ohio state buckeyes football
march 2003 archive

03-31-03 (4:45pm) it is a dark day in the buckeye nation. after much speculation spring practice will be closed to the public with the exception of the spring game of course. i had heard from a friend with a relative in the know not that long ago that it was going to be open but it looks like that isn't going to be the case. spring ball is going to be open to the media it seems and that has me thinking.

is the vanilla gorilla website media?

i honestly doubt it. i will probably email the athletic department and see if my covering buckeye football the past 5 seasons qualifies me as media. i fully anticipate that they will say i am not media and i already have a back up plan. perhaps i can volunteer - intern for a local newspaper with media credentials that never covers things such as spring ball. i could write them a practice report and do some photography for free including all expenses paid by the vg in exchange for the right to also use any pictures i take on my personal website. i don't know if they would go for it or not, but why not really. they hire me on for no cost as an intern. i cover all my own expenses, attend practice, and write up an article or two along with some original photography. all i ask is that i be allowed to use a media pass for the weekend that wasn't going to be used in the first place. sounds quite reasonable to me, therefore it probably won't happen. nothing good is ever easy (well one thing is actually...).

i will probably email the university tonight and also call up my local newspaper and maybe another paper or two from the area just in case. some how some way the vg and the crazy bearded guy are going to practice. where there is a will there is a way and i can think of tons of media outlets much less deserving of actually attending practice than superfans like myself and my brother the CBG.

i completely understand the thinking of the coaching staff on this decision. after the piss poor moderation by the bucknuts staff on their message board i figured as much that i may not be able to attend practice.

why the moderators and the staff of bucknuts are so worried about posting premium information which is COMPLETELY LEGAL TO DO (as long as it is a summary and not a cut and paste) yet allow detailed play descriptions by overzealous fans is beyond me. perhaps it has something to do with the fact that premium information pays the bills and free practice reports are just cool. personally i place the blame for this banning of the public from the practice sessions on the bucknuts site. if the moderators would have done their job and looked out for the university and the program instead of the corporate interests of the insiders with the posting of premium information, spreading of rumors, or honest criticism of a boatload of mistakes we would probably all be allowed to attend still to this day. the fact that bucknuts did not moderate a reckless poster like dragonknight (hows them 12 sided dice treating you by the way) spilling the secrets of the program for the world to see (with good intentions i am sure though) is the main reason why most true fans won't be able to see practice this year. what a load of crap.

anyways, it is monday afternoon and i just got the bad news and i am slightly annoyed if you couldn't tell. there go the big plans for the weekend. i am going to try and post again tonight, but i will probably be playing phone tag with the local sports editor in an effort to line up an internship of some sort for myself and my brother so we can still live out our dream and go to practice. more later if i get some good news, otherwise i will probably still be a little too annoyed to bother. enjoy if it is all possible. someone should today because i sure as hell am not.
03-31-03 (6am) another morning without any links, well no links at 6 am at least. oh well. baseball season is finally here and you know what that means for us buckeye football die hards, that means it is time for spring ball. spring ball officially kicks off this thursday with a practice. the practice should be either 3:15 or 3:30pm but i wouldn't expect much action honestly until saturday at the earliest. i know for a fact that both me and the crazy bearded guy will be quite busy with work that day as well as friday so we won't be there. saturday is a different story though. ideally we will have some nice pictures to post and discuss this coming weekend.

i am still seeing concerned fans posting on the various message boards that spring practice may be closed this year and that has me worried. i have it on good word from a reader of the site that it will be open but it is odd that we haven't seen any official word from the athletic department yet. maybe i will email them today just to be sure.

anyways, i don't have much in me for this morning, but i will have some more late this afternoon most likely. i did post some material late last night if you are still looking for that buckeye fix to get your week started out right.

enjoy monday as it drags on and on and on.
03-30-03 (11:15pm) i just got done updating the database. i took out a couple of duplicate names and fixed some obvious errors and all is good. i also have started work on the osu interest list. i was just going off the top of my head here so i am sure i missed quite a few names here and i am probably wrong on a few more, but so far so good. if you go to the recruiting database, you can check up on my work. i added a link for the list of osu interest to the osu search section of the page at the top. if i recall it is the third link in that table.

i consider osu interest to mean the following by the way. if a player has verbally expressed interest in the program that counts. if osu is reported to have made a scholarship offer that counts too. if all the fans in the buckeye nation drool when hearing the player's name being mentioned in the same sentence as osu that counts too (and it is what i call the brian brohm rule). otherwise i am not listing them as having an osu interest. i am not including every single player that gets some correspondence from osu on the osu interest list (i call that the kenyon buford - evans desir - louis holmes - bucknuts rule). if i do hear that a player was invited to campus for an official or even an unofficial visit i will probably list that player as well. i am not listing any underclassmen however unless they have an actual offer (the jamario o'neal rule).

now for a quick look at linebackers. this is probably the most difficult position to project going into spring ball. seniors matt wilhelm and cie grant are moving on to the NFL and will be hard to replace. robert reynolds returns as a starting strong side linebacker, but where he plays in 2003 is up in the air. there has been some talk about reynolds sliding over to the middle linebacker position that wilhelm vacated or he could stay at strong side. since it is going to be difficult to project which linebacker position the linebackers will end up at, i am going to look at each linebacker and then comment on them and speculate as to where they may end up.

starting with the only returning starter we have robert reynolds. reynolds took some flak from the fans last year, but he played pretty good for a first year starter i thought. if he improves (like you would expect) he should be a solid linebacker if not a possible all conference selection. right now reynolds has experience at strong side linebacker but the hot rumor is middle linebacker. i think either of those are a possibility honestly depending on who emerges from the linebacker pack. i would prefer to have reynolds stay outside and have either fred pagac or mike d'andrea step up in the middle, but i would be comfortable with him in the middle with his experience too. he is one of two linebackers i am not worried about.

the other linebacker i am not concerned about in the least is aj hawk. hawk got some significant playing time on one of the best defenses in the nation last season and he was always in the right place at the right time. i know reynolds brings back the most experience of all the linebackers but aj may bring back the most complete game. he fights through blocks effortlessly and efficiently. he takes the good angles to the ball that can more than make up for any perceived lack of top shelf speed. the only question i have about aj hawk is where he ends up playing. if reynolds does in fact move inside to middle linebacker (the mike to put it in football junky terms) it is a slam dunk that aj hawk is strong side linebacker (the sam for the junkies out there). i could also see aj hawk playing the mike if we had the need and the depth to fill the outside linebacker positions. aj would look great in the middle of the defense and plugging the holes.

that is two of the starting linebackers most likely, the big question on campus is who will be the third. the top candidates are sophomores mike d'andrea and bobby carpenter and the less publicized freddie pagac jr, the marine cliff reynolds, and special teams terror jason bond. most fans are probably thinking mike d'andrea is the top candidate here. he had the most hype of all the recruits for sure. for some reason everyone has d'andrea pegged as a middle linebacker and i can see that, but i can also see him being a dominant weakside (or will for the junkies) linebacker too. with d'andrea's type of speed he could be a force rushing the passer coming off the edge and dropping into coverage on the backs or a second tight end. some fans have been talking about d'andrea as a bust already, but those are some rather impatient fans. he was a true freshman last season and he was good enough to not be redshirted by the national championship buckeyes too. if he is one of the top three linebackers the coaches will find a space for d'andrea to play.

one linebacker that nobody is talking about is freddie pagac jr. freddie is a solid tackler and a highly skilled linebacker when it comes to the fundamentals, kind of like aj hawk. i don't think he is as good as aj is or anything, but he has similar skills and understanding of the game. freddie is most often mentioned as a middle linebacker and that is where i see him. he will be competing with mainly mike d'andrea and robert reynolds for the mike with aj hawk being able to fill the void if needed.

another linebacker that nobody is talking about is bobby carpenter. everyone remembers bobby making the big hit and tackle on the opening kickoff against texas tech last year but that is the last the casual fan saw of carpenter. he didn't work into the defense and didn't make much of an impact on special teams after that either. regarless, bobby carpenter is a highly skilled and very athletic linebacker. he is huge in person yet has the speed to play weakside linebacker too. i remember when he was in 10th grade (if i recall correctly) and the coaches thought that he had enough speed to play defensive back. that is some serious speed, almost miami like when you think about it. sure miami speed isn't cie grant speed (ain't that right ken dorsey), but it is still blazing fast. i would peg bobby carpenter as my personal favorite to take over the weakside linebacker job this spring. i don't know if he starts out as the one, but i got a feeling that he ends up as being the starter when spring camp comes to a conclusion. we will see how psychic i am on this one i guess.

yet another linebacker that nobody ever talks about is big number 91 jason bond. bond is a walk on that just produces on special teams. i know jason bond sucks in the EA sports variety of the game but this isn't a video game we are talking about. bond is always hustling on special teams and he is physical enough to fight through the blocks and the wedge and make contact with the ball carrier. i am a big fan of kick off coverage guys like this. i think it is a sign of good things to come from a player (kind of like how two freshman were dominant on special teams a few years back in mike doss and cie grant). i know the deck is stacked against bond, but he has the hustle and desire to make an impact and at least make the two deep if not start in my opinion.

speaking of hustle and desire, that brings me to the latest walk on linebacker in cliff reynolds. everyone knows cliff's story. he is a recently discharged marine (just in the nick of time too) that is now living out his dream to be a buckeye. reynolds is now a much more mature man than what he was in high school. now he is up to around 230 pounds and is running right around a 4.6 forty. not only is he big and fast, he has that military toughness and strength too. he isn't the type of guy to get frustrated by two a days for sure after what he has been through. lots of fans are expecting way too much out of cliff right away though i think. sure he is a great story and the physical measurements are impressive, but he has been away from football for a few years now and that rust isn't going to just go away instantly either. i expect cliff to push for playing time this year and compete for a spot in the two deep, but the starting job is always possible. i am definitely not betting against a marine. i would expect cliff to be an impact player on special teams though. with his type of size, speed, and attitude he would be the ideal wedge buster and that is where i expect to see him first get on the field at.

