(Sorry - got carried away with this one, but I was excited.)
1. First things first.
I got me a NEW Barcalounger. Brown leather, cushy seats, most comfortable chair I have ever owned. Yet it has the magical property of allowing an aging, out of shape, overweight man to instantly leap to his feet from a full recline.
I did it half a dozen times on Saturday.
(OK, I never really reclined, but I did ease back off the edge of my seat a couple of times.)
2. A salute to the Texas fans.
I am still waiting for any horror stories about fan treatment in Austin. And I have also witnessed a lot of class from Texas fans on this and other boards. If I seem a bit boastful in some of my comments, please excuse my exuberance. I mean no disrespect to a great program, coach and fans. But I am one happy Buckeye.
3. There are wins and there are wins.
And there are two kinds of wins.
Last year Texas beat OSU, but they left the door open for endless discussions of what might have been. Same goes for Texas over USC (just ask any USC fan). And in 2002 half our wins were in games where our opponent remained unconvinced who the better team was (please DON'T ask Miami fans).
Last night was the other kind of win.
It was their house. It was their weather. And it was burnt Orange that was gasping for breath and looking for license numbers in the 4th quarter.
4. Smith
Last week I asked if at the end of this season we might look back at Smith's career and say he was the best ever at OSU. Why wait? There has never been a more talented quarterback in S&G.
Saturday night he was masterful and he did it without his legs. The legs that two years ago many of us believed were the only tools he possessed.
5. Matthew McConaughey
I will still go to see his films, but from now on they will ALL be comedies.
6. Tackle, Tackle, Tackle!!!! Tackle dammit!!
How many times did I shout that Saturday night? I could hear you guys too. I expected our defensive issues to come from problems with schemes. People out of position. Missed assignments. Not from lack of technique.
I saw several problems. Poor angles. Failure to wrap up. Over pursuit. But more than anything I didn't see 11 Silver Bullets streaking to the ball. They were tentative - and that could be expected. There was a lot of lateral movement and a lot of good blocking by Texas. These are new kids who are still thinking before they react and a lateral running game leaves room for thinking. It will be OK.
But as frustrating as it was, at the end of the day look at what we accomplished. They stood tall when it counted. They improved as the game went on and never let the big play get away from them. Speed makes up for a lot of mistakes.
7. Texas D
To be clear, the Texas D was stout throughout. But I have to say that the first series or two their defenders hit our ball carriers as consistently hard as I have ever seen a team hit. There was some pop and it was scary.
8. Enough about the Richardson penalty.
Wrong call, but anytime you have to look close at the replay it is an acceptable call. It was more frustrating because it was our 5th penalty against zero for Texas.
But Texas moved the ball and for them to come away without a TD in that game would have been misleading. Our D was good, but certainly not any better than the score reflected.
9. Commercials
Remember the ones where the gas pump sabotages the car that gets high mileage? Well good for the gas pump!
What kind of jerk obstructs the pump while they run in to get a bag of chips? If you don?t want gas then park off to the side. I had enough anxiety Saturday night without working up a case of gas station rage.
10. Texas Play Calling
I am seeing a lot of talk - mostly from Texas fans - about their play calling. How it cost them the game. "Why go away from the run when it is working so well".
The way I always understood it is that you don't go with something till the other team stops it. You go with it till they make adjustments to stop it, and then try to exploit those adjustments. It is easy to second guess Texas after the fact, but could they really have beaten us without making their passing game work? I don?t think so. In fact their only scoring drive exhibited their best combination of passing and running of the night.
Also, if you look at the stats Charles and Young had more yards on their first six carries (first three for each that is) than they did the rest of the night (their last 21 carries). We were making adjustments.
Besides, Blue Cross called and made them stop running the option. They keep stats for sacks, hits and hurries, but I don?t think they count the number of times the QB gets hit after the toss on an option. McCoy got hit damn near every time - and hit pretty good.
11. Colt McCoy
McCoy is the real deal.
