bicranium

I mostly agree about MSU but I wonder if they're pulling an old school Tressel. With Dantonio being the coach it's entirely possible and nothing they haven't done before. They got up for their big game against Oregon and won that with relative ease. They've stayed vanilla and played down to everyone else and it's gotten maybe a little too close for comfort but they're still unbeaten. They may just not be great but we should know for sure after this weekend. Their secondary fell off big time last season and this year it's been decimated by injuries so that's a factor as well.

Lot of P5 jobs open already. Illinois, Maryland, USCw and now USCe. I hope Spurrier goes the commentator route. He'd be like an old, white football version of Charles Barkley. He already speaks his mind for the most part as a HC but without being an official representative of a school he'll be able to say even more off the wall stuff.

Just saw that after I made my last post. Very sorry, 2 Sweet. Guess it's back to the Treon Harris show. This is bad not only for the rest of this season but for next season too since he is suspended for a full year. He won't be eligible again until week 7 of the 2016 season.

It was funny when people were saying "OSU's defense didn't have respect for this Diamont kid." Umm... he's the same kid who did the same thing to OSU last season. OSU opened as a 21 point favorite vs. PSU but it's come down to 17.5 already. Before the Maryland game I was telling my buddies in a very serious manner that OSU would lose to Penn State in the fancy black jerseys. Now, Maryland played the game closer than expected but OSU seemed to fix a lot of things offensively. I still don't quite understand how the QB you want in the red zone isn't the QB you want everywhere but it worked. 6/6 in the red zone, no turnovers. I'm just worried it was an illusion. Maryland is bad. Penn State probably has the best defense OSU has faced this season.

Just dismiss 75% of what he says as trolling (because it is) and everything is fine.

For those who want an unbiased look at OSU's current talent... http://walterfootball.com/draft2016.php For those who don't want to click... #1 Bosa #12 Decker #13 Zeke #20 Thomas #29 Lee #31 Washington #45 Bell #77 Perry #90 Elflein Bosa doesn't have the sacks on his stat sheet right now but he has more QB pressures, hits and hurries than anyone on the team. And he missed a game. If you actually focus on Bosa for just one series you'll see the kind of effect he is having on basically every single snap he's in. And I am honestly surprised Urban went with JT in the red zone. I know I posted the stats and stuff about Cardale's struggles there this season and I posted about Urban's call-in show Thursday afternoon and watching Houston Thursday night but I didn't expect anything to change really. But Urban was proactive and in his post-game presser he even admitted to watching Houston Thursday night and thinking that JT in the red zone with the Q run had to happen. It annoyed me at first because you think, if JT is the guy you trust in the most important part of the field why isn't he the guy you trust everywhere? Urban was actually asked this same question at his post-game presser and basically responded with "that's a good question." But it worked. OSU went from 6/16 in the red zone in weeks 1-5 to 6/6 in the red zone today. Is Maryland some amazing defense? Of course not. But neither were Hawaii, Western Michigan or Indiana.

I think Gibson is going to redshirt. Urban said true freshman WR KJ Hill was going to play a couple weeks ago but I don't think that ended up happening. Parris Campbell is back healthy this week and he showed the ability to get separation in his time this season but just needs to actually haul it in. And OSU isn't really running the Barrett offense anymore. They're trying to be almost pro style with no QB run. That's what my post was all about. Urban is running an offense he's never really had success running. I don't know if it's stubbornness, trying to prove he can do it or what, but it's not good. There is basically no read option being run at OSU right now and that's been a staple of an Urban Meyer offense for as long as he's coached. He talked about it during his call-in show yesterday as if he missed running it but he keeps the guy who can run it perfectly on the bench... just weird.

He could. Or he could end up never playing at OSU again. Just have to wait and see. Some fun stats... Cardale Jones has accounted for a grand total of 1 TD in the red zone for OSU this season. And that came on a 10 yard run in the first game. 4 straight games now he has accounted for exactly 0 TD's in the red zone. OSU as a team is 6/16 on scoring TD's on red zone trips. Cardale is 2/10 throwing with 0 TD's and 2 INT's in the red zone. JT Barrett accounted for 26 TD's in the red zone last season while completing 60% of his passes. Houston's QB scored 4 TD's in the red zone in their win tonight. It was against SMU who has the worst defense in the country statistically but OSU has faced 3 teams with defenses ranked 99th or worse and Cardale has scored 0 TD's against them in the red zone. Urban talked a bit about the red zone scoring woes so far this season today and this was his quote more or less, "last year we had the QB run as an option and it created a numbers advantage. That's not really part of our offense this year." Yeah, because the QB who could run that offense for you is sitting on the bench. This whole Cardale thing just seems weird. Urban is talking about how it basically sucks they can't run the same offense as last season but he won't take the QB who ran that offense off the bench.

