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THE ROSE BOWL:

Most of the sports "gurus" and ESPN talking heads have The Buckeyes losing anywhere from a close game to a total beat down. They are not quite sure how bad Ohio State will lose, only that they WILL lose. I not only think Ohio State will win this bowl game, I think we win by at least ten points.

No sentence about Ohio State football is spoken on ESPN without including the words "...last three bowl game losses.". However, they don't mention that those three losses were to teams that ended up ranked #1, #1 and #3. In 2002 we beat Miami as two touchdown underdogs and then we beat Kansas State 35-28 (and the game wasn't nearly as close as the score indicates), Oklahoma State 33-7 and $Notre Dame 34-20.

"I don't think Oregon can stop Ohio State's running game and our defensive line is as healthy as they have been all year and will have roasted Duck for New Year's Day supper."

I think Oregon will keep it close in the first half until we get our footing and then we pull away. We are the more talented team at just about every position. The only way we could lose this game is if we turn the ball over three or four times and I just don't see that happening. I don't think they can stop our running game and our defensive line is as healthy as they have been all year and will have roasted Duck for New Year's Day supper. Our senior class is tied for the most wins for any Ohio State senior class at 43. Next week at this time they will have 44 and graduate as the class with the most wins ever.

NIS & NAT & NARYTANE:

"Meyer either decided his health and family aren't as important as he thought they were the day before or he is just going to be the Brett Favre of college football."

Pope Urban of Meyer announced his retirement due to health and family reasons. I thought there for a minute he was going to leave the University of Florida after five years without his degree. But then the next day he changed his mind and said he will be coaching next year. He has either decided his health and family aren't as important as he thought they were the day before or he is just going to be the Brett Favre of college football. My guess is he still intends on not coaching next year but didn't want to see this year's recruiting class go in the tank.

I don't see this whole "stress" thing happening to Tressel. Designing offensive schemes and plays is stressful, therefore stress will not effect him.

Ohio State announced that they received 1,000 extra Rose Bowl tickets. The tickets were sold in less than ten minutes.

If not for bad luck, Thad Matta would have no luck at all. He came to OSU and immediately had to deal with the team already being on probation. He finally gets through that and brings in the #1 recruiting class in the country and guides them to the NCAA finals only to lose the three best players to the NBA. Then he loses two seven foot freshmen to the NBA the next two years. Then he was undefeated last year and David Lighty goes down with an injury and it takes his best coaching effort yet to get his team to 20 wins and a spot in the NCAA tournament. This year looks like a very good year and he loses Evan Turner who may have been the national player of the year. All Thad wanted for Christmas this year was two healed lumbar vertebrae. Oh yeah, did I mention that he has the number one rated recruiting class in the country coming in next year? Perhaps his luck is about to change. The dark karma clouds are parting and the sun is shining through.

Should Congress be involved in the BCS? Hell yes! Nobody else is doing anything about a playoff. Just give it to the Democrats and tell them that most of the country opposes it and they will jam through legislation at one in the morning on New Year's Eve.

Did you know that since the year 2000 no college had more players drafted by the NFL than Ohio State?

"Florida football players have received 251 traffic tickets in the last four years. Must be that SEC speed."

Florida football players have received 251 traffic tickets in the last four years. Must be that SEC speed.

Mount Union lost to Wisconsin White-Water in the national championship game. I said at the beginning of the season that I didn't think they could win it this year because they only had two starters back on offense and only a couple more than that on defense. So in a total rebuilding year they go 14-0 and make it to the championship game. They fall behind 14-0 and come back to have the game tied 28-28 with about five minutes left in the game and have the ball. They fumble. They stop White-Water and start another drive. They fumble. This time White-Water scores. They get the ball back with one more chance and fumble. Three fumbles in the last five minutes. They had only lost four fumbles in fourteen games and lost three in five minutes. Still, not bad for a rebuilding year.

An assistant coach at LSU paid a player to transfer to LSU from a community college. And you were wondering where the SEC gets all of that speed. They just buy it.

Here's some names: Gerry Foust, Bob Davies, Charlie Weis. $Notre Dame finally did their homework this time and hired a coach that actually was a head coach at a college. Not that it necessarily means success (think Ty Willingham and George O'Leary) but it certainly helps. Brian Kelly is now thought of in Cincinnati like Rich Rodriguez is thought of in West Virginia. The difference is that Kelly will turn $Notre Dame around and he will do it quickly.

And speaking of meeeshitagin, I wonder how they are doing in their bowl preparation?

USC is in trouble again. This time it was star running back Joe McKnight who was driving a Land Rover SUV that was given to his girlfriend by a Santa Monica businessman because "...her family couldn't qualify for a loan" and he was just a nice guy who had a lot of extra money to help out a poor family. This was after another man was given $1,000 to steer O.J. Mayo to USC to play basketball and after Reggie Bush's family received the free use of a $750,000 home near USC. Have you heard much about this? Can you even begin to imagine if this were Ohio State doing these things? Maurice Clarett lied about everything he said and ESPN was calling for our AD to be fired! It's all we heard for two years.

You have to remember that people on ESPN are just tools. Because the Big Ten Network is giving them competition for their sports dollars you will never hear a kind word about the Big Ten on ESPN.

"Speaking of announcers, word has it that when Gary Danielson gave his Christmas present to Tim Tebow he made sure he was standing under mistletoe."

Speaking of announcers, word has it that when Gary Danielson gave his Christmas present to Tim Tebow he made sure he was standing under mistletoe.

The Big Ten is once again considering expansion. I hope they don't embarrass themselves by asking $Notre Dame again. Although they would be the perfect fit because of location, academics, size, tradition, etc., asking again after the unanimous "no" vote ten years ago would be too close to groveling to me. I would like to see Pitt, West Virginia or Missouri. Hell, take all three and have a fourteen team super conference. Another one I would like to see is Nebraska.

One place where college football really screwed up was adding a twelfth regular season game. All it has become is another chance to play another horrible team. Do you know anybody that was happy to pay $64 to see Ohio State play New Mexico State? It was all about money and keeping football out of a playoff system. As a fan, it was a sharp stick in the eye. And basketball is even worse. We just played two of the worst teams ever played in the history of Ohio State basketball in Presbyterian and Delaware State. And it's not just us, it's every team in the country. We have a brand new arena that sits nearly 20,000 fans and we are lucky to get half that when we play these dogs. But we did get to go almost three weeks since the Butler game without the loss of Evan Turner hurting us. That ends Thursday night at Wisconsin.

"Ray Small's been in Tressel's dog house so often they should call him Rover."

We have four players that are not in Pasadena this week for various reasons. Duron Carter and Rob Rose are academically ineligible, and Bo DeLande "violated team rules."  Who knows why Ray Small is in trouble this time. He's been in Tressel's dog house so often they should call him Rover. Carter got in the game when we went to four wides, Rose got in at the bottom of the D-line rotation, Delande was in on some special teams and Small, when he wasn't suspended, was our third receiver and returned punts. If you stick your hand in a bucket of water and pull it out, the hole that's left in the water is how much they will be missed.

Go Bucks, Beat The Ducks.

The Coach

Tags: bcs, espnu, evan turner, jim tressel, ohio state basketball, ohio state football, ray small, sec football, thad matta