Game Thread Game Two: Texas 25, Ohio State 22 (final)

[MililaniBuckeye]

...If there is anything to be taken from last season y'all either look at the Michigan game or the first half of the Oklahoma State game. But whenever a UT poster talks about how good Vince Young is all y'all say is there's no way he's as good as he played in the Rose Bowl. It's a double standard...

It's not a double standard. I was pointing out that Texas' defense isn't invincible and can be scored upon, also that Young can be contained with the right defense (see Oklahoma). You also can't always "look at the whole season" because any cupcake games really can't be used as a realistic measuring stick.

 

[Chalumpa]

Actually, you used a single game as the entire reason for why you weren't "worried" about our DL. But that's fine. It just gets old when the only games referenced here are our games against Michigan and against the other OSU.

 

[jwinslow]

The first half of the OkState game is unfair. The Michigan game comments are not, considering we have yet to see a mobile QB not have his way with that defense, including a guy who was not good enough to start his entire 4-5 years at MSU.

I do not feel that Texas can be invalidated by saying Vince is just a runner. He proved in teh texas videos that he can throw. Your WRs weren't that impressive nor your OL, tho that's hard to gauge.

Does your team split into two squads like ours does? Did yours stars get pulled out of scrimmaging early on?

 

[jwinslow]

Texas fans, so you understand where our attitude comes from, here are the quotes we heard from EVERYONE before the fiesta bowl:

"Because they are not going to beat Miami. If Miami loses, it will be because Miami beat itself. I don't see that happening. Until you beat the best team in your conference, don't tell me you can beat Miami. You have four weeks to come up with a passing game!"
Trev Alberts, 12/11/02

"Miami 42 Ohio State 10"
Mark May 1/2/03

"Nobody has our talent. We're way too fast for Ohio State. What conference are they in? The Big Ten? Ohio State and Nebraska are both power teams. It'll be like Nebraska was last year (a 37-14 Miami victory at the Rose Bowl). Nobody can hang with our speed."
Miami tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. New York Daily News 12/28/02

"Nobody outside of Columbus thinks the Buckeyes are the second best team in the country."
Jim Rome, 12/16/02

"I can't tell you how many comments I've heard about Ohio State playing down to the level of its competition. Folks, that's not what's happening. The Buckeyes aren't a very good 12-0 team. And they won't be a very good 12-1 team after they lose at home to Michigan on Saturday. Here's where I stand on a mythical Ohio State-Iowa matchup: The Hawkeyes would win big." “My predicted final score? Try 48-10, 'Canes -- a mismatched score for a game involving mismatched teams,”
Tim Brando, Sporting News "expert" 11/20/02

"There is not an NFL team with more team speed than the Hurricanes,"
New York Giants general manager Ernie Accorsi
"Ohio State is a 14-point underdog if it plays Miami for the national championship. Ohio State's band has a better case for (being) number one in its field."
Danny Sheridan, USA Today 11/21/02

"Iowa would beat OSU by two touchdowns."
Trev Alberts, 11/28/02

 

[Chalumpa]

Buckeyefromscum, that's a loaded set of quotes. Any quotes instantly look retarded when you add a quote from Kellen Winslow Jr. in the middle of them. You could have five quotes straight from the mouth of God but add a Soldja quote in the middle and I'd think they all sounded stupid.

 

[jwinslow]

Agreed. I could probably find more intelligent sources that predicted similar things, but I ran across those on a page when looking for images and decided to throw them on here. Long story short, I'm too lazy to find others :)

Basically there is no way that Texas can be favored to destroy us as much as Miami was, including by very reputable experts. So that is why you are seeing such optimism for a team that bears a lot of similarities to the team that returned in 2002 except with more offensive weapons.

I'm not saying the result will be the same as that year, just explaining the mindset of most buckeye fans. Similarly, all of the heroics you've seen VY pull off for two years has you convinced he is capable of anything. Neither viewpoint is unwarranted, so it should be interesting to see how the two hopes clash.

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

Buckeyefromscum, that's a loaded set of quotes. Any quotes instantly look retarded when you add a quote from Kellen Winslow Jr. in the middle of them. You could have five quotes straight from the mouth of God but add a Soldja quote in the middle and I'd think they all sounded stupid.

Don't dodge the issue. The point is that a ton of "experts" thought that Ohio State didn't stand a chance against the invincible warp speed of Miami. Imagine their collective shock when Ohio State proved to be as fast, if not faster, than Miami.

 

[Chalumpa]

Don't dodge the issue. The point is that a ton of "experts" thought that Ohio State didn't stand a chance against the invincible warp speed of Miami. Imagine their collective shock when Ohio State proved to be as fast, if not faster, than Miami.

Wow, didn't realize I had "dodged the issue" of what a handful of people thought about a game played 3 seasons ago. Let me pool all my brain power and really assess what they said and how it has any impact AT ALL on the game that's going to be played in September... hmmm, I'm not coming up with much.

