ohio state buckeyes football
june 2003 archive
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06-30-03 (4:50pm) i have had this damn cold for a week and it is getting old fast. no longer is my nose in danger of dripping off my face but the cough is just unreal. i thought i was going to throw up once today at work i was hacking so bad. i am going to be in the studio again tonight video capturing more of the ohio north south game. the first half is in the books and i should be able to bang out the second half tonight i hope (assuming of course there isn't a spontaneous jam session showing up when i get there). i will be posting the videos all week i imagine and i may even be able to post some late late night tonight. final warning here. since i am going to be posting these in my normal recruiting video archive and i am nearly out of room there (though deleting those damned prescott gess and shawn crable videos did free up a few minutes) this means i may have to delete some of the older videos from the archive. in other words, if you would like to download any of these to keep on your hard drive now would be a good time. if you are saying what video archive, check out the link in the upper left corner called vg recruiting videos, you are in for a treat and as with everything with the vg, these are completely free. no need for a credit card on this site. i only have one link today but it is about one of my favorite players of all time antoine winfield running a camp for the locals in akron. being born in akron makes me partial to antoine some i am sure, but i don't hold any buckeye in higher regard than winfield. sure we have had corners with better size, better speed, better footwork, better ball skills and better flexibility but there has never been a corner like antoine winfield (jack tatum is before my time by the way so i can't comment much there other than what i have read and seen on replays). the thing i like about winfield the most is his uncanny ability to avoid ever being blocked. nobody in college or the NFL can seem to block him effectively and keep him away from the tackle. another thing about winfield i love is his combination of being a sure tackler and a brutal hitter. lots of hitters aren't the best form tacklers but that isn't antoine. he will decleat guys nearly double his size and still make the sure tackle all the time. with all apologies to buckeye greats (from my time) like shawn springs, nate clements, chris gamble and ahmed plummer nobody plays the game like antoine. again, with all apologies to all potential future buckeye greats like donte whitner, ted ginn jr (undecided my ass), tony gonzalez, and ashton youboty none of you could ever be the player that antoine is, he is a once in a lifetime corner and i don't plan on croaking any time soon. still though if you can have half the career of antoine winfield you will still have a great NFL career and a shot at the NFL hall of fame. i for one will surely be there in canton ohio to see you get your proper due some day antoine. speaking of the hall of fame, how long is it until chris speilman is eligible for the hall of fame? that is going to be a big day for all buckeye fans in the area and i can't wait to be there. if spielman isn't a first ballot HOFer i will still attend but bring a sign in protest and encourage all my other buckeye friends out there to do the same. speaking of spielman and the HOF, wouldn't it be great if they let him into the HOF with his OSU hat on his bust. it almost doesn't seem right to permanently enshrine an ohio legend in detroit gear. anyways, that is all i have for now. i need to go to the post office by 5:30 today and get some crap out in the mail tonight (quarterly taxes, yee haw). i have some pent up thoughts on delbert ferguson i wanted to bust out tonight but that is going to have to wait. enjoy what is left of this short week for all. 06-29-03 (11:15am) damn. for the dead season there has been some action lately. not that i have any major recruiting news like i have had the last couple of days but i got two fresh links today and one i missed yesterday. starting with the fresh links, a pittsburgh newspaper has some info on anthony morelli and andrew johnson and it isn't looking good for us. still though this 'writer' may just be delusional, he does seem to think pitt has a good chance at landing ted ginn jr and we all know that is just crazy talk. the other fresh link today is from todd porter and the canton repository with some random thoughts. i know the article doesn't look like it is buckeye related at all when you first glance at it, but it has some info on mike doss canning his agent and goinge with an hourly rate guy (which is a really smart business move by the heady safety) and some info on my man KP, kenny peterson. there is a stale link from yesterday that i missed that is worth posting today due to the quality of the info. suprisingly this quality info is from the cleveland plain dealer. typically the PD just hates on the buckeyes but yesterday they were talking about high school football and recruiting so they couldn't really hate on their local products. don't worry bruce hooley, you will be able to release all that pent up hate that built up from the undefeated national championship season here in a few months when you predict that we will get our nuts beat in almost as badly as yours have shrivelled up. by the way bruce, that took a lot of balls to try and fund your retirement by selling a book on buckeye greats from a guy who passionately hates the buckeyes. who did you think you were fooling into buying that piece of crap book? i just had to edit this last update with this paragraph to explain the plain dealer link. last night i checked it out and it pulled right up. this morning i checked it out to build my link and i had to give them my zip code, year of birth, and gender before it would pull up the link for free. it looks like the PD is gathering info on us before allowing us freeloaders to read their crap. i don't know if this means they are going to go pay per read like the dispatch or they are just collecting advertising info to justify their rates honestly but i do know it is a pain in the ass to have to fill out a form to read a simple article. oh well, now you know why the link won't pull up from the get go and you get that intrusive form instead. fill it out if you wish to read the article, it isn't like you have to tell them the truth in your answers or anything. anyways, that is all i really have for linkage or random thoughts today. i am going to be in the cbg's studio today video capping off the ohio north south game so i have some fresh video i shot to post on the net for free. enjoy what little time is left of the weekend while you can, i know i plan on it. 06-28-03 (1:15pm) not much of an update for now. the columbus dispatch people slept in today and didn't get their links up anywhere near early at all. they finally did get it in gear though and post a link. today 1460 the fan has a piece on the steve rehrig verbal. nothing really interesting in the article that isn't already published elsewhere but it is the dead season for buckeye news and it is worth the read. i was analyzing some photos my spy in ann arbor took late last night. while he didn't capture any images of brett wiping the chin he did get one blurry pic that looks like brett is picking a hair out of his teeth. this could be further evidence of his recent oral committment to lloyd carr, who knows. enjoy. 