Reading schemes from good D's is something that only comes from experience. (Art Schlichter threw four picks in his first start.)
McCoy ran the option well, threw the ball nicely most of the night and took hit after hit and kept coming.
It is good that we got him before he hits his stride. Of course our D has yet to hit their stride as well.
12. Gurus
So, somewhere out there is an ESPN talking head who said there was a 99.9 percent chance Texas would win. Staked his football reputation on it.
What happens now? Does he hide in the bushes for a while and then reappear like the game was never played?
And as for Mark May -
EVERY time OSU plays a big game this butt-wipe not only picks them to lose but lists ten reasons they can't possibly win. Either he knows absolutely nothing about football, or it is personal.
Much as I dislike the clown I will give him credit for knowing at least something about the game. So if ESPN wants to continue to put him on the air the least they can do is make him wear a dunce cap when he talks about the Buckeyes.
13. The new clock rule.
If there was ever a game that revealed the absurdity of the new clock rules it was Saturday night. It will take a flawless performance by anyone to enter the fourth quarter down 10 against JT and mount a comeback (especially if you are also restarting the clock after false starts). OK, I didn't mind the rule Saturday, but it is horrible for the game. A travesty.
14. On Being #1.
Normally I am not a fan of entering the season #1, but it may prove to be quite fortuitous this year.
Yesterday our scheduled opponents went 5-7. Of the five wins two were in OT against Buffalo and Syracuse. A third was by one point over Ball ST. One of our future opponents lost to New Hampshire. Rutgers is improving, but 33-zip?
Iowa and PSU will have better days, MSU will have worse day. And already the pollsters are giving us credit for beating the #8 team in the country, not #2. To impress pollsters against weaker opponents you need to put up some big numbers, and that is not JT?s long suit.
Long and the short of it is that we could go undefeated and end up #2. Don't laugh. ND is the media darling - as is USC, although not to the absurd extent of the Irish. Let those two teams run the table (still not sure I can get the words "Go Blue" out of my mouth next Saturday) and then match-up against one another the week after we beat Michigan and it is not out of the question for us to be jumped in the polls.
Clearly I am borrowing trouble here, and it machs nicht in any case whether we go to the championship game as #1 or #2. But for the moment it is good to be the king.
15. Mad Cowtown Disease.
The flip side of our SOS issues is that things look sweet all the way to November 18th. I know, I know, one game at a time. Your next opponent is your toughest opponent. Yada, yada, yada?.
There are certainly challenges ahead, we have a target on our back and we have to get ready every week. But fact is we are the #1 team in the country and our schedule is laid out quite nicely. Our O is a force and our D will only get better - and it is already pretty good.
If you own anything red or gray adorn it with a couple of O's and put a price tag on it because this town is going to get a bit crazy. I pity those folks who don't care much for football - let alone OSU football - because they are going to read about it in the papers, see it on TV, and hear about it at the water cooler. The biggest show in town just got a lot bigger.
Enjoy the ride and savor every minute - it doesn't happen every day, every year, or even every decade.
16. Corruption of our kids
I finally figured out what is wrong with our younger generation.
My grandson is almost four and really likes to sing. Well, two of his favorite songs deal with whether or not someone named ?Dinah? is going to blow and what we should all do when some other lady comes.
Children are our future! Enough with the hidden meanings double entendres.
17. You should see my nuts!
Every year I brag about my nuts. Well, this year they are bigger than ever. Gonna be some mighty fine necklaces coming out of this crop.
18. Halftime Adjustments
I have been nervous about this game all summer. But I started to feel real confidence at half time when I realized that the coaches were going in to make half time adjustments.
Questions for OSU included: Which of the multitude of defenders would play key roles? What new blitzes or coverage packages might be employed? Which of the offensive weapons would we emphasize? The hardest question was how to slow the Texas running game.
For Texas the questions were more challenging. They had slowed the OSU offense, but how do you stop Gonzo and still control Ginn? Or not open things up for Nicol? Or God forbid get rid of the spy and watch Smith shred you on the ground.
