ohio state buckeyes football
january 2003 archive
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01-31-03 (7:05pm) not much of an update for now, at least as far as buckeye information is concerned. i am still getting lots of email and it is still nearly 100% positive. i only had the one borderline hate mail so far. anyways, it is time for some random thoughts, and not this crap i have been passing off as random thoughts either. i have indulged in the liquid literary laxative and i intend to let it flow for the rest of this update (which is brought to you by the creamy smoothness of guinness draught). as a public service announcement for the site, i want to remind people what this site is all about. looking back on the site, i haven't been very funny lately with the rush for the national championship and recruiting information, maybe it has been because i have seriously cut down my alcohol consumption since the end of football season, who knows. anyways, it is time to get this site back to its roots. this is my personal webpage. it is not a corporate entity and not a professional organization, in fact i expressly retain my amateur status in hope of making the football website olympics someday. as such, don't expect a professional response from me if you want to mouth off. this reminds me of political correctness. don't hold me to that silly standard until i decide to become a politician or run for office. being a personal webpage, i let it fly over hear. i realize some readers won't like my style of site and won't visit because of it. oh well, don't let the back button hit you on the rear when you leave. some readers seem to love the site though. i do all this my own personal enjoyment and to help serve those readers who enjoy the site. i understand the site is no longer like it was back when i started it in 1999, back when it was just me and a couple of friends on the site joking around about what was the better dirty nickname at the time in college football (the vote between jeff 'dick' smoker of michigan state and brian poli-chix-with-dixon the wide out from ucla was too close to bother counting). the site now serves up buckeye crap to typically 3000 to 4000 different fans fresh daily. this expanded audience doesn't mean i am going to stop saying what i want to say though. as for my thoughts on recruiting experts and whatnot, it reminds me of the term porn star. every woman filmed in that industry anymore is all of a sudden called a porn star, as if everyone was a superstar and there were no regular old skanky actresses. well, i sort of think of recruiting experts like i do porn stars, just because you can babble on (and not in the hammurabi sense of term either) about recruiting it does not make you a recruiting expert, you are a recruiting commentator at best. as for me, i am not an expert or even a commentator, i am simply a knowledgeable fan who could afford a free webpage. the one difference i can see between porn stars and recruiting experts is how their mistakes are handled. you can log on to kazaa and download comical porn bloopers for weeks on end (not that that is legal or recommended or endorsed by the vg in any way shape or form). when recruiting experts make mistakes though it is largely forgotten about and not discussed at all. when the vg calls one out for making too many mistakes to retain the expert title or all experts in general for not even going to high school games, he is outcast from the community and shunned like he is amish all of a sudden. you know what though, i could honestly care less. all this schtick is here just to entertain me and the masses that think like me or at least enjoy reading about this nonsense. well that is about all i have in me for now. as i sit back and proofread this stream of thoughts before pressing the upload button, i am pretty happy with what i have said tonight. not bad at all for just having two of the guinness draughts down so far tonight. if something comes to me, i may have more tonight, but honestly i think i am looking for a type of fun that doesn't involve a computer or the buckeyes tonight. enjoy the weekend as you live it. 01-31-03 (1:10pm) lots of nonsense to talk about at lunch today. i got recruiting rumors and gossip of course and i have a little hate mail. i decided to include the hater's email address if any readers would care to debate his point with him. obviously i don't encourage such action, but i would certainly find it funny. in stanley mcclover news, there isn't any really. it is still looking like a signing day decision. still though, osu has some nice ties to his high school and he has reaffirmed his verbal to us twice now. i think he is a buckeye, but it isn't like i am a recruiting expert or anything, i am merely a fan like the rest of you. in turk mcbride news, osu has not stopped recruiting him and he has not eliminated the buckeyes from consideration despite what has been previously reported. i still don't think it looks good for us landing mcbride, but it isn't over yet. no news on when he is planning on making the call as to which college he will be attending. in james lee news, things are looking good there. lee is down to osu, georgia, and florida as a final three. both georgia and florida are loaded with offensive line recruits this class already, and james lee knows it. his decision will come down to how much he values a chance at early playing time versus how close to home he wants to be. if i had to guess, i would say he will be a buckeye come signing day, but it isn't like i am psychic or anything. in todd boeckman grayshirt news, here is what is most likely to happen. he is going on scholarship in 2004 and not 2003. he will most likely start classes this fall at osu as a part time student and then enroll full time for winter quarter in 2003 on a full athletic ride. the motivation for boeckman to pay his way for a quarter is to put a gap between him and the two redshirt freshmen qb's troy smith and justin zwick. essentially, boeckman delaying the start of his school buys him an additional year of eligibility, maturity, and most importantly practice. good luck to todd in school this fall. in jamesley jean news, we are done there. who knows who dropped who, but who cares either. it isn't going to happen and we all wish jean the best of luck wherever he ends up (as long as he isn't playing the buckeyes of course). last bit of news before i have a little me time and some fun with the site (which is afterall why i do this in the first place). this is on former air force linebacker anthony schlegel. he has decided to transfer from air force and is rumored to be considering ohio state. schlegel was one of the top players on the falcons defense as a sophomore and could contribute at linebacker for ohio state. is it just a rumor and is there any truth to the rumor? i honestly have no clue, i just thought maybe buckeye fans would like to know. in further daily linkage to keep us all regular, i don't have anything important really. i do have a link from the miami student newspaper (it is old) that contains some mention of a bunch of hurricane club members actually being buckeye fans in disguise to get their tickets at face value. of course this information was brought to you first by the vg and his friend from osu who just graduated from the miami mba program. i have received a bunch of emails from fans thanking us for the link and we thought that maybe you would like to see what was mentioned about you in the miami paper. note, you do need to register for free access to their paper (just like the lantern). if you don't want to register, i included most of the relevant text in the textbox that pops up when you put your cursor on the link. congrats to the readers of the site that took advantage of the loophole in hurricane club policies as laid out here and a special big thanks to my friend from miami for letting me in on this loophole originally and making sure other buckeye fans were able to get to the fiesta bowl for face value. in order to not pat myself on the back too much for helping a bunch of buckeye fans live out their fiesta bowl destiny at face value, i thought it was only fair that i share some of the hate mail the site gets. i decided to reprint his email in full below this paragraph. after that i decided to add my comments on his email below. enjoy. I am a "neutral" observer in the fact that I check out many Ohio State related sites. But, that being said, as one who has really been paying attention to what has been going on between you and Bucknuts and having some knowledge of both you and Duane Long I have come to this conclusion... You are an idiot! Big time, and here is why. To tell people you have done nothing to provoke the reaction of the folks at Bucknuts is purely bogus. The biggest disappointment is that you have tried to come off as a "hero" of the free site people. But, this part is the least of your bull. Here is the beef with those of us that understand this recruiting/site game: 1. You can "go" to all of the high school games you want, but your evaluation of players is no better than Duane's, if not even up to par with his. 2. And this is a BIG one, you have no sources, none that I have seen, except other sites information about what breaking news there is. So to act smug about the fact that you are posting news broken by BSB or whoever before Bucknuts has posted it is like showing all your friends you were the first to have a PS2 only because you stole it from somebody else and your're proud of it. 3. Duane Long constantly keeps in contact with virtually every HS coach in the state as well as all the players they are recruiting and they all respect him because he is good at what he does and only posts info. that they give him. To call him a liar or a rumor spreader is crazy. You ask anyone in the recruiting game in this state or even players all over the country and they will all tell you who DL is. Who is VG you ask, they have no idea. 4. And lastly, oh the hell with it, you are just an idiot plain and simple. You don't get it. You site was the very first site I found when I started getting on OSU websites, but face it, besides your video's, which aren't half bad, you have absolutely nothing new to offer and that is where Bucknuts and BSB leave you in the dust. And by the way, most of what Bucknuts offers is still free... And I know that has to bug you. A true OSU buff who is tired of you "game". anyways, that is the only hate mail i have received lately. i thought i would share it with the readers just to be balanced and fair in the different views of this site. anyways, i don't want to republish his words without giving him credit, so here is this hopefully former reader's email address [editors note: i removed the guys email address as an olive branch here]. now for a little response to his bullet points. as for point one, i do go to all the games i want to, but i don't see how that makes my analysis of high school players any worse than his. i just comment on what i see, if you don't like it, don't read it or factor in that you don't yet trust my opinion. it isn't like i am charging you to read what i have to say or seek your eyeballs on the page. as for point 2 above, you are right, i have no sources. i run a fan site built by fans for fans. i don't have a staff of people pestering coaches and recruits for quotes that i can add a couple of sentences to and then use them to sell subscriptions to the site. i do all this for free and as a hobby. last note here, i don't recall claiming to have ever had a source more qualified than the guy working the hot dog stand or the lady bagging my groceries. i could see your point if i was claiming to have broken the news myself or had the inside scoop, but i don't so your point is rather dull and pointless. as for point 3, good for duane. though i honestly think if you ask around the country who is the expert in ohio high school football you will hear the name bill kurelic first followed by john mcallister second and then duane long third. i can't imagine you would ever hear the name vg mentioned as a recruiting expert, especially since i am not one. i have not even sat for my certified recruiting expert exam let alone passed the test. i have never held myself out as an expert either. as for your fourth point, you may feel that i am an idiot and you are entitled to that opinion. i would think my doctorate degree would tend to show evidence otherwise, but what the hell would i know. now go back to your 6th period study hall and do your homework like a good little boy. that short bus is going to be at your school here in another hour or so and i would hate to see you miss it. on a side note for the regular 3000 or so people that frequent this page daily, i am stopping this type of update monday so enjoy it while you can and the normal routine updates will resume then. thanks again for all the support. 01-31-03 (10:25am eastern standard time; 10:09am bucknuts make believe time) lyndhurst brush tight end - defensive end marcel frost has just announced that he will be a buckeye. that is the news as i saw it break on buckeye sports bulletin's message board. they broke the news and are the best pay source for osu information bar none. frost is approximately 6'5" 235 pounds and runs the fourty in about 4.75 seconds. he initially committed to iowa but started to rethink that decision when it became apparent that the buckeyes were interested. iowa was recruiting him as a tight end, the buckeyes were recruiting frost as a defensive end. as for frost, he doesn't care where he plays, he just wants to get on the field. anyways, good luck marcel and welcome to the family. in further linkage today, the akron beacon journal has a piece on an awards show that had jim tressel and maurice clarett in the house. the tribune chronicle has an article on this as well, but honestly it is hardly worth reading. last link for now is on stark county hall of famer and former buckeye great jeff logan. suprisingly a good read from the canton repository. todd porter has been doing a good job lately. anyways, that is all i have for now, but for lunch time i will have thoughts on the stanley mcclover situation, james lee's impending decision, turk mcbride's deal, and the deal with todd boeckman and his gray shirt. if you couldn't tell, i plan on dominating today and the rest of the recruiting season. if you honestly couldn't tell my plan for dominance, check out the free recruiting videos of top prospects like devon jordan, shawn crable, tony gonzalez, louis irizarry, donte whitner, and dareus hiley in the video archive. the videos are linked at the top of the left hand column as always and the link is called 'vg recruiting videos'. if those seniors weren't enough of a reason to check out the videos, i got clips on super juniors delbert ferguson, ted ginn jr., marcus freeman, anthony turner, darryl clark, and mike massey in there as well as clips on top sophs like ryan brinson, javon ringer, jamario o'neal, brett donaldson, brandon harrison, and others. i still have more video to add (guys like mario manningham, curtis smith and many more, i just need to get back in the studio and compress the video down.) anyways, enjoy the friday as it drags on and i will be back for a nice lunchtime update. 01-31-03 (8:35am) just one link for now, but it is a good one. the columbus dispatch and 1460 the fan has a piece on marcel frost and recruiting in general. the big news from that article is that marcel frost will announce his college decision at 10am. i will of course post the news here as soon as i find out, i would anticipate by 10:10am at the very latest. at that point i will have a much more extended morning update. i am a little fired up and motivated to say the least this morning. enjoy. 01-30-03 (11:55pm) first off i wanted to thank everyone out there for the emails. i have received nearly 100 emails since 5pm and they don't seem to be stopping except for when the mailbox is full. i emptied it out again so if your mail got bounced, feel free to resend her now. out of all the email responses i got, every single one was positive other than one neutral party. i tried to answer them all, but it is hard honestly (and when i say it is hard, i am not talking about that being hard either). second comment for the night, i appreciated all the support fans of the site have left on the bucknuts recruiting board. they are just getting locked down and deleted as soon as they are posted, but it is nice to see some fans have my back. also, i personally found the entire ordeal amusing. you fans made this sick man feel a whole lot better today (just in time for the weekend too). now to clear up the situation. i didn't start this despite what anyone says. is it my fault if i report the fact that they were flat out wrong about things like kenyon buford becoming a buckeye or maurice hall transferring? is it my fault that duane has dubious computer problems that only impact the free board, can be fixed with four clicks of the mouse, and took 18 days to fix? is it my fault that bucknuts promised certain things when they went to insiders that they couldn't live up to? don't shoot the messenger bucknuts. some parties on their board are trying to spin this as my fault. i just got to laugh at that. i am never anything but helpful when i am on their board. admittedly i do critique the other sites (bsb, the ozone, and $ucknuts) often. i do this as a service to buckeye fans so they know where to spend their hard earned cash if they choose to purchase premium subscriptions or products from a site. i never started calling people names until today and i did that after they banned me from the board despite not breaking any rules (which annoyed the hell out of me) and removing my link from their links section (i could care less there; due to the quality of the site, i am placed higher than bucknuts on most search engines already). is it my fault that $ucknuts creates loads of opportunities for criticism that the other professional sites (bsb and the ozone) don't create? hardly. if you want to hold yourself out as a professional site worth paying money to read, you hold yourself out to public critique. i would be just as critical of the other sites (and i have critiqued the ozone for covering women's sports while they refuse to play topless and the bsb for providing virtually no free information and never interacting with their free message boards). $ucknuts, you aren't alone in drawing critique from this site, you are alone in the amount of criticism for sure, but that doesn't seem to be my fault. as for why i was banned and de-linked (if that is even a word), i still haven't heard. maybe a fan of the site can find out for me and let me know, they don't seem to want anything to do with me, and i must say the feeling is mutual. i suspect they did what they did because they were tired of getting their brains beat in every single day by someone with more football knowledge and someone who has actually seen these recruits play football in person instead of pretending to be an expert. honestly though, if i ran this site as a business i wouldn't link other buckeye sites either. fortunately for the readers, i don't run this site as a business and i try to make it easy to navigate to the other buckeye websites out there. it seems most readers appreciate having all the top buckeye links in one spot instead of having to store them in bookmarks or search for them. on to the recruiting expert game, what qualifies one as a recruiting expert exactly? did guys like duane long and bill kurelic pass some sort of test? did they attend recruiting college? did they play or coach football? all of us take their word as gospel yet neither party has ever documented what exactly that makes them recruiting experts. am i wrong for questioning them? i need to start wrapping this up and save some for tomorrow so here come some thoughts straight off the top of my head. i don't encourage anyone to flame the recruiting message board in my name. i did enjoy seeing it and i did get a good laugh out of it. i will probably get a laugh out of that anytime i see it, but i don't encourage it. i am a big boy (literally, i am like 6'4" and 240 pounds of thunder), i can more than take care of myself. to summarize, am i still mad? hell yea i am mad. do i have any plans to even up the score? nope. i am going back to business as usual here probably monday. i imagine i will screw around with them a little more friday and maybe even this weekend (just to entertain the masses), but after that i am just going to pretend they don't exist like more and more of their readers seem to be doing. 01-30-03 (4:15pm) i wanted to post again today, but i couldn't find anything worth posting out there. sorry about that, but i am not going to make up stuff about false potential transfers or kids committing that don't even have a scholarship offer. afterall, it isn't like i have an audience to fleece or premium subscriptions to sell. for those that follow the buckeyes via the web closely, that was obviously a shot at the corporate entity formerly known as bucknuts. why would i take a shot at them you ask. good question. i used to enjoy the site back in the day before the sell out and i still frequent the page often, especially the message board for recruiting. in duane's absence (due to alleged computer problems that sounded fishy at best) i did what i could to help out the community over there by answering a bunch of questions the best i could. i figured that since i, unlike duane, have seen these players actually play a little football that i would be qualified to answer a question or two. well, it looks like i am no longer welcome there. i am now banned from posting on their board and they have decided to remove my link from their links page so i have decided to respond here to their actions [NOTE: i was banned and my link was removed BEFORE any bad mouthing on my part just for the record]. now i didn't break any rules of theirs or anything like that, i guess they just feel i am a competitor of theirs, and being a business they feel the need to eliminate me. funny thing though was i always envisioned myself as a collaborator more than a competitor of the other buckeye sites. oh well, if it is competition they want, who am i to not aim to please. competition they will get. i, BIATCHabutuka, would like to take this time to say goodbye to all the other posters on the bucknuts recruiting message board. i enjoyed passing along my wisdom from having actually seen the recruits play ball. i never claimed to be an expert (not that duane long has ever listed his credentials as an expert other than calling himself one by the way), but i enjoyed sharing that knowledge all the same. i would post my goodbye over there, but that is not going to happen, i am not allowed to post there anymore. maybe a reader of this site can say goodbye for me instead. i would appreciate it and i am sure some of the fellow posters over there would like to know why i am no longer there. the vg would appreciate it for sure. who knows, maybe even mr bucknuts himself would like to explain why i was banned from the boards despite providing top shelf free information, including videos and never violating board rules. that would require a backbone of course and i don't expect to ever find out why. so what does the vg plan on doing to get back at the evil mr bucknuts and the bucknuts website, good question again. honestly i don't plan on doing anything different. i plan on still beating them every single day of the year on a free information basis, nothing more nothing less. i am going to change their link to say $ucknuts instead of bucknuts though. that change has already been implemented. i also plan on doing a review of their magazine (you know the pamphlet passed off as a magazine) and the ohio's future stars magazine (especially with regard to the poor photography and writing). maybe i will work on those this weekend. i would also urge any readers from giving them free photographs for their corporate use. they are currently soliciting for free photographs of recruits. you don't get anything out of it, but they get to improve their corporate product. funny thing, i don't remember many other corporate entities seeking donations like this. unique strategy there mr bucknuts. so how does this impact the future of the vanilla gorilla website, good question again. i imagine my regulars who visited the website through the $ucknuts link will have to use a search engine to find me again until they bookmark the site. otherwise though, i see no impact at all. the quality of the free $ucknuts message board will probably not be the same, but this won't have an impact on me at all honestly. i will still have all the good information to go along with a complete analysis and it will still be free. anyways, i just thought i would let everyone out there know what has transpired today. sorry i didn't have any buckeye information for you this update but i hope this update was at least mildly entertaining. 01-30-03 (10:10am) first off i got another link dealing with some recruiting rumors. this link is from a florida newspaper on stanley mcclover reconsidering his college decision. it sounds like he will make his final decision on february 5th between ohio state and auburn. mcclover of course committed a few weeks ago but has since reconsidered and calls it 50 - 50 either osu or auburn. i know it looks like we have a bunch of depth at defensive line and we are stock piling even more this year, but if you look at it long term, we need guys like mcclover bad. next year we lose potential all americans will smith, darrion scott, and tim anderson. simon fraser will be back, but he will be a senior. after those four guys, everyone else is completely unproven on the field and living off of recruiting hype, and none of the guys we got have the type of hype behind them that stanley mcclover has except maybe quinn pitcock who is a defensive tackle and not an end like mcclover. also next year is not a good year for defensive linemen in ohio so our chances of bringing in a player on the defensive line are not good in state. the only one getting a bunch of hype right now is mike massey of st ignatius and i see him ending up at michigan with his older brother honestly. in the end i think it comes down to a simple choice for mcclover, stay close to home and play for auburn or come north away from the family and into an NFL prep school for defensive linemen. i know ohio isn't anywhere near close to florida for the family, but we have our own family in columbus and i think mcclover will see that and decide to join his 84 scarlet clad brothers in the fall. one more link for now is from the detroit free press on their top 20 prospects in the midwest. lots of buckeyes on that list including donte whitner, dareus hiley, louis irizarry, david patterson and with some luck shawn crable. don't forget i have free videos on guys like whitner, hiley, irizarry, and crable in the vg recruiting videos portion of this site. i have film on another prospect on that list too from warren harding, but i don't even feel like typing his traitorous name right now. in bad recruiting news from the south, it doesn't look like we have a chance with alabama offensive lineman aaron sears anymore. sears has issued a list of his final three and the buckeyes aren't on it but tennecheats, auburn, and miami are. oh well. good luck getting a job after college with a hillbilly education aaron. in the lack of news department, i have no idea when marcel frost is holding his press conference at brush high in lyndhurst. when i find out i will of course list that here. last bit from the lack of news department. i contacted ohio state athletic department yesterday about dates for spring practice, the spring game, and the details on practice (as in am i still allowed to go and bring my camera like last season or did bucknuts ruin that for all of us last year). unfortunately, the athletic department wasn't able to help me with any of that and they didn't know when they would know either. i have seen reports of the spring game being april 26th and that is what i list it as in the left hand column. where that date is coming from though i have no clue. it certainly isn't coming from the guy i spoke to at the athletic department. anyways, that is all i have for now. i will try to dig up some more here and post it for all to enjoy. 