LSU Gives In, Ryan Perrilloux Goes Out

Ryan Perrilloux rattled the cage in bayou one too many times. It’s the story that I’ve expected to read about every time I’ve read a story about Perrilloux over the past few years. Perrilloux = Counterfeiting Ring = FBI = Casino Gambling = Bar Fights = Missed Class and Meetings = Failed Drug Test = King of the World = No more D1 football.

Strangest part of the story to me is about how Les Miles and LSU are getting all the credit for kicking the kid off the team. It’s not everyday that you have to kick the starting QB off the team, but then again its not everyday the starting QB does something and deserves to be kicked off the team. What else could they do? Perrilloux has been suspended on and off for the past year, missing games and practice. At some point you have to realize he might be more trouble than he’s worth and 6 strikes and you’re out, and that’s what happened Friday. That, or one of the other QBs looked good enough in practice to chance the Perrilloux dismissal.

Ohio State has had its share of issues over the years. Now, LSU. Penn State has, Oklahoma has, WVU, Florida has, South Carolina has, and the list goes on (USC, USC, USC). I mean check out the Fulmer Cup on EDSBS. For the most part, they have been individual exercises and not a result of the nature of the programs. I mean, you’re putting one hundred 18-22,23,24 year old men on a team. I went to college, had fun, did what I had to do, and didn’t get in a whole lot of trouble (Poe hasn’t been arrested, yet). Alas, I wasn’t going to be a QB for a college football power. These guys have different backgrounds and ideas about their futures, and you’ll get a few bad apples that don’t want to follow the rules. For every bad apple, there are 40-50 good apples that you’ll never hear about.

Take it from an Ohio State fan: Get Perrilloux on some D-1AA team. Let him play for one or two years and try out for the NFL. You don’t want him calling ESPN, robbing people for cell phones behind bars, carrying guns and Grey Goose in an SUV near a witness’ house, and spending a few in the Toledo Correctional Facility.

In the World of Overly Optimistic Beat Writers…

Hide the children, Ron Zook is coming. With impeccably odd timing, a writer for an Illinois paper talks about how Ron Zook is poaching Ohio football players. It seems like he’s a year late on the Illinois recruiting class, which should be promising but not overwhelming. It just seems like a strange time to release an article just weeks after Melvin Fellows decommitted from Illinois to take the home state Buckeyes. Zooker got Cordale Scott last year from Glenville, but Ohio State got Devier Posey and Jake Stoneburner, both of whom could see action this year. And Ohio State got Garret Goebel last year out of Illinois, who was probably the state’s best prospect (I think he figured he could play day one after watching the DTs play). Anyway, the guy is a year late on his story. If anything, he should have jumped on the "Gentlemen’s Agreement" bandwagon.

Speaking of snake oil salesmen in wizards’ hats, Jim Tressel could have been dogging Walker: Texas Ranger’s favorite old man Joe Tiller with the comments. But Joe Tiller and Purdue aren’t national newsworthy, thus Rich Rodriguez hath been attacked. So now the state of West Virginia, West Virginia University, AND Jim Tressel are out to get him…wait, that IS right. Hopefully for Tiller’s sake, Purdue can go all MAC game on Michigan and put up 50 points. Wait, then Purdue will somehow give up 52.

Damn you, SEC

I blame this on you.

I hate Michigan. Always have. I cringe when I see a baby wearing Maize and Blue.

But as I sit here in Toledo (who, thanks to Buckeye Cable, gives me the Big 10 Network), I get an uneasy happiness watching Michigan terrorize Urban Meyer's mind. What's so confusing is that its the SEC's fault (compounded by ESPN bowl victory count) that makes me want to cheer for my fellow Big 10 teams in out of conference games and bowl games.

Damn your smarmy attitude, Mr. Meyer. Damn you.

Behind Enemy Lines

Ann Arbor, MI

Word out of the Michigan spring scrimmage is that Rich Rodriguez is "encouraged with the play of his defense". Sounds like the Associated Press way of saying "well there’s nothing positive on the offensive side of things". In what was a glorified practice at a local Ann Arbor high school (as a result of the Big House being morphed into the Second Biggest House), the defense forced, or were given (depending on who you talk to), 6 turnovers including a fumble recovery and FIVE interceptions.

"The defense came along about how I expected," [Rich Rodriguez] said. "The defense should dominate. If they don’t, were going to have some issues."