anyways, that is my quick look at the linebackers. i didn't include stan white here though i could have because i talked about him in my tight end preview by the way. i am sure i am forgetting someone, but i can't think of them right now. to recap my thoughts i see aj hawk and robert reynolds entering spring camp as two of the starters. as for the third starter, i don't think we will know until after spring camp. where the linebackers end up probably depends on who emerges as that third linebacker. if it is a middle linebacker type that probably means reynolds and hawk are outside linebackers. if another outside linebacker steps up as the third it will be interesting to see if robert reynolds can fill the middle or if a guy like aj hawk is ready to man the middle.

i will have more in the morning when i get up. until then enjoy what little is left of the weekend if at all possible.
03-30-03 (12:25pm) just one link and then a quick note for the first update i am posting today. in linkage, 1460 the fan has a piece on the buckeyes and spring ball. nothing new in it but it was a good summary of the state of things as we stand. probably the one thing in the article that i haven't discussed a bunch already is the injury status of guys like shane olivea, darrion scott, and simon fraser. i don't think they are serious enough to cause them to miss fall camp but it does look like they may miss the bulk of spring work. oh well. time for the depth to get some seasoning.

now for a quick comment. i was going through the email when i got word on how a couple of top underclassmen were doing from a dayton chaminade-julienne fan. it seems that juniors to be javon ringer (tailback) and brandon harrison (cornerback) have really been hitting the gym. in a recent powerlifting meet the two sophomores did fantastic. javon ringer won his division outright and brandon harrison finished a close second in his division despite winning two out of three events. they both squatted over 500 pounds and were nearly deadlifting that much as well.

both ringer and harrison are a little on the small side for their respective positions right now (compared to seniors anyway). it is great news to hear about them being dedicated like that in the gym. ringer in particular. small tailbacks hardly ever pan out. the ones that do make something of themselves are typically the stongest guy on the field. it looks like javon has picked up on this trend and is doing everything in his power to get himself ready for college football in three years.

as a corner, harrison doesn't have the need for the brute strength that a tailback does, but it was still great to see him dedicated to improving himself. as a corner harrison showed tons of skills in the limited opportunities i have had to see him play football. this weight lifting devotion is another piece to the puzzle and the picture is becoming clearer. brandon harrison will probably end up as the second best defensive back prospect in his class behind only jamario o'neal. not bad company to be keeping. with any luck, maybe buckeye fans will see brandon harrison and jamario o'neal keeping company again in another three years as incoming freshmen.

in a poker wrap up from last night. the vg got his head handed to him. i lost nearly three times as much as what i initially bought from the bank. i hate having to go into the pocket like that and last night that is all i did. i know we had a larger than usual game with 8 people playing, but i still expected to win more than the 4 or 5 hands i did all night long. none of them were big money hands either. it sucked. probably the only fun part of poker night for me was a hand of texas hold em i was dealing. that is where everyone gets two cards of their own and then there are eventually 5 common cards in the middle that are part of everyone's hand. you make the best 5 card hand you have out of the common 5 and your 2. anyways, i had an open straight dealt down with the first four cards and everyone was in and betting big. everyone was in for big money and had the cards to back it up. for the fifth and final card i completed the straight and it just ruined the hand. one woman had 2 aces in her hand dealt to her that were worthless thanks to the straight showing, two guys had the straight before i completed it and gave everyone at the table the same hand they had. a couple of other guys had some decent pair action with the straight until it was revealed. the game ended up in a tie and we had to play another hand to determine who won the pot. classic texas hole em moment if you ask me other than the fact that i lost a bunch of money on it.

anyways, that is all i have in me for now. i need to tell some lunch to get in my belly and then i will get back online again later this afternoon sometime with a look at the linebacker position as we head into spring ball. enjoy.
03-29-03 (5:35pm) i am currently in the process of enjoying myslef (no, not in that way either; definitely typing with two hands here). i have some sweet poker action set up for tonight and i am ready to fleece all my friends. before i start spending my anticipated winnings tonight i just wanted to pass along some quick information on spring practice.

i have heard rumors on some message boards that spring practice is closed. while the athletic department does have some days closed off and some sessions closed off, by and large it is going to be open to the public is what i am hearing. i have all the dates of spring practice listed in the left hand column and now i have practice times to add to that list. all the weekday practice sessions are going to be at either 3:15 or 3:30 i heard. take it from me, get there by three if you want to get a good seat and see the players come out of the woody (one of the best picture opportunities honestly). i have also heard that the open sessions on the weekends (actually saturdays since there are no sunday sessions) are going to be held at 9am. either me or the cbg or both of us will be at both saturday sessions prior to the spring game to get some pics for the site. the cbg is going to try and see the friday the 18th practice in the stadium with the espn gameday crew which i suspect is a scrimmage session since it is in the shoe.

i haven't updated the left hand column with the times yet (it is actually a competely different file that is pulled into the front page and not part of the front pa) but i will try and get to that sunday. sunday is going to be a big day for me and the website. i plan on updating a few times as well as trying my hand at prewriting some material for posting later in the week. my time is considerably shorter now with the new job so i am going to try this to make up for it. i also plan on doing some more video work. i have tons of cleveland st ignatius video to post but i need to spend some time in the crazy bearded guy's studio to do it. that is scheduled for sunday afternoon too. ideally i will have sti ignatius film to post early and often next week.

in other news, if anyone out there goes to a practice session and takes some pictures that they want to post online, let me know and i will do what i can to help you out. i can show you how to make your own webpage to host them, i can show you free server space without any programming required at all, or i can even post them on this site if you like. basically just let me know. the more free information we get out there the better. i am willing to do what i can to help the spread of free information. if you are too, and you get some shots from spring practice you would like to share, hook up with me and i will assist in any way i can.

anyways, i just got the call from our poker host and they are ready to get going as soon as me and my two brothers can get over there. it sounds like we are going to have enough for two full tables tonight. twice as much money out there to win it sounds like to me. if i am able to operate a keyboard within the state safety guidelines i will let you know how well i did tonight. enjoy.
03-28-03 (6:05pm) just checking in real quick like before i eat. i am planning on doing a look at the linebackers either tonight or in the morning still but for now i am going to just ramble on. first off i have a link to pass along. i got this in my email inbox. it is a day late but not a dollar short. anyway, here is a link on coach tressel and when he realized that something was special about this 2002 team. short but sweet and a good read.

i know i said i was planning on backing off the website some to get a rest while i go through this new job ordeal and to wait for news, but what can i say, i am addicted to buckeye football and i got to feed that addiction a couple of times a day.

i got some good news in the email inbox today (as i usually do honestly). today i got information on spring practice. it seems that most all of the practice sessions will be open to the public. i also had some information that on friday the 18th the espn gameday crew will be in the horseshoe to get some film and tape a few segments on the buckeyes for their NFL draft day programming. it sounds like they are going to spice up draft day coverage by looking at how spring ball is going at some of the college football super powers like the defending national champion ohio state buckeyes.

sadly i know for a fact that i won't be able to attend this friday the 18th practice, but my man the crazy bearded guy is going to try and clear it with work to be able to travel down. since this practice session is going to be held in the shoe, i would imagine that it is going to be a scrimmage scenario. i saw a scrimmage in the shoe last year about a week before the spring game and this is fitting right in with that schedule from last year.

funny thing happened at that scrimmage in the shoe last year. i was taking pictures like a madman right. well mike nugent came out to hit a field goal right in front of me. since it was a scrimmage they didn't have up the net to catch the ball. anyways, mike nugent drilled the short range field goal, i got a picture of him actually kicking the ball and then i noticed something. the ball was coming right at me. i really wanted to hot dog it and call the fair catch but i was too concerned about the camera in my hand. i was able to snag the ball one handed though. of course i didn't get to keep the ball, so i had to throw it back to the field. long story long, i lightly tossed the ball back to one of the student assistants or trainers. looking back at my big catch in the shoe i regret the way i threw the ball back. i should have ditched the camera off on my brother and showed off the arm. i would have loved to got the attention of an actual player out in the field and uncorked one to him. oh well.

anyways, i need to make a couple of phone calls and make sure poker night goes off without a hitch saturday night. i am ready to make some money saturday night and i know just the guys to get the cash to me. i will try and get back online here a little later on with a look at the linebackers as they head into spring ball. more later time permitting. enjoy.
03-28-03 (6am) another day without any newspaper links. i think all the sportswriters out there are saving up their articles for spring ball which opens up next thursday. honestly it sounds like a good idea to me too. i am not calling it a vacation from the site, but i am going to substantially step down until next thursday. at that point in time i will have some actual news to talk about for a change. i will still do a preview of the linebackers, defensive backs, and the specialists before then as part of my preview of spring ball, but otherwise i am going to do more work behind the scenes in this coming week. i hope to do some video work this weekend as well as write most of my spring previews that i have remaining and work on the database. the recruiting database is coming along nicely. it is really easy for me to update and that should lead to it being relatively accurate as the recruiting action picks up.

after work tonight i will get back online and do some sort of football update for sure before i have some friday night fun. i will probably do a piece on the linebackers and be thinking of that at work all day long.

one rumor i heard is that spring practice may be closed to the public this year. i hope not or there go me and the crazy bearded guy's plans for a couple of weekends. if anyone has any information on spring practice like that, please forward it to my email inbox or post it on my message board. i would love to be able to get 300 or 400 more pictures of the buckeye team in action for the website.

anyways, breakfast was good and now i hope the shower treats me well. i will be back online tonight for sure, but after that i am planning on relaxing with the site until thursday and i have some real news to discuss. call it a working vacation from the site i guess. special note to the friends of the vg, i am taking all your cash in poker saturday night. more football comments tonight for sure.
03-27-03 (5:40am) no links that i see this time of morning so i am going to recap some of the news from the past day or so that i didn't discuss.

i noticed a couple of new names being mentioned as osu offers. cleveland st. ignatius defensive end michael massey was listed as having received a scholarship offer by one non-osu site. massey is a big (but not particularly thick) defensive end prospect. i saw him play once live last season and then i have three additional game tapes of massey. he plays the run suprisingly well for a young guy. i saw him being taken outside by a massillon tackle once this past year and massey sensed it, spun back to the inside and just blew up the tailback. i have it on film and i believe it is in the free recruiting video archive if you are interested in seing it for yourself. the battle for massey is believed to be an osu - michigan battle now. notre dame was thought to be a contender early on, but now i have heard that massey didn't mention them in his last known interview so who knows there.

