Our goal today is to attack Monday like Duron Carter attacked this Canadian Football League pass:
New #CatchOfTheYear frontrunner emerges! @DC_CHILLIN_8 doesn't need two hands to put up six points! #CFLGameday #Riders pic.twitter.com/NsLSxkiXGB
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) July 30, 2017
Carter to the Browns, please and thanks.
ICYMI:
- How Ohio State could distribute carries amongst its running backs.
- Kevin Wilson will bring tempo back to the local offense.
- Predicting the handful of freshman that won't redshirt.
- Help put a life-size statue of Woody Hayes in his hometown of Newcomerstown, Ohio.
Word of the Day: Antediluvian.
MAKES YOU THINK. I'm old enough to remember when 9-11 truther Pete Carroll coached a dynasty at USC. Folks forget, but at one time it seemed like USC would never lose another big game.
I still remember a transient taunting my friends and I on the 1800 block of Summit St. after Carroll's Trojans cleaned out Jim Tressel's Buckeyes in the Coliseum. "SUCKS Y'ALL GOT BLOWN OUT BY USC!"
Sure did, buddy. Sure did.
But a funny thing happened since then. It switched. Ohio State is at the upper echelon of the sport and now drawing comparisons to the USC dynasty from opposing coaches who got their ass whooped.
Enter Mike Riley of Nebraska.
From landof10.com:
“We were obviously humbled by our Ohio State game a year ago,” Riley said. “We learned probably a lot. I hope we did. It hit us right in between the eyes of where we have to go. When it’s all said and done and you get embarrassed like that, and that’s the way that thing looked, then you gotta go back to work. You gotta go back to work with the football part of it. And if you want to compete at that level — I think probably, Ohio State through those years as Urban has come back, I think Ohio State has raised the bar in the Big Ten. I think that’s been the team that’s always, year to year or over a period of years, that has raised the bar.
“I saw that happen with Pete Carroll in the Pac-10. When USC started going. And when that got going, you better get better, or you’ll get left way in the dust.”
What happened next should be of extreme concern to fellow Big Ten teams. Ohio State didn’t win the conference, lost the Fiesta Bowl, and decided the offensive coaching staff of an 11-2 team needed to be overhauled.
Here's the thing: Other teams can get better, but Ohio State will ever stop getting better as well. That gap will never close. Nebraska has no shot at taking the crown as long as it employs Riley.
SAMUEL > McCAFFREY. They say nobody cares about your computer football team, but they're wrong. I care about it, which is why I continue to pump the fact Curtis Samuel (barring freak injury) will outperform Christian McCaffrey this season.
I do this despite knowing a third of the City of Kings Computer Football League reads my columns. Never let anyone say I don't care about my readers.
From fantasylabs.com (via 11W member ROHO73):
It’s easy to say that Samuel is Percy Harvin v.2.0, but it’s easy to say because it’s true — and not just because both played for Urban Meyer in college. Since at least 2000, only four college players have had at least 750 yards receiving and 750 yards rushing in the same season: Samuel, Harvin, Nate Ilaoa, and Mewelde Moore. A fullback, Ilaoa never played a down in the NFL, but Harvin and Moore both had 1,000-yard seasons and multiple fantasy-relevant campaigns in the NFL. Additionally, as biophysical specimens and equity holders, 2017 Samuel and 2009 Percy are highly comparable:
Rookie Samuel: 21 years old, 5’11” and 196 lbs., 4.31-second 40, pick No. 40
Rookie Percy: 21, 5’11” and 192 lbs., 4.41-second 40, No. 22They’re doppelgängers: 2009 Percy has more draft capital while Samuel is the superior athlete, but these two are as comparable as any draft prospects can be. While Percy might seem like an unfortunate comparison, it should be remembered that he had four fantasy-relevant campaigns to open his career in Minnesota before concussions and knee injuries sidelined him. It’s hard to throw retroactive shade on a receiver who averaged 73.8 scrimmage YPG, 0.54 TDPG, and 16.27 DraftKings PPG for his first NFL team.
Used primarily out of the backfield and in the slot at Ohio State, Samuel is likely to be used in a similar (and Percy-esque) way in Carolina: Quick screens, short routes, jet sweeps, and probably even a few pitches and handoffs from the tailback position. Samuel is the most electric player on the Panthers. He’s being selected after Funchess with his DRAFT ADP of 209.4 — but I’ll bet some Coors Lights that he finishes ahead of Funchess in yards and touchdowns this year.
A Buckeye outperforming a Wolverine in the League? There are cashiers checks in this country that carry less of a guarantee.
BRAXTON BACK AT IT AGAIN. Braxton Miller switched to wide receiver during his senior season and rode it all the way to a third-round draft selection with the Houston Texans.
Injuries derailed his rookie season (he only caught one touchdown, albeit on Monday Night Football), but he looks primed for a rebound season in Houston.
Reports on Braxton Miller out of camp this week have been really, REALLY positive. He's torching DBs on the regular in 1 on 1's.
— Brett Kollmann (@BrettKollmann) July 28, 2017
No surprise elite athletes are having trouble covering Miller in space. Just a matter of his body weathering a 16 game season.
SULLINGER KEEPS IT 100. Former Ohio State forward Jared Sullinger is currently an NBA free agent, which makes him a cheater player in The Basketball Tournament.
Despite money in the bank, Sullinger recently kept it real about his struggles with weight and mental health.
From thecomeback.com:
In a revealing Q&A with The Comeback, Sullinger openly talked about the dark year in his life trying to rehab from his injury and his weight issues, and how he had what he termed a mental breakdown before he began to improve.
“I had a mental breakdown because, for the first time in my life, something didn’t work for me,” he admitted.
[...]
What do you mean by finding yourself?
Finding myself as a person, as a basketball player, everything, you know. Whether it’s me being with my mom or me shooting jump-shots. It’s finding yourself and understanding who you are. Once you find out who you are, you realize now you can have the self-discipline to understand.
For those interested, the entire Q&A is worth checking out. I applaud any professional athlete willing to admit their life isn't a highlight reel. The world needs more emotional honesty like that.
Sullinger's TBT team, Scarlet & Gray, plays the lowest remaining seed in the Final Four on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN in Baltimore. Tune in for a healthy dose of silky post moves from the big fella.
CHEF FIXING TO START. Stop me if you've heard this before: A former Ohio State Buckeye we all love to know may have been drafted too low and is now ready to prove how wrong that was.
The latest rendition is Raekwon McMillan, who "fell" to the second round due to concerns about his athleticism and coverage skills.
A neck injury to linebacker Koa Misi could be the break McMillan needs to secure a starting spot in Miami.
From sun-sentinel.com:
Raekwon McMillan appears to be in pole position in the race to become starting inside linebacker, but the Miami Dolphins’ second-round pick realizes the competition has just begun.
[...]
McMillan’s experience playing on the inside at Ohio State, his status as an early draft pick, and his upside are the reasons it appears this is his job to lose now that Koa Misi has been placed on injured reserve.
“It’s definitely a goal of mine, but it’s a long-term goal,” McMillan said when asked about becoming a starter. “What I’ve got to focus on is getting better tomorrow and focusing on what I did wrong today.”
One day it's going to hit these clown NFL owners that they should only draft Ohio State players. The NFL better pray the Browns aren't the first one to crack the code, either.
THOSE WMDs. SoundCloud's broken business model drove artists away... Slaves of ISIS: The long walk of Yazidi women... The Aroma of Tacoma... Gold lunar module stolen from Neil Armstrong Museum in Wapakoneneta.... An ode to Half Price Books on its 40th birthday.
