Our Honor Defend

The college football season is back and Marshall is firmly in the rear view mirror.  The Miami Hurricanes, Ohio State’s annual marquee nonconference matchup, is now on the docket.  Accordingly, I will resume these midweek grab bags, for whom the overall theme of the opponent at hand loosely ties together the post.  However, first thing is first regarding Monday night’s game between Boise State and Virginia Tech.

What Do We Say about Boise State?

You probably watched the Boise State-Virginia Tech game on Monday night.  It was basically a road game from the Broncos, who traveled across the country to play Virginia Tech and prevail with just over a minute left to play.  Boise State should get credit for the victory.  They earned it.  However, the victory now puts pollsters and BCS bigwigs in an uncomfortable situation.  The Broncos don’t lose many games.  They went undefeated in 2006.  They had an undefeated regular season in 2008 before losing to Texas Christian in the Poinsettia Bowl.  They again ran the gauntlet in 2009, returning the favor to Texas Christian in a Fiesta Bowl that has absolutely no business happening.  Unlike previous years, the Broncos started the season ranked just outside the top two.  Where you end up in polls is largely endogenous to where you start.  There is no bias working against them in the preseason polls now.  The more Boise State continues to perform in big games, the more legitimate their claims are to wanting to play for it all in January.

Count me as one of those Boise haters, I guess.  It’s not that I particularly want to hate.  I admire them for building an empire against the BCS country club whose desired effect was to prevent them from happening.  Further, Boise is the second largest exclave of my ethnic kin outside of Buenos Aires.  Not a bad town.  However, I am hating.  The narrative surrounding them is becoming rather cumbersome.  I know becoming a Buckeye has made me a bit of an elitist, but hearing how great they are while watching them play East Jesus Tech on ESPN’s Thursday Night Blue Turf Special strikes me as odd.  Still, more power to them.  Under normal circumstances, they would slink off to their consolation prize to hopefully not play a game against the likes of Texas Christian that tells us little about the true quality of either non-automatic qualifier.

This year is different.  Ohio State has its eyes on the prize too, and Boise may get in the way.  I worry about a situation that may emerge where Ohio State and Boise State may be both undefeated and Boise gets the nod over Ohio State.  The SEC has positioned themselves with media to the point where I fear people assume they have a birthright to play in the title game.  I am also not convinced Alabama has many losses on the schedule after Arkansas potentially.  If it comes down to a media darling contest, where so much of the BCS is a function of voters, I am going to get worried.  It should not be the case.  The problem is that, minus a game against Oregon State (who lost their opener to Texas Christian), the rest of the Broncos’ schedule consists of dross.  Ohio State, meanwhile, would have to figuratively crawl through barbed wire to maintain a perfect record.  That part is solely up to us, of course.  Most importantly, it is the only focus for the football team on a game-by-game, day-by-day basis.

I don’t want to irrationally hate Boise State, but I feel like it’s necessary.  At most, I would respect them, and likely be just a bit annoyed with the particulars.  These guys need to go away this year, even though they’re rightly after the same thing we are.  Thanks, BCS.

Nathan Williams, Storm Klein Will Likely Play

Nathan Williams is the clear guy at the weakside defensive end spot made famous in recent years by Vernon Gholston and Thaddeus Gibson.  He did not play in the opener after a minor injury suffered in the kick scrimmage in the summer.  It showed.  The Buckeyes were not any worse off for his absence, but Solomon Thomas did nothing to demonstrate that there is quality depth at that position.  In his absence, the second team defensive line had John Simon shift over to that spot.  It was obvious Simon was playing out of position.

Fortunately, he will return against Miami this week.  This is the good news, but it leaves fans to wonder how match fit Williams will be for the Hurricanes.  He will have to use this week to get up to speed to get Ohio State over the sour taste the USC series has left in our mouth around this time for the past two years.  Storm Klein should return to the fold as well.  He was a special teams regular last year as a true freshman and will be the backup middle linebacker to Brian Rolle.

On that note…

All Signs Point to Sabino Redshirt

Bucknuts appears to be the origin of this rumor.  Early summer, they first speculated (as far as I can tell) that there actually was a battle to replace Austin Spitler at the strongside linebacker position.  It was not simply Etienne Sabino’s to lose.  He had to compete with Andrew Sweat, who was only then coming back from an ACL tear that cost him last year.  Further, the idea being pitched was to have the loser of that battle redshirt.  Both Sabino and Sweat are classmates.  They were “Brew Crew” signees for 2008 and neither redshirted their first year here.  The coaching staff wants to get the most out of both, putting both in a position to be two year starters.  With Homan and Rolle graduating after this year, the loser of this year’s battle is in a good position to get two years of solid starter’s duty.

What was speculated months ago appears to be rounding into form.  Go Go Gadget Tressel:

“Right now, we’re kind of redshirting him [Sabino],” Tressel said.

