We begin today with a prayer for our brethren in Anchorage, Alaska. It could get as high as 80 degrees there today. Please think of our friends in Anchorage.
Temperatures in the 70s and 80s are coming. "Please take appropriate precautions..." pic.twitter.com/xrrR61dZZo
— David Hulen (@davidhulen) August 3, 2017
Anchorage residents should move to Piqua. It hasn't been over 74 degrees in my living room all summer.
Recruit Watch: Four-star Virginia athlete K'Vaughan Pope commits tonight at 6 p.m. ET. My three wise cats say to prepare the boom GIFs.
ICYMI:
- College GameDay coming to Bloomington for the first time ever for Ohio State–Indiana.
- Buckeyes ranked No. 2 in the preseason Coaches Poll.
- Parris Campbell ready to play H-Back, lead receivers.
- VIDEO: Hype hype hype.
- Help put a life-size statue of Woody Hayes in his hometown of Newcomerstown, Ohio.
Word of the Day: Vivacity.
WIDE RECEIVERS TALK THE TALK. Wide receivers met with local media on Thursday. Let them tell it, and the unit is well aware of the onus placed upon it by fans entering the season.
From dispatch.com:
“They underperformed, like the whole offense did,” receivers coach Zach Smith said on Thursday after the Buckeyes’ first full-pad practice of training camp. “The offense was out of sync. I don’t think any position group played well at all, to be honest with you. That’s on us as a coaching staff.”
With Curtis Samuel and Noah Brown in the NFL, the Buckeyes are counting on holdovers to make a jump. K.J. Hill had the most catches among the returning wideouts with only 18 for 262 yards. The wide receivers on the current roster combined for only four touchdowns a year ago.
“When you know that you’re better than what you’ve been able to show, it’s frustrating,” junior Terry McLaurin said. “You’ve been putting in the work but haven’t gotten the results yet. You have to keep working and grinding. That’s part of sports.”
Talk is cheap, yet it's also the first step in rectifying the problem. I want to believe the hype, but it's not like they'd come into this season saying, "We are totally unprepared to meet expectations."
At the end of the day, there are too many athletes in the Zone 6 stable to be bad.
HOT TAKES AHOY. The Big Ten placed four teams in the top 10 of the preseason Coaches Poll. Normally this would mean the Big Ten is good. Apparently it means the Big Ten sucks.
From usatoday.com:
The biggest shift in college football happened almost overnight, with so little warning it’s practically gone unnoticed. But as of today, with the release of the preseason Amway Coaches Poll for 2017, the SEC is no longer the sport’s most overrated conference.
That honor now belongs to the Big Ten.
While the SEC boasts the nation’s No. 1 team in Alabama, the coaches have put four Big Ten teams in the top 10 to start the season.
Four teams from the conference that hasn’t scored a single point in two consecutive appearances in the College Football Playoff.
What's cool about the 2017 preseason poll is it actually has no bearing on what happened in the 2016 season. It's an entirely different poll.
Four B1G teams probably won't land in the final top 10 of the season. Nobody would consider the B1G overrated if three teams finished there, though.
THE BEAT GOES ON. Alabama senior defensive end Da'Shawn Hand was arrested Saturday for drunk driving after falling asleep in his car.
Alabama plays Florida State in Week 1, which means Nick Saban needed a semantic hustle for his starting defensive end to see the field.
Saban on DeShaun Hand: If does everything he is supposed to do, he will not be suspended.
— Cecil Hurt (@CecilHurt) August 3, 2017
Da'Shawn Hand was put in 48-hour "inpatient," according to Nick Saban. He will have community service and a police ride-around
— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) August 3, 2017
Saban said Hand was placed in 48-hour inpatient treatment for alcohol. "If he had (driven) the car, it would be different."
— Cecil Hurt (@CecilHurt) August 3, 2017
Please remember this the next time Saban pounds the podium while using words like "accountability." At the end of the day, it doesn't exist if the stage and player are big enough.
PRESEASON POLLS AREN'T WORTHLESS. You might, like me, think preseason polls aren't worth the paper on which they're printed. We were wrong.
After getting $15K for Utah being in preseason top 25, coach Kyle Whittingham will get $85K more if team is in final coaches' or AP top 25
— Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) August 3, 2017
Shoutout to the agent that got a worthless preseason poll tied to a multi-thousand contract stipulation. Anti-shoutout to the state employees that allowed it to happen.
TIME IS A FLAT CIRCLE. Who amongst us doesn't remember the 2004 motion picture classic Dodgeball and its classic bit about ESPN 8 THE OCHO?
Turns out, that will be a reality at least for one day next week.
From espn.com:
Drawing inspiration from the 2004 hit movie “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story” featuring Vince Vaughn, Christine Taylor and Ben Stiller, ESPNU will become ESPN8: “The Ocho” on Tuesday, Aug. 8, or more appropriately, 8/8. For one day only, the faux network will feature a line-up of unconventional sporting events ranging from Disc Golf to Ultimate Trampoline Dodgeball and Firefighters World Challenge playing off the mantra highlighted in the movie: “Bringing you the Finest in Seldom Seen Sports”.
I would like this article to serve as a two-weeks notice to my bosses. I am quitting to pursue an Ultimate Trampoline Dodgeball championship. I had a good run but it's time for me to do something else now. Thanks for understanding. Later.
THOSE WMDs. Drugmaker pitches its product to judges... In breakthrough, scientists edit a dangerous mutation from genes in human embryos... Travel photographer of the year contest 2017... The itch... What do you wish you knew then what you know now?