Offensively the Texas running game was working, but not getting points on the board. It was high risk to ask McCoy to throw the ball downfield. A kid can't learn to read coverages during the half time break.
I really liked where we stood at the half.
19. Playing tough games early.
We won. So it isn't the topic of the day. But had we lost the wisdom of playing a top notch opponent this early in the season would have been put to serious question. Why risk your poll ranking and a potential title game?
Balderdash.
You don't drop a 400 HP engine in your car so you can drive the kids to school. We have a great team and a great program. Let's play some football.
It will be a sad day when all we are worried about is making sure we have a chance at the NC. I pity the pathetic West Virginia fans cheering as they beat up on the Eastern Washington's of the world so they can try to back into the BCS championship game.
Look at the hype. The drama. The excitement. The incredible football we saw Saturday night. College football is more than a single game played in January.
Let's start the countdown right now. Two years from Wednesday we play USC in Los Angeles. I am already starting to get pumped.
20. Dancing with the Stars
Am I the only one who can't wait to see Emmitt Smith dance? Would have loved to hear more, but they went back to covering the first regular season match up between the top two teams in a decade.
Maybe we can go to a continuous running clock so TV can have more time to pimp itself.
21. Great Programs.
If you set out to list the top ten football programs of all time your list would have to include Michigan, Notre Dame, and Texas. Those might all be in your top five.
In our last four games we have beaten Michigan, Notre Dame, and Texas.
Savor it. These ARE the glory years.
22. Laurinaitis.
I know an athlete when I see him. That is why this spring I predicted Laurinaitis wouldn't be able to hold onto his starting spot this fall with all the competition.
I do believe he contributed to some of the Texas running success along with the rest of the D, but it was still a great game and the start of a wonderful career.
Between he, Freeman and Jenkins we can start to hang some names on this Defense.
23. Special Teams
How about A J Trapasso? With a coach who believes the punt is the most important play in football how about a kid who kicks 6 times for an average of 50.8 and net yards of 44.2?
And let's not forget Pettrey's net yard average of 45 on 5 kickoffs - continuing the standard of the past few years.
As for FGs. All I can say is that if you are going to have an off year this is the year to do it. But I am not sold on that yet. It is early.
I must take my hat off to Texas once again. Six punts, three to Ginn. And a net of 5 return yards. That is good coverage.
24. Can we play Notre Dame next week?
Pretty please?
I can hear them already. "We killed PSU. We have a new FASTER defense. We would have beaten Texas by 30 and the Buckeyes wouldn?t stand a chance."
What bothers me most about ND having ?the most arrogant fans on the planet? is that the title rightfully belongs to us.
Let me try one more time. "Go B..", "Go Bl..."
Nope, can't do it.
25. We should have played Texas in week one.
I am one of those who believe OSU has only won 5 NCs. But let?s look at the seven many argue for.
In 1942 and1954 there was no Texas connection (I am not sure they were a state yet), BUT -
1957 - lost our opener to TCU and won the NC
1961 - tied TCU in the opener and won the NC
1968 - beat SMU in the opener and won the NC
1970 - opened with a win over A&M and won the NC
2002 - we started the season with a win over Tech
Can we nullify the NIU game? It was just a scrimmage after all.
26. Recruiting
My first year following recruiting closely was 2002. I was hung up on ?star? ratings and questioning the commits of unranked recruits. Took me a couple of years to figure out that if JT offers you are a stud. That is all you need to know about recruiting.
In the past four years OSU has recruited 38 athletes rated at 4 or 5 stars. That is enough for an 11 man O, an 11 man D and 16 subs.
So, when they blew the whistle to start the biggest regular season game of the past decade who was starting?
Three Stars Athletes:
Datish
Jenkins
Washington (we started in the nickel)
Pittman
Russel
Barton
Gholston
Laurinitais
Two Stars Athletes:
Downing
Richardson
And of course, former walk on Yao Smith.
