What to Watch for – Week 10
Well, life goes on. Apparently there was some objection to the tone of the synopsis post about the Penn State game, which apparently was indicative of cliffjumping. In my defense, any perception of that is solely that of the reader, and not the author. Lest we forget that we shouldn’t conflate exasperation with suicidal tendencies. There’s plenty of other reasons to jump off the cliff, literally speaking. These would include problems at work, home, living in Alabama, the sense of powerlessness in light of domineering discourses that subjectify us, the inability to find motivation to deal with the banalities of Western life and, first and foremost, the inevitable realization that any understanding of humanity or consciouness — that is: being, as such — is epiphenomenal and ultimately an emergent and (so far) unknowable phenomenon contingent on the action and reaction of mindless, physical particles. The inevitable realization that all consciousness, thought, emotion and even behavior is a stochastic phenomenon in a universe governed by the very chaos of these random energy reactions might lead people to abandon hope in the Enlightenment metanarrative. The ol’ alma mater dropping a decision on the gridiron should not, however.
I did have a post ready for yesterday on the Bollman situation. I put up the poll question for this week precisely because of the awful performance of the offensive line against Penn State and how Bollman has become the least popular person in Ohio at the moment. I was curious to see what the vote of confidence was in Bollman across the board, viz, that his departure would be the only way to address the offensive line problems. To be honest, I like seeing a good split and that not everyone is rushing to 86 him. On the post I had planned, in short, was thinking about the Bollman situation and wondering if the offensive line problems are overdetermined, and thus not entirely his fault. Entering the season, I thought Bollman, moreso than Jim Heacock, had identified the nature of the problem: recruiting. The Buckeyes had probably come to the realization that they reached on in-state lineman prospects in order to secure an easier comitment and that they were now suffering the consequences for it. This would explain Steve Rehring and, to some extent, Bryant Browning. This would explain Kirk Barton’s productivity albeit relatively low ceiling, and also account for how a true freshman (Michael Brewster, 5-star Bollman project) has probably been the most consistent performer on the line this season. There’s also some idiosyncratic personnel issues and, try as he might, Jim Bollman can’t police Alex Boone from being the Wilt Chamberlain of Beer and force him to put in the necessary off-the-field effort for the likes of a USC. Further, the offensive line… indeed the defensive line as well… indeed, the whole team for the most part… just look tired. Conditioning, of course, is Lichter’s responsibility and not Bollman’s, per se. If the conditioning is affecting their jump out of the gates, that’d be more Lichter’s responsiblity as “Director of Football Performance” dealing Bollman a smaller hand. In trying to prepare this post, and revealing my intent here, I wasn’t suggesting that Bollman is blame free or that our frustrations with him are totally misguided. Rather, I was just curious if, though the offensive line debacles reflect very poorly on him, the said debacles aren’t entirely his fault. Of course, there’s some discrepant evidence I couldn’t explain, such as Ben Person falling well short of expectations and the ghosts of Connor Smith and Kyle Mitchum (two former Army All-Americans). I wasn’t pretending to have all the answers, just trying to rephrase the question. In light of that, though, I thought against running that post… even though I think I just did.
Anyways, on to the regular Wednesday features. With the Ohio State football program suspended for a week (formally called a bye week), there’ll be lots of college football to watch. So what’s on?
Tuesday
- Houston @ Marshall (ESPN or ESPN2, one of those… I forget, 8:00PM ET). Apparently Houston has the third most explosive offense in the NCAA when using the proxy of yards per game. You wouldn’t know that, though, from watching this game and watching Marshall jump out to a 30-3 lead late in the 3rd quarter. After 3 quarters of this sleeping pill, I yawned and tuned into Greg Oden’s pro debut in that pseudo-sport called the NBA1. The only redeeming quality of this game was watching that Houston wide receiver shatter his leg running into an equipment cart in the end zone. Nice (attempt at a) catch, blanco niño. But too bad your ass got saaaaaaaaaat.
Thursday
- South Florida @ Cincinnati (ESPN, 7:30PM ET). Big East football. Thursday night. Chris Spielman and that cue ball will probably be in the booth. Yep, sounds familiar.
