Folks, there's a reason Cardale Jones earned the title of Troll Sultan.
After aiding in the delivery of the most-memorable postseason run in Ohio State's history, Cardale Jones is 3-0 as Ohio State's starter in the 2015 campaign. And yet when Urban Meyer christened the Iron King as the starter against WMU, a majority of Buckeye fans reacted with a mixture of indignation and disappointment.
It's a shame how quickly things can change.
Had J.T. Barrett gotten the nod, I would've said, "Get dumped then, Western Michigan," and then moved on with my life. Now it seems there's a rift among Ohio State fans — and it's not being chiseled by the side supporting the starter.
The haters — and that's the only applicable term here — can keep clattering. They just better not come around when Ohio State is dropping bombs in Big Ten play acting like they're Iron King loyalists.
YOUNG BULLETS BITING. Only four players graded out as "champions" in all three of Ohio State's victories. Of those four, Tyvis Powell is the only one who had started a game before the season.
From TheOzone.net:
[Tyquan] Lewis, a redshirt sophomore, leads the OSU defensive line in tackles (16) and is tied for the team lead in sacks (2.5). He was a standout in spring and fall camp, and while he may be the beneficiary of the attention paid to Joey Bosa, he is absolutely making the most of it.
A true sophomore, [Raekwon] McMillan is second on the team in tackles (24). Considering that the defense now runs through him, not only is he making plays, he's also making the proper calls. Every great defense is solid and consistent up the middle, and that would certainly describe the Buckeyes with the contributions they are getting from McMillan, defensive tackle Adolphus Washington and safeties Powell and Vonn Bell.
[...]
The fourth three-time champion so far this season is redshirt sophomore Gareon Conley. True, Conley got a start last year against Michigan State so he's not technically a first-time starter, but this is the first time he's ever won a starting job, and it's already quite clear that he's going to have that job as long as he stays in Columbus.
Ohio State was powered by players making their debuts in 2014, and it's good to see Ohio State get production from the few areas where there were unanswered questions.
Tyquan Lewis is a dog, and has surpassed all my expectations. Nobody questioned Raekwon McMillan headed into the season, and Gareon Conley is a straight baller.
Let's hope this trend continues into 2016 when the NFL Draft reaps half the team.
SAM HUBBARD MAKES A CALL. Sam Hubbard, you might not know, was a Notre Dame lacrosse commit when Urban Meyer found him. An athletic freak, Hubbard came into Columbus as a safety before moving to linebacker and, finally, to defensive end.
Though Meyer raved about him numerous times in 2014, he never found the field. That was set to change against Virginia Tech even before Joey Bosa got suspended.
The Sunday night before the game, Hubbard reached out to an old friend for advice for a first-time player.
From Cleveland.com:
So he called a guy who had become a trusted mentor, and who had been there before. [Rocky] Boiman, like Hubbard, was a high school football player from Cincinnati before going on to Notre Dame -- where he was recruited by a young assistant coach named Urban Meyer.
After that came an eight-year pro career that included a Super Bowl win with the Indianapolis Colts, a broadcasting career and a Cincinnati-area football academy, where he first met Hubbard. If there was anyone in Hubbard's life who knew what he was experiencing on the eve of his first college game, it was Boiman.
"You always go through that thing of, 'Do I belong here? I was a kid playing high school football in Cincinnati, and now I'm starting for Ohio State who's coming off a national championship,'" Boiman told Northeast Ohio Media Group this week.
"He did belong there."
He certainly did belong there:
Hubbard has bulked up from 225 then to 265 now to play D-line.
— Clay Hall (@claywsyx6) September 21, 2015
Personally, I would never seek out any Notre Dame affiliate for advice unless it was about how to sleep with a troubled conscience, but then again I'm not mauling people for the football team.
THE ODYSSEY OF CAM JOHNSTON. Are we sure Cam Johnston came from Australia and not a Soviet-era spy program?
From 247sports.com:
“You don’t understand (coming to America) fully when they first explain it to you,” Johnston said. “(Hornsey) said, ‘You’re going to move here. It’s a big thing.’ It’s hard to explain. They say you’re going to America to kick a ball, which you have done since you were 2 or 3. You’re going to get a degree out of it."
People sometimes forget punter Johnny Townsend was originally committed to Ohio State before eventually choosing Will Muschamp's Florida over Alabama on National Signing Day in 2013.
That left Ohio State in a precarious spot, which Kerry Coombs recounted as only Kerry Coombs can:
“We don’t have a punter and all of the good ones are gone. I start doing my research and I notice there are 10 or 12 guys in the NCAA from Australia who are pretty good. I do more research. Where do they come from and how does this work? I’m watching YouTube videos of kids in Australia kicking footballs.
“I see this little kid and I think, ‘This is a joke. It’s not real.’ It’s like when the guys throw the basketball from 7,000 feet up and it bounces and goes in the basket. That’s what I am seeing. I can’t go see him because it’s a non-contact period. I can’t go evaluate him.
“We were rolling the dice. We brought him over on an official visit to see what kind of guy he was. He speaks Australian … he barely speaks English and I can’t understand what he’s saying. He’s got a little bit of juice and he played Australian rules football..."
And the rest is history.
(It's good to see that Kerry Coombs is actually human since he's susceptible to a good ol' YouTube wormhole.)
FLECK USED TO APPRENTICE UNDER THE SENATOR. P.J. Fleck was a graduate assistant under the legendary war criminal known as Jim "The Senator" Tressel in 2006.
In typical Senatorial fashion, Fleck refused to talk about his time learning Tressel's dark arts and instead praised Columbus and Ohio State in general.
From MLive.com:
"It was inspiring," Fleck said of his year at OSU, which finished first or tied for first in the Big Ten from 2005-10 and played in a BCS bowl each season. "You're part of one of the greatest programs of all time, if not the greatest. You're part of the greatest traditions, greatest rivalries, great games, greatest players, greatest culture and greatest atmosphere.
"I remember going in the GA room the first day I got the job and I look in the GA office and every GA or assistant coach that came through Ohio State that became a head coach was on the wall and it was filled top to bottom. I remember sitting there and being like, 'I want to be on there one day. I want my picture on that wall one day.' I don't know if they still have it. I haven't been over there since, but that was the type of dream I had."
[...]
"Everything is so hardcore here," Fleck said in the 2006 Daily Chronicle story. "I usually get here at 6 in the morning and leave around 10 at night. You can see why Ohio State is ranked so high from the moment you step in the offices here and see the talent and how hard everybody is working. Everybody is striving to be the best. This is a great place to pay my dues and learn as much as possible."
Oh, he learned from the Senator well. The only thing missing from that montage was a copious helping of "And so forth..."
Just once I would love to see a former graduate assistant bash his old boss. ("Actually, he treated me like shit; that bastard didn't talk to me for three weeks because I went to the wrong Speedway for his coffee!")
That didn't happen here — but I'm still not buying what Fleck is selling.
TYVIS STILL HAUNTED BY DROPPED PICK. Tyvis Powell dropped an interception against Northern Illinois, but he's remedied the problem:
No more dropped picks @1Tyvis pic.twitter.com/LBdsNIY5CZ
— Mike Weber (@mikeweber25) September 22, 2015
THOSE WMDs. 80-year-old man builds 'dog train' to take homeless canines on adventures... Why every team should apply the constraint theory of offense... Extreme offroad minivan jumping seems chill... Mike Gundy says 'I'm a Man' rant helped recruiting... Wooden statue revealed to be twice as old as Stone Henge... Marcus Depree once got offered an oil well.
