ohio state buckeyes football
august 2003 archive

08-31-03 (10:45am) man what a good night it was last night. the buckeyes picked up where they left off by dominating the line of scrimmage and the scoreboard and i got nicely toasted too. the drink of choice last night was miller lite for the brew and vodka for the liquor. i was saving up the traditional seagram's seven for the big poker tournament today (13 player no limit texas hold em). anyways me and the cbg and a few other guys really enjoyed the game obviously. enough of that and on to some quick impressions.

starting out with defense you had to love the play of simon fraser. will smith and darion scott get the headlines and timmy anderson gets all the respect of the opponents but they are going to have to make room for simon. fraser played like an all american last night i thought but all american status is awarded for the entire season not one game. if simon can keep up that level of performance he just may get a buckeye tree planted in his honor.

the entire defensive front played really good i thought, even the second stringers like david patterson and jay richardson. it was really nice to see patterson pick up his first sack in his first college game. i had a KP flashback with that number 97 and basically the same last name on the jersey. i also thought richardson, penton, and kudla looked good late in the game in limited snaps. the future is looking good on the d line no doubt.

the linebackers looked athletic but they still have some improvement to make before they are up to the matt wilhelm, cie grant, and robert reynolds. the only returning starter reynolds played really well i thought in coverage and a nice qb sack on cody pickett. freddie pagac got the start and held his own i thought. freddie takes some abuse from some of the 'fans' on message boards but he played good so what the hell do they know. aj hawk looked really good to no ones suprise. he seemed active like he was last year and was always in the right place at the right time it seemed. backups mike d'andrea and bobby carpenter both got some decent minutes and both had a few nice highlight type plays. the potential is definitely there for dominance we just need to gain some experience in live game action and playing as a unit and they should be good.

as for the defensive backs, it was hard to evaluate them. chris gamble and dustin fox seemed to play good at corner but much of that could have been the heat generated by all the penetration the defensive line was getting. gamble contained the dangerous reggie williams pretty much all night despite the decent numbers williams put up. fox had a fantastic kick block on special teams that gave casual fans a glimpse of his athletic ability that us die hards are all too familiar with. the safeties were a little quiet though. both nate salley and brandon mitchell had a big hit and will allen made all the necessary plays but otherwise they were quiet all night long. probably had something to do with how effective the front seven was honestly but i would like to see some more production from the back two the next couple of weeks.

on offense things were about as i expected them to be. the offensive line run blocked ok and looked to be much improved on the pass blocking. i still think maurice hall and lydell ross are having difficulties reading the hole and the blocks but that is something i am sure they will be working on in practice the next couple of weeks. we will need much more production from the tailback position if we are going to win the big10 let alone the national championship. maurice hall put up the better numbers but i was more impressed with lydell ross yesterday. lydell had the tough touchdown run and showed some nice potential as a receiver out of the backfield. i didn't notice much in the pass blocking of either tailback honestly and that is probably what will seperate them apart in the eyes of tim spencer in the battle for playing time.

i liked the play of the receivers as a unit quite a bit. michael jenkins was his usual solid self confirming all of out thoughts about his play. chris gamble didn't play much offense at all so the other receiver spot went to drew carter. carter only had one catch but the ball came his way almost as often as balls smack off of lloyd carr's chin. carter was getting open but he and krenzel had a hard time hooking up. hopefully they will get on the same page here in the next week or two. roy hall got his first action as a buckeye and had an impressive catch where he had to fight for the ball. santonio holmes got some action too but honestly wasn't much of a factor (other than his fumble). santonio was really impressive in the spring though and i anticipate he will shine he sooner than later. bam (barn) childress got some decent action too with a couple of catches and he almost broke one off before being ripped down by his jersey. childress could be a dangerous weapon off of the bench this season.

you can't say enough about craig krenzel so why even try. he looked a little rusty early but then hit maybe four or six passes in a row and seemed dead on. he overthrew the deep ball a few times but more than made up for that with his scrambling ability. to paraphrase a song, lord craig krenzel was born a scramblin man. he seemed to be in total control of the offense as you would expect from a senior mvp of the national championship game. nobody should have any worries at qb as long as krenzel is healthy. scott mcmullen got some decent action last night and did little with it. still though i think scott is a damn good qb that would start at maybe half of the teams in conference (he would probably win the job at iowa, indiana, northwestern, and michigan for sure since chandler, lovecchio, anonymous scrub, and navarre respectively suck ass). troy smith got one snap in the game early and ran for about two yards. not much action but nice to see a talent like troy smith make his buckeye debut. justin zwick also made his buckeye debut but didn't do anything other than handoff so you couldn't get any read on him at all. oh well.

several true freshman made their buckeye debut last night. david patterson had a big sack late in the game. louis irizarry was in on offense early in the game despite not doing anything it was nice to see him get into the mix when the outcome was still up in the air. ashton youboty, donte whitner, devon jordan, and tony gonzalez all got some action too in their first game as buckeyes though i didn't see them hardly at all. they were probably covering kicks. ira guilford got about four or five carries late in the game that didn't amount to much yardage. i thought i saw marcel frost in the game late but i didn't see his name on the participation report released from the athletic department so it may have been the liquor seeing things, who knows.

overall you had to be impressed with the buckeyes. i am really looking forward to the game next week so we can see some of the backups get more of a chance to play. the week after that is nc state and it is looking like the vg will be in columbus for that game so that should be cool. there are tons of links out there and i plan on linking them here soon but first i need a shower and some philly cheesesteak, fries with malt vinegar, and a fresh squeezed lemonade before i get to any links. then of course i got that big poker tournament to prepare for today so the links will be coming but i can't say when exactly. anyways enjoy win number 15 in a row and prepare for number 16 next week. more later.
08-30-03 (4:40pm) the vg and the cbg are really pumped and lubing up the livers in preparation for the 8pm kickoff. with today being opening day it is a new year in buckeye history and that means the year of penetration has finally begun (and who doesn't like a little penetration from time to time). the buckeye defensive line should be getting more penetration than ron jeremy. they are going to be like charles bronson in the great escape, they'll be digging tunnels (i think that is how the line from resevoir dogs goes). i honestly have little to add to the discussion about today's home opener. i haven't seen the bucks myself since the spring game with the restrictive open practice policy and i don't know jack about washington that even guys like bruce hooley and bill livingston know. so why bother with some sort of preview of the game when i would be really just talking out of my ass. i will try and log on to the net at halftime and give some quick impressions as well as some post game thoughts later tonight.

another thing i am not going to bother with today are the links. these jackasses at the newspapers (there are a few non jackasses like doug harris and todd porter and a few others but generally the shoe seems to fit) just string together a bunch of quotes and try to get controversial with it and honestly it is getting more and more boring every day to me. besides, who out there hasn't already got their buckeye fix this morning by searching for the links. at least that is how i am rationalizing my laziness today (though some would say the dpressant drug alcohol is the real culprit i got my boy alcohol's back on this one).

me and the cbg did travel up to massillon perry last night to see the big glenville victory. i got a really really sweet touchdown scramble by ted ginn jr and a really big hit by ted as well. throw in a few more freddie lennix and curtis smith highlights and it was a good show. i did miss a second ted ginn TD and a really long tim conner TD run due to various whatnot but i got most of the game on tape despite the weather. i also met two readers of the site last night at the game. the one guy came up to me and said that he knows me. i didn't recognize him so i started thinking about dudes from high school or perhaps i guy i hired at my old job but i couldn't place him. then he said you are the vg right and i got a big smile on the face. i have been going to games and taping them for a little over a year and it is the first time i was recognized in the stands. i have met other readers before at games but it was always prearranged and not a random encounter like this one. anyways we talked football and it was cool. they were students in the area at malone college so maybe i will run into them again on a football friday night in stark county. who knows.

jamario o'neal was on the glenville sideline during the game in street clothes and sat about 5 rows in front of me and the cbg during the half. i haven't heard any rumor about when he will join the tarblooders on the field but he should be ready to roll for the playoffs. speaking of the playoffs glenville's win last night should help out their chances in a large way. rolling the senate league doesn't help out their computer ranking much but beating a solid team like perry definitely should. big congrats to the tarblooders and their fans. i have seen a game of theirs two years in a row now (one at home and one on the road) and i have yet to meet as nice and considerate of fans.

