Joe Pa hopes the Hershey squirts don't return this year.
Mike at Black Shoes Diaries was kind enough this week to host the Buckeyes in the game and the Big Ten round table. As Jason mentioned, Mike is the Dean of Penn State blogs and constantly puts up great stuff. As always, I would love to hear how you as a fan would answer these questions.
1. Pretend for a moment you're the little Japanese guy on Heroes. You can close your eyes, clench your fists, crap your pants and go back in time. If you could go back and change one play for your team this season, what would it be? I would take back the safety we gave up to Akron. While lackluster at times, there haven't been any negative plays that have affected an outcome. The Buckeyes defense has played so well this season, they deserve a shutout on their resume. Those are the only points allowed in the first quarter, as Ohio State has outscored their opponents 80-2. Lawrence Wilson's injury is a close second, as I always hate to see someone lost for the season.
2. We're now two-thirds of the way through the season. Everyone likes to debate who will be the Big Ten Coach of the Year. I want to know which Big Ten coach is a complete moron that should be demoted back to fullbacks coach on a team that runs the spread offense? Kirk Ferentz is my choice here. He is overpaid at 2.8 million a year (highest in the Big 10) and the Hawkeyes are currently 1-9 in their last 10 conference games. Ferentz bought himself some time with 2 conference titles, but his 34-32 career conference mark hovers slightly above mediocrity. Hawkeye nation wanted Bob Stoops to replace Hayden Fry, but when Oklahoma beat them to it, Ferentz became their man. At the time, his head coaching experience consisted of three years at Maine and the Hawkeyes have finished in the final AP poll only 3 times in his tenure.
3. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife. But the Bible doesn't say anything about your rival. Which current Big Ten player do you most wish played for your team? Ever since Ohio State played Illinois last year, I thought J. Lehman would be a great Buckeye. He was all over the field and single handedly kept the Illini in that game. Lehman has been over shadowed the past couple of season, as this conference is loaded with linebackers. He is again leading the conference in tackles and his mullet style cut helps his cause.Bonus Question It's probably too early to start thinking about next year. Well, unless you're Minnesota in which case you've been thinking about next year for a month or so already. Assess your team's future. Was this year your chance to make a run or is this just a rebuilding year with greater expectations in 2008? Or do you plan to suck in 2008 just as much as you suck now? This was actually supposed to be Ohio State's rebuilding year. They lost the Heisman Trophy winner, 2 first round draft picks and 6 other players in the draft. Ohio State has only 5 seniors in their 2 deep and 3 of those are at fullback. Therefore, barring early draft entries, they should be stronger next year, which is scary for the Big Ten. The nation has told us Ohio State has a lot to prove over the next four weeks, so I can not compare next years expectations, but I'm sure anything short of a BCS game would be a disappointment.