Saturday
- Northwestern @ Minnesota (ESPN2, 12:00PM ET). Minnesota is one Penn State national title game, one Ohio State loss, and 4 wins away from… gulp… a trip to Pasadena! I hold no ill will towards Minnesota, so I think it’s kind of cool to see them in this position. That is, I think it would be cooler if they didn’t change their uniforms to the NIKE’s Bitch Template ™ of uniforms. Their last set of uniforms under Glen Mason was just so classic. I’m sure Gopher fans don’t mind aesthetics like I do. I don’t have much of an interest in who wins this game, other than seeing Northwestern play Vanderbilt in the Outback Bowl. Oh, and since this is a noon kickoff, and because Northwestern is involved, I think I’m declaring a Pam Alert ™. I have to be one of a handful of college football fans on the planet that doesn’t hate Pam Ward, but most everyone else I know does.
- Wisconsin @ Michigan State (ESPN, 12:00PM ET). Two Big Ten games at the noon slot on the ESPN Family of Networks. Nice. Niiiiiice. Feels like home and it makes the Southerners down here change the channel. The more inclined they are to turn off the television, the greater the probability (albeit infinitesimally small) of them picking up a book and reading it. Good. Goooooood.
- Central Michigan @ Indiana (BTN, 12:00PM ET). Wait, what happened here. Is Central Michigan now a Big Ten team or did Indiana get relegated to the MAC?
- Air Force @ Army (ESPNU, 12:00PM ET). Though Navy has the in-road to yet another successful defense of an outright Commander-in-Chief trophy, it’s service academy football and thus you must watch it. Communist.
- Michigan @ Purdue (BTN, 12:00PM ET). PILLOW FIGHT!! Loser gets last place in the Big Ten.
- Pittsburgh @ Notre Dame (NBC, 2:30PM ET). See, this is the kind of filth that the FCC should be keeping us from watching.
- Florida @ Georgia (Jacksonville) (The SEC Network, 3:30PM ET). I’m not sure if The Game Formerly Known as the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party but Now Known as The Love Love Love Share Share Share Festival of Good Sportsmanship and Teetotaling because the SEC Doesn’t Want to Own Up to the Fact that Alcoholism is the Only Means of Coming to Grips with the Brutality of the Southern Condition is the least interesting mid-season rivalry game in college football. Georgia tried to spruce things up by doing some kind of celebration thingie in the end zone after scoring their first touchdown last year. This, of course, made The Urban Meyer upset that they would do this to The Urban Meyer’s team. A pox on them, The Urban Meyer declared in his biography, (The) Urban’s Way. This egregious affront to The Urban Meyer’s sensibilities shan’t be forgotten by The Urban Meyer. It shan’t!
- Iowa State @ Oklahoma State (ABC, 3:30PM ET). Wait wait wait… there’s an Iowa State football team? Again, I’ll be rooting for Oklahoma State. Their defensive coordinator created Antonio Smith and their head coach yells at women, he’s 402 and he can take it.
- Florida State @ Georgia Tech (ABC, 3:30PM ET). Hoo-ray! Paul Johnson on national television. Paul Johnson is the only redeeming value the ACC has. That said, his arrival at Georgia Tech coincides with the Ramblin’ Wreck’s putrid new uniforms. I think they’re going for the LSU/Dallas Cowboys wear-white-at-home chic. Pass. Oh, and Georgia Tech’s home loss to Virginia set up the 5-3 Cavaliers… yes, 5 wins and 3 losses, to win the Whatever-It’s-Called Division and play upstart… yes: upstart… Florida State out of the Whatever-the-Other-One-is-Called Division in the ACC Title Game. Hmmm.
- Oregon @ California (ABC, 3:30PM ET). I think ABC owes us some kind of explanation for why non-USC Pac-10 games continue to be televised at this time slot.
- Brigham Young @ Colorado State (The MTN, 6:00PM ET). In preparation for this football game, Brigham Young’s football team has been having nightly cookie and punch fellowships, playing charades and putting together a play about how much Colorado State can ruin family life. From what I’ve been told, Elder Max Hall’s performance was exquisite.
