I greet you this morning with some words of wisdom – gutters cannot hold your weight, especially if you're a Division I offensive tackle.
Nicholas Petit-Frere confirms he did, in fact, break a gutter off his mother's house doing a pull-up while Ohio State players were away from campus.
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) October 28, 2020
I thought the roof could support me, and I was mistaken.
Word of the Day: Mollify.
LIFE COMES AT YOU FAST. As of 10 p.m. last night, Tom Herman and Texas held the commitment of the top quarterback and No. 2 overall player in the 2022 class.
And then it switched extremely, extremely quickly. Please note, the following screenshots were taken about 20 minutes apart.
And to think, there was a time (albeit before I knew Ryan Day existed) that I thought Texas Tom would be a fantastic replacement for Urban Meyer. Here we are, years later with Day likely putting the final nail in Herman's coffin at Texas by stealing away the last hope he had of any semblance of promise.
As for when this whole commitment thing is going down, I don't generally concern myself with football teen drama, especially from prospects more than a year out from college, but let's just say the teens now have my attention.
And the hype is about a hell of a lot more than this one measly five-star prospect, if you catch my drift...
TRANSFER FLEXIBILITY COMING. It looks like the days of those absurd eligibility waiver denials could be at an end as the NCAA looks more and more likely to add some transfer flexibility to all sports.
The Division I Board of Directors strongly supports legislation that would allow all Division I student-athletes the opportunity to transfer and compete immediately, regardless of the sport they play. The board met virtually Wednesday.
“It’s time to provide uniform transfer flexibility to Division I student-athletes,” said board chair Denise Trauth, president at Texas State. “The board members agree that the Working Group on Transfers created a sensible proposal that provides all student-athletes, no matter what sport they play, the opportunity for academic and athletic pursuits at the school that is the best fit.”
I'm all in on a one-time transfer. There's absolutely no innocent reason why it should be allowed in all non-revenue sports but not the ones that make money for schools. It's long past time for that to be changed.
And selfishly, it would absolutely work in Ohio State's favor, especially in terms of recruiting. If a player can simply transfer out and play immediately anywhere in the country, there's no reason not to give Ohio State a try first. Worst case scenario you spend a few years developing in an elite program before becoming a coveted recruit once again. Best case scenario, you win the job.
EATING LIKE KINGS. I always assumed college football players were well fed, especially at a program like Ohio State.
What I did not expect is for food budgets to stretch in the multi-millions of dollars, and I sure did not expect UCLA, of all teams, to more than double the Buckeyes' already absurd budget.
Under coach Chip Kelly, who sees nutrition as key to the making of a football player, the fare has gotten decidedly better — and decidedly more expensive. In 2018, his first year at UCLA, the budget for non-travel meals more than doubled to $2.6 million. The following year, the tab grew to $5.4 million, dwarfing spending at higher-profile programs and raising questions about a UCLA athletic department that reported an $18.9-million deficit for last year.
Through a public records request, The Times obtained more than 500 pages of invoices and receipts that shed light on food costs. Among the menu selections: Guajillo chili chicken, coffee-braised brisket, and pork chops smothered in candied apples and onions. During off-season workouts last year, UCLA spent more than $40,000 to import five barbecue meals from an Arizona-based restaurant. On other occasions, the program ordered hundreds of peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches from a Los Angeles caterer at $4.95 each.
...
Powerhouses such as Ohio State ($3.4 million) and defending national champion Louisiana State ($381,000) didn’t come close to the Bruins’ total
First off, how the hell is UCLA still so bad at recruiting with a location in Los Angeles and a food budget that works out to more than $1,000 a week per scholarship player?
Second, it's amazing that UCLA's food expenses are so absurdly high that they're causing us to just gloss over the fact that Ohio State spends 10x more on food than the reigning national champs.
GLIMPSE AT GAME PREP. Chris Fowler, a straight-up rockstar who's one of my favorite commentators in the game, is going to be calling the game on Saturday night and he's gotta do game prep just like both teams.
And he was kind enough to give us a little sneak peek.
Anything short of a full feature on Uno and I will be extremely disappointed.
SONG OF THE DAY. "Fightstarter Karaoke" by Dropkick Murphy's.
NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. A police officer was killed by rooster’s blade at an illegal Philippines cockfight... A confession, 36 years late... India's first 'saviour sibling' cures her brother of fatal illness... How a fake rent-a-hitman site became an accidental murder-for-hire sting operation... A former DEA spokesman is sent to prison for seven years for posing as a CIA spy...