01-30-03 (8:55am) i got some links this morning, and they all aren't about ira guilford's college decision either in a suprise. first off i got a piece from the cleveland plain dealer on jim tressel's pregame speach as written by ken pryor. the canton repository has an article on ira guilford as does the columbus dispatch and 1460 the fan. last link for now is from the detroit free press of all places and it is on donte whitner. anyways, that is all i have for now. i am still feeling pretty sick, but i think the cold medicine and the zinc is starting to kick in. i will have another update here either real quick or at lunch. enjoy. 01-29-03 (5:35pm) ira guilford has just announced that he will be a buckeye. guilford is one of the top rated safeties in the nation out of hoboken new jersey. he could add depth at tailback as well since he was the top tailback in jersey this year. he is 5'11" 185 pounds and runs right around a 4.5 fourty. guilford is the final piece in what will undoubtedly be the top collection of defensive backs in the nation this year along with donte whitner, dareus hiley, tony gonzalez, curt lukens, and ashton youboty. i still think hiley is a wide out and maybe gonzo too, but for now they are part of the best haul of defensive backs in the nation. if you want to hear from ira guilford, he will be on 1460 the fan live at 6:05pm. should be an interesting interview. anyways, the link is in the left hand column in the newspapers and radio section if you want to listen on the net for those of us not within the one mile radius that gets 1460 the fan on their radio. in other recruiting news, marcel frost has scheduled a press conference friday at his high school to announce his college decision. marcel is of course on his official visit to ohio state today and thursday and it looks like he will talk it over with his family thursday night and make the decision friday. he does have a scholarship offer from coach tressel and he said ohio state had about a 50% chance of getting his signature on a letter of intent on the fifth. florida two way lineman james lee is down to osu, florida, and georgia. lee stated today that there is a greater than 50% chance of him being a buckeye and that he will make his announcement on february fifth. in further recruiting news today, louis irizarry was interviewed by herbstreit today on 1460. irizarry said that he felt ohio state was honest throughout the process and that coach coker and staff wasn't so honest and straight forward. irizarry said he would like to be used like a kellen winslow and that he doesn't see himself being an effective blocker right away. he also said that while he is fully qualified, he will be retaking the ACT again to raise his score. he said if he could get his score up to a 28 (which is getting close to the vg range) that it would be easier for him to get into the honors program for industrial engineering. good luck on the test and in the weight room this offseason louis. last note for now and it isn't even college football related. ohio resident and funniest man alive dave chappelle has the second episode of his new show airing tonight on comedy central at 10:30pm. being a big fan of dave and having ripped off his act more than a couple of times for this site it only seems fair to give the man a plug. 01-29-03 (2:25pm) i can't find anything about ira guilford's press conference being broadcast on the net live. it may be on the nbc4 website, but they don't have anything about it there that i saw. it must have been the cold medicine getting me down, but i forgot some news this morning. lyndhurst brush tight end - defensive end marcel frost started his official visit to ohio state today. rumor has it that he is being recruited as a defensive end more than a tight end. frost is a verbal commit of iowa at the moment, but i could see him switching over to the buckeyes if tressel were to reaffirm the scholarship offer. i wonder if guilford's decision today will have any impact on frost thursday (his last day of his visit). if guilford were to pick ND instead of the buckeyes, maybe that opens up a scholarship that frost can use. who knows. anyways, i will be online at approximately 5:35pm with the info on ira guilford. stay tuned. 01-29-03 (1:10pm) there is no news out there at all today and nothing for us buckeye fans to read. i am sick as an ohio kid wanting to play for michigan and lloyd carr, but i am ready to step up and feed the buckeye addiction. there is some debate on where ira guilford is ending up at school. everyone thinks that it is osu or nd but experts from each team's sites think he is theirs. me, i still think he is a buckeye but i will find out at 5:32pm for sure. when i do find out i will pass along that information here of course. there was a quote by prescott burgess recently saying that shawn crable will be a wolverine. how a guy from massillon can go to ann arbor and plan on ever returning home is beyond me. i honestly don't believe it, but you never know. maybe michigan is telling him what he wants to hear and crable is buying it. another rumor i heard was that mike bush may not even make an announcement on the 5th and may wait for his test score to announce. this comes from a dubious source at best so take that for what it is worth. it looks like the canton repository has stirred up the pot with todd boeckman today. lots of buckeye fans trying to figure out if he is a scholarship or a gray shirt. me, i think he is a scholarship and not a gray shirt. todd porter has no true knowledge of the buckeye program and i just think he made a mistake. maybe he is right, who knows. anyways, that is all i have in me for right now, i am going to search around for the net and see if we can't find a streaming video or audio link to the guilford press conference. if i find it, i will be sure to post it here. otherwise i will have the news as soon as i hear it. enjoy. 01-29-03 (8:10am) i got three links for the morning. the columbus dispatch and 1460 the fan have a piece on ira guilford announcing his college choice today. the canton reporsitory has two articles today. this one is on mike doss taking a break from conditioning to sign free autographs in stark county this friday. the other article is interesting and a must read. it covers ira guilford, shawn crable, aaron sears, james lee, moe dampeer, and of course mike bush. it also has a recap of every verbal commit at the end of the article. here is where it gets interesting. the article lists todd boeckman as a gray shirt and not a scholarship player. that means boeckman will not be on scholarship this season, will pay his own way, and then will get a scholarship in january. i don't know if this is true or not, but it is interesting all the same. in vg news, i am quite ill today. i am about to choke on the sinus drainage and i am going to take it easy today. the chat i was going to do at lunchtime today is just not going to happen until i feel better. i will be online for the ira guilford decision for sure and i will still probably do a lunchtime update, i just don't see the chat going down unless this medicine kicks in with some ferocity. enjoy. 01-28-03 (2:50pm) there will be a press conference at 5:30pm wednesday at ira guilford's high school for him to announce his college decision. i will be online at that time and will have the word as soon as it is out. just thought you would like to know. enjoy. 01-28-03 (high noon) just a couple of more links and then a random thought or two. the akron beacon journal has a piece on shawn crable being named parade all american. the other link is from miami and it covers hurricane recruiting with some info on the louis irizarry situation. nothing really new there, but it is buckeye information all the same. in today's mandatory michael bush update i got some potentially bad news. apparently a radio station in tennesse is under the impression that michael bush will become a volunteer here on signing day. it is looking more and more like bush will be a signing day decision like shawn crable. february 5th is going to be very interesting this year. another day and another debate on which premium recruiting information is right and which is make believe and a complete fraud. i love this stuff if you couldn't tell. anyways, bucknuts is reporting we are done with turk mcbride the big jersey defensive end. i repeated this 'fact' last night on the website as is within intellectual property laws (just because some message boards don't allow premium information doesn't change the law any here). now i wake up this morning and find out that buckeye sports bulletin is saying that is a load of crap and we are still trying to land mcbride and he has not eliminated us. i forget what the score is in the battle of greedy premium sites so i am just enjoying this for what it is. two companies and their experts in a cat fight. i just hope my cat fight fantasy doesn't come true and there is no accidental nudity here between bill kurelic and duane long. anyways, that is all i have for now. if anyone out there has a camcorder feel free to tape the bitch smack that bill kurelic is going to lay on duane long or vice versa. i would love to see it for myself. 01-28-03 (real damn early) first off one link and then some recruiting rumors for the morning. the link is from the dayton daily news and it is a collection of thoughts with some on the current state of recruiting. nothing new there, but it is nice to see another article from doug harris again. now on to some recruiting rumors. in ira guilford news, it looks like he will be making his decision known to the public this wednesday. right now all reports have it coming down to ohio state or notre dame for the standout jersey safety. with guilfords's comments about there being nothing to do in south bend, i really like the way this one is looking. in other recruiting news, it doesn't look like the buckeyes will be landing jersey standout defensive end turk mcbride. mcbride would have been an interesting guy to pair with buckeye commit stanley mcclover, but we will never get to see it. oh well. good luck to turk mcbride wherever he ends up going to school. in the mandatory michael bush update, it looks like bush is wide open about where he will play his college ball. kentucky is coming on strong as of late, but i don't see it. the kid is from louisville and they just hate everything from UK there. throw in the fact that they are on probation and it just doesn't make sense to me. the other players are the hometown louisville cardinals, tennecheats with fatman fullmer, and the ohio state buckeyes, the defending national champs, duh. i haven't heard much about him and michigan state lately so i think they are done. bush is probably the highest rated player we are still recruiting and he would be a major boost to this class. i don't expect to hear about him until signing day unfortunately. final bit of news is on ohio tight end - defensive end marcel frost. it seems that frost will be visiting campus this week and he could commit to the bucks if coach tressel reaffirms the scholarship offer. we will have to wait and see there though. i don't think we need another tight end, but we could use another defensive end with mcbride eliminating the buckeyes. i know we have a bunch of ends on campus right now with seniors will smith and darrion scott and junior simon fraser waiting his turn on the bench, but they won't be here much longer and i would like to have the defensive ends on campus for a year before we need to depend on them. i like the way we rotate bodies up front to break the guys in and i can't think of three ends i would rather have teach a guy like marcel frost other than smith, scott, and fraser. maybe tressel is thinking it will be hard to get another tight end next year with irizarry in the fold and there not being many tight end types in the state of ohio. who knows. anyways, the sun isn't even close to sizzling yet this morning. i am snoozing out for a few more and then i will try to find some more linkage to keep us regular. enjoy. 01-27-03 (2:10pm) not much news out there today. there was a report on texas kicker david dyches. it looks like the bucks are trying to get dyches to do the same thing as cedric scott is doing. that is come to school without a scholarship for a year and then get a scholarship in 2004. there is an outside shot that one of these 'grayshirts' could get a scholarship this year if we have an additional scholarship this year we can't fill on signing day. i honestly imagine it would go to one of the walk ons this year though and then a grayshirt could have the scholarship in 2004 like promised. in site news, i was working on a redesign this weekend. by now everyone knows that i have stripped this page down in order to get ready for national signing day. i planned on bringing the page back to its original quality after signing day, but then i started thinking (which is usually a dangerous thing). i was thinking about just starting the page design template over from scratch. my only problem though is supporting all the different browsers that come to the page. right now this page is designed for microsoft internet explorer and netscape navigator 4+ and it works in both of them at just about any monitor size. the big problem here isn't microsoft, it is netscape. approximately 10% of the viewers still use netscape to view the site and unfortunately over half of them are using netscape 4 or lower. netscape decided to make their newer browsers much different than version 4 and most of the web stuff that works in netscape 4 or lower won't work in the newer versions (pretty stupid of them huh). no business would ever stop their website from being accessible to 5% of their customers, but honestly this page isn't a business either. right now i have no plan on not suporting netscape 4 right away, but i would like to urge the 1 out of 20 visitors to consider upgrading their technology (it is a free upgrade by the way). i think netscape 4 is something like 5 years old now and it just doesn't cut it. it makes life difficult at best for guys who make webpages and it cheats the users out of seeing some good content. there is a reason that web designers refer to netscape as nutscrape afterall. anyways, if i see something good out there i will post it here, but i honestly doubt i will find anything good again until tonight at the earliest. enjoy the rest of monday as it drags on and on and on. 01-27-03 (11:20am) sorry about the lack of a morning update today. i slept in a little late and just didn't have the time. as for links there really weren't any so i guess i didn't miss much this morning anyway. in the rumors department, it is time to put another rumor to bed. bucknuts had been starting rumors about maurice hall transferring to oklahoma. a moderator on their message board (the recruiting one) even used this information as a good reason to subscribe to the premium site. the logic was if you paid your money to read their updates you would get the scoop on maurice hall transferring and other bombshells like that days before it happens. i guess they forgot to mention that maurice hall is transferring his credit card balance in search of a low introductory rate instead of transferring schools like they led people to believe was worth paying for. in other news, strongville offensive lineman dan pribula has confirmed that he will not play college football and will pursue track (shot put) instead. ohi state had not offerred pribula as far as i iknow, but he was widely considered one of the better 6 or 7 offensive linemen in the state this year. it sounds like he doesn't have the passion for football plain and simple. speaking of offensive line recruiting, things are looking better with two way florida lineman james lee than i thoughht. i really didn't think we would get him out of the south and in a scarlet and gray uniform, but it seems much more possible today. lee was recently quoted as having us and florida as his favorites. everyone knows the buckeyes could use another offensive lineman in this class. things were looking bad with the recent loss of kyle thornton to texas, maybe coach tressel has one up his sleeve here. tressel has always recruited florida hard, even at youngstown state. maybe lee will be a suprise buckeye this year. in non-recruiting news, i think i may have the date for the spring game finally. this was posted on the ozone message board and obviously it wasn't an official release from the athletic department, but the report is that the spring game is going to be held april 26th in the shoe. i am putting the date in the left hand column now and will look into the date and time and such to make sure it is accurate. that date coincides with day one of the NFL draft and i don't recall that ever happening before. in site news, i have been looking for volunteers in different parts of the country that would be willing to go to a few high school football games in their area to take pictures or film on top prospects. if anyone out there is interested, i will send you a list of top players in your region and guide you through any hardware or software issues you have. i can even help you set up your own free sony imagestation account to host your videos and put a link to them on this page so the rest of the buckeye nation can watch as well. even if you don't have a still camera or a video camera but would still like to go to a game or two in your neighborhood you could help out. so many recruiting services have exaggerated sizes and speeds, if nothing else you could comment on a guy's size being legit or not and file your own opinion here for the world to see. anyways, like i said before, if you are interested in seeing some top prospects in your area, let me know via email and i will get you a list of prospects in the area and prospects from out of the area that will be making the road trip to your community. i have had a few parties step up and when i get my information sorted out i will be mailing it out to them. another thing i am looking for help with is lists of top prospects in the various grade levels. if anyone out there has any such information, please email me the link or better yet cut and paste the article and send that to me. for example, student sports has posted their sophomore and junior all american teams on their pay site (you can get to the link by going to bucknuts daily links). information like that would be greatly appreciated and put to good use for the buckeye community as a whole. final site administration note for now, i am going to host another chat this wednesday during the lunch hour (approximately 12 - 1, give or take a half an hour). feel free to drop by and ask any questions or just shoot the breeze. like everything with the vg, the chat is free. i am going to try to get back online here within the hour and see if i can't dig up anymore dirt, if i find anything i will be sure to post it here. enjoy. 01-26-03 (11:25pm) just checking in on the night shift tonight. i do have some recruiting rumors to spread around the net, but first i should say something about the superbowl. the superbowl is over and man was it boring. i am sitting in front of the computer wanting to comment on the game a little bit, but honestly nothing from the game stands out worth commenting on. now i can comment on some of the game festivities so here we go. the halftime show featured shania twain, no doubt, and sting. maybe it was just me and the cbg, but did it seem like shania was lip synching and the musicians weren't really playing their instruments? don't get me wrong, i don't watch her for the music anyway, afterall she is responsible for putting the count back in country music (by the way the over - under for hate emails from that joke is currently at 11, i am hoping for the under, but my money is on the over). i even thought the superbowl commercials sucked this year more than most. the only one i enjoyed in the least bit was the office linebacker spot for reebok. oh well. now for some recruiting gossip, unfortunately tonights update is all bad news. oh well. in the moe dampeer derby, i think the buckeyes are done there. it is looking like oklahoma is able to be a little more lenient with the academics and that is going to swing their way. it looks like the buckeye coaching staff has figured this out a couple of weeks ago and has stopped contacting moe dampeer. good luck at oklahoma moe, maybe you can be the next tommie harris there. this news isn't even a rumor. texas offensive lineman kyle thornton has committed to texas over the buckeyes and kansas state. thornton joins his brother in austin and will be facing off against the buckeyes in a few years. good luck kyle, other than the games we plan on exposing mr february mack brown for what he is of course. in other recruits committing elsewhere news, texas de tim washington has decided to join nick saban in lsu for a few years. lsu is doing a fantastic job recruiting under saban. if the tigers start to win some games finally they are primed to become a power in the sec again. of course if they do, saban will leave for another job again (probably NFL again next time). if the tigers don't start contending for more than their half of the conference on a regular basis, mack brown may have more competition for the crown of mr february. one final note about the previous post today to clear up any confusion, i am not saying that chad hoobler doesn't exist or anything like that, i just haven't heard of him until he popped up on all the recruiting experts lists all of a sudden. i know he was first team all ohio this year and second team all ohio last year as a soph, i just haven't heard much buzz about him until all of a sudden. i probably haven't heard much about him becuase carrollton isn't exacty a football power and they don't play elite competition either. i typically only see more elite teams with a more established talent pipeline. i wasn't passing any opinion on him as a player. i only author an opinion on players i have actually seen play in person unlike the 'experts'. anyways, that is all i have for now. if you are looking for some more recruiting info, gossip, and baseless speculation check out the post below. i went over the state of buckeye recruiting in detail earlier today, including a look ahead at the class of 2004 in ohio as a whole. enjoy. 01-26-03 (11:10am) well, i looked all over the net and i can't find any news or rumors worth posting (much like yesterday). since most of us buckeye fans are hardcore addicts for buckeye info and the other buckeye sites seem to be taking the day off for the most part, i feel it is time i step up and make up some crap for us to read. now for making up crap, i am not fabricating information here like potential transfers or saying guys are committing when in fact they aren't. i mean making up crap like just typing away, with no thought on where this is going and seeing what comes out. for starters, how about a state of the buckeye union address. national signing day is coming up soon on february 5th. that is the driving force behind buckeye football news, information, and gossip. for being this close to signing day, i have never seen a weekend as dead as this one. it seems like the coaches know more than us buckeye fans (shocker huh) about who is coming to campus and who isn't. the general consensus is that we have 3 or 4 scholarships left. of course we can oversign by 3 this year if we get back a few more signed letters of intent than we anticipate. we would need to be down to 85 scholarships by next season, but that type of thing has a way of sorting itself out. with three scholarships left, here is how i see it going down. the first to commit will be jersey standout safety ira guilford. he is at rutgers this weekend and will verbal either monday or tuesday in my opinion. that leaves us with two scholarships. after guilford, i see news coming to a screeching halt until signing day. signing day to me is a holiday for college football fans. there are always suprises and i expect this year to be one of the best signing days as far as suprises are concerned. we still have a legitimate shot at superstars shawn crable, michael bush, moe dampeer, and aaron sears. i expect all four of those guys to announce on signing day. i personally think shawn crable announces to the public that he will be, and will always be, a buckeye february fifth. that leaves one scholarship for sure and the possibility of oversigning a few more. michael bush is the most likely to sign out of the players i mentioned for the final scholarship. i used to think he was a slam dunk, but it looks like fatman fullmer's lies are swaying bush his way. i would say right now we have a 50% chance at landing this star qb in the making. as for dampeer and sears, i just don't see it happening. i think dampeer ends up a sooner and sears stays in the south. so what happens if we miss out on these guys, good question. i think the next most likely guy to get sent a letter of intent from the coaching staff is texas lineman kyle thornton. thornton has liked the buckeyes for some time now and it seems that he could be ours if we send him the LOI. after that, i don't know if we take anyone else on scholarship or not. maybe we would try to get back in on adam graessele the kicker punter from dublin. if we had a scholarship available, and were willing to give it to a 5th kicker - punter this year, i could see adam being a buckeye. i could also see coach tressel banking the scholarship for next season and giving it to a walkon this year as a reward for being a buckeye hero. ohio is loaded with talent next year (though not as much as some recruiting experts hype in an effort to sell premium materials; as in it isn't as good as last year for example, it is just the players are getting more hype and coverage earlier and earlier every year; just because most buckeye fans can name a dozen or so juniors, doesn't mean those juniors are the elite player some would have you pay to believe). if this weren't ncaa college football and it was EA sports ncaa college football (that way i would be qualified to coach and recruit) i would take these following guys early in ohio and i would make everyone else wait and prove the hype. i definitely take warren harding's delbert ferguson. delbert is one of the top big backs in the nation and will be priority recruit number one next season. i would take a second tailback next year too, and maybe even a third. unfortunately, i don't see another one in ohio worth taking at this point in time. sure guys like ray williams, antonio pittman, and jimmy calhoun are getting pub. i gotta admit i haven't seen any of them in person and only williams on television, but i don't like their reported size and speed if that is even accurate. maybe they are just fantastically talented and i haven't seen them yet. who knows. regardless, i wait on a national tailback or one of the ohio guys to prove it in summer camp and their senior season before i offer another ohio tailback outside of delbert ferguson. i definitely take cleveland glenville corner ted ginn early. ted has some of the best speed in the state and is sound in coverage already. as for the other in state defensive backs, i make all of them wait for summer camps and their senior seasons. i know a bunch of people are pumped up about brandon underwood (ej's brother), but i wait there. we don't need many db's next year. if underwood or the rest of the instate db's are worth the scholarship they will get it in due time, just not early in the process with our complete lack of need at the position. another guy i take early is huber heights wayne linebacker marcus freeman. freeman is a very skilled football player and a great athlete. he isn't as big as most experts say he is, but he is big enough. how can these experts be so far off on his height and weight you ask, good question. simply put they haven't seen freeman play in person, i have. he is 6'1" or 6'2" and probably around 220 and running a 4.65 or 4.7 and not 6'4" and 240 pound like he is listed and i am medically measured as being. all that said, he is highly skilled and i offer him early for sure. i just don't understand how these jokers can call themselves experts and substantially miss so badly on a guys size. as for other ohio linebackers, i don't take any early. as for chad hoobler from carrolton (a linebacker - tight end - defensive end type), i haven't seen him play so i can't comment here. for all i know he is a make believe guy that some joker has slipped in on the experts like a certain stud recruit called tony tolbert. i don't live that far from carrolton and i haven't heard about him other than through these experts. not saying that he doesn't exist either, i am just joking here. also, the quality of football there would lead me to ignore the school and county in general so that could be a reason why i haven't heard about him. basically, i haven't seen him play and i haven't heard about him other than experts whose credentials are dubious at best. i wait to offer him until i see him (and remember this whole bit is based on this not being real football, but EA sports college football). all that being said, hoobler sounds good from the reports i have read, but to me seeing is believing. as for the quarterbacks in ohio, i don't offer any of them early. anthony turner, darryl clark, and brian hoyer all look like they will be effective college quarterbacks, but it isn't a position of need assuming we get mike bush. i make the ohio guys wait until summer camps and their senior season for offers. if we don't get bush, i take one qb max next season and i don't do it early, i make these guys prove it in summer camp and their senior seasons. at wide out, i haven't seen one player worth offering early. from what i have read fred davis (toledo rogers) and michael bell (shaker heights) are the best two prospects in the state at the position (miles williams of austintown fitch and trumaine smith of warrensville heights are just a notch below them). davis sounds like a top 20 player in the nation, but i haven't seen him so i won't pretend to be an expert and comment on him other than saying that if the hype is true he does get offerred early and is a superstar in the making. simply put, fred davis is number one on my wishlist for guys to see next season that i haven't already seen. the only other ohio guy i offer early is st ignatius defensive end mike massey. massey has the good genetics and the great feel for the game. i offer him early just to keep the iggy pipeline primed and flowing freely if nothing else. seriously though, massey has a great upside as a college player and could be a simon fraser type of defensive end (only about 2 inches shorter though). i offer him a scholarship early. there has been a bunch of hype of the ohio offensive linemen (guys like brandon braxton, steve rehrig, ben person, chase clowser, and branden armstrong), but i don't offer any in state linemen early. i have only seen braxton (and he will probably get an offer at some point) i must admit. basically, i would never offer an offensive lineman until having had him in summer camp and seen some senior film on him against quality competition. offensive line to me is the hardest to project and i wouldn't take the risk here. there are no korey stringers or orlando paces in state so why bother with an early offer. if one or two of the guys step up, the offer will be there at a later date. anyways, i hope that gives you some info to get your daily buckeye fix from. also, sorry i didn't post within the hour as promised the previous update. call me butter, but i got on a roll and just went with it. enjoy super sunday as it happens. 