another offer i have heard about is moon township two way lineman alan a.q. shipley. shipley was one of the top defensive line prospects at a michigan state camp as a freshman. that is impressive for a freshman to be able to dominate guys three years older than him. right now it is looking like he will play defensive tackle in college, but he could end up on the o-line as well. since he is from PA and not ohio, i honestly don't know much about the guy other than what i read so i am not going to pretend to be an expert here and comment a bunch. basically i read he got an offer somewhere and i plan on adding that fact to the database.

in other news i saw that the ohio state athletic department may be selling a coach tressel bobblehead where all the profits from it go towards the funding of a new weight room. save up some cash my friends if this is true. this is the type of trinket we should all be buying if this is indeed true. i wonder how many national championship rings the bobblehead will have? will it be just the one for ohio state or will he have rings on 5 fingers to represent what he acomplished at youngstown state as well?

anyways, that is all i have in me for now. it is like 5:40am and i need to still snag a shower and some breakfast. more later.
03-26-03 (5:20pm) sorry about the lack of updates today. today was a big day for the vg. i had a job interview this afternoon (same industry, plastics) and i absolutely knocked it out of the park. i will be starting there soon and it will have some impact on the website for sure. for starters, the lunchtime update will be a thing of the past no doubt about it. oh well. i will still do an early morning update and a late afternoon update (or worst case scenario evening update). otherwise though, this website will be the same thing as it has always been. completely free with multiple updates per most every day regardless if it is football season or not. anyways, sorry again about the lack of updates today but it has been a very good day for me personally. more later or if not in the morning.
03-26-03 (9:40am) i honestly have nothing at all to talk about today and very little time to do it in. first off i want to remind everyone about the mcdonalds high school all american game tonight on espn (or is it espn2). normally i don't talk about hoops at all on this site, but the game does feature a future buckeye in ivan harris and an ohio legend in lebron james. might be worth checking out.

as for football, like i said i don't have much in me right now, but i will do what i can to make up something later in the afternoon. right now i am pressed for time though and i just wanted to let everyone out there know that i will have something probably late afternoon at the earliest. enjoy.
03-25-03 (2:30pm) still not much going on in the buckeye nation so i intend to, as led zeppelin once said, ramble on.

it has come to my attention that i made a pretty bad mistake on the front page yesterday (other than the typical spelling, grammar, and forgetting what day of the month and year it is errors i normally make). this error wasn't something meaningless like i usually mess up. this error was buckeye related and that isn't the type of mistake i usually make. oh well.

yesterday while stalling for time and waiting for spring ball to start i continued in my look at the team position by position with a quick piece on the defensive line. obviously we are loaded at the line, but i noticed a lack of depth at defensive tackle with the loss of guys like my man KP and david thompson to graduation. i speculated that perhaps darrion scott would slide down to join tim anderson at tackle and i still tend to thin that is what will happen (along with simon fraser being promoted to a starter at end). i was somewhat concerned though over the lack of depth at defensive tackle with no real experience coming back as back ups. while we will have no experienced back ups at tackle, i completely forgot about redshirt freshman quinn pitcock.

pitcock had all the hype in the world coming out of high school. he was a top 100 player and a top 5 or so defensive tackle in the nation. he had some difficulties with the law (tick tack crap honestly; nothing that virtually every 18 year old doesn't get hassled for anymore) and got lost in the shuffle a little bit. i saw him practice maybe 4 or 5 times (i honestly can't recall how many fall camp sessions i attended last year) and i didn't notice him stand out much honestly. he didn't look bad or anything, but he didn't look like a tim anderson, KP, david thompson, or darrion scott either. this spring will be a huge opportunity for a guy like quinn pitcock. there is an immediate need for a defensive tackle in the two deep. there is a good chance at becoming a starter if darrion scott doesn't slide down to tackle full time. i hope to see pitcock play and play well in practice. i know i won't be forgetting about him in a couple of weekends.

speaking of in a couple of weekends, spring practice kicks off next thursday. i haven't heard if they are open practice sessions again this year or not. i also haven't heard if i will be able to bring my still camera (sadly i am not allowed to bring a camcorder). if anyone has heard official word on either of these items i would appreciate it if you could send me an email or post it on my message board. another thing i need some information on is the practice times. i have all the dates in the left hand column, but i haven't seen a schedule of the practice sessions and the times of those practices. if someone could pass that along as well i will do my part and get some pictures from practice for us all to enjoy.

spring practice starts up this coming thursday. i know for a fact that i won't be there at all that day. the next practice session is on friday. there is a slim chance that i will be able to attend that session. the third practice session is saturday and i plan on being there if at all possible. i am looking to attend most all of the weekend practices that i can. if i am only able to attend saturday practices this spring (which is a realistic possibility) that will not lead to many days in columbus. we only practice on the first two saturdays and then the spring game is the final saturday of spring ball. i hope to be able to get away and at least see a friday practice or two. maybe even sneak away on a tuesday or thursday for a few hours to get some pics for the site. if i can't get away to as many practices as i hope to, hopefully a reader of the site will be able to attend and perhaps would be willing to take some pictures and post them online. i can help you out here in one of three ways. you could email me some photos and i could simply post them here for you, you could set up your own web account and i can link people to your pics, or you can set up a free sony imagestation account (the same service i use for my recruiting videos allows free storage of still pictures too) and i can link to your account. one note here though, if you do want to send me pics, send me a text only email first letting me know pics are on the way. when i get an email like that i will either create a new email account just to receive your pics or i will clear out my account. if i don't do it this way my email inbox will get full quite fast and your pics won't get through.

now for a little site administration update. i have been experimenting with the database some more and i am close to improving it quite a bit. i am going to create a more advanced search function page and i will have a list of osu interest for each prospect. when you search for osu interest it will bring up a list of the following players. it will have on it the vast majority of players from ohio with osu type of talent, players interested in the buckeyes, and players the buckeyes are interested in. the next goal in the database is to add a column for googling. if you click on the link in the google column for a particular player i want it to automatically send you to the search results from google with the search terms of the player name, city/school, state, and football. that way you will be able to find more articles about the players in the database. once i get that up and running the next goal is to make each player name a clickable link that will lead to a customized profile page for that player that i have written up. currently i have 405 player names in the database and honestly i have seen maybe only 25 of these kids ever play football. as a result i won't be having extended profiles for most of the kids, but i will do some research on the players and add some generalized comments to their bio. these cutomized player profiles will be different than the ones i have already posted. i will still do feature profiles like i have on players i have seen, but i plan on doing much shorter profiles for as many players in the database as humanly possible.

in other projects i am still working on for the site, i still have tons of video work to do. i have all kinds of tape from cleveland st ignatius still to post and i still have to go back over my film from last year and pull highlights of guys like curtis smith (glenville junior to be), freddie lennix (glenville junior to be), tony reed (warren harding sophomore to be), mario manningham (warren harding junior to be), rocco cironi (warren harding junior to be), jamario o'neal (mansfield junior to be), and probably another half a dozen players i can't think of right now. i also need to recompress the film of ryan brinson, anthony turner, javon ringer, and brandon harrison so the people with archaic computers can view the film too. that is still dead last on the priority list though (afterall, it isn't my fault your computer sucks now is it). another project i am stuck on is my recruiting compilation video. i have all the video work done but i need to do about half of the voiceovers still as well as polish up the intro, the outro, and add some music. i don't know what i am going to do with this compilation honestly. it started out as a project just to develop my skills in the studio and as a gift for my good friends the crazy bearded guy and the irish patent attorney. there are also a couple of other guys out there (you know who you are) that i plan on getting a copy of the compilation video to. me and the crazy bearded guy have debated selling the tape on the site (actually probably off of ebay so you can use a credit card or paypal without me having to hassle with setting it up). right now i can only produce the video in either VHS format or video CD. we don't have a DVD burner for the CBG's studio yet, but we have been looking in to it (that way we can transfer our collection of buckeye tapes from VHS to DVD for a more permanent copy too). if we do get the dvd burner here soon and we did decide to sell the compilation video on the net we would of course offer it on dvd as well.

why wouldn't i sell the video on the net you ask? good question. honestly i have only 45 minutes of film worth sharing. i have already given away the best 15 minutes of that film for free in the recruiting archive (that is all i am allowed to post in the imagestation account). the additional 30 minutes of film in the compilation video isn't particularly good quality (shaky camera and not highlights for the most part). it would have more player close ups, some additional footage, my own analysis mixed into the highlights, and some players who i have never posted yet (all real young guys). i honestly don't think it will be a good value for the readers to buy if i am to recoup my costs of production, shipping, and a reasonable fee for the time i put into it. VHS tape in particular would be a nightmare logistically since i can only record one tape per hour basically. with a CD or DVD i could whip them out much quicker and it wouldn't take much of my time (and i can watch the tube while i do it). on top of all those negatives, i am going to be getting more film here in another 6 months from the high school season. it would be best to wait to do this until after next season then i could put out a longer higher quality product. still though, i would like to move this site off of tripod and onto a real server and i would love to not have to pay for that out of my pocket.

by the way here, if and when i do move the site, it will still be the same site only with my own domain name and more room for pictures and such. i still won't be doing pop up ads (though i do have one now as a condition of me getting free server space and bandwidth for the recruiting database) and i won't have any pay information. i will still post all the best of my film on the net for free (as long as sony imagestation or an equivalent is in business) regardless of any potential video for sale. i don't anticipate anything changing at all except the actual web address of the site.

anyways, that is enough of my state of the site address. those are the short term goals i have and some of the decisions i have to make here over the next 6 - 12 months. hopefully this weekend i will be able to knock out a large portion of the st ignatius film and get that posted the following week before i shift gears to coverage of spring ball. that will give me something more to talk about than this administrative nonsense.

enjoy.
03-25-03 (8:30am) no news links this morning but i do have some reading material all the same. this is an announcement by the alzheimer's association on coach tressel's spring preview lunch. tickets are available for as little as $75 for the april 9th event. not only are you supporting a good cause but you get to meet coach tressel, hear him speak, and get to share some BBQ with him. the other link i have for this morning is not about the buckeyes at all but it is notes from around the country on spring practice. some interesting information thoughout.

