bicranium

Do not go from Ultra TV to U-Verse unless you're in a Gigapower area. Have had both. U-Verse was decent as far as not having general connection issues but the overall performance of their basic system is horrible. Long story short, the bandwidth for your internet and TV is shared with U-Verse so the second you are recording/watching more than 2 shows at the same time you start eating into your internet bandwidth and if you ever max it out at the 4 shows at a time (vs. the 6 shows at a time you can do with Ultra which never messes with your internet bandwidth) you will run into issues simply browsing the internet due to their shoddy equipment.

I believe WOW either dropped or are soon dropping the 600 and 110 tiers. There will only be 10/1, 100/10 and 500/50 tiers with their gigabit service coming to Columbus sometime this year as well. When it launches here all customers (new and existing) will have the opportunity to jump on it for $70/month for a year.

I think he legitimately has Asperger syndrome.

The 600mbps service is $95/month with a 1-year contract. $110/month without a contract. I'm currently on their 300mbps but am hoping to upgrade to the 600mbps within the next couple days. 600mbps and their "large" cable TV package (basically everything you can get on cable + your choice of a premium like HBO) is $135/month with a 1-year contract. My 300mbps service is extremely consistent. Average test is about 325 down/21 up. WOW is also launching gigabit service in a few of their markets and I assume that will makes its way to Columbus at some point. And I also use all my own equipment because of past issues with WOW's. SB6190 for internet and am getting my own Tivo box to use with a cable card from WOW when I get that all set up.

I don't see OSU getting DPJ (#1 WR). Definitely getting #2 WR Trevon Grimes. Have a great shot at #3 WR Tyjon Lindsey. #17 WR Jaylen Harris should also be in the class. Should be an elite trio. More recruiting actual WR's instead of "athletes" to play the position. Also see the class getting to 20. They'll find a way. OSU has been doing winter workouts and whatnot lately and one of the themes (2013-2014 was "The Chase", 2015 was "The Grind") is "This is the land of wolves." For those who haven't seen Sicario, maybe a tiny spoiler but I'm not going to give its context, Benicio del Toro's character says near the end to another character... "You will not survive here. You're not a wolf. And this is the land of wolves now." Basically a message to the young pups (of which there are simply a TON - over half the roster this season will be true and redshirt freshmen) that it's time to become a wolf or you're not going to make it. Here's the sign that's up in the football facility... http://i.imgur.com/jDeF8HH.jpg Of course you also see "Get to Indy" there for the B1G title game. I really want to know who decided to use the thing from Sicario. Such an amazing line from a great movie.

4* NV DT Haskell Garrett committed to OSU last week. Apparently his family is all in the midwest (he goes to Bishop Gorman in Vegas) so his top 3 were OSU, PSU and ND. He hasn't been to OSU yet so that's always iffy but should be coming sometime in the spring. I guess he hadn't talked to a lot of media yet because most people had him joining Bishop Gorman's 5* QB Tate Martell at A&M. 5* WR Tyjon Lindsey was also at Bishop Gorman this past season but is moving back to Cali for his senior year. Lindsey's favorite team growing up was OSU. Have a good A&M friend so this news and news stemming from it could be pretty painful.

Looking at Texas' schedule I think if Strong can get 8+ wins next season then he's safe. Then another improvement in 2017 and he could be there for a while. The way their class closed was incredible. Unrelated, here's a nice article with a graph on just how depleted OSU will be next season... http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2016/2/5/10921918/2016-ncaa-football-returning-starters-experience-lsu-ohio-state-tennessee-stanford 127th out of 128 in returning experience. Still, I'm excited to watch some new guys make their mark with JT leading them. Since I'm bored I'm going to make a projected starting lineup for OSU... QB - JT Barrett (RS Jr.) RB - Curtis Samuel (Jr.) H-back - Dontre Wilson (Sr.) WR - Noah Brown (RS So.) WR - Torrance Gibson (RS Fr.) TE - Marcus Baugh (RS Jr.) LT - Isaiah Prince (So.) LG - Billy Price (Jr.) C - Pat Elflein (RS Sr.) RG - Jamarco Jones (RS So.) RT - Malcolm Pridgeon (Jr.) DE - Tyquan Lewis (Jr.) DT - Michael Hill (Jr.) DT - Tracy Sprinkle (RS Jr.) DE - Sam Hubbard (RS So.) LB - Jerome Baker (So.) LB - Raekwon McMillan (Jr.) LB - Dante Booker (Jr.) CB - Gareon Conley (Jr.) S - Malik Hooker (So.) S - Erick Smith (Jr.) CB - Denzel Ward (So.) And here's a list of guys who are either redshirt or true freshmen that I expect to see quite a bit... RB - Mike Weber* H-back - DeMario McCall WR - KJ Hill*, Austin Mack TE - Jake Hausmann OL - Branden Bowen*, Matt Burrell* DL - Jashon Cornell*, Dre'Mont Jones*, Jonathon Cooper, Nick Bosa, Robert Landers* LB - Nick Conner*, Justin Hilliard*, Keandre Jones DB - Joshua Norwood*, Wayne Davis, Damon Arnette*, Jordan Fuller *redshirt freshman I think the biggest crapshoots in terms of guessing starters are the offensive skill guys and the DB's. Mike Weber could easily be the starting RB with Samuel being the starting H-back. Parris Campbell could be a starting WR or H-back. KJ Hill or Austin Mack could be a starting WR. Damon Webb, Marshon Lattimore, Cam Burrows and Jordan Fuller could all compete for a starting DB spot. Should be a very interesting off-season trying to pay attention to who ends up filling in at all of the open spots.

