BuckeyePlanet

It was a good week for Ohio State to have a stinker. USC went down to Stanford. Ole Miss beat Alabama. TCU found themselves in a dog fight with SMU but pulled away late. M*ch*g*n State thoroughly dominated their matchup with Air Force, even if the final score didn't reflect it. Teams that struggled or played like crap like the Buckeyes, Florida State and Clemson got reprieves... for now.

So if everybody was losing (or coming close to it,) who were the winners?...

To very loosely paraphrase William Shakespeare, Tresselball by any other name would smell just as bad as that mess yesterday.

1. Let's begin by addressing the 275-pound quarterback in the room. Cardale Jones first signed with Ohio State as part of the 2011 recruiting class; after a post-grad year at a prep school, he re-signed as part of the class of 2012. In reviewing both classes, I picked Cardale as the player least likely to succeed at Ohio State. With Cardale's Twitter indiscretions and the emergence of J.T. Barrett, it appeared that I would be right and Jones would be a career bench warmer. But Cardale proved his doubters wrong with his historic run through the 2014 playoffs. Or did he?

Cardale took over the Buckeye offense in the fourth quarter of the Michigan game after J.T. Barrett suffered a season-ending injury. With Cardale at the helm, running back Ezekiel Elliott began to put up some record-setting numbers...

For eight months the dilemma over which quarterback Ohio State should start was seen almost unanimously as a good problem to have. JT Barrett had put together one of the most prolific seasons a B1G quarterback has ever had. After Barrett's injury Cardale Jones was unflappable in leading one of the most spectacular and surprising postseason runs ever seen in college football. Everybody seemed to think that no matter who got the nod, the Buckeyes would be in fantastic shape.

Now, only three games into the season, what was once an enviable situation is a old-fashioned full-blown quarterback controversy with no good answers. Neither quarterback has been effective so far, and things went from bad to uncertain when Cardale Jones was pulled in favor of JT Barrett against Northern Illinois. Urban Meyer had rotated his quarterbacks throughout the first two games of the season, but this wasn't a rotation - it was a benching...

In a game that Buckeye fans will immediately do their best to forget, the Buckeyes managed to get past Northern Illinois in a low-scoring, mistake-filled, mostly unwatchable game.

Ohio State played poorly from the start, with their first possession being pretty much doomed by little mistakes before making a huge one, turning the ball over in their own end of the field. The Huskies scored with ease thanks to a short field, against a Buckeye defense that didn't seem ready to be on the field yet after the sudden change. The Silver Bullets would soon find their bearings, but the offense never did.

The errors on offense were many, and it's difficult to think of players and coaches on that side of the ball who might escape a share of the blame for the performance. Cardale Jones threw two bad interceptions and was completely ineffective before getting pulled in favor of JT Barrett in the second quarter. He would not see any more snaps. Barrett was only slightly less poor - he...

This week's edition begins with a little more background on our featured feline friend... Poobert is what I call him, and "Leo" is his actual name. He goes by many other names though. He can be mischievous, and tends to get himself in trouble fairly often. He eats things he isn't supposed to eat, he playfully (but painfully) bites and claws us when we try to pet him sometimes, barfs on everything, and meows constantly. My wife came up for a nickname for him that she uses in such situations...

As we acclimate ourselves to the new College Football Playoff era, we still have many questions about what the future holds.

Taking some cues from the recent past to predict the future, I took the BCS rankings from the final week of the regular seasons (post-conference championship game week) during the BCS era (1998-2013). I used the top four teams from those rankings to determine who would qualify for the College Football Playoffs in those years. For history’s sake, I used the conference that each of the team was affiliated with at that time, not where they are currently due to expansion.

The results were intriguing...

It's difficult to take anything useful away from season openers. Last week brought us things that were new and exciting, but we didn't quite know what to make of them at the time. Is Ohio State's offense really that explosive? Is M*ch*g*n State a contender or a pretender? Is the SEC still the best conference team-for-team, top-to-bottom? Week two is where we first see things truly beginning to take shape. It's our first chance to put this season into context based on what we're seeing now, rather than just guessing based on what we remember from previous seasons.

With that in mind, what did we learn this week?

The big story coming out of Monday night's game was the quality and depth of talent the Buckeyes employ at the skill positions. Seemingly capable of big plays at will, Ohio State was praised a historic juggernaut and the nation's most enjoyable team to watch. However, that was certainly not true today.

