ohio state buckeyes football
january 2003 archive

01-22-04 (damn early / real late) thursday will be a big big day for the buckeye nation recruiting wise. GA tailback darius walker will be making his college announcement for starters. there are conflicting reports as of right now so i might as well give them both out just to cover all bases. there is supposed to be a press conference at 2:45pm at the high school and there is a chat at2:30pm on espn.com with tom lemming and darius walker. where the actual announcement is made i can't honestly tell but i got a good feeling that i will know by say 3pm at the latest either way. here is the link to the lemming chat if you want to monitor that for yourself. now on to some blatant rumor mongering. there is some debate as to what will happen with darius walker tomorrow. buckeye fans obviously think he is ours to lose but other schools have their points of view too so let's present all the cases here starting with the strongest. walker visited ohio state this past weekend and loved it from all accounts. he then immediately went to his alabama visit and then he gets home and sets up this press conference and chat thing. he was scheduled to go to notre dame this coming weekend but that may not be happening now. most buckeye fans think the timing of his verbal is a good indicator of him deciding on the buckeyes. as supporting evidence we have coach tressel in florida tomorrow as well visiting some of our florida targets. one of those targets is tailback - defensive back dennis kennedy. tressel's visit to kennedy's house is scheduled for just after the walker announcement. the thinkng goes that darius walker has the offer but it expires tomorrow since we are filling up on scholarships so fast. that prompted walker to get it over with and realize his destiny as a buckeye tailback on a championship team instead of playing for some former power like alabama or notre dame. sounds reasonable to me honestly but who knows what is actually true. the lemming chat bothers me. tom lemming gets a boner thinking about notre dame and i don't think he would want to rub their faces in losing their top remaining prospect to the buckeyes on his chat, but then again he is a media whore and it should get good ratings (if there is such a thing for a chat). alabama fans think he is theirs since he scheduled all this as soon as he got back from their visit. sounds reasonable too. anyways we will know by the time we get home from work tomorrow and as g.i. joe always said knowing is half the battle. other players that have set up times for their announcement that i am aware of go like this. kyle mitchum will have a press conference at 4pm monday. it looks like it is us versus iowa with west virginia on the outside looking in. the monday after that PA athlete devon lyons is making his choice at 7pm. that one is still looking like an ohio state versus michigan state battle.SC offensive lineman leon hart is scheduled to announce next wednesday night. as far as i know those are the only scheduled announcements so far. we still don't know when fred davis will accept his destiny and the same goes for WI's top player rhyan anderson. still no confirmation on the miles williams not having a scholarship offer anymore as originally reported by bucknuts and gary houseteau. with bill kurelic being quiet on this one i think it is time to consider williams a verbal of the bucks until he says otherwise. it looks like miles williams may have been 'bucknutsed' much like kenyon buford, evans desir, louis holmes, frank morton and so on and so forth. bucknuts could still have it right but until someone with a shred of credibility confirms it i think it should be treated as a nasty rumor at best and something to keep an eye on perhaps. anyways it is late and i need to get up by 5am. i accidentally took a four hour nap after work today so getting to sleep tonight should be an adventure. i am just hoping to get at least 2 or 3 more hours of sleep before work in the morning. anyways, enjoy the darius walker verbal tomorrow as it happens. more after work thursday. 01-20-04 (5:10pm) just some real quick info before i head out tonight. the biggest news today is miles williams news. it seems to be official that miles williams will not be a buckeye. he no longer has a scholarship offer. there is some speculation as to why he doesn't have an offer anymore (grades or better talent waiting to verbal) but the end result is the same. miles williams is no longer a buckeye verbal nor will he even have the opportunity to sign a letter of intent. good luck with your decision miles. basically that is all i have to say for right now but i do have some other quick thoughts and i might as well get them out. from what i can gather things went really really well this weekend as far as official visitors are concerned. osu is looking like the possible destination for jersey wideout dwayne jarrett, PA linebacker james bryant, and GA tailback darius walker. as if that wasn't enough osu may be in the lead for superstar talents PA lineman kyle mitchum and WI d-lineman rhyan anderson. talking about closing out with a bang to make up for last year. all praise to JT. more later tonight i hope. 01-19-04 (11:20pm) time for another end of the weekend (extended weekend in this case) recruiting update. there is lots of info out there and there will probably be more leaking out to the free net later tonight and tuesday i imagine, but here is what i have rounded up so far. lots of rumors about erie PA lineman kyle mitchum floating around lately. some rumors have him as a silent verbal to coach tressel and the