Tim Beckman got fired, so yesterday was a good day even before Ohio State named six 2015 captains (Barrett, Boren, Decker, Miller, Perry, and Powell; don't ask me to read the #QBgeddon tea leaves on this one).
As for today, college football is back! (More on that in a bit.)
And on top of the usual top-notch 11W programming, I have ~1,800 words about the wide receivers and tight ends coming at 10:45 a.m.
THE EXCELLENCE FUND. Ohio State is currently the nation's best football program. But all those Ws come with a price. Thankfully, it gins enough cash to dwarf the GDP of a small country and allows them to purchase the sport's luxuries.
From Cleveland.com's excellent look at OSU football financing:
"I'm not going to waste money," Meyer told the Northeast Ohio Media Group. "But if it's to enhance our players' experience, we're doing it. That's the locker room and nutrition and weight room equipment, all those kinds of things that are out there to make it as nice as possible. That's what the Excellence Fund is for."
An open records request to Ohio State 37 days ago for specifics of the Excellence Fund has not yet been fulfilled, but according to conversations with several athletic department officials recent projects funded at least in part by the Excellence Fund include:
- the new tunnel from the locker room to the field in Ohio Stadium that debuted last season
- the current renovation to the Woody Hayes Athletic Center trophy lobby
- changes near the roofline of the indoor field at the WHAC that allowed more natural light into the indoor practice field
- banners at one end of the indoor field, where the football players specifically work out, honoring past stars of each position group
- padded Nike girdles for the players so they have thigh protection on non-padded practice days
- a new podium at the front of the team meeting room
- renovations to the recruiting room at Ohio Stadium
College students: Take a note out of Urban Meyer's playbook. The next time you try hitting your parents up for money, tell them it's for your "Excellence Fund."
THE BIGGEST THREAT. People get mad when I ask them to contemplate a bad thing happening to Ohio State (I guess they're not wrong), but I thought these were true words.
From Scout.com:
Question 16: If there's one thing that Ohio State should be worried about heading into the season, what would it be?
Ryan Ginn: This might come off as overly obvious, but a big concern would be the simple truth that nobody is perfect. There will come a time over the next three months when Ohio State doesn't play at the level it should. There have been great college football teams (1998 Ohio State, anyone?) that were derailed by either playing a sub-par game at the worst possible time or running up against a team that could seemingly do no wrong. I feel like this happened to USC via Oregon State or Stanford pretty much every year in the mid-2000s, but crazy things happen with 20-year-olds. That's college football. Last year, Ohio State was fortunate enough to find a way to get by at Penn State in a game where one of the nation's best offenses just never got going. The four-team playoff makes this slightly less likely, but there's always a chance one of the best teams in the country misses out on a title shot because it picked the wrong time to play poorly.
One of those games comes off the top of my head is Ohio State at Purdue in 2009. Though not as loaded as the 1998 team, I writhed on the couch of my Iuka Avenue apartment in grips of a crippling hangover (top 3 of my life) as Terrelle Pryor committed four turnovers against the mighty Purdue Boilermakers.
And yes, for my money, that loss was still worse than 2011 in which the lasting image was Robert Marve acting as if he had just won the Super Bowl at half-field.
If Ohio State goes down in similar fashion this year, I may top that 2009 hangover.
GOOD GUY MALCOLM JENKINS. Malcolm Jenkins is a top representative of Ohio State. We didn't need an example, but here's another one anyway.
From BTN.com:
That’s due in large part to the Malcolm Jenkins Foundation, which he started with his mother, Gwendolyn, to give back and help youth in communities he’s been part of throughout his life. The organization sponsors scholarships and hosts events in Piscataway, N.J., Columbus, New Orleans and Philadelphia.
Jenkins is quick to emphasize his personal, hands-on involvement in the foundation.
“We didn’t want to just throw money at a problem, because that usually doesn’t fix things,” Jenkins said, “especially when you’re talking about impacting our youth in different communities. I can’t have a long-lasting impact on a person or community if I’m never present in that community or in front of those people.”
Philadelphia's fans don't deserve him.
LOOKIN' GOOD, EARLE! Legendary Ohio State coach Earle Bruce suffered a stroke last month, but the ol' skipper is already back mingling with the public.
Here he is, via WTVN's Matt McCoy, making an appearance at Friday's radiothon to raise money for the Earle and Jean Bruce Alzheimer's Fund:
May that man live to 150 and beyond.
BEER WE GO, GRIZZLIES. I mentioned at the top of the program that college football returned today, and I didn't lie.
Montana — the school that made the mistake of letting me attend out of high school and a former FCS powerhouse — is set to host the reigning four-time champion, North Dakota State on ESPN at 3:30 ET.
Washington-Grizzly Stadium holds 26,000 and gives great panoramic views. Trust me, you can spend your Saturday in worse ways than watching an up-and-coming offensive genius with the personal hashtag pf #StittHappens make his debut against a four-time champion juggernaut.
From ESPN.com:
Since West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen used Stitt's version of the fly sweep to score four touchdowns in a 70-33 rout of Clemson in the 2012 Orange Bowl -- and then gave the Division II coach credit in his postgame interview for drawing up the volleyball-like play -- Stitt has become somewhat of an Internet legend, often whispered about but never seen.
It's not like Stitt, 51, is a household name - at least not yet. But over the last few seasons, Stitt developed a devoted following. Among his biggest fans are the offensive-minded coaches who have changed the way major college football is being played. Spread-offense believers like Washington State's Mike Leach, Texas A&M's Kevin Sumlin, Cal's Sonny Dykes, Texas Tech's Kliff Kingsbury and Holgorsen are among Stitt's biggest admirers.
Finally, college football's cult favorite is hitting the mainstream at FCS power Montana, which plays in the college football season's opening game on Saturday against No. 1 North Dakota State (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
I'm not prophesying a Grizzly victory (namely because I haven't watched a game in years), but I'll be damned if I'm not hopping on their swaggerwagon today.
North Dakota traveled a long way for an ass-kicking.
THOSE WMDs. A social history of Jell-O salad... Artists need solitude... 4 tips for a more secure lock screen... Video: The 3-to-1 road diet... These tourists don't know how bears work.