anyways i will have some film and some pics from glenville to post on the site sometime before work on tuesday. i hope to do it sunday but with me having a seat in a 13 player no limit texas hold em tournament i can see me not getting that done until labor day. oh well. trust me when you see the one ted ginn run it will be worth the wait. anyways i still need to head to the liquor store here before 5. closing note, buckeyes 38 washington 10, duh.
08-29-03 (6:10am) just as football season is getting ready to kick into high gear the vg is working like a madman unfortunately. i was at work nearly 26 long hours the past 2 days and i am whipped just like the huskies are going to be rougly 38 hours from now. anyways that is what i have been up to. it has been worth it though. work is going good and i am leaving early enough today to hit the massillon perry - cleveland glenville game tonight. of course i will have some footage on that to share on the site as usual. speaking of video footage, i have posted new erik haw and sirjo welch footage since the last time i updated so you might want to check that out. i still have a few highlights from that game to post but they may need to wait awhile as i start to post glenville highlights instead.

anyways there are a bunch of links out there and honestly i have very little time today. i need to leave a little earlier than i usually do today to make sure i can get everything done in time for football friday night tonight. crazy thing is i will actually be at work saturday for at least a few hours too. at least business is good right now i guess. fortunately the buckeyes are on late and the only real action i will miss is espn's college gameday from the shoe but i will tape it and check it out later. anyways i need to hop in the car and hit the road. more after high school football tonight or sometime saturday. enjoy the weekend like the defensive line is going to enjoy the penetration this saturday night (and who besides prisoners don't enjoy a little penetration from time to time).
08-27-03 (6:10am) first off the update below this one finally is available. the vg lost power for most of the night after dinner and was unable to upload it then so i posted it now.

i have a bunch of links this morning and little time so here we go. the dayton daily news has two articles today one on maurice clarett and one on archie griffin. the canton repository also has two articles today with one on maurice clarett of course and one on local product kirk barton making the two deep. the cleveland plain dealer just has the one article on maurice clarett by bruce hooley this morning. final links are from the akron beacon journal with an article on maurice clarett and a piece on kirk barton.

anyways i need to get a shower and get ready for work. more video of erik haw and sirjo welch tonight after work. enjoy.
08-26-03 (8:55pm) another late day at work for the vg. it has been worth it though as i am leaving early enough to hit high school football anywhere in the state friday night. speaking of friday night, the vg and the cbg will be making the short trip to see some football this weekend for the massillon perry - cleveland glenville game. we are making the trip mainly to see ted ginn jr, freddie lennix, curtis smith, and the rest of the tarblooder talent. as usual i will have pics and some film from the game online free for all the buckeye nation to enjoy. speaking of cleveland glenville buckeye verbal jamario o'neal (athlete formerly of mansfield) is officially transferring there. i don't know when he will be able to first don the tarblooder red and black but man do i hope it is saturday. i will not be able to see glenville again this season (at least until the playoffs assuming they make it this year) and i really want to see o'neal in action badly. keeping them fingers crossed big time on this one.

there was some buckeye news today. first off maurice clarett was in practice and wearing a white jersey with a purple number 24 as the scout team tailback. nice to see maurice get some action finally. he can't have any contact yet but that will change. another member of the scout team is air force linebacker transfer anthony schlegel. that is some serious talent on the scout team this year. the indiana transfer linebacker john kerr is not yet with the buckeyes because he is a walkon. walkons can't join the team until they are actually in school. typically they aren't listed on the roster either until they have been with the program for a full year. anyways kerr will be on that scout team here in the near term too and these guys should help give the buckeyes some excellent competition in practice for sure.

in further buckeye news jim tressel had some comments for the media today. one of the more interesting comments involved what true freshman may see time against the huskies saturday night in the shoe. tressel listed six guys including tight end louis irizarry, defensive backs ashton youboty and donte whitner, tailback ira guilford, offensive lineman kirk barton, and defensive lineman david patterson. probably the most impressive of these guys making an impact saturday is patterson. the defensive line is absolutely loaded with talent and somehow a true freshman is in the mix from day one, that must be some damn good freshman david patterson is. another impressive feat is kirk barton cracking into the two deep mix on the offensive line. with all the experience that the buckeyes return up front i think it is quite impressive that a guy who didn't even play offensive line as a high school senior is in the mix (honestly though barton was a glorified lineman masquerading as a tight end in high school). it was nice to see both whitner and youboty on that list too. they both came to school in january with this as their initial goal as buckeyes and both have dodged the redshirt and should contribute this season in some manner.

anyways i have been planning on describing part of an awful weekend where the cbg was attacked and i might as well roll with that now. me and the cbg were at a small party at a friends house saturday night. there wasn't a keg or liquor or anything and honestly it wasn't much of a party. just a bunch of guys hanging out and drinking some brews around the fire pit and playing darts outside. we weren't even being loud. anyways it was getting late and honestly everything was winding down when it got kicked up a notch by some manipulative passive aggressive bitch. our friend whose house we were at has a live in girlfriend that is slightly out of his league. as a result he has to put up with some minor insanity and complete bitchiness from time to time. worse yet this one bitch has a daughter from some other dude that lives there too. she does absolutely nothing with her life outside of bitching and eating. she has to be damn near 450 pounds. seriously, she is going to be cut out of some house someday and her proudest accomplishment when she is older is going to be that she can bathe her fat ass with a rag on a stick. i mean orca fat. anyways the party is winding down and the live in girlfried must have wanted it over already. she came out to the porch and took each individual beer bottle and can that we considerately placed in the lined trash can and for some reason was transferring them to another trash can very violently and was very loudly breaking them as she did. did the bitch have the balls to just ask the guy that provides her and her fat ass daughter a free place to live to wrap it up, hell no. she tried to make a scene and make everyone uncomfortable instead only her plan backfired big time. with all the noise she was generating with her passive aggressive behavior she drew the attention of another friend of ours from down the street. he heard all the beer bottles breaking and knew it had to be us. don is probably the funniest guy we ever met and that just kicked up the party several notches. now the freeloading girlfriend and daughter were in full bitch mode. finally one of our friends got out of line (in their warped opinion, minor rudeness in my opinion) and the bitches just freaked out. get the hell out of here they start yelling. parties over. screw it we figured. we all went to the neighbors house and didn't want to deal with the freeloading insane bitches. this is where it gets whacky. we are all sitting in this guys house having a few brews and talking about what the hell just happened and joking around about it. it turns out these insane bitches were trespassing on this guys property and listening to the conversation through the open windows. of course insane bitches never think about their actions and they fly off the handle again. they burst though the front door uninvited and definitely unwanted and start bitching at our boy the guitar man. if you got something to say say it to my face they spout off. guitar man stands up and does exactly what they ask for. he tells them they are acting like complete bitches (actually a much stronger word) and what not. at this point the fat ass emotionally unstable daughter starts whining about how she always thought of guitar man as an older brother type and how could he say that (honestly the truth) to her mom. our friend who got out of line starts to laugh at the fat daughter. she goes "don't even start with me or i will kick your skinny ass" (as if laughing at something is starting something). anyways the cbg thinks that a 450 pound tub of lard trying to threaten a dude and calling him skinny is just too funny to not laugh. he laughs and the fat bitch just goes completely insane. she runs across the room at the cbg who is sitting in the lounger and just goes after him. she actually hits him in the face once and the cbg does nothing. she hits my brother in the face again and he does nothing. i am actually in shock from what i am seeing at this point and i get my 6'4" 240 pound ass up to help out my 250 pound little brother (combined we had a weight advantage). she goes for the cbg's face again and he is tired of it and well within his legal rights to defend himself despite her lack of penis. the cbg coils one leg back and plants it in her considerable belly and drives her across the room and out of his face. he was concerned that the fat would envelop his foot and he would lose a shoe but he didn't. the bitch flew across the room and stumbled back into a hallway and was down on the floor. at this point the 'mother' takes an aggressive step towards my brother (enderstandable somewhat since her insane fat ass daughter just moved faster than she ever did before). at this point i decide everthing is over and i grab the mother by the wrists and tell her that this is over and i think she understood that i was quite serious about it. i grab the cbg by the shirt and drag him outside. we leave with the fat bitch on the ground, the mother fully insane and a few friends there just in shock from what they saw. i got us the hell out of there and that was that. i don't know what went down after we left but i imagine that my friends that stayed endured some more bitching before they got them out of the house that they basically broke into. needless to say we won't be visiting that friend anymore until he wises up and puts those lazy insane bitches back on the street and welfare where they belong. our boy is too good to have to put up with supporting freeloading bitches like that for a piece of ass. hopefully this is his wake up call to go vagina free for a little while and free himself of the massive food bill he must face every month and find himself a new piece of ass.