01-26-03 (9:45am) still not much going on in buckeye land. i do have another link for the day though. 1460 the fan has an article on the class act that is buckeye football. in other news, today is the superbowl for those currently living under a rock. probably the only guy out there living under a rock is saddam hussein, though i don't expect that to last long with us scheduled to turn that rock into shrapnel any day now. this website gets an enourmous amount of military traffic and i would just like to thank them in advance for the imminent ass beating they are about to administer. without guys like you, guys like me and buckeye fans in general wouldn't be able to worry about silly things like recruiting and what not. you make sites like this and sports like football possible. whevever you are, i hope they at least let you guys watch the superbowl today as a small reward. speaking of the superbowl, i am expecting a good one today. on paper this is an entertaining matchup, similar to a certain fiesta bowl. todays game features one of the better offenses in recent football history versus one of the best defenses in football history. it is the irresistible force versus the immovable object. personally, i can't wait. as for buckeye fans today, here is who we have to root on. tampa bay has rickey dudley and tom tupa on their squad and both should get some decent airtime today. on the raiders side, we have no football players and we have a buckeye antichrist in charles woodson. so do we all root on tampa then, not so fast my friend. the raiders have a buckeye legend on the coaching staff in fred pagac sr. as if playing for woody, and then coaching at ohio state for nearly 30 years wasn't enough to tie pug to the program, his son even plays here (and is probably a better linebacker than some people realize). as for me, i am just rooting on an entertaining game. i will be happy if either team wins, just as long as buckeye antichrist charles woodson doesn't shine and the game is close throughout. the one thing that could sway me to root on a particular team isn't even football related. i can see myself rooting on oakland in a close game just because of the post game celebration possibilities. i can see oakland erupting into one of the great parties of all time, especially if metallica happens to roll up on a flat bed truck and jam out some tunes to the near rioutous crowd. anyways, that is all i have for now. i am going to look around the net and come up with another update here within the hour. 01-25-03 (9:05am) not much going on in buckeye land today. the columbus dispatch has an article about louis irizarry recommitting to the buckeyes free on 1460 the fan for starters today. in other news, there must be some sort of problem with the internet today. i have noticed several sites are unaccessible this morning including the o-zone. also, my advertiser seems to be impacted by this problem as well since his ad is not loading. i did hear something on the morning news about another code red worm type of thing going around in a big way, maybe this is all part of that. who knows. anyways, i will be back online later today when i find out something worth reporting. enjoy superbowl eve. 01-24-03 (2:45pm) just one link and then some more random thoughts for now. the warren tribune chronicle has a piece on buckeye great being on the ballot for the NFL hall of fame. that is all i have for linkage, now on to some random thoughts. the buckeye nation is all abuzz about the louis irizarry recommittment. i gotta admit, i am too. i saw him play twice last year and i am pumped to see him play another 50 games or so in the scarlet and gray in the future. for those who haven't seen irizarry play ball, check out some of the free videos i posted on him and see for yourself. the videos are linked at the top of the left hand column and the link is called 'vg recruiting videos'. you do need to register for a free sony imagestation account, but it is worth it trust me and a few other thousand regular readers who have already checked them out. i finally heard what is up with the michael bush injury. nothing serious, but he does have a badly sprained ankle from hoops practice. this will probably shelve him from hoops for a little while. speaking of hoops, bush was quoted recently as saying he wants to play football only in college. i don't think this impacts us either way. we are obviously a football school first and foremost, but out hoops program is typically pretty strong too (unlike this year due to injuries mostly). maybe the no hoops for bush thing helps us out with louisville in that rick pitino is no longer a factor in the recruiting game. who knows. anyways, that is all i have for now. i will keep my eye on the buckeye scene and post something here when i hear about it. enjoy the weekend. 01-24-03 (12:35pm) it looks like louis irizarry recommitting to osu is for real. it was even reported by spielman on the radio. for those unfamiliar with irizarry or his game i highly suggest you check out my free recruiting videos. they are linked at the top of the left hand column and the link is called 'vg recruiting videos'. i think i only have two pass receptions in there, but they are nice. i also have a bunch of clips of him blocking for delbert ferguson and playing defense (like miami was trying to trick him into doing). if you have never been there before you will need to register for a free sony imagestation account, but it isn't like me or sony are asking you for your credit card number or anything. matter of fact, sony has yet to even spam me once. for those unfamiliar with louis irizarry, here is the short version of his story. he is the top tight end in the state and has been for quite some time now. irizarry is a big tight end with speed. he is ball park 6'5" and maybe 240 pounds. i would estimate his speed to be in the 4.6 to 4.7 range. he isn't the prototype osu tight end that blocks first and asks questions later. irizarry is a pass receiving tight end. louis irizarry will allow the buckeyes to stretch the middle of the field and he should see time immediately in my opinion in two tight end sets. he isn't just a pass catcher either. irizarry can block. in the past, ursuline loved to run the ball and louis irizarry was at the point of attack in that ground game. sure they had a great line, but they would use irizarry in motion and as a lead blocker often. he has plenty of experience blocking and i don't anticipate that being a problem for him. now for the recruiting story. louis irizarry committed to coach tressel real early in the process. as the season developed and the tight ends didn't get a bunch of balls thrown their way (despite ben hartsock showing solid hands), irizarry started thinking more and more. it also sounded like his high school coach murphy was talking up miami and how they use their tight ends. long story short, kellen winslow jr catches 11 balls in a losing effort in the national championship game and larry coker promises him that he will get early playing time despite them having 5 tight ends on the roster ahead of him without a senior in the bunch. irizarry then decided it would be in his professional interest to attend miami instead of ohio state. he called up coach tressel and gave him the bad news and then called up coach coker and gave him the good news. that was a few weeks ago. now irizarry has had time to sift through the lies and realizes that his best opportunity is the home state buckeyes. welcome aboard louis irizarry. 01-24-03 (high noon) i am a cheapskate so i don't subscribe to any of the pay sites, but the headline on the ticker at bucknuts says irizarry to the buckeyes. i know for a fact that irizarry himself said he wasn't saying anything until signing day now. either he changed his mind or bucknuts is speculating that he will commit (which does sound quite likely now) and is trying to scoop their rival bsb by posting their speculation. who knows. in other news from the bucknuts ticker, there was something about michael bush being injured. i can only assume it is a hoops related injury, but i don't know either. when i do find out what that premium information says, i will be certain to summarize it here within the legal limits of intellectual property law so all buckeye fans can read all about it. anyways, i will keep the eyes peeled and the ears open and i will be back when i know more. stay tuned. 01-24-03 (7:45am) i can't find a link for the life of me this morning, that doesn't mean i just sit back and leave you all out to dry. i got recruiting rumors and gossip for us to get our morning buckeye fix from. as always, i must remind the readers that i am not psychic and certainly not a recruiting expert. i failed both my certified miss cleo exam and my certified recruiting expert examination so take this for what it is worth, entertaining gossip at best. first off i got more news on the scott mcmullen transferring nonsense. there was in fact a segment on y-town tv last night about mcmullen transferring to youngstown state, fortunately it was just the reporter there commenting on an unconfirmed rumor he read. despite all the efforts of that television station, all the buckeye websites, and myself there is no confirmation because it isn't happening. it looks like someone is just trying to stir up some crap and that crap made the evening news in y-town. nothing more, nothing less. i know mcmullen leaving would open up a slot for another stud high school football player to come aboard, but i am glad scotty is back. i have been a fan of mcmullen for quite some time now and i even have an evil plan to get mcmullen a year of starting at ohio state. my plan goes like this. mcmullen participates in spring ball like usual and pushes krenzel to refine his game. come fall ball a 'doctor' diagnoses mcmullen with an 'injury' requiring him to miss his 5th year as a senior. this would be a gamble for mcmullen, but he could then petition the NCAA for an additional year of eligibilty (a medical redshirt) and then come back strong in 2004 for one shot at the big time. will this happen, highly unlikely, but i think it is worth a shot all the same. this weekend is another official visit weekend for the bucks. probably the only two relevant names visiting for the bucks are tim washington the defensive end out of texas and marcel frost, the ohio tight end that is a soft verbal commit to iowa. now i am not saying that the tyrone moss (if he does in fact visit), devin stearns (cali wide out who is staying on the left coast), or ryan brown (the south carolina linebacker who is scheduled to visit per bucknuts but is rumored to have been cancelled by osu due to us being full at lb) aren't relevant recruits, i just don't think we have a chance of signing any of those three. the most interesting visit by far this weekend is marcel frost. does marcel decommit from iowa and become a buckeye? is louis irizarry already recommitted to the buckeyes and does that impact marcel frost? who knows, certainly not me. it will be interesting what happens with frost though. frost is a potentially great player in his own right and his recruitment seems to be provide a good read on the louis irizarry situation too. in the recruiting tidbits portion of this morning's update i got a few sentences on a few players. hardly a paragraphs worth of info honestly. fortunately for you i don't require a credit card to read three sentences on a recruit like some sites. anyways, doing this dragnet style, it looks like the battle for moe dampeer may swing on academics more than anything. osu seems intent on having a fully qualified dampeer or no dampeer at all, oklahoma seems willing to take dampeer eligible or not. i don't think this is going to work out in our favor unless dampeer gets a qualifying test score in the next two weeks. in ira guilford news, things are still looking good there. it appears some of the gold leaf is starting to peel off guilford's memories from the notre dame visit and i expect him to announce he will be a buckeye by wednesday of next week. now whether he makes that announcement public or just tells the coaches to make sure he doesn't miss out on a scholarship, i don't know. i do think that is the bigger question right now than what school he choses. final tidbit for this update is on texas o-lineman kyle thornton. he is still a wild card for the buckeyes. i just got the feeling that aaron sears and james lee aren't coming north. that leaves thornton as our only line prospect out there. if the buckeyes want another offensive lineman, they better jump on thornton soon because k-state already is all over him and texas may come in late here too. anyways, that is all i have for now. if i find any links or hear any more good gossip i will be sure to pass it along. enjoy the friday in anticipation of the weekend as it happens. 01-23-03 (11:10pm) just checking in on the night shift again. first off i have a link i was going to post this morning but i forgot about. this piece is on the use of hot chicks and even strippers by schools such as michigan to lure recruits to campus. otherwise there is not much news out there. somebody is intent on spreading the rumor that buckeye backup qb scott mcmullen is transferring to youngstown state, but it looks to just be a rumor and nobody can confirm it. now for the recruiting rumor portion of tonights update, i don't have a bunch, but as always i will share what i got. for starters michael bush is now being hotly prusued by the university of kentucky. kentucky of course is on probation in football, but they have one of the historically elite college basketball teams. i can't imagine bush, from louisville, being a big uk wildcat fan but you never know. i imagine if any kentucky college is a player here it is louisville. their football program isn't on probation and they have rick pitino as coach for another year or two until he gets bored and tries to rebuild another program to elite status. i still think tennecheats is the biggest player for bush outside of the buckeyes, but you never know, he could want to be a home state hero like tim couch. this irizarry thing looks like it will be a signing day announcement for sure. irizarry was quoted saying he advises all high school kids to keep their mouth shut and just announce on signing day. it sounds like the recruiting process is starting to wear down on him. honestly i can't blame him, as if the college coaches calling all the time wasn't bad enough, he has experts like kurelic and long and the national jokers like former mailman tom lemming and all-around-tool and part time hillbilly jamie newberg calling him all the time begging to get a quote so they can sell more premium memberships and justify their existence. anyways, it looks like he has realized all the tight ends at miami can't be all getting moved to another position and that early playing time may not be in his future there. couple that with the distance from his home and family and things are significantly looking up for the buckeyes. also i remember irizarry saying he wanted to be a materials engineer in college, ohio is one of the top plastic producing states in the nation and you might think the colleges around here may just know a thing or two about materials engineering. i think irizarry will be a pleasant suprise for the buckeyes on national signing day unless jim tressel goes completely against his character and holds a grudge for the decommit. in other rumor mongering, the buckeyes have cancelled the visit of south carolina stud linebacker ryan brown. apparently brown said something about osu being full with linebackers. funny thing though is we haven't signed a scholarship linebacker in some time and that was reggie smith a couple of months ago, who still isn't eleigible yet as a freshman (he still is looking like he is on track to be eligible though). maybe the osu coaches are thinking that walk ons like cliff reynolds and cedric scott will provide the depth they need, but i doubt it. if i had to bet though i would think this could be good news about one of my personal favorites shawn crable, the pride of massillon ohio. i have heard that it was mostly the buckeyes and the pitt panthers for crable. pitt just lost a couple of assistant coaches too, i don't know if they were a position coach or the coach recruiting crable, but that could be a factor there. personally, i want crable in this recruiting class more than anybody out there (with mike bush a close second, and moe dampeer just a hair behind him). crable has all the physical tools to be a dominant game changing force at either linebacker or defensive end. i honestly see him playing from day one on special teams and as a situational pass rusher with the ability to drop into zone coverage for the zone blitz package, but then again what do i know. my entire defensive coordinator experience is engineering dominant defenses in the EA sports version of the game so i could be wrong, but i got a real good feeling about crable. anyways, that is all the dirt i can dig up tonight. i will be back online in the morning again as usual with some more links and whatnot. enjoy the night as you sleep through it. 01-23-03 (5:40pm) i just logged back on my site to check for news and i didn't find any. i checked the traffic on the site and noticed a crazy spike in traffic. usually that means news is breaking somewhere. after hunting around, i still couldn't find any news, but i found a rumor that may or may not be worth passing around that probably caused the spike in traffic. how credible this rumor is, i have no clue, but here it is for you to decide. the rumor is that louis irizarry is done with miami officially. they are off the list. the rumor then varies. one incarnation has him deciding between ohio state and penn state the other version has him as a silent verbal to ohio state that won't announce until signing day. if any of those rumors are true or not i have no clue. i don't think irizarry to penn state is true though. louis irizarry himself was quoted as saying that if he did eliminate miami that he would only consider ohio state. in my opinion if the decommit from miami is true, the silent verbal to osu is more likely to be true than the either penn state or ohio state rumor. enjoy. 01-23-03 (4:35pm) some national recruiting news for starters. donald defrand the juco corner out of kansas has committed to nebraska. the buckeyes were after defrand early in the process, but he has been off our radar screen for a month or two now. in other national news, ohioan raymond edwards has decommitted from purdue. he still isn't looking at the buckeyes (or is that vice versa). edwards is looking at purdue still along with tennecheats and south carolina. speaking of tennecheats, they just signed a quarterback and his name isn't michael bush. the vols signed qb bo hardegree today. hardegree isn't a nationally known qb, but some of that may be because he spent a bunch of time being a top flight tennis player. maybe this is a sign from fatman fullmer that they don't like their chances with michael bush. who knows. in further national recruiting news, boston college has two more commits from ohio in cincy elder lineman tom anevski and st iggy lineman kevin sheridan. boston college has done well recruiting ohio lately and they are a potential competitor to keep an eye on recruiting wise. last bit of non-buckeye information comes out of massillon washington high school, and no it doesn't involve shawn crable. massillon db markeys scott has decided to attend toledo. good program for a good kid. congratulations markeys. in buckeye news, i think i was wrong when i earlier posted that louis irizarry's mother has not yet contacted coach tressel. it looks like she has contacted him, we just don't know how that conversation went. in further buckeye news, it looks like the buckeyes are still interested in syracuse NY safety tony tolbert. i was under the impression that it was guilford or nobody at safety, but it looks like tolbert is still a possibility. anyways, that is all i have for now. hopefully tomorrow there is some more news to report. enjoy. 01-23-03 (12:35pm) first off i am in the chat room and will be until 1:30 or 2pm if anyone has any recruiting questions or questions about the 2003 team. just one more link and then some recruiting rumor mongering. the cleveland plain dealer has a piece on the verbal commit of akron st vincent st mary defensive tackle sian cotton. actually a very decent article. i don't know who this tim rogers is writing for the plain dealer, but maybe he will replace bruce hooley and bill livingston. hey i can dream can't i? in recruiting rumor action, there isn't much out there today. still no word on the louis irizarry situation. no word on whether or not his mother has made the call to columbus and what the outcome of that was or whether or not irizarry has called coach coker and been lied to again. to me this sounds like irizarry is really wanting to get out of his miami commit and come back to ohio state with as much grace as is possible in this situation. hopefully it works out for him. rumor has it that ira guilford liked what the contingent of osu coaches had to say yesterday at his school. i think he is just giving rutgers a courtesy visit this weekend and then he will announce for ohio state in the early part of next week. i have heard the rumor about scott mcmullen transferring to youngstown state, but i don't believe it. some of the good people on the o-zone message board exposed that poster as posing as ben hartsock when in fact he was not. i am not saying i couldn't see mcmullen transferring, i just don't believe that poster. we will see what happens. in the pay site duel, it looks like bucknuts may have scored a half a point with tyrone moss not supposed to be visiting this weekend. it is still too early to award the half point, but it is looking like they were right and kurelic was wrong this time. that would make the score bsb1 bucknuts 1/2. speaking of official visits, there is some confusion as to whether or not de tim washington is visiting. i can't tell from the rumors so i will look into this situation some more. anyways, that is all i have for now. i am going to jump into the chat room and i should be there until 1:30m or 2pm. i would love to post a transcript of the chat for readers that can't afford the free click, but it doesnt' want to let me cut and paste from the chat applet. if anyone can figure this out, it would be appreciated. thanks. 01-23-03 (8:10am) first off, there are some links today and they are in the post below this one. now back to some random thoughts. well, i looked all over the net for some recruiting dirt, but i can't find any. i did stumble upon this though from wtvn. it is a little flash audio video presentation celebrating the buckeyes national championship. i haven't seen it yet so i figured i would help spread it around to the rest of the buckeye nation. i am going to keep my eyes peeled and my ears open and find some recruiting rumors here before lunch hopefully. when i do find them, i will post them here for sure. in a site administration update, the bandwidth saving is going much better than i anticipated 8 hours into the plan. if this keeps up, i may even be able to bring back the site logo (which took me way too long to paint not to display) and the background graphic. i will still need to refrain from posting pictures on the front page for the time being, but things are looking up for the site. if you have no clue about what i am talking about, here is the quick version. bandwidth is the amount of kilobytes you transfer. i am limited to a certain amount of transfer a month or the page gets shut down temporarily (unless i notice it happen and i pay them more $). due to enormous growth in the audience the past two months, i was on pace to be shut down big time for national signing day on february fifth so i implemented a low bandwidth page to budget out my bandwidth. long story short, it is going much much better than expected and things are looking good for the site for the next couple of weeks. in even better news for the site and its bandwidth crunch is the way i have structured the site. the recruiting videos reside on an unlimited bandwidth server so feel free to download and watch them as much as you want. that is what they are there for. i also have the site message board and the new chat room on a different server so they should be safe too. final note, thanks again to everyone who stopped by for the chat yesterday. i can't say for sure, but i am thinking about having another one today during the lunchtime type of hour (approximately 12 - 1pm). if i do, i will post it here. enjoy. 01-23-03 (7:25am) just some quick links for the morning, bullet style for the lazy webmaster in me. by the way, if you were wondering why the background didn't load today, check out the post below this one. it explains it all. now for some linkage to keep us regular.
