A. MIKE TOMCZAK REVISITED
Not since a fourth down pass thrown out of bounds to stop the clock a quarter century ago have I seen a player or coach for OSU make such a foolish decision - until Saturday.
With a 15 point lead, 6 and a half minutes left in the game, the ball on the 15 yard line and fourth down - you end it. You don't give in to your young quarterback. You don't try to prove confidence in your offense. You bring on your field goal kicker, but the ball through the uprights and make the other team score three times to beat you.
You let the fans start their staggered departure from the stadium. You let ESPN talk about Navy's valiant new quarterback - not how thick was the skin on our teeth by which we escaped an upset.
We fans were asked to show respect for Navy's football team Saturday. Tressel should have heeded our example. I love the man. But that wasn't a coaching decision - it was a simple math equation.
B. THE O
Those who keep saying JT can't open it up must be eating crow after he took the wraps off his new "Tight End Eligible" play. This could revolutionize the game more than the zone read option.
And as much as I like Ballard, it was the catch by Stoney that really got me excited. A RS Frosh with his speed could take us where we might have been headed when Louis Irizarry imploded.
Or am I deluding myself?
Brandon Saine has delivered the first installment on our expectations from two seasons back. And Boom is still Boom. Why he was not more so is perhaps a question for the OL rather than the RBs.
C. OL
I have only watched a little of the replay, but the pressure I saw was coming from missed assignments (many by skilled position players) rather than getting manhandled. Assignments are the easier of the two to fix. However, the lack of more push on the run against an undersized Navy is more difficult to explain.
I am not suggesting our offense was horrid. I genuinely believe this OL will be excellent by the end of the season. Unfortunately, we have an important game next week and I am hard pressed to believe that will be true by then.
On the other hand, who even needs an OL if your QB is immune to being sacked?
D. QB CONTROVERSY
Passing is clearly improved. Game management is coming along nicely. Physicality is off the charts. And when he runs it is straight out of Salvador Dali. He will do some remarkable things this season and compile a highlight reel that will be one for the ages.
But if he can't stretch the field against USC it creates serious problems for our offense. They are too athletic and too fast and they do have the potential to manhandle our OL. And tough as he is, if three Trojans hit him, Pryor will go down.
E. CARTER
This is no longer speculation among the fans. This is a kid who could rewrite OSU record books. With all his speed Ted Ginn had a hard time finding the field as a Frosh until he could learn to run routes. Yet here comes Carter on the first series of the season without even playing Spring ball.
Watch this space.
F. IF IT'S REALLY THE MOST IMPORTANT PLAY IN FOOTBALL
............. How did a kicker named "Tress Way" end up at Oklahoma?
G. COLEMAN AND THE PLAY OF THE GAME
We are very fortunate to have Coleman back this season and Saturday he showed why. But despite several of his great plays (and giving full consideration to the incredible pick and run by Rolle) I would be tempted to give the play of the game honors to Ricky Dobbs.
After opening with a 15 play, 80 yard TD drive Navy failed to gain more than 15 yards on any of their subsequent 5 series. And when Coleman - one of our surest tacklers - hit Dobbs inside the Navy 10 on third and 5 it looked like they would be punting again and giving Pryor great field position for a drive to put the game completely out of reach. Instead Dobbs busted loose for a few more yards and a first down that kept alive a second 15 play TD drive - as long a drive as you will ever see in any stadium - that did more than just put Navy back in the game. You can't keep a D on the field for 8:48 and 99 yards without having impacts that will be felt the rest of the game both mentally and physically.
Kid is a baller. And their ain't no Kineisology program in Annapolis.
H. SAUSAGE REPORT
I'm off nachos for good. Mexican food in general for that matter (sticking your tongue down in a taco is just too messy).
The best bargain in the Shoe is a Bob Evans Hot Italian Sausage from a particular booth on C Deck - the only booth I have found that adds grilled peppers and onions.
And the booth is clean. The guys who run it go to remarkable lengths to keep it that way.
