Something called the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl happened yesterday. The winner got your grandma's potato-filled vase.
This was the best play:
My favorite short yardage play call. I love this unconditionally. https://t.co/RzWPtib9Sx
— Ramzy Nasrallah (@ramzy) December 22, 2015
Former friends of the program surfaced in Boise as well:
Jamal Marcus and Sevon Pittman with sacks on back-to-back plays for Akron in their Bowl Game. Former Buckeyes making an impact elsewhere
— Mark Neal (@ESPNMark) December 22, 2015
@ZipsFB DE Jamal Marcus making life miserable for Utah State QBs. @IDPotatoBowl
— Marla Ridenour (@MRidenourABJ) December 22, 2015
Oh, and Ohio State's men's basketball team beat Mercer on Tuesday night, 64-44.
PERCEPTION VS. REALITY. It's funny how many people give Michigan State zero shot against Alabama.
Maybe they're right. Maybe it will turn out like the 2011 Capital One Bowl. (Who among us doesn't remember that instant 49-7 classic?) But history repeats itself, and some in the media could be falling into the same traps as last year.
From todaysu.com:
“The media perception of things can distort reality,” said Ohio State center Jacoby Boren, reflecting on last season while in New York a week ago at the 58th National Football Foundation dinner. “I think the Big Ten has done a great job this past year and a half to two years of putting ourselves back into the talk as a great conference.
It’s a physical conference. That’s what it comes down to. It’s a great conference with great players, great teams and great coaches.”
[...]
“We were confident in what we were able to do,” he said. “The media works their perceptions. But as coaches and players, you look at the film and you analyze things off that. We were confident going into that game we would be able to win.”
What happens if Michigan State punches Alabama in the dipper and wins the whole damn thing? Will the B1G West be coronated as the new SEC West? It's as likely as Clay Travis retiring to his place of birth, a Nashville-area sewer.
I don't know why I'm complaining. Stupefied SEC hacks are the kind of stimulants I'd need to weather the sight of Connor Cook hoisting a College Football Playoff Trophy.
CURTIS READY TO BLOW. A mere two years ago we wondered who would fill the void of Carlos Hyde, Urban Meyer's first 1,000-yard rusher (remember when that was a thing?).
We knew Ezekiel Elliott possessed the capability to make a cheerleader switch allegiances, but could he run? Could he catch? Most importantly, could he handle the blocking duties El Guapo made look routine?
Ah, the trials and tribulations of an Ohio State fan. Elliott will play on Sundays soon, and Curtis Samuel will be the next four-star recruit to whom we look.
From btn.com:
RB Curtis Samuel. The sophomore got lost in the H-back and running back shuffle and also battled minor injuries. Next year he might replace Ezekiel Elliott at tailback as the most dynamic player on the offense.
Most would agree Samuel deserved more than 37 touches in 2015, but at whose expense would those touches come? That question was never as clear.
Barriers to Samuels' touches, however, will be gone come September 2016.
From bleachereport.com:
But while Ohio State could potentially be in line to lose the players responsible for at least 73.2 percent of its rushing yards and 64 percent of its receiving yards in 2015, the Buckeyes will be returning their starting quarterback next season, something neither Michigan State, Michigan nor Penn State may be able to say in 2016.
The lack of #QBgeddon will help Ohio State mold an offensive identity in the offseason. Talent is leaving Columbus, but talent still lurks. It will be a different challenge, and after the burden of Ohio State's win streak, it could be a welcomed change of pace within the Woody.
TED GINN: STILL' BALLIN'. I love the North Carolina Panthers. Some say I'm their No. 1 fan. I don't know about that, but I'm the biggest Jake Delhomme fan in the world. (My career goal is to buy this place and turn it into a Carolina Panthers bar.)
Given how Buckeyes like Kurt Coleman, Andrew Norwell, Corey Brown and Tedd have performed this year, Cam Newton might be the only non-Ohio State player on Carolina's roster in a few years.
From centredaily.com:
Ginn is enjoying the best season of his nine-year NFL career, averaging 17 yards per reception along with a career-best 10 touchdowns for the unbeaten Panthers (14-0). He has six TDs in his last three games, the type of production that allows the Panthers overlook his nine drops this season — which are tied for fourth-most in the league, according to STATS.
"We take the good with the bad," Panthers coach Ron Rivera said of Ginn.
[...]
Although he's dropped three would-be touchdowns, the Panthers are willing to live with his mistakes because of the high-end speed that Ginn brings to the offense.
