Buckeyes

Wow, what a game! Instant classic in Columbus, Ohio State starts and finishes the regular season ranked #1. What a team!

You can read my semi-live blog of the game at my OSU site, Men of the Scarlet and Gray.

OSU: 42
Michigan: 39

I went to my first Ohio State Spring Game (known as the Scarlet and Gray Game). Even though some of OSU’s top players didn’t play (or play much), OSU fans can rest assured that The 2006 Ohio State Buckeyes are going to be early favorites contending for a pre-season #1 ranking. The defense, which lost nine starters, looked like they won’t skip a beat. It will be tough to replace the line backer corps of 2005, but these guys coming in will do just fine.

And the highly touted Chris “Beanie” Wells looks impressive. He is going to be a bruiser. This is going to be an offense that is going to rack up a lot of yards and put up a lot of points. Even if the defense struggles at first, the offense will have its back. I am excited about this Ohio State team.

The only downer from going to the game (besides the sun burn) is that we’ve got to wait 4 1/2 more months until football season starts. I can’t wait!

The Ohio State University Buckeyes – 34
Notre Dame Fighting Irish – 20

Troy Smith, proverbial pain-in-the-neck for the University of Michigan, just introduced Charle Weis and the rest of the Irish faithful (get it?) to Lloyd Carr’s reccuring nightmare. Single-handledly accounting for over 400 yards of offense, Smith shredded the Notre Dame defense with both his arm and his legs. He played like a man possesed. (A 2006 Heisman hopeful?) Notre Dame’s defense will also see Ted Ginn Jr.’s crazy legs in their sleep for the next eight months. Those moves he made on that 68-yard end-around were sick. Santonio Holmes may have played his last game as a Buckeye; talk about going out with a bang! And let’s not forget Antonio Pittman. That boy can run! OSU’s offense racked up 604 yards. That is insanity. They ran 66 plays. My handy-dandy calculator tells me that 9.15 yards a play. That is, as Brent Musberger so eloquently put it, was a Buckeye Butt-kicking.

Of course, there was the play of the stout OSU defense, which came to man-handle yet another team. Notre Dame certainly got off to a quick start but seemed to sputter the rest of the game. Throughout the game, the Notre Dame offense looked tight. They never looked comfortable. I was suprised with the number of dropped passes. Could that have been because of the tight leash Charlie Weis put on his players during the week? He called it a “business trip.” I don’t agree with that sentiment at all. Super Bowl trips in the NFL are business trips. College football bowl trips should be fun. Last time I checked, no one on either side of the football was receiving a paycheck after this game. That’s not to say Tressel let his boys party the whole time in Tempe, it just seemed like Weis was a little too strict.

Notre Dame just seemed overmatched. Their Brady Quinn-led offense never lived up to its billing. We knew their defense would struggle but we thought their offense would have put up a better fight than they did. Maybe OSU was too strong and a little faster. A.J. Hawk and Company may have been initially caught off-guard with that first drive but they buckled down and did a good job harassing Quinn all day along.

But in the end, it wasn’t OSU’s defense that won this game. It was Troy Smith. I’ll close by quoting a very prescient Charle Weis (speaking of Smith):

“He worries me the most of anyone on their team,” Weis said. “What scares me is any time you have a quarterback, and especially a quarterback who started out with a reputation of being a runner first and a thrower second, and now has reversed those roles, you have a problem.”

Who’s next?!

That’s right, sports fans, I will invoke Bill Goldberg. That’s basically what the Buckeyes are saying right now. Three of the past four Fiesta Bowls have featured the Buckeyes. It’s become their personal wood shed, where they take the opposition out to put the wood to. In 2004, the Buckeyes dismantled the cowboys of Oklahoma State Wildcats of Kansas State. 2003’s Fiesta Bowl was the best football game I have ever witnessed, EVER. This year’s bowl looks like it will be shaping up for another classic.

First I wanted to say I still think the BCS is a sham. How an 8-4 team can play in one of the four BCS bowls (arguably the four “best” bowl games) when Oregon, Auburn, and countless other teams with better records, that have beat better teams, and could probably beat Florida State. That being said, I was impressed with FSU against Va. Tech. I’ve said all along that VT was overrated and I was glad FSU beat them convincingly. Hopefully now we can officially get of the Vick bandwagon (Mike is an average NFL QB, Marcus won’t fare any better).

It’s clear that Texas and USC are the two best teams in the country. That much we already know. I’m still mulling over who I think wins that game. Right now I’m going with Texas, but that may change. I will say that if Reggie Bush doesn’t win the Heisman then I will have lost all faith in humanity. As for the other bowls – the Georgia/West Virginia Sugar Bowl doesn’t interest me. Georgia will win big. FSU/Penn State is intriguing mostly because of the coaches. If you would have asked me who would win this game last week, I wouldn’t hestitate saying Penn State would. After watching Florida State last night, I’m not so sure. This is a toss up. Penn State’s defense is tough and that’s what I think will be the difference. Penn State by a field goal.

So we come to the Fiest Bowl. I may be biased, but outside of the Rose Bowl, this bowl has the best matchup. Two storied programs, two teams one (or two) plays away from greatness. Notre Dame and wunderkind Brady Quinn are in for a shock. I think Quinn, being from Columbus, will have a big target on his back. I don’t think many fans are bitter he went to Notre Dame but the players may feel different. He’ll be harassed all day long by Hawk and Schlegel. OSU’s defense will dominate. I don’t think Notre Dame’s defense will be able to stop OSU’s offense. Troy Smith will play big and I predict that Ted Ginn Jr. will break something big. Maybe a punt, maybe a long pass. I think they will be more than Notre Dame can handle. Write it down – OSU wins big.

Fear the spear.

“Drive, drive on down the field, Men of the Scarlet and Gray!”

That’s exactly what Troy Smith and the Buckeyes did twice in the space of 6 minutes to overcome a 21-12 deficit. While Michigan played pretty good football for the first 54 minutes they didn’t step up when it mattered most. The Buckeyes defense was put in a number of sticky situations but held strong. That D is STOUT. It looked for a while like the Buckeyes were going to give another game away (see: Penn State) but Troy Smith rallied the troops. He’s easily the Buckeyes offensive MVP. And Mr. Clutch? He looks like this:

That’s clutch. Gonzales plays in the shadows of Ginn and Holmes all season but he comes through when he’s called on. He scored the first touchdown against Michigan last year and he broke their back again this year. Smith + Gonzales = Wolverine Killers.

It was a shame to see Bobby Carpenter go down in the first quarter to injury. He has been such a huge part of the D. Schlegel played his best game of the year and the Buckeyes shut down the over-rated Hart once again. What a game. Say hello to the 2005 Big Ten Champs.

So now we play the waiting game. I fully believe OSU will be going to a BCS game. I’d love to play Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, as most people are predicting. Bring ’em on and watch ’em fall. I can’t wait.