01-23-03 (midnight) first off, there isn't anything wrong with the page. i just implemented the low bandwidth version of this page in an effort to manage the bandwidth in anticipation of increased traffic over the next couple of weeks. it is stripped of graphics (the ad isn't my graphic on my server) and some of the less popular links in this version. the old page will reappear after the rush for recruiting information passes on national signing day (february 5th). this change will not impact the amount of material posted daily on this page in any way. the page should load much faster now as a result of this change and it probably won't crash due to having too much traffic these next couple of weeks. i know the page doesn't look as nice as it used to, but it will be back in that format in a couple of weeks. if for some reason you needed the old page it is still on the server and the link is at the bottom of the daily random thoughts. it is not being updated at all though and won't be until i kill off this temporary page and reimplement the old page. why make this change now, good question. this site has grown its audience quite a bit over the past couple of months. during football season i would get maybe 25,000 different visitors a month if i was lucky. as the season developed the page has picked up more readers with the national championship and recruiting. i now have approximately 20,000 unique visitors a week and the server is having a difficult time keeping up with the traffic already. historically, the next two weeks are the biggest two weeks of the year with national signing day approaching and i felt the need to budget out the bandwidth in an effort to ensure that the entire page wouldn't crash completely. anyways, this is only a temporary change and it shouldn't last more than 2 - 3 weeks i imagine. final bandwidth note for now. the recruiting videos are on a different server and they won't be impacted by this temporary move so feel free to download or watch them as much as you like. thanks to all the readers for supporting the site with their loyal viewership and i promise the site will be back to its old self in probably two to three weeks. thanks again. i should have more recruiting rumors to spread around in the morning. 01-22-03 (10:20pm) just checking in on the night shift. no news out there so i won't have much of an update for right now. the chat went over pretty good today. the software got a workout and held up fine for the most part. i will probably try to do a chat like that maybe every week or two depending on demand. in other news, ohio resident and funniest man alive dave chappelle has his own television show premier tonight on comedy central at 10:30pm. me and the cbg have been waiting on this for some time and are pumped up for the show. in other news, i am way behind on posting new recruiting videos, fan submitted pictures, and i have yet to hear back from vladimir gonzalez about his video captures. i think we are all a little burned out after the national championship game, but it is crunch time with signing day coming up. i am planning on creating a special bandwidth saving page to try and ensure that the page doesn't crash during the next couple of weeks. all the old stuff on the page will still be available on the server, it just won't be on the front page as usual. in other words there will be a temporary front page for about two weeks with the new updates and a link to the old front page if you need to check any of that material out. anyways, it is about time for the chappelle show, so i am getting offline and back to the television. more in the morning. 01-22-03 (4:35pm) i just wanted to thank all those for stopping by the chat room today and let you know i am out of there for the day. thanks again for stopping by. 01-22-03 (1pm) another site administration update. i have recently posted all the junior profiles i have done in the left hand column. i created a menu type thing of all my top internal links like the recruiting videos, the message board, and the junior recruiting profiles. i may go back through my archives and add profiles of the seniors i have seen here, but with the rush for recruiting coming to an end, i may just skip that and look forward to the underclassmen like the rest of the juniors and some of the sophomores and freshmen i have seen. final note, i posted a link in the menu to a chat room. it is completely unmoderated and you don't have to register at all to join in. i am going to keep the chat window open on my computer the rest of the day, so if anyone wants to drop by and ask a question or just chat in general with me or any of the other readers feel free. i may not be able to answer immediately from time to time today, but i will have the window open and i will get to anyone and everyone eventually. final note on the chat room. this is a java applet, so you will need to have java enabled in your browser and it will take a few seconds to load. internet explorer will say the page is 'done' before it actually loads the applet too, so don't be fooled by shoddy programming by bill gates either. the link is near the top of the left hand column. enjoy. 01-22-03 (high noon) first off an announcement, then some rumor mongering recruiting style, and finally a little bit more on the newest buckeye defensive tackle, sian cotton. in the announcement category i have a programming reminder for those out there with cable. tonight at 10:30pm on comedy central is the premier of the chappelle show. dave chappelle is an ohio resident and probably the funniest man alive. make sure you check out his show if you enjoy comedy. it can't be as good as his live act due to the censorship of basic cable, but it should still be pretty good. now for some recruiting rumors. the buckeyes are putting the full court press on jersey standout safety ira guilford today. three assistant coaches are flying out to jersey to visit with guilford and try to sway him to the buckeyes. recently notre dame has come on strong with guilford and now is a serious player for him. i can see guilford making the decision to verbal today, but i don't see it becoming known to the public just yet. he is scheduled to visit rutgers this coming weekend and i imagine that his decision (hopefully to attend ohio state) becomes public knowledge after that visit. if i was forced to predict the date of an ira guilford decision (say chris webber had a gun pointed at my head for example) i would say he will announce for the scarlet and gray this next tuesday, but it isn't like i am psychic or anything. in more moe dampeer news, he is retaking the ACT this weekend and won't be going on that official visit to miami afterall. good luck with the test moe. in the bad news department, jersey standout wide out jesse holley has eliminated the buckeyes from his finalists. it looks like he is acc bound and torn between north carolina and virginia. in the funny news department, there is another duel going on right now between bsb and bucknuts, the two big pay sites in the buckeye world. to refresh your recollection on the duel as it stands, it is time for a little history. bucknuts broke the news of the kenyon buford verbal to ohio state. shortly after they broke that news, bsb reported that he did not have a verbal and in fact did not even have a scholarship offer from ohio state to accept. bsb stuck by their guns and bucknuts refused to remove him from their commitment list and stuck to their guns. as recently as a week or two ago bucknuts again made mention of buford as a verbal commit in a new article. not just keeping it on the list, but a new reference to his verbal. well now buford has in fact committed to middle tennessee state and bucknuts finally removed him from their commitment list. they didn't post the news and eat any crow or anything either. they simply finally corrected their error. bsb 1 - bucknuts 0. now we have another disagreement between the pay sites. bsb just today reported that florida tailback tyrone moss is visiting this weekend. bucknuts is reporting today that he is not visiting this weekend and the miami coaches don't want him to visit. whether he is visiting or not i have no clue, i just hope whichever pay site that is proven wrong in the end is man enough to own up to their mistake this time. since the stakes are much lower here than a commit, i don't think it is possible for bucknuts to even up the score in the pay site feud. if this works out in their favor i am scoring it as only a half victory (using that washington state logic). anyways, stay tuned for more on this topic. i love the battle between the two pay sites. now for a little bit on sian cotton. 
sian cotton is listed as a 6'5" 295 pound defensive tackle by the consensus of the recruiting services. from my seats in the stands i can't disagree with those numbers, but some fans insist he is only 6'2" or 6'3". either way, that is enough size to play defensive tackle in college with his type of mobility.
i only had the privilege of seeing cotton play football once this year, and before anyone goes to the video archive looking for highlights of him, i don't have any. not that he didn't put on the show that game, it was just raining so bad that i couldn't risk bringing out the digital camcorder in that type of weather. i felt lucky to get the few still pics that i did when the weather infrequently broke. on the field, cotton was impressive. on offense he played fullback and not offensive line. as a fullback he was brutally devastating as a lead blocker and it wouldn't suprise me to see him get a shot at playing a little fullback in short yardage situations like andre tyree did this year. defensively though is where cotton stood out. he is very adept at occupying linemen and keeping them off of the linebackers. that style won't lead to big plays for a tackle, but it will lead to big plays for the linebackers and it will earn you tons of respect from your teammates and coaches. cotton does have some skill at collapsing the pocket too, he isn't just a plugger and a run stuffer. with his type of quickness, cotton is a mismatch inside kind of like kenny peterson was a mismatch against the vastly overhyped miami offensive line. cotton does need to add some strength to get into the kenny peterson league, but the potential is there for the coaches to mold for sure. anyways, that is all i have for right now. i need to eat some lunch and then i will try to get back online again here later in the afternoon. enjoy hump day as it happens. 01-22-03 (9:20am) lots of news this morning and nearly all good news to boot. the buckeyes have another verbal commitment in the fold in the form of sian cotton the big defensive tackle out of akron st. vincent. st. mary st. lebron. i saw cotton once this year and he looked very mobile for a big guy. he played fullback on offense and it wouldn't shock me to see him get a look there in short yardage situations. some speculate that cotton may end up on the o-line, but i doubt that. he is being brought in as a defensive tackle and will be a good one. big congrats to the big man. in other news, it looks like youngstown ursuline tight end louis irizarry may still be a buckeye. he hasn't officially decommitted from the coCanes (as if anything with verbals was official), but he is rumored to be a buckeye lean again. louis irizarry is getting my mr kotter award, welcome back louis irizarry. you can read something like 5 sentences on these two stars in the making in the columbus dispatch passed off as an article worth paying 5 bucks a month to read written by the barely literate one, tim may. seriously though, i think that last sentence i busted off was about as long as may's article in the dispatch and 1460 the fan. now for some bad news to keep us all in check, this time the news is about moe dampeer. he didn't commit to oklahoma, but his commitment seems imminent. needless to say, things are not looking good for osu and big moe dampeer. too bad because he is a good one with a chance to be a great one. only the most optimistic buckeye fan would consider this bad news, but marlyand linebacker wesley jefferson did finally commit to te home state terps. just make sure you beat the criminoles once or twice in that pathetic football conference and i will be happy. anyways, that is all i have for right now. i will be back online with some more random thoughts. i might even have another junior profile today or i might just do a profile on sian cotton instead. anyways, enjoy the day as it happens. 01-21-03 (3:15pm) not much news out there today. in an effort to pick up some of the slack, it is time for another profile of one of the top juniors in the state of ohio. Darryl Clark
Position: QuarterbackHeight: 6'1.5"Weight: 190 pounds40 Time: 4.65 secondsHigh School: Youngstown UrsulineNotes:Darryl Clark had the strongest arm I saw last year in my travels around Ohio. He isn't just all arm either. Clark is very mobile in the pocket and he can put some nice touch on the ball when he needs to.Darryl is one of the top three quarterbacks in the state of Ohio heading into his senior season. He has top 100 potential, but he will need to put it all together to get such a lofty ranking. He should be one of the top 10 players in the state of Ohio as a senior. Clark is is strictly a quarterback, I don't see a position change in his future. Clark's calling card is the arm strength and it is impressive. He has tremendous velocity when he throws the ball. He can throw the deep out with no arc on the ball at all. When he goes deep, he has great touch on the ball and is on target for the most part. As a runner, Clark has the ability to elude the pass rush and the good pocket presence to step up and keep looking downfield for receivers. When Darryl does have to pull the ball down and run with it, he is dangerous. That doesn't seem to be what he wants to do though. He usually dumps the ball off to a running back when pressured. If I had to criticize Clark, it would have to be about his size. He is right around 6'1" or 6'2". That is about the bare minimum for most major college recruits for a quarterback. Also, he played for a new coach this past year and had to learn a new offense. He still has some learning to do, but the shotgun offense he is in now should pay off at the next level. 01-21-03 (11:40am) first off some site administration news and then on to some rumor mongering, recruiting style of course. in site administration news, notice the ad at the top of the page. originally the ad was scheduled to run for one month. in fact i pulled the ad this weekend since that month was up. well she is back and will be for some time. today i negotiated a much longer term arrangement with that company to continue to support the site. not only did i get a generous up front fee again, i even get a large portion of the gross sales now. great news for the site for sure. i even have some good news for those interested in the product. recently, they have slashed their price down to $5.95 for their product. that makes this a very inexpensive way to show your buckeye pride to your email correspondence. anyways, check out their product if you like and remember any purchases substantially help out with defraying the costs of the site. now for some random thoughts on recruiting. first off a little more on michael bush. bush is now reportedly torn between tennecheats and ohio state. this looks to be a depth chart dilemma to me more than anything else. it seems to me that the bush family likes his chances backing up casey clausen for a year and then competing with james banks and cj leak better than his chances of backing up craig krenzel for a year and then competitng with justin zwick and troy smith. certainly zwick, smith, banks, and leak are all former stud recruits at qb, but when you look a the situation a little closer i think this swings in ohio state's favor. both leak and banks have played college football whereas zwick and smith have not played a down. i think bush would have his chance in fall camp to compete with zwick and smith and senior scott mcmullen for the backup role. in fact, i could see michael bush getting playing time in games this year in a manner similar to how joe paterno used michael robinson this past year. i could see bush line up as a tailback in a split backs formation or as a slot receiver and come in motion into the backfield. that would make him osu's version of kordell 'slash' stweart. that would allow bush to become involved in the offense immediately and get him some opportunities to throw the ball that won't be there for the other qb's on our roster (actually troy smith may be able to do this as well, but he isn't anywhere near bush as far as size goes). i also think the desire to play hoops swings ohio state's way. osu has had several two sport athletes recently. currently nate salley is playing both sports, but in the past we have had guys like tony eisenhard and rickey dudley play hoops in the off season as well. throw in the fact that jim o'brien runs a guard oriented system and i see opportunities for bush at either the 2 or the 3 in hoops. i don't think he will have that opportunity at tennessee. maybe fatman fulmer will tell him that, but he has been publicly called a liar in recruiting, so i don't know how much faith i would put in what the fatman has to say. now for some shawn crable news. crable is back from his pitt visit and seemed to be impressed with the panthers. i see pitt as out main competition for crable (though some experts still think he is a lock for michigan). as for crable being a silent verbal anywhere, that seems to be make believe. he is still making up his mind and won't announce until signing day. crable does seem to be looking at the depth charts a bunch lately from his comments. michigan is loaded at linebacker so that is against them there. osu and pitt on the other hand are thin at outside linebacker. he would probably be in the two deep at either school from day one. his decision then must be based on where he is more comfortable and which school wil best prepare him for the rest of his life, whether it be the NFL or a real job. ohio takes care of ohio kids that go to ohio state when school is finished. i know for a fact. hopefully shawn crable knows this as well. in other recruiting news, it looks like osu may be trying to get in on warren harding's michael phillips. phillips is currently committed to the pitt panthers and walt harris, but he may be coming for an official visit. i was highly impressed with phillips both times i saw him this year. i know we have a bunch of defensive backs already in this recruiting class, but phillips is as good as any of them on the field. he may not have the speed of a donte whitner or the size of a dareus hiley (who i think will be a wide receiver anyway), but he plays the game as good as any of them. venturing outside of the friendly confines of ohio for recruiting news, moe dampeer is back home from his osu visit. rumor is he was highly impressed with the program and the facilities. he did not commit and will most likely decide between osu and oklahoma. honestly either school would be a good fit for dampeer. he is talented enough to play from day one. i am not sure what the sooners deal is at defensive tackle other than the fact that they have all american tommie harris back. at ohio state we return a potential all american in tim anderson and that is it. we lost both kenny peterson (most likely to the first round of the NFL draft) and david thompson. throw in the fact that osu has a reputation for rotating defensive lineman and it is easy to see the opportunities available to a guy with dampeer's talent. final bit of ohio state recruiting news. lyndhurst brush tight end marcel frost will be visiting ohio state this weekend. he is currently committed to iowa, and honestly that is a good program for a tight end. he is rethinking his decision though now that louis irizarry has backed out of his verbal to ohio state. frost was a big buckeye fan before recruiting started and it seemed that the reason he went to iowa was because osu didn't have room for him with irizarry in the fold. throw in the fact that his former teammate and current osu receiver roy hall has been talking up the buckeyes and we have some wavering by frost. i haven't had the opportunity to see frost play so i can't comment much on his game. he does seem like the prototype osu tight end though. hopefully the coaching staff gives him lots of reasons to reconsider that iowa verbal this weekend. speaking of iowa, they did get one huge recruit recently. former texas a-m qb recruit drew tate has decided to become a hawkeye. tate is supposed to be a really good qb from what i have read. he will probably be the best recruit kirk ferentz signs before he bolts to the NFL in another year or two. anyways, that is all the recruiting dirt i can dig up for now. i may do another junior profile later today, but i have another project to work on first so i can't make any promises either. enjoy. 01-21-03 (9:30am) i got three links this morning. first off the mansfield news journal has a bit on rex kern. next up i got a bit of bad news for the buckeyes with an article on ernie wheelright and justin valentine committing to minnesota. last link for now is on canton mckinley sophomore tailback ryan brinson. i will be back online here shortly with some random thoughts. enjoy. 01-20-03 (4:20pm) not much news out there today. the only thing close to news i can dig up is that jersey standout safety ira guilford no longer has osu as a clear leader. it sounds like ty willingham was impressive to guilford and he may end up there or at syracuse. anyways, since there isn't any news to pass along, i thought i would pass along a little game. this is the same game, but osu themed out. it is the first game i have ever put on the website and i don't know if i will keep it up or not. also, it will only work in newer popular browsers. anyways, enjoy the game and the rest of MLK day. 01-20-03 (12:35pm) just one link and then another junior profile. this link is from the mansfield news journal on the family atmosphere that is ohio state buckeye football and the dividends it paid this year. now for a little bit on cleveland st. ignatius defensive tackle - tight end mike massey. as has been the case lately, sorry about the graphic quality of the pic, i had to turn it down quite a bit to prevent the site from crashing. also, don't forget to check out some of the free videos of mike massey and all the other top prospects in ohio in the free video archive. it is linked at the top of the left hand column right below the site logo. the link is called 'vg recruiting videos'. enjoy. Mike Massey
Position: defensive end - tight endHeight: 6'5"Weight: 240 pounds40 Time: 4.75 secondsHigh School: Cleveland St. IgnatiusNotes:Mike Massey was the top tight end I saw in state last season. I think his future though is at defensive end. Coming off the edge, Massey is equally adept at getting to the quarterback and staying home to defend the run.Mike will be one of the top 10 players in the state of Ohio and with the great coaching he gets at St. Ignatius he could move into the top 5 by season's end. He should be a top 100 player in the nation too. Excellent prospect. Massey picked up 9 sacks as a junior despite playing through some injuries and playing elite competition. Probably the most impressive thing I noticed about Massey was the way he played the run and recognized the plays. Against Massillon this season, Mike was rushing the edge really hard one play the only thing though was it was a little too easy. The offensive tackle was letting him go outside. Massey read this, spun back to the middle and just annihilated the ball carrier causing a fumble. It was the type of play that he shouldn't have been able to make, yet he did. I was sold right there. That exact play is available in the video archive free for all to enjoy. As a tight end, Massey showed good hands and deceptive speed. The 4.75 seconds in the fourty is just an estimate I made judging against other top players in the state. Mike was particularly effective at taking the little out cut and turning it up field. When he did have the ball in his hands, he was an absolute load to bring down. He could probably play tight end in college, but I think he starts out on defense. He is probably the best tight end prospect out of the storied St. Ignatius program since Dan O'Leary. Whether he plays tight end again this year or not is still up for debate. St. Ignatius has another great tight end in the making in the class below Massey that may allow Mike to concentrate on defense alone. As for what college Massey is looking at, that is anyone's guess. His brother Jim went to Ohio State, his other brother is going to Michigan, and his father went to Notre Dame. All three seem to be a player for Massey already. 01-20-03 (9:30am) i didn't see any newspaper articles out there at all. oh well, it doesn't mean that i can't do some rumor mongering today. being the season, today will again by recruiting style rumor mongering. it looks like tennessee is a serious player for qb michael bush. the vols have casey clausen back as the starter (a more talented, but much much less successful version of craig krenzel) back at qb with top recruits cj leak and james banks as the main alternatives on the bench. i guess bush sees a clearer shot to the field at tennesse (where two young qb's have actually had real snaps) than at ohio state (where we have no young qb's that have taken any real snaps). maybe the hillbilly academics at tennesse and potential NCAA penalties associated with being in the SEC will help sway bush north. i hope so. bush looks like he could be a great one. reminds me of steve mcnair. in further rumor action, florida two way lineman james lee has finished his official visit to ohio state. he did not commit, but he did come away impressed. apparently he still has a couple of visits left and he may be tough to get out of the south, but it looks like we have a legitimate chance here. in other gossip, there is nothing going on with florida tight end jamesly jean. he did make an official visit to nc state, but apparently they are running low on cash, so he did not commit. not that jean is looking to get paid off, it just seems that chuck amato is buying the best talent he can get and bringing it to north carolina, NCAA regulations be damned. in defensive back news, florida db miguel scott was not able to visit this weekend as originally scheduled because ohio state cancelled his visit. i think the buckeyes know that ira guilford is a lock and they simply don't need scott as a result. not that scott isn't a player, he just won't be a player for the buckeyes. final bit of recruiting news for the morning, next weekend the buckeyes will have at least two in for official visits. of course that could change over the next week. anyways, right now we have california wide out devin stearns and south carolina linebacker ryan brown coming to town. i don't like the buckeyes chances with either recruit honestly and anticipate another slow weekend for recruiting news. i hope to hell that i am wrong here, but i just don't see stearns leaving the pacific time zone or brown crossing the mason dixon line. anyways, that is all i got for now. i am going to double back and see if i can't find at least one link for the morning to post. if i can't find anything out there, i will continue my look at the top juniors in the state of ohio. enjoy martin luther king day as it happens. 01-19-03 (6:10pm) finally a little news on the recruiting front. i was beginning to think the recruiting war came to an end with the complete lack of word from the front. first off, the buckeyes have a new football player. darrion scott's brother cedric has turned down a scholarship offer to west virginia and decided to walk on at ohio state. the fact that an out of state kid would rather pay out of state tuition to attend ohio state and play football as opposed to going to the big in state school all expenses paid is impressive. if that doesn't say something about the family atmosphere at ohio state, i don't know what does. welcome aboard cedric. welcome to the family. now for some recruiting rumors and gossip. it doesn't look like the buckeyes have been in contact recently with louis irizarry since he decommitted from the buckeyes and committed to the coCanes. the buckeyes have been in contact with an ohio tight end though. marcel frost has now been offerred a scholarship. frost is currently listed as a soft verbal to iowa (who recently lost their all american tight end dallas clark early to the NFL draft). he will be on an official visit to ohio state next weekend and we could see some action there. in further recruiting news, maryland standout linebacker wesley jefferson has announced that he will name his college of choice this tuesday. he said he has informed all of his finalists where they stand. osu is one of those finalists, but i doubt he ends up in scarlet and gray. he is looking like he will stay in state and be a terp next year along with former buckeye sammy maldonado. good luck wes and congratulations to the terps. just promise me one thing terps, if you get guys like jefferson and victor abiamiri, make sure you pound the crap out of the florida state criminoles for me will you. in futher wild speculation, we may be getting a decision from akron standout defensive tackle sian cotton next week. cotton is officially visiting florida this weekend and that is believed to be the other major player for sian. i can see cotton making the anouncement when he gets back from florida and thinks it over with the family for a day or so. i think he wants to end this recruiting nonsense and win a national championship of his own in high school hoops with lebron james and company. hopefully sian wants to win a national championship in college football as well and decides to become a buckeye. either florida or ohio state will get cotton and i would guess that announcement will go down this coming week. speaking of massive standout defensive tackles, illinois product moe dampeer is still on his official visit to ohio state. apparently he just started his visit yesterday and he will still be on campus monday. i wouldn't expect to hear anything about dampeer tonight then like i was hoping. i imagine the experts will get in touch either monday night or tuesday and then we will have some news on dampeer. speaking of news, still no news on if, and more likely when, new jersey standout safety - tailback ira guilford will be committing to the buckeyes. he has had the bucks as his favorite throughout the process and his verbal has been imminent for something like a month now. still though, no official word. speaking of no word, i haven't heard how shawn crable's visit to pitt went yet either. if i recall, he is supposed to be visiting pitt this weekend and that is his last official visit. crable has publicly stated that it was down to osu, michigan, and pitt for him (and the vg believes it is down to pitt and osu with michigan nearly out of scholarships and them not holding one for him). crable has also said he will wait to make his announcement until national signing day on february fifth. i see him being a standout linebacker - situational pass rusher for the buckeyes. whether he earns a job in fall camp is hard to say, but i would love to see him cover kicks and be on the kick block team as a true freshman for sure. some will say he needs to redshirt for a year to bulk up, but i don't buy it. crable has enough talent to help on special teams from day one. he may even have enough talent to get into the two deep or starting rotation. i just don't see him redshirting unless he asks for it. anyways, that is all the dirt i could dig up for right now. i will keep an eye on the situation as usual and pass on anything i hear here. enjoy eddie george as he rumbles into the superbowl. 01-19-03 (4:20pm) i just got done watching the national championship again. anyways, i searched all around the net and i can't find any rumors right now. i imagine i will have something late night tonight. since it is a slow day for football news so far, i fugured i would step up and post another installment of my look at the top juniors in the state of ohio. as a reminder, i have free video on all these guys i profile. just follow the link at the top of the left hand column called 'vg recruiting videos' to check them out. if for some reason these don't work for you, leave me a message on my message board or drop me an email. i can show you how to get them running on your computer. Anthony Turner
Position: QuarterbackHeight: 6'3"Weight: 195 pounds40 Time: 4.65 secondsHigh School: Dayton Chaminade-JulienneNotes:I only saw Anthony Turner play once in person, and the Eagles played so well all the starters were sat down half way through the second quarter. To tell you the truth, that was all i needed to see to form an opinion on Anthony Turner. I saw Turner one other time on the television and it backed up what i saw briefly before despite playing injured.Anthony Turner is one of the top quarterbacks in the state of Ohio. He has a chance at being a top 100 player in the nation depending on how he develops and he is a slam dunk top 10 player in the state of Ohio for his senior season. Turner got a scholarship offer from Michigan State after his sophomore season. Anthony Turner is a very developed quarterback for a junior. He throws a very nice spiral and has more than enough arm strength to play major college football. He is incredibly mobile too. Not fast like Michael Vick fast, but fast enough to create problems for defenses in college. He has very good drop back skills and can even run the option effectively. He is reminds me a little bit of a Donavon McNabb type of quarterback. Not saying he is as good or as big as McNabb, but similar in style for sure. If you had to criticize Turner as a quarterback it would be his accuracy. He seemed to throw the ball on target the one game I saw, but he was high on several throws. It could be a footwork problem messing up the release point, I don't know. Honestly though, I had to rack the brain to criticize Turner. He was impressive. I don't see a position switch in Turner's future either. Many quarterbacks in high school with his type of scrambling abilities end up becoming receivers or defensive backs. Turner is a quarterback the whole way. Hopefully he is in scarlet and gray after next season, but that is up for debate right now. OSU will have Justin Zwick, Troy Smith, Todd Boeckman and maybe even Michael Bush ahead of him on the depth chart. Turner doesn't seem like the type to shy away from competition, but he doesn't seem like an idiot either. The recruiting of quarterbacks will be interesting at Ohio State next season, especially if Michael Bush comes to campus, with talents like Turner, Darryl Clark, and Brian Hoyer in state. 01-19-03 (11:55am) i can't find any rumors about how recruiting went this weekend. i guess it is still a little early to have the news start to leak out. probably later tonight i will have some rumors to spread. for now, all i have is one link to a graphic designer that posted an mp3 of cie grant singing the alma matter. sorry i don't have more for right now, but maybe i will later. enjoy the NFL playoffs as they happen. 01-19-03 (10:40am) a whole bunch of links today, doing this the lazy way it is bullet style this late morning.