- Washington @ USC (probably Fox Sports LA, 6:30PM ET). Assume crash position, Husky fans.
- Tennessee @ South Carolina (ESPN2, 7:00PM ET). South Carolina’s defensive line and Tennessee’s secondary notwithstanding, I don’t see how these two teams are anything other than cellar-dwellars in the Big Ten.
- Texas @ Texas Tech (ABC, 8:00PM ET). I think Lubbock, Texas is hosting its first Gameday ever, but that still won’t make me that interested in watching this game. That said, Will Muschamp, the Longhorns’ defensive coordinator, reminds me of Will Forte’s impersonation of former Georgia Senator Zell Miller. I can’t find any of the Zell Miller impersonations on the intertubes, so feel free to share if you can find one.
- Nebraska @ Oklahoma (ESPN, 8:00PM ET). I’m more tempted to watch this game than Texas-Texas Tech. Yet, whenever I watch a game with Oklahoma playing, I have to hit the mute button. Their fight song is far and away the most annoying in college football (and it’s basically ripped off from Yale’s Boola-Boola cheer) and Oklahoma’s band plays it after EVERY SINGLE PLAY. Ugh.
Sunday
- East Carolina @ UCF (ESPN, 8:15PM ET). Why is UCF playing on Sunday now?
August 12th should be a CFB holliday, called “Mike Gundy Day”. By the law of the holliday, every male CFB fan should be forced to stand in front of a mirror and say “Im a man, I’m (insert yor age), I’m not a kid”. Also, Pam Ward should do this too.
Definitely agree that Bollman’s days are likely numbered. Tressel clearly is blindly loyal to his coordinators, and let’s not forget that Bollman was at the helm of the 2002 offense that brought home a title. But against elite competition over the past few years, the offensive line has largely underperformed (with the exception of Texas/Michigan in 2006). If Tressel is reluctant to part with Bollman, surely the influential boosters of this program will get in his ear and clamor for a replacement. The only question is whom?
What are your thoughts? Lane Kiffin possibly? We all know what he did at SC with those juggernaut offenses. Any other names?
Lane Kiffen would never come to tOSU to be an associate head coach. What we need is a healthy dose of a Chris Speilman and some of his NFL buddies. I am all for an athletic QB, but TP will never go to the NFL as a option first QB. Back to the pro set with play action passing and a stud RB.
I concur with your assessment of Oklahoma’s fight song – though I consider Tennessee’s and USC’s more annoying (and more overplayed). There is, however, one thing you’ve forgotten that makes the Oklahoma fight song even worse: it only has 16 unique words to it. I swear it still takes their students all 4 years of college to learn it
“The Game Formerly Known as the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party but Now Known as The Love Love Love Share Share Share Festival of Good Sportsmanship and Teetotaling because the SEC Doesn’t Want to Own Up to the Fact that Alcoholism is the Only Means of Coming to Grips with the Brutality of the Southern Condition”
“The Wilt Chamberlain of Beer”
Nice, very nice.
Bollman is a tool. Go to Tressel.com and watch his offensive line practice video. I had to go get Rosetta Stone for Gibberish to understand what the fuck he was saying. His replacement undoubtedly will come from within. It is even more likely that Tressel will just add another salary or two in the off-season. Something like “Director of Offensive Operations”, which translates to “A lucrative position for another of my family members”. Tressel controls the playcalling….nothing will drastically change.
To be honest, I like both Tennessee’s fight song (”Rocky Top”, that is. “Down the Field” is formally their fight song) and USC’s fight song (”Conquest” is great too, except when you’re on the opposite end of the field having to deal with it). I think Rocky Top is the only song in college football that people sing, loudly that is, in a cappella… something I wish Buckeyes could be able to do with “The Buckeye Battle Cry”. The Pride of the Southland Band play it often, yes, but it doesn’t have that grading, corrosive quality of “Boomer Sooner”.
oh, and JohnBoy, try as I might, I can’t take credit for coining “Wilt Chamberlain of Beer”. I believe that was Brian at MGoBlog responsible for introducing that term into my lexicon.