buckeyes that will announce on signing day and some are on the complete other end of the spectrum and have kyle making the 10 hour drive with his coach out to the sticks of iowa to tell kirk ferenz that he will have yet another top lineman on campus left behind when he finally bolts for the big money NFL job of his dreams. i honestly have no info on mitchum whatsoever but i do have a gut feeling. i think kyle will be a buckeye, the only question is when. i normally don't buy into silent verbals but in this case it does seem possible. kyle has been racking up the road miles for his recruitment and it wouldn't suprise me at all to see him drive to iowa, west virginia, and ohio state each and let them know personally what is going on. if i had to guess i would say kyle will make the road trip out to iowa, he will talk to ferenz, ferenz will not be happy with the outcome of the discussion, kyle will then drive to osu and tell coach T the good news, then kyle will hit wvu on his way home and tell coach R that he is a buckeye but thanks for the opportunity to become a mountaineer. kyle has been level headed and first class throughout the whole recruitment and this just seems like the natural ending to me (especially since it has him donning the scarlet and gray in the end of course). while there are abundant rumors about kyle mitchum, there is much less action on the wisky DE rhyan anderson front. it was reported somewhere today (or was it earlier this weekend) that osu is now maybe a slight favorite over oklahoma and that previous leader miami is dropping fast due to the lies they have been feeding him starting to come to light. anderson is a top flight DE prospect and one of the best two DE's we went after (along with MD's derrick harvey who is looking like he will be heading south of ohio for college now). DE is a big need in this class and anderson would be a great pickup. i can't remember the buckeyes ever going after let alone getting a kid from wisky to come to columbus so i am not counting my chickens before they hatch but i like our chances here. before this weekend i thought rhyan anderson was a pipe dream, now i am partaking in hitting that pipe big time. probably the biggest rumor floating around this weekend is about PA rb andrew johnson. johnson was scheduled to visit this weekend and did not. why you ask, good question. the coaches at OSU told him to not even bother coming to campus. we cancelled a top100 runningback's visit. things like that don't happen very often so you have to think there is a reason for it. my take is that osu did not suddenly decide he is not buckeye worthy. we wanted him but now for some reason don't have room for him. you gotta think that the bucks coaches think we are either going to fill up the rest of this class with greater talents than andrew johnson or that they have one or possibly two backs rated higher than johnson right now and things are looking so good there that there is no need for johnson to come to campus. it is possible that the bucks are filling up scholarships fast and won't take another tailback at all, but i think it is the other way. i think we determined this weekend that we will get another verbal from a tailback this next week and that is why we won't have any need for anderw johnson. if i had to guess that tailback that will be committing this week (or next) will be either darius walker (GA) or dennis kennedy (FLA). i think the bucks will wait until whatever day darius walker wants us to wait (including all the way until signing day). if he wants to be a buckeye the scholarship is his. if he doesn't want to be a buckeye, then i think the bucks offer dennis kennedy. the wild card here is that kennedy could be seen as an athlete - defensive back too. you know how coach tressel likes to have about 30 db recruits in every recruiting class so maybe he takes both if they want to come. you never know and i sure as hell don't. i am not psychic nor a recruiting expert, i am just a fan like the rest of you. for those that haven't hit any of the message boards out there nothing has changed. way too many guys out there thinking that recruits are hanging on their every word and not the other way around which we all realistically know is the truth. as if any recruit is anxiously awaiting what 'michiganfag1997' or whoever has to say about their college future. in wide receiver news there is some going on. first off lets start out with miles williams. williams verballed to the bucks a long time ago so he may not be fresh in many casual fans minds so i will recap a little first. williams is widely listed at being ballpark 6'4" and just under 200 pounds or so. he played tailback and defensive back in high school at austintown fitch. basically he sounds like a fred davis type of eastern ohio. he is tall, quick and a project at wide out. i went to see fitch and williams play football this year and had some of my own impressions. unfortunately i don't have any impression on his football skills. he had an injury the week before and was held out of the game i attended (which was unfortunately a theme of seeing games without guys this year). i can tell you that miles williams is probably not 6'4" though. i am medically measured as being 6'4" and i thought i had a couple of inches on williams. i would peg him at about 6'2" (which is still great size for a receiver, just not freak size). i could be wrong though here because i wasn't standing on the same ground level as him and i didn't get within 10 feet of him. still though i think 6'4" is not accurate. anyways the news now hitting the net is that williams is taking official visits