As the Big Ten continues to hand out season awards today, I'm reminded that Michael Thomas was third-team All-Big Ten his final season at Ohio State.
You can formulate your own reaction to that. I'm just presenting you with the facts today.
Word of the Day: Amiable.
IT WAS OVER BEFORE IT STARTED. Most alleged football knowers will tell you that Ohio State pulled away from Michigan in the second and third quarters, but this blogger does not subscribe to that near-sightedness.
The Buckeyes won this game three years ago, at least.
"There's a streak, it's a bunch of individual games, and they've been able to continue it on for the last seven, eight years," Wolverines linebacker Jordan Glasgow offered. "We just weren't able to execute. Execution plays the biggest role, and we weren't able to do that."
Executing a game plan certainly plays a role, but it doesn't necessarily play the biggest role. You could argue that recruiting, coaching and talent development come before any team can execute a game plan. In these three key areas, Ohio State has run laps around Michigan.
So when it is time to match up on the field, it should come as no surprise that Ohio State runs laps around Michigan there, too -- no matter the history or tradition or belief that these two programs should be evenly matched because of how closely their rivalry and geographic proximity connects them.
In the years leading up to this game, Michigan was still running an offense they stole from Iowa's in 2003, rarely beating Ohio State in recruiting rankings and allowing even the highest-rated prospects in program history to somehow underachieve.
Meanwhile, Ohio State handed the offense's keys to a rising star offensive genius, was locking down its best recruiting classes of all-time in consecutive years, and was developing not just the five stars, but three-star guys like Damon Arnette, DaVon Hamilton and Chris Olave into NFL players.
The Buckeyes didn't just show up in Ann Arbor and magically play better. They've been beating that ass every day for years. Saturday was just a formality.
GET DUMPED THEN, NORTH CAROLINA. Vegas has the absolute audacity to make the Bucks 2.5-point underdogs against North Carolina today.
Worth noting, not only is Ohio State undefeated this season, the Buckeyes haven't failed to cover a spread, winning every game by an average margin of 25. And half of those games, Andre Wesson either wasn't playing or was playing with one eye.
And it looks like the Buckeyes might be breaking out the throwbacks...
#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/yBv18K7fpz
— Ohio State Hoops (@OhioStateHoops) December 4, 2019
Go ahead and doubt Chris Holtmann again. That seems to have worked out well historically.
ATLANTA IT IS. It's been pretty widely assumed that Ohio State would end up in Arizona for a semifinal game regardless of if it were as a No. 1 seed or a No. 2 seed with the committee wanting the highest-ranked SEC team in Atlanta.
But it looks like we might be dueling in the Peach State, after all.
If youve followed along with the CFP Reactions at @LettermenRow, Ive been consistently writing that the Fiesta Bowl would be the likely destination no matter what happened. Ive had some discussions recently that indicate that probably wont be the case. Ive noted it this week pic.twitter.com/KiKiFfDOXS
— Austin Ward (@AWardSports) December 4, 2019
As a native Atlantan, this news pleases me. I will be present and ready to consume multiple alcohols with whoever makes the pilgrimage. If alcohols ain't your thing, we can dine at 24-hour Chick Fil A and/or Hawaiian Chick Fil A.
I understand that it may seem like I'm assuming Ohio State beats Wisconsin this week. And let me assure you, that is absolutely the case.
The Badgers lost 38-7 in equalizing weather conditions and only scored by mistake. Forgive me for feeling totally unthreatened when weather is banned this week.
WWBCSD. If all the favorites win this conference championship weekend (which has historically been the case), the committee is going to have a decision to make between Oklahoma and Utah.
It would seem they've already made their decision, ranking Utah above Oklahoma in this week's rankings, but the BCS would have done it a bit differently.
This week's side-by-side comparison of the penultimate @CFBPlayoff and the simulated #BCS rankings reveals not a single team with more than a three-spot difference among the two systems (Iowa) but a key difference at No. 5 and No. 6 for Utah and Oklahoma pic.twitter.com/DdczUgN7zU
— BCSKnowHow.com (@BCSKnowHow) December 4, 2019
Ultimately I don't really care who's at No. 4 because I think Ohio State would roll through either of them like a runaway freight train, but I've always preferred the BCS system of choosing teams.
Give me an average of hundreds of opinions and 10 computers any day over the dozen shady decision-makers with no transparency we have today.
I can't believe I once drank the Kool-Aid and openly thought this selection method was going to be an improvement. They packaged that bullshit with the playoff we so desperately wanted and we were too blind to see it for what it was until it started to sour.
Honestly, I just have to tip the cap. I got got.
THAT'S OUR LONG SNAPPER! Chase Young, Justin Fields and J.K. Dobbins may all be Heisman contenders, but Liam McCullough can win the Long Snapper Heisman.
Now that the three finalists have been announced for The Patrick Mannelly Award, who is your pick to win it all on December 14th in IL? @OhioStateFB @NDFootball @CycloneFB @berniesbookbank @PatrickMannelly @longsnapcom @TheChrisRubio
— The Patrick Mannelly Long Snapper Award (@MannellyAward) December 2, 2019
I'm not going to pretend to know anything about evaluating long snappers, but from what I can tell, he's done his job damn near perfectly for four years and I'm not sure I could do anything perfectly for four hours.
Also, this:
Buckeyes do it best #BottleCapChallenege @DChrisman91 pic.twitter.com/mmpMVUOjNi
— Liam McCullough (@LiamMcCullough2) July 17, 2019
NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. America faces a possible french fry shortage after a poor potato harvest... Life inside Korea's demilitarized zone... A man was arrested after calling a phone company 24,000 times to complain... The LAPD is testing a Batmanish device that uses tethers that wrap suspects’ bodies... Aerial radar turns up a Viking ship in a farmer’s field... Unraveling the mystery of “Visit Eroda,” the tourism campaign for an island that doesn’t exist.
