Took a tour of Piqua's Waste Water Treatment facility last night. Always refreshing to know there's an army of geniuses making life simpler and safer for idiots like me.
ICYMI:
- Urban Meyer praised multiple players at his weekly press conference.
- Meyer and Jim Harbaugh agree: Big Ten needs opposing locker room standard.
- Offensive line progression pleases Meyer.
- Meyer knew Chris Ash would become a head coach.
- Help put a life-size statue of Woody Hayes in his hometown of Newcomerstown, Ohio.
Word of the Day: Jongleur.
AREA MAN TWEETS. J.T. Barrett has shouldered most of the blame from for Ohio State's tepid offense. Such is the nature of the position.
But the wide receivers are usually right behind him. They got loose against UNLV, though, which caused Zach Smith to dust off his Twitter account.
From mydaytondailynews.com:
The chatter stuck with the Buckeyes the last two weeks in blowout victories against Army and UNLV. It will motivate them as they compete for a spot in the Big Ten championship the next two months and try to fight their way back into contention for a spot in the College Football Playoffs.
“I got my players backs,” wide receivers coach Zach Smith wrote Saturday on Twitter, “and we LOVE criticism. It fuels us and makes us better. Talkers talk … players play … coaches coach.”
“And that’s a fact,” hybrid back Parris Campbell wrote. “Say less.
Good to know the coach making $250k a year has his players back. That's big, if true.
And I get why some players would rather fans shut up and get in line. Unfortunately the world doesn't spin that way. It would be boring if it did.
But if Smith really wants to silence his critics, Zone 6 should torch Penn State. Until then talkers will talk and paychecks will keep getting written.
SAUNDERS ORIGIN STORY. Urban Meyer said yesterday walk-on wide receiver C.J. Saunders has the talent to play at Ohio State, though he needs to get stronger.
If Saunders can unlock those gains, look out. He's a special athlete with a diverse sports background from pro bloodlines.
From Jacob Myers of The Lantern:
Saunders, a junior academically but a sophomore athletically, was a three-sport athlete in high school, playing on varsity for the basketball and baseball teams for three years and playing varsity football for two. His father, Tim Saunders, is entering his 26th season as the head coach of the Dublin Coffman baseball team and coached his son through high school. He said C.J.’s best sport was baseball, but was most passionate about basketball.
His junior year, C.J. decided to play varsity football and quickly became one of the more talented receivers in the area. His senior year, he caught 39 passes for 522 yards with six touchdowns and was named to his conference’s second team, after helping the Coffman Shamrocks to an unbeaten regular season and division title.
In basketball, he was named the Ohio Capital Conference-Central player of the year. He also made first-team all-conference in baseball and was one of three players in the country to win a Rawlings High School Gold Glove award in the outfield. He had three Division II offers from Ashland, Indiana Tech and Tiffin for basketball, but decided he wanted to go to a larger school.
My long-time readers know the feud I've carried with the city of Dublin since middle school when their traveling soccer team spit on their hands before the handshake line after we whipped 'em 2-1.
But this is where the offense is right now. It's all weapons on deck, even the Dublin ones. And it's not like they need Saunders to morph into Jerry Rice, though I wouldn't be against that genetic experiment.
The only need him on a handful of passing situations a game. And only a bad coach would have him try to seal an edge.
Given Sam Hubbard and Jalyn Holmes RTed Marionaire Jimmy's article stating that case, they feel the same way.
HARBAUGH! Jim Harbaugh went on an extended rant Monday against Purdue's "unsanitary" locker rooms that lacked basic amenities like air conditioning.
The no AC in visitor locker room was a big deal>#Michigan staffers told me SAT that on a day when temp was in 90s, it was like 110+ in there https://t.co/KUISFOf3Ht
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) September 25, 2017
Urban Meyer agreed, without naming Purdue specifically. He said it's a conference-wide issue that Jim Delany should examine.
While those things will now undoubtedly be discussed the next time conference chiefs converge, Purdue wasted no time writing what will surely be smarmiest university press release of 2017.
Via hammerandrails.com:
Purdue regards the welfare of all student-athletes as its No. 1 priority. We would fully support a conversation regarding a conference-wide set of guidelines for visiting football team accommodations because we have experienced less-than-ideal conditions on the road. There IS no place for gamesmanship when it comes to player care and safety.
The after-the-fact concerns expressed by Michigan are somewhat surprising because a member of its football staff conducted a walk-thru of our facilities with our athletics department staff at Ross-Ade Stadium on July 18.
Furthermore, to help teams prepare in advance, our visiting team manual highlights in bold type "there is no air conditioning in the (visiting) locker room," with accompanying Purdue Athletics staff contact information about how to request preferred temporary accommodations. We did not receive any such request.
Basic x-ray is available within our athletic footprint and more-sophisticated capabilities are located two blocks away, similar to the arrangements at many other schools. Our sports medicine staff members, in fact, have received numerous compliments from their Michigan counterparts regarding the care they received at Purdue.
I'm old enough to remember when Michigan couldn't beat Rutgers in Piscataway.
But it looks like the rumors of a Harbaugh revamp may be true, with the Wolverines now a rival to the Boilermakers.
HAVE A SNICKERS, BUTCHIE. Most Americans would be ecstatic to know their company will soon be forced to pay them millions of dollars to do literally anything else in the world.
Butch Jones, well, he's fed up and ranting about fake news.
Butch Jones issued a heated response directed at media after question about if an altercation with teammate caused Shy Tuttle's injury: pic.twitter.com/gbjdK4G3X5
— David Cobb (@DavidWCobb) September 25, 2017
Overhyped and mediocre is exactly how I prefer the Tennessee Volunteers. I love watching their childlike championship dreams turn to ash by late September.
Jones will be missed in these parts, and he should be. There will never be another man that embodies 6-6 better.
GET DEMOLISHED THEN, RUBBER BOWL. Akron will demolish its once iconic Rubber Bowl unless somebody has $200,000 and wants to bail out a Canton company somehow not in jail over $200K in back taxes.
From radio.wosu.edu:
The Akron Rubber Bowl is one step closer to the wrecking ball. Its owners have less than a month to pay off hundreds of thousands in back taxes or forfeit the crumbling, 77-year-old arena.
Canton-based Team 1 Marketing owes close to $200,000 in back taxes. If left unpaid, the arena would go to the Summit County Land Bank, which says it will likely donate the land to the City of Akron.
Executive director Patrick Bravo says his group is often a conduit since it obtains properties and then gives them to adjacent landowners who will be able to pay taxes. And he says that might be what happens here.
R.I.P. to an Ohio stadium. Like the hellacious underrated city of Akron itself, better things will rise from the ashes.
THOSE WMDs. Street style photographers attempt to unionize... Facing months in the dark, ordinary life "beyond reach" in Puerto Rico... Chia-Tsun 'CT' Liu: Hiroshima bomb survivor and Westinghouse chemist... Debt a factor in Toys 'R' Us decline... I bought bitcoin at a deli.
