My Thoughts: Wisconsin

Fickell gaining respect

For those of you who have recently read my posts I know I have been a bit negative as of late. I have constantly attacked Coach Fickell and many of the decisions that he and the coaching staff have made, though I am still not sold on him being our head coach, I am thrilled with how the Wisconsin game turned out. This is not just for the fact that because the Buckeyes won, my brother (a Wisconsin alumnus) had to dress in a Buckeye uniform for Halloween, and I did not have to repeat last year when I wore a Badger uniform, revenge is sweet. I am happy because the Buckeyes played with much of the heart and skill that we have become accustomed too. For 3 and a half quarters our defense played like the Silver Bullets.

Wisconsin is a running team, both Monte Ball and Russell Wilson are as dangerous a QB and RB rushing tandem as there is in college football. They run behind a monster offensive line who many people thought would push around a talented but young Buckeye defensive line. Well guess what, that young Buckeye defensive line had the last laugh. They held the powerful Badger running attack to 89 yards (most of that gained on 1 big run).

Final Sugar Bowl thoughts

Thomas came up big for the Buckeyes

The Sugar Bowl ended in typical Ohio St. fashion on Tuesday night with another white knuckle affair. It really didn’t have to be that exciting though. The Buckeyes stormed out of the gate to a 28-7 lead in the first half and held a 31-13 advantage late into the 3rd quarter before Mallet and the hogs mounted a furious comeback. Only Soloman Thomas dropping in to coverage to pick off an errant Mallet throw with under a minute to play saved the Buckeyes from another season of “SEC this and SEC that”. I think the big guy was just as surprised as the rest of us when the throw found its’ way into Thomas’s bread basket but he held on and the rest is history.

This performance does not cure all of the ill will that the Big Ten has endured over the past decade but it was a step in the right direction. Michigan St., Michigan and Penn St. did the conference no favors by dropping all of their respective games to SEC foes on New Year’s Day and Wisconsins’ loss to TCU was shocking considering the Badgers were one of the hottest teams heading into the bowl season. Thankfully, Iowa and Illinois handled their business in mid December and the Buckeyes finally got that 8000lb SEC monkey off their back with a Sugar Bowl for the ages. It pushed the conference record to 3-5 on the bowl season. The mark for this year isn’t great but the end result would have been much worse had the Buckeyes blown it in New Orleans.

After digesting this recent bowl game, I wanted to touch on a few points and wrap up the successful 2010 season.