I. THE D
As much as we struggled to beat them by land and air I am grateful it did not rain. I would hate to see the result had we faced them in their native milieu.
A well executed option moves the emphasis from athleticism to decision making and our D struggled to make the right decisions against an O they could not emulate in practice. (The effect on the overall D is more obvious from C deck than on TV.) I glibly commented last week that JT's opening attack might be "B3, C4, D5, E6, F7". As it turns out that sort of guesswork was not far off the mark. It is tough to pin your ears back when you are on your heels.
So I was not surprised with their initial success and was indeed pleased with how we adjusted and shut them down for the remainder of the first half. It is more difficult to explain what happened in the second. The half where our athletes should have worn them down and dominated.
If I were pressed to justify I would reach for the argument about what mentally happens to a team when they feel they have put their opponent away. You lose that "edge" and it is tough to get it back. Particularly against a more disciplined team (read "team that does not commit three consecutive penalties on offense".). Then again, if Coleman makes the tackle on Dobbs and we are looking at totally different football game and ESPN is showing more of Pryor and less of Dobbs.
I saw some LBs who were a bit raw and perhaps a half step slow (Spitler in particular, although he is nursing a ding). I saw a couple of mistakes in the secondary that would trouble me less were they not from experienced players. Certainly Anderson Russell did little to make us forget the end of the Texas game. Blown assignment by someone else or poor coverage- it simply won't wash next week.
But all in all our performance was not as troubling as 27 points and 342 yards offense might indicate (given that such performances generally indicate a great deal of trouble).
In the end my concern is not so much our performance per se, but that this may be the worst scheduling decision since Napoleon's invasion of Russia.
J. STAT OF THE GAME
Third down conversions.
Navy 8 of 12.
OSU 3 of 12 - including zero for our last 7. Couple that with 2 TDs in 6 red zone trips and you have an offense that takes on one of the less endearing aspects of 2008.
K. CELL PHONES
Cell phone etiquette (and outright safety) has been at the top of my pet peeve list for some time. But Saturday I witnessed a new dimension when - in the midst of a moment of silence for Navy - I heard "..... ring-ring .... "Hello. Oh, Hi! Blah, blah, blah."
Who ARE these people? Do they believe that iPhone teleportation app they downloaded actually works?
L. PARTICIPATION REPORT
I haven't heard much about team injuries of late, yet several players were not dressed to play. These include Howard, Domicone, Gantz, and Orhian Johnson (yet again). As for next week - we need all the athletes like Posey we can muster.
As for true Frosh seeing the field, along with Carter the official site identifies Klein, Barnett, Simon, Z Boren, A Homan and - much to my surprise - Fragel. (I strongly suspect this last name is an error. The official site does have some credibility issues having listed Johnathan Newsome as our starting Left Tackle.)
However, I was not surprised to read - despite being listed on the two deep - that none of our true Frosh OL saw the field. Don't look for that anytime soon unless injuries force our hand.
M. NAVY CHEERLEADERS
Unnerving to say the least. They looked JUST like girls.
N. I HAVE A FUNGUS ON MY NUTS
Sorry, I don't make the news, I just report it. I dump the entrails on the ground and read what is before me.
The past several seasons - despite the best efforts of local squirrels - I have been having some remarkable back yard buckeye harvests. And these results have been accompanied by lots of Saturday afternoon fun. Not just OSU wins, but unprecedented struggles by Notre Lame and that team up north.
So with the mild summer I was hoping for something special this year. But alas, there is nothing of exceptional size. No great quantities. No pods containing 2, 3, and even 4 beautifully polished necklace bead wannabes.
And to make it worse, some are simply rotten. Attacked by a fungus the likes of which I have not seen since I humped a pumpkin in 11th grade (it was on a dare). Is this a precursor of doom?
Saturday was not encouraging.