Will be interesting to see how he pans out. I have an A&M friend so I knew he was committed to them early on. Then he decommitted and eventually committed to Tom Herman at Houston. Then over the last couple weeks there was all this talk about Florida, then TCU popped up briefly, but ultimately, Florida. Just a strange recruitment. Something people didn't expect out of Houston was for them to hold on to 5* DT Ed Oliver. But he signed with them today and it's all official. First ever 5* player to sign with a G5 program. Of course, I believe that's since there has been "G5 programs" which is just a few years. Also, just since I mentioned my A&M friend, today has basically been hell for him. Texas is absolutely cleaning up today on the recruiting trail. They were somewhere in the 30's or 40's when the day began and are now just outside the top 10. Obviously these kids aren't going to put them into national championship contention this upcoming season but just continue to improve a little bit this year, Strong gets at least one more year and if they're not truly competing for a Big 12 title in 2017 then they'll have to look at getting rid of him.

Burns decided not to flip back to Louisville so that made Wallace no longer a need. Pridgeon and Harrison signed today. Everyone is officially in but Victor but that's just a formality. Everything done before 10:15AM. Not bad. Now we wait to see if there are any fireworks in Ann Arbor over possibly losing Gary to Clemson.

The week of National Signing Day is upon us. 2 OSU related announcements tonight... 4* PA DB Damar Hamlin - will probably stay home and go to Pitt but could surprise and pick OSU 4* NJ ATH (DB) Jordan Fuller - will be OSU Then 1-2 kids between today and Wednesday between these options... 4* JUCO OL Malcolm Pridgeon 3* VA DB K'Von Wallace 3* JUCO DT Jamar King Also I believe 3* OH ATH Malik Harrison will be a simple signing day announcement for OSU. Fickell fought to get him in the class the same way he did for Darron Lee so it would be cool if he worked out as well because it was part of the reason OSU couldn't find room for 4* FL WR Sam Bruce. And 3* KY DB Rodjay Burns may be flipping back to Louisville. I'd rather have Wallace than him anyway so hopefully that's how it works out.

I really enjoy how Walker is behind Williams in basically every single ranking now. OSU was perfectly fine moving onto Williams swiftly after Walker tried to visit Michigan secretly.

Maryland fans' conspiracy theories regarding Haskins/Jones/Locksley are hilarious. Like it's so crazy a kid would choose to join OSU's class over sticking it out with Maryland's awful, awful class. Haskins has had one foot out the door for months.

People can't get Warinner's name right and now there's Studrawa... it's a disaster. Not calling you out specifically, LJ. The way you had it is the way Bucknuts' twitter posted it. And Ross Fulton just tweeted out "Studwara" in multiple, successive tweets.

I don't understand why they'd want one. It's a guaranteed rematch since they play a round robin 9-game conference schedule. Makes no sense.

Bama won their division and earned their spot in their conference title game thanks to a miraculous play by Arkansas against Ole Miss. OSU lost their division and didn't earn a spot in their conference title game thanks to a miraculous play by Michigan State against Michigan. You can boil it down to those 2 plays. Pretty crazy.

I mentioned this to some friends watching the game last night even before the "Saban is the GOAT" article hit ESPN but this was his first title without some kind of asterisk by it IMO. And it could still have a small one. 2003 - USC not being in the title game was a sham. #1 in both human polls at end of regular season. I don't know if LSU gets left out or if LSU would have beaten USC but the wrong teams were in the title game. 2009 - Texas loses McCoy on 2nd drive I think? Title goes to Bama by default. 2011 - Bama gets a rematch they didn't deserve. 2012 - Bama gets into a game they wouldn't have been in had OSU not been sanctioned. Last night the asterisk(s) would be Clemson's best DB not being able to play the 2nd half. Bama had 85 passing yards in the 1st half. 250 in the 2nd. Then the ridiculously bad handling of the clock by the officials at the end of the 1st half. Who knows what Clemson would or could have done with 15 seconds and their timeout. We had seen Watson strike from that far out already. Clemson gets a TD there (low probability) then the TD with 12 seconds left is a likely game winner. Like I said, it's low probability but I can't believe that was able to happen in a national championship game.