01-18-03 (10am) just two links for the late morning. the canton repository has a piece on the celebration at the shoe. 1460 the fan has a piece on andy geiger being put on time out. short update for now. don't forget about the celebration at the shoe today at 1pm (it is on tv in most markets) and the senior bowl today on espn at 1pm. i believe matt wilhelm and kenny peterson are both playing in the senior bowl today. enjoy. 01-17-03 (9:40pm) just checking in on the night shift. i have been letting the site run on auto pilot lately after (as snoop dogg would say) the sizzle fizzles. anyways, not much news out there but i got more rumors to spread around. bill kurelic broke the news today that florida offensive lineman cyrim wimbs would not be officially visiting this weekend. too bad because he was a good one and he is at a position of need. i am starting to get worried on the o-line, but i have faith in tressel and bill conley to work some magic still. i would be willing to bet we sign a guy who i have yet to have heard about come signing day. in other rumor mongering, i got some more thoughts on shawn crable. i didn't here this anywhere and this is just wild speculation so take it for what it is worth. with crable waiting to announce to signing day he is in danger of being shut out at michigan (with only 2 - 4 scholarships left and they are not holding one for him) and maybe even ohio state (maybe 5 - 8 ships left, but we are holding one for him). he has a big visit to pitt this weekend (and since he would be the crown jewel of walt's recruiting class they will probably be holding one for him). this situation got me wondering though. i wonder if crable has already made up his mind and is just taking the visit to pitt for personal reasons. i know pitt isn't sunshine and skimpy bikinis or anything, but i think he would visit pitt even if he was a silent verbal elsewhere just to visit a few former teammates, especially andy alleman. now if that wild speculation that i made up is true (at least it is reasonable if not based in fact) and the rumor that michigan is not holding a scholarship for him is also true, that leaves only ohio state as the school that he could have verballed to silently. am i right, odds are against that with my total lack of psychic ability, but you never know. on a site administration note, we almost crashed the site a couple of times today, but she made it through unscathed. i am probably going to stop using player pictures for the next week or so to trim down on my bandwidth to prepare for national signing day too just in case any regulars out there are wondering why this site is becoming less graphic oriented. in other site administration news, i have gotten a bunch of positive feedback on the junior recruiting profiles. thanks to all the readers for their support. i plan on doing this with the underclassmen on these slow news days up until signing day so there are plenty more to come. also, don't forget i have free video clips on all these guys i profile too. they are linked underneath the site logo at the top of the left hand column. that link is called 'vg recruiting videos'. enjoy. in even more site administration news, i have gotten a bunch of emails thanking me for the tip on joining the hurricane club to get fiesta bowl tickets at face value (well actually it was face plus $75 per ticket in club dues, but still cheaper than 500 - 1000 bucks some buckeye fans got stuck paying). it sounds like there were at least a dozen parties that got tickets to the game as a result of reading the site. glad i could help. also, i have been really lazy lately with compressing video and so has my friend vladimir gonzalez. part of the problem has been the unavailability of the studio. the cbg has been hosting more jam sessions lately and that has to come first. it is why the studio is set up in the first place. i am going to try to do that this weekend maybe, but i may end up in columbus for the afternoon saturday so that may get pushed back even further. it will get done, when is the only question now. also, i am way behind in displaying some of the reader submitted art. i will be getting to that here eventually, but with the bandwidth problems and such, it may have to wait until after national signing day. anyways, i am about to go enjoy myself (and not that way either for the dirty minded out there). i will be back online in the morning. 01-17-03 (high noon) just in time for lunch i got another link and a profile of ted ginn jr. first off the link. the canton repository has a piece on the draft status of former bulldog kenny peterson. fairly good article today from the rep. one quick update before i get to the stuff i have already written and all that. it looks like marcel frost, the big tight end - defensive end from ohio, is going to be visiting osu officially january 24th despite the verbal to iowa. last note for now, i had to dump most of the rest of the page into the archives to be sure that the page wouldn't crash from having a picture on it. if you haven't been here in a few days, all that material is in the january 2003 archives at the bottom of this column, duh. now for some info on ted ginn jr. Ted Ginn Jr.
Position: Cornerback - Wide ReceiverHeight: 6'1"Weight: 170 pounds40 Time: 4.4 secondsHigh School: Cleveland GlenvilleNotes:Ted Ginn Jr. is the son of Glenville coach Ted Ginn Sr. Most coaches kids are really heady players that have a great feel for the game and that definitely is the case with young Ginn.Ginn is so talented and developed as a football player he has already been offerred a scholarship by Ohio State, Southern Cal, and Iowa. He is easily one of the top 5 recruits in the state of Ohio for the class of 2004 and he should be a consensus top 100 player in the nation. With the recent tradition at Glenville for defensive back types, I imagine he will be considered one of the top 5 cornerback prospects in the nation as a senior. I only saw Ginn play once last season and it was against a less than good team in Cleveland Lincoln West. That game Glenville rolled something like 76 - 0 and Ginn looked like a player. On defense he didn't give up one pass completion all game. Not only that, he never had his man get behind him or away from him. Unfortunately though, I didn't get to see him make a tackle the entire game. He does look a little thin, but he has another year still to bulk up. On offense, Ted split his time between quarterback and wide receiver. I was impressed with his abilities as a quarterback. He didn't have prototype NFL arm strength, but he was deadly accurate and had nice touch on the ball. I was more impressed with him as a receiver though. As a receiver, Ginn showed good toughness going over the middle and great speed working the outside. I think his future is in the secondary, but he could play receiver at an elite level in college if things didn't work out on the defensive side of the ball. His speed is legitimate 4.4 seconds in the fourty. So many high school kids pad their times it isn't funny. That isn't the case here. Ted Ginn recently worked out at a combine for underclassmen held in conjunction with the Army All Star game in San Antonio and he easily had the best 40 time of all the defensive backs in attendance. Ginn Jr. is a burner without a doubt. As for what colleges Ted Ginn is considering, there seems to be only one right now. Ohio State has offerred him a scholarship and I don't think his father Coach Ginn would allow him back in the house if he ever decided to go somehwere else. It probably doesn't hurt that he will have three former teammates at Ohio State to show him the ropes in Dareus Hiley, Donte Whitner, and Troy Smith either. 01-17-03 (9:55am) what is up with bucknuts having to beat my site with the time they post their links. i was on their page at 9:15 this morning and they weren't up. they weren't there at 9:30 either, and don't tell me i don't know how to refresh the page either. i code this entire page by hand, i think i know how to hit the F5 button to refresh a webpage. if you want to compete instead of cooperate, try putting some stuff out there for free and spending some time on the free message boards. that would be some competition. don't cheat the time in an effort to look good. 01-17-03 (9:45am) ok, now that i got the links up, it is some time for some random thoughts. being that season, today i am going recruiting style again. moe dampeer is visiting columbus and campus this weekend. hopefully that in home visit from coach tressel this week set the tone for a big weekend for the bucks with dampeer. moe is one of the top couple defensive linemen in the nation and a top 20 player regardless of position. you gotta think he is immediately in the two deep, especially after watching him in that army all star game. the way the buckeyes like to rotate linemen, i can see him in the mix at defensive tackle with tim anderson, darrion scott, and marcus green from day one. in fact of all the potential freshman coming to campus i would say donte whitner and moe dampeer have the best chance of coming in and starting. i base that on the talent of the incoming recruits and the availability of a job. at defensive tackle, tim anderson is a lock to start and anchor the line. most feel that darrion scott will be shifted from defensive end inside to tackle (with simon fraser taking his spot at end). we will see though. if dampeer comes in and looks half as good as he did in that all star game, i can see him maybe outright winning the job. not that it matters though. the buckeyes prefer to rotate eight men on the defensive line and moe dampeer would most likely be one of the great eight from day one. in other recruiting news, there was a rumor about stanley mcclover rethinking his commit to the buckeyes and considering auburn. well, his father said that all that was garbage and he will be a buckeye. sounds good to me. in other news, it sounds like osu could have a commit from texas kicker - punter david dyches and new york safety tony tolbert if they wished. i know dyches hasn't been offerred yet. i am not sure about tolbert though. safety is about getting full right now. we will probably take one more safety and it will probably be the first to commit between jersey standout ira guilford and miguel scott of florida. who knows though, tolbert could have an offer too and pull the trigger first. in further other recruiting rumor news, the buckeye staff has not contacted louis irizarry apparently. it looks like if louis wants to reconsider his commit to miami, he will need to contact the coaches. class move by coach tressel. irizarry has made his decision and he is an adult. tressel is respecting that decision and not pestering him on the phone. i am sure coach T would take irizarry's phone call if he did want to talk, but there is no reason to actively recruit a guy who said that he wants to go elsewhere. anyways, that is all i have for now. later today i am going to continue my profiles of the top juniors in the state with a piece on cleveland glenville corner ted ginn jr. until then, enjoy the friday as it happens. 01-17-03 (9:15am) just some links a little late this morning, bullet style for the lazy webmaster in me.
01-16-03 (6:40pm) the miami hurricanes just got another commit from a top tight end. this one is a juco that committed to them in the past. why am i reporting this? good question. most schools don't bring in juco's without the intent of playing them right away. i wonder how former osu commit louis irizarry feels about this. speaking about how louis irizarry feels about things, i wonder how he feels about the comments made on miami radio today that he would never see the field at tight end and will be moved to defensive end when he gets to school? could he be reconsidering yet again? who knows, that is the latest rumor though. enjoy. 01-16-03 (12:15pm) i don't have a whole lot of time right now, so i am just going to post my second installment on the top juniors in the state of ohio. i had to turn down the graphic quality quite a bit again today to be certain i won't crash the page. enjoy. Marcus Freeman
Position: LinebackerHeight: 6'2"Weight: 225 pounds40 Time: 4.65 secondsHigh School: Huber Heights WayneNotes:Marcus Freeman is the top linebacker prospect in the class of 2004. Some recruiting experts even went as far as to say that he was the top linebacker in the state this season regardless of grade level. He should be one of the top 5 or 10 linebackers in the nation as a senior and he should be a consensus top 100 national player. Marcus has already been offerred a scholarship by both Michigan and Michigan State.I only saw Marcus play once last season and that was enough to see that he has superstar linebacker written all over him. When I first got to the game I was expecting a top linebacker that was 6'4" and about 240 pounds. That was what 'expert' Max Emfinger lists him as being. When I saw Marcus in person, I was a little disappointed. I am medically measured as being 6'4" and I weigh around 240 pounds myself. I definitely had a couple of inches on Freeman. Once I saw him play though and watched the film again, it was easy to see why the recruiting experts are so excited about Freeman. He isn't small by any means and he has plenty enough speed to play major college inside linebacker already. I estimated that speed to be at approximately 4.65 seconds in the fourty. As a linebacker, your main job is to make tackles and Marcus Freeman makes some ferocious tackles. He stays nice and low and transfers most of the energy to the ballcarrier. The one game I saw him play this year he didn't miss one tackle all game and had a couple of sacks to go with countless other quarterback pressures. Very impressive. Probably the most impressive thing about Marcus though was his football knowledge. So many high school players are just physically dominant (which Freeman certainly is) and they rely on that physical dominance to push people around and outrun everyone. Often times these physical freaks have bad habits when they get to college as far as taking the proper angles and such. This is not a problem with Marcus Freeman. When I was watching the game live from the stands, I saw him backing off of the line of scrimmage on plays away from him. When I reviewed the film, you could tell he was just playing his assignment. He didn't think that he was superman and had to make every tackle. So many high school players try to be superman every down and when they aren't they give up the big play. Fortunately, Marcus Freeman is not that type of player. As for potential college choices, Freeman seems to be pretty open about things right now. Like any Ohio kid, there are rumors about Ohio State already, but I have yet to hear any credible reports on what schools he is looking at. 01-16-03 (9:45am) i don't know if i will be able to update or not at lunch today, so i am going to just post what i already have written right now just in case i can't and the info gets stale. two more links for starters. the akron beacon journal has a piece on shawn crable and recruiting. last article for now is from the mansfield news journal about jamario o'neal and jim tressel. for those who don't know, jamario o'neal (soph wr - db - rb mansfield senior high) is one of the top sophomores in the state of ohio (along with canton mckinley's ryan brinson, warren harding's mario manningham, and dayton c-j's javon ringer).  i saw o'neal once and i have a little film on him posted in the free video archive (top left of the page, under the site logo). it isn't very good footage unfortunately. that was the first high school game i brought the digital camcorder to that didn't get rained out and our skills were poor. o'neal had a beautiful reverse for a long touchdown that is in the archive (i am not sure if i posted any other highlights of him yet or not), but i was letting the crazy bearded guy try out the camcorder then and he didn't know how to zoom so the footage kind of sucks. jamario on the other hand is loaded with skills. he is lightning quick and elusive with the ball in his hands and effective as a corner when we saw him. rumor was that he moved to safety middle of the season since teams were already avoiding him at corner as a soph.
anyways, that is all i have written right now. if i can get back online again for lunch time i will post another profile of one of the top juniors in the state of ohio, if i can't i will just stick with that mini-profile of jamario o'neal above. enjoy the day as it happens. 01-16-03 (8:25am) just some more random thoughts for the morning, recruiting rumor style. it looks like the committment of florida defensive end stanley mcclover isn't as firm as we thought. he is now a soft verbal and will still visit auburn. he will firm it up on signing day it sounds. speaking of waffling players, it is being reported that brandon maupin is waffling and thinking about pitt. that is nonsense and he is a firm commit to the buckeyes. in other waffle news, there is no truth to the rumor that nc state coach chuck amato gave derek morris and his overbearing father all you can eat waffles in exchange for them coming to the wolfpack. in further recruiting news, jesse holley the wide out from jersey still hasn't committed anywhere yet. the buckeyes are in his top two though and things are looking good there. virginia is believed to be the other player for holley. probably the biggest recruiting rumor i have heard though involves the biggest player in this update. illinois defensive tackle moe dampeer is going to be soon getting an in home visit from coach tressel and the buckeyes. look for jim to work some magic in my opinion. tressel is supposed to be brutally honest and effective in the in home visits. dampeer was supposed to be at tennecheats this weekend, but he cancelled that visit. right now it is looking like either osu or oklahoma for dampeer, but don't count out the home state illini either. you can definitely count out the home state northwestern mildcats, who to remind you all, have not beat us since i was a fetus (1971). speaking of the mildcats, why is everyone in search of a 12th team for the big10? we just drop northwestern (who are only competitive in big10 sports in years that don't include the buckeyes on their schedule) and we are back to ten. am i wrong here or does the big10 imply ten teams. i know northwestern doesn't really count as a legitimate team, but we need to make it official and get rid of them like we did chicago state many years ago. anyways, that is all i got for now in the recruiting rumor update portion today. later this afternoon (think lunch time) i am going to do another update on a top junior in the state of ohio. enjoy. 01-16-03 (7:40am) lots of links today, and guess what, they are all on the draft decisions of will smith, michael jenkins, and darrion scott. doing this the the lazy way, i am going to do this bullet style.