anyways, that is all i can find for now. enjoy.
defensive end - defensive tackle - superstar darrion scott. 03-24-03 (2:45pm) sorry about missing the lunchtime update today. my server, tripod, was having serious issues with bringing up the control panel that i need to upload the files (no they don't have FTP access). i am also sad to report that this update is honestly not worth the wait. there is absolutely nothing going on in buckeye land right now. i do have a ton of tape to post from the cleveland st. ignatius film archive as well as posting some more film to my free recruiting video archive, but i don't have any video files on me and i will need to capture and compress film before i do any of that. that means another night in the crazy bearded guys's studio. i hope to do some of that this coming week.

as for an update for now, i can always make something up, so here we go. the last time i wrote about the 2003 team as we looked towards the start of spring camp i finished up my preview of the offense if i recall. sounds like a good day to start with the defense and i might as well lead strong and cover the defensive line.

the buckeyes look to be loaded in the front four in 2003 despite the loss of senior defensive tackles kenny peterson and david thompson. the buckeyes do return three starters that will most likely all be preseason all conference in all the college football preview magazines. ends darrion scott and will smith decided not to go pro a year early and come back to campus for some more jewelry. defensive tackle tim anderson never really thought about going pro according to published reports, but he certainly has pro type skills.

heading into fall ball, tim anderson, will smith, and darrion scott are locks to be starters (assuming they are healthy of course). the next best defensive lineman is simon fraser who is a defensive end. there has been some specualtion that darrion scott could slide from end to tackle to make room for simon fraser in the starting four. since scott has played both end and tackle for years now that seems quite reasonable to me and i am going to operate under that assumption for the rest of this update.

with a front four of will smith, darrion scott, tim anderson, and simon fraser nobody is going to have much of an opportunity against us in 2003. will smith and simon fraser are both big enough to stand up to the run and quick enough to get around the big tackles on the pass rush. darrion scott will be doing his best KP imitation as he should be simply too big and way too fast for interior linemen to handle. tim anderson is the glue that holds the defensive line together. he doesn't get the headlines as much as he gets the respect of his opponents and the double team. things are looking great on the d-line, but we actually have quite a bit more in reserve waiting to make an impact.

one of the trademarks of the buckeye defensive line for the past several seasons has been the depth of the unit and the amount of playing time that the backups get in key situations. providing key depth this season we have sophomore mike kudla coming back at defensive end as well as redshirt freshmen like jay richardson and joel penton getting into the mix. mike kudla showed some flashes as a speed rusher as a true freshman, but he has lost a bunch of weight this offseason with an illness and he will have to bulk back up and get healthy to get back on the field as a sophomore. fortunately mike kudla has his mail sent to the gym so i don't think there will be much of a problem with him getting back into game shape. i am really excited to see jay richardson this year. i saw him in fall camp last year and i was impressed. he didn't get any hype at all as a recruit, but he played great football the few practices that i saw him. if he progressed any from fall camp last year at all, expect a pleasant suprise from jay richardson in the spring game. he is big and quick and has loads of potential. joel penton is another player without a bunch of hype but lots of potential. i was fairly impressed with penton as well in fall camp. he was a little bigger than i thought he was and he looks like a contributor on the d-line as well this season. at defensive tackle the depth is a little less obvious. marcus green is probably the most likely top backup at defensive tackle on an experience basis. i honestly don't recall seeing marcus doing much in the few practices i saw so i really can't comment much here. another name to keep an eye out for at defensive tackle this spring would be tim schaefer from upper arlington. like green, i honestly didn't see much of shaefer and i really have nothing to comment on here.

anyways, that is what we are looking at on the defensive line. we are absolutely loaded in the starting lineup this year and we have some inexperiened but talented depth backing it up. as for this spring, i am going to try and take a long look at the depth on the d-line. we all know about the big 4 defensive lineman and spring will be a good opportunity to get a look at the future of the defensive line.

that is all i have in me for now. i will try and get back online later today and come up with some more random thoughts on the buckeye football team. enjoy.
03-24-03 (8:25am) another day with links. the akron beacon journal has a piece at coach tressel making an apearance at the cleveland cavaliers game. for those unfamiliar with the NBA the cavaliers are a franchise begging for contraction. too bad it isn't baseball huh. last link for now comes from 1460 the fan. it is a whopping 3 sentences on the death of a former osu announcer. i guess the dispatch is tired of giving away their articles for free like that and is doing it dragnet style today. anyways, that is all i have in me for now. i will be back online around lunchtime with a more complete update. enjoy monday as it drags on.
this is a picture i took in fall camp last year of true freshmen mike d'andrea, stan white jr, and ej underwood. 03-23-03 (3:55pm) not much going on in the buckeye nation today so i figured i would post another old picture from fall camp and comment a little. the pic on the right is of three highly touted freshmen from last year. from left to right that is mike d'andrea, stan white jr, and ej underwood getting in some snaps in fall camp.

mike d'andrea was probably the most hyped of these three recruits and that is completely understandable given his physical abilities. so far the physical abilities haven't led to much playing time on the defensive unit, but that should be expected with a talent like matt wilhelm leading the depth chart at middle linebacker. d'andrea did get some action last year on defense as well as extensive action on special teams. heading into spring mike d'andrea is in a battle to take over the middle linebacker job that matt wilhelm has vacated for the NFL. the popular talk on the message boards is that d'andrea had difficulty with the schemes and that is why he didn't play much last year. whether that is true or not is the real question. honestly how many of us fans or message board posters honestly know what is going on inside the program or in the minds of the coaches. probably a lot less than some of the posters with inflated egos think (myself included to be fair). ideally we will see mike d'andrea get his first true opportunity this spring and ideally he will justify the considerable hype.

in this photo stan white jr was playing outside linebacker. who knows where he will be in spring ball (outside of jim tressel, stan white, mark snyder, bill conley, mark dantonio, and jim bollman). stan didn't show much the few practices that i hit, but he didn't look bad either. he could be a contributor this year for sure if he finds a position.

ej underwood has a very vocal fan base coming out of his hometown on the message boards. certainly underwood has the skills to be a force in college football, but he has not produced on the field despite the clear opportunity last year. he was given first chance to replace the injured richard mcnutt, but lost the job to a wide out masquerading as a cornerback in chris gamble. i thought ej looked to be a solid tackler (which is one of the major priorities of any coach dantonio defensive back) but he was suspect in coverage and in the scheme. with another year under his belt and in the system i anticipate ej underwood will battle for a spot in the secondary this spring and fall, especially if the speculated move of dustin fox to safety does in fact actually happen.

anyways, that is all i have in me for today. i will be back online either later tonight or if not then in the morning for sure. enjoy what is left of the weekend while it lasts.
03-23-03 (10:44:59am max) links. i have actual links on the buckeye football program today. about time. anyways, here they are. the canton repository has a piece on mike doss wowing the scouts at pro day at osu among other things. 1460 the fan has a piece on the quarterback position at ohio state.
03-22-03 (2pm) i have nothing to link and honestly nothing to say today. i actually tried to update at 6:30am this morning but i couldn't think of anything at all so i used the snooze button instead. oh well. now i am fully awake, well fed, and ready for some basketball action today. i still wanted to update though, but i just don't have much in me today.

i was looking through the gigabytes of pictures i took this past season for some inspiration and i found one that i liked and wanted to share. here is a pic i snapped during fall camp last year of maurice clarett and chris gamble warming up before practice.

this is a picture i snapped during fall camp last season of maurice clarett (13) and chris gamble (7) warming up the arm before practice last season. i have maybe 10 or 15 pics of this, but this was by far the best one i shot. not often i get the ball in the air like that and it isn't blurry. probably one of the best pics i took all last season. speaking of taking practice pictures, i hope i am allowed again this year. i know the site bucknuts got their wrist smacked for publishing too specific of details from practice last year. i hope they don't ban all cameras outright as a result.

it isn't often a school has one heisman candidate, let alone two, but that is exactly what the buckeyes have this year in two way superstar chris gamble and power back maurice clarett. craig krenzel could even get some consideration (like jay barker and ken dorsey) if we make a run for the sugar bowl this year. i honestly don't see any of the buckeyes having a great shot at the heisman this year. they will split the regional vote most likely. oh well, i guess we will have to be happy with another national championship ring instead.

the schedule isn't kind next year, but the 2003 buckeye team has lots of potential. we bring back the entire offense and our only questions are up the middle on defense and punter. we have talent to fill the gaps, but that talent is going to have to learn fast if we are going to repeat. we get visited by washington, nc state, and bowling green in the non conference and then we get to travel to penn state, wisconsin, and michigan in conference play. we are fortunate to get purdue at home though. i honestly think purdue will probably be our biggest competition for the conference crown this year. every game they lost last year was a close one and they bring back loads of talent. i worry about them more than michigan this year. michigan will be good and navarre should be better for every week of the year other than ohio state week. navarre seems to have a mental lock when it comes to the buckeyes like our entire team did under cooper versus michigan. the wolverines still lack a proven running game and their defense is overhyped at best. the michigan secondary doesn't tackle well and they will be young again at linebacker. sure they will be talented and have another year under their belt by the time we demolish them, but i don't see them having the talent to stuff our running game without leaving guys like chris gamble, michael jenkins, and drew carter one on one with a suspect secondary.

anyway, that is all i have in for me today. i need to get my hoops fix here and maybe i will get back online later today. enjoy.
03-21-03 (3:20pm) still nothing going on in the buckeye nation. oh well. no news is good news this time of year.

so far i have been doing small little recruiting profiles on players i have actually seen play football (unlike the 'experts'). today i am going to stray from that a little and discuss a few of the top players in the state of ohio that i haven't had the opportunity to see play but i hope to this year. i am not calling these recruiting profiles or posting them in the header in the future. this is more or less a wish list of some of the top talent that i have yet to see but hope to this coming fall.

number one on my wish list is toledo rogers senior wide out fred davis. fred is big, tall, and fast. at the national junior combine nobody could cover him and he was impressive enough to get a scholarship offer from the university of texas on the spot. ohio state has came up with an offer for fred and we are believed to be his favorite. toledo rogers didn't leave the toledo area much last season and i didn't have an opportunity to go to toledo either. this year we are playing at michigan and i would love to combine a trip to toledo high school football friday night and a day in the big house saturday to watch the buckeyes repeat as big10 champions. right now that is my goal for next season. hopefully rogers will travel to the stark county area, but i am not holding my breath either. he is worth the trip to toledo.