and is probably at best a soft verbal to ohio state. i tend to think that we are going to in fact lose williams to another school and i think that is a shame. he looks like an athlete in search of a position and i would love to see him try out receiver in the scarlet and gray. unfortunately i totally believe that he will look around and go elsewhere (my money is on either michigan state or cincinnati). perhaps one of the reasons that miles williams is looking around elsewhere is all the possibilities we have at receiver this recruiting class. of course there is fred davis and i will get to that here in a minute or two but first i want to talk about dwayne jarrett (NJ). jarrett and davis are carbon copy receivers. both are tall with good speed and sticky hands. jarrett though has much much more experience as a receiver in high school. anyways dwayne jarrett was on campus this weekend for his official visit and all things went extremely well. he loved it and his mom was very supportive of ohio state too. both usc and virginia are rumored to be in the jarrett sweepstakes. usc is freaking far away and virginia (while an up and coming program) is virginia. i like our chances here and it wouldn't suprise me at all to see him verbal shortly after getting back to jersey and letting the visit sink in. it wouldn't suprise me at all if he wanted to commit and the coaches told him to go home and think it over first to make sure he is making the right decision. i definitely think things are looking up here. as for fred davis, who the hell knows what is going on. i have heard he may verbal tuesday (as in within the next 24 hours) and i have heard that he will verbal on sportscenter on signing day. i gave up on trying to read in between the lines of fred davis a few days ago and instead am just going to wait until he decides he is ready to accept his future as a buckeye legend and make it official. i do think fred ends up being a buckeye and i do think we will all owe ted ginn jr and marcus freeman some credit for helping fred see the light. i also see us having to wait until signing day for a decision though. it should be an interesting wednesday in a couple of weeks with guys like fred davis, rhyan anderson, kyle mitchum, and possibly leon hart all waiting until the fourth of february to decide. anyways that is all the news i have been able to gather from message boards, rumor mills and miss cleo. i hope to have more of an update after work tuesday but i could see me wanting to get drunk and pass out on the couch too so you never know. more later. 01-15-04 (11:50pm) been offline for a few days and man did it feel good. there has been some news the past couple of days so we will recap that and get on with some random thoughts here in just a minute. first off though i wanted to wish fred davis a happy birthday. i hope you got what you wanted for your birthday. all i ever want for my b-day is for the buckeyes to be undefeated. since my big day is early in the season i usually get what i want. anyways hopefully fred davis will decide to become a buckeye next wednesday (i believe that is now the new date for his press conference) and the bucks will always be undefeated on his birthday for the next three to five years. i got a feeling the bucks are on the verge of a historic run over the next five years or so. the biggest news i have missed since i have been gone is the verbal of mizzou athlete nick patterson. patterson is listed in the 6'1" to 6'2" range and weighs right around 200 pounds with 4.5ish speed. most recruiting gurus drool over the 4.4's and nick patterson has one of those two though it isn't his forty time, it is his GPA instead. he is the sterotypical tressel recruit with the good grades and the experience in the defensive backfield. he must be a pretty confident recruit too with all the competition he will face to just make special teams let alone the secondary or wide out. anyways, welcome aboard nick. scholarships are starting to run short in supply the bucks will take up to maybe 6 more guys and they may decide to take less to balance out the classes from year to year. there are tons of top shelf talent out there that have at least a minimal chance of becoming buckeyes and most of this talent isn't the type you turn away. i am talking about guys like the PA players james bryant, andrew johnson, devon lyons, kyle mitchum, and anthony morelli, jersey wide out dwayne jarret and offensive lineman j zuttah, virginia defensive end olu hall, MD end derrick harvey, south carolina offensive lineman leon hart and oh year ohio wide out fred davis. no way the bucks can get all of those guys in under the 85 limit but i expect the bucks to get two or three of these guys and i will be way too excited on february fourth if it does happen. speaking of february fourth (national letter of intent day), i made a request for that to be a vacation day after work today. nothing is official yet but trust me, i won't be working that day and everyone at work knows it already. the only question is if i will be off for vacation or sick with a bad case of recruiting fever. my plans for national letter of intent day are big time. i am thinking about turning it into a drinking game. either chug a beer or do a shot for every verbal that signs (i will use the o-zone announcements for my official word). i plan to update all day long too and i hope that as i get more and more drunk and am turns to pm i will start to finally get funny again. that is the plan at least. i also hope to have some more fresh video of buckeye verbals. i have yet to post any film on buckeye verbal antonio pittman and buckeye