That is fully half of our starting lineup.
There is only ONE recruiting guru.
27. "Who Dat" award
Two years ago we landed a kid from Indiana - that hotbed of football talent - by the name of Donald Washington. He was a long jumper for nuts sake. A three star recruit rated the #90 WR in the country. The very definition of MAC talent.
Saturday while stars like Jam O sat the bench he was making 5 tackles and returning a fumble for 48 yards. Kid played solid D. An absolute keeper.
28. Coach Tressel
I am only beginning to understand how great of a coach he is.
I just described his recruiting. His game prep last night was masterful. Our second team OL played on the second series of the game. We replaced inexperienced defensive players with even more inexperienced defensive players all night long. And it was Texas who was gasping for breath in the Austin heat of the fourth quarter.
And without the support of hard evidence I firmly believe he can tell when you have a team beat. He can look from the sidelines, size up who is hurting and know whether he needs to keep playing hard or start running out the clock. I have seen it too many times.
But IMO his most impressive stat is a record of 7-2 versus top 10 teams. Think about that one for a second. When playing the best of the best he wins 78% of the time. His only two losses were in a winnable game to last years NC and his sole top 10 butt whipping - Michigan in 2003.
These are games against the best athletes and the best coaches in CFB. 78%.
29. BEAT MICHIGAN
I remember vividly the last two times OSU entered the year #1. Both times we made nice runs.
I was sitting in the open end when just in front of me an MSU player tipped away our last gasp pass to the end zone in 1998.
But most of all I remember 1969. I was a student who had celebrated the NC the season before. We rolled through eight games with nobody closer than 27 points. Then we went to Ann Arbor. To this day it is my most painful football memory.
Next to the play of Vince Young the biggest factor in the Texas NC last year was the hiring of a new DC. Well, Michigan has a new DC and they just might start making use of all that talent they have been stockpiling.
I view this season in three parts. Part 1 was getting past Texas. Part two is running the table to November 18th. Part three is beating Michigan. That last part may be our biggest challenge.
1. First things first.
I got me a NEW Barcalounger. Brown leather, cushy seats, most comfortable chair I have ever owned. Yet it has the magical property of allowing an aging, out of shape, overweight man to instantly leap to his feet from a full recline.
I did it half a dozen times on Saturday.
(OK, I never really reclined, but I did ease back off the edge of my seat a couple of times.)
2. A salute to the Texas fans.
I am still waiting for any horror stories about fan treatment in Austin. And I have also witnessed a lot of class from Texas fans on this and other boards. If I seem a bit boastful in some of my comments, please excuse my exuberance. I mean no disrespect to a great program, coach and fans. But I am one happy Buckeye.
3. There are wins and there are wins.
And there are two kinds of wins.
Last year Texas beat OSU, but they left the door open for endless discussions of what might have been. Same goes for Texas over USC (just ask any USC fan). And in 2002 half our wins were in games where our opponent remained unconvinced who the better team was (please DON'T ask Miami fans).
Last night was the other kind of win.
It was their house. It was their weather. And it was burnt Orange that was gasping for breath and looking for license numbers in the 4th quarter.
4. Smith
Last week I asked if at the end of this season we might look back at Smith's career and say he was the best ever at OSU. Why wait? There has never been a more talented quarterback in S&G.
Saturday night he was masterful and he did it without his legs. The legs that two years ago many of us believed were the only tools he possessed.
5. Matthew McConaughey
I will still go to see his films, but from now on they will ALL be comedies.
6. Tackle, Tackle, Tackle!!!! Tackle dammit!!
How many times did I shout that Saturday night? I could hear you guys too. I expected our defensive issues to come from problems with schemes. People out of position. Missed assignments. Not from lack of technique.
I saw several problems. Poor angles. Failure to wrap up. Over pursuit. But more than anything I didn't see 11 Silver Bullets streaking to the ball. They were tentative - and that could be expected. There was a lot of lateral movement and a lot of good blocking by Texas. These are new kids who are still thinking before they react and a lateral running game leaves room for thinking. It will be OK.