06-28-03 (8:20am) just one link from the newspapers i can find this morning. the dayton daily news has a bunch of random nonsense on the buckeyes including info on a centerville parade honoring some of the centerville buckeyes among other less fresh news. that is the only link i can find but i do have some other crap to talk about this morning. there is another flare up in the credibility war between buckeye sports bulletin and bucknuts. bucknuts reported first two days ago that georgia defensive tackle frank morton has committed to the buckeyes. they even spoke to him directly and confirmed this from mr morton himself. bsb though is now saying that a 'source' (gee, who could that be) is saying that he hasn't been offerred a scholarship as of now so obviously he couldn't be a commit yet. what do i think you ask? i always go with bsb in these situations based on their long established contacts with certain coaches in the program and recent trends (kenyon buford, the pride of middle tennessee state). i am also leaning towards thinking that both sources could be right here somewhat. this is just wild speculation by me (nothing new there) but perhaps the scholarship offer is contingent on frank morton taking care of his academic situation first (not that i have any information indicating grades could be a problem). while this is just wild speculation it does make the story jive. i have heard from two high school coaches that coach tressel and the staff have put an even higher emphasis on grades and eligibility this year than in the past. being the defending national champions allows you to be a little more picky i guess. what i hope for more than anything out of this credibility war though is some petty name calling. i love watching these two corporate sites beat each other in the head for the right to say first what is going on in the buckeye nation. someday they will realize that it doesn't matter who breaks the news first as long as buckeye fans get the news (and get it for free) then we are all happy. it has been a hectic past 48 hours or so on the recruiting front so i am going to summarize to recap the last couple of days action. westchester offensive lineman steve rehrig has been offerred and accepted that offer to become a buckeye. he plans on officially announcing on july 7th. steve is a massive player and should help out with the serious depth issues the buckeyes face in the near future after losing 5 seniors on the line this year. columbus athlete - tailback - safety erik haw has a verbal offer, should be getting a written offer either today or monday in the mail, and he will be accepting that offer it seems as soon as he gets it. haw has good size at 5'11" 210 pounds coupled with blazing speed (twice hand timed at sub 4.3 at osu's camp). you could probably count him as a verbal right now but it would be jumping the gun slightly here honestly. georgia defensive tackle - offensive line prospect frank morton is a mammoth player who was highly impressive at osu's camp and may or may not have an offer (and it may or may not be a contingent offer). frank himself said he does have an offer and he has accepted that offer and he is firm in his verbal. still though he did say that he wants to visit some other schools officially. that is basically what has been going on in the buckeye nation if you have been enjoying yourself instead of working on the wallpaper tan and staring at your computer for too many hours. in humorous fictional recruiting news i am the first to report this so all bow down to the greatness of the vg site. i have an exclusive report on michigan football recruiting. a spy of the vg in ann arbor saw some guy named brett go blue leaving lloyd carr's office late last night and overheard them talking about oral. my source thinks brett go blue has indeed given lloyd carr an oral commitment. he mentioned something about brett wiping his chin after he left lloyd's office but that couldn't be confirmed through the pics my spy shot. if i hear any more about brett and lloyd's oral adventures i will be sure to post it here. leading off this update i said i only had one link for today but i forgot about a second link. oh well. max emfinger has a free list of all the top players in the nation hot off the presses. lots of names us buckeye die hards are familiar with on that list. anyways that is all i have for now. i hope to get back online later today but honestly it is looking pretty nice out so that may not be happening either. who knows. 06-27-03 (6pm) i just heard of two more offers by the coaching staff while i was eating dinner. ohio offensive lineman steve rehrig from westchester now has an offer and should be making his decision known to the public on july seventh. steve has made little secret of his love for the buckeyes though so i think it is safe to say we should have another verbal on the seventh most likely. the other offer i just heard about was to a defensive end from marco cooper's old high school up in detroit. the newest offer is to vernon gohlston who is ballpark 6'3" 235 pounds and runs in the 4.5 to 4.6 range. i have no idea which way he may be leaning at all here. anyways i just wanted to get that out there for the buckeye nation to enjoy. 06-27-03 (3pm) lots of news since i was last online but very little in the form of linkage. starting off with actual buckeye news the wisconsin game will now be a night game at 8pm central time (which is 9pm for us in ohio). as if camp randall isn't a tough enough place to play in any year (let alone two in a row) but now they have all day to get drunk and rowdy. sounds fun to me and i wish i could be there representing the good red fans in the stands but that is way too far for me to travel. i guess i will have to pace my drinking that weekend and make sure i am still in prime shape for the end of that game. nothing worse than not remembering what happened at the bucks game when you wake up the next day (unless it is say november 8, 1998 for example). summer camp at ohio t state has come to an end and there is some action leaking out. georgia defensive tackle - offensive lineman frank morton has decided to verbal to the buckeyes but still take all of his visits. that has me worried a little honestly. i see this as a guy who is definitely interested in the bucks and is concerned that if he waits until late in the process that the bucks may have already filled their needs for big guys and not have room for him. it is almost like saving a scholarship by giving the soft verbal but still looking at other schools. he sounds like a great player but i hope he doesn't burn us here and leave us for a cheating southern school at the last minute. in further recruiting news, it looks like the buckeyes have made a scholarship offer to columbus athlete - tailback - safety eric haw. haw ran some blazing sub 4.3 hand held times at the ohio state camp and got the verbal offer and should be getting his written scholarship offer in the mail either today or saturday. then he is supposed to call coach tressel and verbal from what i hear. i haven't seen haw play football ever honestly so i can't comment much on him without seeming like a fraud so i won't go into much here. it does sound like he is a great combination of size (5'11" and around 210 or 215 pounds) with that blazing speed. he should add size and muscle when he gets on campus and into our strength and conditioning program so he could have my ideal 225 - 230 pound tailback size by the time we have a starting spot available for him to compete for. if you look back at the recent buckeye backs you have to get excited by the bigger backs. in the very recent past we have had huge backs like eddie george, raymont harris, joe montgomery, and jonathon wells all be quite productive carrying the ball for some decent teams. also in the very recent past we have had some smaller backs like pepe pearson, michael wiley, and derek combs carry the ball for some decent teams. the smaller backs though weren't able to get the tough yardage when we needed the most though and most of those