i was going to upload some more videos tonight but i forgot to do that after work. oh well. i will post more after work wednesday. as a warning i am up against my cap of 15 minutes of video that i can host for free so i have been deleting some older videos everytime i post fresh ones. so if you want to save them for future viewing i suggest saving them to your hard drive.

anyways i need to take out the trash (much like my friend with the freeloaders) and do some other crap before heading to bed. enjoy.
08-25-03 (11:40pm) another late night update today. i can't imagine all the other buckeye addicts haven't read all the newspaper articles today so i am not going to bother linking day old donuts tonight. i will pass along a fresh link from the official osu website with the current two deep roster. notable items from the depth chart inclue fred pagac jr listed as the starter at middle linebacker, former walkon linebacker and special teams demon jason bond listed as the number two fullback, and brandon mitchell and nate salley are listed as the co-number one at one safety position opposite will allen.

i have absolutely no maurice clarett news or 'inside sources' with the scoop nor will i pretend that i do.

i do have some more fresh videos posted in the vg recruiting video archive. these same videos are pulled from the independence - beechcroft game last saturday and feature buckeye verbals sirjo welch and erik haw. both players look like serious athletes that will make their mark on ohio state football before their four or five years are up. i gotta admit i haven't heard much about either of these guys when they committed but they are pretty talented when you see them up close. anyways check out the videos if you have a few minutes and see for yourself. afterall you don't need a recruiting expert to feed you lies and upsell you on their 'premium' crap. watch my free crap and make up your own mind. better yet, get off your lazy ass and go see a top prospect or two in your neck of the woods. i have most all of the top ohio prospects listed in the 2003 high school tracker along with their schedule. if you do hit a game and happen to own a camcorder and would like to share your footage with the rest of the buckeye nation let me know and i will do whatever it takes to get your film on the net with no out of pocket expense for you.

speaking of the high school tracker, i am going to start updating it right now with what i know from last week. i am going to eliminate some teams from the tracker whose only osu type prospect has made the decision to attend an inferior program to ohio state as well and try to just keep this an osu type of thing. anyways, i hope to have that updated before i crash tonight or tuesday night at the latest.

i still want to tell the "CBG attacked" story, but i don't have time tonight, maybe after work tomorrow who knows. enjoy.
08-24-03 (11:50pm) man what a weekend. i will be glad when it is officially over in about another 10 minutes. it started out great and then all went to hell in a span of about a half an hour. full details to follow when i have more time which isn't now honestly. to tease the story like the news does though i would go with this for the headline "CBG attacked". for those who haven't been with this site for the full five years, the CBG is my brother and it is short for the crazy bearded guy. he is completely fine but the attacker was down for the count when i finally got his drunk ass out of the party. anyways, more on that when i have time. it is a pretty funny story for an ambush story too.

i said i would post some erik haw and sirjo welch highlights from the game saturday sometime today and i didn't lie for a change. they are there though sony imagestation needs to process them for a few minutes first. check out the freshly updated video archive for a few highlights.
08-23-03 (8:45pm) just checking in on saturday night. the vg has been away from the ocmputer for the past 36 hours but he has been all over football. after work last night me and the cbg made the trip to columbus to see independence beat beechcroft 19-0. independence features osu verbal tailback-athlete erik haw while beechcroft features osu verbal safety sirjo welch. both players had all the athleticism that you would expect from a future buckeye against non buckeye high school talent, but what kind of football players are they is the real question.

sirjo welch was solid in run support. he took some good angles to get to the ball and when he got there he was at a violent speed. i am not sure what type of pass defender he will be honestly since he didn't get tested in coverage much (neither team did honestly), but he looks to have the potential. sirjo didn't play any offense at all but he did return punts. his first punt return was pretty sweet but honestly his calling card is his tackling and hitting. all in all i am glad he will be a buckeye, he looks like a pretty decent player right now with the potential to be a monster sized safety in college. from my seats he looked pretty big. probably at least a legit 6'0" and maybe even 6'1" legit. no lies about his size. he was a thick guy with enough speed to play in the secondary. i didn't get to see him run for many great distances but i would estimate the speed to be about 4.55 legit. not ted ginn jr blazing fast but who is. definitely a solid pick up by the buckeyes.

as for erik haw, i liked what i saw. i was affraid he would be a small speed back and he was somewhat, but he wasn't really small either. he was about 6'0" legit in my opinion but what i liked the most was he had some thickness to the legs. i honestly don't care how tall a back is as much as i care about the thickness of the thighs. sure i prefer a bigger tailback, but if he has the olive oil legs he isn't going to be a tough runner at all. erik haw had some thickness for sure. anyways he ran for maybe 220 - 250 yards i would say but the vast majority of those yards were on 2 ballpark 70 yard touchdown runs to the outside where he showed some serious speed. his other ballpark 30 carries weren't anything special honestly (not that they were bad either). i am not sold on haw being a tailback at ohio state, just because you can get outside and take the ball to the house a couple of times doesn't mean you can run between the tackles in the big10. has has tailback potential for sure but i would label him an athlete for now and a damn fine one at that. i could see him ending up at tailback, receiver, or maybe a monster safety with the opportunity to grow into a cie grant type of linebacker with wicked wheels. i am definitely glad that haw will be a buckeye and he looked to be the best player on the field for either team.

of course i am no recruiting expert since i have yet to pass my certified recruiting expert exam. that is why i bring the camcorder and let the fans get a look at these guys for themselves. i don't have any highlights prepared yet but i will have some sometime sunday for sure. haw has two speed runs to the outside for long touchdowns and about 30 other carries so i am sure i will have a bunch on him. as for sirjo i have a punt return and a few tackles for sure but not a whole lot either. with both players only playing one way and both being on the field at the same time it was hard to get film on both guys especially since they are about as far apart presnap as can be being a safety and a tailback. i mainly tried to focus on haw and the ball and let sirjo come into the shot so i may be somewhat lacking on sirjo highlights.

i was also fortunate enough to catch the end of another game on the tube when i got back home after the trip to columbus. i saw the fourth quarter of the youngstown ursuline vs lakewood st eds game last night. ursuline features top o-line recruit brandon braxton while st eds features osu verbal high school junior alex boone. i heard the announcer say that it was nice to see braxton back in the game when i first tuned in so he must have been shaken up in the game earlier and returned to play some more. i didn't see much of him on the tube but he looks like he is developing nicely. last year braxton was all potential and little talent honestly. he was bigger than everyone which made him good but he didn't seem to know what to do with his size from time to time. what i saw last night looked much more like a lineman so he must be learning. i saw him pass block particularly well a few times which was nice to see. as for alex boone, i have never seen him play before and honestly i am not sure if i did last night or not. number 75 for eds looked to be the right size and played pretty good at tackle, but for some reason i thought alex boone was a black guy and 75 was a white guy. not sure why i think boone is a black guy honestly but that was the gut instinct and the gut is hardly ever wrong. anyways, if 75 was boone he looked really sharp for an underclassman. in the limited action i saw i thought he was a better lineman than big number 76 brandon braxton for ursuline (not that i don't greedily want both of them). anyways, perhaps that was boone or perhaps that guy 75 for eds is someone to keep an eye on for the future.

while i was on the way to columbus last night they had some big news on maurice that wasn't as big as it was hyped to be. maurice will be suspended multiple games for sure by the NCAA. the rumor is six games but it is just a rumor. my understanding is that osu will recommend a suspension length to the NCAA and then the NCAA will make the call. sounds to me like the NCAA is too chicken shit to suspend him for any length of time themselves and they want osu to take the lead and then to just agree with us. you know what, maurice did very little wrong from the facts as i know them. as for the police report most of it wasn't his property so i don't think it is unreasonable for him to not know the value of other people's property. now i also don't know how long he was test driving the car either. if it is a long period of time i could understand some suspension but without that detail i don't see the violation. it isn't like he tried to defraud an insurance company or anything, he just doesn't have a future as an appraiser or stereo equipment that isn't his. oh well. as for the academic thing i think even the NCAA realizes that is just a load of crap and i don't think that will be an issue as well. if i am geiger i publicly announce that i am recommending suspending MC for two games and see what the NCAA does with it. if the test drive was just for a weekend i don't think the NCAA has the facts to justify much longer of a suspension.