in further random thoughts, the vg is obviously disappointed in the loss to michigan in hoops, but this isn't a hoops site, so that is the last time that will be mentioned here. later today i am going to continue my look at the top junior prospects in the state of ohio with a piece on ted ginn jr or marcus freeman, i haven't decided yet. anyways, until then, enjoy the day as it happens. 01-15-03 (5:35pm) it is official, will smith and michael jenkins are both staying in school per wbns. hopefully they are sure about it this time. it looks like the buckeyes are loaded and ready for another run at the national title. i am giving those two guys my mr. kotter award, as in welcome back. easily the two biggest recruits we will get all season. i couldn't imagine better news. now if we can just shut out michigan in hoops tonight. more later. 01-15-03 (4:45pm) a while back i was contacted by another website about doing a feature for them on some of the top juniors in the state of ohio. being a good way to help publicize the site and show off my free recruiting videos i said i would do it. there isn't any pay involved or anything like that, just one site helping another site (a non-buckeye site to boot). anyways, with the wait for the NFL draft decision leading to virtually no news today, i decided i would post my piece on the top junior in the state of ohio. i have profiles written up (actually roughed out still) for all the top juniors in ohio and i will be posting them over the next week or so. when i am done with the individual profiles here, i will permanently link them all in one article on this site and provide that other site with a link to my work. being a rough draft, i would appreciate any insight or corrections from readers. i may not take them, but i will read them. also, don't forget that i got free video on all these recruits linked near the top of the left hand column. the link is called 'vg recruiting videos'. enjoy. Delbert Ferguson
Position: Running BackHeight: 6'2"Weight: 217 pounds40 Time: 4.5 secondsHigh School: Warren HardingNotes:Delbert Ferguson is undoubtedly the top player in the state of Ohio for 2004. After spending his first three years at one of the top programs in division four with Youngstown Ursuline, Delbert is stepping up to division one for his senior season with the transfer to Warren Harding. Harding plays elite competition virtually every week of the season in 2004 so Delbert should get a good taste of big time football before he makes his college decision.Without a doubt, Delbert Ferguson will be the prospect in the state of Ohio heading into his senior season. Most likely he will be considered one of the two or three elite running backs in the nation. 2004 doesn't feature many big backs nationally other than Delbert either. Final note on his rank as a prospect, he will be a consensus top 100 player and should be in most experts top 20 or so players. An absolute stud tailback recruit. Some experts compare Ferguson to Robert Smith. I agree that they are both relatively tall running backs, but Robert Smith was a speed merchant, while Delbert is more of a blend of speed and power. Definitely not as fast as Robert Smith, but fast enough to turn the corner in the college football. I saw Delbert play twice in person last season, once against an outmanned team at New Wilmington, PA and once in the playoffs against an undersized but brutally effective Akron Manchester defense. Both games were packed full of highlights for Ferguson and he is undoubtedly the star of all my recruiting film so far. He has the complete package as a tailback and he showed it all the two games I filmed. He has the speed to run away from the little guys, the power to run over the big guys, and he has the moves to elude most tacklers before they make a feeble attempt to arm tackle him. He was even good out of the backfield as a receiver. Easily the most impressive player I saw all year long in Ohio high school football regardless of class. If you had to critique Delbert Ferguson you don't have many options. He did have a problem with ball security one game I saw and he is inexperienced as a pass blocker. Not that he can't pass block either, I just didn't see him do it very much. Rumor has it that Delbert is close friends with Buckeye star tailback Maurice Clarett and that is one of the reasons he transferred to Warren Harding like Clarett did. He desperately wants to be the best and he understands that to be the best you have to compete with the best. Most recruiting experts have Ferguson as a big Buckeye lean as well. They envision him as the heir apparrent to Maurice Clarett. 01-15-03 (4:20pm) it 4:20pm and still no announcement on the draft status of will smith or michael jenkins. i guess jenkins and smith learned how to do the drama after this season if nothing else. i am still staying tuned to the news and i will of course post it here when i hear it. 01-15-03 (2:40pm) still no news about will smith or michael jenkins going pro or going to class. my guess is that they will have a press conference or release a statement sometime between 4 or 5 letting us know. hopefully i am wrong there and there is no press conference and there is no statement released and they are in class and unable to comment. who knows, certainly not me. when i do find something out, i will post it here. 01-15-03 (12:35pm) ok, this is getting confusing. the columbus dispatch and affiliated companies that broke the story of michael jenkins and will smith going pro are now back tracking on their news. either they are going pro or they are going to allow them to have their moment in the sun with a press conference. we will know by 5pm if they are staying or going for sure. until then it is all just speculation. if i find out anything, i will post it here. 01-15-03 (11:10am) here is a link from 1460 the fan about jenkins staying. rumor has it they reported on the radio that will smith is staying, but i wasn't listening. 01-15-03 (10:50am) i can confirm the michael jenkins coming back to campus for his senior year story. i can not yet confirm the will smith coming back to campus story. more when i find out more. 01-15-03 (10:15am) the columbus dispatch just announced that both will smith and michael jenkins have decided to return for their senior season. i just got it in an email so i am not sure here, but i will be back right away once i can confirm it. 01-15-03 (9:40am) not much out there in form of linkage today, so much for keeping me regular. anyways, i did get an email from a reader with not one, but two articles on football from 1460 the fan. the first one is on will smith, should he stay or should he go. the second article in the fan is on the students having to fight to get a section at the celebration at the shoe. not much but it is better than nothing. obviously the big news of the day is the NFL draft. underclassmen must declare by 5pm today whether or not they will enter for the NFL draft. defensive end darrion scott has already decided he will not be going pro. the big question of the day is wide out michael jenkins and defensive end will smith. my money is on them both staying, but i am overly optimistic when it comes to buckeye football usually. anyways, i need to get offline for now, but i will be back online for lunchtime. enjoy the day as it happens. 01-14-03 (high noon) two more links and then some news and random thoughts. for the link, i got a piece by marla ridenour of the akron beacon journal on the celebration at the shoe. no new information or anything like that here, so if you read the piece in the canton repository and dislike reruns, you may want to skip this one. the last link i got is 10 questions with matt wilhelm on espn.com. in the college football news department, miami tailback willis mcgahee has issued a statement declaring him eligible for the NFL draft. good luck to mcgahee rehabbing that horrific knee injury. on a related note, miami wide out andre johnson has also issued a statement declaring him eligible for the NFL draft, only his was in crayon and an exact word for word copy of mcgahee's statement. so far no news on whether or not miami plans to cover up this plagiarizing incident by johnson like they did in the past. anyways, i am out for now. enjoy. 01-14-03 (9am) i finally found a couple of links this morning and i have some more recruiting news to pass along. in linkage, the canton repository has a piece all about the celebration at the shoe this weekend. this piece should answer all your questions on parking, tailgaiting, cameras, and whatnot. the only other link i got right now is from 1460 the fan and it is about lydell ross and his team first attitude. short article but pretty good considering tim may wrote it and all. in recruiting news, i do have one update and this one isn't a rumor. most buckeye fans have heard the story of marine cliff reynolds and his desire to be a buckeye. well he was scheduled to get out of the marines and join the program for some winter conditioning and be full go for spring ball. that was before the marines decided they weren't releasing anyone from active duty due to the impending annihilation of iraq. of course the bigger story here is the war, but being buckeye fans we all wondered how this would impact cliff reynolds and the buckeye football team. well cliff reynolds got the word just yesterday and he will in fact be released by the marine corps from active duty and be joining the buckeyes in time for some winter conditioning. great news and a great story. cliff reynolds should be starting classes for spring quarter, will be eligible for spring ball, and he will even get to work out this winter to get ready for spring ball. 01-14-03 (5:25am) i can't find any links at all this morning. i can continue the recent streak of recruiting gossip though. actually there is very little gossip out there that i haven't covered the past few days, but i did hear some stuff on louisville qb michael bush. before the official visit to ohio state last weekend, bush said he was favoring ohio state 75 percent. now i hear bush says he has no leader and that he will visit both oklahoma and michigan state. you know what though, i still don't have any worries. i understand bush wanting to get playing time right away and with krenzel coming back there is very little chance of bush earning significant action at qb as a true freshman. don't ask me why, but i got a gut feeling that we will use michael bush in a manner similar to how joe paterno is using michael robinson. i can see bush lining up in the backfield in a split back formation from time to time with maurice clarett the other back (by the way, maurice has a really good arm, i can't believe we didn't have him throw at least once this year) and craig krenzel the qb. i don't see us lining up this way to have bush be the lead blocker either. use bush and his athleticism in run - pass options and generally make the defense worry about where he is on the field. as for oklahoma and michael bush, i don't see that happening. they return their qb this year and still have top recruit brent rawls on campus. they also have a commit from one of the top 2 or 3 qb's in the nation this season in the form of tommy grady. as for michigan state, i wouldn't go there personally with the possibility of things getting worse before they get better, but you never know. as for the competition at michigan state, jeff 'dick' smoker will be back next season, as will dowdell, and super recruit drew olson. they even have a commit from another qb already this year in poland ohio prospect sean clayton. i just don't see it working out up north for bush. as for the competition at ohio state, we will have krenzel and mcmullen as seniors next season. after that we have a bunch of guys with no experience at all. sure they are talented, but they have no experience and will have one year of scout team work plus spring ball reps on bush at best. from a competition point of view, ohio state certainly has competition like any major football power, but we probably have less competition for the job than most other schools. anyways, that is all i can dig up right now, i will hunt around for some links and then try to come up with another update here this morning. enjoy the day as it happens. 01-13-03 (8:10pm) some more recruiting gossip for the night shift. again, this is all just gossip, take it for what it is worth. if you are a stickler for the facts, i don't have any today, sorry. first off some bad news. it doesn't look like the buckeyes will be getting a commit out of super maryland linebacker wesley jefferson. nothing is official here, but all signs are pointing towards him ending up at maryland and not in columbus. say hi to sammy maldonado when you get to maryland for me will you wes. last bit of gossip for the night and it is good news i think. one of my personal favorite recruits massillon washington standout linebacker shawn crable has stated that he will announce his decision on signing day. how is this good news you ask? good question. most of the 'experts' see crable as being a battle between michigan and ohio state. the vg is under the impression that it is between pitt and ohio state. anyways, michigan has nearly filled their class and they are still in on some great prospects. it doesn't look like they will have a scholarship for crable come national signing day. who knows, maybe lloyd carr is planning on doing what he did a few years ago and pulling the offer from a 'lesser' recruit at the last minute like the scumbag he is and going to offer that kid's scholarship to crable. why any recruit would want to play for a coach so dirty about recruiting is beyond me. anyways, if michigan can't hold the scholarship that pretty much has to eliminate them from the mix and that would leave just osu and pitt. crable has friends at both schools and they are both close to home. either school would be a good fit for crable in my opinion. obviously i really hope he is a buckeye come february fifth, but it looks like we will have to wait until then to find out about it. my money is on ohio state, but like moe sizlak said to homer simpson when he thought he was trying to pay for his bar tab with home printed money, my money is no good around here. as for the shawn crable hoops rumor i have heard (involving him wanting to get the recruiting over with so he can join the hoops squad full time and not just here and there like he has been), there doesn't seem to be any truth to that. crabe is playing hoops, but he isn't in hoops shape (he is in excellent shape still, but not hoops shape). he isn't getting the type of minutes that he is used to right now. it looks like he will slowly have to work his way back into the flow and will hopefully be peaking around playoff time. last note for now, still no word on guys like michael bush, ira guilford, sian cotton, or jesse holley. hopefully some of the 'experts' earn their keep and post some info on them later tonight or tuesday. as for me, i am really tired today for some reason and i rented the movie XXX, not of the porn variety either but the vin diesel - extreme games - james bond type movie. i am going to lay down and watch that instead of sitting in front of the computer worrying about where high school boys end up playing college football. more in the morning. 01-13-03 (high noon) just some random thoughts on recruiting and the current state of recruiting gossip. as a disclaimer for those unfamiliar with the meaning of the word rumor, none of the following statements in this post may come true, they could all be false. this is just what i have heard from various sources. i find this type of information fascinating, so i decided to share it with everyone else. if you're more dragnet style and seek only the facts, well then, this post probably isn't for you. first off bill kurelic has posted some premium news. i don't subscribe to the premium site or anything, but from i can gather the news goes like this. osu will now host official visits from two miami hurricane commits in teammates tyrone moss and cyrim wimbs. moss is generally considered one of the top 5 tailbacks in the nation and would be a huge get from the former national champions. perhaps he has taken a look at the depth chart at miami in comparison to ohio state. sure we are both loaded at tailback, but our offense is more tailback-centric and the buckeyes only have three tailbacks that would be ahead of him on the roster. with ross and hall being juniors next season and clarett being a sophomore, it is conceivable that the buckeyes could lose all three in 2004 and leave the job open to a redshirt freshman - true sophomore out of this recruiting class. wimbs is one of the top offensive linemen in the state of florida and would greatly fill a need of the buckeyes in the trenches. there is a bunch of talk of us moving rj coleman to tackle or maybe even moving a few defensive lineman from last year to offensive line, and from what i hear that sounds true. still though, it would be nice to get a true offensive lineman to come in and compete for a job in the trenches. speaking of the trenches, the buckeyes will not be getting a visit from top california offensive lineman sam baker. baker has cancelled his visit and will be going elsewhere. too bad because he was a good one. maybe this opens up space for tennessee tackle kenyon buford. who knows. in further recruiting rumor action, the next two commits to ohio state may just be new jersey standout safety ira guilford and louisville qb michael bush. both seemed to really enjoy the official visits this weekend and both have had the buckeyes as favorites for sometime now. with the scholarship crunch getting tighter and tighter, i can see both of these guys pulling the trigger and accepting an offer from coach tressel maybe even this week. final rumor for now involves former buckeye commit louis irizarry. he is still a commit to miami, but now is rumored to be reconsidering. miami is stacked at tight end and there was even some talk of moving irizarry to defensive end, a position he does not want to play (though he does play it pretty good and i could see why the coCanes would want him there). i tend to think this is just a rumor and he is a hurricane for sure, but you never know. anyways, i am done for now. i forgot to upload any video or picture files this morning so i won't have anything like that until this evening. maybe my friend vladimir gonzalez can save the day and post the long awaited highlight of the osu cheerleader kicking the field goal and another play sometime this afternoon. i just checked and they aren't there yet. 01-13-03 (8:10am) one last link for now. bill kurelic has an update on how the official visits went this weekend free on the o-zone. check it out. 01-13-03 (7:20am) just two links for this morning. first off the big news in buckeye land. ft lauderdale defensive end stanley mcclover has committed. that article was from the sun sentinel. in other news, his name is not mcglover like i had previously typed, it is mcclover. my bad. the last link i got for now is from 1460 the fan and it deals with mike nugent and brandon schnittker watching the national championship game replay at simon fraser's house. anyways, that is all i have for linkage right now. i still need to post some of the fake photos sent into the site as well as do another video update on ohio high school football. while speaking of video updates, i spoke to vladimir gonzalez last night and he said that he would be posting a highlight or two from the national championship today. he didn't give me a time frame, but when he does post, i will give him a link here. more later. 01-12-03 (9:45pm) freaking tripod. the site went down for a couple of hours, but she is back now. this site only allows me so much transfer for my money. i was not over that transfer limit that i paid for the month yet, but they also break it down hourly and apparently we exceeded that limit earlier. oh well. anyways, i got more news from the grapevine on shawn crable. again, i don't know how credible this is, so take it for what it is worth. i got an email earlier today about a bill kurelic post. without going into too much detail the email said that crable was rescheduling the pitt visit for next weekend. i don't know if this reader is just screwing with me or what because this doesn't make much sense to me. i don't subscribe to any of that pay stuff so i can't tell for sure either. why would crable cancel pitt for this weekend, visit ohio state this weekend instead of next weekend like originally scheduled, and then reschedule pitt for that weekend? it makes no sense to me at all, but it is recruiting and it usually doesn't make much sense i guess. in the more rumors department, some more on shawn crable. part of what i heard about crable did involve michigan. the wolverines are about out of scholarships and i heard through the grapevine that michigan may not be able to wait for him to commit and may not be able to hold a scholarship. whether this is true or not, again i have no clue. this isn't news here, i am just repeating rumors i have heard. nothing more, nothing less. another part of the shawn crable rumor i heard (and this is from some local who has no inside info or anything either but heard it from someone who heard it from someone, so that is pretty flimsy if you ask me) was that crable was looking to get recruiting over with and join the tigers basketball squad. we will see how this works out in due time i guess. in other recruiting news, it is being reported by the rivals site bsb that stan mcglover the defensive end prospect out of florida has just verballed to ohio state. big time get for the defending national champions. mcglover is 6'4" and 240 pounds. he runs the 40 yard dash in 4.6 seconds, and some list him even faster. those are very similar to will smith's numbers. in other news starting to leak out from this weekend, it is rumored that ira guilford the safety out of jersey could be committing any day now. he had the bucks as his leader going into the visit and pretty much the whole recruiting process. it looks like he likes us even more now. great news about two great players. now if this shawn crable thing can become more than a rumor and become a reality i will be on cloud nine. wait a minute, i already am on cloud nine being an alum of the defending national champion buckeyes. anyways, it has been a long day and i need to jump on the cbg's video editing work station and compress some video still tonight. i had planned on doing that today, but it didn't happen yet. on a positive video note, i got an email from vladimir gonzalez and he should be posting the first highlights he video captured from the national championship game some time tonight. when i hear they are there i will post a link here. i plan on staying close to the net for the rest of the night to see if we get any more recruiting news. enjoy. 
01-12-03 (3pm) take this for what it is worth, but i have read a rumor that personal recruiting priority number one lb-de shawn crable out of massillon washington has committed to coach tressel. he wasn't even originally scheduled to visit this weekend, he was supposed to be at pitt. the rumor has it that crable cancelled that visit (the vg's main worry about crable was always pitt and not michigan remind you) and will be committing to osu this weekend or maybe monday or tuesday. how credible is this rumor, i have no clue. i do know that all the pieces add up and it all makes sense to me. i can see crable wanting to get this recruiting stuff out of the way so he can rejoin the talented tigers basketball program this season. stay tuned for more.
01-12-03 (10:35am) just some linkage this morning for right now. taking the lazy sunday way out, i am doing this bullet style.
01-11-03 (7:05pm) just another reminder right now. espn classic is replaying the ohio state - miami game tonight at 8pm. it looks like it is going to be rebroadcast on espn2 in my little town as well since we don't get espn classic. that is the rumor around here anyway. also the buckeyes are on against indiana tonight in hoops also at 8pm i believe. at halftime the coaches, players, and trophies are supposed to make an appearance. time for another public service announcement. this one is preventing fraud on ebay. it looks like someone is selling he gameball from the national championship. at least they claim they are. a reader of the vg was about to bid on it, but got a bad feeling and did some research. it turns out that the ball the criminal is trying to sell is not the right name brand even. anyways, here is his fraudulent auction, feel free to email the bastard and give it to him. final disclaimer from the vg, this ball is not the official game ball from the national championship from what i can tell. buy this at your own risk and against my recommendation. one more announcement before i finally get some dinner, this one is about osu wallpaper for your computer. josh winslow has updated his sony imagestation account with another national championship wallpaper. check it out if you are looking to decorate your computer. last announcement for the night. i still haven't been able to compress any video from high school football this week, but i plan on posting some sunday night. i think i will be posting a highlight of mario manningham and maybe a couple of highlights from some of the sophomore class of cleveland glenville. as for vladimir gonzalez, he too should be posting some video sometime tomorrow he told me. his first video capture from the miami game will be of the osu hottie kicking the field goal for charity. he will be posting more from that game over the course of the next week. at least that is what he told me today. if anyone has any requests for video capture, post it on this site's message board and vlad will do what he can. sadly i don't have a recruiting announcement. i haven't heard word about how the official visits are going, though i got to say this weather isn't helping matters any. anyways, as rally's says, i gotta eat. i may do a drunken update later tonight. stay tuned for the slurred typing. 01-11-03 (7:45am) just three links for now and a reminder for buckeye fans. in linkage, the dayton daily news has a three pack. they have a piece on recruiting and other notes, a piece on andy groom rooming with the kicker from miami, and a piece on the fiesta bowl replay. speaking of the fiesta bowl replay, it is on espn classic today. that game is an edited version of the game and it starts at 8pm. it will have some new interviews with guys like matt wilhelm and craig krenzel though. the game is also replayed sunday afternoon on abc. in columbus is it on at 3pm. in cleveland it is being replayed at either noon or one. there are conflicting reports of the start time for that one. another programming reminder for today. at 2pm on espn is the east west shrine game. don't miss an opportunity to see mike doss wear the buckeye helmet. he may have one more all star game like this and that will be it for doss in the silver helmets. also in that game today, you can see 4 year donnie nickey and all american punter andy groom. anyways, that is all i got for now. i am going out to breakfast and going to gorge myself on some bacon, eggs, and pancakes. more later. 01-10-03 (1:25pm) you know i wasn't planning on updating again this afternoon, and then i ran into this information. i know it isn't ohio state recruiting but it is college football recruiting and i felt i had to help pass along this info. syracuse is recruiting a player with the name lucious pusey. that is too damn funny. if you thought that name was funny, check out this thread on him on a syracuse message board. this is like the perfect friday afternoon update. i have been laughing so hard for the last 10 minutes or so. anyways, enjoy the weekend. 
