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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 so if you find yourself itching for a football fix, check them out. enjoy.
03-13-03 (1:10pm) sorry about missing the morning update. things came up and i had to smack them back down. i do have some linkage and an update on the hoops game though.
in linkage, the akron beacon journal has a piece on sian cotton. in further linkage, centralohio.com has a piece fresh today and a day old donut i missed from yesterday on the bucks. today they have a piece on craig krenzel winning the socrates award. yesterday they had a piece on a michigan politician finally paying up on his bet from the loss to ohio state. no word on how this bet impacts the estate of ed martin. in other links, college football news has a piece on the 20 greatest teams in big10 history. here is another piece from the same guys on the same topic with some of the top teams from each school in the conference.
in basketball action, the buckeyes have not been pretty today, but they are playing some good defense and keeping the game close. the buckeyes trail by 4 at the half 27 - 23. hopefully OB can get the buckeyes to toughen up in the second half and make a run in the big10 tourney.
anyways, i am going to start posting some more highlights from st. ignatius here in a few minutes. when i get done, i will post an update here letting you know they are there. enjoy.
03-12-03 (4:55pm) i am a little later than i wanted to be back online, but i have something fairly decent to make up for this slow day.
a couple of weeks ago i got a nice suprise in my US mail. it was a package from the cleveland area with two vhs tapes of st ignatius football. there was a season review tape, a highlight tape, and complete game film from the games against cincy elder, st. eds, and warren harding.
long story short, i spent some time in the crazy bearded guy's studio this weekend video capturing some of this film and compressing it for the internet. things did not go as smoothly as they usually do since i was dealing with analog tape instead of digital tape, but i got some highlights out of it.
long story long, i had a tape get partially eaten (i was able to take apart the tape and put it back together with minimal loss), one of the vhs tapes showed up with a crack in the case courtesty of the hard working people at the us post office, and then some of the tape simply would not convert to digital no matter what i tried. i think the tape was a copy of a copy that was the copy of a copy. when you copy tapes like that you lose some quality each time and i wasn't able to get it all to convert to digital quality as a result. anyways, that is why it took so long for me to get this simple task done.
actually i am not quite done yet either. all i was able to capture so far was the game against st eds and some of the film from the two highlight reels. i just started posting this film a little after four so i don't have much uploaded right now, but as i type this there are three highlights in the st ignatius film archive free for all to download and enjoy.
for the long time readers of this site, this video is stored in a sony imagestation account and you know what to do. for those who haven't ever downloaded any film from sony imagestation, you don't know what you are missing. i have a ton of recruiting clips in my account (linked at the top left hand corner of this page as always). my good friend vladimir gonzalez has a bunch of buckeye football video captures posted in his account (linked near the bottom of the left hand column as always). if you are having difficulty with downloading the film, check out the how to guide i wrote (linked underneath my recruiting videos link).
disclaimer time. the film in the st ignatius film archive isn't quite the same quality as the stuff i shoot. in some ways it is better and in some ways it is worse. that film is much better in that it was shot from the coaches box and they have a nice steady camera taking the film. it is worse in that occasionally there is glare off of the glass in the booth, there is no sound in my video captures (i had to turn it off to get it to covert to digital for some reason), and the quality of the tape is analog and not digital. it is still watchable, but it isn't real high quality either. one thing that that is nice about this film though is that it is coaches film. these are the exact same tapes college coaches will review when they do their film evaluation. it isn't often fans like myself or the readers get the opportunity to see what the coaches see.
right now i have three offensive highlights posted and several more ready to upload. osu is recruiting the qb in all three highlights (brian hoyer). in one of the clips brian is throwing the ball to osu commit tony gonzalez. another clip in the archive is hoyer completing a pass to sophomore (unior to be) tight end jim ramella. ramella isn't getting a lot of press from the so called experts at this point in time, but i imagine he will have all the hype he needs after next season. he has lots of potential at tight end and is the main reason that mike massey will probably only play defensive end as a senior instead of going both ways. unfortunately for buckeye fans the clip with ramella in it is against warren harding and michigan signee prescott burgess makes the tackle. from a buckeye perspective it was nice to see burgess have approximately the same speed as an unhyped sophomore backup tight end. like i said, i think ramella will be big time eventually, but what the hell do i know really.
enjoy the film.
03-12-03 (10am) sorry about the late update this morning, but i should be able to make up for it later this afternoon. much later today i should have some eye candy in the form of football video to share with the world. for now though all i have is a two pack of links.
here is a piece on buckeye draft sleepers matt wilhelm and cie grant from the akron beacon journal. this last article is from the canton repository on marco cooper gettng a third chance from the judge.
anyways, assuming sony imagestation works today i should have a nice little suprise later this afternoon. last note before i go, today is wednesday and that means there is another new episode of the chappelle show on comedy central at 10:30pm tonight. more later.
03-11-03 (1pm) there is absolutely no news out there this time of year, but remember no news is good news. we don't have any current players being busted by the police, we don't have any boosters doing an ed martin imitation (speaking of which someone needs to come up with the ed martin costume in time for halloween), and unfortunately we aren't worried about being on the dreaded NCAA bracket bubble.
being a slow time for buckeye football news this is the time of year i try to step up. i was going to post a few videos into the video archive today, but sony imagestation is down for maintenance. oh well, maybe tomorrow.
i actually missed one link this morning i can pass along right now. the toledo blade has a piece on coach tressel being in the toledo area. nothing new in that article, but it is fresh material for our reading pleasure.
anyways, like i was typing earlier, it is the slow time of the year (especially in the northern part of the country). recently i started covering the team position by position as we wait for spring ball to come and save us from the boredom. today i am going to continue that series with a quick look at tailback.
obviously things are looking solid at tailback heading into spring ball. maurice clarett is back for his sophomore season and he is looking to prove he is a durable back. maurice has been troubled with injuries for the past several seasons and hopefully 2003 can be injury free. if clarett is healthy, we have the best tailback in the nation in our backfield and all is good.