smaller backs came up short in big situations (other than wiley who had a great supporting cast all around him). anyways, back to eric haw. haw seems to have the size to be part of the eddie george, raymont harris, joe montgomery, jonathon wells, and maurice clarett group of big backs who the buckeyes could rely on in tough times. if those reported 40 times of sub 4.3 are remotely accurate (which honestly they most likely are not) haw is a super prospect despite the 'experts' rankings. even if he is a true 4.5 guy he is still a blue chipper. speaking of blue chippers i haven't heard anything about delbert ferguson coming out of camp. i heard a rumor that he didn't run the 40 at camp but i have also heard a rumor that he didn't even attend. who knows. other blue chippers i have yet to hear about from camp include ignatius quarterback brian hoyer. i was thinking this could be the week hoyer got his offer from the bucks with an impressive camp but i haven't heard a word yet. i imagine that will leak out in the next week or so. still speaking of blue chippers, it is looking more and more like anthony morelli isn't going to be a buckeye when he announces his decision after the elite 11 camp near the end of july. i imagine this may put an offer from the bucks to hoyer on the front burner now, who knows. anyways that is all i have for now. i am still struggling with this cold but it is getting better in time for the weekend. who knows maybe i will even be able to put down a brew or a dozen tonight if the nyquil doesn't know me out first. enjoy. 06-26-03 (9:55am) just one link for the morning right now. 1460 the fan has a piece on archie griffin switching jobs. no real news there that wasn't reported yesterday but it isn't a bad article either. i should be getting some good work done on the site today and friday i hope. i have been working on a redesign for the page (nothing major is getting changed) and i would like to switch to the new template by friday so i don't have two copies of the webpage floating around on my hard drive. another task i want to work on is the recruiting database. i have a bunch of notes and text files that i need to add to the database but i haven't had much time lately. hopefully that gets done this weekend. last site maintenance issue i want to work on is the site message board. the free server i was using for the message board is out of business it seems so i need to find another host on the cheap. that is all the routine stuff i need to work on. one thing far from routine i want to accomplish during these four days off from work is get the ohio north south game vid capped and posted online free forget all buckeyes to enjoy. i know most of us in ohio with ONN have seen the game but there are tons of buckeye fans without access to the game and i would like to get that posted to help them out some. anyways, i am going to stretch out on the couch and watch the 10 am sportscenter and then start thinking about lunch. after lunch i am going to try and think up something to post this afternoon. enjoy. 06-25-03 (5:55am) the vg has been quite ill for the past day and a half but hopes to be better after work today with some luck. i still don't have any north south game footage compressed and ready to go but that shoudl change by thursday and friday. enjoy hump day. 
06-23-03 (5:15pm) no links out there today other without golf balls being pounded around on them, oh well. i don't have much of an update either for right now, again oh well. i do have that picture of four future buckeyes that the cbg snapped that i posted. from left to right that is devon jordan (82) in shorts, david patterson (75) without the helmet, brian pierce (35) with the yellow helmet, and tony gonzalez (11) in the other yellow helmet. i haven't heard why devon jordan wasn't playing honestly. he seemed fine walking around on the sideline and joking around with the rest of the north squad. like i said earlier patterson was limping around (i read it was a slight hamstring pull which ironically the vg himself may have in his left leg it feels like). as for brian pierce, he is the walk on kicker from lakewood st eds. he drilled one fairly long field goal and missed two other relatively long field goals. he did have some difficulties on the punts and the kickoffs i thought. still though it was obvious that he has a big leg and with some quality repetitions and coaching he could be the kicker of the future. as for tony gonzalez, i can't say enough. while he (like everyone else on the north squad) had some difficulty handling ernie wheelright, gonzo (or gonzarelli in honor of arthur fonzarelli as the cbg said at the game) probably did a better job of matching up with wheelright than anyone else. on offense gonzarelli got open deep often but neither north qb were really able to get the ball downfield far enough to hit him in stride. this fall gonzo is going to start out as a wide receiver so hopefully the buckeye qbs will be a little more strong armed than the north squad's qbs.
anyways, that is all i have for now. i am going to go get on the cbg's studio computer and first burn off a long overdue dvd for a friend and then i hope to have time to start capturing and compressing some highlights from the ohio north south game for the buckeyes stuck out of state or without ONN on their local cable package. i am going to post the highlights of the ohio north south game in my regular video archive as much as i have space for. i may need to delete some of the older files to make room for some newer files so if you want to save them to your hard drive now would be a good time. if you are going video archive, what video archive check out the link at the top left hand corner of the page and sign up for a free account and start downloading some free recruiting film. if you like that you may also want to download some of the free cleveland st ignatius film (linked a little south of the vg video archive) and check out the video captures from the buckeye games by vladimir gonzalez (linked near the bottom of the left hand column). they are all on the same free server so once you sign up for a free sony imagestation account you can access all three video archives. enjoy. 
06-23-03 (6am) i can't find a damn link out there this morning but i still have plenty of pics to post from the north south game so i might as well milk that fine breast for what it is worth. this picture is of massillon perry offensive lineman kirk barton squaring up against lakota west defensive lineman brandon maupin. it was my first chance to see either player in action this past saturday and i wasn't disappointed by either player at all. both had the really good size you like to see and they both seemed to have enough mobility to someday be impact players for the national champion ohio state buckeyes. i thought that barton probably got the better of the head to head matchups from what i saw but honestly i didn't see enough of either of them to make an informed decision. filming the game pretty much forces me to focus on the ball the entire time and not on offensive linemen or defensive linemen unless they either do something spectacular or something stupid. since i didn't notice barton much at all i figure he must have contained his man rather well. i will need to watch the tape again to get a better take on their game. i did like barton's intensity a bunch though. i saw a player from the south kind of laying on the north quarterback and barton take it personal. it looked like a fight was going to break out but calmer heads prevailed and all was cool. still though it was nice to see barton looking after his qb in an all star game setting like that.
anyways, that is all i have for this morning. i need to get a shower and get ready for work. more later i hope. 