Interesting statement coach, please elaborate. To be fair to the, uh, evolution occurring in Michigan, everybody except a select majority of UM fans feels that it will be a few years to incorporate the system and have everything firing all cylinders.

It’s sort of like a startup business, you take losses in the beginning to win in the end. The problem with Michigan is that they are not a startup, far from it, having been in business for 100 years. West Virginia? Startup in the beginning. A lot of other small schools adapting a spread type offense? Startups. The only thing similar in business would be if Ford dropped its F-Series pickup trucks (the real breadwinners) to focus on convertible sports cars. Michigan produced dropback passers by the NFL load, and to win 1-2 games more per year, are changing the entire offense. Tom Brady might have fun going to watch Michigan games from now on, but he sure as hell wouldn’t play for them.

We all saw what Michigan was capable of in 2006 against Ohio State and in 2007 against the Florida defense. I would be more scared of those Michigan teams than probably many future Michigan teams. But I guess when a team goes 1-6 against a certain school and head coach, its time to change something, but should it really have been the whole image of the school? I’m sure I’ll get MGoBloggers freaking out and telling me how Buckeye Nation is scared and the tables have turned.

A completely able bodied and functional pro style offense is 10x scarier than a spread option offense.

And Speaking of that SEC SPEED@#$%^&*()_!…

Gainesville, FL

I’ll get this out of the way. I hate Urban Meyer. I hate Michigan, but I was downright giddy watching the Wolverines drive up and down the field on the Gators. If the Big 10 is slow, UM has to be classified as the slow of the slow. Yet I watched a Wolverine TE outrace the FLA defense on a screen.

Anyways, good ol boy Urban Meyer feels that his savior at running back, Emmanuel Moody "will not play football for the Gators if there’s a chance he’ll put the ball on the ground" or along those lines.

Ouch, and this after Moody was the leading rusher during the ESPN televised Gators’ spring game. But he’s not small and fast like the incumbent back and we all know that Urban will sacrifice actual football talent for SEC speed. And all this after Meyer spent the offseason telling Moody everyday how he "better be really good".

Nothing is below Urban Meyer, even if it means taking shots at the kid you lured from So Cal (I hear North Carolina and Oklahoma State are nice this time of year). I understand that they are comments probably meant to inspire and motivate Moody rather than degrade and belittle…

But still, you can’t help to think that Moody has to be asking himself if he made the right decision transferring to Florida.

Head Shots - Beanie, Zoom, Boom, and..uh..Mo

Congrats to the Buckeyes Men's Basketball
NIT Champions: I'm seriously pumped...seriously.

1% of America heard that Ohio State won the NIT, but 99% would have heard about it if they lost.

Thus is life.

Only at Ohio State is 4 RBs a Problem: Beanie, Zoom, Boom, and Mo. Not the 4 Stooges, but the Ohio State running backs for the 2008 season. While USC and LSU stockpile 4 and 5 star recruits, the Columbus Dispatch goes silly just wondering how they will all get touches.

Hey coaches, I'd listen to Beanie Wells: "Get 'em all on the field".

Depth Only Counts if it Makes it Through Spring: From the sonofabitch department, The Columbus Dispatch also would like you to know that super recruit Mike Adams is out for spring. 6'8" 310lbs of O-line muscle is better healthy than hurt. Expect him to be back for the season, but luckily freshman are for depth only.

You heard me, Alex Boone. No hurdling Brian Hartline

Blog Shots: Eleven Warriors wants to borrow $1600 and counting to be the honorary assistant coach for the spring game (so do I). Maybe Lane Kiffin will throw up the booty...Around the Oval has the Boeckman Meter to gauge the point in time that Terrelle Pryor gets his name chanted by 105,000 fans (even the visitors)...Men of the S&G warns that it will suck of Ohio State loses to Michigan, even if we have Jason Bourne aka Justin Boren on our side (but tOSU won't so it's cool)...and Our Honor Defend promises the book will be forthcoming after they get done posting the 20th "Better Know A Buckeye", all at under 300 pages.

Head Shots

Clemson's Bursar's Office Accepts Straight Cash, Homie - In the first completely non Big 10, non Ohio State story ever on this blog, Clemson recruit Kenneth Page has told Tommy Bowden that he would rather not take up a scholarship and would rather pay for his tuition straight up.

