It’s officially Michigan Week

Bring it on, bitches!

Ohio State, fresh off a 30-20 win at Illinois, now gets to focus on That Team Up North without looking past anybody. The Buckeyes return home for their final regular season game at 9-2, while TTUN comes to Columbus at 3-8.

Today’s game was rather anti-climactic, but any fan of the Buckeyes could see that coming. Ohio State has a long, storied tradition of underachieving in the game before The Game. For example;

• 2007 – Ohio State never got their game plan working, as Illinois tole a big win away from the #1 Buckeyes, 28-21
• 2006 – Ohio State 17, Illinois 10. Ugly, ugly, ugly. Prior to that game, OSU had 7 games of scoring 35 or more points. It was a win, but not at all pretty
• 2004 – A 24-17 loss to Purdue in the final two minutes, one of only two regular-season losses for Troy Smith
• 2003 – A scary overtime win at home against Purdue, 16-13. A missed Purdue FG saved the day.
• 2002 – Overtime win against Illinois (and a serious nail-biter)
• 2001 – A 34-22 loss to Illinois at home, secured by a late INT return for the Illini

Need I go on? We just rarely play well before The Game. The only exception to the rule in Tressel’s tenure is a 48-10 pasting of Northwestern in 2005.

So I expected revenge, but I didn’t think it would be pretty. Still, we looked good enough and got the job done.

—————————-

Beanie Wells moved into the #5 slot of all-time rushing leaders at Ohio State, sliding past Pepe Pearson. He cracked the 3,000 yard mark on his first carry, and kept moving all day long. Here’s the current standings;

• #1 – Archie Griffin – 5,529 yards (2,386)
• #2 – Eddie George – 3,768 yards (625)
• #3 – Tim Spencer – 3,553 yards (410)
• #4 – Keith Byars – 3,200 yards (57)
• #5 – Beanie Wells – 3,143 yards

Wells will top 1,000 yards for the season, and move past the legendary Keith Byars against TTUN at home on Saturday, barring injury and any other natural disaster.  Odds are good that he’ll stay at #4 even adding in the bowl game.  Getting another 410 yards against TTUN and a bowl opponent seems unlikely, even if you factor in Wells’ proven ability to rush for over 220 yards against the Wolverines.

—————–

Speaking of Wells, holy f-ing poopbags, did you see him leap four feet in the air to clear an Illinois tackler?  I’ve gotta get video of that posted.  Best hurdle I’ve ever seen.

——————

Sweet Jesus, are Illinois fans the biggest WATBs you’ve ever seen?  Have you ever heard ANYBODY whine about the refs in a game where they only get flagged four times?  They were still moaning at the end of the game (those that hadn’t abandoned their seats before the game ended, that is).

——————

Penn State struggled for a half against Indiana, but pulled away in the second half and won 34-7.  This means that their home game next week against Michigan State will determine half of the Big Ten Championship.  Ohio State plays Michigan at Noon, and if the Buckeyes win, they clinch a share of the title.  PSU-MSU is at 330, and if the Bucks win, the Spartans and Lions will do battle for the other share.

Let’s speak hypothetically.

• If Ohio State wins and Michigan State wins, Ohio State goes to the Rose Bowl.
• If Ohio State wins and Penn State wins, Penn State goes to the Rose Bowl
• If Ohio State loses, the winner between MSU and PSU is the outright winner of the Big Ten and goes to the Rose Bowl.

Penn State controls their own destiny.  Both Sparty and the Buckeyes need help.

However, I do believe that Ohio State will secure a BCS Bowl with a win.  More on that after the jump.

—————-

Ohio State stands at #11 in the current BCS Standings.  Ten teams make BCS Bowls. but there are tie-ins involved that could hurt us.