hopeful fred davis. i will be at the cbg's studio this weekend and i will be doing the pittman and davis videos for sure. i would like to bet some more footage of underclassmen ryan brinson, javon ringer, and mario manningham ready as well but you know how lazy i can be so i wouldn't count on it. i hope to have the fred davis film posted and ready for download by the end of the weekend but you never know if my texas hold'em addiction will take away from my time or not. we will see. a friend recently pointed out that a strip club that is maybe 15 minutes from me holds a texas hold'em cash tournament every week. they advertise it in the paper too apparently so it must be legit. i have been thinking of putting down my cash and taking a stab at a big pot. if i were to pull down a few thousand (which of couse my deluded mind fully expects to do) i don't know what i would do with the cash. i have been thinking about getting a new still camera for next football season and i am looking at the same model the o-zone and buckeye photog extraordinaire jim davidson uses (canon SLR). of course i wouldn't have (or want) sideline access for a high school game i imagine i would be able to get some great shots for high school football coverage i suspect. it would be nice for taking to open practice sessions as well. i want to get more shots of players for stock usage over their careers. realistically i won't be used to playing hold'em with that many people and i will play loose and lose my cash in the first hour or two. oh well, it is worth a stab i figure. i recently got a gag gift of bucknuts new magazine ohio high. for the long time readers of the site (both of you...) there is obviously some history of tension between the two sites and i love being a pain in their ass much like i suspect mr bucknuts likes being a pleasure in random dudes asses. needless to say i am highly biased against them and all of their corporate products but i have to give credit to them on their newest magazine. the production quality is low and it isn't really thick or in depth on many prospects but it is a nice compilation of all the top names in ohio high school football. reluctantly i would recommend picking this up. the cover price is a little steep at something like seven bucks for a magazine but the info was solid. maybe it is just me but if i spend seven bucks on a magazine i want to see me some giant titties. oh well. if you are big into ohio high school football you may want to hit a bookstore and browse through it and decide for yourself. anyways it is almost midnight and i need to get up at 5am yet again in the morning. more later this weekend including a verbal or two by tuesday night at the latest i suspect. enjoy. 01-12-04 (12:30am) late night update for the recruiting junkies out there like myself. first though lets set the scene. i was drinking some alcohol tonight and looking for recruiting info. it was dinner time and not much was out there. people on the o-zone mesage board were going through withdrawal symptoms trying to fix their recruiting info addiction to no avail. i thought about updating right then but i knew there would be much more information floating around the net later tonight so i continued to drink and get drunk. eventually i just cashed out on the couch and just now woke up. it is going to be rough getting back to sleep tonight having taken way too long of a nap but that isn't the only reason getting to sleep tonight will be hard. it has been a very good night for the bucks it seems. the columbus tv stations (both 4 and 10) broke the news first that detroit cass tech defensive end vernon gholston (6'3" 240ish and 4.5ish speed) is now a verbal to the good guys (and they didn't even want my credit card number for this info, too cool). it isn't often that the bucks get a guy from michigan but when they do they are often quite good (think craig krenzel, ryan miller, or pepper johnson and not marco cooper or ricky bryant please). i really don't know much about gholston so i can't comment on his game. from what i have read he is a speed rushing defensive end and a quite good one though he does lack some experience. his measurables as reported and listed by the experts stack up favorably with any defensive end out there, it sounds like we just need to coach him up and turn him loose. welcome aboard vernon. getting one big verbal out of a weekend of official visits makes for a good weekend but this weekend was no ordinary weekend. dublin coffman defensive end alex barrow (6'4" 250ish and 4.7 to 4.8 speed) also gave a verbal commit this evening. barrow is a little bigger than gholston physically but probably not quite as quick and he too projects as a defensive end, though he certainly could grow into a defensive tackle. i personally have never seen barrow play football so again i can't really comment much on his game. he sounds like another player with a great upside and he is an ohio boy to boot. welcome aboard alex. that is it for the verbals as of right now but it may not be long before we get another one it sounds. from all reports superstar defensive ends (man how many of them were in this weekend) derick harvey (MD; ranked in the top ten players regardless of position by rivals) and olu hall (VA; top 100 player) both really enjoyed their visits and it sounds like osu may be more of a factor here than previously thought. i remember reading on one of the message boards that one of the players was really impressed with our style of defense and that it (along with his visit) vaulted us towards the top of his list even higher than his previous presumed leader. i really can't