anyways, i am enjoying college football now and i need to grab a frosty cold fermented beverage (molson ice). more updates sunday including some more recruiting videos and a few stills from the game last night. enjoy what is left of the weekend if you can, i know i am going to try to like hell.
08-21-03 (11pm) after a really long day at work the vg is back in the friendly confines and is fully relaxed. i even got a decent little nap after work today. i feel really good right about now so i decided to log onto the net and delete a billion viruses from my email inbox and see what is going on in the buckeye nation. the news of the moment comes from NFL legend jim brown on maurice clarett via ESPN. jim brown thinks that we will know about the status of maurice sometime friday and from what i read into the article there is going to be some sort of suspension the only question is how long of a suspension is it going to be. brown is of the opinion that if it is only a two game suspension that maurice should be a man about it and take it and rejoin the buckeyes. the kicker here is that brown also comments on a longer suspension. he thinks that if the NCAA tries to really stick it to maurice and make an example of him by suspending for a longer period of time that maurice will need to evaluate his options. those options are either taking the longer suspension and rejoining the buckeyes if allowed or challenging the NFL early entry rule in court while playing professionally in canada while he awaits the decision. i tend to agree with jim brown on this one if the suspension were for the entire year. sitting out all of 2003 will do nothing for maurice at all and perhaps the CFL would serve as a better environment to develop as a person and a player. if maurice had to only miss two games or perhaps even five or six though i think college is his best bet. the money isn't good in the CFL and if he gets hurt there he could seriously limit his future earnings (unless he was able to insure himself for that contingency). i also think playing big time college football will expose maurice to a better level of competition than the CFL which should better prepare him for his destiny of dominating the NFL someday. anyways this is all just speculation and honestly it has nothing to do with the washington huskies which is who we should all be focused on.

speaking of the huskies the osu ticket office released all the tickets that they had left for the washington game today. don't bother checking it out right now because they are definitely sold out for good. they do have some seats available for san diego state for face value if you are interested. i believe the website is at hangonsloopy.com but i am not sure and i closed out the window after getting shut out on washington tickets for face value. oh well.

i haven't yet posted any new recruiting videos to the archive yet tonight but that is changing here soon. after i upload this update i will upload three new videos. it takes maybe a half an hour to an hour for me to upload them and for sony to process them and make them available for download so be patient if you are checking in. they will be there though for sure. tonight i am going to go on a st ignatius kick and post some film of brian hoyer and mike massey. i wish i had some film from junior tight end - linebacker jim ramella to post from this scrimmage but he had a minor thumb injury and didn't play. oh well. i will be seeing ignatius again during the regular season and i hope to get some footage on this talented junior then.

as for me, i need to finish up some laundry, print out directions for football friday night, charge up the cameras, and other tedious tasks before heading to bed. friday is going to be a more normal work day for me since i am travelling to see some high school football friday night for the start of the regular season in ohio. i should have some really good film to post this weekend or middle of next week. anyways more in the morning if i get up early enough. otherwise nothing until saturday.
08-21-03 (6:15am) first off i posted three more recruiting videos to the video archive (linked in the upper left corder) last night, but then i forgot to update after that saying i posted them. oh well. they are there. i did hit the 15 minutes of film cap last night so i had to delete some nonbuckeye film from the ohio north south game last night. as i begin getting more film this year i will have to delete more film every week and the next guys i will be deleting will be current buckeye freshman so if you want to keep them for yourself i would highly suggest saving them to your hard drive.

i do have a few links to pass along this morning before i head into work. the dayton daily news has three articles today. even more interesting is their picture of insane TA norma mcgill on the front page of their osu section. click on the DDN link in the left hand column if you want to see how ugly she really is. anyways, they have three links like i was saying, one on norma speaking to the NCAA in kentucky, one on the bucks preparing for washington without clarett and the kick scrimmage, and one on all the guys busted giving autographs on the job being fully cleared by the NCAA. last link for the early morning is from bruce hooley and the plain dealer on mauricegate, as if you thought bruce would have something nice to say about the bucks. it isn't like he has another crappy osu themed book to sell or anything.

anyways, it is time to make the donuts. i need to go get the earn on. more videos tonight after work. enjoy.
08-20-03 (6:05am) just a few links before i snag a shower and get ready for work. the dayton daily news has a piece on the buckeyes getting ready to start the season without maurice clarett. speaking of life without maurice, the canton repository has an article on that too. short update this morning now if work were only so short. oh well. more videos today after work, probably a few from the ignatius scrimmage. enjoy.
08-19-03 (10:35pm) not much going on in the buckeye nation today. things are especially all quiet on the maurice front. oh well. it isn't like washington is able to stuff an average rushing attack let alone a great rushing attack missing their main man but still loaded with capable backups. the bucks will miss maurice while (if) he is out but i don't think our record will reflect him being out until we go to wisconsin at the earliest. then again it isn't like i am psychic or anything.

i planned on posting more fresh video today after work but instead something came up. i met up with the cbg after work and we went out and killed endless crab at the red lobster. after eating all the crab that place had and pounding a few frosty cold fermented beverages i just knew i wasn't looking to log onto the computer and doing anything productive at all. instead we fired up the xbox and enjoyed what is normally a boring tuesday evening. anyways, that is over and now it is time to feed my buckeye addiction. unfortunately there really isn't anything out there today. oh well. i did post three more video clips fresh today. today all three new clips are of chad hoobler. honestly most of my hoobler footage sucks, but it wasn't his fault. my seats sucked despite being the best in the house, the lighting sucked because carrollton's stadium is still isn't ready, and unfortunately my camera work and fat bitches in the crowd sucked in the non fun way. i missed a few hoobler highlights because this one bitch just had to keep walking right in front of me and the cbg. you would think that if you saw a guy filming a game that perhaps you could waddle your fat ass past him inbetween plays or maybe choose one of the other rows behind him to walk by but some people are just too damn stupid to realize their surrounding environment and waddle a fat ass at the same time. it was probably my worst filming experience since either mansfield (where a single welfare mom sitting in front of me and the cbg refused to watch her kid/paycheck that kept trying to touch my lens) or dayton chaminade julienne (where i unfortunately snagged some sweet seats early and then had the entire student section sit around me and basically not care about the football game at all; though on a positive i did win the 50-50 raffle that game). anyways, i got a whopping 5 or 6 'highlights' of hoobler that scrimmage and now there are a total of four of them posted online. sorry about the crappy quality of my work this past week. i feel that i will be in midseason form next friday for a big high school football game featuring a buckeye verbal that i have never had the pleasure of seeing play football, but you never know how the crowd and the lights will factor in. maybe it is the beer talking, but i plan on being more aggressive in getting my shots this friday. fat stupid bitches and could care less about football students beware because the vg is on a mission friday.

anyways, i want to finish off this buzz and get some sleep tonight. check out the video archive if you want to see some free film on hoobler (and a few dozen other top ohio prospects).

late addition to this update. i have on cnn on the tube and they are talking about the cali governor race and just showed some comments by political analyst sherry bebitch-something. i wonder if the family name bebitch comes from the old world where your name was based on your trade like euro names like smith or miller or asian names like ho. talk about a family of bitches, damn man.
08-18-03 (11:20pm) it was a long and rough monday for the vg as i tried to get my earn on, but i am fully relaxed now and i have some stuff to share online with the buckeye nation. i went to a couple of scrimmages last week and i have all the film capped and compressed and ready for the net. i only posted three short video clips in the free (maurice) video archive, as always they are the last three video clips in the archive if you are looking for them. time for the standard disclaimer before i describe the three new clips. i store these video clips on a sony imagestation account. it is free for me and it has unlimited bandwidth which is great for the readers. the only drawback here is that you have to register for a free sony imagestation account before you can download any of the film. sony is really cool about this though. they merely require you to sign up using a valid email and then activating your account by answering that email. they have yet to spam me once even. if you do have some privacy concerns you could always sign up for a new hotmail or yahoo account and use that address to activate your sony imagestation account. if you do have problems downloading this film for whatever reason, check out the video faq linked in the upper left corner of the page for some pointers.

now back to the film. the first clip i uploaded tonight is of carrollton tight end and buckeye verbal chad hoobler. nothing fancy here other than a short little reception honestly. it is the first time i saw hoobler though so it is the first film i have posted of him. i have some more film on hoobler to post throughout the week though honestly none of it is outstanding. the lighting was really poor at the carrol county fairgrounds and my film is too as a result. oh well. still though it is a look at chad hoobler in action.

the second video clip in the archive is a touchdown pass from michigan state verbal brian hoyer to buckeye offer te/de mike massey. it is a short pass from hoyer that massey takes, lowers the shoulder to break a tackle and then rumbles the rest of the way for a touchdown. hoyer and massey looked sharp for a scrimmage i thought. i saw them last year and they look to be much improved this year and totally in synch with each other. while they both looked sharp on offense, you should have seen massey on defense.