Because of the recognized talent the Buckeyes have, when things aren't going smoothly, some fans struggle to identify the reasons or possible solutions. Not moving the ball? It must be the playcalling because a team this talented can only be held back by the guys who tell them what to do on every snap. Not moving the ball through the air? Feed Zeke. Or maybe they should switch quarterbacks. Maybe it's none of those things. Perhaps it's the short turnaround between the Virginia Tech game and this one. Maybe it's those stupid refs.

What often goes unnoticed is the performance of the offensive line. Good play in the trenches makes everybody else look good. You can run...

This week we start with a little more background on our furry friend Poobert. This past week was his birthday. He just turned ten. We got him a new collar for his birthday. The ungrateful little butthole didn't like it. Wish him a happy birthday!

Poobert was a rescue cat - mangey and emaciated when he was taken into the shelter that my wife adopted him from. Because he was often starving and scavenging as a kitten, he eats voraciously and is always looking for his next meal. This was just the first time that my wife saved his life...

1. QUARTERBACK CONTROVERSY

Love Cardale. Just love him.

Like the other one better.

2. PROPER USE OF YOUR DVR REMOTE

If you press the fast forward button and the pause button while holding your mouth just right you can get any of OSU's players to do a spin move.

3. THE DOW AND THE ZEKE

If you draw a trend line of Zeke's rushing yards in his last four games and extend it out he will have negative yards rushing against Hawaii.

The offseason can seem interminable, even when you get the spend the entire time reliving a championship season from the year before. After watching everybody else take the field, we finally got to see the Buckeyes. What can we take away from this game?

Top Plays:

3.)Michael Thomas: perhaps the most underrated player on the team, and in the country.


More after the jump...

COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS BACK.

We spend eight months taking in every little morsel of information we can get. We project who will win and who will lose, who will have a successful season and who will not. After all of the talk and hype, the first week of games should make things a little more clear about how the season will go. Did it though?

Most people thought TCU would be really good and Minnesota would be just OK. After what happened on Thursday, it seems we know less now than we did before they played each other. Does Minnesota miss its departed players on offense that bad, or were they simply stymied by a TCU team that traditionally has one of the best defenses in the country? Is TCU going to struggle to move the ball despite bringing everybody back from an offense that was nearly unstoppable last season, or is Minnesota better than we thought? Is this going to be one of those "good" Northwestern teams that sneaks up on people, or is Stanford just inept?

That's just one...

Ohio State's defense wasn't great in 2014 (22.0 ppg, 342.4 ypg), but it didn't really need to be because the offense was (44.8 ppg, 511.6 ypg). The two biggest positives for the defense were its ability to create turnovers (25 interceptions, 8 fumble recoveries, 6 touchdowns); and the progress that it made during the post-season with impressive performances against Wisconsin, Alabama, and Oregon and their respective superstars (Melvin Gordon, Amari Cooper, and Marcus Mariota).

The defensive line was a strength in 2014, but the unit will have to replace All American defensive tackle Michael Bennett; starting defensive end Steve Miller; and key reserve Rashad Frazier. Fortunately, junior All American Joey...

The biggest question concerning the Ohio State offense - really the only question - is who will be the starting quarterback. The battle is between redshirt sophomore J.T. Barrett, who set team records last season with 3,772 total yards and 45 total touchdowns; and redshirt junior Cardale Jones, who led the Buckeyes on their amazing run to the national championship after Barrett suffered a season-ending ankle injury during the fourth quarter of the Michigan game. With his keen grasp of the read-option, Barrett probably fits Urban Meyer's scheme better. On the other hand, Jones has outstanding size (6' 5", 265 lbs) and a rocket arm that can force opponents to defend the entire field. The winner supposedly won't be declared until the opening series of the Virginia Tech game. My guess is that Barrett will start and Jones will also see some valuable playing time.

Running back...

1. The 2002 Ohio State Buckeyes

The 2002 Buckeyes were characterized by a tenacious defense, a strong running attack, and an ability to win close games late in the contest. Some people might call this final quality "luck", but I prefer the term "preparation meeting opportunity". Whatever you want to call it, the Buckeyes had tons of it that year. And they needed every last ounce of it.

