Watched Attack of the Clones last night. Hard to tell what was worse: The movie or Anakin Skywalker's creepiness.
ICYMI: Help put a statue of Woody Hayes in his hometown.
NECESSARY TOOLS. Anybody reading this already knows the drill: Clemson rolls deep on its defensive line. It's overseen by a coordinator who makes more than a million dollars a year.
It's a venerable matchup for any quarterback, but J.T. Barrett has been around the block.
From cleveland.com:
It's a defense designed to confuse, designed to make big plays, designed to do a little bit of everything. It's a defense coached by Brent Venables, the coordinator who won the Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant this season. Ohio State coaches marveled at a call in the ACC Championship game when all 11 Clemson defenders dropped into coverage.
[...]
J.T. Barrett will play in his 36th career game and make his 30th start on Dec. 31. He may never have been more suited to a task.
He's smart. He'll study. And when he takes the field on New Year's Eve, no matter what Clemson does, this isn't a guy that you should worry is going to look confused.
Barrett plays his best in the biggest moments, but Ohio State won't win if the Tiger defensive line shells Barrett to the point it affects his footwork.
But I wouldn't want any other Buckeye QB — at least in my 30 years trapped on this godforsaken rock — leading the local team into the Fiesta Bowl. Not even the Iron King.
I think Barrett is already the greatest QB, pound for pound, in OSU history. He could cement that in the next two to three weeks.
B.B. LANDERS. Important update: Robert Landers goes by BB Landers, after his friends dubbed him that after years of calling his dad "Bobby" or "Bo."
Which means I need somebody to put Robert's face on a GIF of B.B. King making the music folks love to know.
Landers, though, could play a critical role in stopping Clemson running back Wayne Gallman.
From dispatch.com:
“They say, ‘You might be a little too short,’ or, ‘You might want to go back to the sidelines, little dude,’” Landers said. “I just smile at them (like) ‘I got you. We’ll see how this goes.’ I’m not the type of person to do much talking. I just go out and play my game.”
He has done that surprisingly well. Heading into Ohio State’s College Football Playoff semifinal against Clemson at the Fiesta Bowl, Landers is fourth on the team in tackles for losses with 7½.
“Going into the season, my expectations for myself were just to contribute to the team the best I can and somehow become a factor,” he said. “I didn’t really expect to have the season I’ve had, but I’m blessed to have had it and I try to take full advantage of it.”
Most Clemson fans probably don't know the name BB Landers. But they will at least respect "No. 67" by midway through the third quarter.
ACTUALLY, THE BIG TEN SUCKS. The Big Ten is the best conference. I know this because it's the conference I spend the most time watching.
But other people — those with the "formulas" — say different. One number shaman says the Big Ten ranks behind the ACC and SEC.
From Bill Connelly of sbnation.com:
The SEC is the best long-term conference in college football because it is the most consistently strong. It still holds that mantle, but the slippage of the last two seasons has been undeniable.
Meanwhile, the ACC has stabilized nicely over the last four years, thanks to both elite play from teams like Clemson and Florida State and a healthy midsection of teams ranked in the 20s and 30s.
And while the Big Ten has gotten better at the top, it’s gotten worse at the bottom.
That's preferable, actually. Watching James Franklin win a Big Ten title took enough years off my life. The last thing my kidneys and liver need is 14 Big Ten teams in the Top 15. A rotating handful of bangers around a mainstay of Ohio State works for me.
SALVATION #BRANDING WIN. Ezekiel Elliott ran for 159 yards (a career high) and jumped in a Salvation Army kettle in a win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It spurred a six-figure wave of donations to the charity.
From espn.com:
In the roughly 12 1/2 hours after Elliott's jump, until 10:30 a.m. ET on Monday morning, the Salvation Army took in $182,000 in online donations, said Lt. Col. Ron Busroe.
Busroe said that was a 61 percent increase over a similar time period from Sunday night into Monday last week.
The publicity surrounding the jump into the oversized kettle was worth at least $4 million in equivalent advertising exposure, said Eric Smallwood, president of sponsorship evaluation firm Apex Marketing Group.
What's funny is I don't remember hearing a "jackpot" sound when he landed in there.
THE PEOPLE'S WORK. Bad news for people looking to have sex with animals in Ohio: That's now illegal.
From mydaytondailynews.com:
Ohio has become the latest state to officially outlaw sex with animals.
Gov. John Kasich signed a bill Monday that also prohibits selling animals for sex.
[...]
“I think this is something that is sickening and perverse and we don’t want Ohio to be the place you can come and have sex with an animal,” state Sen. Jim Hughes, R-Upper Arlington, said in an earlier interview.
There are two weeks left in the year, but somebody give the award to ol' Hughesy for the safest #take of 2016.
THOSE WMDs. The thousands of U.S. locales where lead poisoning is worse than in Flint... Inside the snitch tank... Finding North America's lost medieval city... South Florida boxing rivalry leads to murder... Why don't people in places with no opportunity just leave?