the third and final clip i posted tonight is mike massey sacking the qb from his defensive end position. he is the guy in the white shirt coming off the edge in this clip. the pocket collapses and massey wraps up the glenoak qb for the loss. massey probably got to the qb damn near ten times that scrimmage though several were blown dead. i missed a bunch of them on film unfortunately, but i have at least one more sack to post later this week. i guess it was preseason for me and my digital camcorder too. oh well. next week i hope to be in midseason form and get some more clips of osu verbals as the regular season kicks off for ohio high school football. anyways, that is all i have new for tonight. enjoy.
08-18-03 (6:05am) i was able to get a few videos compressed and ready for the net, but no videos have been posted yet. i hope to have some up late night tonight after a long monday of work. for now though i got some decent linkage. the dayton daily news has another osu notebook worth the free click. actually that is all i have on the buckeyes this morning, but i do have several other links worth reading. today the canton repository has their high school preview posted online and in the newspapers. it is excellent as usual and worth the free registration with the repository if you haven't already. there are over 50 high school football related articles on stark county area teams and players so i won't link them all but i will link one to give you a taste. here is a piece on canton mckinley junior tailback ryan brinson. enjoy.
08-17-03 (3:50pm) man i have been enjoying these last few weekends without real football. i played in another texas hold'em tournament last night (came in third unfortunately). oh well. senior chad hoobler out of carrollton.

friday night i did see some football. it rained the entire way as me and the cbg travelled to carrollton to watch buckeye verbal chad hoobler play football. neither of us thought that there was any chance of the scrimmage being played and we thought about turning around 7 or 8 times, still though we had to at least get there and see for sure. we finally made it to carrollton and we knew that the game was at the carrol county fairgrounds due to some work on their stadium. anyways, we knew how to get to carrollton but had no clue where the fairgrounds were at. we figured that we could just roll into town and see a sign for the fairgrounds and it would be easy. it wasn't. we were driving around in the rain looking for a damn sign and we couldn't find one. we drove all the way through town, turned back around and headed towards the friendly confines. we ran into what carrollton would call a major intersection and decided to try that street first despite the rain and all. finally we saw a crappy little fairgrounds sign and we kew we were on the way. eventually we made it to the fairgrounds, parked the car and sat underneath the shelter (which was a pleasant suprise). the teams were out on the field and it was close to kickoff. all of a sudden the rainstorm gave us a sideorder of lightning and all the players were ordered off of the field. we decided to wait and about a half an hour later the team finally came back out and we got to see some football.

chad hoobler wore number 87 and played tight end / fullback (perhaps h back) on offense and middle linebacker on defense. while carrollton got drilled in the game thirtysomething to nothing, hoobler did look good. he was big and quick and looked the part of a future buckeye national champion for sure. as a tight end hoobler didn't get the ball thrown his way more than once or twice that i can recall. carrollton didn't feature much of a passing attack honestly. as a blocker at tight end, the hoob did a good job of sealing off his man. he was most impressive on offense when he lined up like a fullback and was the lead blocker on iso type plays. he just hit the hole and blew it up. these iso plays with the hoob leading the charge were the most effective plays carrollton ran all night. on defense, hoobler was everywhere at middle linebacker. he showed good lateral range and basically stood up to anyone cambridge could throw at him. as a middle linebacker i thought he showed a bunch of promise. he is similar in size to matt wilhelm coming out of high school and he has good enough mobility to play it in college. most 'experts' speculate that if he ends up on defense (and he is starting out as a tight end for the buckeyes according to the coaches) that he is better suited to be a defensive end. i could see him growing into that position perhaps, but right now he would need to add some size and learn some technique. senior mike massey out of cleveland st ignatius.

earlier in the week i saw another scrimmage. this one was cleveland st. ignatius versus canton glenoak. glenoak is a solid program but they aren't high school superpowers like iggy either. ignatius is led by seniors michael massey and brian hoyer. i saw them both last year against massillon and the players i saw play last tuesday were much much better players. hoyer was much much more accurate of a passer i thought. nearly all of the balls he threw were catchable other than maybe a few incompletions and one interception. michigan state got themselves a good one out of ohio it seems. mike massey was so much more impressive tuesday than he was last year it isn't even funny. massey was lightning quick coming off the edge as a pass rusher and he was dominant as a tight end. glenoak had no answer for him at all. he probably picked up 4 or 5 sacks on the day and got to the qb another half dozen times before they blew the whistle and stopped the play. i need to watch the film again to pick up on massey highlights honestly. for some reason he changed his jersey number three times (from 12 to 31 to 65; he wasn't an easy guy to keep track of honestly as a result; thank god i have it all on tape).

anyways, that is what i have been up to this past week while i have been blowing off the website somewhat. today i need to jump on the cbg's editing computer and get together some highlights from the scrimmages. i hope to post some of them tonight before i head to bed, otherwise i will be posting them throughout the week. next friday is the official start of high school football in ohio and i will be starting my weekly travels again in my quest to see all the osu verbals in action in person this season. i have a really sweet game picked out for this friday night and i should have a bunch more highlights of an osu verbal to post next week. as always, all my crap is free around here so keep that credit card holstered down and save it for buying up back to back national champions merchandise this next january.

before i finally quit watching the classic movie 'old school' on dvd and log onto the cbg's editing computer i might as well post some linkage to keep us regular. the dayton daily news leads the coverage as usual with a three pack of articles including ones on maurice clarett, one on keith byars and his view of maurice clarett, and finally a notebook on all things buckeye. as always excellent work by the DDN. next up in linkage i have a piece from a hate filled man going by the name of bruce hooley and the cleveland plain dealer on maurice clarett. i am really thinking about just skipping all of this guy and his 'platonic friend' bill livingston's articles from now on. they never have anything positive to say about the bucks and just need to move into a nursing home and rest in the comfort of their own feces for the golden years of their lives. last link for the day is from 1460 the fan on guess who maurice clarett. anyways, frank the tank is about to do his second beer bong and go into full frank the tank mode so i need to go. ideally i will have some video updates later tonight. enjoy.
08-15-03 (5pm) after two days filled with issues ranging from fatigue to not being able to log on the net, the vg is back in action with hardly any update at all tonight. why no update tonight? good question. in a few minutes me and the cbg will be leaving the friendly confines and travelling to carrollton ohio for a scrimmage. carrollton of course features osu verbal jumbo athlete (te/de/lb type) chad hoobler. we have never had the opportunity to see hoobler play yet so it should be fun. of course we will have the camcorder and the still camera with us and we will be grabbing any and all highlights for use on the site.

speaking of which, i still haven't processed what we got from the st ignatius - glenoak scrimmage yet, but i will do that scrimmage and tonights sometime probably this weekend. who knows if i am motivated to get crap done i may even have a few stills tonight, though on the other hand i may just have a few mixed drinks tonight instead (seagrams seven and sevens are the official adult beverage of both the vg, the cbg and our good friend the ipa). anyways, i need to pack up the car and some emergency rain gear just in case. after that we need to pick up a few beverages and hit the road. enjoy the weekend, i am about to big time. more later either late night tonight or late saturday afternoon.
08-13-03 (6:10am) the vg and the cbg attended the cleveland st ignatius vs canton glenoak scrimmage yesterday and enjoyed seeing some real football for sure. of course we brought the camcorder and the still camera with us to capture some highlights and a few pics to share on the website. i haven't had the opportunity to process them yet but i will try and do that this week. friday night i will be at another scrimmage getting more film for the site. the only difference is that friday will feature a team i never saw before and a buckeye verbal. should be fun for sure.

there are a bunch of links out there this morning so let me get those going. the dayton daily news has a link on the maurice clarett situation of course as well as an osu notebook. very sad news in the osu notebook. reversing an earlier announcement, osu has closed the rest of the practice sessions to the public. i hope nobody has made any plans to skip out on work either today or friday or next week to hit a practice because if you did your plans just got shot down like michigan db marilyn jackson's chances of doing a miller lite commercial sondeday. in further linkage, the canton repository has a piece on maurice clarett and another article on the connection between maurice and hall of famer jim brown. the akron beacon journal has an AP article on osu's academic investigation making progress and being in contact with the NCAA. final link is from buckeye hater bruce hooley and the cleveland plain dealer on maurice clarett. bruce is up to his usual standard of work with inaccurate facts of slanted reported. way to go bruce.

