Seeking a punt returner, RichRod sought the services of Greenwell Springs, Louisiana resident, Drew Dileo. Dileo may also play slot receiver for the Maize and Blue. Watch his highlight tape. Great punt returners usually run straight up the field. Dileo does that well. He has decent speed at 4.5 in the 40.

As National Signing Day approaches and Michigan looks to sign its largest recruiting class ever, I thought I’d feature the members of that class. Let’s start with an Ohio boy from Y-town, Ray Vinopal.

Of course, Buckeye fans will be aghast that someone from Ohio would go to any school but Ohio State but OSU fans really don’t know much about recruiting or football in general.

Vinopal was recruited to shore up the defensive backfield at Michigan. This video sure shows how he can do it. Vinopal is only rated a two-star recruit but he’d like to prove that he was way underrated.

After a second losing season, fans and rival fans alike are calling for Rich Rodriguez’s head and that he should be fired. And guess what? There are at least a couple websites devoted to the topic – http://www.firerrod.com/ and http://www.firerichrodriguez.com/. I just read an article in the Detroit Free Press by Jamie Samuelson suggesting that Rodriguez should be fired because he showed no progress/improvement from year one to year two. So I began thinking, has Rodriguez not shown progress from year one to year two?

By the way, Michigan is not going to fire Rodriguez after two seasons. They stuck it out with Amaker for 6 years. I think they are going to give Rodriguez a fair shake. I also agree with Colin Cowherd that Rodriguez will be Tressel’s worst nightmare. So Buckeye fans, enjoy the victories over Michigan while you can.

Back to the question at hand, has Rodriguez shown progress/improvement from year one to year two?

I think we can just compare Michigan’s performance against Ohio State in the last two seasons to begin to answer that question. It could be as simple as saying – 2008 – OSU 42 – Michigan 7 and 2009 OSU 21 – Michigan 10. But some might consider a loss as just a loss much as many consider a win as a win. Even more simply, however, Michigan had a chance to win in 2009 but through quarterback turnovers pretty much gave the game to Ohio State. Some might say that we should have won the 2009 game. We really didn’t have a chance to win in 2008.

Despite the turnovers, the offense actually moved the ball against Ohio State in 2009. This didn’t happen in 2008. I have to give some credit to OSU for stopping the run, but we were without our first and second string tailbacks, Brandon Minor and Carlos Brown. Also, despite the turnovers, Forcier is light years ahead of Nick Sheridan and Steven Threet. Sheridan and Threet were abysmal against Ohio State in 2008. It may have just been Sheridan in 2008 as Threet might have been injured for the OSU game. And in fairness to Rodriguez, Forcier is a true freshman and still has a ways to go in his development as a quarterback. While we are mentioning being fair to Rodriguez (which nobody seems to want to be), we did lose our starting center, David Molk, early in the year and then lost him again for the rest of the year during the game he came back. Despite the loss of Molk to injury, our offensive line has come a long way from 2008. I mean, c’mon, we were able to move the ball against the so-called best defense in the Big Ten with relative ease.

But for the Ohio State game, it would have been easy to argue that our defense has not made progress over 2008. We had let-downs against Penn State, Illinois, Purdue and Wisconsin with the losses against Illinois and Purdue being especially devastating. Again, we have to look at available personnel before we can put the blame on Rod. Our secondary was abysmal with Jordan Kovacs at free safety and Michael Williams at strong safety and Troy Woolfolk playing cornerback (this move necessitated by injury to J.T. Floyd and Boubacar Cissoko’s poor play). Michigan was able to return to its original lineup of Woolfolk playing centerfield and Kovacs at strong safety against Ohio State and it showed. Michigan only gave up one long td scoring drive to OSU. OSU’s other 14 points were a result of Forcier’s fumble in the end zone and a Forcier interception resulting in a short field for OSU’s offense.