Suddenly Charlie Weiss is the genius ND fans always said he was and nobody really ever wanted to fire the man. UM is not two years away. They are already scalping BCS Championship tickets. And I won't be able to leave the house this week without seeing the ubiquitous maize and blue with its wretched mothball stench.
And here we are looking forward to the challenge upon which season goals hinge - all following a Saturday performance that gives little reason for optimism.
Can we win? Do the nuts portend doom and gloom? Is Mark May getting similar results from his buckeye trees? Will I go through life actually believing that events in the world around me can be predicted by the well being of the aesculus glabra in my own back yard?
Or perhaps this has nothing to do with football. Maybe my trees are simply giving me a heads up about the future of health care.
O. GET THE RED OUT
My understanding is that fans are encouraged to wear scarlet for every home game this season. Granted, this was just a dress rehearsal for ?"paint the town scarlet" week. But where did all the white come from? I know it was warm and white is cool. But next week's game will be post Labor Day and time for fashion conscious OSU fans to banish all white to the closet.
Surely think we can count on OSU fans to change into the appropriate attire for a game of this magnitude.
http://wesclark.com/rrr/ohio2.jpg
P. ANAL SEX
You gotta try it once, right? So I finally found someone who was willing to introduce me.
First, I was told to fold my clothes precisely so. Then I had to pull the covers back exactly in half, then half again.
I guess I should have been more specific.
Q. SCOUTING USC
Reasons to be pessimistic:
1. I Saw enough of the USC game to be impressed with Barkley. Beyond that, forget the personnel losses. They only make room for more top recruits to get their chance. Their defense is fast and ferocious and the OL is stellar. Their receiving corps goes on forever with or without RoJo. And they might even have a RB or two.
2. The team that showed up in the Shoe this Saturday has a better chance of topping last season's debacle than pulling off the win.
3. It's a big game on a national stage.
4. We allowed pressure by making assignment mistakes - against a team that wasn't blitzing.
5. USC does slip up - particular against the weak sisters of the PAC 10. But the last time they lost a game outside the PAC was the NC against Texas in 2005.
Reasons to be optimistic:
1. We struggled against Navy because we really didn't prepare for them. We spent the entire fall focusing on USC. (Of course, this theory is belied by Rolle's pick. A play he was able to execute because OSU had been practicing against Navy's propensity to run that play from the spread.)
2. This is a night game in the Shoe against a ranked opponent. We haven't lost a night game in the Shoe to a ranked opponent since ..... well, the last time we played a night game night game in the Shoe against a ranked opponent.
3. Barkley was good against San Jose St. But it's not like he spread the ball all over. According to the box score he pretty much concentrated on 9 or 10 receivers. And there was no pressure. If we can apply pressure like we did against USC last year, uh, well, I guess we will look just like San Jose St. did Saturday.
4. Last year the USC players commented post game that they saw nothing that surprised them. Nothing they hadn't seen on film. Nothing that they had not prepared for. That is because JT didn't just spend this past summer preparing for this game. He has spent the past year and a half getting ready. Last year was setting them up for this year.
5. Tressel magic. No matter who we are facing we know that JT will find a way to win. Oops, sorry. I'm working from some old notes.
OK, those were weak. Let me try a little harder.
1. As always, the battle in the trenches says a lot about who wins. Clearly our DL will be much improved. But USC is simply loaded at every position on BOTH sides of the ball. The good news is, we don't have to dominate the line. If the battle is even close to being even on both sides I will take Pryor's athleticism over whatever it is Barkley is capable of doing.
2. Barkley also struggled on his first few drives. He admitted it was nerves. That was at home (in front of a less than full stadium I might add). Now we are talking about 105k screaming in his face in his first night game and first road game.
3. And he didn't just have time last week. He had all friggin' day. We will not give him that. Yet despite all that time he did not put the ball downfield. . If he wasn't ready to do so against San Jose, will Petey turn him loose against us? If they come with a similar attack - running the ball and going with simple, short routes - that takes some of the pressure off our D and plays to our strength.