remember if it was harvey or hall though (and i am way too lazy to look it back up). it was either us passing up maryland for harvey or passing up virginia tech for hall, either way it is nice to get in front of the home state school. i don't know how the bucks would react if both of them decided to become buckeyes though. you don't turn down top100 talent unless there are serious grades or behavioral issues, but then again how many d-ends are we going to take. we nabbed two good ones tonight in gholston and barrow. i could definitely see us taking one more and maybe even two for this type of talent, but my gut tells me the first between hall and harvey to pull the trigger is in and may just shut out the other one from having any chance of winning a national championship (because we all know we are about to go on an unprecedented run right buckyee nation). harvey is really new to football while hall is much more developed at this time but then again harvey has a higher ceiling and could be a will smith type of player with some proper strength, conditioning, training table, and coaching. either way i am way way too excited about both of these guys and their visits to get to sleep tonight so on to more recruiting news. continuing the defensive line theme of the night, we hosted LA defensive tackle nader abdallah this weekend. he didn't verbal but did enjoy his visit quite a bit according to a bsb headline. i know virtually nothing about him though other than his name so i will refrain from going guru on you and just making up some crap. needless to say though the bucks are a player here and he could be a welcome addition to the interior of our stout defense. pretty good news so far right (actually it is probably outstanding news so far). it isn't over either. things are looking up in a big way in PA. when we hired JT i was really pumped up about our chance to finally get in on some of that PA talent since y-town is so close to PA and JT having recruited there in the past. it really hasn't ever materialized yet but this year it is looking like we may break though in a big way. we already got o-lineman jon skinner in the fold and we are in on several of the top players out there in PA that are still undecided. the top player from PA that i want is o-lineman keyle mitchum. mitchum recently cancelled a visit to michigan and is down to osu, iowa, and west virginia. i honestly think all three programs are on the upswing and kyle could be an impact player at any of the schools. ideally he will choose a chance at a championship and the buckeyes but you never know. iowa has me worried though there has been rumblings that it may be too far from home for him. who knows. devon lyons officially visited michigan this weekend and did not verbal. he is another wr-db type and we are recruiting him as a db. i don't know how he feels about the bucks honestly but not verballing to michigan is a good sign for starters. other PA players the bucks are looking good on right now are tailback andrew johnson and linebacker james bryant. johnson looked long and hard at the bucks early in the process and then may have jumped the gun and verballed to pitt in tandem with qb anthony morelli. now johnson is a soft verbal to pitt in search of a reason, any reason, to get away from pitt and play for a winner. he is now somewhat of a package deal with lb james bryant. johnson said that if bryant went to pitt that he would stay committed. bryant's brother does go to pitt so it is reasonable that they would both end up there but i honestly think both of these guys want to play for championships not local pride. if i were a certified expert i would be willing to make a prediction here but i am not. i am a dude that knows how to type, has a little too much free time on his hands, and has lots and lots of alcohol in the house. guys like me (and you) aren't qualified to make predictions. it isn't like i am psychic or anything. still though my gut, my quickly disappearing gut, wants to tell me to predict that kyle mitchum, devon lyons, andew johnson, and james bryant will all verbal to the bucks late in the process and more than make up for last years signing day bummer. not a prediction though just a gut feeling. anyways that is all the recruiting update i can dig up tonight. i hope this helps some of you out there from having to scour as many message boards and premium headlines as i did today. enjoy work monday if at all possible and get some sleep. there probably won't be any more recruiting news tonight from anywhere. enjoy. 01-05-04 (11:15pm) man what a comical past couple of days it has been in the buckeye recruiting world. i could go on and on about this buster avis thing but i think everyone that is a die hard is familiar with all the gory details so i am going to just react to it and move on basically. for those out there though that don't troll all the buckeye message boards (or are banned from one or more like myself...) a quick dragnet stye recap minus some of the hateful nonsense, just the 'facts'. basically this poster 'buster avis' has been posting on the ozone for awhile now and has/had convinced several posters there that he is reliable by posting recruiting news that is either about to break or has broken on the pay sites but hasn't been leaked out to the good guy sites. when his 'info' then is later published by someone like bsb or bucknuts or the ozone or anyone out their willing to spend the $2 to get your certified recruiting expert license it just makes him seem all the more credible. most of his 'facts' came about after gary (formerly of bsb and currently with bucknuts) made some rather