSU took this year.....
— Chase Williams (@CWilliams_36) July 11, 2015
Come on bro....who cares...UNDISPUTED NATIONAL CHAMPIONS. Period. https://t.co/KZ7tGXfoaN
— James Laurinaitis (@JLaurinaitis55) July 11, 2015
@JLaurinaitis55 @JOEL9ONE I can't take the championship away. But I did personally take the perfect season away...
— Chase Williams (@CWilliams_36) July 11, 2015
I don't even care about that single blemish anymore. Would anybody here trade 2012's undefeated season for the 2014 championship one? I didn't think so.
Point awarded accordingly to Mr. Laurinaitis.
NEW MEKKA DON BANGER AFOOT. On the heels of "Zeeeeke!" comes another summer banger tomorrow:
"The Silver Bullets Are Back" - my new song and video dropping MONDAY! Spread the word! #GoBucks
— Mekka Don (@MekkaDonMusic) July 11, 2015
Indeed, The Silver Bullets are back.
FOUL-SMELLING WATER AFOOT. In my day on campus we didn't even bother drinking water (it's included free with beer). Look at these coddled little kids today.
From Michael Huson of TheLantern.com:
Some students living off-campus can thank algae and heavy rainfall for their possibly odorous and odd-tasting tap water this week.
The culprits are anabaena algae, which accumulated on the surface of the Hoover Reservoir before spilling over the dam due to rising water levels caused by the recent increase in rainfall. The blue-green algae then made their way down Big Walnut Creek toward the Hap Cremean Water Plant intake.
Affected areas include parts of Columbus receiving water from Hap Cremean, which provides drinking water to some areas north of Interstate 70, including parts of Ohio State campus and some off-campus neighborhoods.
Just pour some Natty Light in there; you'll be fine.
THOSE WMDs. The story of Toronto's dead raccoon... Japan's new satellite takes photos of Earth every 10 minutes... 1960 New York Times review of To Kill a Mockingbird... The Mystery of the Largest Bitcoin Transaction Ever Made... The Colors We Eat.