06-22-03 (7:10pm) the vg is finally back in town after a weekend trip to columbus to catch the ohio north south game as well as celebrate with long time friend of myself and the cbg, the irish patent attorney, on the new job. there has been some news in the buckeye nation since i was last on the computer so i want to mention that a little bit before i get into the all star game.
in the news department, it seems that the buckeyes have made two more scholarship offers to ohio underclassmen. lakewood st. eds alex boone is a mammoth offensive tackle prospect at ballpark 6'7" and a shade over 300 pounds has one of the offers. i can't comment much on boone since i haven't actually paid my five bucks to see him play ever. i don't want to seem like a fraud and comment a bunch on guys i have never seen play football. regardless though, boone sounds like a top flight prospect and if the coaches want him already he must be pretty damn good. the other one to get an offer is one of the most exciting three players i saw in the sophomore class last season (to clarify this is of players i have actually seen play in a game, i am sure there are other great players out there i am unaware of and haven't seen play football) in warren harding's wide out - kick returner mario manningham. i saw manningham play twice last season and he is impressive. the only other two guys i would put in his level of excitement for his class are buckeye commit jamario o'neal (athlete from mansfield) and ryan brinson (tailback from canton mckinley). while i didn't get much useable film on manningham due to weather conditions, he is highly impressive. he is a bit small (but he was only a sophomore playing at the highest level of competition there is in the state being in NE ohio division one) but he looked like he could make an impact as a kick returner in college already. as a receiver he had some great leaping ability, sticky hands, and enough speed to pull away from most chasing him. definitely worthy of a scholarship offer even at this early point in the process. anyways i was in columbus this weekend for the ohio north south game. i took lots of film from the game and the cbg took a few hundred pics. i am going to try and post some of the film from this game starting next week for the buckeye fans outside of ohio who wouldn't mind catching a glimpse of some future buckeyes (as well as some future golden gophers, golden domers, and a very impressive future miami redhawk). that will take some time though as i will need to get into the cbg's recording studio and put in a few hours before i can upload the files. i do have the pictures ready though and i might as well start using some of them. that picture at the top of this update is of soon to be buckeye tony gonzalez attempting to make a tackle on future golden gopher ernie wheelright. wheelright was impressive as could be in garnering the mvp honors from the game. his qb brady quinn was also quite impressive i thought. the other qb working with wheelright was kenton's record setting ben mauk. mauk was a much better runner than i thought but he didn't impress much with the arm. neither me, the cbg, or the ipa thought mauk was anywhere near his listed 6'2" height either. i was pumped to see the buckeye players in action saturday. of the twelve scholarship recurits from ohio this past season the only ones i haven't ever seen play football in person were david patterson, curt lukens (injured the game i saw hoover play last year against boardman), kirk barton, brandon maupin, and reggie smith. while smith wasn't at the game the rest were and it was a good opportunity to get some more film on the guys and to make a first impression before they get to campus. 
in further random thoughts from the all star game, i was disappointed to see david patterson limping around a bunch. he kept playing which we felt wasn't a wise idea too which made it even worse. patterson was really quick getting off the snap and getting into the offensive line. he will be a player it looks like. i imagine the limping was a minor thing or they would have held him out but i was still concerned. brandon maupin was huge but i honestly didn't get a chance to see him do much either. one game isn't enough to make a judgment about a player but patterson looked to have a better chance of contributing early i thought. still though maupin was gigantic and i am excited to see what he will look like after a few years in our program. curt lukens was impressive. he caught a touchdown on offense and was consistently around the ball on defense. he was bigger than i thought too. right now he is supposed to be coming to campus as a free safety and he has monster size for a free safety. he could definitely end up growing into an outside linebacker with serious wheels much like cie grant in a few years. ideally he will have a national championship ring like cie grant when he graduates from college too. kirk barton was really good i thought and he could avoid a redshirt possibly and make the two deep this year. he had a nasty streak and was able to hold his own against anyone the south put up against him including brandon maupin. i didn't know what to expect from barton when i got there but i know to expect a bunch from him the next four or five falls. he looks like a player for sure. anyways, that is all i have for now. i need to still eat some dinner and get some stuff ready for work in the morning. more then. 06-20-03 (8:15am) in a shocker there are actually two, count em two links this morning. even more shocking was the fact that the vg was awake at 7am today despite not having to work today and going out last night. anyways, like i said i got two links this morning so here we go. the dayton daily news has an osu notebook. this is a solid read with info on the ohio north south game saturday night and some info on quinn pitcock among other things. last article for this friday morning is also from the dayton daily news and it is the complete roster for the all star classic this weekend (though it would be more classic if it were in fawcett stadium in canton). as for me, i need to get busy. today is a travel day for the vg and the cbg as we are heading to columbus tonight to watch the all star game saturday. i need to do laundry, buy tape for the camcorder, check the oil in the car, and a few other things before the cbg gets off work today so i am ready to go. i should be back online around lunchtime though i imagine. enjoy the rest of friday. approximately seven and a half hours until the weekend furlough my working friends. hang in there. 06-19-03 (3:45pm) just some quick info to pass along. one top recruit the buckeyes were pursuing has decided to go elsewhere. PA two way lineman a.q. shipley has decided to stay home and attend penn state. yet another of about 1000 minor updates i need to make to the recruiting database for this site. in other news i have some info coming out of the michigan football camp. first off osu recruit and junior to be jamario o'neal is at the michigan camp and it sounds like he is putting on the show even compared to the seniors. having seen jamario play in person this isn't a big suprise to me. i can't wait to attend a tygers game this year and get some more film on him. probably the big news coming out of the michigan camp is that huber heights wayne linebacker marcus freeman cancelled his trip to ann arbor for camp. rumor is he has a summer job and couldn't get out of work. you gotta like the dedication to what is most likely just a temporary summer job from the young guy. you also gotta like the fact that he blew off michigan. i can't wait to see him blow up michigan ball carriers in a few years. suprisingly i haven't heard much news coming out of osu camp. ideally we will hear about a few scholarship offers and maybe even a verbal or two but so far i have yet to hear about it. oh well. anyways i am going to work on a dvd project for a little bit and i should be able to get back online a little later today with some more random thoughts. it is almost quitting time, hang in there. 