Ohio State Round Table: Split Personality Edition – Week Seven

Over the past decade, Ohio State football fans have gathered a wide range of experiences. We’ve climbed to the highest of highs when our team won a National Championship, and have stumbled to the lowest of lows when… our team failed to win a National Championship. The more casual followers can take this up and down journey in stride. Those of us who follow the Buckeyes more fervently, like I do, react differently. I often find myself battling on the inside; debating internally on different aspects of the game. It’s as if I have split personalities and they’re all playing tug of war, battling for my frame of mind.

This round table is a weekly forum for these personalities to voice their opinions. Let’s jump in!

If anyone is curious, this is the type of situation that causes me to develop multiple personalities. A baffling loss to a team that is inferior to us at every position, a complete no-show by the offense, a team that’s so horribly coached, it’s almost comical — yeah, that’s the gas that fuels the deterioration of normalcy.

This game made me realize a few things. One — our offense isn’t very good. Like, at all. Two — Ohio State isn’t as bulletproof against inferior opponents as we thought they were. Three — it is time, ladies and gentleman, to lower our expectations.

Anyway, Pessimistic Parry will not be joining us today. Not because there’s no pessimism — he actually needed an entire article to voice his opinions (will be posted later this week). A new personality makes his debut in our round table. Without further delay:

How do you see the rest of the season playing out after the loss to Purdue?

Optimistic Oscar: I don’t understand why everyone is acting like the sky is falling. USC has lost to double-digit underdogs in every season since 2006, and they still went on to win their conference and every Rose Bowl in that time span. So we had one bad game — the season isn’t over. Think about it, we still control our own destiny. If the Buckeyes win out, they’ll be in Pasadena on January 1.

The Buckeyes can use this game as motivation. Sometimes it takes a situation like this to motivate a team. It’s like that scene in the movie Fight Club, when Brad Pitt took a random Gas Station employee and put a gun to his head. Pitt asked the employee what he always wanted to be when he was growing up, and the man replied “a veterinarian”. After getting the employees name and address, Pitt told the man that he will visit him in the future, and that if he’s not on his way to becoming a veterinarian, he will kill him.

That’s basically what Purdue did this past Saturday. They put a gun to Ohio State’s head and asked them, “What do you want to be at the end of the year, a Rose Bowl team or an Alamo Bowl Team?”

Hopefully they’ll respond with a five game winning streak.

I just punched a hole in my wall Isaac: It was a big round one, right in my living room, and it cut my knuckles. Who the heck cares how the rest of the season plays out, we’re freaking awful. How do we lose to Purdue? Northern Illinois beat Purdue earlier this year. They don’t even have Garrett Wolfe anymore, and they still beat Purdue. I can’t think straight. A Garrett Wolfeless Northern Illinois team beat Purdue, but the four-and-five-star-recruit-laden-Buckeyes can’t. UGH!

This is nothing like that scene in Fight Club, Oscar. Theoretically speaking, if Purdue put a gun to our head, we should have been able to take that gun from them with Bruce Lee quickness, bent it in half like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator, then laughed amongst ourselves as we escorted them to a Final Destination type demise.

Does anyone know a good dry-wall repair guy?

Realistic Randy: It’s frustrating to have so much talent on offense, but not be able to do anything with it. We’ve been saying it all year — our defense is playing inspired football and the offense will catch up soon enough. Well, that’s not happening. The Ohio State offense was bad on all levels this Saturday. The O-line wasn’t blocking, the quarterback wasn’t making good decisions, the receivers weren’t getting open and the running game was non-existent.

How can we get anywhere close to a fifth-straight conference title with this offense? I just don’t see it happening. We should be able to win the Minnesota game (…I think), and New Mexico State doesn’t have a chance (… I think). That will give Ohio State 7 wins going into November. If there is no improvement on offense (honestly, don’t get your hopes up), then we’ll be lucky to win any of the games in November. We could steal one or be incredibly fortunate and get two, ending the season with 8 or 9 wins.

It will all depend on how many Big Ten teams get into the BCS. The Buckeyes could end up anywhere from the Alamo Bowl to the Capital One Bowl.

Congress Wants to Fix the BCS?

Congress has been dealing with the worst economic crisis in our time. Today they took timeout to tackle one of the President’s extra curriculum ideas, changing the BCS bowl system to a playoff system. Representative Joe Barton of Texas is introducing a bill to say that the BCS cannot claim a champion without it coming from a playoff system. Congress held hearings on Friday, May 1^st discussing the current BCS bowl system with several members on both sides of the debate.

As much I appreciated congress tackling steroids in baseball and putting professional athletes to a character test to be held accountable for destroying the integrity of the American past time. I don’t think it is appropriate for congress or the President to intervene in sports to change the rules. The Mountain West Conference has hired a lobbying firm to lobby Congress for changes to the BCS system. I am not sure how much money each college of the conference has contributed to this effort, but I think there are more productive areas that the money could be contributed to and be more beneficial to the student-body of the MWC.