Kenny has been working hard this summer, says his mom, mowing lawns and slingin' rock.

Stay Classy, Michigan - Every Michigan blog in the land has taken its shots at Justin Boren and his decision to leave Michigan for reasons including 'lacking family values' and 'running back to the line of scrimmage'. Fans and bloggers will take their shots, but Boren may have the last laugh if he walks on at Ohio State over a scholarship at Michigan. DickRod, Bo isn't happy!

Maize n Brew thinks its funny that offensive lineman are fat and like donuts...and their lone returning STARTER on offense, Steve Schilling, got manhandled by Vernon Gholston. Ha!

Hacks with Computers: The Musical - I'm not a professional writer. I don't try to be. I don't get paid. That's why I can take shots at hacks that do get paid to write garbage. John L. [Smith] Crawford of the Fernandina Beach News Leader thinks that Florida is good and Ohio State is bad. Chances are, when your paper's name is the "News Leader", they are actually a ways off.

"Welcome to college football, Terrelle. Enjoy four years of inflated rankings and no rings ..."

John L. wishes Terrelle Pryor luck in college, or is fat prick disguised as a writer. He also thinks the SEC should be tremblin' in their workin' boots because the new clock changes in college football will allow Florida to run 10 more plays per game, on top of the 70 per game they ran last year. He pulls this number, 10 plays, off the top of Florida's OC's head. Which is great for Florida, unless that extra time created by Florida running the no huddle offense creates more plays for the opposing offense. Man, I'd had to see Michigan with 10 more plays against Florida...and that's just Michigan.

Fatties know sports!

Pryor Hath Cometh

The long awaited commitment of the nation’s (almost unanimous) top ranked recruit is here, and it’s a big score for the Buckeyes. We’ve kind of assumed it from the beginning, guessed it along the way, and now it’s on a LOI.


Start the hate, envy, and confusion:

The Denied
Michigan Fan #1: Michigan’s future wasn’t relying on this kid anyway.
Michigan Fan #2: We never wanted him anyway, Pryor didn’t fit in.

Penn State Fan #1: We have 2 better QBs than him anyway.
Penn State Fan #2: We have a great institution, Pryor would ruin it.

Oregon Fan #1: We didn’t think we’d get him anyways.
Poe McKnoe: Okay, that’s fair.

The Ignorant
ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption’s Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon had a tidbit on their show about the Pryor decision. In fact, it was the second story after the Rockets losing to the Celtics. Okay, that’s fair. It’s a big story so it should be second.

But then to spend the duration of the segment discussing how, and I quote, “This is not news”. It’s against the rules of common sense to devote one or two minutes discussing how a story is not news on national television. It’s news because you made it news, Tony and Michael. I went to work today, and that didn’t make PTI. NOT NEWS.

Then PTI proceeds to finish it off with “Well Michigan is the school that has been turning out the NFL QBs, not Ohio State”. Wrong. Lloyd Carr and his pro style, dropback passer offense has sent several QBs to the NFL, even though Tom Brady is really the only one to be concerned about. Ohio State has never had a Tom Brady, but they have had a Heisman Trophy winning QB. The Rich Rodriguez spread offense isn’t the ideal producer of successful NFL QBs. You could say West Virginia isn’t the hot bed of NFL talent, but most NFL QBs have come from less known schools such as Southern Mississippi, Ole Miss,

The Needy
The Detroit Free Press published a couple, several, more than a few, ok, 10 [ten] (TEN!) articles after the Pryor announcement. That’s just post press conference. People get paid for this? I mean nothing else is going on in Detroit? Recession? The Mayor? The Pistons? Nothing? The ‘Articles’ had such zingers as: “Michigan shouldn't be disappointed that it missed out on Pryor” and “Michigan's future never depended on Pryor”. Geez, don’t act like the sky is falling or anything. Play it cool.

The Sporting News is an entertaining farce. Most articles are written to get the readers’ panties in a bundle. TSN couldn’t quite keep up with the Freep.com, with only 7 separate stories and letting each writer take a stab and writing something reasonable. The writers publish stories that bring out the writers of Dumb and Dumber 3, complete with a supposed text from Tressel to Pryor.

And Finally...
The University of… Lamaar Thomas, who committed several months ago, started the new trend of calling The Ohio State University The University of Ohio State. I’m okay with it. It becomes a big deal when Pryor says it, but ol’ Flash couldn’t even make a splash. But there has to be rules, rules, rules.