06-19-03 (10:30am) a day off for the vg from the paying job means that the vg will be working on the website a bunch today. obviously there isn't a lot going on in the buckeye nation this time of year so i imagine i will catch up on some long overdue items. first off i think i am going to completely redo the header and the left hand column of this page. all the working links will still be there though they may be reorganized slightly. i will probably have a few updates today too i imagine as i am already thinking about just sitting around and perhaps cracking open a few frosty cold fermented beverages this afternoon. anyways, before i get busy thinking about a redesign for the webpage i actually have some linkage to keep us regular today. the canton repository has a piece on some buckeye game times. no new information there that i recognized but it is still buckeyesque so what the hell. i wish i had more buckeyesque articles today but that isn't going to happen so i have a couple that are just barely buckeye related to pass along. also in the canton repository there is a nice article on the autograph sessions being held at the pro football hall of fame. good opportunity to get a ton of NFL hall of famer autographs including a former buckeye like paul warfield. another interesting autograph that can be had is of kellen winslow sr. perhaps i can get him to autograph my sweater vest or a picture of the 2002 national champion ohio state buckeyes. man the hall of fame sounds like a fun thing to do either today or friday while i am off work. i would love to take up the camera equipment and get some nice pictures for my computer. i doubt i do it today but i should head up and pay my respects here this week or next while time is permitting and all. anyways, like i was saying i had three links to pass along today and all i spit out so far is two of them so here comes the third. the usa today has an article on good guys finishing first. this article isn't about the buckeyes at all honestly but it does mention coach tressel as one of many good guys to finish first this past year. nice to see coach T get some further recognition as a class act and a winner. i was thinking about coach tressel recently (i know hard to imagine huh). anyways i was wondering if coach tressel has a chance to win more national championships at ohio state than the four he won at youngstown state. for those not keeping score coach tressel has four rings from y-state and one for the thunb from the buckeyes. to even up the score coach T would need three more rings and to win more of course that would be four more championships (i did the math there for all the kinesiology majors out there). while i would love to be wrong here i just can't see coach T winning four more national championships at ohio state realistically (though in my biased buckeye mind this should take no more than four or five years to do the trick). i can see coach tressel putting in up to twenty years at ohio state. that would make him nearly 70 when he finally succumbs to the weight of all those golden pants pinned to his sweater vest. if coach T were to coach here until he was 70 and he were to win 4 more national championships before he was done that would be a championship roughly every four or five years or approximately one for every recruit to ever sign with the buckeyes for a generation. like i said, my deluded mind sees this as a slam dunk but realistically this would be a historical run in college football that very few schools let alone one coach have ever accomplished. hopefully this is the dawn of the golden (pants) era at ohio state and some day there will be a photo of coach tressel with a championship ring on all ten fingers. talk about some bling bling. anyways, that is all for now. breakfast (mcdonalds) was good this morning and i am already thinking about lunch. i could really use a philly cheesesteak, some fries dripping in malt vinegar and a fresh squeezed lemonade i am thinking. it isn't often i get off a weekday like this and i plan to make the most of it by eating and drinking and doing whatever the hell i want to. enjoy work suckers. more later for sure. 06-17-03 (5:45am) just three links real quick like before i hop into the shower and get ready for another day of work. all three links are about the new contract for coach tressel and there isn't a rerun in the bunch today. anyways here they are, an article from the canton repository a piece from the dayton daily news and another one from the cleveland plain dealer on the new contract. in the bad news - good news - bad news department, it was a rough day at work today. a decision had to be made and it wasn't going to be an easy one either way it worked out. due to a slump in sales we had to go to only three days of production a week this week and next. the only silver lining here is that nobody is losing their job and all should be back to normal after that i imagine, but it sure was a bitter pill to swallow today. i don't think anyone in particular was happy with the news today but it is better than seeing your friends and coworkers out of a job in my opinion. anyways, it was a rough day and i need to unwind a little now. enjoy. 06-16-03 (5:40am) no fresh links that i can find this morning but i did find a day old donut that is still edible this morning. i don't know how i missed it yesterday morning honestly but atleast it is some fresh reading material for the morning. anyways here comes the link. 1460 the fan has a suprisingly good piece on recruiting from tim may. normally i don't like to link articles that i missed from the day before but this one was just too good not to post. anyways that is all i have for now. ideally i will think of something good to post after work while working today. enjoy. 06-15-03 (9am) i got links galore today, no relation to bond girl pussy galore that i am aware of though. anyways here we go. the dayton daily news has a piece on big10 expansion or lack thereof. the canton repository has a nice article with information on all kinds of things. this is probably the read of the day. it has info on warren harding, delbert ferguson, jim tressel and his contract, and some info on my man KP. coach mcdaniels was quoted as saying delbert does not have a scholarship offer from ohio state in this article but who knows how old that quote is honestly. in further linkage a PA paper has a piece on top shelf tight end rory nicol. the bucks have been recruiting nicol hard, he does have an offer, and he does have us in his top two. the final three links are all about ted ginn jr doing his speedy gonzalez imitation. here is a brief article on ted winning a national title in track and here are some stats and some more stats from that national track meet. one of the events ginn took home the gold in was the 800 relay. the relay team is led by ginn of course but there are a couple of other football players that are really young to keep an eye on for the future in freddie lennix and daven jones. lennix is only a sophomore (junior to be) and daven jones is a freshman (soph to be). now for a quick plea for help. i need to contact a few true buckeye fans via email but i don't have their addresses. i know they are readers of the site though so ideally they will see this or someone they know will see this and let them know. anyways if CLTbuckeye, dboston415forty, or westbuck04 are out there contact me (my email is in the title of the page at the top of the page, just put your mouse on my name and click on it). if you are hesitating to contact me because you don't know why i am looking for you, trust me this is great news best case scenario and merely good news worst case scenario. anyways, i need to get into the cbg's studio and do some dvd burning work. i want to 'back up' a few more of my favorite movies as well as burn off another copy of the recruiting compilation video for a friend. if i can think of something good i will be back online later this afternoon. enjoy what little time is left this weekend while you can. 06-14-03 (11:15pm) man. i just popped in and checked the email account to look for one message in particular (it wasn't there) and what a suprise did i just get in the form of a few emails about my last update on the possible delbert ferguson scholarship offer. before this gets any more out of hand i want to reiterate the story because from the email some of the people out there didn't read the last post very carefully. while i have no reason at all to doubt the guy that told me this rumor about delbert ferguson now having an osu scholarship offer, the guy who told this guy that rumor in the first place is an unkown quantity to me and the guy who told me. while this original rumor teller does have some some sporting scene contacts in the y-town area we don't know if this original guy actually knows what he is talking about. not all fans (even buckeye fans) are that into recruiting. this guy that told the guy that told me for all i know could not appreciate the difference between getting letters and phone calls and visits froerm a coach to an actual scholarship offer. who knows. like i thought i clearly stated in the post below this one, it is just a RUMOR (though i do trust the guy relaying it to me and it sounds like the guy who told him could have access to this type of information with what he does in y-town). the general theme of two emails was that reporting a rumor is irresonsible reporting. my response to that is i am not a reporter and this site is just something i do for fun. i thought i clearly described the situation but in case i didn't i wanted to talk a little more about it tonight before i head out in search of some weekend wanderlust. now i do believe the rumor to be factually true (otherwise i wouldn't have posted it without saying that i doubted the rumor) but i wouldn't go around thinking that it is the gospel truth either. i just wanted to get out a juicy rumor that i heard to help entertain us in this most dead of dead periods. while i am at it, the part about delbert possibly verballing to the bucks during camp next week is just wild speculation by me. i just put two and two together and got four here with the offer rumor and the upcoming camp playing the part of the twos and the verbal playing the part of the four. it isn't a prediction or anything like that. i am not a psychic, though i have been known to call miss cleo and use some of the site's budget to get football predictions from a 'real expert' from time to time. anyways, like i was saying i just do this site for fun and right now it is getting in the way of that fun so i am out of here. i hope this helps minimize any confusion. 