The big boys do own the BCS, the ACC, the Big Ten, the Big Twelve, the SEC and Pac Ten have automatic bids to the five BCS Bowls, the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, the Orange Bowl and the National Championship Game. Selections are made According to computerized polls and the Associate Press Bowl and the Coaches’ Poll creating a score that fills the automatics bids. I don’t appreciate computers trying to decide by the numbers what people can decide by using history and experience, but it doesn’t bother me that in this case that the BCS system has tried to compare the two to create competitive games for not only the opportunity to make money, but also to provide the fans with an exciting experience. I probably come off as being bias being a fan of the Ohio State Buckeyes. That has participated in the last 2 out of 3 national championship games and has made numerous BCS appearances that to popular opinion have been because of the university’s reputation to sell tickets not always providing for a competitive game.

The system works. The BCS does the best it can to create a competitive game and the most competitive games are going to come from where the best players go. That is going to be to the biggest conferences because that is where the best athletes are going to find the biggest showcase of their talents to furthering their careers in professional football. On the outside it looks like there are only a select few schools that get the most money, but if you look at recruiting and the players involved the best players go to the biggest schools that are in the biggest conferences. You can’t make everyone happy, there are going to be schools and players in smaller conferences that always feel left out in a bowl system where there are approximately 36 bowls for schools with a .500 record or better can play in and get a share of money from the sponsors involved or a playoff system that pools more money together eliminating several bowls that could not compete against the viewership of a playoff.

Another part of the argument is what would happen to the exciting regular season which in many ways is a playoff for the teams competing in the toughest conditions. Playoffs often don’t go down to the wire deciding on when matchups are decided. Once the winner of a conference is declared the spot is filled. This will lead to some of the most historic games in history being played noncompetitively. Imagine the Ohio State vs. Michigan game being played by their third and fourth string players to preserve the first string for the playoffs. Conferences and coaches alike are going to be challenged how to play the student athlete in a longer season that could create more opportunities for injury to amateurs trying to further their careers.

Gene Bleymaier, Athletic Director for Boise State, noted that his school’s football team went undefeated several times , yet never got a chance to play for the national championship under the BCS. I understand the argument, but have little sympathy for a team that doesn’t play a top twenty five team except for maybe once or twice every other season. Boise State is a good football team and they did put together one team that beat a good Oklahoma team, but they will not do this on a regular basis. It is pure numbers. The 16, 925 undergraduate students Vs. Ohio State University’s 34, 479 undergraduate students (numbers provided by www.yahoo.com/education) cannot always bring in the top high school athletes in the country. This is not only about money, but also the student athlete. The larger universities benefit more students and this is going to decide for most football players where they are going to play football. The current bowls not only work for the market and sponsors involved, but also for the exposure of the football players involved. The undefeated seasons for Boise state has let them play in a bowl game each of those seasons. If there was a playoff the possibility that they would compete with other undefeated teams for a much more limited opportunity and increased pressure to win more than just one playoff game exist. You can beat Oklahoma once, one time in a season. Can you do it three times in a row? In a playoff it will become much harder for those schools to compete. In the current bowl system you can have the satisfaction that you collimated your winning season with the opportunity to win your final game against a school that on-paper you could beat or competitively play against in a highly publicized game. In a playoff a small school will eventually meet someone that outweighs them by a lot and though David might slay Goliath some-of-the-time it doesn’t happen enough to justify them getting the opportunity every time.

The BCS should stay the way it is. They can always tweak the computers and the polls to accept the current trend to create the best opportunity for everyone involved that can competitively play against each other. The worst thing about the argument is that everyone is forgetting the players that are involved on the field. Everyone is just squabbling over their piece-of-the-pie and since the little brother feels like it is only getting table scraps they are crying. This isn’t an argument that our President should be trying to get involved in. There are much more important matters that require his attention. We should just continue to let the players decided this on the field.

The Big Ten: Why We Suck

I worked very diligently on crafting a title for this this article but ultimately, this was the one thing that kept coming around. Our fall from grace as a dominant NCAA Division I power conference has been fast and painful. The fall has been different for every team in the conference. Like most conferences we have our less relevant football programs (stupid Northwestern so concerned with actually GRADUATING players) but the fact remains that, in the past, when our power teams came to play your school, it was time to break out the Icy Hot because a severe beating was nothing short of imminent.

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Where do we currently stand? Iowa players are telling their own fans to be quiet. Minnestota forgot there were more than 4 games in the season. Wisconsin did too. Michigan decided to field their understudy ballet students instead of actual football players. Both Penn State and Ohio State had the unfortunate mishap of checking their talent on the airplane to L.A. rather than carrying it on and somehow it wound up on a plane headed for Pewee Valley, Kentucky. Oh, and Ohio State can’t seem to beat the SEC even if the referees would let them bring crowbars on the field. I mean, in what sane world does tOSU go nearly undefeated on the season only to have the entire college football world question, not whether they should go to the National Championship or not, but whether they even deserve to be CONSIDERED?!