01-10-03 (11:50am) one more link and then on to some random thoughts. this is a piece from bill livingston of the cleveland plain dealer almost eating crow for the crap he has spewed out over the years. speaking of bill livingston, doesn't he look a lot like a bloated version of jimmy johnson. it must have been his time of the month when that photo was taken.
now for some random thoughts for lunchtime today. osu is having a massive weekend as far as recruiting is concerned starting today. there are a couple of fistfulls of recruits on campus for their official visits and things are looking very positive with several of them. it wouldn't suprise me at all to see the buckeyes land 2 or 3 commits by next monday or tuesday out of this group. my most likely three are sian cotton (pictured on the right), louisville qb michael bush, and jersey s-rb ira guilford. all three have had the bucks near the top of their list for a long time, and it just seems like a good weekend to get some commits with the national championship trophies on display and all. top national linebacker prospect wesley jefferson is also one of the visitors this weekend. my money is on jefferson ending up a terrapin at maryland, but you never know. we pick up a player the caliber of jefferson and buckeye fans will forget about louis irizarry and prescott burgess in a heartbeat if they haven't already. speaking of other top notch recruits on campus this weekend, jersey wide out jesse holley is amongst the visitors. holley is a tall receiver with some legitimate speed. osu is deep at receiver right now, but they won't be the year after that. a guy like jesse holley would have a great chance at getting lots of playing time as a true sophomore or redshirt freshman. michael jenkins will be a senior or a rookie in the NFL next season. chris vance is gone. chris gamble is looking like top draft pick in the NFL after next season as a corner. we do have some young guys on campus like santonio holmes and roy hall, but there seems to be a clear shot at early playing time (like i said redshirt freshman or true sophomore yet). still speaking of other top notch recruits on campus this weekend, florida tight end - defensive end jamesly jean is on campus as well. jean is a big tight end with blazing speed. he has been recruited by some big time programs as a defensive end prospect, but it looks like the buckeyes are recruiting him as a tight end. he is not a guy we are after now that irizarry has burned us either. jamesly has been on the radar of the buckeye coaching staff and us recruiting fans for months now. it is ironic that his official visit is coming the day after our top target at tight end decommits and heads to the coCanes instead though, don't you think. i could see jean giving coach tressel a verbal this weekend, but i got this feeling he is going to wait a little while longer before pulling the trigger on us or some other lucky school. anyways, that is all i have for random thoughts right now. enjoy the weekend as it happens. 01-10-03 (6:25am) just one more link for right now. 1460 the fan and the columbus dispatch have a piece on recruiting, official visits, and louis irizarry. still more to come later. 01-10-03 (5:10am) there are virtually no newspaper articles out there this morning. i did find one article from the warren tribune chronicle on louis irizarry deciding to go to miami instead of ohio state. not good news, but it is news. the only other article i could find this morning was from the akron beacon journal and it was about them selling the cd version of their coverage of the national championship game for ten bucks. since there was no news there and it is really just a commercial, i am not linking it here. while searching around for an article on irizarry, i did find another article not worth linking. poland qb sean clayton (poland, as in the city near y-town, not the butt of all jokes country) has committed to michigan state. why is this newsworthy to buckeye fans? good question. we weren't recruiting clayton or anything, however it is believed that michigan state is a player for louisville qb michael bush (since he was looking at louisville and their old coach just took the spartans job). i honestly doubt a talent like michael bush would base his decision on fear of competing with a guy like sean clayton, but maybe it signals that spartans coach smith realizes he has no chance with bush and he went to plan B. maybe that is good news for the buckeyes. who knows. continuing the recruiting theme of the morning, we have a bunch of top prospects coming to campus today for official visits. i am going to guess that the buckeyes get three verbals this weekend to ease the pain of losing irizarry and burgess this past week. my guesses for verbals are akron st. vincent st. mary defensive tackle sian cotton, new jersey safety - tailback ira guilford, and michael bush. other top names visiting this weekend include maryland linebacker wesley jefferson, florida defensive lineman stanley mcglover, florida tight end - defensive lineman jamesly jean, and new jersey wide out jesse holley. there are other recruits visiting this weekend too, but those are the only ones i can think of off the top of my head. all of the listed recruits there are top notch high school talents and they would considerably ease the buckeye pain of losing prescot burgess to michigan and louis irizarry to miami. the only positive i can see from us losing both burgess and irizarry is that i can now speak the honest truth about both of the players. by the way, you can watch the film i shot on both talents by checking out the vg recruiting videos. they are linked at the top of the left hand column and like everything with the vg, they are completely free. as for prescott burgess, i don't see him as a safety. if he is a safety, i would attack him through the air. he lacks average speed of safeties in the big10 and will be a liability in pass coverage. not saying he won't be a tackling machine, dominant in run support, or anything like that. in fact, this same lack of coverage skills is what may hurt mike doss come draft day. simply put though, prescott burgess didn't look like he ran a 4.5 to me. probably more like 4.65. i still wish we would have gotten him, but as a linebacker and not a safety. in prescott's defense, he was playing banged up this year, so maybe that had something to do with his performance. as for louis irizarry, i really can't say anything bad about his game. good hands, good speed, and a suprisingly adept blocker. i can say that he didn't catch many balls in high school as a result of the offense he played in (sound familiar). maybe that is why he had a hard time believing that coach tressel wouldn't get him the ball like coach coker and the coCanes would. who knows. as for which player is the bigger loss for the buckeyes, i would say louis irizarry in a land slide. we didn't need burgess that badly and irizarry could have redefined the tight end position at ohio state. oh well, some people start traditions, and some people go to schools with traditions for only 20 years. more later. 
01-09-03 (2:15pm) just some rumors and gossip about recruiting and one link for now. the link is nothing more than the results of a combine held for underclassmen recently. not really interesting yet, but a nice look at some objective physical data on some of the top juniors in the nation and ohio. as for the ohio guys that participated, it looks like most of them were from cleveland glenville. in no particular order, i recognized glenville standout underclassmen ted ginn jr (junior cb - qb), curtis smith (soph de - rb), freddie lenix (soph lb), tim conner (soph rb - db), and dante cloud (junior db). other ohio guys on the list include huber heights wayne junior linebacker marcus freeman, west chester lakota west junior offensive lineman steve rehrig, toledo rogers junior wide out fred davis, and dayton c-j junior quarterback anthony turner. very interesting to see how they did compared to other top players. probably the best stat on that list in my opinion is the 20 yard shuttle. it measures speed, agility, and ability to change direction and get back to top speed quickly. probably the most important stat for football since you rarely run 40 yards in a straight line, but often you go one direction, read the play and then need to go another direction.
in the rumor department, defensive end turk mcbride has cancelled his official visit to miami. since he seemed to love his visit to ohio state, this looks pretty good for us. in further good news, texas defensive end tim washington has finally scheduled an official visit to ohio state after cancelling his original visit. both washington and mcbride are top flight defensive ends and impact players on the defensive side of the ball. in the bad rumor department, a miami website is reporting that louis irizarry has infact decommitted from osu and either has opened things back up or outright committed to miami. i have heard conflicting reports. looks like we are in for a fight here. i still haven't heard any official confirmation that michael jenkins is indeed staying at ohio state for his senior season, but i have yet to hear a denial and i keep hearing the same rumor. it is looking like it is true to me, but we will find out for sure come january 15th. that is the deadline for underclassmen to declare for the NFL draft. i finally got some more important dates. their is a college all star game this saturday and one next saturday. i listed the important details in the left hand column. if i recall mike doss, donnie nickey, and andy groom are among the buckeyes playing this saturday. the only buckeye i saw listed playing next saturday was kenny peterson. sadly for one of my favorites, this means KP will miss the celebration at the shoe that weekend. you will be missed KP. last note for now, i have spoke to vladimir gonzalez finally. he is starting the process of capturing some video from the national championship game tonight and will be posting it probably in the next day or so. he has promised me personally that he will post the video of the osu hottie kicking the field goal first. vlad knows what the vg likes that is for sure. anyways, i am offline probably until after dinner, and i may just call it a night if i don't find anything interesting to talk about. i pretty much have tapped all my resources today. tomorrow i will start posting some fan pics sent in that are fakes and jokes. should be fun. as for the links, i got three. the cleveland plain dealer has a piece by osu hater bruce hooley on lydell ross staying at osu and other crap. the next link is a letter to the editor of the PD bitching about how the PD seems to hate the bucks. i can't believe the old guy that picks which letters to the editor get published had the balls to post this letter. last link for the morning is some table scraps from the greedy wolfe family and the columbus dispatch posted on 1460 the fan about andy groom. poorly written article by a cheap organization, what did you expect. i just hope their cheapness doesn't impact the columbus blue jackets in the future. last thing ohio needs is another laughingstock pro sports team like the bengals or the cavaliers. no more until lunch time for sure, and then i may still not update. i can't make any promises today. 01-09-03 (7:15am) hopefully everyone liked the picture of our newest poster on the message board below. honestly i get the impression that she was just checking out new message boards on world crossing and not an avid reader of the vg, but i can dream can't i? anyways, i got a brief bit of college football news and then i am going to start posting some pics sent in by readers of the vg. in the not so suprising news category, it looks like the florida state criminoles are at it again. star defensive tackle darnell dockett was busted getting an unauthorized 90 percent discount on clothing. the twist this time is that the store was owned in part by former criminole warrick dunn. that ties the store to the program and could lead to violations if the clerk caught up in the scheme rolls over on the university in court. could this be the end of bobby bowden, or will this get swept under the rug? sorry i don't have a link. i read this in an ap article and accidentally closed the window out. i am way too lazy to look for it in my history or dig it up again. just take my word on it. it will be big news on sportscenter tonight i imagine if nothing else. i think today i am going to do the more serious pics (all those from the miami game) and then later this week do the joke - fake pics. that way i don't have too many pics on the front page at once. anyways, enough build up, here comes a series of pics of miami holding ohio state. not one of these were called holding either. maybe i shouldn't call it holding then either. if it isn't holding, i guess it is cuddling then. like i said earlier, maybe butt poker brett romberg's lifestyle is rubbing off on his teammates. be proud of your sexuality hurricanes. be proud. anyways, here come the pics, no explanation needed really, they are just all uncalled cuddlings by the coCanes. 
 that is all i got for now. i still need to look for some more news links to go with the 2 from the DDN i posted earlier this morning. enjoy. 01-09-03 (6:25am) i know i said i was going to get back online this morning and post some pics sent in by readers, and i will be here shortly, but i had to post this right now. i was on the site message board checking out new messages and all that when i came across (no pun intended, you will get it when you look at it) this pic below. i guess she was checking out the message board and wanted to give me a little advice on how i could make my message board a little more user friendly (i will be taking her advice later today and working on the message board). sure she had some good advice, but man she left a picture of herself as well as a link to her message board. finally actual photographic proof that hot chicks read the vg. made my morning let me tell you. i was checking out her message boards and website (amongst other things) and it appears that she may be some sort of erotic entertainer (fancy talk for stripper) from the UK from what i could gather. i could be wrong here, but that is the impression i got from her one forum and the other adult forum she runs on world crossing. anyways, that is enough hype and type, it is time for the eye candy (sorry about the pic quality, i blew it up slightly). also before showing the pic, if you have a problem with me reposting your pic jay K, just let me know and i will take it down (amongst other things). normally i wouldn't post a pic of a reader like this, but she posted it on my message board so what the hell. by the way, this isn't a new direction the site is taking. i am not turning into some biker magazine where readers send in pics of their 'old ladies'. then again if you send them in, i am sure i will post them. 
on a related note, me saying that i finally have photographic proof of hot chicks reading the vg isn't meant to say that those chicks that do read the vg aren't hot or anything. i have gotten quite a bit of fan mail from women since i started this site nearly 5 years ago. whether those women are hot chicks or not remains to be determined, that's all i am saying. anyways, i will have those other pics i promised a little later in the morning. enjoy. 01-09-03 (5:10am) first off i have some good news for buckeye fans. darrion scott has announced that he is not entering the NFL draft and will return to defend the title his senior season. scott has been a playmaker throughout his career as a buckeye and will be a force on the defensive front in 2003. there is also a rumor going around that michael jenkins has announced that he will also return to campus for his senior season and not enter the NFL draft. that one wasn't confirmed by the OSU athletic department though and is still in rumor land. it was reported on columbus radio though so it is somewhat credible, afterall it isn't like munch (on my...) reported it or anything. i know it is recruiting season, but if those two and will smith are all back for their senior seasons, it is bigger than getting any recruit out there. hopefully the jenkins rumor is true and hopefully smith likes jewelry and wants another ring. not only do i have that good news, but i have some linkage to keep us buckeye fans regular this morning. the dayton daily news has a pretty good article on will allen and willis mcgahee. the DDN also has a piece on craig krenzel being on the cover of the latest issue of sports illustrated. that article also has a bunch of quotes from krenzel, matt wilhelm, and lydell ross. another good article in the DDN. speaking of the DDN, where the hell is doug harris lately. harris is one of the top reporters that covers the buckeyes and he has been missing in action lately. hopefully mr. harris didn't get arrested for celebrating the victory a little too much. continuing with daily linkage, the akron beacon journal is up early this morning and has a two pack of articles for buckeye fans. unfortunately for buckeye fans, one link is an exact replica of the krenzel on SI piece and the other article can't be much more than 100 words. that piece is on freshman safety nate salley walking on to the basketball team. no news there for us die hards. as a result of this poor quality of linkage, i am not linking them here. if you are hard up for reruns or whatnot, feel free to go to the akron beacon journal yourself, their link is in the left hand column as always. later this morning, i am going to post a bunch of pictures that have been sent in by readers of the vg. a couple of fake photos and a nice series of miami holding the buckeyes. actually, it wasn't holding since the refs never called it. i guess you could say they were cuddling the buckeyes instead of holding. maybe that butt pincher brett romberg is rubbing off on the rest of the team. be proud of your sexuality miami hurricanes, be proud. final note for now is more of a gift for the readers. if you are anything like the vg, nothing annoys you more than michigan and freaking pop up advertisements. i know from email that some readers are getting annoyed with the pop up ad for bucknuts the magazine on their site. well, you know what, i didn't even know they had popups. i use a free little program that kills most popups before they get a chance to annoy me. the program is called the pop up stopper and it is available for free (they do have pay versions as well for corporate users or rich people with no understanding of the value of a dollar). i use the free version though and it is great. if you use it, you won't have to deal with hardly any pop ups ever again (some of us web guys are pretty tricky though and can get past it). the only complaint i have ever had about the pop up stopper is that you can't open links in a new window. that is true, but there is away around that problem. just hold control or shift while you open the link in a new window and it will allow it to open up. let go of control or shift and it will block any subsequent pop up windows. last note here. this is not a paid endorsement. in fact i recommend that users simply download the free version and ignore the paid version unless you are on a work computer (if you are on a work computer that would be in violation of the software license and the vg doesn't recommend that for sure). anyways, that is all i got for right now. to wrap up some open issues in closing, i still am missing a few key dates for buckeye fans (college all star games, spring game, spring practice, and fall practice). also, i still haven't heard from vladimir gonzalez yet on how he is doing with the video captures from the national championship game. last open issue, i still need to compress some video in order to update the recruiting video archive for this site. hopefully i will get to that by sunday at the latest. like i said before, i will be back online this morning with some reader submitted pics and maybe some more linkage. enjoy the day as it happens. 01-08-03 (1:15pm) not much else out there in the form of links today. i looked all over the net and struck out. instead i answered all the site email again and trolled the message boards for a little bit. i did find one link worth passing on but it isn't news or anything. this is a flash presentation of the buckeye season in review. it is pretty good but it will take a little time to download it. anyways, i got to log off for now and i probably won't be back online until after dinner some time. enjoy. 
01-08-03 (9:30am) if you are looking for links today, scroll down the page a little, they're there. this post is all about one of my favorite future buckeyes (at least i hope he is a buckeye), shawn crable.
before i get too far into my love for shawn crable, let me disclaim that i am highly biased towards the stark county talent. also, don't just take my word for it, watch some of the free videos i have on shawn crable by following this link. my free recruiting videos are hosted by sony imagestation which is good because they have no bandwidth restrictions whatsoever. you do need to register for a free sony imagestation account to get into the server though, but most readers of the vg already have from what i can gather. if you haven't ever checked out the recruiting videos, there is a bunch more there than just shawn crable. i got video on donte whitner, dareus hiley, louis irizarry, devon jordan, tony gonzalez, prescott burgess and a bunch of talented underclassmen as well. now back to shawn crable. crable is generally listed at being 6'6" and 220 pounds. his speed is generally listed as being 4.6 in the fourty yard dash. the picture over there on the right lists him as 6'5" and 221. that was taken straight from the game program at massillon. i listed him as running a 4.65 and that is just a guess of mine. i based that figure on having seen him play in person and judging his speed as compared to other guys i have seen run. not an exact science for sure. speaking of not an exact science, that is exactly what recruiting is. some recruiting experts who shall remain nameless don't see shawn crable as a must get. to me, that just shows how little football these guys actually see. watching highlight films of players and calling them on the cellphone with your free long distance does not make you an authority on the game of football. anyone who sees a healthy shawn crable in action sees a superstar in the making. crable is a unique linebacker - defensive end prospect. he is still a little light to be an end, but that is a possibility down the road as he fills out the frame with a college strength and conditioning program. as for his weight, he is a little thin for an end, but he is absolutely ripped and has very little body fat. he is a very solid 220 pound linebacker right now. since crable will start out his career as a linebacker (and a terror on special teams), i will analyze his game as a linebacker. crable to me is the perfect 3-4 linebacker. he excels at rushing the qb coming off the edge and is very adept at dropping back into coverage. i have a bunch of film of crable where he drops into coverage to take a back or a tight end on in coverage. the qb wisely avoids throwing near crable and crable reads the play, leaves his man, and makes the tackle. crable has a lot of football knowledge. some recruiting experts criticize crable for not making enough plays. i answer them with the question, how many plays did you actually see shawn crable play? crable is a playmaker for sure. whether it be rushing the qb, standing strong against the run, or dropping into coverage, shawn crable makes plays all over the field and is a very complete linebacker. i see crable being used like na'il diggs was when he first got to campus. i would play him in passing downs with one hand on the turf. whether i have him rush the qb or drop into coverage is for the qb's to worry about, i have no worries about having shawn crable on my team. probably the only thing out there you could be concerned about with crable (other than the position - weight issue) is his health. crable had foot surgery once and had it fixed up again later when he bent a pin in the foot. i don't see the foot being a problem, but it could be a concern. as for what schools crable is considering, there are three mentioned most often, ohio state, michigan, and pitt in that order. many experts have it coming down to osu and michigan, but i don't see it that way. from what i have heard in the area, pitt is a much bigger concern of mine than michigan. michigan is almost out of scholarships for starters. also crable is very tight with the family and i don't see him getting too far away from ms. kirkland. he has former tigers devon jordan and justin zwick on the buckeyes, but he also has former tigers andy alleman and the david abdul at pitt. both osu and pitt are relatively close to the canton area and are much closer than detroit. my gut feeling here is that crable is a buckeye, but it isn't like i am psychic or anything either. anyways, that is my thoughts on shawn crable. i am going to try to get back online around lunchtime today, but i can't make any promises. in other random thoughts for now, i still don't know when the ohio north south game, the east west shrine game, or the other college all star games are held. if any fans have that information please pass it along via email or on my message board. i will post it here on the site for reference purposes. enjoy the day as it happens. 01-08-03 (8:40am) ok, i got some linkage and little time. here we go bullet style.
01-08-03 (6:50am) not much out there in the form of linkage. all i got for now is one link from the dayton daily news on coach tressel being named coach of the year by the american football coaches association. sorry i couldn't get online again yesterday to update much. i promised a recruiting profile yesterday and i am going to do that today on the top prospect in the state of ohio yet to commit to anyone, shawn crable. before i get into that though i need to do a public service announcement here. i got an email recently about the legal troubles of a buckeye fan. while i couldn't help, i thought maybe a reader of the site could help. this young fan was a student at ohio state and was at the michigan game. like any good student, he rushed the field after the game to celebrate with his friends and fellow buckeyes. we all know what happened with the pepper spray and all of course (that damn pepper spray is one osu tradition i could do without). well long story short, this student got pepper sprayed and didn't like it very much. while blinded by the pepper spray, he picked up something off the turf and threw it towards the pepper spray. he was immediately tackled by the police and charged with several felonies for this action and suspended from school. one of the felonies was resisting arrest (and how one can resist arrest when they can't see who is tackling him or here any declaration from the police due to the deafening crowd noise is beyond me). he spent three days in jail as a felon and may be a felon for the rest of his life if no fans out there can help him out. now was throwing a shoe the right thing to do, of course not. it was a stupid move by a freshman. does it warrant being a felon and all that is associated with it, hardly. what this reader of the site (not the potential felon, but a relative) would like is for any people with photographs or film of the crowd celebration on the south end of the field to please contact her via email. i would refrain from sending any pictures until you contact her first so we don't swamp her email inbox. 