Glenville boys are going to have to step up in the secondary. With Damon Webb suspended indefinitely and now Cam Burrows out for the season (foot injury, had surgery), Marshon Lattimore and Erick Smith are going to have to fill in at the nickle and then if Conley or Apple get dinged up again. Lattimore has been getting beat a lot since Webb has been out and Smith has only been working as a backup safety so now that Burrow's season is officially over gotta think Ash will start working Smith at the nickle.

LSU doing a ton to accommodate them. If anyone is going to know how bad it is to be displaced by a hurricane it's people in Louisiana. South Carolina students can get in for $5 at the gate, LSU's band is learning South Carolina's fight song and alma mater, all profits from ticket sales are going to South Carolina, etc.

Should know more about Michigan after this weekend for sure. Right now I think they could absolutely beat Michigan State or Ohio State. But neither of those teams is clicking just yet. Michigan State showed up for the game against Oregon but not much else. Ohio State showed up for the game against Virginia Tech but not much else. Michigan played what is now looking like it was a really tough game in Utah to open the season and has been rolling ever since. They're nothing special offensively but they're solid. They are something special defensively. And while the offense isn't anything spectacular, its style complements a great defense perfectly. Something that does bug me about all this praise Michigan is getting right now is how people are crediting Harbaugh/Durkin for improving the defense. News flash... that defense was great a year ago. It's just the offense didn't do anything to help them. They kept Mattison on staff for a reason. As for the conferences, I think you could put any of the B1G, SEC and Pac 12 as the strongest conference right now. Big 12 isn't too far behind that first tier. ACC is well behind everyone. All 3 of those top tier conferences look to have interesting seasons ahead of them with no clear cut favorites even within the divisions of each conference.

Yeah, it's simple. Nothing flashy, nothing particularly awesome, but nothing awful either. Some people actually liked these mock ups that some blind person made and somehow posted on the internet a while back... http://i.imgur.com/0R2mG7S.png

I wish they would have stuck with the gray numbers from the mock ups in Urban's office last year. No gray stripes on the sleeves either. I don't understand why OSU seems so determined to phase gray out of the uniforms (outside of the nearly perfect playoff jerseys). Interested to see what the helmets look like. Everything seems to point to matte black but not sure. I think matte has been way overdone in college football by now.

Oh, and the fan version of the black OSU jerseys will go on sale Saturday so should have an official unveil of the team version very soon. Not exactly the same as the mock ups from Urban's office last year but those were definitely early versions.

I logged into Sportsbook for the first time in years a couple days ago and had a $5 free bet. Friend and I decided to put together a huge parlay to win like $700 or something if everything is right. My friend wanted to take TCU -16 as this massive lock and I'm like... dude... TCU has no defense, Texas played right with Cal into the 40's and only lost because of a missed PAT. They only lost this past week vs. Okie St. because their punter mishandled a snap. And TCU needed a miracle to beat TTU. TCU was in a struggle with SMU a couple weeks ago (2 late TCU TD's pushed it a 19-point victory) and SMU lost to freakin' James Madison. I would not but surprised at all if Texas pulls off the upset but my friend was being such an idiot about it I put it on my ticket and told him when we lose and that's the only wrong pick... he's done. My picks... #23 West Virginia vs #15 Oklahoma #13 Alabama vs #8 Georgia #3 Ole Miss vs #25 Florida #21 Miss St vs #14 TA&M #6 Notre Dame vs #12 Clemson Not real confident in Oklahoma or Georgia but I have them in my original 4 playoff picks so gotta ride that out. A&M isn't that good but neither is Mississippi State. And I actually picked Clemson first then remembered it's going to be a sloppy game (over 3" of rain forecast for Clemson on Saturday). I think ND will pound the rock with Prosise and get out of there with another impressive W for their already impressive resume.

There are a lot of people who describe themselves as "old-school" who want Michigan to lose every game. Every single game. I'm definitely of the same mindset as you though. Let them get a bunch of wins, lofty ranking and then OSU takes them out. Now, to be fair, I have only been a true fan of OSU football since 2002 (right from the beginning of the season, not at the end after the title) so I've only experienced 2 losses and they were in seasons where there was weak hope of a national title (2003) or no hope of a national title (2011). I've never had to experience years like 1995 or 1996 where Michigan spoiled potential Ohio State national championships. So maybe my thinking will change if I ever have to deal with that. Hopefully I never have to find out. Anyway, the black jerseys OSU will wear vs. Penn State should be unveiled sometime this week. Details point to something that looks very much like the mock up Urban had in his office during an ESPN visit last season... http://i.imgur.com/ZLRGvYR.jpg Black jerseys, black pants, black helmets, scarlet shoes/socks. In the picture it looks like the numbers are silver/gray with a scarlet outline. Not a huge fan of black jerseys but at least they should look decent if they stick to something like that and not the horrendous things that came out over the summer.

