Ohio State assistant coaches will be made available to the media at 3:30 p.m. today. Make sure you're following Eric, Tim, and 11W for on-the-minute updates.
NO GUNSLINGER NEEDED? Cardale Jones—perhaps the strongest-armed quarterback on any level—played at Ohio State last year. Despite the rare talent, Jones looked as comfortable as a square in a disco joint for large swaths of the season as the Buckeye offense failed to stretch the field vertically.
Then Ohio State lost, Ed Warinner went to the box, and J.T. Barrett supplanted Jones once and for all as the Buckeyes never looked back.
From espn.com:
“Joe Burrow has been coming on,” Meyer said. “He was a guy that last year I had my concerns about last season, just arm strength to release, twitch, ability to run the ball, because you have to do that.
[...]
Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that Meyer often refers to his starter the same way. And Barrett has been through the same process of answering doubts about his physical ability, from his arm to his relative lack of height that he has worked to compensate for by taking deeper drops during spring camp.
For Burrow, he was the first to admit there was a “long way to go” for him in a lot of areas, and this summer will be critical in his development. But if Ohio State’s quarterbacks are at their best with a chip on their shoulder, maybe they should keep Jones around for a few more long-ball competitions to help keep them motivated.
There's two things I know about Tom Herman: The guy founded MENSA in 1946 and he can pick quarterbacks like a mob fixer picks ponies.
Anybody with functioning eyes can see the potential in Cardale Jones, and all the blind would have to do is listen to this Gus Johnson Vine.
Herman, Urban Meyer, Mickey Marotti and Tim Beck deserve credit in not only identifying but developing Barrett and Burrow. (Yes, I I'd be remiss without mentioning Mack Brown's piss-poor QB appraisal skills for the assist on Barrett's recruitment.) That doesn't happen everywhere, despite what recruiting graphics will tell you.
NEVER TOO EARLY TO LOOK AHEAD. It's late April and the NFL Draft is still a week away, so we can fight behind the Waffle House off 670 if you want to pick bones with my arbitrary decision to fast forward to Sept. 3rd, when the Bowling Green Falcons soar down the narcotic corridor that is I-75 for a match with Ohio State.
According to advanced metrics like S&P+ and SRS, last year's 10-4 squad helmed by Dino Babers was the best football team in Bowling Green history. The problem for the Falcons is Frisch's Big Boy wasn't enough to satiate Babers' palate as he now coaches Syracuse.
The Falcons replaced him with a guy who was coaching high school three years ago.
From sbnation.com:
He's a creative choice, at the very least. [Mike] Jinks is a longtime Texas high school coach -- he was an offensive coordinator from 1999-2004, then led programs at San Antonio Burbank high school and Cibolo Steele high school for eight years. After going 43-4 at Steele from 2010-12, he got stolen away by Kliff Kingsbury and put on a different career track.
Jinx served three years as Texas Tech's running backs coach and in 2015 added the role of associate head coach. He served under one of the spread's steadiest hands (while defense has held Kingsbury's Tech program back, offense has in no way been a problem) and helped to develop maybe the country's most underrated running back -- DeAndre Washington, who rushed for 2,495 yards over the last two seasons.
Now, barely three years after leading Steele high school to a 14-1 record and a Texas 5A-2 state semifinal appearance, Jinks takes the reins at a conference champion in Ohio. It's a new area of the country for the Angelo State graduate, but for a school that loves itself some spread/air raid offense, his own strain of it could be pleasing to the eye.
A hire like this is either a stroke of genius or something that could turn back the clock in Bowling Green. Kyle Rowland, a former college roommate of mine and 11W beat writer now of The Toledo Blade, thinks the Falcons will regress:
@MattSBN They're going to be atrocious.
— Kyle Rowland (@KyleRowland) April 19, 2016
@MattSBN Yes. No way they win six games.
— Kyle Rowland (@KyleRowland) April 19, 2016
Which means I'm officially on tilt about the Falcons, folks!
I only partially kid. Ohio State's defense will be young and under a new influence in Greg Schiano. Bowling Green's offense would need a flawless game to be competitive in the fourth quarter, but I make it a point to never sleep on Ohio teams.
Some of these mutinous #teens don't remember a time when a video game character named "Boo Jackson" from Ohio University went unconscious and almost sucker punched No. 3 Ohio State in the Shoe.
I remember Boo Jackson, and that one time Ohio University students almost became fans of their football team.
VANNETT TELLS A MEYER STORY. Nick Vannett was the latest Buckeye to stop through NFL Network's Move The Sticks 360 Series, which profiles 2016 NFL draftees.
Among the highlights, Vannett tells a story (starting at 2:25) about Urban Meyer's arrival in Columbus. Vannett admitted he took over a stalled-out program, but Meyer went to work overnight.
He went as far as forcing the team to practice outside during winter—they had to earn the right to work out at Ohio State's facilities. Meyer didn't even let players wear Ohio State clothes when he first arrived either. He broke the team down and built it back up, and Vannett says that prepared him as a man entering the next level.
Vannett straight up told NFL teams the best players he played against were in practice, even if Vonn Bell became so familiar with the intricacies of the Buckeyes offense he could tell which patterns he was running due to the depth at which he lined up.
Vannett, while making it clear he wasn't making excuses, also mentioned Ezekiel Elliott's hospitalization the week of the Michigan State game threw the running game out of sync, which contributed his lack of touches.
"You shouldn't have lost that game," analyst Daniel Jaremiah eventually said.
I agree, Daniel. I agree.
GET THAT MONEY, ZEKE. One of the many perks of being a professional athlete is you can cash-in in your personal #brand without society collapsing.
Ezekiel Elliott belongs in part to the Nike family now:
@EzekielElliott has signed an endorsement deal with @usnikefootball! @FifthdownM pic.twitter.com/KWZAEWetjx
— ESM (@everett_sm) April 19, 2016
Can't argue with that choice.
THAT'S LUDICROUS. Georgia hired Kirby Smart, the senile billionaire's version of Will Muschamp, this offseason. To create a splash around this new era, the Bulldogs have done everything from lobby to shield themselves from FOIA laws to paying Ludacris $65,000 to perform at its spring game.
But $65,000 isn't enough to earn a performance from a rapper that peaked in 2001.
From macon.com:
In the accompanying hospitality rider, Georgia either provided dinner for at least 10 people or paid $40 per person for a meal instead. If dinner was served, this included grilled chicken breast, wheat pasta, steamed brown rice and vegetables, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, two fresh fruit trays, a salad bowl and two platters of drumette style wings.
In Ludacris' dressing room for the event, Georgia provided a multitude of items ranging from assorted snacks, six Hanes t-shirts, vodka, cognac, wine, tequila and batteries.
The athletic association also agreed to stock a box of Trojan Magnum condoms in the room, too.
The image of a maudlin Georgia staffer standing in a Publix line waiting to buy a box of Trojan Magnums for another man is basically how I viewed Georgia football anyway. I love when my assumptions are divinely autocorrected to A-S-S-PAY-ME.
Props to Ludacris and his agent, though. That rider should replace the Bill of Rights.
THOSE WMDs. Don't slap horses... Chinese gangs mine smartphones for banking data... It's been legal to pick California poppies this whole time... The Minecraft Generation... Most famous book set in every state... How did Americans learn about the Holocaust as it unfolded?