06-14-03 (5:55pm) take this for what it is worth and i will explain my nebulous source here after i get this out, but warren harding tailback delbert ferguson may have a scholarship offer from coach tressel and the buckeyes. there have been some buckeye fans out there wondering why coach tressel and staff have delayed in offerring an obvious talent like ferguson but that may be a moot point now. i don't know if delbert will be at osu camp (starting tuesday) or not but if he is it wouldn't suprise me to see him make his verbal known to the public and let the petty fight between $ucknuts and B$B begin to say who broke the news first (as if anyone remembers if it was tom brokaw or peter jennings that broke the world trade center attack anyways).
some of the buckeye fans have rationalized the delay in the offer to delbert to be based on either a lack of top flight speed or on his fumbling problem. most of these same fans have never seen delbert play football though either remind you, they are just doing their jim carrey imitation and literally talking out their ass (like some of the 'experts'). i saw delbert play twice in person last season (and you can watch the film i shot for free in the video archive linked in the top left corner like usual) and i didn't see speed being a problem for delbert. the first game i saw him play he didn't fumble once but the second game it was an issue. he was involved in four balls being put on the ground but one of them was simply a bad qb exchange that i blame on the qb and the other ones were generally all solid plays by a tough akron manchester defense (that gave up an average of approximately 2.0 points per game in the regular season [not a typo, they gave up two points per game]). delbert will be just fine in my opinion. right now i would like to ask a favor of some of the readers of the site. there are a few buckeye regulars on the large message boards that seem to love to bash delbert ferguson. do me a favor and cut and paste some of their more stupid comments and throw them back in these tools faces when delbert runs for his first hundred yard game in the scarlet and gray. now for the source of this rumor i heard. i am not going to give out his name obviously but i will describe the situation a little bit. obviously the source i got it from is a long time reader of the site who i have dealt with via email in the past. i have absolutely no reason to doubt that he is passing along the information as he heard it in the y-town area. now for the credibility of his source, i have no clue. this other guy does seem to be involved in the local sports scene though and he would reasonably have access to this type of information. still though, this is just a rumor that i felt like sharing with the buckeye nation. it may or may not be true, it isn't like i am psychic or delbert ferguson in disguise or anything. anyways i just wanted to pass that 'info' along. the vg had a really good night last night. i was planning on stopping by a friend's house with some brews and then going over to my brother's house to hang out for a little bit. well my brother already had plans that night so instead i went out with my friend and hung out in his neighborhood instead. the neighbors (and my boy's friends) were having a little get together so we pretty much spent most of the night over there. everything was a great time until my drunk ass tried to leave and i tripped over a really tiny fence (i think it was guarding a tomato plant or something) on the way out. long story short the big man went down and he went down hard. fortunately i didn't get ripped up by the fence but i still felt bad about my destruction on the way out of there. i must have looked like godzilla terrorizing tokyo and getting tripped up by some big net around his ankles when i went down. oh well. anyways, that is all the info i got right now. i am going to get ready to get it on again tonight and with any luck i won't be anywhere near a computer again until sunday. enjoy what is left of the weekend. 06-13-03 (6am) it is friday the thirteenth and it has already been a strange day for the vg. somehow i actually woke up this morning well before my alarm clock started yelling at me this morning and somehow i am not even tired. that seductress the snooze bar had no chance this morning. not only am i well rested but i even have some linkage to pass along with some news for the site. first off though the linkage. the dayton daily news has a piece on coach tressel and his new contract. one other link i wanted to pass along is from the BSB about a contest they are running for free tickets and a sideline media pass for the ohio north south classic on the 21st. the vg and the cbg will be there for sure saturday and we should be able to get some solid pics and even some video from the game to share with the buckeye nation especially those buckeyes not lucky enough to live in ohio and see the game either live or on the tube. i imagine i will be able to start using some pics on the site that weekend. as for the video clips, that will have to wait until i can get the source footage into the cbg's computer and let it do some magic on it. anyways that is all i have going on right now. i need to get a shower and head into work for one last day this week. enjoy. 06-11-03 (6:10am) in a shocker i actually have three links for the morning before heading into work. the canton repository has a piece on kenny peterson and NFL minicamp as well as a piece on some local talent playing in the ohio north sourth game soon. last link for now is from the cleveland plain dealer on coach tressel about to get a raise from andy geiger. anyways that is all i have for now. i need to hop in the shower real quick like and get ready for work. enjoy. 06-10-03 (6:20pm) sorry about the lack of updates the past 36 hours or so. what can i say, the snooze button has been getting some extra love from the vg in the mornings lately. i am still getting up around 5:30am but at 5:35am when i realize that there aren't any links out there to post that extra 35 minutes of sleep i can get is too much to pass up. anyways there aren't any links out there still but i need to post something so here goes nothing. i was reading todat that portsmouth offensive line prospect gerald cadogen has a scholarship offer from michigan. gerald is a big guy and a big prospect on the o-line. he doesn't have an osu scholarship offer now (at least not one that has been reported to any of the 'experts') but that may change here when he comes to camp and gets his chance to earn one. in the other things i was reading department, i read that we are in the top three for florida standout db toney collins. we have a scholarship offer on the table for collins as far as i know. other schools in the top three for collins include rutgers and kansas suprisingly. i guess rutgers has the old miami d-coordinator greg schiano as coach so i imagine that he may have some contacts with collins' high school or something like that. kansas has chuck mangione wannabe mark mangino (or something similar to that) as coach. mangino (i am going with that since i have no desire in looking up this losers real name) was a coach at k-state (not to be confused with kansas as one certain recruit did recently). i know for a fact that you can't build a program like k-state with kansas talent so i imagine they hit florida pretty hard too. florida has made a scholarship offer to collins too but they aren't in his listed top three as of right now. it goes to show how far once mighty florida has fallen without steve spurrier. i have nothing to base this on other than my considerable gut and my gut feeling but i think florida will be a much better team this year than last. the sec as a whole seems to be down and it could be florida's year. everyone seems to be