“But redshirting is a day-by-day thing, so he’s got no injury issues, nothing outside of football, that’s a reason for him not playing. So for this moment, he’s redshirting and if everyone’s healthy going into the ball game, we’ll probably hold him from the ball game.”

No one is guessing this was an easy pill to swallow.  The prevailing speculation is that he was talked into it by Brian Rolle, who himself had to sit behind established linebackers his first two years here.  I admit I have a bit invested into seeing Sabino shine.  I made my name, or pseudonym, better knowing his recruiting class and I genuinely believe he can still shine here.  Further, the 2010 recruiting class is light on linebackers and it looks like 2011 will as well.  When Homan and Rolle graduate, it will leave Sweat as the starter at strongside linebacker and put Dorian Bell in good position to start at weakside linebacker as a redshirt sophomore.  All that stands between Sabino and starting at middle linebacker is Storm Klein, and Klein is good.  We will see what happens here, but that is looking well down the road.

Tressel Is Not Talking about 2002

This is being billed on ESPN as “championship rematch Saturday”.  There are four marquee matchups on the weekend, and only one of them (Oregon-Tennessee) does not echo a past championship game.  Florida State and Oklahoma met to decide the 2000 national championship, Oklahoma prevailed.  Penn State is traveling to Alabama to play the Rammer Jammers.  These two met in one of the all-time classic bowl games, the 1979 Sugar Bowl.  The undefeated #1 ranked Penn State Nittany Lions were foiled on a famous goal line stand that has become ingrained in Rammer Jammer lore¹.  Most importantly, Ohio State is hosting Miami, a rematch of the 2003 Fiesta Bowl and one of the greatest football games ever played.

And guess who is not talking about it? Yep, Tressel.

Jim Tressel played the I-can-barely-remember card several times when asked about the 2003 national title matchup with Miami. The revelation? Tressel said he has never seen that game.

“Some day I’ll invite you all over and we’ll sit in our rocking chairs and we’ll break that game down and I’ll tell you what I was thinking, if I can still think by then,” Tressel told reporters.

I am following Tressel here.  I will not belabor it here either, outside of link this wonderful Ramzy article.  You may notice that game is not online on YouTube-o-vision ™ either.  I have it, but you’re just not going to watch it.  Why, you ask?  Simple.  Never look back and rest on past laurels.  I shudder to think I’m approaching retirement having to regale all the way back to 2002 to tell my grandchildren about it.  We want more.  Much more.  It’s why we’re hoping we’ll have stories to tell about 2010 in the same way we do about 2002.

And yes, that’s my promise to you.  We win another crystal football and that 2003 Fiesta Bowl goes online.

Rod Smith Is on Campus

It has taken Rod Smith a while to get past the clearing house, but he has.  He should be past the requisite “acclimation period” and should be ready to start practicing with the Buckeyes shortly.  Interestingly, Tressel has said that Rod Smith is not an automatic redshirt.

“He’s not an automatic redshirt,” Tressel said Tuesday during his weekly press conference previewing the Miami game.

“I think conventional thinking, because he missed all of preseason, would be I don’t know if he could get enough reps now to be able to earn the right to go in before someone else, but you never know with injuries and so forth.”

I never question Tressel. He has given me little reason to do that.  However, I’d be surprised if Smith, having missed all of camp and conditioning, could provide something that Jordan Hall, Carlos Hyde and Jaamal Berry can not right now.  Berry has already redshirted and Hyde has burned his.  I would like to preserve Smith for next year.  I say this knowing that a lot of people are very high on him and think he might be the most talented of the bunch.  That’s why I want to keep him in mint condition until 2011.  Saine will be gone, Herron will be a senior, Hall a junior and Hyde and Berry sophomores.  We would be compensating for Saine’s loss and keep Smith as a freshman, albeit one with strong scout team experience.

The Rock Has A Message for You Buckeye Fans

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson took time from his schedule to hype the upcoming Ohio State-Miami showdown.  The professional wrestler turned “actor” is a Miami alumnus and was a backup defensive lineman for Miami’s 1991 national championship team.  In the course of his professional wrestling-stylized rant, Johnson delved into his “The Rock” persona to promise a “sweatervest stomping asskicking”.

Afterward, Johnson resumed working on the set of his next movie “The Tooth Fairy Returns: The Revenge of Does-Anyone-Watch-This-Shit?”.  It was nice for an acting giant on par with Rob Schneider to give us some of his time².

1. FML, I know more about Alabama football that I want to know. F osmosis and FML. [↩]
2. For those curious, Patricia Heaton is probably our most successful alumnus floating around Hollywood as an actor/actress.  I doubt she has a wrestling persona and could cut a promo advising Miami fans that Jim Tressel will rain blood and sulfur from the fucking sky to sweep Miami’s football team away in a fury that no hurricane could match.  This is unfortunate. [↩]