The Drought is Over
Caleb Downs has Ohio State’s first punt return touchdown since 2014.
May Fortuna favor the Marion Harding Presidents, the good team, tonight in their quest to defeat the vile Pleasant Spartans, the bad team.
ICYMI:
- Ohio State valued at $1.5 billion, highest in the country.
- Urban Meyer call-in show: Scouting UNLV, lack of OL depth, and Demario McCall health update.
- Just because Buckeye quarterbacks have different skills doesn't mean Ohio State would change its offense.
- Predicting the 2018 offensive recruiting haul.
- Slay Travis looks to continue its winning streak.
- Help put a life-size statue of Woody Hayes in his hometown of Newcomerstown, Ohio.
Word of the Day: Hawkshaw.
A LOSS CAN DO THAT TO A FAN. Night games are the occasions fans love to know. When else can you wake up at 8 a.m., start drinking, and have it not end in an intervention by your loved ones?
But it also leads to people going to jail—especially if they're surly after watching Oklahoma blow out the local team on national television.
That's what happened two weeks ago (I had to look it up; I didn't remember it, either). It helped lead to game day arrests spike past 2016's totals by the end of Week 3.
From Jacob Myers of The Lantern:
More arrests have been made on gameday the first two home football games this season than all seven of the Buckeyes’ 2016 home games. Additionally, more people were arrested at each of this year’s home games than any single home game last year.
The 34 total gameday arrests the past two weeks exceed the 32 made throughout the entire 2016 season, the first season that alcoholic beverages were sold in the stadium during games.
Twenty-one gameday arrests were made Sept. 9 — 13 inside the stadium during the Oklahoma game and eight outside the stadium — and 13 arrests were made Saturday — 12 inside during the matchup against Army, and another one outside — according to information provided by the Ohio State Department of Public Safety.
These things have a way of averaging out. Incidents went down last year, the first year of public beer sales Shoe-wide. That campaign didn't include any home losses, though.
DEVELOPING THE BOSA BRAND. John Bosa didn't light the NFL on fire when he played. But he had the last laugh, as his one large adult son, Joey, is already one of the best defenders in the league and his other large adult son, Nicky, is one of the best non-draft eligible linemen in college.
It's all due to a love of craft imbued by their father. The work paid off.
From Sports Illustrated:
“Every time I think I’m better than him at something, he just flies right by me,” says Joey. “Ping-Pong. Lots of video games. We are obsessed with what we love, and what we love is football and our craft.”
Ohio State defensive line coach Larry Johnson, tellingly, is not hitting the brakes on the hype machine. Asked if Nick can be another Joey, as Joey suggests, he says, “That’s a true statement. He’s just young. But he’s got the tools to be really special.” NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock hasn’t yet watched much film on Nick—he’s a true sophomore, after all—but in the little he’s seen, “I just started laughing, because he looked like the same guy [as Joey].”
In addition to their more notable achievements, the Bosa boys have pulled off a rare sibling feat: They compete alongside each other more than against each other. They’re best friends and remain in daily contact. Nick “is one of very few people I can be my true self around,” says Joey. “Maybe the only person. I feel like he’s just another piece of me.”
Little Bear is feeling really good about the Buckeyes' chances against the Rebels this weekend. He's thinking of a shutout.
From Tim May of The Columbus Dispatch:
Nick Bosa doesn’t mince words, and so it was Wednesday when asked how he thinks he and the Ohio State defense will play Saturday against a more conventional offense in Nevada-Las Vegas.
“Really good; really good,” Bosa said. “I think we’ll shut ’em out, so we’ll see.”
I wish we got more candor like this from players.
"I think we'll smoke them by 35," Bosa bets before boarding bus to Ann Arbor.
That headline would do 10K shares on Facebook, easily.
NOW THAT'S TUF. Tuf Borland introduced himself to Buckeye Kingdom last Saturday when Chris Worley went down with a high ankle sprain. He finished with a team-high 12 tackles.
For Borland's parents, it was a long time coming.
From Colin Hass-Hill of The Lantern:
“It made me look up at him because of the sound of his voice and yeah, he was tearing up which made me tear up,” Jeny said. “So I kind of had to look away so I didn’t lose it.”
Kyle, who admitted he thinks of himself as a tough guy, couldn’t help himself. The pride of Tuf achieving his goal overwhelmed him.
Their emotion was matched by Tuf, a usually calm and unemotional person, who could not stop smiling when he took the lectern to speak with the media. When he walked out to see his parents, he attempted to regain his matter-of-fact temperament. It didn’t last long.
Redshirt freshman linebacker Tuf Borland (32) waits to receive a kick during the Ohio State- Oklahoma game on Sep. 9. Credit: Jack Westerheide | Photo Editor
“He tried to walk out of the stadium when we were waiting for him as he normally does, being pretty stoic and so forth, but one look at his mom and he was grinning ear to ear,” Kyle said.
Meyer said Thursday his parents should be proud of how they raised him.
I like Borland and the mentality he brings to the position. I think we'll see a lot of him Saturday, too. No way the staff risks a guy like Worley in a game like UNLV.
PURDUE WANTS EVERYONE. Purdue is 2-1 and swaggering around for the first time since Joe Tiller's majestic mustache danced on the Boilermaker sideline.
Now their receivers are publicly calling out Ohio State.
From espn.com:
"Running the plays Coach Brohm gives us, we don't have any doubt in our mind," [Purdue senior wide receiver Gregory] Phillips said. "If your coach is aggressive, you become aggressive. If your coach is confident, you become confident.
"It's going to be a surprise when people see us beat Michigan. I wish we played Ohio State, too, because nobody can stop us right now except ourselves," Phillips said. "If we don't beat Purdue and turn over the ball, we win every game."
OK, so maybe that's bold talk for a team with just three Big Ten wins since 2012. But thanks to Brohm, suddenly anything seems possible at Purdue.
That's awesome they play a top-10 team at home and they'd rather play the Buckeyes. I too wish Ohio State played Purdue this weekend instead of UNLV.
I want to talk myself into Boilermakers, but I also know Harbaugh will look to railroad them by no less than 50. I'm just showing up for the Jeff Brohm vs. Don Brown chess match.
MAURICE CLARETT AT IT AGAIN. Maurice Clarett delivered 800 already-assembled bikes to the youth of Youngstown.
For his next trick, he's passing the hat for winter coats for Youngstown's youth.
Shoutout to MoC, as always. He was in the Atomic City yesterday speaking to Piqua's youth about the importance of good decisions.
I'm hoping he suits up tonight for Piqua's game against visiting Xenia. No disrespect to the City of Hospitality. I've been meaning to visit and find a favorable restaurant there for awhile now.
Its team still needs to fall by about 300 tonight.
THOSE WMDs. The end is near for University City Center... Inside the clubhouse for the Dodgers' rise and fall... Before your spend $2 billion on your own submarine, read this... Custom jewelry with a hip hop following... Billie Jean King's battle of motivation in "Battle of the Sexes."