unfortunately we can't count on clarett being injury free if the trend continues. fortunately we have top notch depth in juniors lydell ross and maurice hall. i have heard that ross has been working out like a mad man since the national championship game and he seems determined to get more time in 2003. i honestly haven't heard much about maurice hall since the national championship game. hopefully he continues to add some size to make him more than a speedy threat sitting on the sidelines.
lydell ross looked incredible as a freshman in 2001. he was a decisive runner that wasn't affraid of lowering his shoulders and taking on tacklers in the hole for the tough yardage. in 2002 we didn't see that as much. it may have been related to a slight injury he had or it could have been him pressing to make something big happen to win the job in his limited carries. hopefully this spring we will see the lydell of old that stays with the hole and tries to make something happen between the tackles.
speaking of sticking with the hole as it is drawn up, i believe that was maurice hall's problem for sure. i can document several times early in the season where the blocks were set up for an inside run and maurice hall tried to bounce it outside for the big gainer. i don't think this is a matter of him being affraid of the contact as much as it is him looking to get to the edge and use his jaw dropping speed to create the big play. i know some people said he lost playing time after he fumbled early in the season, but i think it was more of a matter of him not running to the hole drawn up and bailing on the play.
if either lydell ross or maurice hall want to press maurice clarett for playing time, they will have to become more effective at running the ball inside. obviously maurice clarett is the toughest of the three backs, but more than that he sticks with the play as it is drawn up. even if there is a hint of a hole, maurice sticks it in there and sees what he can make out of it. sure he has the great vision and agility to make the cutbacks but he does that only after trying the hole first. that is some quality coaching that maurice clarett had in high school paying huge dividends for buckeyes across the nation.
while we are relatively stacked at tailback, we aren't deep. behind those three potential superstars there isn't one other tailback on scholarship. there has been some talk about jersey standout safety ira guilford getting some reps at tailback when he arrives in august. he could be a more than adequate stop gap solution if we have injuries problems. that isn't until fall camp though so for spring expect to see quite a few walk ons get some snaps.
as for the spring game, it will be interesting to see how the tailbacks get divided. with the quarterbacks it is easy, each squad gets a senior and a redshirt freshman and you go from there. at tailback, we only have three scholarship players so one squad is going to get two tailbacks while the other is going to get one plus a few walk ons. not that vegas has a betting line for spring games, but i think my money would be on the squad with two tailbacks.
anyways, that is all i have for this lunchtime update. i am going to try and get back online again this afternoon but i will have to think of something to post before i can do that. i don't want to blow my load quite this soon with spring ball still approximately three weeks away. enjoy.
03-11-03 (8:55am) i have some links for this morning but i must warn, they aren't pretty. lloyd carr was in the area yesterday for a luncheon at the pro football hall of fame and in an unrelated story there is marco cooper news. needless to say, the links today are very michigan centric.
anyways, here are the links. the akron beacon journal and the canton repository each have a piece on lloyd carr coming to town. a little late honestly. i like to be warned a day in advance when these predators come to my area for protection purposes. lastink for now is from 1460 the fan on marco cooper.
honestly there isn't anything worth reading in any of the articles today. read only if you are hard up for information.
03-10-03 (6:30pm) just two articles to pass along tonight. both of these are from the good people at the sporting news. this first article is on the strength that is the big10 conference. a real nice and quick preview of some of the race for the roses next year (although i guess it could be the sprint for the sugar). the second article is all about our favorite geneticist craig krenzel.
as for me it is smells like it is supper time and i am off this computer for now. enjoy.
03-10-03 (2:10pm) just one brief link i missed yesterday somehow before i move on to some random thoughts. the cleveland plain dealer had a blurb yesterday about roy hall potentially being used as a tight end this year. honestly i don't see it. i don't know if he would hold up as a blocker. he would be one hell of a weapon as a receiver playing tight end, but the blocking is what scares me. besides, we have louis irizarry coming to campus in a few more months to fill that type of tight end role. i think this is coming from the fact that we did use hall on the scout team as a tight end to simulate kellen winslow and his speed.
now for some random thoughts. late last night i did a general overview of the buckeyes as they head into spring camp. today i am going to start slowly looking at each position. today i am going to look at the quarterbacks.
quarterbacks are always under the microscope and i expect it to be one of the most watched battles this spring. battle at quarterback? the vg must have broken into the good stuff a little early today you would think with craig krenzel returning as the first quarterback to lead the buckeyes to the promised land since rex kern did after the 1968 season.
while i don't expect anyone to push craig krenzel to the sideline and put a clipboard in his hands instead of the football, i do expect qb to get probably the most attention of all the battles this spring though to see who is the third and who is the fourth string qb. i think it is a given that the under appreciated scott mcmullen will be the primary backup to krenzel. the battle that will draw the attention of the media and fans alike is the battle between massillon's justin zwick and cleveland gelnville's troy smith.
as if qb's didn't get enough attention already, us buckeye fans are starved for information about the future of the buckeye offense. since i am not a psychic myself i thought it was time to spend some of the site's budget on an expert analysis of the qb position and place a call to miss cleo.
you wouldn't know it from the commercials, but miss cleo is quite the football expert and her knowledge of the future goes unquestioned. last year i consulted with miss cleo before fall camp and she stressed that the buckeyes had quite a good chance to win all their games in 2002. miss cleo is expensive and this site's budget is minimal so i couldn't ask her many questions and she kept dragging her feet to milk the length of the call, but i got some information out of her all the same.
anyways, i called up miss cleo last night and after hearing her babble on like hammurabi for nearly a minute with pleasantries and what not, i was finally able to get in my first question. miss cleo, i asked, who is the buckeyes qb of the future, is it justin zwick or is it troy smith? miss cleo is never clear with her answer and she always leaves it open to interpretation but she did provide some insight. she told me the cards were in conflict with each other and that the answer to that question isn't clear now and it won't be for some time.
i can't believe i was already 8 bucks in the hole to find out that she wasn't sure. i had to press on for more information. i asked her about the conflict in the cards and if she could be more specific about this question. suprisingly she cleared it up for me. son, she said, when i say the cards are in conflict i mean it. there is no answer to your question now, there won't be an answer to your question after spring ball or even after the 2003 season for that matter. she stressed that i should be concerned more about things that will impact the 2003 season instead of the 2004 season. still though, i was now in the hole for nearly 13 dollars and i wanted a damn answer for my money.
