Bleacher Report - Terrelle Pryor

Ohio State Buckeyes: Why 2009 Gives Hope for 2010 BCS Title Shot

Tim Bielik — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 19:10:47 -0500

After debacles in the 2006 and 2007 National Championship games, most college football fans might not want to see Ohio State playing for a BCS title ever again.

But with the maturation the team has developed and a 180 degree shift in mentality, the Buckeyes could end 2009 as high as sixth in the final polls, and primed for a BCS run in 2010.

How can this happen with a quarterback that has passing problems and an inconsistent offensive line?

Most people figured early on that 2009 was more of a growing year for the Buckeyes, who lost a lot of senior leaders including James Laurinaitis and Malcolm Jenkins, and superstar RB Beanie Wells.

There were numerous holes to fill, and the loss of stud junior LB Tyler Moeller for the season, due to a head injury in August, didn't help matters much.

But as the season went on, the Buckeyes began to develop an identity as a hard-hitting, run-stuffing defense that flies to the football and racks up interceptions and turnovers like few teams in the country.

Offensively, the Buckeyes went back to their bread and butter in running the football, though the usually-conservative Jim Tressel did call for some wrinkles, such as some Wildcat runs.

New playmakers emerged on the defensive side of the ball in LB Brian Rolle, surprise freshman DT John Simon, and S Jermale Hines.

When it came to the offense, progress was slow behind an offensive line starting two to three true sophomores and breaking in multiple new starting WRs.

Over time, and heading into the November gauntlet, RBs Brandon Saine and Daniel "Boom" Herron turned the corner and have become solid playmakers. Saine is the big play threat out of the backfield, ripping defenses in both the running and passing games, and Herron has been the running workhorse.

And give credit to the Ohio State coaching staff for trying to make Terrelle Pryor more efficient, and more careful with the football.

After being a turnover machine in the first half of the season, Pryor was reeled in and put in more controlled environments to make him make safer decisions. As a result, Pryor had only two turnovers in the final five games of 2009.

Many felt that 2009 was the year Pryor would be unleashed, but he clearly was not ready to be the guy.

So what happened? Ohio State took pressure off of him and established a running mentality that culminated with three OSU players, Saine, Herron, and Pryor, each running for over 70 yards against Michigan.

And the good news for Ohio State fans: All of these players should be coming back for 2010, a year more experienced and primed for a title shot.

The year will begin with an exciting September test against a very talented Miami Hurricanes squad hungry for revenge after losing the 2002 title game.

The question in 2010 will continue to be if Pryor is truly, finally ready to take the Vince Young-esque final step towards football superstardom.

But as long as the defensive cogs, especially in the line like Thaddeus Gibson and Cameron Heyward, return, there is no reason why the Buckeyes won't have one of the more exciting and fast defenses in the country.

Expect the Buckeyes to have another high preseason ranking in 2010 as usual, and with Tim Tebow and Colt McCoy, among others, graduating, a new crop of stars are ready to shine.

But first things first as Ohio State prepares for the Rose Bowl against the winner of the Civil War in Eugene, Oregon.

How the Buckeyes perform in that game will show whether this group is ready to return to the elites of college football.

A win on the national stage outside of the conference will do wonders not only for perception, but for confidence and maturity.

And as 2006 and 2007 showed, the respect has to be earned with big wins against teams not named Penn State and Michigan.

It has to be earned by beating powerhouses and talented teams in the big games, and there's no bigger bowl stage than in the Granddaddy of Them All.

A win will go a long way, but this young group has to be ready to put in the work to be great.

The talent's there, but now it's time for them to take the next step and win an elusive BCS game. If they do, Buckeye Nation will embrace this season and be ready for what hopes to be a title chase in 2010.

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A Buckeye Thanksgiving: 10 Things I'm Thankful For

HD Handshoe - Block-O-Nation — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:24:51 -0500

Thanksgiving can mean so many different things to different people.

For me, it is a time to reflect upon, and appreciate, the people, and things in my life that I care for and cherish the most like my parents, my child, my wife, my closest friends, etc....

If you're a sports fan, it also can be applied to the teams you love, or those you love to hate.

Here are the 10 things to be thankful for this year—Buckeye Football Edition.

No. 10—I was not born in TSUN.

No. 9—I am not a fan of a certain hated, and currently God-awful team from TSUN.

No. 8—Now 2,194 days and counting, and another year, another (BCS) bowl game for my team. (Sorry TTUN fans.....not really).

No. 7—For the third straight year, the OSU seniors finished their careers 4-0 vs. TTUN, and have four of these:

No. 6—For the sixth year in a row, and eight out of the last 10...SCOREBOARD, SCOREBOARD, SCOREBOARD...

