Oklahoma and Oregon departed the national championship picture this week. Notre Dame won the 1-9 bowl, guess they’re back in the BCS mix now…Hawaii and LSU hung on for wins against lesser opponents. Alabama and their $4M/year coach lost to LA Monroe – not to be outdone, Iowa and their $2.7M coach lost to Western Michigan. Let’s see how Ohio State’s opponents did, talk about bowls, review the Top 12, and finally the Bottom 5.
OSU Opponent Watch
Youngstown State (7-4) – Idle.
Akron (4-7) – Played Miami away, lost 0-7. Conclusion: Unexpected Loss
Washington (4-7) – Played California at home, won 37-23. Conclusion: Unexpected Win
Northwestern (6-6) – Played Illinois away, lost 22-41. Conclusion: Expected Loss
Minnesota (1-11) – Played Wisconsin at home, lost 34-41. Conclusion: Expected Loss
Purdue (7-5) – Played Indiana away, lost 24-27. Conclusion: Loss
Kent State (3-8) – Played Temple away, lost 14-24. Conclusion: Unexpected Loss
Michigan State (7-5) – Played Penn State at home, won 35-31. Conclusion: Unexpected Win
Penn State (8-4) – Played Michigan State away, lost 31-35. Conclusion: Unexpected Win
Wisconsin (9-3) – Played Minnesota away, won 41-34. Conclusion: Expected Win
Illinois (9-3) – Played Northwestern at home, won 41-22. Conclusion: Expected Win
Buckeye opponent’s records after the 12th week, 73-67. Conference play is now complete and Ohio State won the Big 10 and an automatic berth in BCS competition, likely playing in the Rose Bowl though still alive for the MNC game with UO and OU’s losses this week. As for the other 9 bowl eligible Big 10 teams, I predict that Michigan, Illinois, Penn State, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Indiana, and Purdue will be extended invitations. Iowa and Northwestern, though eligible, will not participate.
Quick Hits from Around College Football
These are the undefeated survivors; give them credit for standing tall when others are losing games they should win: Kansas and Hawaii. The Warriors eased by Nevada and the Jayhawks dominated the Cyclones. Florida International maintained its perfect zero win season, Utah State ruined its perfect zero win season upsetting New Mexico State.
Projected BCS Top 5: LSU, Kansas, West Virginia, Missouri, and Ohio State.
Game of the week? Tennessee rallied from 16 down in the 4th quarter to beat Vanderbilt 25-24.
Mismatch of the week? Boise State humiliated Idaho 58-14 in their rivalry game.
My Special Top 12 rankings: (Why Top 12? That’s where you need to be to get into BCS contention.)
Kansas – Thumped Iowa State.
Arizona State – Idle.
Missouri – Outscored Kansas State.
Ohio State – Dominated Michigan.
West Virginia – Escaped Cincinnati.
LSU – Rallied to beat Mississippi.
Virginia – Idle.
Georgia – Beat Kentucky.
Illinois – Rushed past Northwestern.
USC – Idle.
Oklahoma – lost to Texas Tech.
Hawaii – Escaped Nevada.
My Special Bottom 5 rankings: (Why bottom 5? If you finish there you should be relegated to I-AA)
Florida International – 0-10 Lost to Louisiana-Lafayette.
Minnesota – 1-11 this season. Lost to Wisconsin.
Utah State – 1-10 this season. Beat New Mexico State.
Colorado State – 2-9 this season. Beat Georgia Southern.
Notre Dame – 2-9 this season. Beat Duke.
In the coming week I’ll post a Conference Strength Report and Weekend Update Sports edition.
In an ugly game, nasty wet, cold weather, the Buckeyes ran the ball down the Wolverines throat to prevail 14-3 in a tight game on the scoreboard, but not so much from the stats perspective. Players of the game: Ohio State, Vernon Gholston who spent as much time in the backfield as Chad Henne and Mike Hart. Michigan, Zoltan Mesko who’s live leg kept this from being a blowout by changing field position continually. Special mention, Beanie Wells who accounted for OSU’s offense amassing 220 yards on 39 carries and scoring both Buckeye touchdowns.
The Good
OSU Defense – Rebounded from a bad performance last week and held Michigan to 95 total yards, 15 yards rushing and 80 passing.
OSU Offensive line and blocking generally – This game was won on the ground. The blockers were physically dominant and sprung Beanie for his big day.
The OSU Coaching Staff – Pulled the team back together and didn’t allow Illinois to beat them twice. A good game plan with good adjustments due to on field performances and conditions.
Outright Big 10 Championship – On a team with 2 starting seniors, many people, including me expected this team to lose at least two games. Way to overachieve versus expectations.
The Bad
Injuries to Michigan’s stars – In as much as I’m excited by this win, it was not as good as it could have been if Henne and Hart were closer to 100%. The outcome very well could have been different. But a win is a win.
OSU Passing Game – Receivers weren’t getting open, pass protection was spotty, and Boeckman had a bad game for the second week in a row.
Todd Boeckman – As impressive as he has been as a first year quarterback, he has uncharacteristically regressed. It makes me wonder if he’s been hurt or his confidence is shaken. But, the weather was bad too. His stat line: 7-13 for 51 yards, 1 interception, 1 unforced sack by slipping, 2 fumbles, both recovered, at least 5 passes open where the ball was off target. It was not his finest game. Hope he gets back in the groove for the bowl game.
The Ugly
Officiating – This is simply going to stay here until I see reasonably called game. At least this time it didn’t affect the outcome of the contest. Football needs to decide if holding is a penalty or not, now even the egregious examples are rarely called.
Production values – The game was called OK, but they’ve really got to get their act together to not show unrelated content or babble about someone on the side line and miss plays. That happened at least a half-dozen times.
An exciting throwback game that would have made Woody and Bo smile. Congratulations to the mighty Buckeyes for winning an outright Big 10 Championship and securing an automatic BCS bowl bid (likely Rose Bowl.) And, thankfully, my nightmare did not come to pass…. GO BUCKS!
I woke up this morning with a very similar image to this in my mind. After last week’s run defense collapse and the fact that Hart didn’t play much in the past few weeks I guess is leading me to wonder if he is really as injured as people think and wonder if the code has been cracked on running against the OSU Defense. Guess we’ll find out in a few hours, but the scene above is not one I wish to witness later today…
I sincerely hope that Michigan is tight with all the expectations they’ve heaped upon themselves, I hope that whoever the Michigan quarterback is spends a fair amount of time running for his life from defenders, and I hope that the Michigan secondary play looks like it did against Oregon. That, coupled with a win, would be a sweet day! GO BUCKS!
Great advertising that gets right to the heart of the matter…For those of you who don’t know, these two teams meet for the 104th time tomorrow at 9am to secure another year of bragging rights and, allegedly, to send Michigan Coach Lloyd Carr off into retirement.
11.15.07 |Permalink|Comments Off on Getting paid is the name of the game
If you didn’t understand what the writer’s are striking about, after watching this clip, you will. Content is where the value is, fresh content, available to consumers when they want it and how they want it. Anything that presents a barrier to this outcome will be washed away by the tide. Good luck media companies, you’re going to need it…Writers, we’re standing with you on this one. As Sumner Redstone says, and I quote “Getting paid is the name of the game.”
