Attorney of Newly Accused Buckeye 9, Has a Good Feeling

Berry is one of 9 players accused

The attorney who represented the nine Ohio State football players during their interviews with NCAA investigators last week had a startlingly upbeat summation late today. John Simon, Storm Klein, Jaamal Berry and Nathan Williams were among the nine new names put forth in a Sports Illustrated story early last week that alleged they received improper benefits from a local tattoo parlor owner.


Many people had believed that the article didn't live up to the hype, and now it seems the NCAA doesn't even have a case with these newly accused players. 

"Tressel and OSU acknowledged in March a breach of the NCAA’s ethics bylaw, considered a major rule violation, when he failed to pass along emails received from a local attorney beginning in April 2010 that made him aware some of his players were having dealings with the tattoo parlor owner. Those players’ misdeeds, selling or trading memorabilia for cash or tattoos, already had been reported to OSU by the U.S. Attorney’s office, which was investigating Rife. The SI story, citing primarily anonymous sources, said there were more players involved and named them, thus causing NCAA investigators to come to town. In the meantime, Tressel, already assessed a five-game suspension by OSU to start this season, had resigned under pressure on Monday just a few days after an advance copy of that story was made available to OSU administrators."

Spring Finals: Linebackers

We all know by now that spring has come and gone, football wise that is, so we will be taking a look into all the positions, tell you how they did, and where they might be this fall. Today's topic is the Linebackers.

Some people say that Penn State is Linebacker U. For the past couple of seasons, Buckeye fans have had the pleasure of disagreeing with them. From Spielman, to Hawk, to Laurinatis, and now to Homan and co. The Buckeyes have been graced with some great linebackers over the years, and have produced with them to. Linebackers are mainly focused on the rushing game, as they have to attack that running back and make the big play. Sometimes they drop back, and can steal a couple from you though. Just look at Homan's pick in the Rose Bowl. That was 1 of the very many key moments of the game. This year's core consists of speed, power, and just overall good playing. It may not be the Schlegel-Hawk-Carpenter trio, but they will get the job done this year. We also have some good players coming in from this class that could make an impact right away.  

Spring Football Day 2

This is day 2 of our Spring football recap, and it's all about the Buckeyes in the news, for the spring.

Some interesting stuff came out today, including Andrew Miller was in place of Mike Adams at left tackle. Although it was expected, I personally didn't think it would happen. It has also been said that 2 other linemen, Marcus Hall and J.B. Shugarts, will be rotating in and out of the left tackle position on the line. The weird part about that is that both of those players were playing on the right side of the line last year, not the left. On the flip side, the second team consisted of Hall at left tackle and Adams at right tackle. I think that's an odd mix, but hopefully it will work out for the best.

For the second day in a row, Duron Carter and Jonathan Newsome were not present, which is starting to raise some questions on whether or not it's a roll-over from the Rose Bowl, or if their academics aren't in order as of now. The curious part about it all is that it was reported that Duron's father, the Buckeye great Cris Carter, was on the scene today talking with Jim Tressel. I wonder what they were talking about, and if Carter was asking for advice on how to get Duron back into the receiving mix.

It seems like the Buckeye coaching staff thinks they can make receivers out of running backs. It was stated that ITS's favorite star, Jaamal Berry, was going out from screens and other receiving routes. It was said that he was making good cuts, and is totally healthy. Seems like a good weapon to have if we ever face some real speed. Carlos Hyde, the running back everyone is so excited for, is making headlines in the camp by impressing coaches so much that speculation is that he will be the third on the depth chart come fall. Jordan Hall has been said to have been working more on kick returns than on toting the rock, so it seems he will be our new kick returner and that means more chances for Berry, Hyde, and Smith. The only bad news coming out of this running back camp so far was that Brandon Saine seemed to have agitated something in his leg, keeping him out of going the whole practice. Hopefully, it wasn't anything serious, but we will keep you up to date on his happenings.

Linebacker Dorian Bell was spotted today, after a no-show yesterday, and was working with the second team. Etienne Sabino is still looking that he will be the third starting linebacker this fall as he continues to do well in camp. No word on Storm Klien, but I still think he has a legitimate shot at either starting, or at least getting quite a bit of snaps in games. Andrew Sweat is still recovering from off-season surgery on his knee, and it will still be awhile until he's able to fully participate.