outrageous statements that something like six or seven recruits would be listing the buckeyes as 'solid leaders' ted ginn jr announced this intent to play for the buckeyes at the army all star game (i could be wrong on the names slightly but i believe it was ginn, fred davis, kyle mitchum, xavier lee, james bryant, andrew johnson, and ray williams). anyways about a day or two after first gary then buster posted info on this 'scoop' xavier lee eliminated the bucks from consideration on a lemming chat. both gary and buster then made claims about xavier not either being allowed to leave home by the family or something like that. buster then went about 100 steps beyond that and basically called x-man a racist and a punk and a bunch of other junk. buster then made some other predictions or scoops or whatever including the verbal of izzy bauta to the bucks today. bill kurelic himself (who is honestly the only expert out there on the net worthy of the title or your hard earned money) posted headlines on bsb just today that basically debunked both of those buster scoops. kurelic is rarely wrong. it definitely seems as if this guy buster is just telling the people what they want to hear and we are all (including myself) just eating it up. earlier tonight zanzibar pretty much busted the guy on the ozone message board (z-man runs the mb there and has the ability to track down his multiple board names and his IP number; i wonder what his name really is here, maybe zanzibar will out him publicly). i then read that he is now posting on bucknuts under another name in support of buster (not that i am not banned now but that is what i read on the ozone). too damn funny. basically i am of the opinion that buster is basically a fraud too, but i wouldn't ban him or anything like that. i really enjoyed the posts of his when i thought they were real and even now that i am somewhat certain they are fake i still enjoy them (though i certainly enjoy them in a different manner). i would encourage buster to keep posting somewhere but do it toungue in cheek style and just get completely outrageous with his predictions and the supporting evidence from his sources. if we all know it is crap what harm can come of it and it was definitely entertaining if nothing else. buster gets the glory he so desperately seeks and we all get some comic relief during the whacky recruiting season. so in summary, buster looks like a fraud. many of his basic facts are good information though and have been either 'summarized' from pay sites (and remember friendssummarization of premium nfo is completely legal; cut and paste is not). it does look very good for the bucks with leon hart and kyle mitchum it seems. man could we use two offensive linemen like that. it is also looking good with dwayne jarrett, james bryant, and andrew johnson it seems. it also seems that we are definitely eliminated from the xavier lee sweepstakes and that he never made any racist remarks or brainwashed fred davis into turning against his beloved buckeyes. so basically he just helped get the premium info out to the masses a little earlier than usual (which i commend him for) but also embellished his info with some crazy details to make his info sound unique and controversial (which i condemn him for). either way it has been a fun ride for the past couple of days. buster goes on the same list of posters like the technician and karen burns and countless other self proclaimed insiders. sure there are insiders out there but most likely they aren't on the message boards spilling the goods either. what makes all this blow up so big is that the buckeye nation demands info immediately yet most of the info is sadly pay per view and we aren't willing to pay for it but still need to have it right away. if you want to make sure things like this don't happen again, support your free buckeye sites out there. i know the o-zone fundraiser is over but i am sure they would still be willing to accept a donation or two, it sounds like mr ed is having a rough time right now and maybe your appreciation of all his hard work will help him pull through and get back on the horse. anyways, that is all i have to say about the topic. it looks like buster is a fraud much like ms cleo but you never know either. one thing we should all know though is that nobody should be jumping all over any of the potential recruits just because some jerk off is posting stuff on a message board about them that may or may not be true. as for me, i am going to crash out and watch some of the stern show on E. more wednesday if my lazy ass is up to the simple task. enjoy. 01-04-04 (10:40pm) just a real brief recruiting update for halftime of the depantsing of oklahoma. it looks like osu is suddenly a player for NJ wideout dwayne jarrett. jarrett is a mike jenkins style of receiver with the long body and all that and he looked really good in the army all star game for sure. i still think we lose out on jarrett but it will be nice to get him on campus and make our pitch in person. in other recruiting news the pitt area newspapers seem determined to scare off their rb recruit andrew johnson. johnson has decided to take visits to other schools (like osu for example) and they are just trashing him in public for it. not only that the pitt papers are trashing walt harris some too. johnson recently said something about him and fellow PA stud james bryant maybe wanting to go to the same school. both will be visiting osu this month and i like our chances if the pitt version of bruce hooley keeps it up or if nebraska wises up and lures away walt harris. if harris were to leave we could even get back in on super qb recruit anthony morelli. at least that is what kurelic hinted to in a headline on BSB. who knows. what i do know is oklahoma is getting smacked around pretty good. congrats to nick saban and the lsu tigers a little prematurely. more after work monday. 