Reminder: ESPNU is already in the process of airing 26 hours of 2014 Buckeye football.
11W WEEK IN REVIEW. Here is some stuff written this week by people more talented than me. (Sorry, English nerds, I would be banned from Marion if I started saying things like "more talented than myself." Take it up with the dead people y'all worship, not me.)
- Season Preview: The Case for Cardale Jones. (Okay, I wrote that one.)
- A look at how Ed Warinner staying on the sidelines will affect OSU's playcalling.
- Gene Smith talks the Horseshoe's alcohol experiment, among other things.
- Ohio State's "Defend Gr8ness" team poster.
- Video: Camp Meyer 2015, 8/19.
- Season Preview: Linebackers.
- The battle to replace the suspended Joey Bosa.
- Season Preview: Projecting true freshmen contributors.
- Mike Thomas will need to be a better leader if Zone-6 is to reach its potential.
- Five Buckeyes were named to the FWAA 75th Anniversary team.
- What we learned from the first episode of BTN's Scarlet and Gray Days.
- Season Preview: Records in Jeopardy.
- Cardale Jones and J.T. Barrett agree: A QB platoon is not a great idea.
- Season Preview: It's true: Urban Meyer runs his program like Soviet hockey.
SLOBS NOT OPERATING AT FULL POWER YET. Here's a scary thing for opposing defensive lines: Ohio State's Slobs haven't scraped their ceiling yet.
From 247sports.com:
“I feel good. I feel a lot better than I did this time last year,” Price said. “There’s a different confidence level coming into this camp compared to last year. It’s not as stressful. The whole dynamics of the unit, the starting five, is a little bit different which is nice. It’s more relaxed. We’re confident.”
[...]
“I’m really confident in my guys up front,” he said. “I know the guy to my left and my right, I know them very well. I know what they’re going to do and they know what I’m going to do. It’s different than last year when there was a lot of mistrust. There’s a lot of trust going into our unit this year and it’s something that’s going to really help us.”
[...]
So there is a little bit of a collective chip on the shoulders of his Buckeye brothers going into Blacksburg this year.
“A little bit. It’s just something in the back of our heads right now,” Price said. “But we’re focused on us right now. Just making sure that we take care of ourselves and continue to get better as an offense and as a whole. We just need to continue to get better.”
Billy Price's season was a microcosm of the Slobs'. He — like his compatriots — didn't find his sea legs until the about the second quarter of the Penn State game. After that, it was nothing but a broken trail of corpses in his wake. Not bad for a brute who played defensive tackle in high school.
I feel like, out of all the storylines to the 2015, the Slobs returning 4/5 starters is almost overlooked. I suppose that's the nature of the offensive line, though.
VANNETT READY FOR THE SPOTLIGHT. Nick Vannett's social media mentions have primarily been people confusing him in pictures for Joey Bosa.
That should change this year.
From Dispatch.com:
“Since Jeff was here, I was kind of in his shadow a little bit,” Vannett said. “Now that he’s gone, it’s my turn to step up and prove to everybody I am the player that I am and also to bring Marcus along and the two freshmen along. There are big responsibilities for me this year, being the leader in the group and also playing like I know I can.”
[...]
“It’s different, because with me and Jeff being the same age, we were both kind of co-leaders in the room,” Vannett said. “Now that he’s gone, it’s kind of upon myself to be the leader. With the two freshmen, it’s even harder because ‘they don’t know what they don’t know,’ which is a phrase that we use.”
[...]
“Nick had some big catches for us,” said tight ends coach Tim Hinton, who added that Vannett has a knack for reading coverages and getting open. “We’re trying to work on some of the other things he can improve, such as while Jeff was a strong blocker on the inside (since tight ends at times are glorified tackles) and Nick was a little better at that on the outside, we’re trying to make Nick good at both.”
Ohio State tight ends — like every other skill position at Ohio State — must block well. If Vannett is supplanted by Marcus Baugh or either of the freshmen, well, I think we'll know why.
URBAN MADE MCCOLLOUGH A PRIORITY. Urban Meyer, unlike a lot of coaches, values his specialists, and he puts his scholarships where his mouth is.
Liam McCullough — a Worthington Kilbourne product — was the No. 1 long snapper of the 2015 class and wanted to play for Ohio State.
Let's go to the film.
From Cleveland.com:
"It was brought up and one point in time when I first started getting interest from Coach Meyer and Ohio State," McCullough told Northeast Ohio Media Group. "But after Coach Meyer heard about -- after I got my other offers -- he told me they were going to get me and they were going to do what it would take."
[...]
McCullough also had offers from Kentucky, Michigan State and Wisconsin. He wanted to go to Ohio State -- he went to high school at Columbus Kilbourne -- but grayshirting would have been a major sacrifice.
"It was something that I talked to my family about, but it was going to be difficult to turn down definite scholarships for a grayshirt opportunity," McCullough said. "But it was definitely something that was discussed."
And that's why he's one of the best.
VIRGINIA TECH: MOST OVERLOOKED TEAM? Ohio State will be a much better team than it was when it faced Virginia Tech, but people sometimes forget Virginia Tech will also be better:
We asked @slmandel and @BruceFeldmanCFB for the most overlooked team in college football. #TheAudible https://t.co/YXDU0SUg8F
— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) August 22, 2015
Well, I know somebody who isn't overlooking them this year: Ohio State.
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