What a wild day in the Buckeye Blogosphere yesterday. I'm thinking about starting a public relations firm for beefy Buckeyes busted at the Bogey Inn. "Just because you did it doesn't mean you're guilty!"
My advice to future clients is to never apologize or log off. And if you're drinking on a hot summer day either don't do that or drink one (1) water for every alcoholic beverage consumed.
Otherwise you might awake in a cage with a felony over your head, and that's no way to begin a day.
ICYMI:
- Our annual look at arrests and ejections around the Big Ten.
- Urban Meyer owns former assistants in head-to-head play.
- Kirk Barton got sauced at the Memorial Tournament before getting tased and arrested on felony charges.
- Thad Matta wants you to know he knows where the bodies are buried.
- Keith Byars, Jim Otis, and Chris Ward nominated for the College Football Hall of Fame.
- James Laurinaitis leads the 2018 OSU Hall of Fame Class.
- Better Know a Buckeye: Three-star quarterback Matthew Baldwin.
- Have a tailgate recipe the world needs to know about? Submit it to the Official 11W Tailgate Cookbook. The author of the highest-voted recipe receives a $50 gift certificate to the 11W Dry Goods.
Word of the Day: Sotto Voce.
URBAN'S LESSON TO YOUTH. Urban Meyer made headlines Sunday when he appeared at a high school camp at Grand Valley State and lectured Jim Harbaugh on what it takes to win a rivalry game.
As it turns out, trolling a man he's 3-0 against wasn't the sole purpose for the trip. He delivered a sermon to campers about the most important traits in a football player.
In his explanation, Meyer said Bill Belichick asks two questions about his players:
- What kind of teammate is he?
- How does he perform in big games?
From freep.com:
What's great about this is none of the players pictured can remember Michigan beating a non-interim Ohio State coach. They've already been indoctrinated about Moses Meyer's ability in leading them to the promised land. His words were simply icing.
FINDING BOOKER. Dante Booker once seemed like a surefire star for the Buckeyes. Football, however, is a fickle game. Entering his senior season, it's unsure if Booker even has a spot in the linebacker rotation.
From cleveland.com:
Booker has registered 62 tackles in four seasons. The expectation was that he'd be an instant contributor. The former Ohio Mr. Football winner from St. Vincent-St. Mary was on the field as a special teamer for the 2014 national champions, and saw his role increase some in 2015. When it was his time to finally start in 2016, Booker injured his knee on the 13th play of the season opener against Bowling Green.
In some ways, it feels like he hasn't been able to get right since.
Even if Booker doesn't stuff the stat sheet this year, he will provide valuable depth. Being a future NFL first-round may not be his destiny. But all it takes is one play at Ohio State to be remembered as a legend. His moment will come.
FINDING A FUTURE FIRST-ROUNDER. Ohio State makes it look like finding future first-round cornerbacks is as easy as fishing with dynamite.
You might be surprised to learn it's a lot harder than that. Even more so because high school coaches usually play their best athletes at safety.
As Greg Schiano explained, via theozone.net:
It’s not necessarily a “one size fits all” situation when recruiting corners, because there just aren’t that many out there. But the Buckeye coaches do certainly have a type of player they are looking for. Then they have to weigh every factor when it comes to which players they like best.
Further clouding the situation is that the coaches don’t always get to see these players actually playing cornerback.
“I was just in there with our defensive staff watching corners before we hit the road,” Schiano said. “Just one more time, ‘How do we stack these guys?’ And it’s hard in high school because as a high school coach, you often times put your best player at safety so he can make plays on both sides of the field. And you have to be able to project, does this guy have corner skills, even though you get to watch him do safety.”
Times like these are when it pays to have a former NFL head coach as your defensive coordinator. Losing a coach like Kerry Coombs would cripple the pipeline at most schools. Not at Ohio State.
PRICE ON A BRICK GOES UP. My mom once told me she went to Ohio State for $300 a quarter. I still don't believe her unless she's actually 150 years old.
Anyway, tuition is (probably) going up again.
From Emily Bench of Columbus Business First:
Tuition and fees will most likely increase at Ohio State University this fall for first-year students.
If approved by the board of trustees, in-state tuition and fees would total $10,726 per year through 2021-22 for this year's incoming class. Coupled with the most common housing and dining options offered, the grand total would be $23,160.
Last year's freshman class paid $22,844. The $316 increase is based on inflation, according to Ohio State.
You see those numbers, new parents? Better get to work for your offspring's college fund, lest you have to pawn them into servitude under Sallie Mae.
POUR ONE OUT FOR A LEGEND. Put Mad Mex in a shallow grave next to Ugly Tuna Saloona, y'all.
From dispatch.com:
Mad Mex, a Pittsburgh-based concept, first signed to lease space at the Gateway in 2005. The restaurant closed Monday. No reason was given.
It was the first location for Mad Mex outside of Pennsylvania, where the company has 12 locations.
The loss of Mad Mex follows the closing of the Ugly Tuna Saloona last month. Ugly Tuna owner John Votino said he was forced to close when landlord Campus Partners declined to renew his lease. Another high-profile tenant, Eddie George’s Grille 27, left the Gateway in 2016.
And so dies the best margarita in the campus area. I'm filing for Social Security tomorrow.
THOSE WMDs. Paul Pogba is ready to shine... A hacker proved cops used a secret government phone tracker to find him... 12 books for sports fanatics... Looking for life on a flat Earth... The boys on the ice... The man who says science blew its best shot at an AIDS vaccine.