i realized that if i wanted to get something out of this investment in expert analysis i was going to have to ask her a more specific question. miss cleo, i said, are either of the redshirt freshmen qb's going to get any playing time in 2003? miss cleo again answered my question in vague terms that skirted around the issue. she said both troy smith and justin zwick would get some limited snaps in game situations but that the bulk of the work will go to the two seniors. being psychic and all miss cleo could tell i was getting frustrated by her lack of specifics. being a business women she knew she had to leave me something substantial if i was going to come back for another visit.
i was trying to wrap up the conversation and keep my investment to under 20 dollars. sensing that i was about to hang up miss cleo knew that she had to give me something. she had to keep me on the line and squeeze me for all i was worth. she said that buckeye fans may be suprised to see how the coaches are using troy smith in practice this year. she was under the impression that smith will get a look as a slash type of player to get him on the field this year, but that this experiment may only be conducted in the private session of two a days and not in the public session.
finally i got something of value from miss cleo. it looks like 2003 will be all about craig krenzel and scott mcmullen with some mop up time for both troy smith and justin zwick. it also looks like troy smith will get a look at some different positions to give this tremendous athlete a chance to contribute more than just mop up duty in 2003. sure it cost me 23 dollars to find this out, but where else will you get top shelf expert analysis on football from an expert like that. it isn't like any of those self proclaimed experts are psychic or anything.
enjoy.
03-10-03 (8:10am) just one link that i could find this morning. this piece is all about cie grant getting ready for the NFL draft with former coach dave kennedy from cie's hometown newspaper the new philadelphia times reporter. i will be back online later in the afternoon with more random thoughts. enjoy monday as it drags on and on and on.
03-10-03 (1am) sorry about the lack of updates this weekend. i was planning on posting some tonight, but my brother (not the crazy bearded guy) stopped over and he brought beer. needless to say, we weren't anywhere near a computer. anyways, he just took off, and i am ready to post something, what i honestly have no clue as i type this. i hope i can come up with something good.
i have already reviewed all of the redshirt freshmen and i am in the middle of a tour of the other buckeye websites. i have been dragging my feet on a couple of items for the site though. i haven't posted any film in quite some time and i have yet to preview spring ball at all. since spring ball is here in approximately another three and a half weeks and i don't feel like doing any links tonight it is time to look towards spring ball tonight.
i will be doing a position by position break down of the roster as we head into spring camp, but for tonight i am going to cover this in broad strokes and take a look at the known strengths of the team and the major question marks.
since the buckeyes are the defending national champions, and man does that feel good to type, i think i will start with the lengthy list of the strengths. on offense the buckeyes return all eleven starters and the place kicker as well as the snapper. you don't get any deeper than that but the buckeyes are adding some quality depth to the point where some of those returning starters may not have as firm a grasp on their starting jobs as you would think. true sophs rob sims and nick mangold both played extensively as freshman and will make a big push for the starting jobs. sims is looking like an all big ten tackle down the road. mangold on the other hand is more than solid at center and may allow a guy like alex stepanovich to move away from center to another position. the only thing though is i don't know who is going to lose a job to make room for one of these young pups. adrien clarke is supposedly slimmed down and running better than he ever has. it seems he is ready for a big senior season to position himself for the NFL draft. if clarke continues his progress, i don't see him losing a job. both tackles ivan douglas and shane olivea looked like potential all big ten tackles at times last season. if they continue to progress, i don't see how either of those guys can lose a job with their type of experience. alex stepanovich could get moved out from center to make room for nick mangold, but he isn't going to the bench if he does. if mangold were to make a push at center, i would think that step would slide over to guard. both guards are coming back, but bryce bishop is probably the most vulnerable of all the linemen. if any of the five starting linemen lose their job, my money is on bryce bishop right now. needless to say, i have high hopes for the offensive line this year. it could be a strength of the team for the first time in over five years. with all the skill position players coming back, the offense could be scary good this year.
the defense on the other hand was gutted up the middle. the buckeyes lost my man KP and david thompson at tackle, matt wilhelm and cie grant at linebacker, and the best pair of safeties in the conference in mike doss and donnie nickey. not only did the buckeyes lose a bunch of starters and solid tacklers either, they lost lots of leadership,
in 2002 the defense had to carry the day, but the situation may be reversed in 2003 early in the season. the obvious strength of the defense will be the defensive line. the buckeyes return the best pair of defensive ends in the nation in darrion scott and will smith. simon fraser could probably start on every other team on the nation at end and he will get plenty of snaps this year in the defensive line rotation. while the buckeyes do lose KP in the middle, tim anderson is back to do the dirty work. the buckeyes could probably line me up at the open defensive tackle position and it would still be a strong point of the team. we may see darrion scott get some serious minutes as a defensive tackle this year just so we can get the best four defensive linemen on the field at the same time. like i said, this is the obvious strength of the team. the defensive line should be the top ranked defensive line unit in the nation in all the preseason magazines without a doubt.
when i started writing tonight's post, i planned on doing the strengths and and the not so strongs (i hestitate to refer to anything as being weak on the defending national champion buckeyes). the obvious less than strong position on the defense is the back seven. i am concerned at linebacker. robert reynolds should be solid and lead the linebackers and aj hawk should start to emerge as a superstar. the other linebacker position does have me worried though. i am thinking that job is bobby carpenters to lose (assuming reynolds slides into middle linebacker like rumored of course). i always pay particularly close attention to the special teams coverage units and bobby carpenter stood out at times last season. i take this as a good sign that he is ready to step into the starting void left by the departure of cie grant and matt wilhelm. sure mike d'andrea and freddie pagac will make a push for PT as well, but i think bobby probably has the leg up going into spring camp and that is what this is all about tonight.