anyways, i need to get a shower and get ready for work. i will have more to discuss later today. enjoy hump day while you can.
mansfield tygers junior to be jamario o'neal 08-12-03 (12:15am) first off one link on future buckeye superstar jamario o'neal from the mansfield news. i don't know the reason, but that really doesn't matter right now. jamario o'neal is suspended from the mansfield tygers team for the moment until this yet to be described incident is resolved. i am thinking it is something minor in the realm of normal high school hi jinks but it isn't like i called up anyone in mansfield and found out either.

yesterday was the first day of open practice and there are finally some credible reports out there. on the injury front things aren't going smoothly. lots of guys wearing the yellow pullover jersey (meaning they are banged up and not participating in any drills) and some guys in the blue pullover jersey (meaning that you are banged up but allowed to participate in drills but like soup with the soup nazi, there is 'no contact for you'). both maurice hall and lydell ross were wearing the yellow jersey today and that is not a good thing with big maurice's situation still unresolved and washington waiting for an ass beating in 18 days. i haven't heard what was wrong with lydell but it sounds like maurice hall has sprained a knee. he should be ready to roll by the opener. these injuries are critical in my opinion regardless of the severity of the injury. with depth at tailback a big time concern all of a sudden having flydell and mo hall dinged up is huge. in other huge news mike d'andrea is wearing the same yellow jersey and he is on crutches. d'andrea was also wearing an ankle boot so it is probably another ankle sprain. hopefully the injury theme of the recent past with the high ankle sprain isn't making a return appearance on campus. d'andrea looked really solid if not spectacular in the spring and is being counted on by many of us fans to step up this year. if he isn't ready to go, our lack of experience at linebacker starts to worry me much much more. another player many fans are expecting big things out of was in the yellow today with ej underwood having ankle issues as well. other guys wearing the yellow jersey and not able to participate in drills included another tailback in roshown parker, big guys andree tyree and branden joe, and quick guys dareus hiley, maurice lee, angelo chattams, and the other number 13 harlan jacobs. guys less seriously dinged up and able to participate but not have any contact include future all american aj hawk, current all american darrion scott, former mckinley bulldog tyler everett, linebacker and son of a legend fred pagac jr, and brandon schnittker.

another interesting thing i heard about practice was that todd boeckman was there and practicing with the team. whether this is a credible report or not is still up for debate (not that i doubt mr ed from the ozone but perhaps he confused a walkon with boeckman) but if it is true it goes directly against the grey shirt thing with boeckman. i am not positive here but i don't believe a guy getting grey shirted is allowed to practice with the team until winter quarter, but what the hell do i know. if this rumor is true perhaps boeckman isn't going to gray shirt this year and take up a scholarship that suddenly became available (pure speculation here but perhaps sian cotton's scholarship). i have also heard some speculation that grey shirts are allowed to practice up until the start of school and then they are barred from practice until they officially enroll in winter. this honestly doesn't make sense to me. if that were the case what is stopping a guy from graduating early from high school and then participating in spring ball without enrolling for spring quarter. the NCAA is who stops it. why they would allow a guy not enrolled in school to participate in the school's practices just doesn't make sense. my money is on boeckman going on scholarship this year and skipping the grey shirt, but what the hell do i know.

in other practice news ira guilford was participating today but not wearing any pads while he gets up to speed. he was spotted in the huddle on offense but he didn't run the plays. he was just there to see the play call and then watch the play develop. great news with guilford getting his paperwork straightened out and getting on the practice field.

another guy working with the offense was st ignatius star tony gonzalez. wide out is loaded with depth honestly but i can see tony making an impact blocking kicks and covering kicks if nothing else. i personally still like him better at corner, but again, what the hell do i know.

anyways, enough from practice and time for another link. this one is a fantastic article on david boston and what he does to make him the superstar athlete he is today. excellent read. the training and diet regimen is documented in great detail and i found it highly interesting to see what his routine is.

anyways, i need to get to bed so i can head into work way too soon. tuesday night i will be at the cleveland st ignatius scrimmage in fawcett stadium so i won't have an update until either much later in the day or the next day at the latest. enjoy tuesday as it happens and good luck to the players at both glen oak and ignatius tomorrow.
08-11-03 (6:35pm) ok i just got done watching the rest of the channel four exclusive with maurice and honestly there is little news to report. maurice is cooperating as much as he can and is expecting to be cleared within the next week. funny thing is i saw the cleared within a week thing but don't remember it on channel four. perhaps i saw it on espn when i flipped to it and caught most of the 15 minutes they did early in the hour on maurice and the buckeyes. who knows it could even be some wishfull thinking on my part, but i swear i heard it somewhere. anyways try to catch sportscenter tonight for sure. their segment looked pretty sweet from the half of it i saw. it was early in the hour if it helps any. it also sounds like channel 4 is squeezing the titty that is an exclusive interview with maurice for all its worth. they are going to finish milking it during the 11pm news. one thing i did notice from what i saw of the maurice interview was that he was really smooth with the media today. either he is getting much much better at dealing with the evil media or he has gone michael jackson on them and demanded that he approve any segments based on interviews with him before they air that way he can control his image better. big stars can get the big star treatment and maurice is no doubt a huge star in the sports world. he could definitely get this type of arrangement from the media. if one channel doesn't want to accomodate his wishes than 10 others will. if they all gang up on maurice and collude to not allow him these accomodations then i would be more than glad to pass his words along to the masses as would a billion other almost media type of websites (even the greedy corporate pig types).

anyways, i had to get my oil changed after work today and i need to unwind after a mellow monday and grab a bite to eat. i may have even more later today after i catch the 11pm news and sportscenter tonight. enjoy.
08-11-03 (6:05pm) you may want to turn on channel 4 columbus tv if you get it. they just had maurice clarett on for some brief comments to open the news and they promise much more during sports at approximately 6:20pm. maurice clarett met with andy geiger and the NCAA today and he had his normal support system there with mom and the lawyer but there was a new legend there supporting maurice clarett. the best running back in the history of football regardless of era, conditioning, one way vs two way players, size of the players, speed of the game, everything cleveland browns hall of famer jim brown was there to support his friend maurice clarett. jim brown had very little to say about the maurice situation but he did say jim tressel was a friend of his and a great coach and a champion and that jim brown is a big fan of the buckeyes. i will post more after the sports segment at 6:20pm so stay tuned for more, including hopefully some good news on the maurice front. enjoy.
08-11-03 (6:30am) just three links real quick like before i go in and get my earn on. the dayton daily news has a piece on nick mangold and rob sims. the akron beacon journal has a piece on justin zwick. last link is from the cleveland plain dealer and it is a bunch of letters to the editor. enjoy monday.
08-10-03 (6:50pm) just checking in with a sunday night update. it has been a really good weekend for the vg and the cbg. probably the best weekend i have had without football to entertain me in a long time. we put a serious hurting on a 1.75 liter bottle of seagrams seven and avoided any entaglements with the police or the hospitals. it was close on the hospital issue when one guy was convinced he could still do a back flip and then went on to prove it five times after a bunch of shots. most of the details are honestly too whacky to print but it was a great time last night and all had a really good time.

now for some quick links before i get into some random thoughts. in linkage i got a piece from the dayton daily news today on robert reynolds. 1460 the fan has a piece on senior leadership. the canton repository has a piece on this and that notebook style as well as a look inside the osu compliance office. the compliance office article isn't bad or anything, but honestly there isn't anything really important there for buckeye football fans either.

now that links are out of the way it is time for some random nonsense. in recent news that i can't remember if i discussed or not, it looks like two buckeye freshman are having some difficulty with eligibility. sian cotton and ira guilford are the two in question right now. guilford seems to be more of a paperwork snafu with his school that should be resolved in the near term without any difficulty. cotton on the other hand is having more serious problems. i don't know if it is his grades in his core courses or his test scores that is holding him up but either way it isn't good. cotton looked like a force in person last year when me and the cbg saw him in person. i was hoping to see him in action this year in goal line situations but that isn't looking like it going to happen anytime soon. not that sian cotton's cause is a lost case or anything but even if he were to become eligible he could find himself far enough behind the other guys where there is no way he could dodge the redshirt this year. otherwise all the freshman are there and playing. dareus hiley is playing wide receiver and tony gonzalez is playing defensive back both as i expected. otherwise i haven't heard much about the freshman or how any of the guys are performing in practice. i know today was just the first day they were in pads and hitting but i was hoping for some info from practice. i guess the closed practice schedule is doing a good job of keeping the info leaks to a minimum.

