If we keep chopping trees the 2017 season will be here before we blink.
ICYMI:
- Tom Herman defended the hiring of Tim Beck, said he didn't call plays and Urban Meyer endorsed the hire.
- Report: Tyquan Lewis will return for his senior season (this has yet to be confirmed by the school).
- With his return, J.T. Barrett could own every passing record when he leaves Columbus.
- The men's basketball team did a bad and lost to Purdue, lol.
WORLEY WANTS MORE. The Raekwon McMillan farewell tour and the Jerome Baker breakout tour overshadowed Chris Worley's rock steady season.
Worley could cash his chips and take his talents to the NFL, but he's coming back in 2017. And he wants Raekwon McMillan's captaincy.
From cbssports.com:
"I am that guy," he said. "It's not a matter of wanting to be. I'm just a natural leader and there's guys on this team that I love and I have to help them get better."
Bucknuts asked Worley about the possibility of becoming a captain at OSU.
"That's always on my mind," he said. "If you're a part of something, you want to be considered the leader. I'm not a follower and I've always been a leader. That's one of my lifetime goals is to become an Ohio State captain. So, hopefully that can come true next year."
With Worley and Baker back, Dante Booker can fill Raekwon McMillan's spot.
Add in Lewis' return and Marshon Lattimore purportedly telling Instagram Live he's coming back (we'll find out today, I reckon), and the Silver Bullets may not be too bad next year.
SPEAKING OF NEXT YEAR. Folks, you may have heard... Clemson smacked the local team.
It sucks because it means our team is bad. But it's good in the sense our team will be underrated next season.
From swtimes.com:
No. 7. Ohio State. Shut out for the first time in his 194-game coaching career, coach Urban Meyer promised the Buckeyes will immediately become a good passing team. Returning for his fourth year, quarterback J.T. Barrett has decent passing stats, but the Buckeyes need a deep threat.
No. 7 sounds right, but I'm hoping for lower. I want "the national media" to spit on the Buckeyes' chances of returning to the playoffs. The more disrespect the better.
BULLET DODGED. Findlay, Ohio: Bad. Ben Roethlisberger: Even worse.
1+1 = Bullet dodged.
Ben Roethlisberger said that he considered going to Ohio State out of high school, but OSU was considering making him a WR.
— Paul Pabst (@PaulPabst) January 4, 2017
Roethlisberger to Miami was destiny. There was never a better match of pupil to institution in the history of Ohio higher education.
A CARPENTER WILL LEAD THEM. I hope Alabama sprinkles Clemson's ashes into the Atlantic Ocean, but I will mourn the loss of "Thad Turnispeed" .... an apparently real person who did good things in his life.
From nytimes.com:
The fingerprints of [Thad] Turnipseed, a 45-year-old former construction worker, are all over both teams: Before Swinney lured him to Clemson, Turnipseed spent 11 years in Tuscaloosa in a variety of behind-the-scenes roles as Coach Nick Saban laid the foundation for a program that is one win from his fifth national championship in eight years. On Monday, Turnipseed will get his second shot at delivering Swinney’s first title.
[...]
He started as the director of capital projects, working his way up to roles as associate athletic director for special projects and, more important, as Saban’s director of football external affairs. The catchall job titles forced Turnipseed to perform many duties; he helped to design and oversee more than $200 million in athletic projects, including stadium renovations and expansions, and helped to build a room in Saban’s house dedicated to recruiting.
At Clemson, Turnipseed was tasked with building the Tigers’ recruiting department, which has added positions with new-media-era titles — assistant director of football operations and creative media, director of new and creative media, coordinator of digital content — not to mention dozens of student helpers. These seemingly amorphous roles are all aimed at spreading Clemson’s message in forward-thinking ways, using social media to connect with recruits from a distance while also monitoring their behavior for potential red flags.
I could not type a better joke than this:
so what I knew a carpenter who was pretty good at recruiting too. https://t.co/ZTp5opJgA0
— Andre Dawson 3000 (@Max_thePower) January 5, 2017
HERMAN LAMENTS LOW RENT STATUS. Tom Herman founded MENSA, yet is still wildly insecure. He will be a success at Texas as long as he wins, but it's curious he's already going out of his way to defend Tim Beck from criticism from clowns like me.
But what's most surprising is despite Texas' wealth it's behind in the facilities arms race consuming college football.
From hookem.com:
Texas isn’t even remotely close to comparative schools when it comes to staff size. The Longhorns usually had less than 30 people total coming and going inside the program under Strong.
Alabama has nine football analysts, two directors of player development and three assistants just for recruiting purposes alone. Ohio State has two directors of player development and four quality control assistants.
“That one analyst that finds that one nugget that makes you call that one play because you saw this one tip in that one alignment, and your (defensive back) steps in front of a pass for the game-winning interception, it was worth the hundreds of thousands of dollars to win that championship game on that play,” Herman said.
That first Herman-Meyer draw is going to be a banger. The only question is if it first occurs in the playoffs or Week 2 of 2022.
THOSE WMDs. Star Wars braintrust sets meeting to plot Princess Leia's life after Carrie Fisher's death... A.J. Daulerio is ready to tell his (whole) Gawker story... German man admits to torching tree at Toomer's Corner... A former prison guard's quixotic campaign to make a Houston suburb confront its history... Billy Bob Thorton Bad Santa 2 profile.