01-03-04 (10:45pm) today was another great day for the buckeyes on this great weekend. we all still feel good (if not maybe a little hung over) about the big bowl victory last night over k-state and this afternoon ted ginn jr finally announced that he is going to be a buckeye in 2004. first things first though, some thoughts on the bowl game. i think lots of us were wondering if the buckeyes would play like we know they can last night or if they would come out flat after the crushing loss to michigan. the buckeye D showed early on that they had something to prove. darren sproles came into the game after tearing up the much hyped oklahoma D for 200+ yards and he only needed fifty some yards to crack the 2000 yard barrier. sproles was basically a non factor all game long and never got near that 2000 yard mark for the season. ell roberson was supposed to be some world beater after destroying oklahoma and winning something like his last seven games after coming back from an injury. he pretty much sucked, much like that he allegedly really really wanted that k-state alum chick to. all in all another great performance by one of the better buckeye defenses of all time. the special teams play was also highly impressive. mike nugent didn't get much of a chance to do his thing but the rest of the unit was really good. bj sander continued the biggest turnaround of probably any buckeye ever by showing off that ray guy award winning leg. bj put k-state in poor field position often, especially early. one of my favorite plays of the game was on special teams. bj got off a good punt that pinned the wildcats deep in their territory, downing the punt was long snapper kyle andrews. pretty impressive for the guy who snapped the ball and got blasted by the punt rush immediately after snapping and somehow still managed to get down the field first and down the punt. andrews will probably have a lengthy career in the NFL. some hot gold digging chick on campus should snap him up now. even the offense looked pretty sharp at times. sure krenzel missed a couple of potential touchdowns and did throw the two picks but he more than made up for it with the four touchdowns (and a 25 - 2 record over the last two years). catching the four scores were wide outs santonio holmes and mike jenkins with two each. jenkins is gone and on to bigger and better things in the NFL while santonio is coming back for his sophomore season looking like the new go to guy in the osu offense for sure. early in the game it was nice to see lydell ross running hard instead of running hurt. the guy i was most impressed with running the ball though was brandon joe. i remember recruiting joe out of westerville south. he was a well known high school football player following in the footsteps of andy katzenmoyer and kijana carter at that school. joe was attending osu games on unofficial visits early and often and we all thought he was going t obe that next great osu powerback. well it hasn't happened yet but last night we caught a glimpse of it and it looked good. if joe can be healthy and stay out of any and all trouble next year he could have a major impact on the offense as a senior. big congrats on the big game brandon. as if the back to back bcs bowl wins weren't enough, the bucks got some more great news today. cleveland glenville athlete ted ginn jr finally announced that he will be a buckeye in 2004 this afternoon just minutes after busting off a sweet ass 98 yard kickoff return for a score and moments before being named MVP of the national high school all star game. ted was impressive all game long. sure he fumbled the ball twice but who knows what was up with that funky looking ball. i don't remember teddy getting beat for a catch either all game long. i don't know how long it will take him to pick up the scheme when he gets to campus but i do know that when he does a starting job is his for the taking. taking nothing away from all the other talented db's on the buckeye roster either, but ted ginn is a one of a kind corner and a coming force in college football. i had the pleasure of seeing ted jr in person twice in high school and both times he was dominant. of course i took the camcorder with me to the game and i have even got off my lazy ass and posted 8 short highlights in my video archive. as always these are completely free for all to download and enjoy. the only catch here is that you need to sign up with sony imagestation in order to view the highlights. sign up is free, no credit card or anything like that is needed. all you need is a valid email address basically. it doesn't have to be your primary address either so if you have any privacy concerns just create a new hotmail or yahoo account and use it to get your password and then just forget about that email account and go enjoy some film. there are eight highlights of ted ginn in there as i type this. the first three highlights are all from his junior season (they are somewhere in the first ten videos i posted there). the last five clips are from this past season against massillon perry and some of them are quite good. if you are stuck on dial up and only want to check out one clip make sure you download a sick run by ginn near the end of the archive. it is currently the 65th highlight in the archive and it is named ginn5. check it out, it is worth the registration hassle for sure. ginn is the