Posted on Sunday 10 September 2006
- Ohio State is clearly number one: Their defense is still suspect, but the national champ now seems poised to be one of these five: OSU, USC, Notre Dame (though, I still think they’re over-hyped), West Virginia, and Auburn. There’s definitely no team as strong as 2004 USC or 2002 Miami in the bunch. Heck, even last year’s Texas and USC teams would be the run away front-runner this year. So even though the Buckeye’s defense isn’t great, there may not be another team with the total package necessary to beat them this season.
- Anthony Gonzalez is a stud: He seems to have brought his A game this season since Santonio Holmes left. The Buckeye’s general strategy seems to be to send Ginn long each time, throw to him if he’s open, and otherwise hit Gonzalez in the 10-30 yard range. Somehow I still get this feeling that Tressel’s coaching staff has never really figured out how to use Ginn such that his full potential is reached.
- Colt McCoy will be a heck of a QB in a year or two: I have to admit he was awesome for a freshman QB in such a big game. Other than his one interception, he didn’t make may rookie mistakes. In fact, his receivers screwed up a lot more than him. Barring injury, he’s got Heisman written all over him in a couple of years.
- Troy Smith is not a mobile QB: I don’t know when this myth started, but he’s not Vince Young or Michael Vick. In two games this season, he has 8 rushes for negative 14 yards. Let’s just accept that he’s a good passing, pro-style QB and stop talking about his mobility (this probably helps his NFL draft status as pro-style QBs seem to be much preferred over dual-threat QBs).
- Florida St. needed a fourth quarter comeback to beat Troy: The Seminoles were down 17-10 with about 6 minutes left in the game before scoring two TDs to win the game. As best we could tell, Troy seems to be a primarily online university (think University of Phoenix). This prompted one of our friends to observe that the football team probably practices by playing Madden over a network. Is Bobby Bowden going to start feeling a bit of heat?
- Illinois Stinks: 33-0 loss to a Rutgers team that they beat last year. Guess Illini fans will have to wait until next decade.
And, one bonus thought…
- How does Aunt Jemima still exist?: Totally unrelated to college football, but it struck me as odd that the Aunt Jemima brand of breakfast foods is still used. It must have just flown under the radar in a politically correct world given the stereotype it represents.
Tags: football, Illinois, ncaa-football, Ohio State, Sports
Where’s the Clemson review that you promised from last week?
I said to wait two weeks. Though, right now it’s not looking good
We have some Aunt Jemima syrup at home… I was just telling my wife the other day that the pantry was starting to feel like a hostile and abusive environment.
I haven’t checked your blog in some time but I need some type of sports info while at work (since everything else is blocked!). And now I will treat you to my opinion on your OSU comments
1) Texas and USC of last year would not be run away favorites from the Buckeyes this year. Our offense (which has only been utilized at about 50%) would be comparable with USC and better than UT. Our defense is young but showed a lot last weekend. I would rate it better than USC (which was average at best) and not as good as UT. Overall, this Buckeye team would be on par with USC and UT. Remember this UT defense we just sliced up is not that different from last years team. On to #2!
2) Gonzalez has exceeded all expectations I had for him already. He is Santonio Holmes except for one glaring difference.
3) The E Miller jury is still out on Colt McCoy. I felt that most of the game he looked like a freshman QB in a big game. I’m not ready to annoint him anything but a highly recurited high school player yet (remember the Zwicker). I really wasn’t impressed at all. Mack Brown going away from the running game and depending more on McCoy was a huge mistake.
4) Troy Smith is a versatile QB that can be mobile or more of a pocket passer. I can’t check stats but I believe he had over 70 yards rushing on a number of occasions last year. That is a mobile quarterback. He is attempting (successfully) to no longer depend on his legs this year and showing that he has a fantastic arm. I think he is rapidly increasing his stock as an NFL qb by displaying his full skill set. He is not as fast as Michael Vick or Vince Young. He makes better decisions and has better accuracy and precision (I know they had high completion % but they were dump passes) than both qbs. His only problem at the NFL will be his height. So I would say he is a dual threat QB, but that is not a bad thing, as Vick and Young are both collecting nice paychecks right now after being selected in the top three of their respective drafts.
JMHO
Glad to be your sports fix! I read somewhere that the Texas defensive coordinator (who was at Auburn previously and hadn’t lost in like 19 straight games) said it threw them for a loop when Troy Smith didn’t run…so maybe his lack of mobility in this game helped the Buckeyes. He’s definitely not as big as Vince Young either. More than Vince’s speed, I was always impressed by his size…it usually took like three defenders to get him down.
I just think with Vince Young leading last year’s Texas offense, they probably would have scored at least 35 on this year’s Buckeye defense. Vince would have ran a lot more when the pass wasn’t there, which as you mentioned seems to be the defense’s Achilles’ heal. He led them to 25 points on the road against last year’s defense. He could have added at least 10 more points at home on this year’s defense. As good as the Buckeye’s offense is, I don’t think they would have been able to put up enough points to match that Texas team.