4. Sure, we got picked apart last year. But the guy who did it is now the starting quarterback for the New York Jets. He was good. He was very, very good. He stretched the field to its very limits. And that is what starts the running game.
5. No, we didn't pull off any big surprises last year. Our surprise was the amount of time we used Pryor. In retrospect I believe that was JT's big hope. That he could get Pryor to the point he could make a difference. You don't do that by introducing new plays that have to work for two QBs as different as Pryor and Boeckman. It was too much to ask. Let's see what happens this time around.
6. The USC D is a machine. We won't put up big numbers. But we have viable weapons at every position and a QB who - despite his current limitations in the passing game - is flat out special. Last year when he was pressured the only choice his experience allowed was to try and run the ball. Tight End Eligible could be huge this week.
At some point Pryor is going to start having the remarkable performances we all know he is capable of. It might as well be Saturday.
7. Despite what anyone - including Vegas - may be saying, we still haven't played the game. I won't pretend I am optimistic. But the last time I was this concerned about a game I was in Tempe, Arizona on January 3rd, 2003.
8. Oh, and I do have this one tree that is fungus free. And I did find this one beautiful specimen. And I will have it in my pocket come Saturday.
R. THE BOTTOM LINE
Watching "the first American to orbit the moon" (as I learned on ESPN) dot the eye was great. But the emotional moment of Saturday's game was watching Spiels accept an award with his kids and wheelchair-bound Stefanie.
The rest is just football.
S. A FINAL WORD ON NEXT WEEK
This is it. Time to prove OSU can step up in the big games. Time to put a little charcoal lighter on the sofa and show our team spirit. Oh, and wear something red.
As for myself, I will be in attendance for USC. But by Sunday afternoon I should be hiking on Mt Rainier. So, if by some unexpected chance things do not go so well the absence of an Observations thread is not because I am hiding in the bushes. I will be hiding in the mountains instead.
With that, I am off to the back yard to try and improve our chances. (Do you know how many gallons of hydrocortisone it takes to treat one buckeye tree?)
Not since a fourth down pass thrown out of bounds to stop the clock a quarter century ago have I seen a player or coach for OSU make such a foolish decision - until Saturday.
With a 15 point lead, 6 and a half minutes left in the game, the ball on the 15 yard line and fourth down - you end it. You don't give in to your young quarterback. You don't try to prove confidence in your offense. You bring on your field goal kicker, but the ball through the uprights and make the other team score three times to beat you.
You let the fans start their staggered departure from the stadium. You let ESPN talk about Navy's valiant new quarterback - not how thick was the skin on our teeth by which we escaped an upset.
We fans were asked to show respect for Navy's football team Saturday. Tressel should have heeded our example. I love the man. But that wasn't a coaching decision - it was a simple math equation.
B. THE O
Those who keep saying JT can't open it up must be eating crow after he took the wraps off his new "Tight End Eligible" play. This could revolutionize the game more than the zone read option.
And as much as I like Ballard, it was the catch by Stoney that really got me excited. A RS Frosh with his speed could take us where we might have been headed when Louis Irizarry imploded.
Or am I deluding myself?
Brandon Saine has delivered the first installment on our expectations from two seasons back. And Boom is still Boom. Why he was not more so is perhaps a question for the OL rather than the RBs.
C. OL
I have only watched a little of the replay, but the pressure I saw was coming from missed assignments (many by skilled position players) rather than getting manhandled. Assignments are the easier of the two to fix. However, the lack of more push on the run against an undersized Navy is more difficult to explain.
I am not suggesting our offense was horrid. I genuinely believe this OL will be excellent by the end of the season. Unfortunately, we have an important game next week and I am hard pressed to believe that will be true by then.
On the other hand, who even needs an OL if your QB is immune to being sacked?
D. QB CONTROVERSY
Passing is clearly improved. Game management is coming along nicely. Physicality is off the charts. And when he runs it is straight out of Salvador Dali. He will do some remarkable things this season and compile a highlight reel that will be one for the ages.