Six teams will guarantee themselves BCS Bowls by winning their conferences.  Let’s make some assumptions here;

• Championship Game – #1 Alabama – #2 Texas Tech
• Big 12 representative – #3 Texas
• Big 10 Representative – #8 Penn State
• SEC representative – #4 Florida
• Pac-10 representative – #6 USC
• Big East representative – #22 Cincinnati
• ACC representative – #24 Wake Forest

This leaves two at-large bids open.  The remaining schools in the Top 14 of the BCS Rankings are;

• #5 Oklahoma
• #7 Utah
• #9 Boise State
• #10 Georgia
• #11 Ohio State
• #12 Missouri
• #13 Oklahoma State
• #14 Ball State

Oklahoma, Georgia, Missouri, and Oklahoma State are ineligible for the BCS, because of the rule only allowing two teams from each conference to play in the big 5 bowl games.  That leaves Utah, Boise State, Ohio State and Ball State as the only possible teams able to get those final two bids.

Utah and Boise State have won BCS bowl games before and will use that in their lobbying efforts.  Ball State can forget it.  No MAC school is getting in, especially in a year when the #5 school will get left out.

If we don’t secure the Rose Bowl, we are left to the mercy of the selection committee.  We’ll need to hope that the Fiesta Bowl remembers our massive numbers at previous bowls and how we travel better than any other team, during bowl season.  But if BYU can do us a favor and knock off Utah, we can consider ourselves in.  Maybe Fresno State can help out more and beat Boise State on November 28th?

So, in this order, let me just say….

1. Go Buckeyes
2. Go Spartans
3. Go…..whatever BYU’s mascot is
4. Go Bulldogs

And yes, I know it’s the BYU Cougars.  Did you?

Go to Source

Penn State folds, Buckeyes on track for 4th straight Big Ten title

Unreal.  Not only did the Buckeyes have a game in which SO many things went their way, but the chips kept falling into place well after their Noon game ended.

Ohio State’s complete destruction of 24th-ranked Northwestern wasn’t the end of the day’s joy.  The 45-10 win was a constant afternoon of “did you SEE that?” moments, and then the truly unexpected happened when Penn State was defeated by Iowa 24-23 (seriously?  Iowa?  No, seriously?).

The BBC wanted to see Penn State go all the way after they upended us two weeks ago, but the Lions couldn’t handle the success.  Now the Big Ten (and the automatic BCS bowl bid) are up for grabs.

Michigan State stands alone at the top of the conference with a 6-1 record.  Sparty is off next week before traveling to Penn State in two weeks.

Ohio State and Penn State are now tied for second place at 5-1 each.  The Buckeyes play Illinois next week before coming home to face Michigan.  Both teams are sad sacks right now, as Michigan is 3-7 and Illinois just lost to Western Freaking Michigan.  Penn State goes home for their final two games Indiana and MSU.

The Buckeyes should (I said should, not will, in case karma is listening) win out, which will automatically give them a share of the Big Ten title.  But who will they share it with?  The winner of the Michigan State-PSU game will tell us.  If PSU wins, the Lions get the Rose Bowl bid.  If MSU wins, the Buckeyes go west.

It’s that simple.

But we get nothing if we don’t beat Illinois and Michigan.

By the way, the only path for the Buckeyes to outright win the conference is for Indiana to beat PSU in Happy Valley.  Not.  Gonna.  Happen.

———————–

The Big Ten now has six teams eligible for bowl games with a possible 8 teams getting in.  Illinois and Wisconsin have two games each to win one and get in.  Illinois has Ohio State and Northwestern.  I think they blew their bowl bid by losing to a MAC school yesterday.  Wisconsin has Minnesota and Cal Poly left.  Barring another collapse like mid-season, they should get one win there.

————————

Beanie Wells rushed for 140 yards yesterday, giving him 2,999 yards in his career.  He also went from the 9th-leading rusher in OSU history to the 6th-leading rusher, all in one game.  He passes Antonio Pittman, Michael Wiley and Carlos Snow and looks to move up again at Illinois.

