I decided to take a late summer vacation this past week to relax and clear my head before the upcoming college football campaign completely consumes me. Fishing on the muddy Maumee river and watching the Tribe lose to the Twins at the Jake (it will always be the Jake to me because I hate corporate named stadiums) kept me away from a lot of the news that came out of the WHAC. As always, the guys here at ITS did a great job of keeping everyone up to date on the latest Buckeye news last week but I just wanted to throw in my two cents on a few of those stories. The latest regional Sports Illustrated college football preview came out last week and it was no surprise when the Buckeyes were the team chosen to grace the cover. Really, who else are you going to put on there?!
Hopefully the SI curse will keep its distance this year as the Bucks are locked and loaded and ready for a title run. Ross Homan, Cam Heyward and Brian Rolle were chosen to represent the Buckeyes. Did anybody else think that the picture SI used looked kind of funny? Granted, it is hard to make football players look tough in a photo shoot but come on! I guess when your team is always on the cover you start to run out of poses to use. I think they should use the hands folded death stare picture every year (see 2006 Troy Smith cover).
Devon Torrence suffered a leg injury last week which held him out a couple of practices. He now appears be getting healthy and has been back practicing with the team. There is certainly talent to back him up at the position but it is unproven talent at best. The secondary is very important to this teams’ success this year and the bucks can’t afford injuries there.
Nathan Williams also went down with a knee injury on Saturday and looks to be out for a number of weeks. Hopefully it is not serious and he can make it back for the Miami game. I guess if I had to pick a position to get injured it would be on the defensive line. We have great depth there going into the season. However, Williams is a beast and we will need him in the trenches ASAP. I am glad that OSU has generally avoided the injury bug so far this year (I just got up and knocked on every piece of wood in my house). A healthy team coming out of camp is imperative to a good start this season.
There was a media and blog frenzy when Tressel announced his plan to throw the ball more this year. This issue has been beaten to death so I will keep it short. With all of the weapons that Pryor has at his disposal we would be crazy not to try and throw the ball downfield. The threat of a passing game will also open up the lanes for our stable of backs. I can’t wait to see what the offense can do this year. Hopefully JT has some tricks up his sleeve with all of those weapons at his disposal.
It appears that the Buckeyes may have found a team to come get an ass beating in Columbus on Oct. 15 of next year. Congratulations Colorado! You have won a $2 million dollar check (allegedly) and a beat down at the hands of the Silver Bullets. I hope that this gets finalized. Colorado is a BCS school that will present an interesting matchup for OSU. I know one thing, it is way better than scheduling somebody like Appalachian State (I couldn’t help myself). I can hear the applause from season ticket holders everywhere. As I have said before, I am all for getting these kinds of games on the schedule. It just makes the season more interesting. Less than 3 weeks to go!
(Ed. Note) Yesssssssss
Ten of the top college football programs have been selected to wear uniquely designed Nike uniforms for at least one game during the 2010 season the company announced today.
The University of Alabama, Boise State University, University of Florida, University of Miami (FL), The Ohio State University, Oregon State University, University of Pittsburgh, Texas Christian University, Virginia Tech and West Virginia University will wear the innovative designs for a minimum of one game on their schedules. The dates of those games will be announced at the unveiling of the uniforms Sept. 1 in New York.