the other area of concern on the defense is the secondary. sure the buckeyes bring back potential all big ten performers chris gamble and dustin fox, but that leaves two jobs open to rookies. i imagine will allen will man one of the open safety slots due to all the positive experiences he had last season. the rest of the secondary depends on where dustin fox lines up. lots of fans have him already moved to free safety and i think he is a natural free safety as well, but he was also an outstanding corner at times last season so i am not so sure his move is a done deal. the one to watch this spring is probably donte whitner. whitner could make the decision easy for coach tressel and coach dantonio if he comes in and plays like most of us fans anticipate he will.
i know most of the experts have whitner pegged as a corner and therefore think his future depends on what happens with dustin fox, but he played safety all last season and he played it like a man. whitner is an explosive hitter in the mold of a damon moore. sure he has the fantastic speed and he seems like a natural corner, but for next season he may have less of an adjustment to make as a safety. do i think this will happen? probably not. he is too talented to not get his shot at corner before being made into a safety, it is a possibility though for sure.
i honestly don't see the linebacker or secondary situation as a weakness as much as i see it as a question mark. the weakness on the team is without a doubt punter. with the loss of andy groom the buckeyes lost a rare breed of a punter. not many punters are a weapon that can influence the strategy of the game. the buckeyes bring back senior bj sander but that doesn't put any of us at ease after watching him shank punts for the past three seasons virtually every given opportunity. it looks like the job is bj's to loose unless a walk on or josh huston can push for the position. needless to say this scares the crap out of me.
anyways, that is my quick overview of the team heading into spring ball. not much for tonight, but it is better than the nothing that was posted by most of the buckeye sites out there today. i will be online again in the morning bright and early with another update. enjoy.
03-09-03 (11:25am) a few links this morning. the dayton daily news has a piece on marcus freeman, ohio state, and michigan. it seems that freeman does not consider michigan as his favorite. he does like them as a college choice and tey are in the top two, but to call them his favorite was inaccurate it seems. it was also nice to see everyone in town letting him know what they think about osu vs michigan. even the lunch ladies were letting him know that osu is the place to go.
1460 the fan has a piece on jim tressel the man in demand. pretty decent article today from tim may. way to earn that paycheck tim. last newspaper article for today i would not read at all. this is from the cincy enquirer and it states that spring game tix go on sale this monday. of course that is absolutely wrong for those of us in the know. spring game tickets are already on sale and can be purchase through hangonsloopy.com right now.
i don't have anything else in me for now but i will get back online here today with another update on something for sure. enjoy.
03-08-03 (3:10pm) nothing. absolutely nothing going on in the buckeye nation today. i actually got up this morning at 8am in anticipation of updating the webpage, but since i couldn't find nothing worth posting i decided to get some beauty sleep. trust me, a guy like me needs all the beauty sleep he can get.
anyways, i am well rested now and there still isn't any news. that doesn't mean i take off the day and leave all the buckeye fans out there jonesing for buckeye information. today i am going to continue a tour of the buckeye web that i started about two weeks ago with a look at some of the better and some of the newest fan sites out there.
on a side note here, if any fans out there start up a buckeye website and want a link off of this site or a listing in the search engines drop me a line and i will get to it eventually (i am the editor of all the ohio state football directory listings for the open directory project which serves as the backbone for the directory listings on sites such as google, yahoo, and aol along with a few thousand other sites). if you are having issues in designing your site, i would be glad to provide some basic advice there too. the more free information out there the better.
now for the tour. let me start out with two sites that i have been helping out a little bit. the first site is inside buckeye. it is the creation of a student at warren harding high (the same high school as top prospects delbert ferguson, mario manningham, and rocco cironi). being a high school student and having a life, he doesn't have time to update during the day, but he typically has some good info after school. inside buckeye has a nice message board and chat room as well. it is also the first site out there i have allowed them to use some of my photography on the web. generally a very good site worth checking out from time to time.
another site that i have been helping out is currently untitled and it isn't quite complete yet, but honestly no website worth a damn is ever completely done either. i have been helping out this site with site design as well as providing some photography for future use. right now this site looks like it is going to have mainly a recruiting focus for this time of the year. he has already posted several recruiting profiles of some of the top prospects in the state of ohio. he is still in the learning process of web design but he is learning fast.
here is another new site that has been around for maybe just a couple of weeks. this site is called the bree spot. it is new but it looks like it will have a daily column on the current happenings in the buckeye nation as well as some current events from around college football. check it out.
probably one of the highest quality fan sites is the buckeye 50 yardline. it has some comments every couple of days or so and it is written by a fan with some serious knowledge on college football. one of the better parts of the buckeye 50 is his recruiting list. honestly, it is typically a near carbon copy of duane long's top player list, but it is free and he does add some comments on each player as well.
one of my favorite fan sites right now is a collection of osu game programs. this site has tons of scanned in programs from over the years. i plan on downloading every single scanned in program someday for my personal collection of buckeye graphics. this site has only had maybe 7000 visitors and that is a shame because it is top shelf quality. i recommend this site big time for us die hard fans.
another top collection of graphics on the net is at this site called osu football cards. it has a very large collection of osu sports cards scanned in and posted for all to see. very high quality scans too. not only does this site feature a bunch of football card scans, it also has basketball card scans, osu screensavers, and osu mp3's for your downloading pleasure. i would say this is a must see download.
another one of my favorite fan sites is osu homebase. this is another site ran by students at ohio state and it has some of the best football party pictures and film clips on the net. if you are into tailgaiting, check out this site for sure.
another site i frequent is the buckeye vessel. this site has some great historical information plus some very unique stills taken from video captures of old buckeye players and highlights. he also sells some high quality osu themed wood cut outs. check out this site for sure if you are looking for wood cut outs or some unique buckeye graphics.
final site i am going to mention is buckeyes and beer. this site has a nice collection of statistical stuff for the current and past schedules. stuff like point spreads, rankings, and game recaps and photo links. this site also features a very nice list of buckeye bars across the nation so some of us displaced fans can watch the game with other fans and alums. excellent site.
anyways, that is all the fan sites out there that i visit for now. i have another list of fan sites i still want to post, but i don't feel like listing them all in one update. i try to link all the good buckeye sites in the left hand column (at the bottom) so if you ever need a link to one, just scroll down the page and check them out. some of these fan sites provide some unique information worth the cost of a free click.