But if he can't stretch the field against USC it creates serious problems for our offense. They are too athletic and too fast and they do have the potential to manhandle our OL. And tough as he is, if three Trojans hit him, Pryor will go down.
E. CARTER
This is no longer speculation among the fans. This is a kid who could rewrite OSU record books. With all his speed Ted Ginn had a hard time finding the field as a Frosh until he could learn to run routes. Yet here comes Carter on the first series of the season without even playing Spring ball.
Watch this space.
F. IF IT'S REALLY THE MOST IMPORTANT PLAY IN FOOTBALL
............. How did a kicker named "Tress Way" end up at Oklahoma?
G. COLEMAN AND THE PLAY OF THE GAME
We are very fortunate to have Coleman back this season and Saturday he showed why. But despite several of his great plays (and giving full consideration to the incredible pick and run by Rolle) I would be tempted to give the play of the game honors to Ricky Dobbs.
After opening with a 15 play, 80 yard TD drive Navy failed to gain more than 15 yards on any of their subsequent 5 series. And when Coleman - one of our surest tacklers - hit Dobbs inside the Navy 10 on third and 5 it looked like they would be punting again and giving Pryor great field position for a drive to put the game completely out of reach. Instead Dobbs busted loose for a few more yards and a first down that kept alive a second 15 play TD drive - as long a drive as you will ever see in any stadium - that did more than just put Navy back in the game. You can't keep a D on the field for 8:48 and 99 yards without having impacts that will be felt the rest of the game both mentally and physically.
Kid is a baller. And their ain't no Kineisology program in Annapolis.
H. SAUSAGE REPORT
I'm off nachos for good. Mexican food in general for that matter (sticking your tongue down in a taco is just too messy).
The best bargain in the Shoe is a Bob Evans Hot Italian Sausage from a particular booth on C Deck - the only booth I have found that adds grilled peppers and onions.
And the booth is clean. The guys who run it go to remarkable lengths to keep it that way.
I. THE D
As much as we struggled to beat them by land and air I am grateful it did not rain. I would hate to see the result had we faced them in their native milieu.
A well executed option moves the emphasis from athleticism to decision making and our D struggled to make the right decisions against an O they could not emulate in practice. (The effect on the overall D is more obvious from C deck than on TV.) I glibly commented last week that JT's opening attack might be "B3, C4, D5, E6, F7". As it turns out that sort of guesswork was not far off the mark. It is tough to pin your ears back when you are on your heels.
So I was not surprised with their initial success and was indeed pleased with how we adjusted and shut them down for the remainder of the first half. It is more difficult to explain what happened in the second. The half where our athletes should have worn them down and dominated.
If I were pressed to justify I would reach for the argument about what mentally happens to a team when they feel they have put their opponent away. You lose that "edge" and it is tough to get it back. Particularly against a more disciplined team (read "team that does not commit three consecutive penalties on offense".). Then again, if Coleman makes the tackle on Dobbs and we are looking at totally different football game and ESPN is showing more of Pryor and less of Dobbs.
I saw some LBs who were a bit raw and perhaps a half step slow (Spitler in particular, although he is nursing a ding). I saw a couple of mistakes in the secondary that would trouble me less were they not from experienced players. Certainly Anderson Russell did little to make us forget the end of the Texas game. Blown assignment by someone else or poor coverage- it simply won't wash next week.
But all in all our performance was not as troubling as 27 points and 342 yards offense might indicate (given that such performances generally indicate a great deal of trouble).
In the end my concern is not so much our performance per se, but that this may be the worst scheduling decision since Napoleon's invasion of Russia.
J. STAT OF THE GAME
Third down conversions.
Navy 8 of 12.
OSU 3 of 12 - including zero for our last 7. Couple that with 2 TDs in 6 red zone trips and you have an offense that takes on one of the less endearing aspects of 2008.
