Ohio State's men's basketball team whooped Penn State on Monday night, 66-46. The rest of college basketball is officially on notice!
BRAXTON MILLER'S NFL POTENTIAL. Practice for the Senior Bowl begins Tuesday, at which Braxton Miller will be the most intriguing prospect.
Nobody doubts Miller's athleticism, but some will question if he has the small tools required to play receiver on the NFL.
From bleacherreport.com's breakdown of Miller's stock:
If NFL teams drafted based on experience or college production, Miller wouldn’t warrant a draft choice. And for some NFL teams, those two reported red flags may (unwisely) slide him down their draft board.
Miller may gain comparisons to past quarterback converts like Denard Robinson and Brad Smith, but he’s far more similar to current NFL starters Tavon Austin of the Los Angeles Rams or, in time, Randall Cobb of the Green Bay Packers. He’ll of course need added refinement and an offense growing around him before he can be counted on as a feature offensive weapon, but it's a worthwhile process for playmaker-needy offenses.
And that’s exactly what he’ll be early and often for his future NFL offense: a weapon. For all of the obvious scouting concerns and red flags his receiver nuance struggles will show, the positives and the upside far outweigh it. Elite natural athletes like Miller don’t come along very often. The NFL team that appreciates that and hands in the early-round draft card with Miller’s name on it will be getting one of the rarest prospects in recent draft history.
As the writer points out: Miller struggled with non-speed routes in 2015, particularly with the stems. But I think he's right: An NFL team is going to fall in love with him and draft him early.
Why? Because Miller's weaknesses can be coached. You can't coach things like his pirouette against Virginia Tech.
URBAN HIRED STUDRAWA WITHIN 30 SECONDS. Urban Meyer would be a golden reference in the college football world. But if you're talented enough and you call him for a reference... he might poach you instead.
This is what happened to new OL coach Greg Studrawa, who was one of the first assistants Meyer hired at Bowling Green.
From bcsn.tv:
Studrawa asked to use Meyer as a reference in case a good job opened, only for his former boss to do him one better. Turns out, that job would be at Ohio State.
“I said, ‘It’s over.’ Done. It was a 30-second conversation,” said Studrawa, who was a graduate assistant at Ohio State in 1997. “It was a no brainer, man. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”
Would Tim Hinton still be coaching at Ohio State if Randy Edsall didn't get fired? It looks that way.
Monday, our Kyle Jones looked at what Studrawa brings to the offensive table. As for the culture, well, it's easy to see why Meyer snagged him:
“To put it nicely, we weren’t very good as an offensive line before that,” said former Falcons tackle Dennis Wendel, who is now the athletic director at St. Henry (Ohio) High. “We had given up a lot of sacks, the running game wasn’t stellar. The culture of the offensive line really changed. We were always the first ones in the weight room, the last ones out, all of that.”
I predict pain for opposing defensive lines next year.
FORMER BUCKEYES PROFITING OFF HARD WORK. The NCAA doesn't allow players to sell their own signature while in college.
The neat thing is it's no longer a felony as soon as players leave school. So former Buckeyes are cashing in on the #brand they built during school.
From cleveland.com's interesting look at the autograph circuit, here's the asking price of various players:
- $69, Joey Bosa
- $69, Ezekiel Elliott
- $39, Cardale Jones
- $30, Braxton Miller
- $29, Darron Lee
- $19, Jalin Marshall
- $15, Jacoby Boren
- $5, Joel Hale
- $5, Tommy Schutt
Who would have thought Cardale Jones would demand more on the autograph market than Braxton Miller? That's a helluva championship bump.
Miller was the most beloved Buckeye, so demand isn't the problem. It's either he's charitable or he needs a new agent.
RELEASE GINN AT YOUR OWN RISK. The Arizona Cardinals released Ted Ginn after the 2014 season. A year later, he torched them in the NFC championship game.
Ginn kept it 100 when asked Monday what it meant.
From charlotteobserver.com:
“I felt like deep down inside that (the Cardinals) thought I couldn’t do it,” said Ginn. “They sent me back out to the wolves. But then (Panthers coach Ron) Rivera, (general manager Dave) Gettleman, (owner Jerry) Richardson, even (quarterback) Cam (Newton), they stood on the table and said, hey, we want this guy back. All I can do is go out and play as hard as I can."
[...]
“I tried to take ‘me’ out of it, but it meant a lot to me,” Ginn said.
Ginn also gave some words of advice to anybody foolish enough to try to run from him:
“When you’re on the track, you hear somebody say, ‘move,’ that means somebody’s coming."
By the way, #shoutout to NutaBuckas. He praised Ginn's route-running in the Jan. 14 Skull Session. I didn't agree with him until Sunday night:
We now have an idea of what I'd look like trying to guard Ted Ginn in the open field.
NEW CIRCLE OF HELL UNLOCKED IN NIAGRA. My idiot neighbor once forgot to turn his alarm off before leaving for the weekend, and it's the closest I've come to murder.
I'd be blogging from federal prison if his alarm was a 50-second loop of the Iowa fight song.
From niagara-gazette.com:
There's a tinny sound dribbling out of a vacant building's open windows on the corner of Ferry Avenue and Third Street.
It's the University of Iowa's fight song, a 60-year-old composition played at Iowa Hawkeyes' sporting events, which has played on a loop from about 4 to 11 p.m. on most nights for roughly six months.
[...]
Neither Weber's business partner at the restaurant nor the building's owner — on the Niagara Falls tax rolls as Thunderfalls LLC — returned requests for comment.
Just thinking about that makes me want to drive to Niagara and tear that building apart brick by brick with my bare hands.
THOSE WMDs. How to win a national magazine award... Cat proves you don't need two eyes to hang ten... House Hunters is an unstoppable TV juggernaut... After 4,449 days, the world's oldest torrent still going strong... The Facebook-loving farmers of Myanmar.