speaking of open - closed practices, i am still under the impression that practice is open monday, wednesday, and friday each afternoon for the next two weeks. i have also read that now only the monday practices are open, but that was on an internet message board and wasn't ever confirmed by anyone that i know of and trust. i know i won't be able to hit any practices at all this year but the cbg may be able to hit a friday practice or two. we'll see there.

one thing i do know for sure is that high school football is about to kick into high gear. i had the opportunity to see an intrasquad scrimmage for akron buchtel this past saturday morning but after getting an email from a reader of the site i decided against it. it sounded like antonio pittman wouldn't get to play much since he is completely proven as far as buchtel is concerned. i decided to sleep in saturday instead and make it a point to see buchtel and pittman later in the season. i could go see akron buchtel scrimmage akron svsm this tuesday at 5pm but i don't know if i will be able to make it there by 5 honestly. i do know that i will be able to hit fawcett stadium tuesday to see st ignatius scrimmage glen oak a little later that night. me and the cbg will be there with camcorder and still camera ready to capture some good pics and film of de mike massey (osu offer), qb brian hoyer (msu verbal), and junior tight end jim ramella (unhyped by just about every expert out there but damn is he good). unless me or the cbg need to work late that night it is looking like a slam dunk that we will be there. on friday i am going to be hitting another scrimmage only this time it is featuring an osu verbal i haven't yet seen play. i am not going to give it all away right now and leave that as a suprise, but i should be getting some good clips from that for all of us to enjoy. the week after that high school football is in full swing and i will be hitting my normal weekly schedule in search of the top talent in the state of ohio.

now for the mandatory maurice clarett update. the rumor was hot that there would be a press conference sometime monday with an announcement on the maurice front, but that is looking false right now. i still expect an announcement on the maurice front sometime before friday buy you never know when you are waiting on the NCAA to act on something.

personally i think the NCAA isn't going to find anything substantial at all. i do think maurice will be further disciplined though by the team. if the NCAA doesn't suspend him for a game or several, i imagine the buckeye coaching staff will for some of his poorer decisions. still though i see maurice still running for damn near 2000 yards this year even with missing practice time and perhaps a game or two. nobody, not even the NCAA, can stop maurice. you can only hope to contain him.

anyways, that is all i have for tonight. i will have more either in the morning or after work for sure. enjoy the few hours left in the weekend if you can.
08-08-03 (6:10am) i had to take a few days off to take care of some business. i had a scare at work this week. i was asked to extend my working day to help out and as a result miss high school football every friday night. obviously this isn't what i was looking to do with my life right now and fortunately i won't be doing it. i am still able to attend high school football every friday night.

speaking of high school football, i was going to hit a scrimmage this saturday up at akron buchtel, but i have decided against it. it didn't sound like i would get much good footage out of it so why get up early on saturday i figured. i have the opportunity to see a few different scrimmages this week in the canton - akron area and i will probably hit at least one of those instead. two scrimmages in particular are looking really good for tuesday and honestly i don't know which one to hit. i will have to get with the cbg and see what he thinks about tuesday.

in linkage today i got a bunch. the dayton daily news has a piece on maurice clarett and a notebook with some good info. some of the good info was high praise for freshman donte whitner from the position coach mel tucker. in further linkage the cleveland plain dealer has a piece on lydell ross being ready to step up and lead the buckeye ground game. final two links for the morning come from the canton repository. first link is on maurice hall and lydell ross rising up the depth chart while the second link is all about maurice.

anyways, all is looking up in the vg's life and i am getting a shower and heading into work here pretty soon. more nonsense after work. enjoy.
08-04-03 (8:20pm) my server was down this morning and it wouldn't let me upload my update before work. sorry about that as if i had something to do with it (other than cheapness). anyways that should explain why the 6:10am update is just now showing up here going on 8 something pm. anyways there was one more link out there today that i missed not uploading this morning so i might as well hit it now. the usa today has a piece on maurice clarett with some new quotes from his attorney (not maurice's words either). no real news in this article honestly.

i keep forgetting to post the news about st eds offensive lineman alex boone (a junior to be in high school that is ballpark 6'6" to 6'8" and right around 300 pounds with 5.1 speed). i can't honestly comment much on boone. i didn't have the honor of seeing a st eds game in person last year and while i do have the ignatius - eds game on tape, i don't recall seeing boone on the field. perhaps i missed him but i believe he was still playing JV ball at that time instead. i am planning on seeing boone and st eds this season for sure (i believe they travel to massillon) and of course i will get some film on him then.

speaking of getting some high school film, i haven't done that in some time now. i may have a pleasant suprise for the site though this weekend / early next week. i am probably going to be hitting a pretty decent scrimmage here in the near term and i should have some new footage of a future buckeye that i haven't ever seen before. i am not going to mention the school or the verbal by name right now and keep it as a suprise. it isn't definite that i will be able to go or allowed to bring my camcorder to the scrimmage but i am sure going to try. i know i won't be working during the scrimmage for sure.

i have been laying down my schedule for the regular season high school football travels. if anyone out there is interested in seeing some top games in ohio check out my 2003 hs tracker (i am a little lazy today and not going to link it, but you can find it in the upper left corner of the page if you wish). it has most of the high school schedules of ohio teams of interest posted there and it will eventually have notes on the top prospects from each school as the season progresses. check it out if you are interested.

i was thinking about not saying who i am going to see each weekend until i actually get back from the game so some other 'premium' websites can't just go to the same game and get the same clips that i do. then i thought about it, who the hell would pay for a different angle basically when i am giving all i have away for free (well all that i can fit in my free sony imagestation account at least). that has me thinking that the other sites probably won't hit the same games that i do so they can get unique footage on their own (assuming they don't just get free footage from the schools and actually put some effort into improving their site for their paying customers). then i started thinking some more. maybe it would be funny if i didn't post what games i am going to and then we all did get the same footage and i just gave mine away. plus if nobody knows what games i hit that should increase the odds of certain individuals running into a half liquored up combined 13 foot tall and 500 pounds of thunder that the vg and the crazy bearded guy (the cbg) bring to the table. who knows. all i know is that i will be getting some great footage nearly every weekend again this year for all of us cheapskates to enjoy.

i was talking to a huge buckeye fan at work about future recruiting and he relayed to me a message board conversation that i should probably chime in on. the debate was about junior to be tailbacks ryan brinson (canton mckinley) and javon ringer (dayton chaminade-julienne). both are little guys so there is no edge there to either back. having actually paid my 5 bucks to see each of these players in action last season i might as well pass on my opinion. i personally feel that brinson is a much better prospect right now. basically brinson is all mckinley has and he is still really good. the holes are only there briefly at best if at all and brinson always finds a way to get into the hole and make something happen. javon ringer on the other hand plays on a much more talented team. the holes are typically open and he is able to get up a head of steam before first contact often. i saw brinson take on warren harding and he was still the man which is impressive. i saw ringer take on a poor team from canada and he was still the man though i felt that i probably could have went for at least 100 yards that game honestly with my sundial type of 40 time. i still think that ringer is a big time prospect and all but i think that brinson is a much better player right now at least.

another thing that comes up often when i here people talk about ryan brinson is my comment about him being barry sandersish. in no way does that mean that he is the second coming of barry sanders or anything. he is a small back like barry and he does have some electric moves and decent speed. normally i would just point the readers at the video archive and say let them make up their own mind here, but there is a known issue with both the ringer and brinson film (as well as the film of anthony turner and brandon harrison from c-j). i made these clips up using a newer codec that is much higher quality video. unfortunately some people have crappy computers - media players - video codecs installed and can't view these few clips. i plan on redoing these clips here in the very near term though. there is one particular move by brinson that looks exactly like a barry sanders move. in fact it is this clip in particular that i showed my friend the irish patent attorney (the ipa) which dropped his jaw and made the original comparison to barry sanders. watch the brinson footage if you can and you will see the move in the hole that i am talking about. if you can't view the brinson footage at the moment, i hope to have it fixed in the near term and i will talk about it a bunch more when i post it here hopefully this week sometime.