LSU’s fightsong is very annoying to me as is their mascot. I really don’t understand how two teams in the same conference (Auburn and LSU) can have the same mascot? I think mascots should represent something unique about the state the university is located in. I mean, when I think of the natural wildlife of Louisiana and Alabama I think of tigers….well….I think of tigers that are in a relationship with their sister.
Vico, you receive full credit for “Wilt” because I heard it from you first.
Now I am not one to argue too often, especially to one as knowledgable as Vico but I must disagree with you on the a cappella fact. Being a fan who has been to at least one OSU game a year since I was six I know for a fact that the TBDBITL does a stunning rendition of “Buckeye Battle Cry” before every home game…a cappella. Its shortly after the drum major touches the plume of his hat to the ground. Take that Rocky Top.
If you ask me the true crime is that OSU’s “across the field” has been all but forgotten, it was always my dad’s favourite fight song. It might be heard once a game maybe, snuck in somewhere in the third quarter. Best part: “Hit them hard and see how they fall, never let that team get the ball.” Chills everytime I hear it, also gotta love that it uses the word reverberating.
kickass first paragraph (that is, the latter half thereof); encapsulates a whole lot of thinking there; so what’s with these “discourses that subjectify”? Discourses I get; OBjectify I understand, but my brain is having some trouble with the idea of being SUBjectified. Of course this may be just another way of being subjugated; but it is intriguing, this idea of being made, forced, compelled to be the “subject” of something/one. More on this please!
(Oh and the answer to the understanding of being is God — because the mindless physical particals are just that; mindless — but once we are given our g o d s p a r k, our particular physical particals are no longer mindless; and I assure you that I’m no unthinking religious fanatic; logic — scientific, deductive and inductive — demonstrates God’s existence. As an aside, my view is that all science should be specifically aimed a finding God and speaking with him, her, it, they… therein is the real question; what is God?)
See, this is what happens on a bye week; with no Buckeye football, we’re forced to contemplate God and the nature of the universe.
Yeah, the band does it a cappella, everyone else watches them do it or rather meekly sings along. I was in Block O (south end) for two years and next to (most definitely not in) the fraternity/sorority section (northwestern-ish end) next two years, and I was convinced then as I am now that very few Buckeyes even know the words to those songs (this is most true when it comes to the alma mater, another sadly meek sing-along). I love TBDBITL, I really do. I love that it’s all-brass, and thus far superior to any other college football band. But that said, our fans in attendance need to overpower them when a song is being played. As I’ve said before, Buckeye fans will have PLENTY of time to sit down and be quiet when they’re dead. Buckeye fans need to watch Liverpool FC’s rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and take a cue.
To be honest, my favorite song that TBBITL sadly never plays is “Beautiful Ohio”. The faster rendition that they have on the band’s website is impeccable. Oh, and about 100 years ago, TBDBITL had a song to the march El Capitan. I’d love to hear it brought back.
BuckeyeBeau,
Philosophy (principally matters of ontology and epistemology) was always a part time hobby of mine (among several other odd hobbies for a guy my age), and I found myself fascinated with the early work of Michel Foucault. Though I’m not sure if it was his primary task (to be honest, very few, if any, people are 100 percent of certain of any of Foucault’s ambitions in his writings), a lot of his early writings challenge our assumptions about human agency that we get from the Enlightenment metanarrative. I don’t have the time or energy to list all the nuances of the Enlightenment project, but the rise of faith in human reason, rationality, capacity to think objectively and human agency… basically the idea that we can and do enact meaningful change on the world around us because we, as conscious and essentially free beings, have that power to discern objectively real properties in the natural world around us. This type of thinking is pervasive in the world around us, and I’m sure there’s movies we’ve seen that document how a guy resorts to his power to reason and act in order to overcome obstacles in his path all the while remaining “true to himself”.
