ICYMI:
- Keita Bates-Diop, Kam Williams, Jae'Sean Tate, and Andrew Dakich will walk on Senior Night vs. Rutgers.
- Better Know a Buckeye: The electric Jaelen Gill.
- Film Study: The evolution of pattern-matching defenses.
- Trevon Forte believes walk-on experience prepared him for future opportunities on and off the field.
- Reserve your (or your business’) spot next to the life-size statue of Woody Hayes coming to Newcomerstown!
Word of the Day: Pernicious.
WELCOME, RUTGERS. The Basketbucks looked like national contenders to start the month. They still might be as no team in the country appears to be consistently elite and a dark horse is bound to get hot.
Still, it's best to start with talk about a Big Ten regular season championship considering the two-game slide. The Buckeyes will look to change that against Rutgers tonight at 7 p.m. on BTN.
Some pertinent notes from Chris Holtmann's Monday night call-in show, via LeDan Hope of Eleven Warriors:
- About 14,000 tickets have been sold for Tuesday's game as of Monday night. Holtmann said he is optimistic that there will be a loud crowd and great environment for the final home game of the year.
- Keita Bates-Diop has "got to continue to play through the physicality that he is being thrown his way" in order to get back on track offensively. Holtmann believes Bates-Diop has been fouled more than is being called and said he has tried to get that point across to the officials. Even though his scoring has been down in the past few games, Holtmann believes Bates-Diop is still performing at a Player of the Year level because of the contributions he is making on the game outside of scoring. "Keita's got so many strengths," Holtmann said.
- Holtmann's players were with Ohio State's training staff going through physical rehabilitation on Monday night as they prepare to play their second game in three days on Tuesday. Monday was a "big mental day" for the Buckeyes because the coaches could not afford to tax their players physically.
If you possess the time and capital (no easy combination for the working American in 2018, I know); go out and send the seniors and a future lottery pick off right. They earned a packed house... unless they lose to Rutgers at home!
Speaking of Rutgers, props to the schedulers on this one. The Scarlet Knights arrive at the perfect time after a two-game slide and with a showdown looming in Bloomington on Friday night.
WIZARD'S POWERS GROW. I pray for teachers and parents of teenagers every day. How do you gain the attention of a generation captivated by amoral YouTube celebrities?
It's no easy trick. Thankfully, Ohio State has a historically elite brand and coach. It also uses its wealth to finance an elite team of media experts to produce Buckeye propaganda to peddle to talented teens.
One such member is Kenton Stufflebeam, who is one again earning praise for his work. Rightfully so.
Flip can flip through some of his recent work with the arrow on the right:
From landof10.com:
There doesn’t always have to be a special sales pitch in every graphic. Sometimes just passing along some creative artwork that might get posted on social media sites or saved as the lock screen on a phone might be enough all by itself. This piece that features tight end Jeremy Ruckert, for example, might be something he could look at every day ― making it easier and easier to picture a future at Ohio State. In the end, the chance for the nation’s No. 1 tight end to play early might have been a bigger factor, but either way the Buckeyes landed him.
Stufflebeam is like 20 years old. So hopefully the Buckeyes pony up the cash to keep him around when other programs or professional franchises inevitably come knocking (again).
Look at this work for four-star defensive end Ani Izuchukwu, which our Andrew Lind highlighted in The Hurry Up last week:
Almost time stay focus @OhioStAthletics #BuckeyeNation pic.twitter.com/fQnnuZeofR
— King Ani: Alpha Male (@izuchukwuani12) February 14, 2018
"That's awesome." That's only answer the 17-year-old mind is capable of producing in response. It might come in a string of "100" emojis, but the sentiment is the same.
Nobody does it better.
MEN TEACHING MEN. Thayer Munford slid into the 2017 almost as an afterthought for most fans. The lowest-rated offensive lineman of the class could be in line for the most prominent role with the exit of Jamarco Jones.
He looked the part in spot service this fall. Another offseason under Mickey Marotti certainly won't hurt his projection in 2018.
For Munford's part, he's just trying to bring his lunch pail to work every day like his forefathers taught him.
From theozone.net:
“I just can’t wait to see all the other freshmen come in, see how they do, see how they’re going to react to all of the process that we have to do,” he said.
Fine with leading by example, Munford is going to have to become a vocal leader as well. He is also going to have to continue to handle his business each and every day. That was one of the key lessons that Jamarco Jones and Billy Price left with him.
“[They taught me] just to become a bigger man,” he said. “If you don’t become a man for yourself, how are you going to be a man for others?”
