No I didn’t retire, or jump off Mt. Nittany.  It just seemed like the less said about the disaster in Happy Valley the better.  I return to find our Buckeyes in the thick of a very tight and confusing Big Ten race.  Five teams with one conference loss and 4 with only  two.  Only Illinois and Purdue are out of it.  What is wrong with Purdue?  With more starters returning than anyone and a cake schedule they have fallen flatter an anorexic super model.  They still have to play Wisconsin and Penn State so they could impact the race in a big way.  Boy, do I miss the days of the Big Two and the Little Eight.  This parity stuff is just socialism on a football field. 

 

                There is it.  The remains of the Big 10 schedule.  Buckeyes win out and the worst that can happen is a co-championship.  Pick your own scenario, but the first outright title since 1984 is very possible.

 

Date	PSU	NW	Wicsonsin	Iowa	OSU
22-Oct	at Illinois	At MSU	Purdue	UM	at IU
29-Oct	Purdue	UM	at Illinois	Open	at Minn
5-Nov	Wisconsin	Iowa	at PSU	at NW	Illinois
12-Nov	OPEN	At OSU	Iowa	at Wisc	NW
19-Nov	at MSU	Illinois	Hawaii	Minn	at UM

 

 

                For the second straight year John L. has blamed his Spartans loss to the Buckeyes on the coaches.  I’m not sure why he felt that way in 04, but it was pretty obvious this year.  Talk about trickeration – the old 10 man field goal team was a good one.  Was John L., though, the one missing tackles on Ted Ginn and Santonio as they turned mid range pass completions into huge touchdowns?  Who’s fault was it that after MSU’s best lineman goes down they give up more sacks than Krogers? Despite yielding huge chunks of real estate to the Spartan offense, the 12 sacks was pretty impressive. It just looked to me like the Spartans being Spartans.  They lost to the Weasels in a heart-breaker, took a week off, and self-destructed in Columbus.  No team has been more inconsistent over the last ten years than the Spartans.  Now we need them self-medicate enough to knock off Northwestern this week and  then get Penn State on 11/19.

 

Let’s just say it was a weird weekend throughout the world of college football.  The Weasels did what we needed them to do.  After seemingly surrendering to Michael Robinson the Nittany (I won’t call the Brittany Lions for a while) Lions, they slithered right down the field for a winning TD and knocked PSU back into the chaos atop the Big Ten.  If you thought that was a strange ending how about Touch Down Jesus turning his back on the Irish as USC snuck out of town unbeaten.  The play on which Leinart fumbled out of bounds must have been the luckiest play of the decade. I find it somewhat troubling to think of God as a Trojan.    The Irish, though,  have rebounded enough to the point where we have to start hating them again.  I’m going to miss the Davie/Tyrone era when the Irish and their fans just whined a lot, but you didn’t really have to pay attention.    Maybe our boy Lloyd is leading the Weasels to that level vacated by Coach Weiss and the boys.  Notre Dame recruiting is going great,  and they are winning on the field.  Charley seems to have everything under control and moving in a positive direction.  Perhaps  ESPN the Magazine needs to do a few more stories on them.  Maybe their esteemed writer and habitual liar, Tom Friend, should let an apartment in South Bend.  Maybe not.   Friend doesn’t need to be close to the story to make up the fictitious crap he passes off as journalism. 

 

Terry Hoeppner has the Loosiers at 4-2.  While they have beaten exactly no one of any importance, they do seem to be improved.  Just the fact the Gerry DiNardo has left Bloomington should be worth at least 6 points.  Hard to believe the slide Dinardo’s career took..  Head coach at LSU. Yes that LSU, Lousiana State University (not Losing Streak Unlimited).  He did what he could to bury the Bayou Bengals and was “asked” to leave Baton Rouge.  Then came the XFL.  When that absurd little experiment finally collapsed he had to look long and hard to find a lower rung on the ladder.  He found that step down to be  Indiana University.  Somehow, even though the Loosiers were the bottom of the barrel he managed to make them worse and get himself fired yet again.  I’m thinking maybe he next  could coach something for North Korea or Iran.  Wouldn’t you love to see the Axis of Evil come unglued like DiNardo’s teams have.  The N. Koreans would have no defense, and go back to making lousy cars.  Even the most devout mullah in Iran would have to get liquored up just make it to half time. The war on terror would be over by the Holidays.  Just a thought.  Under Hoeppner IU has a pretty good passing game and has actually played some defense.  They should hang with the Buckeyes about as long as we let them.  Blake Power has put up some respectable passing numbers.  6’7” wide-out James Hardy is a specimen who will be playing on Sundays.  He started a few games for the Hoosiers basketball team last year.  The noon kick off should, much to Coach Hoeppner’s relief, avoid a conflict with the basketball team’s 4:30 inter-squad scrimmage. It could be a week for the Buckeye offense to get well and gear up for the stretch run. If we continue to put the ball on the ground, we could make a game of it and force the defense win it late.  The Looisers, I’m sure, will be sky-high for this game.  No one in the state of Indiana was happy when Buckeye hoops coach Thad Motta stole the top two B-ball recruits in the state.  In recent years Indiana was where our offense went to get well.  If Lydell Ross could have played IU 11 times a season he’d have more Heismans than funny money from his favorite strip club.  Indiana will  be out manned at the LOS and lose the battle up front.  Still, Hoeppner is a solid  coach and they will be in the game longer than in the past.  With our secondary banged up we may let them play catch for a while before someone takes out the QB.  For IU QB Blake Powers, watching the OSU-MSU game tape must be like a ten year old watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre in dark room by himself.    We should be able to run the ball and then pass and let the punter rest (sorry Coach Tress). 

 

                Elsewhere Va Tech should handle Maryland on the road.  I like the Hawkeyes to put the Weasels out of their misery in Iowa City.  Purdue at Wisconsin – is this the week the Boilers wake up?  Probably not, but it would sure help the cause.  Unbeaten Texas Tech goes to Austin to play the Long Horns.  The Red Raiders have a puncher’s chance, but not much more.   Looking to the south we have Tennessee going to Alabama.  Is the Tide for real or did they just have a good day against Florida?  With the Volunteers you never know what you are going to get. Even within in the same game they seem to have more personalities than Coach Fullmer has doughnuts.  I like the Tide at home, despite playing without star receiver Tyrone Prothro. 

 

                I have one final rant.  Why do sports talk shows on the radio let callers on the air?  I listen to sports radio to hear from people who know more than the rest of us, to learn from those who might be on the inside.  I do not want to listen to some moron  from Grove City complain that the coaches need to “open up the offense”.  One such cretin this week referred to the Tressel era as  a “5 year debacle”.  Holy Beano Cook! What kind of crack are these folks smoking?  These people are angry when the Bucks win, but don’t play the way they want them to and self righteous when they lose.     It seems that it is a personal affront if the Bucks don’t play a perfect game.  Are these fans or serial bitchers who think that by criticizing, someone even less knowledgeable will think they know something? All this from a person who’s only experience with football was what he could see in high school over the trombone stuck in his mouth as he sat in the stands with the other band geeks.  Call me crazy, but winning makes me very happy.  I expect to be very happy by mid afternoon this Saturday and hope you are too.  Go Bucks!