03-07-03 (2pm) i was checking out the server logs for the site and i found a discussion about my site on a message board. being a slow day it sounds like an update to me.
for starters, here is the link on the yappi sports message board about this site. normally i would post my response there, but i am not a registered member of that site so i figured i would just handle it here.
for starters, it seems these guys enjoy the site and i am glad they do. i do all this for the fans and for my own personal enjoyment. now to clear up some of the points from the message board post. someone claimed that i do this all by evaluating film. while i do have the coaches film from st ignatius for three games plus a highlight reel and i have been using that film, that is the only film i have looked at that i haven't shot myself. all the videos in the free video archive i shot myself while attending the games. so rather obviously i do attend quite a few high school games myself.
i also said that ryan brinson had the potential to be the best back from mckinley since marion motley. i never compared him to motley as a player at all. also i am not an old geezer. i have not seen marion motley play except in NFL films highlights of the game.
all that being said, ryan brinson is barry sandersish. that isn't my quote either, it is from a good friend of mine the irish patent attorney. i was showing him some of my film on him and that was the comparison he made. i tended to agree with him and i repeat it here often. ryan brinson is small and quick like barry sanders, but that isn't enough to draw the comparison honestly. there are a ton of small quick backs out there that i could care less about. what brought on that comparison was the incredible moves in the hole that ryan brinson was showing, you really need to see it to believe it. i was at the mckinley warren harding game this year and while mckinley was completely outmanned, ryan brinson made some of the harding defenders look silly with some slick moves in the hole. don't take my word for it though, check out some of the free videos i have posted on the internet.
disclaimer time, midway through the high school football season i started to compress my film using a higher quality video codec. some older computers-media players can not view the film from the canton mckinley - warren harding game and the dayton chaminade-julienne game. they do work on modern computers though i assure you. several thousand fans have downloaded and watched these films and i have only ever heard of 4 complaints still so i think this is a minor problem. i do plan on recompressing those clips in the future, but that task isn't anywhere near the top of my to do list either.
as for my comments on brian hoyer's arm strength, i stand behind those. i have seen a highlight reel, plus three complete games of ignatius on tape in addition to seeing one live. i don't think there is any questioning his arm strength. probably the only two buckeyes i would compare to hoyer in terms of arm strength (which is far from the only relevant skill for a qb) are scott mcmullen and troy smith. in no way is that intended to be a put down to justin zwick either, anyone who knows me knows that i am a huge supporter of stark county football. i just didn't see the arm strength from justin that i saw in troy smith and scott mcmullen. all that being said, i am rooting on zwick to take over the job in 2004. craig krenzel (and guys like ken dorsey, tee martin, and jay barker) have proven that you don't need to have a big arm to be a success in college as a qb.
i also never said that the only qb's that could get away with throwing some of the routes that hoyer threw were elway and favre. if you read the entire piece i am saying that throwing the bullet across the body on the move and across the field like that is something i have only seen favre and elway get away with in the NFL. honestly it isn't a throw anybody should be making normally. i was just saying that i was impressed with the arm that hoyer had to be able to get away with a throw like that.
final note here, i am nowhere near a recruiting expert. i have never claimed to be one. in fact i have never even sat for my certified recruiting expert examination and i am retaining my amateur status for the 2004 recruiting olympics. i am a recruiting fan at best. i only comment on players that i have actually seen play football and i only do that as a fan. nothing more nothing less.
as for the hyperbole, that is what this site is all about. i do what i do to entertain, especially in these dead periods without football. also, i have enjoyed reading your message board from what i have seen so far. i even tried to sign up, but i needed to be referred by a member. if one of you guys could do me the favor and send me an email (address located in the title of the page, just put your cursor on the 'vanilla-gorilla') and an invitation to the board, i would enjoy posting over there from time to time. thanks for providing fodder for the webpage. i am struggling for news this time of year. enjoy the videos.
03-07-03 (11:30am) 9am my ass. bucknuts is claiming to have posted the news links at 9am this morning, yet the link to their free content (which is links to other peoples free content) just goes to a pay per read article about ray williams. it wasn't posted at 9am either, 11am is much closer to the truth (not that the link goes to the newspaper links in the first place). if you guys can't figure out a real simple update like that, feel free to cut and paste the link from my page today. just trying to help.
speaking of things they can't figure out at bucknuts, it seems that the duane Q & A message board is not working (well not working for duane but perfectly fine for everyone else). i am banned from that board for commenting on my take on the facts so i haven't had the opportunity to check it out much, but if this is in fact a computer issue (that nobody else seems to have in the world according to the ezboards tech support message board) and not a marketing ploy wrapped in a lie, i hope they get it fixed. the more free information the better. even if i can't read about it from that site, i will see it reposted elsewhere within the hour or so.
enough laughing at bucknuts for now. i do have another link to pass along this afternoon. this is part of a series on the greatest 100 games in college football history. obviously this is all about the buckeyes beating of miami for the national championship. it only ranks as the second best college football game of all time suprisingly. they listed the 1984 orange bowl between miami and nebraska as the best of all time. great game for sure, but not as good as this years masterpiece and honestly not as good as the buckeye rose bowl victory over jake the snake plummer and arizona state either. i will never forget the announcers kissing jake's ass about the great comeback he led and all the celebration they were doing on the sideline and in the booth only to see joe germaine, david boston, and dee miller turn that great game into an epic game with the final drive.
i actually met david boston a couple of weeks after that game. i was out drinking on campus at the time with a good friend. as was the custom at the time, we hit the south campus taco bell after a long night of drinking. the line was long as usual and the bell was packed to the gills. i already placed my order and i was just waiting for my food to show up when it happened. a very large man came back to the counter and got in front of me. he was complaining about the lack of toppings on his nacho bell grande (they like to screw you like that when it is after 2am). not knowing who the guy was, my drunk ass had to make conversation. i said, your nacho bell not quite so grande huh. david boston turned around and laughed i finally realized who he was. on a side note here, david boston was completely sober at the time. i detected not a hint of drugs or alcohol. he was just out checking out the ladies with some friends (ladies with an empahsis on the laid and an emphasis on the ease that is). i know that some people are getting down on boston for some mistakes he has made recently, but he wasn't always like that either. he has done some stupid things and he is paying for it. besides, who here hasn't done some crazy stuff when they were 24 or 25 years old.
anyways, that is all i have for right now. i still have a few more recruiting profiles to post and i have some new buckeye sites to pass along as well. i don't have the links handy for the new sites and i don't have my pictures ready for the recruiting profiles. hopefully i will get to them this weekend. maybe i will get a little studio time this weekend and get some fresh video ready for the site.
