I realized recently I haven't spent enough time in southeastern Ohio, so I'm off to Marietta (the oldest settlement in the state) for a Memorial Day excursion. Anybody thinking of burgling my hovel should know The Starcat maintains a cache of military-grade weaponry and shoots to kill.
Also, specific shoutout to Aston Villa, who play the vile Fulham at noon on ESPN in the Championship Playoff Final with $170 million on the line in the form a promotion to the Premiere League. Even if you don't like soccer, you will enjoy this game. I'll be at LandGrant if anyone is around majestic Franklinton. #UTV #UTV #UTV
ICYMI:
- Bill Willis kicks off our "99 Warriors" series, a countdown till kickoff with the best Buckeyes by jersey number.
- J.T. Barrett backs Joe Burrow: "I think he'll be able to make the plays to win."
- Relive Ohio State's undefeated 2012 season in 8 glorious minutes.
- Young bloods set to make first-team debuts this season.
- College football must avoid the pitfalls of entropy that has befallen professional leagues like the NBA.
Word of the Day: Argle-bargle.
THROW IT TO THE TIGHT END, FINALLY. I've been on the Internet long enough to know the natural cycle for offseason Ohio State #takes. After the annual quarterback controversy runs its course, folks start questioning whether this is the year the local team finally throws it to the tight end.
I've also been here long enough to know that it never is. The Buckeyes are never going to throw it to the tight end. But then they go and get the best pass-catching tight end in the country and start hyping him up like this and I can't myself.
From TheOzone.net
“It’s not fair to the young people, but I think Jeremy Ruckert might be the best tight end prospect that I’ve ever seen and recruited,” Meyer said back in December. “His skill set is ridiculous. Now it’s a question of getting him ready to play.”
Getting him ready to play to this point has involved a long-distance relationship, and it will continue like that until he arrives on the Ohio State campus in a few weeks.
...
“It will be interesting because he’s very talented, but very much so in a skill setting as a big receiver and great in the passing game,” OSU offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Kevin Wilson said. “I think as an incoming freshman, I think all of those guys are very, very good there.”
I know, I know, it's a trap. But I just can't help but get excited about a freshman with Ronaldo hair mossing Michigan cornerbacks next season, adding salt to the commitment day wounds.
OHIO STATE THE BEST AT MAKING GOOD, GREEN CARS, TOO. If there's a competition, Ohio State's going to find a way to win it. Most recently, a team of Buckeye engineering students won their fourth straight EcoCar 3 competition, which essentially means they were the best at combining automative performance with low fuel emissions.
From Amanda Parrish of The Lantern:
EcoCar 3 is a four-year collegiate automotive engineering competition where 16 North American universities redesign a 2016 Chevrolet Camaro to further reduce its environmental impact while maintaining its current performance and safety, according to a news release from Ohio State. Ohio State’s team was in first place going into the competition and earned 895 out of 1,000 overall points.
“The biggest challenge for Year Four was really just creating a vehicle that was better than we had in Year Three and being able to get at this performance aspect of a hybrid-electric vehicle while also focusing very heavily on reducing emissions,” Briana Antinoro, co-communications manager for the team, said in the news release. “We get very hands-on. We work with every component within the car.”
Ah yes, the classic Buckeye problem of having to do better than your previous best, which was already better than everyone else. It's a burden to bear, truly.
BRING MICHAEL JENKINS BACK. Turns out, Ohio State hasn't had a single receiver with 1,000 receiving yards in a single season since Michael Jenkins in 2002.
Imagine 2002. Avril Lavigne's "S8r Boi" was a hot new song. The first Spider-Man movie was playing in the local cinema. This website didn't exist yet.
From Rivals.com:
While 1,000-yard receivers don't grow on trees, they also aren't a rare commodity, and they certainly shouldn't be this rare at a place like Ohio State. In 2017 alone there were 28 players who had at least 1,000 receiving yards. In that time, the Scarlet and Gray have gone through two head coaches, are currently on their third and have won another national championship.
Sure, there are multiple reasons for why this is the case. You can blame a wealth of talent at the position to spread the ball to or poor quarterback play, but the fact that the Buckeyes haven't had one player reach that milestone in 15 years is alarming.
It is alarming to a point, but when you really think about it, there really are a finite number of yards to go around. For any member of Zone-6 to have 1,000 receiving yards, it would mean fewer touches for the running backs and the other receivers.
I don't care if nobody breaks 500 yards as long as the team is hoisting some hardware come January.
FORMER WALK ON MAKING MOVES. Former Ohio State walk-on linebacker Jared Drake is headed to Western Illinois to play football.
Excited to announce that the next stop on this long journey will be with the Leathernecks of Western Illinois University! #Gradball #WIU #MissouriValley pic.twitter.com/PF6poAV3Hr
— Jared Drake (@JPDrake_) May 24, 2018
It's difficult to imagine three years of Urban Meyer football practices wouldn't prepare him for whatever he faces in the Missouri Valley Conference. Also, the Leathernecks has just made my top-five college football nicknames.
BASEBALL IS GOOD NOW. My thoughts on baseball are well documented, but when it results in Wolverine dejection, then folks, baseball is good.
On Friday, the Buckeye baseball team beat the boys in blue 5-3 in an elimination game, sending them back to Ann Arbor with a fat L.
Sent 'em packing. @OhioState_BASE eliminated TTUN from the B1G Tourney Friday, and you can get full highlights below: pic.twitter.com/b7om7hT1zw
— Ohio State on BTN (@OhioStateOnBTN) May 26, 2018
Ohio State now plays No. 1 seed Minnesota at 10 a.m. on Saturday to keep its Big Ten title hopes alive.
THOSE WMDs. The drowning of Holly Roth... The most assigned books at US colleges... The laser battle against blood-sucking parasites of the deep... They thought they were headed for rehab; they wound up in indentured servitude... Is the ragdoll cat a genetic miracle?