That's the kind of attitude that thrives on Ohio State's line. I'd be surprised if he won a tackle job this fall. I wouldn't be shocked. He'll play a prominent role regardless. We saw last year how crucial depth can be when Branden Bowen broke his leg.
BET THE RENT. Ohio State opened as 31-point favorites over false ayatollah OSU, Oregon State version. Vegas can't set this line high enough. I'm not saying former Washington offensive coordinator Jonathan Smith won't be good in Corvallis. Like every other person in the eastern timezone smart enough not to gamble on Pac-12 football, I'm in bed when they kickoff.
Still, Smith is walking into a buzzsaw for an opening game. A cross country trip to face an unproven Ohio State team with national championship ambitions? Talk about a nightmare for a rookie coach.
Oklahoma's Lincoln Riley at least had a rehearsal against UTEP before heading to Columbus. He also had a future Heisman winner in Baker Mayfield at his side.
If Oregon State currently rosters a future Heisman winner, he has yet to emerge in his coach's eyes.
From The Athletic ($):
Oregon State really hasn’t had much quarterback consistency since the Riley days and Sean Mannion. Where do you start on Day 1 for your quarterback situation?
“For me, just getting here knowing that quarterback has been unsettled here for a couple of years, I didn’t want to bring in a one-year wonder or a graduate transfer to kind of tide us over for a year and then we’d be back in the same mold of another quarterback playing. What we have here currently on the roster and what we recruited, whoever ends up being the starter at quarterback will have at least another year to play after that in order to create some continuity, to improve from Year 1 to Year 2 — that’s the thought.
“Now, if a true freshman is the best player, we’ll play him. We did that at UW with Jake Browning, and it turned out that he ended up being the best player who gave us the best chance, we thought we’d play him. If it’s an older guy, that’s great. But everybody is really going to get a chance to compete for this job starting in the spring and then we’ll see how it plays out. We’re not going to put any kind of timetable on naming a starter. When we know, we’ll decide. I feel good about that end — that we have someone who can improve the second year.”
Here's how the quarterback depth chart looks at the moment:
| # | Full Name | Pos. | Ht. | Wt. | Academic Year | Hometown / High School |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Luton, Jake | QB | 6-7 | 234 | Sr. | Marysville, Wash. / Marysville-Pilchuck HS |
| 12 | Blount, Conor | QB | 6-1 | 202 | R-So. | Waukesha, Wis. / Waukesha West HS |
| 15 | Moran, Mason | QB | 6-3 | 196 | R-So. | Gilbert, Ariz. / Chandler HS |
| 16 | Willard, Aidan | QB | 6-2 | 188 | R-Fr. | Napa, Calif. / Justin-Siena |
The Beavers also signed three-star JUCO QB Jake Colletto, though he has yet to arrive on campus.
That article also taught me the Big Ten's beloved baby boomer, Mike Riley, whom Nebraska fired last year, is back at Oregon State as tight ends coach. That had to be a surreal experience pulling back onto campus and not getting that cherished "head coach" parking spot.
I'm sure the Nebraska buyout money eases the demotion, though.
GUS JOHNSON, EVERYONE. Here's a great story from a reliable source featuring the venerable Gus Johnson warding off the Sunday Scaries at a five-star TripAdvisor bar in Columbus, Ohio:
I randomly met Gus Johnson last night at the Main Bar. He was super nice as I expected. But still. Gus Johnson was at the Main Bar. In Columbus. On a Sunday night.
— Dave O'Neil (@oneilohio) February 19, 2018
Just sitting kinda quietly at the end of the bar. @Lescallette_ and I were lookin' over at him laughing like, "that guy kinda looks like Gus Johnson." And then he put a winter hat on and it said "Rise And Fire" on it and I'm like, "THAT IS GUS JOHNSON."
— Dave O'Neil (@oneilohio) February 19, 2018
I told him that I have watched this clip like 500 times. Which is a conservative estimate. https://t.co/0iM97qb1og
— Dave O'Neil (@oneilohio) February 19, 2018
Well, friends, we might as well make it 501:
I love that the only surviving YouTube copy of this iconic moment is way worse than standard definition was. You can tell people old enough to vote in this country that is what a standard definition broadcast looked like and they would 100% believe you.
THOSE WMDs. When a hospital declared Jahi McMath brain-dead, her family disagreed... There's a persistent hum in Windsor, Ontario and nobody knows why... The secret on the ocean floor... A rare copy of the Declaration of Independence survived the Civil War hiding behind wallpaper... Online hits for elk photo encourage Loveland photographer.