So was there a lack of improvement in 2009? Michigan had a stretch of games that were very disappointing especially from a defensive standpoint but injuries definitely played a role in those losses (as well as lack of depth in general on defense). Overall, however, Michigan has come a long way from 2008′s 3-9 campaign. 2009′s record should have been better but I take hope from the mere fact that we had a chance to beat a decent OSU team and, in the end, beat ourselves more than OSU beat us.

I finally found this video. And people vilify Elizabeth Lambert?

I guess you could say I saw a Buckeye loss imminent (see my previous column) but I didn’t see it against Purdue. I think Minnesota has a good chance to do the same next week. I guess Bruce Hooley didn’t see this one coming either as he had already chalked it up as a win.

Purdue pulls off stunner, upsetting Ohio State

O? More like ‘Oh, no!’
Buckeyes’ offensive troubles boil over in upset loss

The Bottom Line

Scarlet & Gray Matter
Rob Oller’s observations on today’s game

Difficult day for offensive linemen
Purdue pressure pays off with five sacks of Pryor

On The Clock with Doug Lesmerises at Ohio State-Purdue

Ohio State beat Wisconsin 33-14 Saturday. At first glance, the score would appear to reflect a dominating performance over a good Wisconsin team (and several announcers on half-time and post-game shows said just that – “Ohio State pummeled Wisconsin”. Obviously, they didn’t watch the game.) In reality, the Wisconsin players must be scratching their heads wondering how the Badgers could have almost completely dominated the Buckeyes yet still lost by 17 points.

Look at some of the stats:

First downs -

Wisconsin 22 – Ohio State 8

Total Yards -

Wisconsin 384 – Ohio State 184

3rd down conversion –

Wisconsin 6 – Ohio State 3

Fourth down conversion -

Wisconsin 3 – Ohio State 0

Time of Possession -

Wisconsin 42:47 – Ohio State 17:13

Those same college football analysts who watch only highlights and read stats will have you believe that Ohio State shut down Wisconsin running back John Clay but holding him to 59 yards rushing. But Clay seemed to move the ball at will often bulldozing for 5-6 yards a carry. Wisconsin probably just didn’t use Clay enough.

The biggest stat that will really make your head spin was generated (or not generated) by Terrelle Pryor was his passing stats- 5 of 13 passing for 87 yards and one pick. This guy was the top recruit in the nation and he absolutely can’t throw the ball. He’s terrible. I’d love to see high school tapes of the guy because I bet all he did was run wild over little children and pass to wide open receivers. Pryor is cursed by being such a gifted runner and a man among children at the high school level. He’ll never play QB at the pro level. If he wants to play pro ball he should switch to receiver. He will be forced to do so. I guarantee it.

I need to watch the USC game because it appears that a team that can cover receivers man to man well enough to put a spy on Pryor should be able to shut him down completely.

They may not even need to do that. Pryor made one good pass all game. If I were an opposing coach, I’d give him the one touchdown pass; let him self-destruct on passes more than 60-70% of the time; play to stop the run and assign a spy to Pryor to contain his rushing. You can see why Tressel started Pryor as a freshman: the guy is at least a four year project. He lacked experience against tough opponents. Tressel is thanking god that OSU is in the Big Ten Conference which ranks slightly above the MAC in competitiveness.

This is why Ohio State will never win the big games. Against Wisconsin, yeah, they were able to get a lucky pick six. I have to give Ohio State credit on the second one as the defender actually made a good play to get it. Sure their special teams came up with a nice return. But against a top ten team, they may only get one of those breaks.

The bottom line is their offense will actually have to carry the load. When that time comes, the offense will not be able to carry it. It simply lacks the personnel and especially so at the quarterback position.

See also – Buckeye’s Big Win a Bogus Result

The latest AP top 25 poll ranks Cincinnati one better than Ohio State. Turns out the Buckeyes aren’t even the best team in Ohio. I guess Buckeye fans will have to worry about the state championship this year rather than the national championship.

Arrogant, uninformed, and over-confident.