In their four previous national championship seasons, Ohio State opened their schedule with a team from the state of Texas: 1957 TCU; 1961 TCU; 1968 SMU; 1970 TAMU. In 2002, it would be Texas Tech. The Buckeyes routed the Red Raiders, 45-21 (and the game wasn't even that close). True freshman tailback Maurice Clarett rushed for 175 yards and 3 touchdowns (59, 45, and 2 yards) as the Buckeyes amassed 318 yards on the ground. The defense forced seven sacks and an interception, while holding Tech's high-powered offense to 21 points and 372 yards; 14 of...

Welcome to College Football Right Meow!

Not long ago, BuckeyePlanet got a brand new front page and @Clarity put out a call for #content to drive #traffic to the site. I thought to myself, “Gee, I’d really like to contribute but I’m not really an expert or insider.” Then I remembered that BuckeyePlanet is a site on the internet. The internet is comprised of about 50% college football #hottakes by idiots, and the other 50% is cats. That gave me an idea...

What if I made picks for college football games every week? What if one of my cats made picks too, and we tried to see who's best? We could generate #content every week complete with college football #hottakes, #banter, and cats. We could achieve Peak Internet. We could become famous on Twitter, which is pretty much the loftiest achievement one can aspire to in 2015...

2. The 2014 Ohio State Buckeyes

Regardless of what happens in the future, this team will always be remembered as the winner of the first ever college playoff for major college football. But the road to that playoff berth was a rocky one, and the final destination was in doubt until the very end.

Ohio State began the 2014 season ranked #5 in the AP poll, but before the team ever saw the field that ranking was already in jeopardy. Just eleven days before the opening game, starting quarterback Braxton Miller (2012, 2013 Big Ten OPOY) was lost for the season with a shoulder injury. The Buckeye offense would now be in the inexperienced hands of redshirt freshman J.T. Barrett, who had never taken a snap at the college level. To make matters worse, Barrett would be operating behind an offensive line that was breaking in four new starters, none of whom had been a blue chip recruit.

The Buckeyes opened on the road against Navy, and they certainly didn't look...

3. The 1968 Ohio State Buckeyes

In the eight-year span from 1954 to 1961, Woody Hayes won three national titles (1954, 1957, and 1961) and four Big Ten championships (1954, 1955, 1957, and 1961); and produced thirteen All Americans and a Heisman Trophy (Hopalong Cassady), a Maxwell Award (Bob Ferguson), and an Outland Trophy (Jim Parker).

But after those glory days, Hayes saw his program enter the doldrums. From 1962 to 1967, Ohio State had a record of 35-18-1 (.657 winning percentage), with no Big Ten championships, no major award winners, and only six All Americans. To many observers, it looked like Woody's career at Ohio State might be done.

And then came 1968. In a year that symbolized unrest in the world at large, Ohio State arose from the ashes to upend the college football world. The Buckeyes were young, and they would start as many as twelve untested sophomores, including Rex Kern at the all-important quarterback position. By...

4. The 1954 Ohio State Buckeyes

In the nine years between the 1944 perfect season and 1953, the Buckeyes had four head coaches who posted a combined record of 48-27-7 (for a mediocre winning percentage of .628) with just a single Big Ten co-championship in the 1949 season. Against arch rival Michigan the Buckeyes had performed much worse, with a record of 1-7-1 while being outscored by the Wolverines 149-49. And even those lousy numbers painted a brighter picture than reality: In their lone win (1952), the Buckeyes had scored 27 of those 49 points; in the other eight games, they averaged less than three points, failed to crack double digits, and had been held scoreless on three separate occasions.

During the Buckeyes' slide into mediocrity, Ohio State was becoming known as the graveyard of coaches. The fourth head coach in the post-Paul Brown era was a relatively young and unknown commodity who'd had brief tenures at Denison University and...

5. The 1973 Ohio State Buckeyes

In most seasons, having a 10-0-1 record would be good enough to win at least a partial national championship. But not in 1973, when six football powerhouses – Notre Dame, Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Penn State – all entered the bowl season undefeated, with the Fighting Irish and the Crimson Tide squaring off in the Sugar Bowl with the AP national championship on the line.

The 1973 Buckeyes simply rolled through their first nine games, outscoring their opponents by a total of 361 to 33, for an average score of 40 to 4. The defense pitched four shutouts and only once gave up double-digit points (Iowa scored 13 fourth-quarter points in a 55-13 rout). The offense cracked the 50-point barrier on three separate occasions. The closest contests were a pair of 24-point blowouts. Entering the final week of the regular season, this looked like it might be the best Ohio State team of all time, and the...