Yeah, Urban gets involved when and where he feels necessary (see the defense in 2012 when he didn't feel it was aggressive enough early on) but he'll never "take over" on either side of the ball. He makes decisions and will veto certain things and then the play caller(s) work with those decisions.

The plan after the offensive success vs. Michigan was for Warinner to remain in the box for as long as he's at OSU. He was in the box again vs. ND and that worked well again. Urban said yesterday that they aren't sure if he'll remain in the box next season. I'd assume Ed is worried about his unit, with 3 new starters, not getting coached up as well on the sidelines between series. And I honestly didn't expect any staff changes to be made. From what I've read the MSU disaster wasn't as much Beck's fault as it was Urban's. A couple early drops, the rain and Zeke's 3-day hospital stay that week led to Urban going to his crutch... the QB run. The QB thing was just a mess all year and from what I've read some of the staff wanted to switch from Cardale to JT much earlier. Some wanted JT from the start. I don't know if Beck was in the group that wanted JT from the start but I wouldn't be surprised. Beck recruited JT at Nebraska (JT's first offer) and I remember during the Scarlet and Gray Days thing that the Big Ten Network did that Beck was talking to JT as if he was the starter. Of course, if things at the QB position don't return to 2014 form with JT having the entire off-season to prepare as the starter then it'll be time for Timmy to go. Can't give a fair assessment based on 2015 due to all the garbage (Cardale being the initial starter, playing musical QB's as Cardale struggled, doubling down on Cardale as the starter, finally switching to JT, JT gets the DUI, etc.). nevada had good info pre-Urban. Urban has completely shut nevada's kind out since he seems to prefer legitimate reporters/journalists with real names and accountability instead of boosters' sons hiding behind an anonymous online handle who feel entitled to info because daddy paid a bunch of money for OSU's tennis facilities.

I think 3 losses (coming from the pool of @Oklahoma, @Wisconsin, @PSU, @MSU and Michigan) should be the expectation. The goal should be to be competitive in Norman and possibly steal the game then improve from there and see where they land. Urban spoke this morning for a wrap up type thing and said JT, Raekwon and Elflein are already captains for 2016. Said he thinks the offense will be fine and the defense will have some work to do. I agree with that. JT will grind with the new skill guys around him from now through the summer and Elflein will be able to help the new OL come together. Defense is a different animal so there's only so much Raekwon can do. Urban also said no staff changes. So another nice swing and miss from nevadabuck on Rivals. He might get something right again at some point.

I just meant in terms of experience and how valid labeling them a "starter" would be. Obviously Samuel and Hubbard are great players. Hopefully Samuel's back spasm issue gets sorted out. Baugh is unreliable so we'll see how he does as a real starter in 2016. Then Dontre will be the wily vet...haha. Needs to fully recover from his foot injury.

The nickel guys are really the only ones I'd consider close to the same level as the 6 true returning starters. Regardless, I'm excited to watch JT lead the offense with a bunch of young talent around him and Raekwon lead the defense with a bunch of young talent around him. If the team is at least competitive in Norman early next year then improves as the year goes on the same way they improved and came together as 2014 rolled along then they could be very good by the end of the year.

OSU could tie the single school draft record of 14 which was first set in 2004 by... OSU. I think FSU tied it in one of the last few drafts. Could be prevented if one of the guys who still hasn't declared sticks around. And one of them is supposedly considering it.

Yep. Was 31-0 at halftime. Oregon lost their QB when they were up 31-0 though. They showed the stat the Oregon had the 31 points and 250 or so yards with him in then only 40 or so yards and no points after he went out until OT.

From what I can tell this started on Rivals with nevadabuck. He posted it a day or two before the Fiesta Bowl. He hasn't had much good info since Urban arrived so I'm not buying it until someone more credible says something. Or if it just happens.

I do think the teams involved hurt but being on NYE and, technically, a weekday hurt more. The Rose Bowl will never give up its NYD spot and the Sugar Bowl demanded to be treated like the Rose Bowl so that's how this happened. Sugar Bowl people need to get in line because I don't see Disney/ESPN letting this continue with the amount of money they paid for the playoff rights. Not to mention they're already going into 2016 with the lowest subscriber base they've had in a decade. It might not be quite as bad next season with NYE on a Saturday. The first semifinal started during work hours for a lot of people. Sure, plenty of people get off early on NYE but not everyone. It's not a national holiday like NYD.