Bill Willis: A Hall of Famer at every level
Wells Saves the Day
It's becoming more and more difficult to come up with the superlatives to describe what we're seeing out of Wells. It's scary the way he makes it look so easy.
When the Badgers went up 17-10 and that sinking Wisconsin feeling returned to our stomachs, I wondered allowed aloud why the Buckeyes weren't pounding the ball on the ground.
Penn State, Michigan State and a host of other teams have had success running the ball against Wisky and here the Buckeyes were -- down by 7 with one of the best running backs in college football.
Well, it's a good thing Tressel takes my phone calls during games because sure enough, he started feeding Beanie the ball and he was able to ice the game with his three long touchdown runs down the stretch.
Since his "day off" against Kent State, Wells has put up 221 on Michigan State, 133 on Penn State and 169 on Wisconsin. With 1165 yards on the season and three games to play, Beanie has a decent shot to crack 1500 and get himself into the top 5 on the single season rushing list.
He won't win the Heisman this year, thanks to Smith hangover, but he'll be one of the favorites to win it going into next season.
LG: Life's Good
Do you think the two tackles last week against Penn State bothered Little Animal much? While not in the rarified air of Spielman or Cousineau's 29-land, 19 tackles is pretty damn impressive.
His stop on Wisky's 2nd fake punt of the day and his later fumble recovery were absolutely huge and his overall effort on the afternoon served notice to those (including us) that pointed out his limited impact in Happy Valley.
Not wanting to be outdone, Gholston put up his own Nintendo stats, tying the school record with 4 sacks on the day. The Gun Show's effort was part of a 10 sack day by a defense that absolutely shut the Badgers down in even-numbered quarters.
That Barry Alvarez Was Full of Shit, Man
I was a little surprised P.J. Hill wasn't able to go for the Badgers. Freshman Zach Brown performed admirably, but Hill would have given Wisky more of a shot to win the game.
Going back to Sutton, Hill is the 2nd elite back the Buckeyes have avoided facing this season. seeing as how there are still faint memories of the defensive disappearance at the end of last season, it would have been good team experience to have had a crack at Sutton and Hill.
Barring anything unforeseen, the Silver Bullets will get a chance at two more quality backs in Mendenhall and H20-3 the next two weeks.
$20 Says Willis Could Still Pancake Half of the Minnesota Defensive Line
It was fitting that Dan Wilkinson, the last great Buckeye to wear #99, was the honorary captain on hand for the game in which Bill Willis, the original great #99, was honored by having his jersey number retired at the stadium.
Willis was a part of Paul Brown's success at Ohio State, becoming a black star at a time when being a black star wasn't all that fashionable. As an undersized sophomore lineman at OSU, he was part of the 1942 national championship team. He later went on to more success, following Brown to the Cleveland Browns where he earned several all-pro honors culminating in his selection to Canton.
A Columbus East product, he is one of those guys that enjoyed tremendous success at every level of life and our congratulations go out to him.
So Long BTN.. For Now
The good news is that yesterday marked the last Big Ten Network game of the season. The bad news, of course, is that the BTN has about a dozen Buckeye basketball games locked up, including several key conference matchups.
We've refrained from taking sides in this one, mostly because, much like American politics, it's basically just two groups arguing over who gets to put the tightest screws to the public. The bigger picture answer is a la carte channel pricing. Why shouldn't you be able to subscribe to and pay for only the channels you want without subsidizing other networks that are often owned by the same cable companies forcing you into a packaged plan?
Perhaps if we weren't all so entranced by 10 hours of HD College GameDay and Desperate Housewives of American Karaoke, we'd write letters to lawmakers. Or something.
