Our Honor Defend

The regular season for Ohio State starts in two weeks.  Did you know that?  Of course you did; you’re a Buckeye fan.  It is exciting to see it approaching as soon as it is.  As such, so much of our cumulative attention is being focused on our gameday plans for Marshall and what is being done in camp at the moment to not only restore Ohio State to the promised land, but make all our enemies openly weep at the very sight of us on the gridiron.  The excitement should be tempered with caution.  Unfortunate injuries can accumulate during this time that vary in intensity.  It will be helpful to highlight who is among the walking wounded for the Buckeyes at the moment, as well as highlight what’s going on in terms of injuries around the Big Ten.

Ohio State’s Walking Wounded

The Buckeyes are fortunate to not have too many injuries at the moment, certainly nothing that will compromise game plans and preparations in the long term.  Nevertheless, there are important players who are having to take it easy right now to prepare for the 12 game marathon that starts against Marshall.

Nathan Williams is probably the biggest name in this category.  The clear favorite to replace Thaddeus Gibson at the weakside defensive end position, Williams will be vital to the team’s success mostly because depth in the entire unit is uncertain.  The Defensive Line From Hell last year was precisely that because it was deep.  Denlinger could be swapped for true freshman John Simon.  Nathan Williams could come in on certain passing situations, moving Cam Heyward inside.  The starting unit will still be elite, but we need players like Garrett Goebel, Melvin Fellows’ Safari Planet and Solomon Thomas to step up.  We also certainly cannot afford for Nathan Williams to miss important games with an injury.  He’s been afflicted with a knee injury suffered at Saturday’s practice and has been laying low.

Unfortunately, Melvin Fellows’ Safari Planet was in a yellow no-contact jersey today as well.  He was seen stretching his left leg on the sidelines, precisely the injury that led to his redshirt last year.  I blame that damn bird.

Hamstrings are nuisances in this game.  “Tweaking” one can be the difference of operating at partial capacity for an extended period of time.  Brandon Saine has had to deal with them; Jaamal Berry had to redshirt last year because of it.  Now, Ross Homan and Devon Torrence  have been bit by the hamstring bug.  Both have been around for a while and the injuries are very minor (the difference of a day or two’s rest).  In Homan’s case, he could’ve practiced if he was forced to do so.  However, there is no reason for a three year starter to do so.  Travis Howard filled in for Devon Torrence.  No concerns here.

Projected starting free safety Orhian Johnson has a very minor calf injury, which cost him a practice.  CJ Barnett has benefited from this.  The Clayton Northmont product, recently moved from cornerback to safety, has been using the additional reps to his advantage.

Elsewhere, JB Shugarts and Jake Stoneburner got dinged up on Saturday’s practice.  They appear to be beyond that now.  The important takeaway from the injury situation for Ohio State is that, right now, nothing is serious.  Minus Orhian Johnson and possibly JB Shugarts, you already know the extent of the capabilities of the players who are injured.  You already know what Ross Homan is capable of giving to you on gameday.  There is no point in jeopardizing him.

Angry Michigan Secondary Hating God

I think everyone knew Michigan was going to struggle mightily on defense in 2010.  They were putrid in 2008 and basically lost a year after canning the defensive coordinator before the 2009 season.  They brought in Greg Robinson to basically start over, resulting in no dividends.  They lost Brandon Graham, the stud defensive tackle on a defense that wasn’t particularly good with him.  They’ve been hardest hit in the secondary.  A weak point in a weak defense in 2010, they lost Donovan Warren to the NFL Draft (undrafted).  Justin Turner, the lone, substantive victory for Michigan in an unequal Tressel-Rodriguez recruiting war, transferred a week ago.  Boubacar Cissoko is in jail.  Demar Dorsey, the marquee recruit in the 2010 class, did not meet the university’s standards for admission and opted for Louisville instead.  Michigan’s best case scenario for secondary depth would include true freshmen and this walk-on, led by the veteran and senior Troy Woolfolk.

Well, Troy Woolfolk just got hurt pretty bad in practice.  The dislocated ankle and broken fibula is basically a season-ender before the season ever started.  The injury sent Michigan fans into near meltdown.  These meltdowns always result in creativity on MGoBlog (here, here, here), but the extent of the injury in an already wafer thin position creates an interesting conundrum for Michigan.  What next?  The alternatives to the senior Woolfolk are not very settling.  JT Floyd has 2 career starts and 9 total games played, but  was spotty in game action.  Teric Jones is a bit of a positional nomad.  The other alternatives are either incoming freshman or redshirts unlikely to generate much enthusiasm.  Cullen Christian has the highest profile while players like Courtney Avery and Terrence Talbot are very much on the undersized side.  Schematic adjustments for a position heavy on zone defense will likely include very soft cushions.  A secondary that was going to be a noticeable limitation even with Woolfolk will probably adopt a “not in the face!” approach.  They will have a little over two weeks to sort this mess out before Connecticut beckons in a season where the discussion of Rodriguez’ hot seat is unavoidable.  Yikes.   Better them than us.

This Country Has a Mountain Time Zone. Important Things Are Happening In It.

I felt for the Mountain West Conference in light of the conference realignments earlier in the summer.  Adding Boise State to the fold when the Big East and Big XII-Lite should struggle to justify their BCS status should have given them the necessary leverage over the BCS to become part of the country club as well.  This was weakened when Utah joined the now Pac-12, taking the bird in the hand rather than wait for two in the bush.  I can’t blame Utah.  It’s a smart move with other benefits.  However, it left other schools like Brigham Young wanting.  Their rival now out of the conference, BYU identified that it had a broad enough appeal (seriously, they do) and a sufficient set of resources to go on their own.  Pending a vote from the Church of Latter Day Saints (which owns the school), BYU could go indie in football and WAC in everything else.

I thought this would be initially devastating for the Mountain West.  The Utah teams are among the biggest draws in the conference as it stands right now.  With both gone, Boise State could actually leave the conference without penalty.  A conference that has put forward such a good product in the past few years could eventually disintegrate because of factors beyond its control.  The Mountain West was not going to go down without a fight.  Once Brigham Young’s threat to go indie picked up steam, the Mountain West extended invites to WAC members Fresno State and Nevada-Reno.  Both have accepted.

This is an interesting situation.  With Boise State, Fresno State and Nevada leaving the conference, membership in the WAC stands at six.  It is a geographically incoherent organization ranging from Hawaii to Louisiana that is hanging by a thread on to the bare minimum for recognition by the NCAA.  These three schools are clearly the breadwinners in the revenue sport.  Their defections leave Idaho as the only above .500 team from 2009 to remain by 2011.  It is an unstable situation that may actually have the BYU consider the offer from the West Coast Conference to host their non-revenue sports.  It could also be a ploy by BYU.  Texas’ extortion of the Big XII may have served as inspiration for a similar move by BYU.  ESPN speculated this, that BYU is trying to use the threat of defection as leverage over the rest of the conference for a greater share of the conference revenue and special deals for BYU TV.

With Fresno State and Nevada already making their move to the Mountain West, it remains to be seen what BYU does next.