As Orion mentioned, the "rowing the boat" thing is all PJ Fleck. Here's a full explanation... http://www.mlive.com/broncos/index.ssf/2013/05/wmu_football_coach_pj_fleck_ex.html WMU also had what looked like tree stickers on their helmets. So you've got a Broncos team with oars on their backs/shoulders and trees on their helmets. They're just all over the place. Edit: picture with a good view of the helmet stickers from yesterday's game... http://photos.theozone.net/photos/2015_2016/Football/20150926_OSU_vs_WesternMichiga/15-09-26-FB-1009-DH.jpg And going back to my original pick for the 4 playoff teams I had Oregon, Oklahoma, Ohio State and Georgia. Oregon is obviously gone. Ohio State and Oklahoma are still alive. Georgia is very much alive and they are actually favored over Alabama this weekend. First time since vs. Florida in 2009 that Alabama is the underdog. 72 game streak of being the favorite. Of course I think we all know what happened in that game in 2009... Nick Saban stole Urban Meyer's soul. Urban clearly took it back this past January so now we see if Mark Richt's soul is available for the taking.

Michigan will absolutely be ranked. What they did to BYU was almost good enough but the only team they've lost to (by 1 score, on the road) going into Autzen and potentially putting an end to this era of relevance for Oregon football sealed the deal. Northwestern had a shaky day but are dealing with some injuries and Duke beating GT and Stanford continuing to look good will only help them. Then of course Ohio State, Michigan State and Wisconsin did nothing to hurt their positions. With Ole Miss and TCU having rough outings today there won't be any further shaking up of the top 5. Something interesting I thought about with regards to Oregon tonight... Chip Kelly isn't exactly lighting it up in the NFL. We've seen some college coaches fail in the NFL and come back pretty quick. Petrino took a strange route but he's right back where he made his name in Louisville. People are talking about Schiano maybe going back to Rutgers with all the issues they're having off the field. Could Chip Kelly get fired by Philadelphia and just slide right back into the HC job at Oregon? Think about how much a program like Miami may have loved to go back and grab Butch Davis after he failed in Cleveland.

Yeah, it'll be interesting if/when they run into a defense that actually forces them to throw it a little. After what Utah did to Oregon today Michigan is looking pretty damn solid. My DirecTV actually set itself up to record the ESPN Alternate channel for some reason. I only caught it maybe 15 minutes before the game started and was able to set up a proper recording on ABC.

Another thing more important than OSU's offensive woes... THE WASHINGTON STATE FLAG THAT HAS FLOWN AT 166 CONSECUTIVE COLLEGE GAMEDAYS IS CURRENTLY LOST IN TRANSIT. This puts not only the streak at risk but the state of college football as we know it.

Stuff spiraled out of control as the day went on but the earliest, simplest rumor was just the booster's wife one and that's nothing that hasn't happened before in college football. Carl Pelini did the same thing at Nebraska and was eventually shipped off to be the HC at FAU which didn't end well either.

Well, who gives a shit about the #1 team in the country's QB problems. We've got ourselves a delicious scandal brewing in Tuscaloosa. Allegedly, Lane Kiffin either... A) slept with a booster's wife B) slept with Nick Saban's daughter C) slept with Nick Saban's daughter AND got into a fight with Nick Saban over it A poster on reddit added their knowledge on Kiffin's probable infidelity... People are already hitting up Bama fan shops for custom jerseys and shirts with "Freshwater" on the back.

The OL hasn't been beast like though. That's been a big part of the problem. Price and Boren have struggled. Makes it hard to run between the tackles when 2 of the 3 linemen between the tackles aren't playing well. That's why I think they've gotta get the OL and Zeke going early this week. WMU has been run on and this OL needs to use that to build some momentum.

WMU gave up over 400 rushing yards to Georgia Southern and Georgia Southern only completed 1 of 4 pass attempts. OSU should know they can ram it down their throats. Hopefully they go out and get Zeke and the OL going early to build a lead and then they can work on the passing game. With Cardale the offense is more pro style and relies on play action. So they get the running game going early and then Cardale should be able to at least try and go downfield. They need to get going because next week B1G play starts.

Definitely did not deal with the same crap last season. OSU was 10-5 against the spread in 2014. I can't find which games were W's and which were L's but my best guesses for the 5 L's would be Navy, VT, PSU, Minnesota and Michigan. After the VT game OSU put up 42 points or more in all but 2 games. One of those being @ PSU where JT sprained his MCL in the first half and PSU just had a great defense and the other being @ Minnesota during a snow storm. OSU is currently 1-2 against the spread this season with the obvious losses being against Hawaii (-42.5) and NIU (-34). People are expecting him to stick with Cardale. Of course I'm not a huge fan of that but I'm also not Urban Meyer so we'll see if maybe Urban "solidifying" Cardale as the starter helps him and the rest of the offense not look like a bunch of hapless assholes on Saturday.