on auburns cock this year as far as the preseason magazines are concerned but i am not buying that until i see them play usc and the mighty trojans. i got a feeling auburn gets housed that game and their season resembles the alabama season from a few years ago where they were number three preseason and then ended up with around 6 losses or so. auburn seems to be all hype to me. georgia on the other hand seems to have the talent to make a run. call that another hunch. speaking of hunches i can see tennessee having another subpar year. i know they bring back one of the more talented and experienced qb's in the conference in casey clausen, but i can see them choking it up again this year. you know what though, this isn't an sec site by any stretch of the imagination this is all buckeyes and big ten all the way. one team i see making a big push in conference this year is minnesota. the schedule is quite favorable, the offense is loaded, and the defense isn't as pushover as it has been ever since i can remember. i can see minnesota making a push for a new year's day bowl even perhaps with a top three or four finish in the big10. another team i see making some serious waves in conference is purdue. every game they lost last year was close and nearly everyone is back. another gut feeling i have is on iowa and it isn't a good feeling here unfortunately for the hawkeyes. after a cupcake nonconference schedule that should lead iowa to an over ranked status their world is going to come crashing down. they open conference play with a patsy in michigan state but after that they may not win another game. mark it down iowa will have the greatest win differential in the nation this year compared to last year. i think that iowa is still an up and coming program but they need to take a step back this year before continuing to progress into a solid program. speaking of over hyped programs add michigan and penn state to that list. michigan has no tailbacks worth mentioning and they have a suspect run stuffing defense. navarre is getting better but he isn't a world beater either (on a positive note for navarre though at least he isn't a wife beater like former michigan star anthony carter). michigan is probably still a top four conference team but they may struggle with the elite teams (hmm, who could that be) in conference. penn state on the other hand is supposed to be hot shit this year but how much better can they be than the mediocre team they were last year when they lost larry johnson, bryant johnson, and jimmy kennedy. the answer is they won't be. i see penn state struggling to stay above water in conference play. man i just read over this crappy update and i am not happy about it at all. this is the dead period and i like to step up in the dead period being the only all football buckeye site out there. lately i haven't been stepping up much but i hope to change that here real soon. the past three or four years i have done a buckeye countdown celebrating a famous buckeye that wore the uniform number of the days left until the season opener. i hope to start that back up part time (on days whose number i can think of a former buckeye and a good story) ideally this week. anyways, enjoy the rest of the day more so than you did this crappy update. as for me tonight, me and the cbg are going to head over to our brothers house for a suprise visit and hang out there for a little while tonight. he has been whining that we never visit him and he is always the one visiting us. time to make him regret ever wishing we stopped over buy showing up in the middle of the week with a bunch of beer. more in the morning unless that seductress the snooze bar snags my attention again. 
06-08-03 (high noon) a few links for sunday. the dayton daily news has a nice wrap up of the state track finals. i know track is hardly worth covering on its own on this site but there are several top buckeye recruits in action and it is the dead period so here we go. here is a quick piece on the division one champs the cleveland glenville tarblooders. here is a photo gallery from this weekend. finally here are all the stats you could ever want to see from the state track meet.
for the vast majorit of the fans that could care less about track let me summarize. ted ginn took home three state championships and a second place finish for the champs. other name recruits in action in dayton for the states include sophomore verbal jamario o'neal, super junior fred davis, and a few other less heralded sophs in glenville's freddie lennix and dayton chaminade-julienne's brandon harrison. both freddie lennix and brandon harrison put up impressive times for young guys and they will be guys to keep an eye out for the next couple of football seasons. harrison is a corner - safety all the way, lennix i am not so sure about. he looks like a tweener between linebacker and safety right now but he does have two more years to settle into a position for college. in further linkage here is a list of the top 50 players in the state of florida from the orlando sentinel today. this orlando paper typically has the best recruiting rankings for the state of florida and they are fresh today. there really isn't any information here other than a list but there are several names that buckeye die hards will be familiar with for sure. i got a link in the email today that i wanted to pass along as well. this is a new buckeye message board made by some of the regulars on bucknuts but not related to the corporate entity that is bucknuts. there isn't much traffic over there at all right now but another buckeye resource sounds good to me. i don't understand why some of the regulars would go through all the effort to form their own message board like this honestly, but i would love to hear the story if there are any juicy details. i don't know how much need there is for another buckeye message board but the more the merrier and i would be glad to help publicize your efforts. anyways, that is all i have for right now. i am going to get some things done and out of the way for the weekend in preparation for another work week. enjoy. 06-06-03 (5:50am) just one link real quick like before i start to get ready for work for this friday. the canton repository has a piece on offensive coordinator coach bollman and the buckeye bible. suprisingly good article for this time of the year. anyways, sorry about the brief update this morning. maybe i will think of something good at work today and come back strong later tonight. enjoy. 06-05-03 (5:30pm) one link to pass along and then some random thoughts. the lima news can't figure out how to archive off their articles so this link will be different friday (the computer whizzes that run the lima fishwrapper just cut and paste the new article over the old one since they don't know how to make a new html document). anyways, the lima news has a piece on osu commit todd boeckman and baseball. like i said, if you don't check this out today it will be something different in the morning. in random thoughts i have some basic info today. first off 1460 the fan will be replaying a series of great buckeye games every thursday night at 7pm. they start off tonight with the radio replay of the purdue game and the illini game from this past season. i imagine this will be available on their website if you are interested. now for the good stuff. i couldn't believe this when i read it. probably the funniest recruiting story known to man. anyways it is all about vegas tailback cornell johnson. johnson was supposed to be one of the top 20 tailbacks in the nation last year recruiting wise. he didn't have the test score though so he didn't make his college choice public right away. now that he has finally improved his test score to the point where he should be able to play this year he announced his college choice. it seems that he thinks he is going to kansas state to join one of the top teams in college football (though nowhere near as good as they are hyped to be). instead though johnson signed his letter of intest with the university of kansas instead of kansas state. apparently he didn't know the difference between the two schools and signed and faxed in the wrong letter of intent. so instead of being on one of the supposed top teams in the nation he is now a member of one of the worst teams in the nation. anyways, that is all i have for now. i will try to get back online again in the morning. enjoy. 