K. CELL PHONES
Cell phone etiquette (and outright safety) has been at the top of my pet peeve list for some time. But Saturday I witnessed a new dimension when - in the midst of a moment of silence for Navy - I heard "..... ring-ring .... "Hello. Oh, Hi! Blah, blah, blah."
Who ARE these people? Do they believe that iPhone teleportation app they downloaded actually works?
L. PARTICIPATION REPORT
I haven't heard much about team injuries of late, yet several players were not dressed to play. These include Howard, Domicone, Gantz, and Orhian Johnson (yet again). As for next week - we need all the athletes like Posey we can muster.
As for true Frosh seeing the field, along with Carter the official site identifies Klein, Barnett, Simon, Z Boren, A Homan and - much to my surprise - Fragel. (I strongly suspect this last name is an error. The official site does have some credibility issues having listed Johnathan Newsome as our starting Left Tackle.)
However, I was not surprised to read - despite being listed on the two deep - that none of our true Frosh OL saw the field. Don't look for that anytime soon unless injuries force our hand.
M. NAVY CHEERLEADERS
Unnerving to say the least. They looked JUST like girls.
N. I HAVE A FUNGUS ON MY NUTS
Sorry, I don't make the news, I just report it. I dump the entrails on the ground and read what is before me.
The past several seasons - despite the best efforts of local squirrels - I have been having some remarkable back yard buckeye harvests. And these results have been accompanied by lots of Saturday afternoon fun. Not just OSU wins, but unprecedented struggles by Notre Lame and that team up north.
So with the mild summer I was hoping for something special this year. But alas, there is nothing of exceptional size. No great quantities. No pods containing 2, 3, and even 4 beautifully polished necklace bead wannabes.
And to make it worse, some are simply rotten. Attacked by a fungus the likes of which I have not seen since I humped a pumpkin in 11th grade (it was on a dare). Is this a precursor of doom?
Saturday was not encouraging.
Suddenly Charlie Weiss is the genius ND fans always said he was and nobody really ever wanted to fire the man. UM is not two years away. They are already scalping BCS Championship tickets. And I won't be able to leave the house this week without seeing the ubiquitous maize and blue with its wretched mothball stench.
And here we are looking forward to the challenge upon which season goals hinge - all following a Saturday performance that gives little reason for optimism.
Can we win? Do the nuts portend doom and gloom? Is Mark May getting similar results from his buckeye trees? Will I go through life actually believing that events in the world around me can be predicted by the well being of the aesculus glabra in my own back yard?
Or perhaps this has nothing to do with football. Maybe my trees are simply giving me a heads up about the future of health care.
O. GET THE RED OUT
My understanding is that fans are encouraged to wear scarlet for every home game this season. Granted, this was just a dress rehearsal for ?"paint the town scarlet" week. But where did all the white come from? I know it was warm and white is cool. But next week's game will be post Labor Day and time for fashion conscious OSU fans to banish all white to the closet.
Surely think we can count on OSU fans to change into the appropriate attire for a game of this magnitude.
http://wesclark.com/rrr/ohio2.jpg
P. ANAL SEX
You gotta try it once, right? So I finally found someone who was willing to introduce me.
First, I was told to fold my clothes precisely so. Then I had to pull the covers back exactly in half, then half again.
I guess I should have been more specific.
Q. SCOUTING USC
Reasons to be pessimistic:
1. I Saw enough of the USC game to be impressed with Barkley. Beyond that, forget the personnel losses. They only make room for more top recruits to get their chance. Their defense is fast and ferocious and the OL is stellar. Their receiving corps goes on forever with or without RoJo. And they might even have a RB or two.
2. The team that showed up in the Shoe this Saturday has a better chance of topping last season's debacle than pulling off the win.
3. It's a big game on a national stage.
4. We allowed pressure by making assignment mistakes - against a team that wasn't blitzing.
5. USC does slip up - particular against the weak sisters of the PAC 10. But the last time they lost a game outside the PAC was the NC against Texas in 2005.