No. 5—Having an amazing athlete and rising star in Terrelle Pryor as my teams' quarterback. I can't wait for year three!

No. 4—Having seven of these, and still the only two-time winner, unless of course eSECpn rigs and/or buys another one for the undeserving Messiah of Florida.

No. 3—Having seven, and 34 of these respectively, and looking forward to the real possibility of numbers eight and maybe even nine, and numbers 35 and 36 possibly coming in the next two seasons, given our amazing recruiting, and assuming Terrelle progresses as expected like Troy did in 2006.

No. 2—Having been to no less than 10 Ohio State games with my Dad, and having that time with him in the greatest venue in all of sports, Ohio Stadium. It is a true National Treasure and I still get chills every time I walk through the gates. There really is nothing like a Saturday in The Shoe.

No. 1—This was a very easy choice for the top slot:

Having this guy...

instead of this guy...

leading our football program.

It's not always pretty, and Tress certainly isn't flashy, but a 93-21 record in nine seasons, six conference championships, seven 10+ win seasons, nine bowl games in nine years with a 4-4 record, including the 2002 BCS Championship speaks volumes.

I could go on, but the point here is that Coach Tressel is a winner, and so too are we, the fans, and also the young men that suit up and proudly wear the Scarlet and Gray under Tressel.

The 2009 season has flown by and I'm not thankful for that, but I am thankful for the opportunity to see the Buckeyes play one more game on Jan. 1 in the Rose Bowl, and for the visions I don't want to get out of my head of more Heisman, and National Championship trophies that could each end up in Columbus in the very near future.

Happy Thanksgiving to the entire Buckeye Nation.

Click For Block Nation Front Page

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The Big Ten Thanksgiving Table

Kristopher Fiecke — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:45:17 -0500

This week, the holiday season is upon us once again. Some Big Ten teams have already set the table for Thanksgiving. The Buckeyes have secured their usual centerpiece of a Rose Bowl, while the Gophers and Spartans are hoping the BCS is kind and doesn't ask them to travel to Detroit for Pizza. Like the items on your Thanksgiving table, the Big Ten conference has a wide variety to choose from. Standing alone, they aren't very impressive, but when combined into a banquet, each team provides a unique characteristic to the football feast. Before I hit the hay to prepare myself for the shopping mayhem of Black Friday (I've got my eye on a waffle iron for $4.99) I thought it might be fun to match up each Big Ten football squad with an item on your Thanksgiving buffet.

Begin Slideshow

20 Thoughts From Saturday's College Action

Aaron Torres — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:32:06 -0500

(Aaron Torres is an accomplished journalist whose work has been published by Sports Illustrated online and syndicated by USA Today, AOL.com and Slam Online. To read all of his work, including this article in its entirety, please visit him at www.aarontorres-sports.com )

After spending another Saturday on my couch with my remote in hand, here are 20 more thoughts from Saturday’s college football action.

1. Saturday Is What Makes College Football Great: So all we heard all week leading up to the games, was that this college football season has been a dud, and Saturday was going to be boring. I mean seriously, why bother even tuning in?

Except for one thing: It ended up being maybe the second best college football Saturday of the season (I still put Oct. 17 at No. 1). While they weren’t all pretty, and they weren’t all perfectly played, LSU-Ole Miss, UConn-Notre Dame, Stanford-Cal and Oregon-Arizona, were nothing if not entertaining.

And on a day that was supposed to be the most boring of the season, what more could you ask for?

2. Moving On to a Serious Subject: I’m starting a petition to get Amanda Beard on College Gameday full-time.

For those of you who missed it, the former Arizona and Olympic swimmer, was Saturday’s “guest picker,” in the final segment of the show, and absolutely knocked it out of the park. Not only was she bubbly, not only was she nice to look at, not only did her and Lee Corso have palpable sexual chemistry, but the girl knew her football.

So seriously, can we bring her full-time? Please? Would anyone object?

3. I’m just going to say it: It didn’t seem like a college football Saturday without Alabama and Florida playing meaningful games. How many days until Atlanta again?

4. As for the important games, let’s start with Notre Dame-UConn: Look, Charlie Weis is a dead man walking, you know that and I know that, so there’s no need to talk about it here.

But I want to make the case that it’s Notre Dame’s offense that is going to get Weis fired, not his defense. No, seriously, hear me out.

All year we’ve been hearing how great Jimmy Clausen, Michael Floyd and Golden Tate are, and to a certain degree they are. But they also combine to make two or three really dumb, game-altering mistakes every week.