this same guy at work is getting into the vg site lately now that he knows me. i guess he never got the word of mouth about my site before meeting me and is loving the videos. he was asking though why i don't have some film on some of the guys i profile (like brandon braxton, freddie lennix, mario manningham, curtis smith, and hardly any jamario o'neal). good question actually. as for braxton, while i saw ursuline play twice last season i only saw braxton once. he didn't play the first game for some reason i am unaware of. the second game he was dominant in the middle of the defense and fairly solid on the offensive line. the team was a total mismatch though in terms of line bulk so i didn't really try for much footage on him. my camera was fixated on louis irizarry, delbert ferguson, and darryl clark instead. as for manningham, i saw warren harding twice. once he only had about two catches and maybe a tackle i think. hardly highlight material. in the state championship game he went nuts though but the weather was so poor i had packed away the digital camcorder for most of the game. in fact i only took 10 minutes of film the entire game and maybe only 45 seconds was useable (and since it was prescott burgess highlights i deleted them from the archive). the weather was also a factor at my akron svsm game. sian cotton was great but it was rainy as hell so i only chanced the still camera to the elements and didn't bust out the camcorder for even a second. as for curtis smith and freddie lennix of glenville, i got highlights of them but not many. i was mostly filming dareus hiley, donte whitner, and ted ginn jr. i do have some of lennix and smith though and i will eventually post them.

anyways, i am now officially over one month behind on my email and i am bouncing emails from my full inbox every day. i promise i will answer all the emails eventually and i hope that is this week sometime. i am trying to tie up a bunch of loose ends here before the season starts and this is a big loose end. another big loose end is getting in touch with CLTbuckeye from most major buckeye message boards. he did me and the site a huge favor about a year ago with the tip of using sony imagestation to host the film i shoot and i want to pay him back. if you are out there CLT drop me an email, i got some good stuff for you for sure.

anyways i am really tired today. we are getting some visitors from the EPA in the morning and being a plastics plant we are just loaded with chemicals. fortunately this plastics plant at my new job is about 100 times cleaner than my last plastics job so i don't think we have anything to worry about honestly. i am sure they will get picky with something just to flex their muscle but i bet it will be a minor tick tack type of thing. anyways, i spent most of my 11 hour day today thinking about that and preparing everything for our visitors. that place should be looking pretty sweet by the time i roll in around 7am tuesday.

anyways, that's all folks. i will be back online again in the morning if the server is willing to cooperate. enjoy.
08-04-03 (6:10am) only one link that i see this early in the morning. the canton repository has a piece on kenny peterson making his NFL debut in fawcett stadium tonight. ideally KP dominates on the turf at fawcett tonight like he did the last time he played here in high school. more after work today. enjoy monday if at all possible.
08-03-03 (9:20am) i got some links again today and guess what, they are all mo-centric again. well nearly all. starting with the non-mo news, i got a piece from the dayton daily news on nick mangold preparing to start this season. i could see nick getting the nod in the middle this year. with ivan douglas out the bucks have a couple of options. the easiest option is inserting rob sims into the starting role and leaving everyone else where they are at. the other scenario involves mangold starting at center, alex stepanovich moving from center to guard or tackle. in this mangold scenario my money is on alex going to guard and adrien clarke moving from guard to tackle to replace douglas. who knows though really. we will find out for sure during fall camp though.

now for some mo links. one link no doubt not worth the read is a piece from 1460 the fan. there is no new information in this article and it reminds me of something i would have written in approximately seventh grade. that seems about right for the intellect level of todd jones honestly. what a tool and like i said before, this article sucks. read it at your own risk. on a side note, can you imagine paying to read crappy articles like this one through dispatch.com. there must be some serious suckers out there if that online venture is working.

in further coverage of mo, the canton repository has the best piece of the day on mo and other things buckeye related too. todd porter is a friend of the site and he has done a great job again this morning keeping us buckeye fans in the know. he never hates on the buckeyes like some 'writers' and he has lots of good info on mckinley and the browns today again. good job todd. on a side note here, you do need to sign up for a free registration to read the canton repository with a valid email account. i have yet to be spammed by them but if you have privacy concerns feel free to sign up for a disposable hotmail account and use that to activate you canton repository access and then just forget about it so any future spam goes to a dead account. typically the quality of the coverage is worth the hassle of signing up.

last link for today is some bonus non-mo coverage. the akron beacon journal has a piece on potential hall of famer cornerback antoine winfield. no real news about antoine in this piece but still well worth the read. i really hope to see antoine in canton someday wearing the HOF jacket and giving the speech. i know i will be there for sure if and when he is.

speaking of HOF speeches, does anyone know what year chris spielman is first eligible for the NFL HOF? i plan on being there tailgaiting his induction or in the insane circumstance that he isn't a first year inductee i will be protesting the hell out of the ceremony with several of my buckeye friends out there. seriously though, if anyone knows what year he is first eligible i would love to know. i believe that you have to wait 5 years after retirement and i think that should make him eligible for the class of 2004. i am not sure though honestly.

anyways, that is all i have this morning before i snag some breakfast. enjoy what time is left of the weekend while you can.
08-02-03 (1:50pm) some links for lunch today. the dayton daily news has continuing outstanding coverage of the buckeye program today with a very positive article about maurice clarett with encouraging quotes about eligibility from andy geiger. it is starting to look like this maurice stuff is just overblown crap by an untalented and bored media. for those who don't want to pay for the free article in the DDN, basically andy geiger said that maurice could be back in practice within the next couple of days or by the end of the next week at the latest. great news about a great player. i hope all this crap teaches maurice a lesson or two (such as don't speak unless there is something in it for you besides notoriety for example) and serves as motivation. i fully anticipate a slimmed down maurice to break a few necks on stiffarms this year and if he is healthy i just don't see how he won't rumble for 2000 yards. in other linkage, we have two from the cleveland plain dealer. typically the plain dealer has some of the most horrific writing and writers representing them and today is no different. super hater bill livingston has an actual piece of crap that he is trying to pass off as an article today. i don't recommend reading it due to its poor quality. if bill livingston were a racehorse he would be shot and turned into glue with his results. he is a big time loser and a disgrace to sportswriters, ohioans, and clevelanders. the other article in the cleveland plain dealer today is also hardly worth the free click. since this article wasn't written by chief haters bill livingston or bruce hooley, it is suprisingly even handed coming from the plain dealer but the quality is still rather poor. if you have already read the DDN article this morning you might as well skip this one because it is basically the same article written by someone with sixth grade writing skills. it wouldn't suprise me if she wrote the original article in crayon.

as for me, i got a whole bunch of nothing planned for today / tonight and i am loving it. i slept in really late today and man did it feel good. i will probably continue to work on my bottle of absolut vanilla vodka and see what else it mixes great with. other than that though the day is open. i was hoping to play in another texas hold'em tournament today but that isn't looking likely. so far i have played in four hold'em tournaments and i am getting much better at the game. i am invited to a 9 player hold'em tournament on august 23rd over at a friends house. i hope to win enough that day to pay for my washington ticket the next weekend ideally.

anyways back to the topic of the month maurice clarett. it really looks like it is a whole bunch of crap about nothing. so what he had a test drive car for a weekend. that happens all the time. so what that that test drive car got broken into. the vast majority of the stuff stolen from the car wasn't his anyways. the fact that he overestimated the value of such items on the police report isn't a crime. it isn't like he is presumed to be defrauding someone here (especially without filing an insurance claim) and it isn't like he is required to estimate the exact values of other people's property to the penny. now if maurice were hanging out in the ruins of what used to be south campus and smashed some dude in the face with a beer bottle that would be a big story (that type of alcohol abuse is not tolerated by the vg or this site). anyways it will be a happy day for the vg and the rest of the buckeye nation when this entire thing blows over and we get to see maurice clarett blow by some slow and small pac10 and acc defenders in the non conference schedule.

speaking of smashing a beer bottle in some dude's face, that is exactly what michigan star defensive back marilyn jackson supposedly did. hey, i wasn't there so i can't say if it happened or not, but if it did happen it is a much much more serious crime than the non-crime maurice is getting villified over. i heard marilyn could get four years in prison for this so that shouldn't be a big deal to him. anyone willing to commit to four years in ann arbor must think that four years in prison is an easy stretch of time.

anyways, i am in a hurry to get back to my day of nothing. if i get a little drunk today and feel creative perhaps i will get back online a little later today. if not i will be back late sunday morning - afternoon. enjoy, i sure am.
08-01-03 (6:25am) another day with nothing but links about maurice clarett and his cars and whatnot. man i can't wait for practice to start and give us some info on something football related for a change. anyways, here are the links if you are a glutton for punishment. the dayton daily news, the akron beacon journal, the canton repository, and the cleveland plain dealer all have links fresh today on maurice. i guess the other major newspapers are a little lazy and will have links a little later this morning. anyways, i would say enjoy here but i honestly hope nobody enjoys these links. i need to head to work. more later.

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