I've read that Tuesdays feel like the longest day of the week. I have no real remedy for that and was merely just passing along information, but perhaps just simple awareness will help.
I do not know. Best of luck!
ICYMI
- The men's tennis team wins a national title.
- A take: The Game should be played at night.
- Jeff Hafley's scheme should mesh well with Greg Mattison's.
- Retaining Larry Johnson was more important than any hire Ryan Day made.
- A whole new crop of quarterbacks will be participating in Ohio State's spring practice.
- Ohio Stadium went through eight tons of nacho cheese during the 2018 football season.
- Louisiana Tech hires Kenny Guiton.
Word of the Day: Solivagant.
DWAYNE'S DECISION MAKING. When a quarterback starts for just one season before making the leap to the pros, you'd usually expect them to be much more physically ready than they are mentally, given a lack of experience.
I don't think that's gonna be the case with Dwayne Haskins.
Theres been a lot of talk about Kyler Murray lately, rightfully so-but lets not forget about @dh_simba7 and how good he is. I love how he RUNS through the answers to problems in his head -check out the big fella! @gmenhq @everythingnyg @buckeye_nation #NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/n768kbYGVS
— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) February 18, 2019
I'll be honest, I was never the optimist y'all were in the comments before the season. I thought Dwayne would look more like a first-year starter this season.
And to be fair, he did sometimes. His footwork was uh... imperfect at times against teams like TCU, Penn State and Purdue – which, to be clear, is fine and expected for a first-year starter.
But I don't think I've never seen someone go from that to bonafide QB1 in the draft faster than he did.
THIS WAS NEVER THE YEAR. This basketball season hasn't been easy, but when it's put into perspective it's really hard to be all that mad.
From Joe Boozell of NCAA.com:
This was never supposed to be the year Ohio State did damage, and Sunday reinforced that
Credit the Buckeyes for being feisty, and they'll still probably end up in the NCAA tournament. Ohio State plays tough teams well. It led Michigan State by six at the half on Sunday.
But the Spartans dominated in the second half, winning 62-44. The Buckeyes are now 6-8 in the Big Ten after an ugly loss to Illinois on Thursday. It was easy to get sucked into Ohio State after a 12-1 start, but you have to remember: the Buckeyes lost so many key pieces from a 2017-18 team that overachieved itself.
OSU lost Keita Bates-Diop, Jae'Sean Tate, Andrew Dakich and Kam Williams and didn't replace them with any marquee transfers or recruits. Those will come in 2019-20.
Chris Holtmann is still one of the better coaches in college basketball, but it's not terribly surprising that Ohio State has struggled in Big Ten play. The Buckeyes should be contending for conference titles starting next year.
"They'll still probably end up in the NCAA tournament" is hilarious to me, because I just don't understand how the national perception of this team is somehow still that it belongs in the field, but I guess when the PAC12 is really only getting one team in the field, there has to be some trickle down.
But yes, as hard as this season is to watch at times, it's also amazing that we even are where we are. The team unrealistically overachieved last year, lost most of the production it overachieved with without replacing it, and is somehow still a bubble team despite not actually being able to score.
I think I know exactly what's going to happen if Ohio State sneaks into the tournament field, but I'm willing to roll the dice that Andre Wesson goes 9-for-10 from the field again. Hell, maybe they'll win this time.
EGW TO THE NFL? I watched Eric Glover-Williams play in high school and was unreasonably stoked for whatever he was going to do at Ohio State.
That obviously never worked out, but now he's doing whatever he wants to on the football field over at Slippery Rock, and his coach, Shawn Lutz, thinks he can play his way into the NFL.
From Joe Scalzo of the Canton Repository:
“He has a chance to play at that next level; that’s how good Eric Glover-Williams is for us,” said Lutz, a former Jackson High School standout who walked on at West Virginia and earned scholarship. “He is a natural defensive back. Basically what we tell him to do is, ‘You cover that guy and you take his butt out of the game.’ He does that.”
Glover-Williams finished with 42 tackles (33 solo), 4.5 tackles for loss and three interceptions. He also returned 14 punts for a 10.7-yard average and 12 kickoffs for a 21.6-yard average.
″(One of my coaches) tells me I need to use him more at everything,” Lutz said. “He’s phenomenal.
...
Lutz plans to use Glover-Williams on offense as well this season, which will be his last at Slippery Rock.
“It’s real easy — just give him the ball and have him go,” Lutz said. “He does that really well.”
...
“Whatever happened at Ohio State, happened at Ohio State,” Lutz said. “All i know is, when I get the chance to meet the young man, if he says he’s going to do right, I hold him to that. He’s done a great job with us and I just want to make sure he graduates. He could have an opportunity in the NFL. His size will be the determining factor on if he could make that next step.”
First off, as a casual and distant observer, I'm all in on him playing some offense. I got a mere glimpse of him touching the ball in a random spring game and feel cheated that I never got to see him house a jet sweep, or die trying.
Second, I think he's absolutely talented enough to make it to the NFL and Slippery Rock is a perfectly fine launch point for that NFL career.
NIGHT GAME FOR THE GAME? Man, y'all were riled up on a Monday!
I knew this #take from my pal David would draw some comments, but good lord I didn't expect the barrage it received in the comments.
Noon games are fine when the Buckeyes face off against Illinois or Rutgers, but The Game deserves better. Ohio State and Michigan need to start playing under the lights. https://t.co/APJeHdsaqk
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) February 18, 2019
I never would have guessed a kickoff time that didn't become “tradition” until less than 30 years ago in a decade where the Buckeyes went 2-7-1 against Michigan was so holy to so many.
To be clear, David's take is wrong, but it's not because I'm married to a traditional noon kickoff time that isn't really a tradition. It's because the afternoon is a better time for a football game.
I'm not even saying this because I have to write after afterwards – I'm a year removed from college, staying up till 4:30 a.m. on my laptop doesn't faze me. Night games are just extremely overrated. The buildup is too long, they're anticlimactic, the celebration is cut short, and in late November, they're freezing.
I say anywhere between 1 and 4 p.m. is prime. Gives ample time for pregame, happens soon enough, and is over at a reasonable hour.
But truthfully, this just ain't a hill I'm dying on either way. If y'all are willing to murder for your noon kickoff in the name of fake tradition, have at it. Play the game whenever, just be sure win it.
You could schedule kickoff at 2:45 a.m. and you best believe I'll be extremely tuned in.
GET THAT TENNIS NATTY. You may have heard, but the trophy case got a little more hardware yesterday courtesy of the men's tennis team.
Led by soon-to-be top-ranked player in the nation J.J. Wolf – who bageled his opponent on Court 1 in the first set of the national championship match – the Buckeyes dropped Wake Forest 4-2 to win the ITA indoor national championship.
— Ohio State M Tennis (@OhioStateMTEN) February 18, 2019
I know most of you aren't huge tennis fans, but this team is ridiculously fun.
Knowing nothing about tennis, I used to go hang out at the Varsity Tennis Center on match days to do homework thinking I'd be bored. I quickly learned the matches are very entertaining, but also that they are extremely good trash talkers in the most subtle and nuanced, yet enraging ways. A fellow by the name of Riley Reist perfected this art before he graduated.
It also helps that they might have the best coach in the entire athletic department: Ty Tucker.
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