But as frustrating as it was, at the end of the day look at what we accomplished. They stood tall when it counted. They improved as the game went on and never let the big play get away from them. Speed makes up for a lot of mistakes.
7. Texas D
To be clear, the Texas D was stout throughout. But I have to say that the first series or two their defenders hit our ball carriers as consistently hard as I have ever seen a team hit. There was some pop and it was scary.
8. Enough about the Richardson penalty.
Wrong call, but anytime you have to look close at the replay it is an acceptable call. It was more frustrating because it was our 5th penalty against zero for Texas.
But Texas moved the ball and for them to come away without a TD in that game would have been misleading. Our D was good, but certainly not any better than the score reflected.
9. Commercials
Remember the ones where the gas pump sabotages the car that gets high mileage? Well good for the gas pump!
What kind of jerk obstructs the pump while they run in to get a bag of chips? If you don?t want gas then park off to the side. I had enough anxiety Saturday night without working up a case of gas station rage.
10. Texas Play Calling
I am seeing a lot of talk - mostly from Texas fans - about their play calling. How it cost them the game. "Why go away from the run when it is working so well".
The way I always understood it is that you don't go with something till the other team stops it. You go with it till they make adjustments to stop it, and then try to exploit those adjustments. It is easy to second guess Texas after the fact, but could they really have beaten us without making their passing game work? I don?t think so. In fact their only scoring drive exhibited their best combination of passing and running of the night.
Also, if you look at the stats Charles and Young had more yards on their first six carries (first three for each that is) than they did the rest of the night (their last 21 carries). We were making adjustments.
Besides, Blue Cross called and made them stop running the option. They keep stats for sacks, hits and hurries, but I don?t think they count the number of times the QB gets hit after the toss on an option. McCoy got hit damn near every time - and hit pretty good.
11. Colt McCoy
McCoy is the real deal.
Reading schemes from good D's is something that only comes from experience. (Art Schlichter threw four picks in his first start.)
McCoy ran the option well, threw the ball nicely most of the night and took hit after hit and kept coming.
It is good that we got him before he hits his stride. Of course our D has yet to hit their stride as well.
12. Gurus
So, somewhere out there is an ESPN talking head who said there was a 99.9 percent chance Texas would win. Staked his football reputation on it.
What happens now? Does he hide in the bushes for a while and then reappear like the game was never played?
And as for Mark May -
EVERY time OSU plays a big game this butt-wipe not only picks them to lose but lists ten reasons they can't possibly win. Either he knows absolutely nothing about football, or it is personal.
Much as I dislike the clown I will give him credit for knowing at least something about the game. So if ESPN wants to continue to put him on the air the least they can do is make him wear a dunce cap when he talks about the Buckeyes.
13. The new clock rule.
If there was ever a game that revealed the absurdity of the new clock rules it was Saturday night. It will take a flawless performance by anyone to enter the fourth quarter down 10 against JT and mount a comeback (especially if you are also restarting the clock after false starts). OK, I didn't mind the rule Saturday, but it is horrible for the game. A travesty.
14. On Being #1.
Normally I am not a fan of entering the season #1, but it may prove to be quite fortuitous this year.
Yesterday our scheduled opponents went 5-7. Of the five wins two were in OT against Buffalo and Syracuse. A third was by one point over Ball ST. One of our future opponents lost to New Hampshire. Rutgers is improving, but 33-zip?
Iowa and PSU will have better days, MSU will have worse day. And already the pollsters are giving us credit for beating the #8 team in the country, not #2. To impress pollsters against weaker opponents you need to put up some big numbers, and that is not JT?s long suit.
Long and the short of it is that we could go undefeated and end up #2. Don't laugh. ND is the media darling - as is USC, although not to the absurd extent of the Irish. Let those two teams run the table (still not sure I can get the words "Go Blue" out of my mouth next Saturday) and then match-up against one another the week after we beat Michigan and it is not out of the question for us to be jumped in the polls.