03-07-03 (9:10am) just two links for now. the dayton daily news has the only fresh link this morning. it has news on tressel the coach of the year, tressel's corn rows, and tickets for the spring game being on sale already. this next link is from yesterday, but it is decent enough to dust off and post today. it is from an atlanta newspaper on coach tressel the coach of the year.
anyways, that is all i have in me this friday morning. i will be back online around lunchtime with some random thoughts. enjoy.
03-06-03 (11:15am) i am a little early for the lunch time update today, but i am far from premature. being a dead period for buckeye information, i got a little excited when i saw some info and i had to pass it along here.
the good people at the bsb are reporting that ben person (offensive lineman, xenia, 6'4", 290 pounds) verbally committing to ohio state is all but a done deal. person is one of the top two offensive line prospects in the state of ohio (along with brandon braxton of youngstown ursuline). it isn't official yet (and honestly it can't be official until february 4, 2004), but it seems to be a done deal. i would link the bsb article, but it is pay per read.
in other news, it looks like the buckeyes have a new kicker on campus. lakewood st eds kicker brian pierce is supposed to be a preferred walk on for next season. that means he doesn't have a scholarship, but if one were to not be used, he would be on the short list for that scholarship for that particular year. pierce is an outstanding kicker that kicks off the ground and used a college ball in high school so there should be very little adjustment for him. it sounds like he is a better kicker than punter from what i have read, but with all american mike nugent a junior next season, it wouldn't suprise me to see pierce try to become our punter.
anyways, that is all i have for news now. i will try and get online a little later in the day. enjoy.
03-06-03 (9:25am) not much going on this morning. i do have one link to pass along. 1460 the fan has a piece on nate salley the football player, the basketball player, and the poet.
i did an extensive update to the college football recruiting center last night. i added a list of the top underclassmen in ohio and the top underclassmen in the nation as well as a few more senior names. check it out if you are looking for some recruiting information.
anyways, that is all i have for now. i will try and get back online around lunchtime. enjoy.
03-05-03 (5:10pm) not much going on in the buckeye nation today. the only buckeye news i have is david boston signing a 7 year deal with the san diego chargers. it looks like drew brees has his go to guy for next year.
apparently the people at bucknuts have started up another message board to allow duane to post over there. whether this is to cover the supposed lie about not being able to post on the free board but being able to post on the pay board i have no clue. it is nice to see them do something about the problem finally. for an internet business to have computer issues for something like three months with a key employee is just insane. i would provide a link, but i am banned from that community. you can get there by using my link to the bucknuts message board and following the link to the duane Q & A board from there. from what i have read in an email, duane has been answering every question so far so if you are in the mood for some free recruiting information (besides what sites like the o-zone and myself provide), check it out.
in a reminder for all those out there, tonight is another new episode of the chappelle show on comedy central. it is on at 10:30pm tonight. for those unfamiliar with the show, make sure you catch it when comedy central starts to rerun the previous episodes a billion times. dave chappelle is simply too funny to miss and he is an ohio resident afterall. his bit on third world girls gone wild last week had me cracking up as did the mad real world. the week before that he did a great little commercial for a movie written by and about dave chappelle. i can't recommend this guy enough for the readers out there that like to laugh.
anyways, that is all i have for now. good luck to david boston in san diego and i will try and get back online later tonight to update either this page or the recruiting center again. enjoy
03-05-03 (high noon) just checking in with the lunchtime update. i searched around the net and i couldn't find anything else worth posting today so i am just going to get this out of the way and post it here now.
this is by far the worst recruiting profile i have done. not that the player is bad or anything, i just didn't get to see him play due to an injury. i will get the chance to see him again this coming season so i will have an update on him probably in september or october.
i doubt this needs mentioned, but i will just in case. with jamell benjamin being injured, i didn't get the opportunity to film him in action so there aren't any highlights of him in the video archive to download.
anyways, here is my real quick profile of jamell benjamin. enjoy.
Jamell Benjamin
Position: Linebacker
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 215 pounds
40 Time: NA
High School: Cleveland Glenville
Notes:
Cleveland Glenville is loaded with top notch athletes and Jamell Benjamin is yet another fine athlete to learn the game from Coach Ted Ginn Sr. Jamell will team up with Freddie Lennix next season to form one of the better linebacker tag teams in the state of Ohio.
Unfortunately for me, the readers, and most importantly Jamell, I didn't get a chance to see him play football this year despite hitting a Glenville game. Jamell was injured and unable to play that game so I honestly can't comment on him much at all.
What i can comment on is his size. Right now, Benjamin will need to add some pounds to play linebacker in major college football. He has the body type of a safety right now but I am not sure about his speed without having seen him run.
I have heard that one 'expert' says he could end up at fullback in college. I don't see that happening. He doesn't have the thickness to play fullback right now. He already needs to bulk up a little more to play linebacker as is, fullback is one additional notch of growth in the belt size.
In Jamell's defense, it was hard to get a read on him size wise, because every other player I see is wearing pads and Benjamin was in street clothes. Sure you don't want to evaluate the pads, but it is hard to compare him to other players like that when you don't have a baseline to compare him too.
Hopefully the injury was minor and Jamell is primed for a big senior season. I hope to see him healthy and in action against Massillon Perry this year. You got to love it when the top talents in the state all travel to your neck of the woods.