probably number two on my wishlist is carrollton's chad hoobler. hoobler reminds me of redgie arden right now. he is a big athletic kid that is excelling on the gridiron, but lacks a position to project him to in college. hoobler could end up as a linebacker, tight end, or a defensive end. who knows (other than miss cleo). what i do know is that carrollton isn't very far from me and he should be an easy one to schedule. maybe i will try to see him late in the season so i don't have to drive as far in the bad weather. probably the main consideration in seeing hoobler this year will be the level of competition. playing at a school like carrollton doesn't allow you to match up with top shelf talent so i will have to find the best couple of teams on their schedule and pick one of those. i think i heard they were playing louisville early in the season and that would give me a chance to see hoobler and one of the top junior to be tailbacks in the state that i haven't seen yet dennis underwood. if i can find a way to see a game with multiple prospects that usually jumps up the list quite a bit.

probably the next highest ranked player in the state that i haven't seen play yet is xenia's ben person. xenia is nowhere near me and i hate driving that far to see a game, especially to see an offensive lineman. lineman are difficult to get highlight film and stills of. still though, xenia features another top junior to be tailback in cedric tolbert and that may be enough to get me road worthy. throw in the fact that person is already committed to becoming a buckeye and i imagine i will try to see him, but it isn't high priority either. warren harding junior to be offensive lineman rocco cironi. rocco is about 6 foot 6 and 220 pounds. he got a ton of playing time for coach mcdaniels last season as a soph and big number 50 is one to watch for the future.

another player who is a verbal and is a high priority is hubbard's shaun lane. hubbard plays some top teams in conference play in the y-town area so i should be able to see shaun and some other top prospects like guys from warren harding (delbert ferguson, mario manningham, rocco cironi, antonio reed, and alex engram) or austintown fitch (miles williams) or youngstown ursuline (brandon braxton, darryl clark, joseph underwood, and terrel washington). i don't have official schedules for any teams yet, but i should be able to see lane play some other top prosepcts no problem. i will get film on him for sure weather and injuries pending.

antoher school i would like to see is akron buchtel. buchtel has two of the better seniors in the state on the roster in antonio pittman and steve walker. both are incredible prospects but i don't know if either will get the scholarship offer from coach tressel (like i said, i am not very psychic). still though, if they play a team with a few other top prospects on the roster, i can see me hitting a bucthel game this year. it is local and all.

antoher school i would like to see is shaker heights. shaker features michael bell a senior wide out - corner and a top junior linebacker in nick simon. i actually tried to see shaker last year but found out the hard way that the game i was going to see didn't have lights at the field and the game was held friday afternoon so i missed a weekend of high school football. if i can find shaker playing friday night perhaps i can squeeze them in this year.

another school i would love to see is cleveland VASJ and their sophomore to be star athlete david lighty. i like to get film on the guys when they are young (man does that sound bad if you take it out of context) and from all reports david lighty is head and shoulders better than anyone else in his class. if they play anyone with some talent on the other team i will probably try to hit the game with the camera equipment and the crazy bearded guy.

in the groups of schools with some decent talent on the roster but i am leaning towards not seeing play, i have schools like cleveland benedictine (ray williams a db trying to play rb and doing great at it in high school), hamilton (brandon underwood and adam myers are nice db prospects but too far to drive to see a position that we won't be recruiting hard), trotwood madison (tons of speed prospects all of a sudden makes me wonder how accurate those times are; plus it is too far), and clayton northmont (some 'experts' seem to think there are a ton of D1 prospects on the roster, but i will believe it when i see it which i won't; also too far). nothing against any of these schools but i just don't see me driving that far to see prospects that may or may not get offers and may or may not be highly overrated. of course if these guys commit during summer camp then i will alter my opinion drastically and try to see the new buckeyes in action.

now for the list of schools that i have seen already and i plan on seeing again. first on that list is cleveland glenville. glenville features ted ginn jr and he is a good one. there are also tons of other talented prospects on that team and i believe they are coming to my area to play at massillon perry early in the season. that is a slam dunk for me. i will be there almost for sure.

another couple of schools i can't wait to see again are cleveland st ignatius and canton mckinley. i believe that iggy is coming to mckinley this year and there is no better stadium to get stills and film (due to the lighting) than fawcett stadium. throw in the fact that mckinley has one of my personal favorite players to watch in tailback ryan brinson and iggy has tons of talent led by seniors brian hoyer and mike massey and junior jim ramella and that is a no brainer.

two schools that i would like to see again but may not due to the distance are huber heights wayne and dayton chaminae-julienne. i heard that dayton c-j may be at massillon this year and if that is the case, i will probaby hit that game (massillon's paul brown tiger stadium is probably the second best stadium in ohio to get high school stills and film at with the lights). huber heights wayne would be nice to see, but i have plenty of film on marcus freeman already and it is an awfully long drive. i would hate to drive the 7 hours round trip again to see a guy that ends up potentially playing football for michigan.

other schools i have seen already but plan on seeing again include mansfield senior (with osu commit jamario o'neal among other top underclassmen), youngstown ursuline, and warren harding. fortunately for me the vast majority of the talent in ohio high school football (at least as far as college football super powers like ohio state are concerned) is located in NE ohio. nothing against the rest of the state, but it just isn't the same elsewhere. i was in the dayton area twice last season and there was somebody taking off plays virtually every snap for every team. it still happens in NE ohio football but nowhere near as much. i know there are great teams all over the state even in NW and SE ohio, but i don't go looking for great games or even great teams. i am looking for great players and it is a simple fact that most of the top shelf talent in the state year in and year out is located in NE ohio. i typically like to see a game with legitimate college prospects on both teams and on both sides of the ball and you find those types of games typically in NE ohio every week of the year. the other parts of the state you are lucky to see the top prospects play each other let alone get a game with maybe a six pack of potential buckeyes like i do up here in NE ohio.

anyways, that is all i have for now. as a parting note, i have added maybe another 30 names or so to the database (which means all the pages are updated automatically now as well) and i fixed the page so that it doesn't suck in Nutscrape 4.0 like that browser sucks. unfortunately the fix was me making everything black and white instead of going with a more buckeye theme. Nutscrape doesn't support style sheets so my scarlet (actually maroon) and gray (actually silver) page was black text on a dark red background. as a simple reminder for the users of Nutscrape, it is free to upgrade to Nutscrape 6.0 or 7.0 and microsoft internet explorer is free as well. if you have security worries with microsoft (legit concern), check out the browser from Opera. it is the fastest browser on the net and completely free as well. it is the most secure browser in the world and it has the best privacy controls too.

more later if i feel like it, if not, enjoy the weekend as it happens.
03-21-03 (1pm) we are currently bombing iraq back to the stoneage if you have access to a tv. enjoy.
03-21-03 (8:45am) i can't find any links at all this morning, but that doesn't mean i get a pass. we are getting close to spring camp opening up and it is about time. things have been so slow in the buckeye nation lately i have had time to type up an entire recruiting database and learn the basics of php and mySQL. while that should make running this site much easier, it wasn't exactly fun like talking about the buckeyes either.

the last time i previewed the roster i believe i left off with the wide receivers. i have done the big three skill positions on offense (qb, rb, and wr) and now it is time to get into some of the bigger guys on offense. today i am going to cover the tight end position.

the buckeyes are looking strong at tight end in 2003. we return starter ben hartsock and his main backup in ryan hamby. we also return the very talented redgie arden. not only do we have those three coming back next season but the incredibly talented louis irizarry joins the mix in the fall. today i am covering a preview of spring ball though and LI will be a spectator this spring just like the rest of us so he isn't a factor for this analysis.

ben hartsock is the returning starter and there is no reason to think he won't hold down the job again in 2003. hartsock is an effectif redgie ve blocker with suprisingly good hands. hartsock caught nearly every ball thrown at him last year (other than the fiesta bowl in which he was rather tightly guarded). he even made a couple of one handed circus catches early in the season if you recall. blocking will always be ben's strong suit though and that is why he is so valuable to the offense.

ryan hamby is supposed to be the better reciever and the worse blocker of the tight ends but he looked pretty good blocking against michigan and miami at the end of the season. it is nice to see a player improve his weakness like that. that is what football, and life for that matter, are all about. hamby didn't show the hands and speed that were hyped up last year, but honestly he didn't get much of an opportunity to either due to the strengths and weaknesses of our front five offensively. hopefully this spring ryan gets a chance to show how far he has came since january third (and no, not in the ron jeremy sense of the word either; that is one thing i don't want to see out of the buckeyes in the spring game for sure).

redgie arden was moved to tight end last season and showed good quickness and some good hands. redgie was an outstanding player in high school and has been a man in search of a position ever since. he has been tried in the front seven on the defense, but he seems to have found a home for now at tight end. a move to defensive end is always possible (especially with the departure of guys like darrion scott and will smith next year), but arden is looking like a quality third tight end this spring.

another guy in the mix at tight end is redshirt freshman stan white jr. stan may get moved back to linebacker this spring or he could get more of a look as a fullback or h-back. i honestly didn't see enough of him this past fall camp to get a good read on him, but my gut feeling is he would be better suited at fullback or linebacker. hopefully this spring i will get a good look at his and his father's national champion rings.

anyways, that is what we have at tight end going into spring camp. needless to say, we are strong at tight end and i expect lots of these guys to get playing time as the buckeyes again line up in loads of two tight ends sets and get ready for another dose of power football. in fall camp we bring in louis irizarry who is more of a running and catching type of tight end and i don't see him redshirting. perhaps bringing in that type of skill to the position will make for some position changes for versatile guys like stan white and redgie arden. we'll see.

that is all i have for right now. i know it was kind of weak, but hopefully i can make up for that around lunchtime today with a better update then. we'll see. enjoy friday as it happens.
03-20-03 (3:05pm) well i said i would either post the BFL of recruits around lunchtime or i would have the database completely up and working by late afternoon. i missed the lunchtime update so guess what i got. for the french out there that means i have finished the first incarnation of the database for the site and it is posted below. before i link it though i want to talk about it a little bit.