I was listening to part of “The Big Show” on 97.1 The Fan with Bruce Hooley. Hooley was trying to stir up interest in his show by asking what team on the remainder of Ohio State’s schedule represents the biggest road block to the Buckeyes getting to the Rose Bowl. In a typical Buckeye fan fashion, he quickly dismissed just about every team remaining on the schedule with the exception of Penn State. Of course he qualified that by stating that Penn State would need to get by Illinois and Michigan on the road. If they failed to pull that off, he felt they weren’t much of a threat.

And just like any Buckeye fan, he took for a given that Ohio State would mop all of its remaining opponents at home because those games were at home. Naturally, Ohio State wins all of its games at home. It’s just a given.

Unlike Mr. Whooley, I think the Buckeyes only have two passes remaining – New Mexico State and Purdue. Beyond those two games, any of the other six games could go either way.

The Buckeyes finish with a difficult three week stretch beginning at Penn State, followed by Iowa at home, and finishing with Michigan on the road. Michigan has got to love that set up. You expect the game at Beaver Stadium to be hard fought. Iowa will probably play Ohio State just as tough if not tougher than Penn State does. If Ohio State gets by both of those teams then they have to get up for Michigan. It won’t be difficult for the Buckeyes to get up for Michigan but will they run out of gas in Ann Arbor? What if they lose to either Iowa or Penn State? I think that three week stretch will prove to be the undoing of the Buckeyes in terms of not losing another game. They may still make it to the Rose Bowl but with at least two losses and maybe three.

So far Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota have looked very impressive this year. OSU only plays Indiana on the road of the three. Indiana looked very dangerous against Michigan. I doubt they will be able to pull out anything new from the playbook against the Buckeyes as they threw out everything and the kitchen sink against Michigan.

Why is Indiana dangerous? Its two defensive ends – Jammie Kirlew and Greg Middleton. OSU’s offensive line will get a big test with those two. On offense, Tandon Doss is a weapon. I was also impressed with the play of their quarterback, Ben Chappell. He appears very poised in the pocket and is able to make accurate throws. Darius Willis ran for 152 yards against Michigan and Ohio State’s had trouble defending against the run. I will watch with keen interest how Ohio State defends the pistol offense especially when it assumes its wildcat formation.

If Ohio State gets past Indiana, Wisconsin should prove to be an even bigger test. More will be revealed about Wisconsin after they play on Saturday at Minnesota.

A lot of “ifs” remain for the Buckeyes, I see at least one more loss with the possibility of maybe even three more. Brace yourselves, Buckeye fans.

Shades of Robert Reynolds and the Jim Sorgi choking incident, Kurt Coleman with the late head shot

Well after watching the video replay of Coleman’s late hit, I’m trying to figure out what kind of bullshit Tressel was trying to float when he said, “We do not agree that it was ‘premeditated’ or that he was ‘targeting a defenseless’ player.”

It looked exactly like he was targeting a defenseless player. McGee was already wrapped up (unable to get out of the way) and down when Coleman took a cheap shot to the head. You will see McGee’s head snap back in the video. This guy Coleman is supposedly a co-captain. What a complete lack of class but I’ve come to expect no more from the Buckeyes over the years. I’m not sure how Tressel can even try to defend that play.

If you watch, you’ll see Coleman laughing as he heads to the sidelines. I think the guy should be kicked out of football altogether. Well the Big Ten has given Coleman the opportunity to yuck it up all next weekend at home in Columbus as he won’t be playing vs. Indiana.

Maybe we should nickname Coleman, The Guillotine. Perhaps Reynolds is now coaching the defensive backs at Ohio State. Not surprisingly, Reynolds pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors stemming from a domestic dispute in 2006. Was he choking his wife?

“These past four weeks, we kind of had an edge over other teams,” Homan said. “We were pretty much football players from 8 in the morning until 8 at night. So you could study football, football, football and not have to worry about schoolwork and homework…”

And I thought Tressel had locked them out of the building . . . .

Despite this all day football focus, OSU still couldn’t get prepared for USC.