03-05-03 (11am) late update today. sorry about that. i do have three links for buckeye fans today though. first off i have a piece from 1460 the fan on chic harley. second link for now is from the good people at the ozone with an excellent collection of free photos from winter conditioning. isn't it funny when none of the pay sites gets the quality of pictures that a free site like the o-zone does. makes you wonder where all the money goes. speaking of money, the crazy bearded guy bought a great looking fossil watch from the o-zone yesterday for only 75 bucks, if you want to support their free information and photography and have a sharp looking watch, check out their store. final link for now is from jostens of all places with pictures of the championship rings. the site is showing two rings and i know i read that we would only have one ring and that we were leaving space for the national champions text on the original ring. maybe geiger got caught up in the moment and sprung for an extra ring, who knows.
anyways, that is all i have for now. i did a little work on the recruiting center last night and it is coming along well so far. i plan on posting another recruiting profile to the site today sometime after lunch. i promise that it is going to be the worst recruiting profile i have ever posted, not that the player isn't talented, i just didn't get to see much from him on the field due to circumstances beyond his control. anyway, i will be back online here in a couple of hours with more. enjoy.
03-04-03 (4:50pm) i got some more great photos from the good people at fuchs and kasperek last night in the email. i am not sure where i am going to use them in the site yet, but they were too good to sit on until i found a place to use them permanently. the pictures i am posting on this site today are nowhere near the quality that they sent me in my email. i reduced the size of the photo to a width of 250 pixels (that way they will fit in any future articles i do even on the smallest of monitors and with a left hand coumn eating up space). now for some eye candy.
this picture is of canton mckinley tailback ryan brinson. brinson will be a junior this year and he should be one to keep an eye out for. his moves are best described by a friend of the site, the irish patent attorney, ryan brinson is barry sandersish with the ball in his hands (as opposed to lloyd carr being liberace-ish with the balls in his hands). seriously though, brinson is a blast to watch and i highly recommend seeing mckinley just to see him in action. he is easily the best mckinley tailback since mike doss or demarlo rozier and he has the potential to be probably the second best back in mckinley history behind NFL hall of famer and former cleveland brown marion motley. completely different style of game of course, but equally effective.
the next piece of eye candy is a photo of st. ignatius quarterback brian hoyer. hoyer is a star in both football and baseball for ignatius. in football it was his first year as a starting quarterback last year and he had some struggles early in the year as is expected of any first year starter especially facing the type of competition that ignatius does weekly. as the year progressed though so did brian hoyer in climbing from another talented quarterback to probably the best college quarterback prospect in the state.
his rise was eerily similar to that of dublin coffman quarterback brady quinn in that he came from out of nowhere (unless of course you saw brian show off the gun in the state baseball championships as a sophomore) to make himself one of the most highly sought after quarterbacks in the midwest. it has been reported that coach tressel has already visited the cleveland area in regards to brian and there is mutual interest it seems. right now it is rumored to be a battle between michigan and ohio state for his services mainly with some other schools on the outside looking in.
brian hoyer has a difficult decision in front of him if in fact his two schools being considered are ohio state and michigan. both schools have two seniors on the roster next year in craig krenzel and scott mcmullen for the good guys and john navarre and spencer britton for the bad guys. both schools also have some seriously talented back ups in redshirt freshmen troy smith and justin zwick for the buckeyes and redshirt freshman matt guitierez (sp?) and true freshman clay richards. we all know about zwick and smith so i am not going to regurgitate that same info again here.
as for guitierez, he played for concord de la salle in california, never lost a game in high school, and was considered one of the best 5 qb's in the nation as a high school senior. richards was from somewhere in indiana (can't recall where exactly) and was a top 10 qb in the nation as a high school senior. one thing to watch here is the pro baseball prospects for richards. he is considered to be a top pitching prospects in the nation (as is brian hoyer) and he could spurn the wolverines if a baseball owner was to dangle some big dollars in front of him. if he does take the pro baseball money (and give up football like drew henson did which isn't a requirement by NCAA though it was by steinbrenner), michigan's depth chart is probably slightly more attractive as far as early playing time is concerned. if richards stays on the michigan football team though, that would put two guys ahead of a high school junior like brian hoyer and they wouldn't be in the same class either. that extra year between guitierez and richards could cost a guy like brian hoyer a year as starting qb. at ohio state we have essentially the same situation expect that both smith and zwick are in the same class. sure we have todd boeckmann coming to campus for football next year too, but michigan will be recruiting two qb's next fall as well so that is a push.
speaking of brian hoyer, i recently got my hands on a highlight reel of st ignatius for the 2002 season and i also have complete game tapes (actual coaches film without commercials or anything like that) from their battles with lakewood st. eds, cincy elder, and warren harding. all three of those teams spent time in the usa today top 25 last season so that is some serious competition. i still haven't finished watching the tapes yet, but i have seen the highlight reel and two of the games with one last game to go.
after watching the film i have a better understanding of the ignatius kids. first off, brian hoyer is much more athletic than i previously thought. the only game i saw him before getting my hands on the tapes was the massillon game. that massillon game was early in the season and ignatius had some serious pass protection issues and that may have influenced my assessment of him. hoyer looked really good on the rollout and showed some good mobility on film. probably the most jaw dropping moment from the tape was a pass hoyer threw against st. eds (at least i think it was st eds). hoyer was pressured, rolled right, spotted a receiver come free in the endzone but on the opposite side of the field. brian through the ball across his body like a bullet for the touchdown. there are probably only two quarterbacks in the NFL in the past 10 years with the arm strength to get away with that type of throw (brett favre and john elway [sorry for mentioning his name browns fans]). not saying brian hoyer has the inhuman arm strength that those two NFL hall of famers do, but it is better than maybe every buckeye on the roster right now. i previously have stated that youngstown ursuline's darryl clark had the biggest arm in ohio. i was wrong. while darryl has a huge arm, hoyer puts more zip on the ball.
i also noticed more on st. ignatius product mike massey from the game tapes. i believe i am going to stop listing him as a tight end - defensive end. no way he is going to be a tight end in college. he is just so quick at coming off the corner that his future has to be on defense. he may not be as big as the consensus 235 he is listed as, but he is big enough for a high school junior. he will be a big time player at end and with his brother at michigan, i am concerned here for the buckeyes chances of signing him.
last thing i noticed from the tape that i am going to comment on now is the tight end for ignatius sophomore (junior to be) jim ramella. ramella is raw, but he looks awesome at times. he isn't getting any hype right now from the 'experts', but what the hell do they know anyway. it isn't like guys like duane long or bill kurelic go to any games or anything. ramella may not have any preseason hype going into next year but i will bet he has plenty of hype after a big junior season. he may be the best ignatius tight end since dan o'leary left there to go to notre dame and the NFL.
anyways, i still have some more film to watch from those tapes i got and then i will begin the process of capturing some video for the readers to see for themselves.
that is all i have in for me today. i will try to get online again tonight to check out the scene and either update this page or the recruiting center. enjoy.