Lastly, Chimdi Chekwa was very limited today due to some sort of an injury, but it wasn't specified as to what.

Stay tuned for more Buckeye news, as we hope to keep hearing more good (and bad) news from the Buckeye Spring camp.
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Inside The Shoe is still looking for two writers. One basketball, and one football writer. If your interested, please leave a comment, or email us at insidetheshoe2009@hotmail.com. The requirements can be found here. We hope to be talking to you soon!

The pain is over.

Yes, the pain of no football is over. At least it will be for the next 3 weeks. First, though, let me give congratulations to Evan Turner for winning AP Player of the Year. He won in a landslide vote, and all that's left is to win the Naismith trophy. He will most likely be competing against John Wall for that right to hold the trophy, but we like his odds. On to football.

Yesterday was the first of 15 spring practices, in the spring camp for the Buckeyes, and they wore helmets, shorts and shoulder pads. Today is much of the same, but Saturday begins full pads. Cameron Heyward and Dexter Larimore have been in the spotlight so far this spring, as both are trying hard to become the defensive leaders for this Rose Bowl squad. This team has lost Doug Worthington and Thad Gibson, so it's tough to overcome, but for Gibson's old spot, we have Solomon Thomas and Nathan Williams battling it out for the slot, and I have confidence in Thomas, as he showed some promise last year, and looks to impress the coaches this spring. Jim over at tBBC, disagrees, saying Williams has earned his spot by playing really well whenever Gibson needed a break, and I don't disagree with that. I do think Thomas still wins out, but we will find out for sure when the time for football has come.

A big motto this spring, and football season, is DBTH. Don't believe the hype is important because with the Buckeyes loading up, much of the media is thinking along the lines of a national championship run, what with the Buckeyes looking for a 2 or 3 spot in the polls.

Tyler Moeller did not work out with the linebackers, as expected, and instead worked out with the safeties. Hopefully this just means that they are preparing him for the star position, because I think it would be wrong to take him out of the linebacker spot completely. Although he won't be doing any contact drills until fall, I think that this process is very important to coming back to at least 95% health. Jermale Hines and Orhian Johnson were repping with the one group which will be fun to watch because it's been said many times that Johnson's athleticism is almost unmatched. As for Hines, I really think he can be the leader of this secondary, and we all know he could be the hardest hitter on this team.

For the line-backing core, Andrew Sweat is still getting used to being back, which means more reps for the younger guys including Etienne Sabino and our man, Storm Klien. I really think Storm Klien is a heck of a player, and could earn some pretty good minutes this fall if he plays well. Last year he started on special teams, and that's pretty big for a freshman at Ohio State, because special teams is Tressel's favorite group, and he also thinks it's the most important.

The running backs made some interesting news, where Boom and Zoom split the carries for the rock, while Hall, Berry, and Hyde barely got any. This core is going to need some serious contenders in case of injury or whatever else, so we need these guys to step up their game.

That is pretty much all the good news, so on to the bad. Although Duron Carter said he would shape up, and get his grades in order, but don't look now, he and Jonathan Newsome are in academic trouble again, and it's too bad, both have great potential. You would think Carter's dad would say something like "don't follow in my footsteps" as Cris Carter missed his last bowl game ever, and Duron is not looking so good right now. He already missed the Rose Bowl because of it, and if we want a championship, we need all the help we can get. Jim Tressel has said that Taurian Washington would have been the 3rd slot receiver even if Duron was in good shape, but I think Washington is just a tad overrated, until proven otherwise. In the spring game he plays like a real big time receiver, but when it comes to real games, he can't step it up, and has almost no catches.

That's all from Spring Camp Day 1, and we will keep you up to date all day, and weeks, long. Also, look for the POW coming up later today.
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Inside The Shoe is still looking for two writers. One basketball, and one football writer. If your interested, please leave a comment, or email us at insidetheshoe2009@hotmail.com. The requirements can be found here. We hope to be talking to you soon!