Good advice: Always bring more to the table than you take. A surprising number of people can't handle that.
In other NFL news, the Pro Bowl become even more of a joke last night when it snubbed Malcolm Jenkins and Kurt Coleman. (All in all, the Year of Wario was real lit for Ohio State.)
The only thing that could absolve my #online anger about these snubs is watching Cam Newton dab on the Undefeated '72 Dolphins before ripping the Lombardi out of Orange Roger Goodell's hands and spiking it into the ground in disgust.
MEET THE NEW SLIME LORD, SAME AS THE OLD SLIME LORD. Here's BCS executive director Bill Hancock in 2010:
On why he can confidently claim that NCAAFB is better off without a playoff system:
“Two things primarily. One, we have the best regular season of any sport. Really the only regular season that means a whole lot. It’s compelling, you have to tune in every week, or if you happen to go to the Galapagos one weekend, you’re going to miss something exciting. And so we need to do everything we can to preserve the importance of this regular season. It really is a treasure. And also preserving the Bowl system. With the Bowls in college football we have something unique. And it’s an experience the student-athletes will never, ever forget. They get to spend five, six, seven days in a different culture with their teammates and have a Bowl as a reward at the end of the season. We believe a playoff would diminish the regular season and end the Bowl system, certainly as we know it.”
It's hilarious because this is a fella who thinks everyone lives in a world in which a trip to "the Galapagos" just "happens one weekend." If I ever made that kind of money, I would do cooler things than peddling bullshit to plebes. (My lawyer, who is also my cat, advised me not to expand on what I would do with that kind of money.)
But here's College Football Playoff executive Bill Hancock back in January explaining the CFP inexplicably holding its semifinals on New Year's Eve:
“We’ve started a new tradition and we don’t want to back away from it now,” said Bill Hancock, the CFP’s executive director.
As a college football fan, I always remind myself the gatekeepers of the sport don't actually care about the sport. That way I won't be upset when I find my favorite traditions in the pawn shop.
But who better for that reminder than Dan Wetzel of yahoo.com?
The conference commissioners who run the sport may not care about or even consider you, the fan, but they do care deeply about bowl executives, usually old friends who have been plying them with free everything – golf, gifts, booze, hotels, Caribbean cruises, you name it – for decades.
[...]
As such, they would never dare make the Rose Bowl move its kickoff time from 5 p.m. ET on Jan. 1 – you know, that perfect time to watch a big game. That’s when the start of the semifinal doubleheader should always be played. One out of every three years, when the Rose Bowl is a host, it is.
Yet in the other two years the Rose Bowl still gets the best time slot even if the game, such as this year, can only be considered “big” if you’re from Iowa. Meanwhile, the Sugar Bowl has somehow been granted exclusivity to the equally coveted primetime slot on New Year’s Day, even if it’s hosting Ole Miss-Oklahoma State and the five losses between them.
It's comical deference is paid to the Rose Bowl considering the BCS neutered it when it stripped the "Big Ten champ vs. Pac-12 champ" stipulation.
But given the price, the ghouls made out like bandits on the soul of college football.
I always thought I'd push my future mediocre son into quarterbacking, which I believed to be the best legal swindle going. I stand corrected. It's bribery.
I'm ashamed I didn't realize it sooner. I've seen people react to free t-shirts at athletics events.
TWO BUCKEYE GREATS SHOOT THE BREEZE. I'm not a podcast guy, but Darron Lee joined Bobby Carpenter's podcast, and the two's repertoire made easy listening.
Lee covers, among other things:
- Life as a former three-star athlete who got recruited at quarterback, safety, and linebacker.
- Boston College, West Virginia, and Arizona State were top schools he mentioned as other possibilities.
- Lee came into Ohio State at 198 pounds. On the first year: "It was rough."
- On J.T. Barrett's at Penn State 2014: "Best performances of any leader, especially playing hurt ... [his toughness] permeated throughout the team."
- Jerome Baker, Nick Conner, and Justin Hilliard are "coming along real well," and they're "doing a good job being freshmen and staying quiet and learning."
- On the Michigan State game: "We could've stopped the run better. It could've been a better team effort."
Add it all together, and it sounds like a guy who will play his last game in the Scarlet and Gray in the Fiesta Bowl.
THOSE WMDs. Stacking Habits: How to stick to your morning routine... Do not tell Gregg Popovich to "talk about" something... Star Wars reportedly paid Harrison Ford 50-times more than young co-stars... My new favorite website... The year in renegade #teens.