the database isn't exactly done yet, but it is fully functional. you can search the database by a combination of position played, graduating class, and home state. i have also built in special searches just for osu fans (who are like 99% of the readers afterall) including a list of verbals and offers. i don't have a search for osu interest yet, but i probably will implement that in the near future. i also plan on implementing a few other features if i can figure them out. for starters i plan on doing individual pages for each and every player that i write up a bio for. i have space in the database for biographies, images, and film but i have not fully implemented all that. hopefully i can figure that out and make it work like i want to. i would also like to add a link to each players name that will automatically perform a google search on the players name and high school so you can locate outside links on these players without having to do anything more than clicking on a link. that should be quite easy to do honestly and i would have had it in the first incarnation of the database had i had time today to work it out. i also plan on adding how to film links, map links, high school schedule links and so on to this page so you can actually go out and see these players for yourself when they are in your neck of the woods.

enough about the good, what about the bad. for starters, i don't have star rankings for any players. how the hell anyone can assign a rank to a player they haven't seen play is beyond me and i am not psychic enough to determine their star rankings. probably the worst parts of the database stem from the server though. the free host i am using for this database works quite well actually, but i don't know how much traffic at once they can take. the server may be quite slow from time to time and it may go down without notice. if the page won't load for you or you get an error, it isn't my fault i can assure you, it is an issue with the free server beyond my control. another issue with the server is the advertising. every time you load up a page for the first time, a popunder advertisement window will popunder. if you just leave it in the background, you can surf the database as much as you want without having additional popunder ads show up. if you keep closing it out, it will pop back under whenever you surf to a new page and just piss you off. in other words, don't fight it, let it sit in the background and then just X it out when you are done. it will be much easier that way.

while i do greatly appreciate the help of the readers i get with this site in my email, i am not seeking names for the database from individuals. if you have a link to an outside source with some info on a top prospect that you wish was in the database by all means forward it to me and i will take care of it if the player is a big time prospect. don't just send me a name and some stats. i am not in the business of listing every kid in the state or country. i tried to list the top players in ohio and then only the very top players in the nation. right now there are approximately 350 names in the database from the top three classes around the nation. that being said i also have some more names still on my to do list and i am not done inputting all the data. i don't want to get my inbox swamped with name submissions of guys that i already plan on posting or guys that don't deserve to make the list. final note on this topic, i will probably be building a reader submission entry form and list that will allow readers to automatically submit names and they will automatically be added to the submitted list. if i get this to work i will use that to take names from readers.

i can't say with certainty that all of this info is accurate or will be well maintained either. i am planning on trying to keep it current as much as possible, but i do pretend to have a life still. this database is lower on the food chain than this main page for example.

hopefully the geographic lists will be of particular use to fans around the country looking for stars in their area. hopefully these same fans take a still camera or camcorder with them to those games and post their work on the net free for us all to enjoy. that is why i did all of this in the first place honestly. it would be nice to see the tree i planted bear some fruit next football season.

anyways, that is all i can think of now before posting the link. so here it is, my brand new recruiting database. that page is the master search page. simply click on any of the 100+ links on that page to perform that particular search on the database. if your search returns a blank table (say you search for the top players in maine for example), that simply means i have no names for that particular search at this point in time. i have personally tested each and every page today and i am certain that they all work. if for some reason the pages don't work, that just means we have overloaded the server and it will be working again in the near future. anyways, enjoy playing around with the database and i would appreciate any feedback on its basic design or suggested search or list ordering or anything like that. enjoy.
03-20-03 (10:10am) not much in the form of linkage today. actually the only link i have today is one i missed yesterday on KP, his cousin cie grant, the NFL, and the war. fairly decent article for that site. i would definitely spring for the free click and read it.

it looks like the war machine is being completely unleashed tonight. war is never a good thing, but some times it is necessary and this is one of those times. the people out there protesting the war are quite similar to those people who post on message boards questioning the calls of jim tressel or jim o'brien. they absolutely have the right as an american to question whatever they want, but they lack the inside information or the professional know how to honestly comment on a topic and not look like a fool. do yourselves a favor and keep your opinions to yourself and support the troops like you should be supporting our teams.

i know that lives are going to be lost, but honestly people die every day so nothing is new there. our men and women have the best training in the world and all the equipment that the democrats allowed them to have. hopefully it is enough to bring everyone back home safely. hopefully it is enough to allow them to do their job.

speaking of supporting your country, our president, and our troops, my advertiser has done a very classy thing. typically they sell email stationery with all kinds of licensed themes, including military themes. well in this time of war they have decided to give away 5000 copies of their program and support the military email stationery free of charge. if you are interested in checking out their product at all, now is a great time to check it out for free and to support the troops with every email you send out. check it out if you like.

i honestly don't have much of a football update in me for right now. sorry about that, the mind is elsewhere right now. in site news i am really close to having a page posted from the database. i still have more names to add to the list and i need to build in some interactivity to make the database more user friendly and i need to style the page to fit in with the rest of the site but it is getting close. i hope to have all that done by late this afternoon if i can figure this out. if i can't i will be posting a list of maybe 350 names or so for sure around lunchtime. the data will be spit out by the database, but it won't be on that server or dynamic at all. it will just be a static table with a bunch of names and whatnot. that list will have most of the top players in ohio regardless of grade level as well as top players from around the nation from the senior and junior classes organized by state.

anyways, that is all i have for now, but i will be back with more later. hopefully i have the complete database ready to go, but if i don't see that happening i will have the BFL (as i like to call it) ready to post for sure. enjoy.
03-19-03 (1:30pm) i know that last update felt like a one and done for the day but i am tricky like that and back again with some linkage to keep us regular. before i get to that though, big thanks to the guy who sent me these links. you make this sites administration go much smoother. much appreciation. now for the links. first off i have a piece from the cleveland plain dealer on st eds kicker brian pierce officially becoming a buckeye. this has been a rumor for something like a month now and now it is a fact. he is more of a kicker than a punter right now, but he has all kinds of potential and a very strong leg. i saw him on film once and he is the real deal. pierce will be a preferred walk on at ohio state. the other link is a one on one interview with osu verbal ben person.
delbert ferguson out of warren harding high. probably the top tailback prospect in the state of ohio and a big buckeye fan to boot. 03-19-03 (11:30am) nothing, absolutely nothing going on in the buckeye nation. sure we have hoops, but this isn't a hoops site so i won't go there. i did see an 'article' in a toledo 'newspaper' that mentioned the buckeyes. absolutely no info in it that hasn't been out for months now and they honestly put very little effort into it. being such a low grade article, i didn't feel like linking it here.

in site news, i have most all of the top prospects in ohio in the database and i have the sorting issues worked out. i still need to build a form for searching the database and then add in all the out of state players, but it is coming along quite smoothly.

since there is virtually nothing out there for us to read this afternoon, i guess i will make up some crap. i have been previewing the roster position by position as we enter spring ball, but i feel like mixing it up today. today i feel like going recruiting style.

as you probably have figured out from the picture i posted today, i am going to talk a little about delbert ferguson for starters. delbert has prototype tailback size and all the moves you would want. he has the power to run over or through you (doesn't he prescott) and he has enough speed to make some big gainers. i have read lately that he doesn't have top speed and some people are hell bent on trying to convince me that he lacks college tailback speed. well i have seen delbert play twice last season and all he did was break off big runs when he got to the outside and into the secondary. whether he has track speed or not i don't care. delbert has plenty of football speed (and the last time i checked the game was played in pads and not track shorts). a large part of football speed is the ability to get to the right spot at the right time. delbert is patient in setting up his blocks and he has the good vision to read the hole and then explode through it with some thunder. to quote mr T, i pity the fool that tries to take on delbert in the hole. ferguson is the only true big10 sized tailback in the state of ohio and he is a tough runner that will not be tackled high or arm tackled. i hate all of these tiny backs out there (unless of course they want to play db perhaps).

don't take my word on it though, watch some of the free film i shot from last season. i have tons of highlights of delbert ferguson. probably the two best pieces of film i have on delbert are delbert_irizarry.mpg and delbert_ferguson7.mpg. talk about some must see tv.

speaking of the free recruiting videos, i am amazed that nearly every week i hear from a fan who finally stumbled into the recruiting video archive for the first time. so far only 5000 fans have ever visited the video archive. i honestly find that somewhat suprising with the quality of free material posted in there. do me and your buckeye friends a favor and help pass around that link. the more people that see the film i shot the better. hopefully it will inspire a few more fans to join me on my quest to capture as much film as possible from next season. that is why i am building this database in the first place honestly. i feel that if i provide some quality lists, game schedules, maps to high schools, and computer advice that the odds of me getting to see some extra film go up significantly. like i have said in the past, if you lack some of the hardware or software or know how to do internet video, i will do this for you for free if you send me a video tape. that being said, i will not invest any of my free time into capturing film from a game where there are no legitimate buckeye prospects on tape. i will however provide you with tons of advice on how you can do this for yourself if you are interested in doing some (quite simple) work.

sounds like a good spot to wrap it up, but with the complete lack of quality reading material today i might as well let it ride and move on with some more thoughts on recruiting.

