Hate Week!

Let's sing some songs

Hate week is officially upon us! The Ohio State-Michigan series continues to be one of the greatest rivalries in all of sport. It was just a short five years ago that The Game featured #1 vs. #2 and vaulted Ohio State into the National Championship game against Florida. Obviously that season didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to (thanks banquet circuit) but that game will live in Buckeye lore as one of the greatest games ever played.

This year’s contest has quite a different feel to it than years past. Over the last 5 seasons it has been Michigan sporting the underdog label. Not this year.

Ohio St. is reeling from a 2 game losing streak and is struggling to find its’ way on both sides of the ball. Early lines on this game favored Michigan by 8.5 and that will probably only go up as the game nears. The Buckeyes are being lead into battle by a first-year interim coach and everyone’s favorite (NOT) offensive coordinator, Jim Bollman, is still calling the plays. The Buckeyes will have to be on top of their game to escape Ann Arbor (is a whore) with a victory and continue its’ ridiculous streak of 2,900+ days of dominance.

Ohio State AD Gene Smith "Still Backing" Tressel

Still has The Vest's back

At the Big Ten spring meetings Wednesday, Smith -- while declining to discuss any details of the ongoing NCAA investigation of Tressel -- affirmed his support for the coach, who is entering his 11th season with the Buckeyes.

Smith noted last month in an interview with The Associated Press that Tressel should have apologized at the infamous March 8 news conference, where Tressel acknowledged he failed to notify Ohio State officials of emails he received about some of his players receiving improper benefits.

Smith has also talked about the high legal costs Ohio State is dealing with, calling the ongoing NCAA situation "a nightmare," and confirmed Wednesday that Tressel is responsible for his own lawyers. Tressel, who makes around $3.5 million per season, has hired Gene Marsh to represent him before the NCAA's committee on infractions on Aug. 12 in Indianapolis. Marsh, a member of the NCAA's infractions committee for nine years and chairman for two, is an Ohio State graduate. He has said he never attended a Buckeyes football game during his years as a student.

Hoke Getting Wolverines Fired Up For The Wrong (Or right) Team!

Coming Soon: Losing to another small school

Watch out Athens, Brady Hoke and that School Up North are setting up for a big rivalry with you!

On January 13, 2011 Hoke was hired as the successor to Rich Rodriguez as the University of Michigan football coach. During his first press conference as head coach, he let it be known that the rivalry with Ohio was important to him, and it was going to be important to his players.

Hoke grew up in Kettering, OH, the same hometown which gave us great Buckeye Linebacker and current Green Bay Packer AJ Hawk. John Hoke, Brady's father, played football at the University of Miami (OH) under Woody Hayes and with Bo Schembechler. After high school, Brady attended Ball State University and was a 4 year letter winner in football and served as a captain his senior year (1980).

With the history of Hayes in his background and growing up in Ohio, you would think he would be an Ohio State man. Instead he is now and seems has always been...a Michigan man.

Quick Hitters

For the most part, Auburn shut down LMJ

MNC- The college football season wrapped up last Monday when Auburn escaped Glendale with a 22-19 victory and another notch on the belt for the SEC. I was pulling hard for the ducks to end the reign of terror by gods’ conference but it was not to be as the Oregon defense could not contain the final push by the Tigers with 2 minutes remaining. While there is no real argument to be made that the SEC isn’t the top conference in the nation, in no way was I impressed by this victory (or the whole game for that matter). Sure, it ended in a field goal with time expiring but did anybody in Buckeye nation think that our silver bullets couldn’t hang with either one of these teams on Monday night?

Did anyone think this was a “game for the ages” that the four letter network would have you believe? We were supposed to watch these teams run up and down the field all night with their explosive offensive attacks but instead were treated to lots of punts, tentative play calling and a bunch of misdirection plays that went nowhere. There were a couple big plays by either side but nobody could string any together and give us the game that was hyped for 2 months. Oh well, at least OSU still possesses the greatest MNC game in the long and illustrious history of the BCS (don’t give me Texas-USC either… I don’t want to hear it).

Brady Hoke Hired at Michigan

Michigan fans got their “Michigan Man” but apparently some of them are not happy about it.



Did Michigan finally get their "Michigan Man"?

Brady Hoke has been hired as the next head football coach at Michigan. Hoke comes to Michigan after stints at Ball State and San Diego State.

Hoke rebuilt the programs at Ball State and San Diego State but had a record of just 47-50 before accepting the position in Ann Arbor.  Hoke had been an assistant coach at Michigan prior to accepting the Ball State job.

Some of the concern about Hoke is that his teams have had just three winning seasons in his eight as a head coach.  If it wasn’t for his 12-1 mark that he put up at Ball State in 2008 before jetting to the west coast, his win-loss record would be even worse.  Perhaps Hoke leaving the Cardinals was just him knowing that he would be losing most of the talent that led to the record-breaking 2008 squad.  With Hoke’s offensive coordinator and former “Michigan Man” himself Stan Parrish as head coach in 2009-2010, Ball State was a meager 6-19, bad even for the Cardinals standards.  Parrish’s struggles led to him being fired after the 2010 season.



Hoke led Ball State to a 12-1 record in 2008 before leaving for San Diego State

Some Michigan fans are not pleased with his under-.500 record as a head coach, but this is something Michigan had to overlook after their top two candidates, Jim Harbaugh and Les Miles, “thanks, but no thanks”-ed the Wolverines.

It’s this simple: Michigan is no longer a destination job.  Do you think Ohio State, Florida, USC, etc. would hire a coach from the MAC or the Mountain West? No. They would find a big name.  Hoke may bring respectability back to the mediocre program that is Michigan at the moment. However, Michigan is supposed to contend, year-in and year-out, for Big Ten titles and national championships.

The last year of the Lloyd Carr era and the entire Rich Rodriguez era took the program from competing for national championships to celebrating when they became bowl-eligible.

Utah, TCU and BYU have brought some respect to the Mountain West Conference in recent years so maybe it isn’t so much of a step up in class for Hoke. But can you imagine the uproar of Michigan fans if Hoke had stayed at Ball State instead of leaving for San Diego State? Michigan doesn’t hire MAC coaches. It’s not what Michigan does.

The hire of Hoke comes one day before the Buckeyes basketball team takes on Michigan in Ann Arbor.  Could they be planning to introduce him at halftime? That did not go so well when they introduced Rodriguez.  Buckeye fans who made the trip up north chanted “Tress-el! Tress-el!” when Rodriguez was introduced.  They also had a sign counting the number of days since Michigan had beaten Ohio State.



Buckeye fans welcome Rich Rod to the rivalry

If any Buckeye fans are making the trip to Crisler Arena for this edition, here’s an update for gamenight: 2,608 days.