Think about it. Against Michigan, Golden Tate didn’t get out of bounds on the last play of the game. Against Navy, Floyd ran the wrong route and had a ball bounce off his back for a late game, drive-ending interception. And Saturday it was Floyd getting stripped on the UConn 18-yard line with Notre Dame going in for a game clinching scoring drive.

Watching Notre Dame every week, you start to realize these aren’t isolated events, but a recurring theme. More importantly they are a sign of bad preparation and bad coaching (do you ever see those kinds of things happen to Alabama, Cincinnati, Florida or Texas?). And it’s the biggest reason, more than Notre Dame’s defense, that Weis is going to be looking for a new job in a week.

(I told you to hear me out. I just talked you into that, didn’t I?)

5. Another thought from Saturday’s Notre Dame-UConn game: If anyone saw Jimmy Roberts’ halftime feature on the death of Jasper Howard and didn’t get chills, well honestly, we might need to break out the defibrillator to get your heart going again.

It was the perfect blend of solid journalism with the right mix of emotion and storytelling. It wasn’t too pushy, preachy and didn’t end with some stupid throwaway line like, “UConn may not have been winners on the field recently, but they’re winners in life,” like so many of these other features do.

One of the best stories I’ve seen in awhile.

6. The underrated final story line from the game: How about UConn (and former Notre Dame) quarterback Zach Frazer, going back to Notre Dame and beating a bunch of his former classmates on their Senior Day?

For those who don’t know, Frazer was the first quarterback recruited by Weis, and came to South Bend in the fall of 2006, with guys like Sam Young, Eric Olson and Sergio Brown, guys who were wrapping up their Notre Dame careers on Saturday.

As a matter of fact I was so inspired by Frazer’s performance ( OK, who am I kidding, UConn won the game despite him, not because of him), that we’ll forever refer to that game as “Frazer’s Revenge.” Sure that sounds like an awful Nic Cage movie, but still, it’s got a catchy ring to it, doesn’t it?

7. Moving on to Michigan-Ohio State: My only thought from the Michigan side of things was how bad I felt for Brandon Graham.

The Wolverines defensive end was a monster Saturday, only nobody would ever know it, you know, considering he’s surrounded by young guys who aren’t quite ready, and older guys were never quite good enough (not to mention Michigan’s defense is coached by Greg Robinson, a guy who spends approximately 80 percent of his time staring into the distance like a kid watching cartoons, and the other 20 percent picking his nose. Needless to say, I’m not a huge Greg Robinson fan).

Put Graham on even a halfway decent team and we’re talking about him the way we talk about Terrence Cody and Carlos Dunlap. Instead, having him on this particular defense is like having a $10,000 painting in a $250 a month, one bedroom apartment. What’s even the point?

8. As for Ohio State, here’s my question on them: Alright, so last year we had Chris “Beanie,” Wells. This year, it’s Dan “Boom,” Herron. Seriously, who’s coming up with these nicknames, and why doesn’t Brandon Saine have one yet?

I’ve decided to appoint a one-man committee of ABC broadcaster/bad joke extraordinaire Matt Millen to come up with one. Matt, you’re on the clock.

9. Speaking of Matt Millen: I can’t lie, I was a little disappointed in Millen’s work Saturday during the Michigan-Ohio State game. Usually he’s good for around five truly unbearable, “put the TV on mute,” jokes per broadcast. Saturday, the best he came up with was, “May the Schwartz be with you,” in reference to Buckeyes receiver Grant Schwartz.

Why was Millen so quiet, I don’t know? Maybe he realized he’s not funny. Or maybe Sean McDonough threatened to strangle him with a headset cord, I’m not quite sure. Either way, it wasn’t his best day Saturday. I expect better come bowl season.

10. Two thoughts, and two thoughts only from Stanford-Cal:

A. Stanford’s not as bad as they looked Saturday, and they weren’t overrated coming in. This was just a classic case of the Cardinal beating a few good teams, getting a few too many pats on the back, having a few too many girls show up at their dorm rooms to “celebrate,” late at night (yes even at Stanford), and simply losing focus. That’s it, nothing more, nothing less. They’re still going to beat Notre Dame by three touchdowns Saturday.

B. I enjoyed seeing Jim Harbaugh have some dirt kicked in his face, especially after his “holier than thou,” running up the score against an injury depleted USC two weeks ago.

Hey coach, think you should have saved some of those points for this weekend?

(To read Aaron's 10 remaining thoughts, and the remainder of this article, please CLICK HERE , or visit him at www.aarontorres-sports.com )

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