Unlike the prior OSU/Michigan game preview (a series of 7 entries,) this is going to be short and sweet because I don’t have many spare cycles to burn at the moment.
Florida can win if they:
- Pressure Troy Smith consistently with 4 linemen
- Stop the running game
- Jam receivers at the line of scrimmage
- Don’t turn the ball over
- No special teams gaffs
Conversely, Ohio State can win if they:
- Run well between the tackles
- Protect Troy Smith from pressure
- Play assignment defense to twart the “gadget plays”
- Pressure Chris Leak
- Get all skill players involved on offense
What will happen? I don’t know. But I do know that Tennesee, a team that Florida beat on the road by one point, was hammered by a so-so Penn State team in their bowl game and that Arkansas, a team Florida beat by 10 in the SEC Championship game got whacked by a good Wisconsin team. Much noise has been made in the press about SEC “speed” and that it will cause a mismatch for OSU. Don’t buy that, the two games above demonstrate the Big 10 can hang with the SEC.
On paper, I’d say this is a mismatch in OSU’s favor, but games aren’t played on paper. I worry about the Buckeyes being favored, consistently reminded of how “good” they are, and that they should win. We’d better hope the fire is there. On the flip side, Florida has the motivation of the underdog and no one is giving them much chance. Florida is a very good football team, they’ve got a good chance to win the game. That being said, I just can’t see it happening without bizarro turnovers (like the two errant snaps in the OSU/Michigan game) with the combination of offense, defense, and special teams the Buckeyes have fielded this season. Then again, I thought Michigan would take USC to the cleaners in the Rose Bowl and it didn’t quite work out that way…
Prediction: Ohio State wins a tough game, 27-16, somewhat closer than the score indicates. I can easily see this game in doubt in the 4th quarter. In the end, I trust that the coaching staff will have the team prepared and that the team will execute their game plan and adjust as required. It’s going to be a great game no matter what, there is no way to be disappointed when your team has a chance to win the national championship!
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4 days until OSU plays for the national championship
Ohio State’s 2006 record: 12-0 Next up: Florida 1/8/2007
Tune: Bangin’ by Haystak
Technorati Tags: Ohio State | Florida | National Championship | Mike Harding Blog
A colleague sent this to me yesterday. I’m warmed (pun intended) to see Walmart take a bold move toward energy efficiency. Using the roof space on it’s massive buildings to host solar arrays may make some sense. Certainly Google thinks so and Federal Express (Oakland, CA sorting facility) has had solar cells on the roof for some time now.
Independent of this specific proposal, it’s great to see some large corporations make concentrated efforts to lead in this area.
Note to Mr. LaMonica (author of the CNet piece) – the largest proposed single instance of solar generation is in China at 100MW and Germany has a 12MW plant in production now. While Walmart could aggregate into 100MW size, it’s not quite the same thing. Still beneficial, no doubt.
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4 days until OSU plays for the national championship
Ohio State’s 2006 record: 12-0 Next up: Florida 1/8/2007
Tune: Sunshine by Lil’ Flip
Technorati Tags: Renewable | Energy | Solar | Mike Harding Blog
One of our Partners brought this to my attention this morning and I thought it was worthy of a mention. Polaris Geothermal has completed it’s first round of equity financing recently using what looks to be a “spec company” approach – they seem to have a different approach in Canada to getting this done. See the press release here for details. Polaris is developing a 66MW geothermal power generation project near Leon, Nicaragua.
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5 days until OSU plays for the national championship
Ohio State’s 2006 record: 12-0 Next up: Florida 1/8/2007
Tune: Managua, Nicaragua by Guy Lombardo
Technorati Tags: Renewable | Energy | Geothermal | Mike Harding Blog
Yesterday was a busy day around the blog…the Rose Bowl Ad Analysis post was picked up by one of my favorite sites, Deadspin. Billed as sports news without access, favor, or discretion, it’s one of the most complete and humorous sports sites to be found. If you like sports and you haven’t visited Deadspin, you’re missing out.
Once upon a time it was a good thing to get “slashdot-ed” – being “deadspin-ed” is even more fun I think. Our traffic increased by an order of magnitude yesterday. Guess I’m locked into watching and dissecting that NFL game this weekend now…..Better get back to the salt mines.
5 days until OSU plays for the national championship
Ohio State’s 2006 record: 12-0 Next up: Florida 1/8/2007
Tune: Fame by David Bowie
Technorati Tags: Deadspin | Slashdot | Referrer Madness | Mike Harding Blog
Looking at the logs this morning, it seems many of you are looking for the photo of the mooning USC Song Girl…As a public service, the M-Zone has covered (ahem) that thoroughly in this entry…..
6 days until OSU plays for the national championship
Ohio State’s 2006 record: 12-0 Next up: Florida 1/8/2007
Tune: Blue Moon of Kentucky by Bill Monroe
Technorati Tags: USC | Song Girl | Moon | Mike Harding Blog