enough of the public service announcement and on to some football news. first off true freshman safety nate salley is walking on to jim o'brien's hoops squad. salley scored nearly 20 points a game as a guard in high school and could be a valuable practice player if nothing else. in other news, coach tressel has decided to donate roughly one eigth of his pay this year back to youngstown state university to help build a student center. class move by a class act. in further news and speculation, it is looking like a big weekend for the buckeyes as far as recruiting is concerned. there are something like ten or twelve recruits making official visits this weekend. it wouldn't suprise me at all to see the bucks get two or three verbals out of this weekend. if i had to name one right now i would say akron st. vincent st. mary defensive tackle sian cotton. we just canceled a visit from another defensive tackle and cotton can't take too many visits as sidekick to the lebron james show. if i were forced to guess one more high school player to verbally commit (say pretend chris webber had a gun to my head or something), i would guess jersey standout ira guilford. ira is one of the nation's top safety prospects and a fairly decent tailback as well. guilford has had the buckeyes as a favorite for some time now and a decision seems imminent. disclaimer time now. i am not psychic. i predict crap wrong all the time. i have yet to sit for either my miss cleo certified psychic exam or the certified recruiting expert examination, so don't take this as gospel or anything. anyways, that is all i got for now. i am going to go search for some more linkage to keep up regular and start on a recruiting profile. more this morning for sure. 01-07-03 (10:55am) just some linkage for now. 1460 the fan and the columbus dispatch have a piece on the buckeyes making the big10 proud. jason lloyd has an article actually worth linking in the morning journal on tim anderson, buckeye hero. next up we got a piece from the canton repository on the canton hottie - osu cheerleader that hit the field goal at halftime with another picture. last link for now isn't really an article. this is an editorial cartoon from the cleveland plain dealer with woody hayes and lee tressel high fiving up in heaven after the national championship game. as for me, i need to get offline for a little while, but i am going to try and get back on between noon and one and do a recruiting profile. i can't make any promises, but i will do what i can to put up some info. more later. 01-07-03 (6:55am) not much out there in the form of linkage today. the only newspaper article i could find was in the dayton daily news on sales of buckeye gear. apparently the stuff is really flying off the shelves lately. i guess everyone is looking to make a buck or two off of the buckeyes. in a related note, i got offered the ability to sell osu merchandise on this site for another company. i don't know if i will do it or not, but i will listen to their emails the next couple of days and see what they are all about. i am not sure how much i like the idea of selling stuff in my good name and then having little to do with the actual sale other than driving people to the product. the way this would work would be that i would set up my own store at no cost to me and i would be selling licensed OSU gear for them, with a cut coming back to the website. probably the one thing i did like about this possible arrangement is that i wouldn't have to do much different than what i already do to make it work. i would include another ad on the page, but that isn't hard or anything. don't have any fears about this site selling out. it will never become a pay site despite what jokers like mr bucknuts predict about the pending demise of free websites. all information here will always be free, even the recruiting videos. also all new information here will always be free, including any future recruiting videos i am lucky enough to shoot. you will never need a user name, password, and credit card to read the crap i write here. if the site does make a buck or two (which it has already believe it or not), it won't be by excluding any of the readers or fans. this site does sell advertising now and it may sell products, it will never sell subscriptions to the website though. any money generated by the site will just increases the amount of money i can spend on camera equipment, provide more money for travel to osu practices, and allow me to cover of high school football prospects more completely. honestly though, my main goal for the site in the near term is to move my site off of this tripod server and get a domain name of my own and a new webhost with some more legroom for pictures and stuff. i have taken nearly 5 gigabytes of pics this year from osu practices and high school games, but this server hardly lets me share any of those. another part of the me wanting to move this site is the desire to learn new technologies with the web. tripod doesn't support databases or php or asp or cgi and the vg would like to start using them on the site if nothing else other than to learn them and list them on the old resume. throw in the fact that php, asp, and a database would make this site even easier to update and it is a no brainer that i need to do this in the next year or so. for example, i have a sweet little database of information built up for recruiting, but i can't share it due to the type of server i am currently using. all that work is stuck on my computer and helps nobody but myself. anyways, i don't expect much to change around here except there may be another advertiser in the near term if i like what they have to say and sell. if i did agree to set up the internet store front for this company, i plan on buying a product from a different affiliate of theirs and see how good they are with regard to quality and customer service before agreeing to anything. i don't plan on changing the URL (think link for the computer illiterate out there) of the site anytime soon, but i would like to do it by the beginning of next season or the season after that worst case scenario. enough of site news and back to football. since i couldn't find any links on football this morning i went out and dug up some other stuff. for starters i found some osu national champion wallpaper. this site is from josh winslow and it has a bunch of wallpapers, including a new one for the national championship. i talked to him via email recently and he said he would have some more posted there in the near term. one disclaimer about his wallpaper collection, he uses sony imagestation to serve the wallpaper so you do need to register for a free sony imagestation account to get in. on a side note here while speaking about sony imagestation, my good friend vladimir gonzalez is planning on doing some video capture work from the national championship game and posting it in his imagestation account. he told me he may even take some requests for this game. vlad is planning on posting on my message board today in search of what plays buckeye fans would like to have him video capture and share with the world for free. vlad has already posted highlights from the purdue, illini, and michigan game this year and even a clip from the michigan game last year. if you want to check out his work, he is linked permanently in the left hand column way down near the bottom. if you have a particular highight you would like to download, respond to vlad's post on my message board and hopefully he will be able to do it for you. still on the side note, if you are asking what the hell is sony imagestation, here is your answer. sony has an unlimited bandwidth server for its members. it is the same server i currently use to share all those high school recruiting highlights now (my link is near the top of the left hand column and the link for the free recruiting videos is titled 'vg recruiting videos' if you haven't seen them yet). anyways, sony imagestation is free for all to join and use and it is a great service from a great company (not a paid endorsement by the vg or anything, but i love my sony digital camcorder and still camera). you do need to sign up to get into the sony imagestation server, but there is usually a bunch of good stuff there free for downloading so it is worth the while. back on the original track of osu national championship wallpapers, i found another wallpaper for fans. this wallpaper is done by scott beer and you can check it out here. very good work by a very good graphic artist. in further linkage, i was on the site osu homebase this morning and i saw that they have posted some small video files of them at the game friday night, script ohio, and stuff like that. it looks like they took the movies on a still camera in movie mode, but they aren't too bad and the free price is right up my alley. check it out if you are interested in seeing some of the tradition and celebration from the fiesta bowl. on an unrelated note, i finally answered the site email last night. the site email inbox was overstuffed again and was bouncing email over the past few days. anyways, if you tried to email me, but got it returned back to you, send it again and i will get to it here sometime this week. anyways, that is all i have for now. hopefully the sportswriters step up and give us something good to read today. if they don't, i will do what i can to fill the void at lunchtime if nothing else. maybe it is time for another recruiting profile. also, if i find any more links here early this morning i will post them then, otherwise though i doubt i am back online until lunchtime. 01-06-03 (7:10pm) just a little news right now. 10tv in columbus is reporting that there will be a party in the horseshoe saturday the 18th at 1pm. sounds like a good time for all. unfortunately it isn't this weekend when all the recruits were on campus. oh well. on a side note, i now have posted the dates for the NFL draft and the deadline for declaring for the draft in the left hand column. will smith, darrion scott, and michael jenkins have until january 15th to decide to enter the draft or return to defend the title. big thanks to joel for the info there. 01-06-03 (12:45pm) just one final link for now and then on to some random thoughts. this link is from 1460 the fan and the columbus dispatch and it is on coach tressel and staff heading to the coaches convention before getting back to recruiting. in actual news today, it was reported on the radio that michael jenkins, will smith, and darrion scott all have completed paperwork requesting an opinion of their draft position from the NFL. this does not mean they are actually leaving school early for the NFL draft, it just means that they will have some more information to help them make their decision. speaking of the NFL draft, does anyone out there know when a player must declare for the draft or the date of the draft itself? i would like to post those dates in the left hand column for reference purposes. other dates i am seeking that don't involve the buckeye cheerleader who hit the field goal at halftime (the female one for the wise asses out there), i would really like to know the dates for spring ball, what day does fall camp open up, and the date ohio north south high school all star game. drop me an email, post it on the message board, or just send me a smoke signal if you could. last night was the army high school all star game. lots of potential buckeyes played and two verbal commitments played as well in donte whitner and louis irizarry. whitner started the game at corner and looked to be a dominant cover corner. he only got beat once that i saw and made a couple of nice sticks on ballcarriers. i was really pleased to see whitner do well last night. playing at glenville, whitner never faced top notch competition in high school. last night he faced it all game long and he still looked like the dominant player that he was as a tarblooder. speaking of donte whitner, rumor is that he is starting school this quarter and may even have class today. maybe the television stations in columbus can break that news and make up for the prescott burgess thing. at least that news they could verify visually instead of taking the word of someone whose word is meaningless. as good as donte whitner looked last night, louis irizarry looked even better. irizarry didn't get much of an opportunity to shine on offense and when he did, the qb's on the east didn't get him the ball. on special teams and defense though irizarry was a star of the game. the punt irizarry blocked was a great display of athleticism by a great athlete. irizarry got through a little too quick and had to adjust the body in midair to reach back and block the kick. incredible play that i can't do justice to if you haven't seen it. later in the game irizarry came up with a big safety. speaking of irizarry, the rumor around him that just won't die is that he is thinking about decommiting from osu and looking at other schools still. whether this is true or not i have no clue. i suspect it is false though. i know we don't throw to our tight ends enough to make any tight end prospects happy, but i think that is about to change. some of the positives i see with irizarry coming to osu include the following. first off we use a bunch of two tight end sets. that is a big opportunity for a young guy to come in and compete for significant playing time right away. also, our offensive coordinator jim bollman came to osu from the chicago bears where he was the tight ends coach. i think he is just waiting for the talent to arrive before implementing more use of the tight end to stretch the defense out. other reasons why i think this rumor is a load of crap include how much irizarry wants to be a buckeye. everything i have ever heard about LI is that he is a huge buckeye fan. man was that last paragraph poorly written now that i read over it. oh well, i am sticking with it without revision in an effort to cover what i want to today. i just don't see this rumor amounting to anything. i see it more as a way to keep interest in recruiting gossip high and to motivate some of the die hards to sign up for premium subscriptions. in addition to the two osu commits, there were several other names in the game that are still potential buckeyes. starting in ohio, sian cotton looked good to me. he seemed to be in decent shape and was as mobile as i have heard and thought i saw at a mudpit of a field this year (sorry here, but no video of sian from that mudpit, i couldn't risk the camcorder). cotton looks like a great defensive tackle to me and i can't wait to get his name on the dotted line come february 5th. the only other player from ohio that the buckeyes still have a chance with was shawn crable. for those new to the site, i am highly biased towards stark county high school football and i am a big supporter of shawn crable. i see him as the perfect 3-4 linebacker at the next level and i anticipate him being used in a role like na'il diggs was when he first tasted action as a buckeye, kind of like a designated pass rusher with the ability to drop into coverage in a zone blitz scheme. as for his performance last night, crable looked awesome to me again. he ran really well compared to the rest of the athletes on the field and he still had that massive frame. a bunch of out of state prospects looked pretty good too. starting with the defensive side of the ball, i liked what i saw. maryland linebacker wesley jefferson didn't do a whole lot, but what he did was impressive. he completely pounded one dude on a tackle. illinois defensive tackle moe dampeer looked completely unblockable at the point of attack. he collapsed the pocket with regularity and looked like the type of player that would need to be double teamed in college. florida defensive end - tailback - fullback joe cohen looked like a fantastic athlete. he didn't seem as big as what i have read about him, but i was in ohio and the game was in texas so maybe i didn't get the best look at him size wise. whatever his height, joe cohen looked like he could be an impact player at ohio state. last player i am going to comment on from the defensive side of tthe ball is maryland defensive end victor abiamiri. abiamiri was probably the most impressive defensive player i saw. he looked ready to come to campus and potentially help fill the void left by the early departure of starting defensive ends will smith and darrion scott. i don't think we have much of a chance with abiamiri, but man do i hope we get lucky here. there weren't a bunch of offensive guys in the game that we are in on that i noticed or paid enough attention to to form an opinion on. not that i wasn't interested in the offensive guys, it is just that there was so much talent on defense that i missed a bunch of the linemen types. the one who did stand out was jorrie adams. that guy looks like the perfect line prospect. tall, thick but not fat, and extremely mobile for a big man. adams even seemed to have that nasty streak that linemen need to survive in the trenches. anyways, that is all i got for now. i probably won't be back online here until sometime after dinner tonight. i still may get some stuff done for the site while i eat a turkey sandwich (i really need to answer a bunch of email and i would like to check out the message boards once more before calling it a day on the net). enjoy. 01-06-03 (10:10am) just one more link for now, but if you follow it there are probably a dozen more links on that page. this link is from the usa today and is about the buckeyes shocking miami to win the national championship. i am going to try to get back online again here around lunchtime with some thoughts on the army high school all star game last night. enjoy the national championship as we prepare to defend it. 01-06-03 (7:35am) one more quick take on the traitor, prescott burgess. for those just waking up or just checking the net, burgess announced his desire to give lloyd carr an oral commitment yesterday. anyways, lots of buckeye fans are pretty bummed out about this and rightfully so, prescott is a big time talent. obviously nothing is taking away from the good feeling we all have due to the national championship and all, but it was a big loss to michigan of all places. my take here though is this, if i have to lose one player to michigan out of prescott and massillon linebacker shawn crable, i want crable in scarlet and gray in a bad way. michigan is almost out of scholarships and they are supposedly one of the schools in on crable (though that isn't what i hear in the neighborhood, i hear osu and pitt as being the most likely choices). with michigan nearly being out of scholarships, hopefully this means they won't have room for shawn crable. 01-06-03 (7:20am) just one more link for now, and it isn't much of a link either. this one is from the new philadelphia times reporter and it is on the tressel family's roots in tuscarawus county. for all those readers out there going, huh i thought he was from berea, you are right. not much ever happens in tuscarawus county and i guess they are trying to claim some of the fame (as if having cie grant hail from new philadelphia or having woody hayes as a former high school coach there wasn't enough). while the article is weak on the info and poorly written, it is buckeye related though. later in the day i am going to do some extended random thoughts on the army all star game and some of the prospects in that game of interest to buckeye fans. as for now, i am out. more later. 01-06-03 (5:15am) of course the big news last night was prescott burgess doing his benedict arnold impression live on espn2 last night and orally committing to lloyd carr. hey, if he wants to go to a loser school and lose 4 or 5 games every season, that is his decision, he will have the rest of his life to regret it. in linkage this morning, i got a few. the dayton daily news has an article on willis mcgahee tolerating knee surgery and another piece on the television ratings. neither article is up to the typical high standard of doug harris or the DDN. the akron beacon journal has a few articles as well. they are better than the DDN's this morning but i swear i have already read this first article and they just posted it again with a line or two on the national championship and a new date in the byline. anyways, the suspected rerun is on the coach tressel way. in fresher links, the ABJ has pieces on how appropriate the nailbiter was friday night, how jim tressel and john cooper are different, and finally a piece recapping the ten biggest plays from the national championship game. that is all i got for now. i am going to try to get back online again this morning and hopefully post some more links. enjoy. 
01-05-03 (8:17pm) prescott burgess is a traitor and will be attending the university of michigan and not ohio state. i guess he has a fear of success thing going on or something. on a positive, louis irizarry is playing really well on special teams and the game has been entertaining. what game? the army all star game on espn2 right now. log off the damn net and go watch it.
01-05-03 (8:40am) i got a bunch of links for the morning. since i am probably still legally drunk today despite not having had anything to drink for the past 24 hours, i am taking the lazy way out and doing this bullet style.
01-04-03 (11:35pm) welcome aboard to the newest buckeye, prescott burgess. burgess is ballpark 6'4" and right around 215 pounds. he moves well for a big buy and is a tackling machine. burgess comes to campus out of warren harding high school and was coached by the legendary thom mcdaniels.
hopefully burgess is ready to go for fall camp because both starting safety jobs are wide open next season with the departure of donnie nickey and mike doss. the smart money is on will allen snagging one of the two safety positions and the rumor is that dustin fox will move from corner to safety. i am not so sure about fox moving to safety though. he played pretty good all season when he was healthy and someone would have to step up at corner to fill his position. maybe a guy like donte whitner, ashton youboty, or tony gonzalez will step up in fall ball and make the decision for the coaches. anyways, as for seeing burgess you can watch him sunday in that army all star game down in texas on espn (or is it espn2?). if you can't wait until then, check out some of the film i shot on burgess. it is all free and you can find it linked at the top of the left hand column, right under the site logo. the link is called 'vg recruiting videos'. enjoy. 01-04-03 (8:50pm) sorry i have been away from the net today. needless to say, i was a little drunk last night and a lot hungover today. when the game when into overtime, me, the cbg, and the ipa all started drinking boilermakers like mad men. the buckeyes needed to step up and we felt we had to step up as well. long story short, doing five boilermakers within an hour is not good for the body or the mind, but it is fun while it happens. anyways, lots and lots and lots of links out there today. 99 percent of the readers have already read them by now so i am not going to bang my head against the wall to get them all linked here now. if you do need links still, check out bucknuts, they have maybe 50 links on the national championship. as for me and this site, i imagine i will bask in the national championship for another day or two and then shift into coverage of recruiting. we have the high school all star game sunday with lots of buckeye verbals and a few more potential buckeyes on display. of course me and the cbg will have that on the tube and we should have full coverage of that game and some thoughts on the talent on display. it will be interesting to see how this championship impacts recruiting this year. i doubt it swings any recruits are way that weren't leaning this way already, but it could tip the scale some. you never know. anyways, i am getting out of here and going to get something to eat. i am going to get back online later tonight and finally have some thoughts on the game itself. 01-04-03 (12:20am) buckeyes win 31 - 24. more real quick like. we win the national championship, not that i played a down or anything. i need to go flip a car. more later 01-03-03 (halftime) buckeyes are playing defense as stout as guiness and lead the coCanes 14 - 7. the defensive line is playing like the best defensive line we have had in years. eddie george is in the house and on air for halftime and all is good. miami has the quick strike offense and we need to play better in the second half if we are to win this game. don't start flipping cars just quite yet. more immediately after the game. 01-03-03 (7:40pm) just under an hour before kickoff. sorry i didn't update yesterday or this morning or afternoon, but i did have a bunch of fun so it was worth slacking off to me. there were a ton of links out there today, but most readers have read them by now and it is time for me to turn up the drinking. therefore i am just going to do some random thoughts on the game today. the one position miami has a clear advantage over the buckeyes is the offensive line. if the buckeyes are going to have a chance tonight, we will have to minimize this mismatch. probably what our line does worst is pass block. i don't expect to see us pass much at all in the beginning of the game. lots of maurice clarett between the tackles. when we do pass, i expect it to be play action passing to keep the defense off its toes. if craig krenzel gets hit like joe germaine did against florida state in the bowl game, we will lose this game. as for miami's offensive line, they are equally adept at both pass blocking and run blocking. they are good enough blocking that they don't have to keep a tight end in or a running back to help out with blocking. if the buckeyes are going to be in this game we will need to change that. if miami is going with 5 lineman and releases the backs and tight ends into pass routes, that is a bunch of options for dorsey and a big headache for mark dantonio. i see the rest of the game as a fairly even matchup. we both have qb's that don't make mistakes. we both have future NFL first round draft pick tailbacks. we both have NFL tight ends (though ours is more of a traditional tight end that blocks first and catches balls much later). we both have big receivers with speed. all this adds up to a game where the offense will be carried by the offensive line. on defense, miami has a talented and experienced front seven. it is their back four that has me licking the chops. miami lost four starters from last years championship team to the NFL (note: i did not say lose them to graduation by the way). these four new starters in the secondary are talented, but they lack experience. hopefully we can get them to bite on the play action or a double move. maybe an experienced receiver like a michael jenkins can get one corner to turn his hips premature and leave him on the ground. i like our matchup here with the receivers on their secondary. hopefully the offensive line gives of enough time to throw the ball to take advantage of it. i love our defense and the way we match up with the coCane offense. they are an offense built on speed and so is our defense. cie grant will be the fastest linebakcer that miami will face this season. kenny peterson is very quick for an interior defensive lineman. we will need KP to get so much penetration that i will need to change his nickname on the site to KY. in the secondary, the buckeyes have more speed than people think. gamble and fox are two of the fastest guys we got on the team. doss and nickey are sound tacklers that understand the scheme and will keep us in the right alignment. i really think we will have troubles with both andre johnson and kellen winslow. hopefully we can keep them in front of us, make the tackle, force the field goal opportunity. we will see. prediction time. i see maurice clarett rumbling for over 200 yards and controlling the clock and the tempo of the game. i see craig krenzel being effective with the play action pass. i see the defensive front seven for the bucks to stuff the run and get heat on ken dorsey. buckeyes win 24 - 19. 01-01-03 (11am) happy new year for starters. the vg and cbg are now in columbus for bowl week and are ready for a full day of college football action. there are a ton of links out there today and i am running out of time. as a result i am just going to link the index pages here and then get on to some random thoughts. the dayton daily news has a seven pack of articles on the buckeyes. speaking of seven packs, the akron beacon journal has seven articles fresh off the presses for this morning. last index page for now is from the cleveland plain dealer. the PD has a whopping eight articles on the bucks. now for some predictions on the bowl games today. michigan vs florida: interesting matchup of big10 and sec teams that aren't as god as they typically are. florida is led by former heisman pretender rex grossman and head coach ron zook. michigan is led by a michigan man lloyd carr, who will probably be soliciting for oral commitments from some of the top talent in the state of florida while he is there. michigan has a balanced offense and a defense that isn't as good as the media thinks it is. the big10 backer in me wants to pick michigan, but i don't see it. michigan lacks the talent on defense to keep this one low scoring and florida, even without spurrier, will still score lots of points. i see the gators winning 45 - 17. coach carr is about one more loss to the buckeyes and blowout in a bowl game away from being sent to the glue factory after this game. texas vs lsu: man do i hope chris simms sucks it up again in his finale at texas. lsu is a good team, but they are here more for their luck than their talent. i see texas rolling in a snoozer 34 - 9. don't worry though, christina simms will still suck. penn state vs auburn: another interesting matchup of big10 vs sec. i think penn state explodes out of the box in this one and runs away with it from the get go. larry johnson is going to run wild and the two qb's at penn state will play better than the qb from auburn. penn state wins big 38 - 14. notre dame vs nc state: i will be watching this game with a nd fan so this is probably one game i will see in its entirety. notre dame featured a top offensive line and a run stuffing defense all season. well, the offensive line will now be missing both starting tackles and the defense will be missing their best linebakcer in courtney watson. still though, i don't see a mid level acc team beating one of the powers that be in college football. i see this one being a close game that nd wins with defense. notre dame 24 - 12. washington state vs oklahoma: i smell another blowout here. wazu is dinged up and oklahoma is fired up to be in the rose bowl. i see the coach price to alabama thing being a distraction and coach stoops stuffing that mickey mouse offense of the cougars. blowout of the day behind 5 touchdown runs from quentin griffin. sooners win big 52 - 10. georgia vs florida state: everything here looks like georgia should whip up on the criminoles, but i don't know. i can see florida state coming out and running strong behind a good offensive line. georgia is good, but they aren't great either. florida state may be down, but they still have better athletes on their second team than georgia does starting. upset of the day, the criminoles steal one away from georgia with 27 - 24 victory. |
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