BOOM
2025 cornerback Jordyn Woods flips from Cincinnati and commits to Ohio State.
The Thursday start and #blessed Labor Day weekend messed me up. Now it truly feels like a game week is upon us.
I'm just surprised Oklahoma still has a football team after last year's demolishing.
Steelers won't like what the Browns do to them, either.
ICYMI:
- Urban Meyer previews Oklahoma, says Mike Weber will play with J.K. Dobbins.
- Film Study: Shallow gains in the passing game.
- B.B. Landers: I'm not fat, just thick around the edges.
- Facing accuracy questions, defenses dropping more defenders in coverage vs. J.T. Barrett.
- Oklahoma loses key DB Jordan Parker for season.
- Sooner scouting report.
- Snap Count: J.T. Barrett and Nick Bosa lead the way to win at Indiana.
- Help put a life-size statue of Woody Hayes in his hometown of Newcomerstown, Ohio.
Word of the Day: Courtesan.
BEER WE GO, BUCKEYES. Playing Ohio State at your home stadium seems like a good idea when the game is announced.
"Oh, we're going to beat those overrated scumbags by 35 on national television and send them back to their hellhole with tears in their eyes."
Unfortunately for enemies of Ohio, reality rarely reflects fantasy. Take Oklahoma for example, who saw their city town invaded by a foreign horde of barbarians, their team massacred, and chants of conquest roll around their stadium.
Baker Mayfield remembers it well.
From tulsaworld.com:
Since 2000, Oklahoma only lost nine home games in Norman. The 21-point loss was the second-largest margin during that span.
“Everybody that was here for last year's huge loss definitely remembers that. And we talked about it during camp,” Mayfield said. “We've never been here for a team to sing their fight song on our field. Quite frankly it's just embarrassing. It's embarrassing.
“We let down our fans, our coaches and everybody that supports our program to allow them to sing O-H-I-O on our field. And their fans were louder than ours and rightfully so. They had more reason to be louder. But, it's different year. Obviously we're still thinking about that and it hurts. But we've still gotta go play football.”
This is an amazing quote, too, because players voted Baker the biggest trash talker in the Big 12:
Baker Mayfield with Dan Patrick on being voted the biggest trash-talker in the Big 12. Says he voted for Orlando Brown. #Sooners pic.twitter.com/9R4iyKWxZG
— Sooner Gridiron (@soonergridiron) August 25, 2017
Hard to talk shit when your team trails by 20. He no doubt dreams of revenge, but Saturday night probably ends in a similar fashion.
THE LEWIS-JOHNSON BOND. Larry Johnson Sr. almost walked away from coaching when Penn State passed over him for James Franklin. He stuck with it, because a kid he hadn't yet met might need him.
Turns out, Tyquan Lewis was that kid. Those two have forged an unbreakable bond in Lewis't time at Ohio State.
From cleveland.com:
Johnson coached for Penn State at 18 years. Ohio State is just his second college home. He is all about roots and connections. And the players he has now, like Lewis and Tracy Sprinkle and Jalyn Holmes and Sam Hubbard, are the first Buckeyes he's seen fully grow up on his watch.
Lewis was a redshirt freshman who hadn't played when Johnson arrived. What Lewis has become - the conference defensive lineman of the year last season, a fifth-year senior captain now, the Buckeye who stands at the center of the gathering before pregame warmups and fires up his teammates - is what he has become with Johnson at his back and by his side.
"Tyquan never had a male stand in front of him and say, 'I believe in you, we can do this together,'" Johnson said. "I think that's all he needed."
It's crazy how all some people need is somebody in their corner believing in them.
And I see why Penn State opted for Franklin over Johnson, but I won't ever stop thanking them for that decision. Johnson has been a windfall for the staff and school. Just an amazing man and teacher.
NEUTRAL SITE GAMES: STILL BAD. Unfortunately my rant against neutral site games in Jan. 2014 did not kill neutral site games. I know, I can't believe it, either.
We witnessed three big neutral site games this weekend (Florida vs. Michigan; Alabama vs. Florida State, and Tennessee vs. Georgia Tech). They were good games. But they would have been better if they were played on college campuses.
From Dave Briggs of bcsn.tv:
In the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, the game was but a blip, meriting nary a mention on the front page of the Dallas Morning News’ sports section. Play the game at Michigan or Florida and the world there stops.
Take Oklahoma-Ohio State this weekend. Playing it in Dubai — the natural next destination — would be interesting enough. Playing it in Columbus will produce the kind of stadium-rattling scene you look forward to for years. Same with Michigan’s future home-and-home series against Notre Dame, Texas, and Oklahoma.
The fun of high school and college football is the spirit and spectacle, whether it is a Friday night in Toledo or a crisp fall Saturday at a classic Big Ten coliseum. Or, well, an icy Wednesday night at the Glass Bowl or the Doyt. (If quality of play was all that mattered, we would only watch the NFL.)
These games won't go away, unfortunately. Big time programs don't want to lose money playing true road games anymore. Broadcast companies don't care because they'll bring the ratings regardless.
It's just a shame to watch an ostensibly amateur sport pimp teams to soulless NFL stadiums. When I am President, I will end these shambolic games. Play home-and-home series or GTFO.
REALITY FOR HORNS FANS. Tom Herman's paternalistic Twitter policy didn't save his team from enduring a shocking home loss to Maryland to begin the season. (Doubt Longhorn sachems foresaw that when scheduling the Terrapins in 2010.)
Herman, who founded MENSA, the organization for geniuses, says the defeat was good in that it helped lower expectations of a team coached by a man making north of $5 million this year.
From dallasnews.com:
The fan base appeared visibly frustrated when things turned for the worst on Saturday, throwing debris from the stands during the game's final minutes. Herman said the loss should remind those fans that his rebuild will be a long process.
"I would think a heavy dose of reality would probably be the biggest takeaway," Herman said. "We have not arrived yet."
Herman would also like you to know it's harder keeping Texas kids in Texas because they can watch good teams like Ohio State every week now:
"It is difficult and it's become much more so in today's social media climate," Herman said. "Twenty years ago, kids from Houston, Texas [would] see Ohio State maybe one time a year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving when they're playing on national TV."
Herman noted the importance of playing into that culture. But he still prioritizes having a coaching staff that can relate to recruits and maintain relationships with in-state high school coaches.
I don't think the "social media climate" has anything to do with Ohio State being good and Texas being bad, but I did not found MENSA, the organization for geniuses.
PRAISE TO NOTE. Five-star freshman Chase Young played 13 snaps against Indiana after arriving on campus in July.
Jalyn Holmes has already seen enough of "The Predator" to declare him a future No. 1 overall pick.
From 247sports.com:
But fellow defensive end Jalyn Holmes sees much bigger things for Young. Holmes believes that in the next three or four years, whenever Young declares for the NFL Draft, he will be the top selection.
"The ceiling is high for him," Holmes said of Young on Monday. "That’s a future first-round pick. First pick really in my eyes."
Ohio State hasn't had a No. 1 overall pick in 20 years. Outside of Cardale Jones leading the Chargers to the Super Bowl, that would fill the most elusive jewel in Urban Meyer's recruiting crown.
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