I could understand this if all the "experts" were saying Texas was going to run away with this game, but they're all saying it should be a great game. Is that better, have I examined the issue to your satisfaction?

 

[jwinslow]

I don't think you dodged the issue, actually the fact that the "experts" list included Alberts, May, and Winslow should receive the response you gave to it. Also, you can see why the ESPN anchors just add to our distaste of the network (the gameday crew are separate from this grouping).

I agree the game is predicted to be close... I was just explaining that OSU fans think its possible to beat anyone next year including USC because of how mighty Miami was before playing us. That doesn't mean we are mighty but rather that Tressel's talented defense and special teams enables us to beat anyone. After a strong finish to 04, and with what should be a much better offense than 02, Columbus homerism is overflowing.

I wasn't trying to suggest that texas fans or experts are saying that texas will trash OSU. It was just supposed to explain what could be perceived as overconfidence from OSU.

Those of you texans who watched the video clips, has your perception of Smith changed at all? Just curious, as many of us gained more respect for VY passing after watching some of the spring game clips (tho your WR's need work).

 

[Buckeye86]

Ohio State fans should think Ohio State is going to win every game, and Texas fans should think Texas is going to win every game. Anything less and you wouldn't be a fan, so to expect any opposing fan to admit that they are over matched is asking a little much from a true fan. You gotta believe!

 

[BuckeyeNation27]

that might be true for teams like OSU and Texas now, but what about teams like Arizona State or Virginia Tech? If any fans of those teams expect to win every game then I wouldn't want to be around them. I can't stand homers.

"Nobody outside of Columbus thinks the Buckeyes are the second best team in the country."
Jim Rome, 12/16/02

nobody in Columbus thought they were the second best team either dickfuck.

 

[kaligula]

Well, Dallas Morning News had some pretty fair articles before that game...

Bill Campbell, a sports writer for DMN at the time who covered the OSU-Michigan game and the Fiesta Bowl, even wrote a pretty nice, long piece on Woody Hayes, which largely resulted from a discussion with a former OSU player on the plane ride back to Dallas after OSU beat Michigan and clinched a Fiesta Bowl berth.

Campbell was a pretty open-minded journalist and DMN, one of the largest newspapers in the country, provided fair, unbiased coverage.

To say the entire national media swallowed the spew of a few blowhards is inaccurate. But that being said, it is true that the Miami-Nebraska mismatch a year earlier definitely biased consensus opinion prior to OSU-Miami matchup. There was a bias, but it was not blind dismissal of OSU. Actually, from a good source, I know that down in Tempe, just prior to the game, guys like Campbell and other beat writers, who had covered the Miami-Nebraska Rose Bowl a year earlier, after viewing OSU up close prior to this game, made off-the-record comments that OSU was much more physically impressive and bigger than that Nebraska team. That's not to say they suddenly thought OSU was going to win, but the opinion had definitely become privately skeptical among some journalists that this would be such a similar blowout.

In retrospect, if Sims and Mangold get drafted, 21 out of 22 starters for that OSU squad will have been drafted by the NFL. And a likely total of around 33 players overall from that team will end up being drafted. And while that Miami team did feature 10 1st round picks, their offensive line was exposed against the NFL-Calibre D-Line of Ohio State.

 

[Pheasant]

While this thread is so far off topic, does anyone have any thoughts on a team (Texas) that loses to its main rival (Oklahoma) by almost 50 points? I know it was a couple years ago, but we seem to be there anyways. It's not like Texas was rebuilding...as I recall they were separated by 1 spot in the polls at the time. I don't know if it really has any bearing on the upcoming showdown, but it's been on my mind. Also, has Texas beaten OU since that pasting?

 

[Buckeye86]

that might be true for teams like OSU and Texas now, but what about teams like Arizona State or Virginia Tech? If any fans of those teams expect to win every game then I wouldn't want to be around them. I can't stand homers.

I originally wrote "expect to win" into my post, but then I went back and changed it. Expecting to win is being cocky, thinking your team has the chance to win no matter what is having faith and being a true fan.

 

[Chalumpa]

(tho your WR's need work).

Agreed. Limas Sweed is the definition of "needs work." He's got all the physical talent you could want but mentally he's just not there yet. He was the source of more than one Vince Young interception last year because his route running was atrocious. I'm not putting a ton of stock in him really stepping up next year. But if he does get his head in order he could be a huge threat. What I'm really looking forward to is the return of Jordan Shipley and the return, of sorts, of Quan Cosby. Neither of these guys played in the spring game. Shipley was becoming VY's go-to receiver as a true freshman in spring ball before tearing his ACL (missed all last season) and since he's been back he's taken back that go-to spot. Quan is an all world player that Texas fans are drooling over. He originally committed to UT in 2001 but then decided the $250,000 baseball signing bonus was too good to pass up. I have never seen any footage of him playing but UT fans say he'll possibly be as big of a playmaker as Vince. Some fans have even uttered the blasphemy that he'll be a better WR than Roy Williams.