Brandon Braxton is probably the top offensive line prospect in the state of ohio and another buckeye lean as well. another top prospect the bucks are looking at is brandon braxton out of youngstown ursuline. brandon played last season with current buckeye louis irizarry (who is pictured standing next to brandon in this photo) as well as former ursuline and current warren harding star delbert ferguson.

the irish had a top notch run blocking squad last season yet for some reason they tried to become a spread team simply because that is what their coach knew from being an assistant at massillon under rick shepas. i personally didn't like the spread attach that the irish used last season (especially considering their obvious talents at run blocking and running the ball) but honestly, that type of attack will probably benefit the players in the future. brandon has already been forced to pick up some pass blocking technique unlike many other high school lineman. this should pay dividends down the road.

brandon is as big as they come and he isn't particularly fat either. right now his strong suit is run blocking, but he has the long arms and the good quickness to be an effective pass blocking tackle. i am honestly a poor judge of offensive linemen in high school. first off, i never played offensive line so i am not as familiar with the techniques there that i am at some other positions. furthermore, in high school so much of the line play is a mismatch it is difficult to get a good read on a players true ability. that being said i thought brandon looked awesome in person (he was also a force at defensive tackle), but what the hell do i know. it isn't like i am a certified recruiting expert or anything. i am a recruiting fan at best.

there isn't any public report of either delbert ferguson or brandon braxton having received a scholarship offer yet from the buckeyes, but don't worry there. unless something major goes wrong in the class room or off the field, both of these guys will get their offers from coach tressel. they both play at a position of critical need and they are easily the best ohio has to offer at their respective positions. i would expect both to get their much deserved offers when they come to campus next either for a camp situation or to watch some spring drills.

in some odd news on delbert ferguson, i am friends with another buckeye webmaster who is a high school student at warren harding who has class with delbert ferguson. he told me that he was talking to delbert one day in school and mentioned my recruiting videos to delbert and he subsequently downloaded them and watched them. nice to see that a great player like delbert was able to see some of his film like that. if your in the school library reading this now delbert, work hard in school and stay the course you have started. it won't be easy, but nothing good ever is. you have a bright future in columbus and thousands of buckeye fans are eagerly awaiting your arrival. good luck.
03-18-03 (6:35pm) major accomplishment by the vg today while i was having a dinner of italian sausage and salad. i finally got my ever growing database to connect up with a webpage. it is highly generic and not very good right now, but it works and that i am quite proud of. give me a little time and even less knowledge about a topic and i will find a way to make it work. my next goal (other than adding more data to the database) is to get the data into a search and sort type of page so users can isolate recruits just from their state or with a certain forty time or whatever. i imagine this will not be easy, but it can't be any harder than the last couple of tasks i just worked on. i will put up a link to the database once i get to that point. right now it just spits back out a table of all my data and that isn't up to the vg standard of quality.

the only drawback i see to this right now is the server i will be hosting the database on. tripod is a free srever that doesn't support php or mysql. being cheap like i am i knew i wasn't going to spring for a paid server just to host the database. i finally googled my way into a free server with full support of php and mysql and signed up. this server is pretty cool in that they don't put advertisements on any of my pages, they allow unlimited bandwidth, and i can even sell my own advertising on the database if i wanted to (and someone actually wanted to pay me for my hobby). pretty lenient for a free host honestly. to make some money off of their free service they do have a popunder ad. the popunder is a one and done deal, but it is on every page. if you just leave it in the background and don't close it out, new windows won't popunder on every subsequent page and you just have the one window to X out when you are done. personally i hate pop ups and pop unders, but if i had to accept one as a condition of getting this database up and running, this is the way i would do it. this popunder will not be a part of this main page, only pages generated by the database (as in not this page or any pages on my tripod server) will have a popunder advertisement.

anyway, that is what i have been up to for the last half an hour or so. it is probably what i will be up to tonight as well. hopefully this explains somewhat why i haven't been on the page much for the last week or so. i have been spending my free time reading about and experimenting with code. once i get this up and running this site will be much much more user friendly (other than the popunder on the database pages) and i will be able to put out more content per free time. thanks to all who have supported this site while i have been getting my learn on. hopefully i will have a stripped down version of a completely free and fully functional recruiting database for you to play with by the end of this coming weekend. enjoy.
03-18-03 (3:30pm) one link worth passing along and then some more random thoughts. the link is a massive list of prospects on bucknuts. i know there are 'issues' between that site an me in particular, but it was a nice list and i would hate to have any buckeye fans miss out on having all the information linked off of this page.

speaking of bucknuts, i read that they have ridden duane long's computer of the issues that were preventing him from posting on the free boards per mr bucknuts. i imagine he is posting over their like a madman now since it has been approximately 4 months since he last posted regularly. stop by and ask him some questions and then fill me in with some answers if you could. i am still banned from the boards and unable to read. oh well. more time to work on the site instead i guess.

no word on the disarming of saddam hussein yet. this got me wondering though about chemical weapons in general. first though a disclaimer here, i am a big supporter of the war effort, the troops and my president george w. anyways, if saddam hussein were to pepper spray iraqi nationals that rushed the field after some big historic victory in the camel humping olympics would that be considered chemical warfare? if so how is the evil osu president dr holbrook any different than saddam hussein?


first saddam, then karen

dr. holbrook needs to be disarmed of
her weapons of mass irritation.


in buckeye news, i don't have any. that doesn't mean i don't plan on posting some stuff here, i just need to make it up as i go. so here we go.

i believe the last spring preview i did was on the offensive backfield with the quarterbacks and tailbacks. if i recall i left out the fullbacks and honestly so did offensive coordinator jim bollman so i guess that must be contaigous. today i am going to go with some more glory positions and cover the wide outs.

with osu returning all 11 starters on offense, you wouldn't expect there to be any positions up for grabs on the offense in the spring, but as lee corso would annoy, not so fast my friend. with chris gamble looking like an all american as a cornerback it is quite reasonable to think that he may be an offensive starter in name only and may be only a part time player on offense this year. at the other wide out is michael jenkins and he is obviously the man. for those who question MJ's ability, perhaps good friend of the site vladimir gonzalez could supply you with a not so subtle reminder with a video capture of the holy buckeye.

if chris gamble is only a part time player on offense this season, somebody is going to have to step up opposite of jenkins to keep the defenses honest. the most logical candidate would have to be drew carter. carter is a tall lanky reciever with good quicks and better speed. whether he has hands or not (aside from the obvious anatomy of course) is still open to debate. i personally think that drew carter is primed for a breakout senior season. seniors are typically quite motivated (see my man KP for example) to make one last splash in an attempt to get a job in the NFL instead of a job hosting a crappy radio show in columbus after football. i took drew carter running a 4.26 for the NFL scouts as firm evidence that drew has been working out like a madman, that he is healthy again finally, and he is ready to emerge this season.

if it is in fact drew carter that emerges opposite michael jenkins (and the part timer chris gamble) we are going to pose some serious match up problems. with jenkins being nearly 6'5" and carter being around 6'3" or 6'4" and both of them having wheels to spare i don't see many colleges having the corners to match up one on one in jump ball situations (try not to think back to plaxico burress like i just did). obviously teams will try to roll coverage towards krenzel's favorite target jenkins, but carter is actually faster and nearly as big. couple those two with some cameo appearances by the lightning quick chris gamble and you have a corps of receivers at osu not seen since the days of david boston and dee miller.

the best thing about wide out though is not the talent at the top, but the tremendous depth we have. fans have been waiting for pint sized bam childress to show his open field moves in the shoe instead of just on the practice field for years now. he will probably get another chance this year, but his hands are still questionable. the depth that has me excited this spring is the two redshirt freshmen roy hall and santonio holmes. i know there has been talk about roy hall moving to tight end, and i could see that down the road, but right now i don't see him being an effective blocker honestly. still though, with his type of size roy could make an impact running some underneath routes as the third wide out in certain sets. personally, i am most excited to see santonio holmes. he showed some serious quicks and some fairly developed receiver skills in fall camp last year. i vividly remember the coaching staff riding holmes in practice a couple of times last fall. nothing out of line and honestly i took it as a good sign. it looked like they were trying to push him to get ready for the big time. as a coach you don't spend time getting on a guy like that unless you have high expectations for him on the field. i anticipate santonio will be one of the more pleasant suprises this spring camp.

the forgotten man going into spring camp is john hollins. hollins was very productive in the spring game (did he get hurt at the end of it?). he isn't a burner or a huge target or a tiny little pinball type of reciever. he seems to have the total package and could be an excellent third wide out this season if he works hard on his game. he may be forgotten by many of the fans and media, but i still have high hopes for johnny H.

another receiver who is off the chart for most now is angelo chattams. i know he had the stupid move with stealing and fencing golf clubs and he has to deal with all that, but he was a huge recruit and it is too early to write him off completely. obviously the deck is stacked against him, but he will have a chance if he is allowed to participate in spring camp.

another guy that gets no pub whatsoever is walk on andre hooks. hooks is a canton mckinley product and he is a massive target with some great hands. he lacks the top shelf speed, but he could be a weapon working the soft middle of the zones. i honestly don't know if he is still with the team or not though. i never heard he left so i assume he is. my cousin used to live across the street from andre back in canton, maybe i will ask her next time i see her.

anyways, that is all i have for a quick look at receiver heading into spring ball. to recap jenkins is a lock. gamble is a lock but the question there is how much time does he spend on O in 2003. drew carter is looking like he is ready to explode on scene in a manner we haven't seen at osu for a reciever since fan favorite chad cacchio or the best woman to ever play football according to bill parcells terry glenn. if carter is half as productive as either glenn or cacchio we are going to be incredible on offense in 2003. roy hall and santonio holmes are the young guns in spring camp and both will be getting their first true action as buckeyes. i personally have high hopes for santonio holmes. the rest of the receivers are talented but have question marks with them (bam with the size and angelo with it being difficult to catch the ball when you are literally handcuffed). i am not going to have time to post anymore highlights for high school football today by the way. sorry about that. hopefully i will have some ready for tomorrow. enjoy.
03-18-03 (11:05am) just two links and then a random thought or two. in linkage, the dayton daily news has a two pack of articles on the football team today. first article is a little stale in that it is talking about xenia lineman ben person giving coach tressel a verbal to play to the scarlet and gray in 2004. nothing new there honestly. you would think a paper like the DDN would have some local insight, but oh well. the second piece from the DDN is about former buckeye jeff uhlenhake leaving high school coaching to become an intern with the buckeye coaching staff.

in random thoughts, i don't have anything planned out so hopefully i can come up with something on the fly. of course the big news in the world is the impending beating that saddam hussein is about to receive courtesy of the brave men and women of the US armed forces. this site has quite a large military following and i wanted to let them know that they have my support in this (and any) matter.

in other military news, it is now being reported that iraq has issued chemical weapons to the soldiers. it sure looks like president bush and US intelligence knew what was going on. i hope the inspectors and the protestors all just shut up and let those elected and enlisted men do their jobs with no distractions. i also heard that france today said that if iraq used chemical weapons that they would make troops available to help. funny thing is i don't see our forces needing any advice on how to surrender from losers like the french people.

best quote i heard on all this was from the world chess champion gary kasparov. gary thought about the situation from a tactical standpoint and supported the action in iraq, though he didn't stop there. like any true chess player, gary was thinking 6 moves ahead. after iraq, kasparov said the US should take action in syria, iran, saudi arabia, and north korea. sounds like a good aggressive plan to me but we need to be careful not to take on too much of the world's responsibility at once.

