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TE Jake Ballard (Super Bowl Champion)

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scarletngray;1561540; said:
By this honor, just like the coaches did with Brandon Saine, they are saying to Jake, "we are expecting BIG things from you this Saturday."

GO BUCKS!!

:osu:
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Even though Ballard is captain, he was not well (the flu) and did not practice part of this week. I have a sneaking suspicion Stoneburner may be a bigger part of the offense this week than we are used to seeing.
 
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COVER STORY
Tight end Jake Ballard and his twin brother Josh have always shared an unbreakable bond
Thursday, November 5, 2009
By Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

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PHOTO (top): Tight end Jake Ballard tries to manuever past Blake Carter of Navy after making a catch in the season opener in Ohio Stadium. (Jonathan Quilter, Dispatch)
The Ballard twins knew they were in for double trouble if they didn't act fast.

During the course of normal hijinks in the downstairs family room, they had knocked over the huge tube television. Upstairs, their parents, Ben and Debby Ballard, were showing the home to prospective buyers. Not only could the knocked-over TV possibly short-circuit the deal, but you know how parents can be.

"So we looked at each other. We knew what we had to do," Josh Ballard said.

"We picked it up, and put it back on the stand," Jake Ballard said.

They got away with it for a while, until a crack was found on the back of the TV, and a drawer in the stand was found to be broken. That's when Debby Ballard started asking questions, and her twin boys came clean.

"I couldn't believe it," she said. "It was a big, heavy TV sitting on a not-very-wide stand. After it fell off, the two of them actually picked it up together and put it back up."

But here's the kicker.

"They were 4 years old!" she said the other day, still incredulous at the feat of strength.

They are 21 now.

Jake is a senior tight end for Ohio State. Josh was a junior starting linebacker for Morehead State until the middle of this season, when a reduction in playing time caused him to re-evaluate his priorities and drop football.

"Now I can go watch Jake's games and enjoy his senior year," said Josh, who planned to join the family for the Buckeyes' game at Penn State this afternoon.

"I don't feel good that he had to give up football, because he was a very good player," Jake said. "But I do like having him around."

That figures, because before college came along and split them up, they had been together since before birth. But there were some differences - they were fraternal, not identical, twins.

As they grew from 4-year-old TV lifters to physical forces in pee-wee football, baseball and basketball, Jake was always a little bigger. Today, he stands 6 feet 7 and weighs 260 pounds, and Josh is 6-2, 225.

"I'd say, 'Mom, so did you guys just quit feeding me at one point, or did Jake steal all my food when we were younger?'" Josh said, laughing. "I would have taken just another couple of inches, not much, and that would have balanced things out a little bit more."
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GameDay+
 
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Senior day

For fifth-year seniors Saturday?s game will be their 35th at Ohio Stadium, and their last. Four-year seniors will have played 28 games.

All players and their parents will be recognized before kickoff.

TE Jake Ballard remembered his first game as a freshman against Northern Illinois in 2006. ?Coach Pete (John Peterson) told me to go in, and I was nervous,? Ballard said. ?I looked next to me and Alex Boone was in a four-point stance, so I get in a four-point stance. I didn?t even look. I just fired off the ball.?

A TE usually doesn?t get into a four-point stance. ?You can, but I haven?t been in one since, so probably not,? he said.
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Ohio State notebook: Tressel remembers Rose Bowl with his dad - Canton, OH - CantonRep.com
 
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OSU notebook: Ballard weighed offer to become a Wolverine
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
By Ken Gordon
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Die-hard Ohio State fans might call Jake Ballard crazy; others might laud him for being honest.

But the fact remains that Monday, the tight end said that he was recruited by Ohio State and Michigan, that he received a scholarship offer from Michigan first, and that he would "definitely" have gone to Michigan if OSU had not given him an offer.

"I was up (at Michigan) for a Nike camp and I looked around," Ballard said.

"I could definitely have seen myself as a Wolverine and could have gotten used to being up there."

When the offer from Michigan came, Ballard, a Springboro, Ohio native, said, "It was a huge debate at home. You'd have to consider Michigan, with their program and their tradition and their history."

Ballard said when the Michigan offer came in, his high school coach called Ohio State assistant John Peterson.

"He was like, 'Hey, Michigan just offered Jake, and he is seriously considering it,' " Ballard said. "Coach Pete said, 'All right, let me call you back.' Twenty minutes later, I had an offer from Ohio State."

Still, Ballard said he took a couple of days to think it over.

"I talked to (Ohio State coach Jim Tressel) and (Michigan) coach (Lloyd) Carr on the phone," he said. "I just had a better feeling from Coach Tress, and I committed a couple of days later."

In the end, Ballard said, "I made the right choice in coming here."
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OSU notebook: Ballard weighed offer to become a Wolverine | BuckeyeXtra
 
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Ohio State-Michigan a 
holiday treat for Springboro grad Ballard
By Tom Archdeacon, Staff Writer
Thursday, November 19, 2009

COLUMBUS ? His first memories of the big game go back to his grade-school days, standing in the crowd along the South Main Street parade route in Springboro, listening to Christmas music and waiting for Santa Claus to come by tossing out candy.

?Every year we have a big Christmas parade in Springboro, and it?s always the same day as the Ohio State-Michigan game,? Jake Ballard said. ?They usually have TVs set up outside the restaurants and stores so you can check out the game, too.

?I can remember watching guys like Andy Katzenmoyer and wishing I?d get a chance to play in that game some time.?

Once Ballard got into his prep career at Springboro High School, it was obvious he would. Considered the No. 8 tight end prospect in the nation and, as a senior, named Ohio?s Division II Defensive Player of the Year, he was recruited by Ohio State and especially Michigan. He may well have signed with the Wolverines were it not for a couple of clandestine, last-second phone calls from OSU.

And because of that, Ballard ? now a senior tight end for the Buckeyes ? has had Christmas in November ever since.
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Ohio State-Michigan a ?holiday treat for Springboro grad Ballard
 
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scUM's propensity for giving up big plays over the middle to TE's sets up well for Jake's last regular season game, the only problem is he seems to like contact, and scUM usually lets the guys score untouched :wink2:
 
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GrizzlyBuck;1600538; said:
scUM's propensity for giving up big plays over the middle to TE's sets up well for Jake's last regular season game, the only problem is he seems to like contact, and scUM usually lets the guys score untouched :wink2:
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I agree! The middle of scUMs D sucks bad. I sure hope JT calls some stuff for Ballard down the middle. It seems like yesterday that Jake made a diving catch his freshman year for a TD and I couldn't stop thinking how he could end up being a great weapon catching balls at TE. Alas...I apparently know nothing, but I'd love to see him finish up his senior year with a big game.

Go Bucks!
 
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