Clearly I am borrowing trouble here, and it machs nicht in any case whether we go to the championship game as #1 or #2. But for the moment it is good to be the king.
15. Mad Cowtown Disease.
The flip side of our SOS issues is that things look sweet all the way to November 18th. I know, I know, one game at a time. Your next opponent is your toughest opponent. Yada, yada, yada?.
There are certainly challenges ahead, we have a target on our back and we have to get ready every week. But fact is we are the #1 team in the country and our schedule is laid out quite nicely. Our O is a force and our D will only get better - and it is already pretty good.
If you own anything red or gray adorn it with a couple of O's and put a price tag on it because this town is going to get a bit crazy. I pity those folks who don't care much for football - let alone OSU football - because they are going to read about it in the papers, see it on TV, and hear about it at the water cooler. The biggest show in town just got a lot bigger.
Enjoy the ride and savor every minute - it doesn't happen every day, every year, or even every decade.
16. Corruption of our kids
I finally figured out what is wrong with our younger generation.
My grandson is almost four and really likes to sing. Well, two of his favorite songs deal with whether or not someone named ?Dinah? is going to blow and what we should all do when some other lady comes.
Children are our future! Enough with the hidden meanings double entendres.
17. You should see my nuts!
Every year I brag about my nuts. Well, this year they are bigger than ever. Gonna be some mighty fine necklaces coming out of this crop.
18. Halftime Adjustments
I have been nervous about this game all summer. But I started to feel real confidence at half time when I realized that the coaches were going in to make half time adjustments.
Questions for OSU included: Which of the multitude of defenders would play key roles? What new blitzes or coverage packages might be employed? Which of the offensive weapons would we emphasize? The hardest question was how to slow the Texas running game.
For Texas the questions were more challenging. They had slowed the OSU offense, but how do you stop Gonzo and still control Ginn? Or not open things up for Nicol? Or God forbid get rid of the spy and watch Smith shred you on the ground.
Offensively the Texas running game was working, but not getting points on the board. It was high risk to ask McCoy to throw the ball downfield. A kid can't learn to read coverages during the half time break.
I really liked where we stood at the half.
19. Playing tough games early.
We won. So it isn't the topic of the day. But had we lost the wisdom of playing a top notch opponent this early in the season would have been put to serious question. Why risk your poll ranking and a potential title game?
Balderdash.
You don't drop a 400 HP engine in your car so you can drive the kids to school. We have a great team and a great program. Let's play some football.
It will be a sad day when all we are worried about is making sure we have a chance at the NC. I pity the pathetic West Virginia fans cheering as they beat up on the Eastern Washington's of the world so they can try to back into the BCS championship game.
Look at the hype. The drama. The excitement. The incredible football we saw Saturday night. College football is more than a single game played in January.
Let's start the countdown right now. Two years from Wednesday we play USC in Los Angeles. I am already starting to get pumped.
20. Dancing with the Stars
Am I the only one who can't wait to see Emmitt Smith dance? Would have loved to hear more, but they went back to covering the first regular season match up between the top two teams in a decade.
Maybe we can go to a continuous running clock so TV can have more time to pimp itself.
21. Great Programs.
If you set out to list the top ten football programs of all time your list would have to include Michigan, Notre Dame, and Texas. Those might all be in your top five.
In our last four games we have beaten Michigan, Notre Dame, and Texas.
Savor it. These ARE the glory years.
22. Laurinaitis.
I know an athlete when I see him. That is why this spring I predicted Laurinaitis wouldn't be able to hold onto his starting spot this fall with all the competition.
I do believe he contributed to some of the Texas running success along with the rest of the D, but it was still a great game and the start of a wonderful career.
Between he, Freeman and Jenkins we can start to hang some names on this Defense.
23. Special Teams
How about A J Trapasso? With a coach who believes the punt is the most important play in football how about a kid who kicks 6 times for an average of 50.8 and net yards of 44.2?
