Top of the morning, neighbors, and welcome to your first snow-covered Skully of the season.
Sorry to start out like a Negative Nancy but good Lawd do I hate winter in Columbus.
And the latest edition is off to an especially vexatious start: many of us in the B1G footprint got our first jolt of ice, sleet, snow, and a pelting wind just six official days in, combined with watching the basketball Buckeyes fade in a home matchup with Kansas a day after winter began, set against the backdrop that is no bowl for the footballers.
Seriously, that is a triple threat of suck and should at least be met with some good TV on a frigid, weather-trapped night after Christmas.
Instead, we're treated to a bad bowl named after worse pizza, pitting a 7-5 Western Kentucky squad against 6-6 MAC powerhouse Central Michigan. You know, the Central Michigan that came in tied for 96th in scoring defense, yielding just 33.3 points per game.
I know I'm in the minority but I'd rather watch December NBA over December bowls. The whole bowl charade, collectively, is probably the 2nd most overrated thing in the universe, behind Bruce Springsteen.
All right, my bad on the griping. There's not a lot of worthy news today and I just wanted to get that off my chest.
IT'S ALL ABOUT MAKIN' THAT GPA. With the internet in season-recap hyperdrive and the fact that Ohio State played their last football contest almost a month ago while no fewer than 48 other fanbases still get one more game, those spots are a bit more sexy on the eye than usual.
ESPN's Brian Bennett is churning out quick season report cards for each B1G squad, including yesterday's look at the Buckeyes. Grading the offense an A-, he opens with a wondrous reality:
The scariest thing about Ohio State's season is that the Buckeyes seemed barely to be scratching the surface of their offensive potential. And yet they led the Big Ten in scoring at an average of more than 37 points per game.
Of course, the reason that's so frightening for opponents is that OSU scored a bunch of points despite having the nation's 101st-ranked passing offense behind an electric, but still mechanically flawed quarterback who seemed to plateau during the four-game stretch preceding his accurate, efficient performance against Michigan.
As Bennett writes, if Miller combines improved accuracy and decision-making in the pocket with the circle-button devastation he creates in the open field, the Buckeyes will have B1G defenses sucking on thumbs.
PICK SIX. Doug Lesmerises took a look at Urban Meyer's top six moments of 2012 and it's a good read if you like reading stuff illustrating why the coach of your favorite team in any sport is an elite ninja.
Of particular note is when Meyer went nuts after Kenny G orchestrated a minor-miracle comeback, allowing OSU to prevail 29-22 in overtime against Purdue in the 'Shoe.
Just prior to singing Carmen Ohio, Urbz went all berserker, saluting the student section with rabid fist pumps. The magic here is not just that his emotions in those moments are absolutely genuine but also because of their impact on his players:
“It's pretty cool to have your head coach act just like one of us,” safety C.J. Barnett said. “He doesn't shy away from showing his true feelings or emotions and energy, and that carries over to our team.”
“He's awesome,” right tackle Reid Fragel said. “Everyone on the team would say the same thing. Just seeing him after that win, as ugly as it was, at the end of the day to see him pump up the student section is pretty sweet. Just seeing that type of stuff throughout the season is really cool to see. And he kind of feels like one of us in those moments, and that's awesome.”
The other five on the list are also a fun read and further quantify Urban's impact on the program. Coach had one hell of a year.
I bet this is loaded with jamsDECISIONS, DECI$IONS. Following an open records request, Deadspin was able to get their hands on documents that help chronicle Southern Miss athletic director Jeff Hammond's efforts to get the athletics department out of the red, and it makes for an interesting read.
First, Hammond canned the previous AD's choice to the lead the football program following an 0-12 season, and then he went to work on the schedule.
The story highlights Hammond's moves to generate cash – giving up a home game against Nebraska and getting the location switched to Lincoln for a $2.1 million payday, as well as acting to cancel a low-paying home-and-home with BYU – and details his efforts via email to explore a possible neutral site matchup that would be cash favorable to Southern Miss.
Moving the Nebraska game to Lincoln isn't rocket science but adjusting the scheduling approach to give up home games in exchange for large paydays as sacrificial lambs on the road, while still juggling the conference slate, looks to be an arduous process at times, especially for a school basing their scheduling decisions almost exclusively on the bottom line.
This is the part where we all take a second to remember how lucky we are to be fans of an elite program.
THE 25% PERCENT. College Football News jumped on the year-end list bandwagon, ranking the 12 best BCS bowl games of all-time. The list is pretty outstanding, though it took 15 years for the bowls to generate a sturdy dozen.
No stranger to BCS bowls, the Buckeyes are well-represented, taking part in three of the 12 games anointed as classics, including the obvious #1 choice:
12. 2009 FIESTA BOWL: This one was painful as Anderson Russell gambled on what became the winning touchdown pass from Colt McCoy to Quan Cosby with :12 left in regulation, giving Texas a 24-21 win. While McCoy was shredding the OSU defense for 414 yards and a pair of touchdown tosses, Todd Boeckman hit 5/11 for 110 yards and a score.
10. 2011 SUGAR BOWL: You know this one had to be good considering it supposedly never happened. Actually, I'm surprised the game doesn't rate a little higher thanks to the wild 4th quarter that saw the Buckeyes nearly snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
1. 2003 FIESTA BOWL / NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP: As your doctor, I prescribe at least one rewatch every three months, and immediately after any instances in which you experience a terrifying flashback or catch a video glimpse of the subsequent national championship beatings issued by Florida and LSU. If you don't have time for a complete re-airing, YouTube Clarett's strip of Sean Taylor.
MATT LINKES. Clerks fans know the real Berserker (NSFW)... USGS real-time earthquake map... Keep tabs on the hoops mid-majors that could turn your bracket into a dumpster fire... Vinyl is thriving in Columbus... Mad props to Va. Tech's Antone Exum... 13 college football coaches due for a promotion... Map of UFO reports per 100k people, by county, in the continental US... What All 31 Other NFL Teams Would Give the Jets for Mark Sanchez.