The term will only be applicable during the following circumstance: It can only be used when a recruit commits to Ohio State over any university that include “The University of” in their moniker. In this case, The University of….Michigan.

Fullbacks, Calling All Fullbacks!

From the ‘Forty Times are All That Matter’ department:

Looks like Urban Meyer is willing to give a full scholarship for any UF student that can beat Percy Harvin, Deonte Thompson, Louis Murphy and Chris Rainey in the 40-yard dash. They call it a “speed challenge” and ESPN busted a nut in anticipation of showing it along with the Florida spring game. [The Ohio State spring game is broadcasted on the Ohio News Network, Florida gets ESPN.]

While full details have yet to be worked out, Meyer said that on Thursdays of spring practices, which begin March 19, strength coaches will be out on the practice fields and students will be invited to come out and train. The entrants will be whittled down to one lucky contestant who will face Harvin, Thompson, Murphy and Rainey in front of a packed Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

The Independent Florida Alligator

So Florida is willing to throw a student on the team if he is faster than the 3 figures of SEC speed. Didn’t the Tampa Bay Buccaneers try that? How does this relate to Ohio State? Not at all, actually.

Jim Tressel’s Head is proposing the opposite. Let’s have a contest at the Scarlet and Gray game, and name it the Fullback Challenge. They want speed, we want guys that can knock over the trees they are as slow as. You could argue that Tressel has gone away from the traditional I-back sets to a more wide open scheme, especially since he has no fullback currently on scholarship to play the position. Aram Olson is out for the year on a Medical RS and Jemil Martin is only a Buckeye on a piece of paper.

The contest: Any student can earn a scholarship by participating in the Scarlet and Gray strong man competition. Have a bunch of 6’-6’ 3” 250-27lb guys (or girls, no prejudice here) come into Ohio Stadium and take turns trying to push over cars and throwing boulders 10 meters. Or we could just put Beanie and Saine back there and try that.

As for the Florida try out, unfortunately Morgan Trent is currently on scholarship at Michigan. Yes, that slow, prodding Michigan team who Ohio State handles year in and year out. And if you think Trent had the angle on him, please go back to 6th Grade and study trigonometry.

OMG!

Terrelle Pryor Watch will come to an end...reportedly.

After helping the Jeanette team knock off Philly's Strawberry Mansion (!) and put another state title under his belt, Terrelle Pryor shocked the world (!) and stated he plans to get it over with and sign with a school this week. As reported by the ever dependable (!) Altoona Mirror:

‘‘I’ll be deciding next week. Next week, I’m going to say the school I’m going to, sign it, and get it over with,’’ Pryor told a huge throng of reporters. ‘‘I don’t know yet [if I’ll take any other visits]. I’ll probably be done.’’

He later clarified that he expects to announce this coming week where he’ll play his college football. That makes it unlikely any other officials visits will be scheduled. Pryor also offered another revelation Saturday afternoon. ‘‘It’s down to two schools,’’ Pryor said. ‘‘I can’t tell you which two.’’

Altoona Mirror

Now let's take a look at the 4 schools that could make up Pryor's 2 schools. They are arranged in order of least likely to most likely.

Oregon: Oregon has an offense that Pryor likes. That's it. No relationships, no visits. It's a Pac-10 school in the Pacific Northwest, which means a 2000 mile hike for Pryors family. Not looking good, Ducks. At least you still have Dennis Dix... I mean Jonathan St....Oh, you don't.

Michigan/Penn State: Toss up! I don't have a clue. I wouldn't be shocked at either choice, but I would be surprised. Michigan has a spread offense with a coach he had strong ties with, and it's 1600 miles closer than Oregon. Penn State is the home state school that your dad likes, and supposedly didn't sign on National Signing Day to check out the school. He hasn't (officially). Both schools have lackluster basketball teams. Toss up!

Ohio State: Has, has, has to be the favorite. It's the only school that's received a Terrelle Pryor visit complete with a Jim Tressel led parade, featuring Pryor and the other Buckeye recruits. Hell, with Value City closing its stores, Pryor was 5 seconds away from having the building named after him. If he doesn't select the Buckeyes, I would laugh and laugh and laugh because I would have been fooled.

But then again, there's always Memphis.