And let's not forget Pettrey's net yard average of 45 on 5 kickoffs - continuing the standard of the past few years.
As for FGs. All I can say is that if you are going to have an off year this is the year to do it. But I am not sold on that yet. It is early.
I must take my hat off to Texas once again. Six punts, three to Ginn. And a net of 5 return yards. That is good coverage.
24. Can we play Notre Dame next week?
Pretty please?
I can hear them already. "We killed PSU. We have a new FASTER defense. We would have beaten Texas by 30 and the Buckeyes wouldn?t stand a chance."
What bothers me most about ND having ?the most arrogant fans on the planet? is that the title rightfully belongs to us.
Let me try one more time. "Go B..", "Go Bl..."
Nope, can't do it.
25. We should have played Texas in week one.
I am one of those who believe OSU has only won 5 NCs. But let?s look at the seven many argue for.
In 1942 and1954 there was no Texas connection (I am not sure they were a state yet), BUT -
1957 - lost our opener to TCU and won the NC
1961 - tied TCU in the opener and won the NC
1968 - beat SMU in the opener and won the NC
1970 - opened with a win over A&M and won the NC
2002 - we started the season with a win over Tech
Can we nullify the NIU game? It was just a scrimmage after all.
26. Recruiting
My first year following recruiting closely was 2002. I was hung up on ?star? ratings and questioning the commits of unranked recruits. Took me a couple of years to figure out that if JT offers you are a stud. That is all you need to know about recruiting.
In the past four years OSU has recruited 38 athletes rated at 4 or 5 stars. That is enough for an 11 man O, an 11 man D and 16 subs.
So, when they blew the whistle to start the biggest regular season game of the past decade who was starting?
Three Stars Athletes:
Datish
Jenkins
Washington (we started in the nickel)
Pittman
Russel
Barton
Gholston
Laurinitais
Two Stars Athletes:
Downing
Richardson
And of course, former walk on Yao Smith.
That is fully half of our starting lineup.
There is only ONE recruiting guru.
27. "Who Dat" award
Two years ago we landed a kid from Indiana - that hotbed of football talent - by the name of Donald Washington. He was a long jumper for nuts sake. A three star recruit rated the #90 WR in the country. The very definition of MAC talent.
Saturday while stars like Jam O sat the bench he was making 5 tackles and returning a fumble for 48 yards. Kid played solid D. An absolute keeper.
28. Coach Tressel
I am only beginning to understand how great of a coach he is.
I just described his recruiting. His game prep last night was masterful. Our second team OL played on the second series of the game. We replaced inexperienced defensive players with even more inexperienced defensive players all night long. And it was Texas who was gasping for breath in the Austin heat of the fourth quarter.
And without the support of hard evidence I firmly believe he can tell when you have a team beat. He can look from the sidelines, size up who is hurting and know whether he needs to keep playing hard or start running out the clock. I have seen it too many times.
But IMO his most impressive stat is a record of 7-2 versus top 10 teams. Think about that one for a second. When playing the best of the best he wins 78% of the time. His only two losses were in a winnable game to last years NC and his sole top 10 butt whipping - Michigan in 2003.
These are games against the best athletes and the best coaches in CFB. 78%.
29. BEAT MICHIGAN
I remember vividly the last two times OSU entered the year #1. Both times we made nice runs.
I was sitting in the open end when just in front of me an MSU player tipped away our last gasp pass to the end zone in 1998.
But most of all I remember 1969. I was a student who had celebrated the NC the season before. We rolled through eight games with nobody closer than 27 points. Then we went to Ann Arbor. To this day it is my most painful football memory.
Next to the play of Vince Young the biggest factor in the Texas NC last year was the hiring of a new DC. Well, Michigan has a new DC and they just might start making use of all that talent they have been stockpiling.
I view this season in three parts. Part 1 was getting past Texas. Part two is running the table to November 18th. Part three is beating Michigan. That last part may be our biggest challenge.
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