If you haven’t figured out by now after a year and a half of this blog, I am a petty, vindictive monster.

Don’t have 2002 UC (do want, though) and don’t have 1996 Rice. As always, I’m on the lookout for any nonconference matchups out there to be had.

You’re right on the money, El Caballo. I still watch Gameday — my parents and I phone each other to discuss football (college football is serious business in my family), but I even found myself making changes. I change the channel when some feature talking about how Tim Tebow is a good, white Christian comes on, or anything else putting the SEC on a pedestal (“the Mad Hatter”, the Tide (pronounced locally as “Taaahhhhd”) “rising again”, how nice of a guy Mark Richt is (done before screwing over that Georgia recruit who was going to commit on his visit) and the like). I mute Mark May. I love Lou Holtz, but can’t listen to Mark May. Unless I’m told ahead of time that there will be some Buckeye fluff — which usually involves me also seeing a helmetless Earl Everett, Stanley Havili blowing past Marcus Freeman, and Todd Boeckman getting clotheslined — I think I’m not going to watch. To hell with Gameday coming to my cit-taaay.

You know, I never, ever read any of the SI or ESPN guys. The only time I’ll read something from SI is if my dad forwards it to me. I could care less about the ESPN personalities. That’s why I’m hoping for a guy like Brian Cook to make it big time. He’s a trailblazer and can do what he does better than any of the household names and does so without any pretension.

Miss me? Wait, don’t answer that…

Man, Vico, you hit the nail on the head about needing thick skin to watch CFB coverage these days – the deification of Tebow, the ESS-EEE-SEE stuff, the Mark May…I came up with a GREAT solution about a season and a half ago: watch college football, but watch no (and I mean like basically NONE AT ALL) college football COVERAGE/commentary. No GameDay, no pregame, no halftime, no whatever-they-call-that-Saturday-night-thing on ESPN. Just the football. If/when the time disconnect btw the TV and radio broadcasts isn’t too disconcerting/annoying, I mute the TV and listen to Keels/Lachey/Karsatos instead. I’ve even stopped reading Forde/Maisel/Mandel/Dodd et.al.

And you know what? I’m a much, much happier CFB fan in general and Buckeye fan in particular. Also, since I get all my commentary from blogs, I think I’m actually a better-informed one – does anyone think that Orson and Cook and Hinton, for example, are less knowledgeable than the four writers mentioned above? Or, put another way, I’m just really sick of the four writers above and the Mark Mays and even Kirk Herbstreits of this world being so clearly engaged in defining and enforcing and defending their networks’ overlapping narratives and every once in a while being disingenuously “contrarian” to give themselves some buzz/avoid giving the game away.

I’m casting a vote for the Rice beatdown – remember, I didn’t get to see that game.

Anywho, the 1990 Iowa game is getting the nod because there’s no earthly reason we should’ve beaten the Hawkeyes that game. None. I know they’ve shown that game on the BTN and on ESPN Classic before and, if you caught it, you’d see why. 1990 was the height of the most uninspiring Cooper years. The players played with no gusto; they were simply running plays. That was on full display against the Hawkeyes, who clearly dominated all facets of the game from whistle to whistle… and somehow lost in the end. The Hawkeyes were the top-ranked 1 loss team to that point (their only loss to undefeated Miami) and had an outside shot at being a national champion if they had a few bounces go their way. Even when dominating the Bucks, and with the Bucks unable to do anything, that door was suspiciously open for the Bucks to rebound and take the lead. As it was happening, the announcers (Musburger was one of them, I think) was reminding viewers that the Buckeyes had vexed the Hawkeyes for decades now, with heartbreakers in 1984, 1985 and 1986 underscoring that point. The fans in Kinnick knew it too, and when it happened? Oh, the reaction from the crowd tells the story.

Not great football on Ohio State’s end (far far from it), but just a great result. It’s a result that’s clearly not a banner one in our lore, but clearly a scar on theirs.

Also Vico , speaking of broadcasters…………..I watched the replay of OSU / NC State 2003 last weekend on BTN . One of the announcers was complaining about the bad calls going against NC State all game, and the other announcer quietly reminded him ( on the air mind you ) that the officials calling the game were from the ACC…………all you herd was silence for like 10 seconds. I absolutely was losing it after that segment.