• #1 – Archie Griffin – 5,529 yards (2,530)
• #2 – Eddie George – 3,768 yards (769)
• #3 – Tim Spencer – 3,553 yards (554)
• #4 – Keith Byars – 3,200 yards (201)
• #5 – Pepe Pearson – 3,121 yards (122)
• #6 – Beanie Wells – 2,999 yards

All signs point towards Wells cracking the top 4 by the end of November, should he stay healthy.  Illinois’ defense is average, but Wells should be able to get the 122 yards he needs to take over the #5 slot.  201 total yards in 2 games will put him at #4 over the legendary Keith Byars.  Keep in mind that Wells ran for 229 against Michigan alone last year.

Even with the bowl game, it’d be incredible if he cracked the top 3.  He needs 554 yards to do it.  That’s 185 yards per game.  Possible, but not likely.

Go to Source

It’s a big, big week/Beanie Wells update

It’s officially Monday morning, which means Penn State week is upon us.

There will be a LOT to say about this week, and the mud will fly all over the place all week long.  For now, all we can say is that Saturday night will see the biggest game in the Shoe since Michigan visited in 2006.

Let me make a not-so-bold prediction right now.  I think the Buckeyes are headed to the Rose Bowl this year.  Here’s why;

• If Ohio State beats Penn State, they will run the table against Northwestern, Illinois and Michigan, sending them west with an 8-0 Big Ten record.  While they’ll climb the charts in the BCS, I do not believe that the BCS will fall our way enough to bypass the Rose and send us to the BCS National Championship.  Ivan Maisel of ESPN.com disagrees and says that back-to-back impressive wins against MSU and PSU would be a big boost to give the Bucks a fourth title shot in 7 years (he does have a point, considering that nobody from the SEC besides Florida looks even remotely like a world-beater this year)
• If Penn State wins this week, we’ll slip into second place in the Big Ten, but running the table will solidify that second-place slot.  Penn State does not have a tough road after the Buckeyes, and I believe a win at The Shoe will eventually boost them into the National Championship.  That sends us to the Rose Bowl (if we win out and stay in the top 14 of the BCS, which will happen at 10-2)

Later this week, we’ll do a trade-off with a PSU blog, and we’ll take a look at a very specific place on the turf at Ohio State.  But for now, this is a “let’s get ready” post.  Go Buckeyes!

———————–

Beanie Wells rushed for 140 yards on Saturday, easily earning himself the MVP of the game (although a lot of players certainly did their part to earn the win).  Here’s his updated standings in the list of All-Time rushing greats at The Ohio State University

• #1 – Archie Griffin – 5,529 yards (2,725)
• #2 – Eddie George – 3,768 yards (964)
• #3 – Tim Spencer – 3,553 yards (749)
• #4 – Keith Byars – 3,200 yards (396)
• #5 – Pepe Pearson – 3,121 yards (317)
• #6 – Carlos Snow – 2,974 yards (170)
• #7 – Michael Wiley – 2,951 yards (147)
• #8 – Antonio Pittman – 2,945 yards (141)
• #9 – Beanie Wells – 2,784 yards

I don’t expect Beanie to crack the Top 8 against Penn State (but if he does, it’s a sure sign that we dominated the Lions), but the following week against Northwestern should send him past Pittman, Wiley and Snow in one fell swoop.  (Of course, provided he stays healthy, knock on wood).

With five games to play (4 regular season, plus the bowl game), an injury-free Wells should rush past Keith Byars into the #4 slot.  He needs a mere 80 yards per game to do that.  Unless he has a couple of games like he did against Michigan last year, he likely won’t see #3.  He needs 150 yards per game to pass Tim Spencer.

As for topping Eddie or Arch, he’ll need a senior season to get there, and I’m not so sure he’ll stick around for that.  If he does, Eddie’s #2 slot would be passed, but I doubt Archie will see his record broken.  151 yards per game for the rest of his career would be an amazing feat.

Go to Source