news of the day but he wasn't the only buckeye in action in the army all star game. osu verbal marcus freeman was also starting for the east defense and he more than held his own. another likely buckeye verbal also saw extensive action in the form of fred davis. i don't think fred got the chance to catch a ball though so it is tough to say how he stacked up against the other superstar receivers. ohio's mr football ray williams was there and was also highly impressive. i have never seen williams play in person before but i have seen him on tv many times and while he looked dominant in high school i always wondered how he would stack up against college competition. ray answered all those questions with his performance today. for a late addition to the roster ray definitely looked like he belonged. as for the recruitment of ray williams it seems to be that the buckeyes have in fact made a scholarship offer for this season if, and only if, he makes the grades to qualify for this fall. if he doesn't make the grade he may go theprep school route and then may become a buckeye after one season in a prep school. who knows. ray does have a few other offers for next season that aren't contingent on grades too so he may take one of those too. who knows. there were a few other buckeye possibilities in the game, especially on the offensive line. south carolina native leon hart looked great. he may be one of the rare breed high school lineman that could come into a major program and start right away. i couldn't imagine a program that would be a better fit for leon as far as offering early PT and a chance for national recognition and all that but it isn't my decision either. leon will be hard to pry out of the south from either home state south carolina or booster rich auburn but you never know. the bucks will definitely hold a scholarship for leon until national signing day just in case, he is that good. another lineman in action today was PA's kyle mitchum. mitchum is a two way lineman that could contribute on offense (probably a guard type) or on defense (playing over the ball). i didn't get to see mitchum much though i didn't hear him getting beat often like i did that one michigan verbal offensive lineman (cirulla or something like that). some would include xavier lee here as an osu possibility, i will not. osu has 'less than a zero' chance of prying lee away from florida state so why bother going into detail about how awesome he looked. anyways, that is all i have for now. i will probably try and do another recruiting style update sometime sunday night. enjoy what little is left of the weekend if you can. 01-02-04 (6pm) after a solid month off i am back online and half drunk and ready for the bowl game against kansas state tonight. i am fully settled in in my new pad and i have been enjoying the past week big time now that i finally got my cable tv and internet up and running (last monday i was finally hooked up; i missed my first appointment unfortunately). roadrunner is a pretty sweet deal. i have never had cable internet access of my own before so it has been a big week on the net for me in between getting drunk and pounded for big $ losses in poker. oh well it was fun. another thing i have been working on lately is upgrading the computer. processor wise it is fine for virtually all my needs (video editing and whatnot) but i needed to add a second hard drive (i went for the 120 gig) to hold my work. i still need to install the firewire card to hook up my camcorder but that should be easy and it will give me a chance to max out my system ram while the case is open. the main reason i am doing all this is to make my computer a half assed version of the cbg's sweet ass studio computer so i can do my video work at home instead of travelling to his place and hoping nobody is jamming when i get there. i won't be able to produce multiple hour long clips or put buckeye games on dvd off this computer quite yet but it should get me back in the business of posting highlights from this past high school football season. i have tons of film on bunches of future buckeyes and so far it is all on the original dv tape and doing nobody any good. ideally that will change here once i get some time to pop in the card and pick up some more ram. that is the big plan for this site for the next couple of months. lots of recruiting coverage and lots of film and pics to share. with tonight being the end of actual football until spring ball there really won't be much else to talk about other than previewing 2004. anyways, that is what is up with the site. sorry for being away for such a long time but with business booming at work (we're grew at a 40% clip in 2003 and anticipate more of the same for 2004) and me working virtually everyday of december (i took off a whopping 5 days all month) and trying to move after work there really wasn't anytime for the website, besides nothing much went down anyways. as for tonight i am expecting ell roberson to start and to play well. unfortunately for him i am expecting the buckeye defense to play their best ball of the season and come out and stuff the run kind of like roberson allegedly tried to stuff his cock where it evidently didn't belong, it ain't gonna be pretty. quick game prediction before i abandon this computer, pour another seagrams, and let the cbg in. buckeyes win (duh) 21 - 20 in overtime. bucks score first in OT, k-state then scores but dustin fox gets like three feet off the ground and blocks the extra point to seal the victory. enjoy the game and the weekend. recruiting update sometime saturday for sure.

return to the vanilla gorilla's front page