06-05-03 (6am) sorry about the lack of updates yesterday. in the morning i lost out to the snooze button and after work my retired uncle stopped over for his somewhat regular beating in chess. unfortunately for the vg, i took the beating last night as my uncle seemed to be on fire. oh well. it wasn't like there was any news out there to talk about yesterday anyway. speaking of no news, i can't find any links at this time of the morning again today but i do have some football info all the same. abc has announced the television times for four buckeye games this year. august 30 the buckeyes host washington at 8pm on abc. we all knew that already honestly. they also announced that the nc state game on september 13th is going to be a noon kickoff on abc, iowa gets beat down by the buckeyes in the horseshoe october 18th at 3:30pm, and of course the buckeyes travel to michigan to end the season for a 12:15pm kickoff on abc. that is all that abc has listed for the moment but i imagine nearly all of our games will be televised to most of the country since we are the defending national champions and all. i have some rumor information on redgie arden today. i don't know if it is true or not so take it for what it is worth. anyways the rumor is that arden was actually passed out in his vehicle right in front of the police station when he was caught for his DUI. the rumor goes that he will be suspended from the team for the entire year as punieshment. like i said, i don't know if it is true or not, but that is what i heard. anyways, that is all i have for now. enjoy. 06-03-03 (6:10am) another morning without any news. much better than the news that hit the papers yesterday about redgie arden getting busted for DUI for sure. there actually is another link on redgie today in the dayton daily news. typically this is where i say no new information and read at your own risk, but that isn't the case this morning. this article says redgie failed a field sobriety test whereas the columbus dispatch said yesterday that he declined to take the drunk test. i don't think it will impact his football future either way honestly, but which way is it. it is a pretty major detail for two rather large ohio newspapers to disagree on. oh well. i sent out my first dvd outside of immediate family and friends last night. a good friend of mine and a friend of the site should be getting his own copy of the recruiting compilation video probably late this week. the production quality is low and the voiceovers are almost embarassing, but it is football and i am sure it will be appreciated. i currently have no plans whatsoever to bother trying to sell the video. i personally don't think it is of high enough quality to take people's cash for it and i don't want to rip anyone off here. it was fun and a learning experience doing it though and i should be able to produce a much higher quality video next year. i have been listening to the new metallica a bunch lately (i think it officially comes out either june 10 or june 20, not sure). being a huge metallica fan i am proud to say this is the most old school i have seen metallica get since the justice for all album. i didn't get tickets for the summer sanitarium tour (with metallica) held in the horseshoe yet, but i may have to now that i have heard the new material. the new bass player robert trujillo is great. i remember seeing him in concert way back in the day with suicidal tendencies. ST and robert put on a show that day and since then robert has been jamming with ozzy. he has the good resume and is a welcome addition to the band from this corner for sure. anyways, that is all i have for now. i hope to have another update today after work. enjoy tuesday as it happens and special good luck to my friend the irish patent attorney today. 06-02-03 (6:05am) first off some bad news. redgie arden was arrested for driving drunk in his hometown of ironton recently. that is the second time redgie has been busted for driving under the influence. making mistakes happens, repeating mistakes shouldn't happen. no word on how coach tressel plans on handling this yet, but i wouldn't expect to see arden out of the doghouse this year anytime soon. final link for this morning is the full transcript of a speech by coach tressel to the coaches association this past january. it is a PDF file and it is about 7 pages long. otherwise i can't find any links today. honestly i wish i couldn't find any links at all today and everything was still smooth with arden oh well. more later tonight. enjoy monday as it drags on and on and on. 06-01-03 (5:25pm) not muchi may going on today in the buckeye nation. there were two links this morning that i might as well pass along. the toledo blade has a piece on drushawn humphrey and his national championship ring. nice article but the author used the term mister way too often. it sounded like a damned court proceeding instead of an article in the sports page. the mansfield news has a piece on mansifeld track with a brief bit and a sweet pic of osu verbal jamario o'neal. the state championships for track and field are this coming friday and saturday in dayton. i know i will be working friday for sure, but saturday has been discussed by me and the cbg. i don't know if a track event is worth the ballpark 6-7 hours total drive time, but we may still end up going to check out the speed. in other news i added two more offers to the database. obviously i have no first hand knowledge here and i base these on what i hear off the net so i can't vouch for any of the offers, but here they are all the same. the first offer is valley view's tailback - fullback brock bolen. brock is about 6'0" and 230 pounds. his speed has been reported in the 4.5 to 4.7 range, a pretty fat range honestly. bolen is ohio's version of todd marinovich in that he seems to have been trained for big time college football nearly all of his life. it looks like that hard work is paying off as bolen has said that he is mostly looking at wisconsin and ohio state. i have never seen bolen play football so i don't have a bunch of comments on him. he does seem to be a tweener type in that he has great tailback size and fullback speed. he is big enough to be a pure fullback but it doesn't sound like that is what he wants to do in college. the second offer is to another tailback prospect charlie jones from homestead dade florida. jones is about 5'11" and 190 pounds with blazing 4.4 range speed. much like fellow top florida tailback bobby washington, jones has miami and osu as his top two. jones is a little small for my tastes (i like my tailbacks in the 230 pound range and height doesn't really matter much to me) but everyone seems to think he is a prime time player so i am excited here. i don't know if we will be able to pry away a guy like jones from miami (and florida state who usually doesn't make a bunch of early offers and may become a player for him) but it sounds like we should get an official visit out of him and that is all you can ask for. anyways, those two new scholarship offers are listed in the database. i wish i had some more info to share, but honestly there isn't anything out there. |
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