Reasons to be optimistic:
1. We struggled against Navy because we really didn't prepare for them. We spent the entire fall focusing on USC. (Of course, this theory is belied by Rolle's pick. A play he was able to execute because OSU had been practicing against Navy's propensity to run that play from the spread.)
2. This is a night game in the Shoe against a ranked opponent. We haven't lost a night game in the Shoe to a ranked opponent since ..... well, the last time we played a night game night game in the Shoe against a ranked opponent.
3. Barkley was good against San Jose St. But it's not like he spread the ball all over. According to the box score he pretty much concentrated on 9 or 10 receivers. And there was no pressure. If we can apply pressure like we did against USC last year, uh, well, I guess we will look just like San Jose St. did Saturday.
4. Last year the USC players commented post game that they saw nothing that surprised them. Nothing they hadn't seen on film. Nothing that they had not prepared for. That is because JT didn't just spend this past summer preparing for this game. He has spent the past year and a half getting ready. Last year was setting them up for this year.
5. Tressel magic. No matter who we are facing we know that JT will find a way to win. Oops, sorry. I'm working from some old notes.
OK, those were weak. Let me try a little harder.
1. As always, the battle in the trenches says a lot about who wins. Clearly our DL will be much improved. But USC is simply loaded at every position on BOTH sides of the ball. The good news is, we don't have to dominate the line. If the battle is even close to being even on both sides I will take Pryor's athleticism over whatever it is Barkley is capable of doing.
2. Barkley also struggled on his first few drives. He admitted it was nerves. That was at home (in front of a less than full stadium I might add). Now we are talking about 105k screaming in his face in his first night game and first road game.
3. And he didn't just have time last week. He had all friggin' day. We will not give him that. Yet despite all that time he did not put the ball downfield. . If he wasn't ready to do so against San Jose, will Petey turn him loose against us? If they come with a similar attack - running the ball and going with simple, short routes - that takes some of the pressure off our D and plays to our strength.
4. Sure, we got picked apart last year. But the guy who did it is now the starting quarterback for the New York Jets. He was good. He was very, very good. He stretched the field to its very limits. And that is what starts the running game.
5. No, we didn't pull off any big surprises last year. Our surprise was the amount of time we used Pryor. In retrospect I believe that was JT's big hope. That he could get Pryor to the point he could make a difference. You don't do that by introducing new plays that have to work for two QBs as different as Pryor and Boeckman. It was too much to ask. Let's see what happens this time around.
6. The USC D is a machine. We won't put up big numbers. But we have viable weapons at every position and a QB who - despite his current limitations in the passing game - is flat out special. Last year when he was pressured the only choice his experience allowed was to try and run the ball. Tight End Eligible could be huge this week.
At some point Pryor is going to start having the remarkable performances we all know he is capable of. It might as well be Saturday.
7. Despite what anyone - including Vegas - may be saying, we still haven't played the game. I won't pretend I am optimistic. But the last time I was this concerned about a game I was in Tempe, Arizona on January 3rd, 2003.
8. Oh, and I do have this one tree that is fungus free. And I did find this one beautiful specimen. And I will have it in my pocket come Saturday.
R. THE BOTTOM LINE
Watching "the first American to orbit the moon" (as I learned on ESPN) dot the eye was great. But the emotional moment of Saturday's game was watching Spiels accept an award with his kids and wheelchair-bound Stefanie.
The rest is just football.
S. A FINAL WORD ON NEXT WEEK
This is it. Time to prove OSU can step up in the big games. Time to put a little charcoal lighter on the sofa and show our team spirit. Oh, and wear something red.
As for myself, I will be in attendance for USC. But by Sunday afternoon I should be hiking on Mt Rainier. So, if by some unexpected chance things do not go so well the absence of an Observations thread is not because I am hiding in the bushes. I will be hiding in the mountains instead.
With that, I am off to the back yard to try and improve our chances. (Do you know how many gallons of hydrocortisone it takes to treat one buckeye tree?)
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