Ohio State practices from 8:30 a.m. to 11 today. The practice will be open to media for 15 whole minutes. Urban Meyer will hold a press conference shortly after 11 a.m.
Follow Eric, Tim, and Birm for timely updates on Twitter.
SCHIANO DIVES IN. It happened. Greg Schiano is Ohio State's defensive coordinator. Had Illinois hired him, I would've assaulted it with cheap internet snark. But Urban Meyer made this hire, which automatically makes it good. (Side note: I'm counting down the days until Tim Beck strikes back at his haters.)
Schiano will have his work cut out for him.
From espn.com:
“You know what, in the secondary it might be [a benefit],” Schiano said. “If we’re going to introduce some new things, if a guy has been doing the same thing for three or four years, he might be like, ‘Why do we have to change it now? Why are we changing this thing?’ Whereas guys who haven’t had a lot of experience, they’re just ready and fighting for a job and wanting to please and do everything they can.
“To me, meetings are a competitive event. Meetings aren’t going in and kicking your feet up talking about football. In meetings, I want to see who answers first. Who answers me clearest, loudest, most assured? Everybody is getting different levels of work, because there are injuries. But I evaluate everything. Walk-throughs, meetings, practice, that all will go into the formula when you make a decision.”
There will undoubtedly be a lot of attention paid on the practice field, however, and those reps figure to be invaluable as the Buckeyes try to speed through the learning curve with potential first-time starters like Malik Hooker or Eric Glover-Williams while Burrows and Smith work their way back to full strength.
For Schiano's sake I hope his young charges are up to the task, because he will be taking 110% of the flak if the defense regresses (which is entirely possible considering the exodus of talent).
I think the defense will be fine as long as it doesn't go back to routinely giving receivers 12-yard cushions and not tackling, but it could take some time for that side of the ball to come together.
PRO SOCCER IN THE SHOE? Ohio State attached an interesting note with yesterday's media availability release:
A Second Press Event Tomorrow: Noon at Ohio Stadium
All media are invited to the Ohio Stadium “University Suite” for a luncheon at noon and a press conference (approx. 1 p.m.) to address the news out of NYC with Ohio State Vice President and Director of Athletics Gene Smith, Columbus Crew SC President Andy Loughnane and more.
At first I thought the Crew was going to host some midtable EPL team in the Horseshoe, but it looks like it will be grander than that.
From dispatch.com:
Details are scheduled to be announced Tuesday morning, but an online leak Monday afternoon indicated that Portuguese icon Cristiano Ronaldo and global powerhouse Real Madrid could headline a match against French giant Paris St.-Germain in late July on a temporary grass field in the 94-year-old home of the Buckeyes.
The game will be part of the International Champions Cup, a series of summer exhibitions that has brought many of the world’s best teams to some of North America’s biggest stadiums since 2013.
The game will be played on a temporary grass surface.
Ah, those dastardly "online leaks!" They just can't be stopped.
And though it will be an exhibition match, it would be amazing to witness even 30 minutes of Zlatan Ibrahimović vs. Christiano Ronaldo in the Horseshoe. My only concern is the stadium may not be big enough to hold their egos.
I don't care if both of them are over the hill. It will be awesome to see Ohio Stadium sold out for a soccer match. Since a grass field is possible the USMNT should think about holding the next Mexico banger there. (I'm only half joking.)
COOMBS HUNTING WHALES IN CINCI. Cincinnati catches a lot of flak in Ohio... and 100% of it is deserved. I kid, of course; the truth is the Queen City has a lot of things going for it.
For one, its downtown architecture makes Columbus' look like it was designed by a 10-year-old playing Sims on Windows 95. Secondly, it produced Kerry Coombs.
Coombs, a former head coach at Cincinnati Colerain, has been tasked as the main recruiter on the Cardinals' 2018 four-star DB Amir Riep, whose recruitment has recently "blown up" as the insiders like to say. Whats his plan of attack?
From cleveland.com:
"It's kind of like a homecoming," [Colerain head coach Tom] Bolden said. "We'll sit there and talk about other stuff other than football and Amir and the other guys. We'll talk about the community, the school, his wife Holly and his kids and grandkids, and he'll ask me about my sons and my wife. It's nice talking to a friend and reminiscing about the 16 years he was here and I was coaching for him."
This is still all about business, though. That isn't lost on Coombs, who made Ohio State a force again in Cincinnati by bringing some of the city's best players to Columbus, including former five-star linebacker Justin Hilliard and and four-star tight end Jake Hausmann. The only player from Cincinnati the Buckeyes lost during Coombs' tenure was four-star offensive lineman Tommy Kraemer in the 2016 class, who committed to Notre Dame.
Given Coombs' deep past at Colerain, everyone assumes Ohio State is the overwhelming favorite to land Riep. It's admittedly hard to imagine Coombs having to explain to Meyer why the talented cornerback left the state.
Bradley Roby, Doran Grant, and Eli Apple all made it to the League under Coombs. Gareon Conley will join that list next year.
If a guy like Riep can deny that pedigree as well as Coombs' hometown pull... then touché to Riep and whatever school that signs him.
VOLLEYBALL OUT HERE. Looks like the men's volleyball team is doing the damn thing this year:
The No. 1-ranked team in all the land is YOUR OHIO STATE BUCKEYES! ---> https://t.co/YpvDQsw5XO#GoBucks #MIVAvb pic.twitter.com/E3A7c4WbDP
— OSU Men's Volleyball (@OhioState_MVB) March 21, 2016
The team is 18-3 overall and is next in action Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET in Muncie, Indiana against Ball State.
PFF DOWN ON APPLE. Pro Football Talk, an authority in football sabermetrics, released its Eli Apple report on Monday. Its scouts seem less high on Apple than most.
From profootballfocus.com:
Allowed 44.6 percent of targets into his coverage to be caught in 2015.
[...]
Eli Apple may be the main beneficiary of a cornerback class lacking a lot of size at the top end. He displays the ability to play man coverage extremely well, and has the size and speed profile NFL teams are looking for, but he has never earned PFF grades that match the best cover corners in this class, and has enough flaws in his game that he is not a surefire top pick. He’ll likely be drafted higher than his play suggests he should be, but the potential to become an excellent corner at the next level is definitely there.
Given their shift to analytics, I suppose this means Apple won't end up with the Browns. That would should make him sleep easier if he reads this.
HARBAUGH HITS OHIO HEIST. Jim Harbaugh can be downright creepy, but there's no denying he's bringing talent to Ann Arbor. Michigan added a big piece on Monday night.
Springfield, Ohio LB Antwuan Johnson, 247's No. 3 ILB in 2018, became the first member of Michigan's class.
Would like to announce that I have verbally committed to The university of Michigan #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/bgSbNCwHTE
— Antwuan Johnson (@Antwuan21) March 22, 2016
What's up with the Dayton area, y'all? I love Dayton and the Shield, but Michigan seems to recruit well there. Somebody explain this one to me.
Tilt of the cap to the Wolverines, but they still don't have Urban Meyer.
THOSE WMDs. Princetonian, Olympian, financier, and fugitive... Flint water file burglary an inside job says police chief... Hulk Hogan is fighting for privacy of the world's sex tapes... Photos of the secret trash collection in a New York sanitation garage... Massive South American tunnels might've been dug by massive sloths... Do jobs run in the family?
