Dandelion War, Day Six: Spectracide Weed Stop dominated the barbarian hordes and repelled their invasion to the brink of extinction.
The Grass Bully is back in business. May Warren G. Harding bless the gentle readers who fed me the good lawn care tips.
ICYMI:
- Spring Rewind: Quarterbacks.
- Charting the spring game quarterbacks.
- The top-five freshman performances from the Ohio State spring game.
- The spring game doubles as a unique recruiting experience.
- Urban Meyer attended Game 4 of the Blue Jackets–Penguins series. Columbus won, 5-4, to get into the series driver's seat trailing 3-1.
- Help put a life-size statue of Woody Hayes in Newcomerstown, Ohio.
Word of the Day: Compunction.
GET DUMPED THEN, 1950s NOTRE DAME. Notorious murderer Gary Gilmore once proclaimed the 1950s as a helluva time for a juvenile delinquent. Coincidentally, it was also a helluva time for Notre Dame fans.
Their team will never win another national title (bet that right now). Yet they could always hang their hats on the time the 1954 and 1955 teams sent three top-15 draft picks to the NFL in consecutive years.
Unfortunately for them, a team the Irish haven't beat since 1936(!!!!) could wash away the last proof of their relevancy:
If Hooker, Lattimore, Conley are drafted top-15, it'd be 1st time since 1954-55 a CFB team has back-to-back yrs w/ 3 top-15 picks #OhioState
— Dane Brugler (@dpbrugler) April 18, 2017
Another stat to watch: If Hooker, Lattimore, and Conley go in the first round it will be the first time in NFL history a school's secondary sent three first-round picks in the same year.
The 2016 team may not have won a title, but it will provide equity on the recruiting trail to future 'chips.
WEBER ON THE GRIND. I love the spring because it's a time to hype players who have yet to prove anything in games that matter.
But while a lot of us put in future Heisman prophecies for J.K. Dobbins this spring, don't sleep on the grind of Mike Weber.
The Detroit product focused on the little things this spring.
From cleveland.com:
We talk a lot about running back blocking in Ohio State's offense, and we know it can get a bit tedious and boring. It's obvious. That guy needs to do more than carry the ball. So when Mike Weber picked up a blitzing corner on this play, it wasn't super exciting because that's what Weber should do.
Here's why it matters: It's always important when a guy says he's been working on something, and then you actually get to see it in the spring game. Weber said he wanted to work on the little things that make a great running back, including pass protection, and it appears that's happening.
Protection is the No. 1 improvement Urban Meyer wanted to see from the offense this year, and Weber is part of that. So this had to be a good sign for the head coach.
I say us fans continue hyping the young guns. That way enemy fans will be taken by surprise when Weber bulldozes Indiana for 150 yards on opening night.
THE NEXT BIG THING? Mitch Trubisky, a former Ohio Mr. Football, started one year at North Carolina and will be a first-round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft.
It's a meteoric rise that Ohio State backup Joe Burrow, a former Ohio Mr. Football, could repeat after the 2018 season.
From Bill Bender of sportingnews.com:
Will Burrow be in the same spot in 2019? That's a big leap, considering he's in a heated battle to be Ohio State's backup quarterback with Dwayne Haskins in 2017. Burrow, who figures to play behind J.T. Barrett for at least one more year, will likely have to wait even one more year than Trubisky to prove himself on the field.
If the last two spring games offer any hints, however, then Burrow should be just fine. He passed for 196 yards and three TDs in 2016 then piled on 262 yards and three TDs in last Saturday's game. Remember, this is the same quarterback Ohio State running back Mike Weber compared to Tom Brady earlier this spring.
"I know I can play here now," Burrow said after the spring game. "Now I need to play at a high level and keep getting better and better. Following J.T.; getting in a great relationship with the two young guys in the room and just keep on from there."
Don't let a first-year Buckeye QB slide into the top half of the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft. For all of Ohio State's illustrious history, it has yet to put a surefire Hall of Fame quarterback into the NFL.
That hasn't stopped championships from appearing in Columbus. It'd still be a nice feather for the trophy case.
CINCY LEARNS TO RESPECT THE NEW AUTHORITY. Looks like Luke Fickell, the new Sheriff of Hamilton County, has instilled a sense of discipline into the roster comprised of players he (mostly) didn't recruit.
From espn.com:
The program is simply called "Attention Training," and it doubled as a new coach's method for getting Cincinnati's attention right away while also teaching a mindset that would no longer allow the small stuff to slip through the cracks.
"Oh my goodness, that was the worst," senior running back Mike Boone said. "We were up at like five in the morning, bear-crawling in the snow. They found a muddy field, had us army-rolling in the mud. He tested us mentally, just to see who was going to compete.
"Personally, I feel like we needed that. The attitude part, some people haven't had the right attitude. In the past people would have been like, 'Oh, I don't want to do this, I don't want to do that.' But from the jump, Coach Fick needed to see -- and I think as players we did, too -- who was going to complain. That attention training brought everything out."
Cincinnati plays Michigan in Ann Arbor during Week 2. Take the Bearcats and the points for a cheeky April bet that will turn profitable in September. Cincy is dumping Michigan in the Big House. Fave this tweet.
RISE FOR REAGAN. Reagan Tokes is gone, not forgotten.
Bodega, Short North Tattoo, and Oddfellows Liquor Bar (among others) are making sure of that:
From the event's Facebook page:
It's the #RiseforReagan Block Party! Come on down to Bodega, Short North Tattoo and Oddfellows to raise funds for the Regan Delaney Tokes Memorial Fund!
Rise for Reagan is a collaboration between local businesses to raise funds in support of the Reagan Delaney Tokes Memorial Fund. The RDT Memorial Fund was created by Reagan’s parents and sister in order to create a movement that inspires legislative and safety changes within the Columbus community.
The only thing better than drinking on a sunny Sunday: Doing so while supporting a humanitarian cause.
THOSE WMDs. Ex-monk erects "Cathedral of Faith" brick by brick, mostly alone... Ride hailing in rural America... #VanLife, the Bohemian social-media movement... The stalkerware market, where ordinary people tap each other's phones... The best showerhead.