No doubt we’ve all thought and thought about this and I would imagine you’ve come to the same redundant conclusion that I have: We suck because we suck. No doubt we’ve all read that iron sharpens iron. That’s what we used to be for each other. The Michigan-Ohio State game was such a vehement battle to the death, that any competitor after was like playing in a pick up game at the park on Sunday afternoon. The rivalries so legendary that watching the game for the 5th, 6th or 95th time still gets you on the edge of your seat and out of your chair. Now the rivalries are harder fought in the stands and after the game than they are on the field. We’re just not good enough to make each other better anymore.

One of the problems is that the decline happened for all of the teams at a quick pace simultaneously. The conference has not adapted to a more modern style of football, one that relies somewhat less on braun and more on strategy and speed. This is made evident when we play schools like USC who have more strategy than 70% of the NFL teams out there. When we play the SEC, they run away like we’re standing still because, regardless of the attempts we’ve made as a conference of teams to get out of our concrete boots and into the new style of warfare, we just haven’t caught up. They’re shooting smart bombs and laser guided missle systems while we’re reloading our muskets with paper patch bullets and screaming hateful chants in olde english. We just aren’t that relevant outside of our own conference. People look at us like that fighter going into the ring when he should have retired. Yeah, they respect his history and the amazing things he’s done, but they’re not afraid of him anymore. They’re not afraid of us anymore.

In the end, our games are still hard fought battles in the trenches. Our sense of tradition and honor is greater than anyone else’s. We hate each other but we hate them more.

I, for one, am tired of this. I’m ready to read a USC writer talk about how Michigan or Ohio State is more than likely going to ruin Pete Carroll’s season. I’m ready to be confident in saying that no matter who goes into the national championship game against us, the Big Ten will ride out of town with a tan and a crystal football. Every other conference should be complaining and making excuses about why we slaughter them year in and year out. It’s time for this trend to stop and it has to stop quickly.

We are the greatest conference in the NCAA. It’s time to remind everyone else of that fact.

Examining the Big Ten in the NFL draft

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg
The 2009 NFL draft was a fairly forgettable one for the Big Ten, which didn't have a top-10 pick for the first time since 2002 and had fewer first-round picks (4) than the SEC, ACC and Big 12. Michigan didn't have a player drafted until the fourth round (defensive tackle Terrance Taylor), while hoops powerhouse Connecticut already had four players…
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Fisch puts Gophers through the motions

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg
Spring practice felt more like spring training for Minnesota junior quarterback Adam Weber.
To loosen his arm before each Gophers workout, Weber warmed up by throwing a baseball. To get his hips more into each pass, Weber swung a baseball bat and hit soft toss into a fence. About the only thing Weber didn't do was field grounders, though he might…
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Draft Analysis: Expectations of Iowa Players

After months of 40-yard dash times and answering questions about their favorite animals, eight former Iowa football players finally learned their career destinations on Sunday.

A few Iowa players, like the third-round picks of running back Shonn Greene and cornerback Bradley Fletcher, are virtually locks to contribute on NFL rosters this fall. Meanwhile, free agents like…
Continue reading at Bleacher Report – Big Ten Football

Northwestern spring game recap

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg
Northwestern couldn't expect to solve all of its skill-position questions during 15 spring practices, but the Wildcats emerged from Saturday's scrimmage feeling a bit better about their ground game.
Three running backs combined for 207 rush yards and four touchdowns as the Wildcats offense scored 49 points against a banged-up defense.
The…
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Michigan State schedule news, spring game recap

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg
Before getting to the Green-White Game, there was some exciting scheduling news Monday for Michigan State fans. 
The school agreed to home-and-home series with both West Virginia (2014-15) and Alabama (2016-17) and extended its contract with longtime rival Notre Dame through the 2025 season. Kudos to athletic director Mark Hollis for making the type…
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Quick Thoughts on Penn State’s Blue White Game

Penn State will now move into the long abyss after the Blue White Game and before the summer practice sessions begin. But first, let me point out a few things about the game.

Offense

• Daryll Clark and Evan Royster could very well carry the team this year. While Royster only logged three carries, they amounted to 21 yards. He looked fluid, as usual, and shouldn’t have a problem with the…
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Buckeye Banter | Jim Tressel Lets Loose at Record-Setting Scarlet and Gray Day

The Ohio State annual Scarlet and Gray Game hasn’t always been exciting or necessarily fun to watch. Yesterday, during 2009’s scrimmage, however, the excitement factor was in full overdrive.

Even before the game started, the atmosphere in and around Ohio Stadium seemed more like the Buckeyes were getting set to open the non-conference season than hold an early spring scrimmage. 

The fans…
Continue reading at Bleacher Report – Big Ten Football

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