The problem, though, is that there are very little, if any, essential properties to the world around us and nothing remains objective. Rather than something that’s “out there” and can be “observed” or “known” in the objective or Humanist sense, truth is a function of discourses. Discourses — or the way we use language, corporeal institutions and institutionalized ways of approaching things (all mutually enabling) — control the production of knowledge. The substantively rational, free conscious man is a byproduct of the Enlightenment discourse. “Science”, or “scientific knowledge” is another output of the Enlightenment discourse. The underlying issue here is that what we have taken for granted as “true” or “self-evident” is actually linked to power. Knowledge is power; power stipulates knowledge. Per Foucault in the Truth and Power interview, “Truth is linked in circular relation with systems of power that produce and sustain it, and to effects of power which it induces and which extend it—a ‘regime’ of truth.” While power, naturally, has no essential properties, it remains a function of relations among people in society. In short, a bunch of smart philosophers — who we treat as geniuses — came up with it, discourses were constructed around it and it becomes the industry standard, if you will. The power Enlightenment theorists possessed enabled them to think in way that eventually influence the way we think and behave.
The problem that arises from this is that these discourses, especially the physical, social institutions devised around them, can have very real consequences on humans. Further, they’re not power-neutral. The famous example for Foucault (among others) comes from Madness and Civilization, where we learn the discourse of mental health uses the guise of “science” to differentiate sane and insane, the Reasoned and the mad, the normal and the abnormal. Those that are deemed to fall into the latter camp are institutionalized, often times for the rest of their lives. The issue here is that his behavior isn’t innocuous, rather a means to social order. It’s a means to controlling people by differentiating the normal and the deviant. Though early Foucault uses the example of the asylum, this argument has been extended by Foucault (and others) to the discourse of criminality and sexuality… that is: what behavior is acceptable and what behavior is deviant? Prisons, hospitals, schools, clinics, the military and more all operate approximate to this model.
These ideas about the nature of Enlightenment discourse do great damage to what the Enlightenment project deems to be natural or self-evident. Instead, our conceptions of ourself are not self-evident or natural, rather the byproduct of ways of thinking that we, as normal people, have little to no control over. These discourses constructed have real, tangible effects on us, and discipline us into certain ways of thinking. Rather than being rational, conscious human beings, we’re a political product of the discourses around us. We lose our total agency in light of these domineering discourses, and, in essence, become subjects to them in a manner not at all dissimilar from being a subject in the feudal sense. We, as humans, are subjects, political products of discourses, whose key to knowledge is more a function of its power.
I’m sure I’ve done some kind of violence to the arguments, and I’ve only read Power/Knowledge, Dicipline and Punish and Madness and Civilization. I have, but have yet to read, The History of Sexuality, though this book should be different because it’s late Foucault. Apparently late Foucault developed sympathy for the capacity for humans to have agency in light of these structures, because he developed the attitude that we can have agency by challenging a priori givens. I’m not quite there yet, both in terms of what I’ve read and how I approach the world around me.
And I can guaran-damn-tee you this is the only blog to make explicit references to Michel Foucault. It’s probably to be expected from a guy who blogs under the nom de plume of Giambattista Vico.
Did Bobby Knight just make an accusation of illegal benefits toward Kirk Herbstreit? Ouch.
http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=283062509
Michigan is bowl ineligible… I never thought I’d see the day where it’d happen.
And they made 2008 Purdue look like 2000 Purdue. 522 yards of offense for Purdue. Defense is optional, I see.
Michigan will be back my friends. With a vengeance. It will be good for our conference.
I just wanted to say that I hate The Urban Meyer and Christ reincarnate Tebow more every week. When will it end.
Tommy Tuberville is toast. One of my best friends is an Auburn worshipper. I remind him of this website often:
http://home.hiwaay.net/~pcasteel/aubfamily.html
Turn up your volume before you click.
The only philosophy I am familiar with is the Ohio State offensive philosophy which at the moment would have Michel Focault pissed the fuck off.
Great update. Agree, agree, agree.
I was totally smitten with Michael Crabtree last night. (I know that is a bad word but dammit I was smitten.) That dude may be the best receiver at the college level I have ever seen. His effort on every play was unreal. He’s my Heisman vote hands down.
Gary Danielson is a turncoat and has become a Big Ten basher now that he has been relegated to the Southern Excuse Conference where they love to talk about how bad everybody else is.
He loves him some Urban.
Wo’Eagle!