enough about the war and back to some football. there isn't much going on in the buckeye nation this time of year, but remember no news is good news. we haven't had a player arrested, busted for steroids, busted for gambling, dieing from ephedra use, or flunking aids awareness. like i said no news is good news and we shoudl appreciate this dead period for being as boring as it has been.

i saw where bucknuts is planning on trying to show some video on their site. good for them. of course this is for their 100 or so subscribers only, but i am sure that all the film will leak out to the net and i will see it there. sounds like a job for kazaa or whatever the popular file sharing service of the moment is at that time. obviously the vg doesn't encourage such violation of copyrighted material, but he sure would appreciate seeing some more football.

speaking of football, i am planning on filming friday night football again myself this year around the state of ohio. i have also heard from several readers of the site who are interested in doing the same. if enough of us true fans go out and see some high school football with the camcorder in hand and post that footage on the net for free (i can show you how or even do it for you if you lack the software, hardware, know how, or desire and send me a copy of your tape) we really won't have any need to be fleeced out of our 8 bucks a month for some garbage site and buckeye fans across the nation will all get to see some film on future buckeyes without having to pay for it.

i am going to do my part on the film project by providing lists of the top players in the state and from around the nation. the lists will not be senior only lists and it will focus on talent regardless of class. for example, when i went to see louis irizarry play twice last season i got some decent highlights and that was worth the trip right there. i also got tons of footage of top underclassmen delbert ferguson, darryl clark, and brandon braxton while i was at the games. that made the game must see in my opinion. it isn't often you get a chance to see that many top college prospects in one setting. i believe the underclassmen being in the database will help us fans pick out the marquee games from the schedule in our individual areas and allow us to get as much film out and onto the net FREE for all to download as possible.

i also plan on spotlighting some games of the week during the season. it won't be a matchup of top teams as much as it will be a gathering of top players. in that same stream of thought, i plan on posting either links to or actual listings of some high school schedules. that way the fans who have an interest in seeing some local action (and hopefully sharing some film or stills with the rest of us cheapskates in the buckeye nation) can plan ahead.

i originally planned on doing all this work on a static html webpage, but i saw it becoming a monster that was going to interfere with my real life and maybe even the updating of this main page. that was not what i wanted, so i decided it was time to learn some database skills and post the list in a database like that so i don't have to maintain it as much as i have to simply enter data as i acquire it and let the computer update the webpages built from the database for me. so far so good.

speaking of film, i have received lots of positive feedback about the coaches film from cleveland st. ignatius. thanks to all for the kind words. it isn't my footage though, i am just digitizing it, compressing it, and posting it to the net for a friend. i would be willing to do the same for other high schools that feature top buckeye prospects if you send me the film. if you are interested in getting some publicity for your program and some top playes, send me an email and i will either walk you through the process or maybe even do all the work for you for free.

anyway, sorry about missing the morning update today. i was a little sidetracked and unable to get online much. hopefully i can post some more footage into the cleveland st ignatius archive today, but i think i am nearly out of video captures from my first session in the studio. i will have to hook back up with the crazy bearded guy and get some more free time in the studio to capture and compress some more film to get it ready for the net. enjoy.
03-17-03 (4:30pm) one link i missed this morning and then i am going to post a link to the fresh video content for today. the link i missed this morning is from warren tribune chronicle on matt wilhelm signing autographs.

i have posted some more video clips to the st. ignatius coaches film archive. i posted three more clips today all of them are offensive clips from this past season featuring qb brian hoyer and a host of talented wildcats. enjoy the show.

sorry about missing the lunch tie update today. i just didn't feel like it honestly. i did go out and buy a new 19 inch flat screen monitor though (just doing my part to help the economy). i will have to set it up here after dinner. after that it is officially st patricks day and i don't plan on updating the page again tonight. i will be back online bright and early in the morning though. enjoy.
03-17-03 (8:45am) i only have one link for this morning. 1460 the fan has a piece on the verbal of xenia lineman ben person to the buckeyes. ben is widely considered to be one of the top two offensive line prospects in the state of ohio along with youngstown ursuline's brandon braxton. excellent get at a position of need for coach tressel and the defending national champion buckeyes.

as for me and this site, i am still working on the database and i still have very little tangible to share with anyone at this point in time. hopefully by the end of this week (or by spring ball at the latest) i will have a preliminary version of the database live and online for readers to play around with and help me test my programming.

later today i will be posting more film to the st ignatius coaches film archive for sure and hopefully i will have some more random thoughts to help us get throught this monday. enjoy.
03-16-03 (9:50am) just one link that i could find this morning. 1460 the fan has a piece on the football team and winter conditioning. not much news there honestly, but it is buckeye football coverage in the dead period and you have to like that. certainly no great news like the bit on drew carter running a 4.26 for the scouts at the osu combine. look for drew to be back to the form that had him pegged as a starter before losing the job to injury and talents like michael jenkins and chris gamble.

in other news, the vg is very excited about the big10 hoops tourney today. hopefully the president and his news conference won't interfere with the television coverage.

in fantastic news, the vg now has a working database. i still need to add a bunch of records to the database, but i am getting there. i actually created the database properly, it exists on a server secretly out there as we speak, the database is fully functional, and that is some progress.

the last several years i have tried to bite off more than i could chew with recruiting coverage. each and every time i wasn't able to keep up with the demands of what i tried to create and i shelved the entire project as a result. last year i saw this coming and decided to spend my time seeing some actual football instead of trying to create lists. this year i already have a pretty nice list, but i can see it growing too large to maintain the list and my sanity. i have come to the conclusion that i need to automate the process off and that is what this database should do.

i still have some learning to do, but i am getting close. right now i have a fully functioning database with some data in it. my goal for today and this next week is to get that data from the my SQL database to be used by the php script on the server and then have that php script insert that data into a webpage template and then serve that to the readers on the fly. after i can get that all figured out, i plan to attempt to add advanced search and sort features to the database. once i accomplish all that i will have a day of rest.

anyways, that is what is going on in vg land today. today is going to be a day of basketball and learning computer stuff. if i get time or i get excited later today, i will post again. if not, know that the vg is out here getting his learn on and he plans on harvesting the fruits of this knowledge for the good of the buckeye nation. enjoy.
03-15-03 (12:25pm) for starters i have one link. 1460 the fan has a piece on the NFL scouts being on campus to check out the draft eligible seniors yesterday.

in other news, bucknuts is reporting that xenia offensive lineman ben person is now a verbal to coach tressel and the buckeyes. i could of swore that i read this news last week in the BSB. either way though great news and congratulations to ben and his family. welcome to our buckeye family.

in other news, the buckeyes play michigan state in hoops today at 1:45pm. i believe it is on cbs, but i am not sure here either. if the buckeyes can win today and sunday they will be the champions again in the big10 tournament and will secure a fifth straight bid to the NCAA tourney as well. good luck bucks.

in the only important to the vg news department. i have acquired some new webspace. no big deal honestly, but it will let me anis site grow some more. i still plan on keeping the main page on this site but some particular parts of the site are going to be moved to the new server and linked off of this front page

what has me excited about this new server space is the server support for php and mySQL. basically that will allow me to create a database and start storing my information in this database and serving it up to a template page. i can't understate the amount of work this is going to save me when it is all said and done (assuming i can learn these technologies). my initial plan is to park all the recruiting information into the database instead of doing it like i do now with everything in pure html (after i copy it from my excel spreadsheet). a simple example would be that i would be able to create my own database for recruits just like the major sites on rivals and insiders network only you wouldn't have to pay for more information or advanced search features. hopefully i can make the time to master these new technologies before fall camp starts up in august.

anyway, that is all i have for now. i am going to watch the buckeyes play hoops today and spend some time learning php and mySQL today so i don't anticipate many updates honestly. enjoy.
03-14-03 (4:35pm) the buckeye hoops squad lives to play another day with a big victory over the conference champion badgers and all is good in the buckeye nation. not much of an update right now but i have posted three more highlights into the cleveland st ignatius film archive.

the new highlights are all three pass completions by junior quarterback and potential buckeye brian hoyer. one of the passes is a nice rollout to the right and completion. the other two highlights are demonstrations of arm strength and the receiving abilities of sophomore jim ramella (tight end) and senior wide out dan kralik. check them out if you are itching for that football fix.

on a related side note here, if there are any other schools out there with major college prospects (in my opinion) that would like to have some film posted on the net, send me an email or leave me a message on my message board and i will do all the video work for you at my leisure. if you would like to post some highlights of your high school football game but there honestly aren't any ohio state type of prospects on the field, i will still help you out for free, but my help will be more of the advice type than actual studio work. i guess if i was really bored i could compress it for you, but i don't anticipate having that much free time to help any old school. anyways, if you have film and want it on the net, let me know and i will help you share your film with the world. enjoy.
03-14-03 (12:50pm) buckeyes lead 30-25 at the half against wisconsin. keep the fingers crossed but things are looking good as of right now. videos are being uploaded to the ignatius film archive here momentarily. enjoy.
03-14-03 (9am) i found one more link that may be of an interest to the readers. this link is to the yappi.com message boards with some solid speculation as to duane long's top 25 seniors in the state of ohio. of course that is premium information that i am not willing to pay for but i sure appreciate reading all the same. also, this is just a guess as to what the top 25 is and it may or may not be correct.

i know the people at bucknuts have issues with their so called premium information getting leaked out, but honestly the law isn't on their side. while you can't simply cut and paste their material and use it on the web legally, you can summarize it all you want with no real legal concerns. as a reminder here, you can't go posting this summarization of material on their message board because that is against board rules, but it is completely legal. that being said a violation of board rules like that can get you banned from the boards (as can honest criticism...) and it could get your premium subscription terminated without refund.
03-14-03 (8:20am) just one link right now. the canton repository has a piece on ohio state hosting a bunch of scouts on campus to see their draft eligible players work out. good luck to former bulldogs kenny peterson and mike doss as well as other seniors cie grant, matt wilhelm, andy groom, donnie nickey, david thompson, and chris vance.

if nothing else i plan on posting some more highlights from the cleveland st. ignatius film today. hopefully i can come up with some buckeye news as well. hoops reminder for the hoops junkies, the buckeyes play wisconsin at noon today. enjoy.
03-13-03 (4:55pm) not much of an update for now. i just wanted to let you know that there are fresh highlight clips in the st. ignatius film archive. i posted five new highlight clips today s