03-04-03 (8am) i actually have linkage for the morning. the dayton daily news has a collection of notes. the akron beacon journal has a piece on the NFL dream of donnie nickey. last link for now is from 1460 the fan with a piece on drew carter wide receiver - long jumper.
03-03-03 (6:40pm) i believe i am done with the redesign. i know the main content on the page is a little lower now, but the left column isn't quite as long and i moved more relevant links up into the header. i have some more tweaking to do but it is getting there. if anyone is having any issues with the new version of the page, leave me a note on my message board and i will see what i can do to fix it for you. enjoy.
03-03-03 (2:45pm) a little later than i wanted, but at least i wasn't premature. tripod was having computer issues with the server that i upload to and i was at their mercy this afternoon. basically, i had an update ready to roll, but tripod was having difficulty getting it up this afternoon. it seems i may need some server viagra.
i have yet another recruiting profile posted and i will get to that here a little later this update. for now i wanted to pass along another link. this link is about a poster of the pass interference penalty against miami for sale. it is a nice picture for sure. i don't know how much it costs because i honestly had no interest in purchasing the product, but it is for sale if you are interested. disclaimer time. i have no affiliation with this company at all and i have no idea if they are a reputable business either. buyer beware.
now for a recruiting profile. today i am profiling dayton chaminade-julienne cornerback brandon harrison. i believe i have posted some film on him in the free video archive, but i am not sure either. i do know that that particular game was one of two games i compressed my film with a different video codec and some users have problems with this codec (due to their having an outdated media player, computer, or codecs). i do plan on recompressing the videos at a later date, but it is rather far down my to do list honestly. anyways, here is my profile of brandon harrison. enjoy.
Brandon Harrison
Position: Cornerback
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 175 pounds
40 Time: 4.5 seconds
High School: Dayton Chaminade-Julienne
Notes:
Brandon Harrison was one of the top defensive back prospects in his class that I saw last season. I only had the opportunity to see Brandon play once last season in person, and that game was a blowout against a team at a severe talent disadvantage. I did get the chance to catch him on the tube later in the year as well.
The game I saw him play live was against a team from Canada and Dayton C-J blew them out in the blink of an eye. It wasn't a good opportunity to get a look at a corner honestly. The Canadian team did throw at Harrison a few times, and Brandon was all over the receiver, but he didn't have to be either becuase they weren't close to completing a pass that game. They were a pretty poor team to put it mildly.
Later in the year, I did get a chance to see Dayton C-J play a more talented team on the tube. Harrison wasn't challenged much, but he still looked pretty good in the limited opportunities he had. He plays a tight man coverage with an in your face style. Brandon isn't big enough yet to do that in the Big 10, but he does have another full two years to grow into a dominant cover corner still. As for his coverage technique, he was solid. You could tell he was playing for a quality coach in Coach Place.
Right now Brandon looks like a corner and he plays it pretty well. He may grow into a safety though if he gets a little bigger and thicker which isn't out of the realm of possibility here. I think he would be a great free safety if he does get bigger. He already can cover and tackle, so the increased size could make him a beast at free safety.
Another thing you have to like about Brandon Harrison is his abilities on special teams. I personally love watching the kick coverage units. It gives you a great idea what type of athlete the football player is and what type of football attitude they have. Brandon did a great job of hustling down field and making the play. I saw so many high school kids take off plays on special teams it was disgusting. I didn't see that with Brandon Harrison at all. He also was a well coached special teams player. He didn't just run down field and try to run to the ball. He stayed in his lanes and played within the scheme. One of the better special teams players I saw all last year.
Brandon should be one of the top 10 players in the state of Ohio on all the early junior class lists next year and he could make many top 100 national junior lists as well.
I am very excited to see Brandon Harrison again this coming season. I believe they are coming to Massillon this year and that is looking like a grat opportunity to see them against top competition.
03-03-03 (9am) i can't find crap out there for linkage today, that doesn't mean i don't plan on making up some crap of my own and posting it here today. late this afternoon i plan on posting another recruiting profile, this time on dayton chaminade-julienne standout sophomore (junior to be) cornerback brandon harrison. for this morning though just some brief random thoughts.
i spent a bunch of time working on a redesign of the page yesterday. i still have nothing to show for it, but it only needs a few tweaks and then it should be ready to roll. if i have time i am going to post a link to the new version of the page later this afternoon and ask for feedback on the message board.
for the rest of this morning i am going to talk about the redshirt freshmen on the defensive line that will be getting their first action this spring ball. this group, barring position changes, includes quinn pitcock, joel penton, tim schaeffer, and jay richardson. i have heard rumors of both penton and schaefer maybe getting a look on the offensive line too, but until i see it in spring camp it is just a rumor to me. i am going to treat them like defensive linemen for today's random thoughts.
the last time i had the honor of seeing these four guys suit up in the scarlet and gray and knock some skulls was in fall camp. while none of them looked ready to break into a deep front four that featured household names like darrion scott, will smith, my man KP, tim anderson, and david thompson i was pretty impressed with two of the redshirts from the few snaps i saw in fall ball.
i was particularly impressed with jay richardson and joel penton. richardson wasn't a hyped recruit coming out of high school but he surely played like it the days i was at practice. he was bigger than i expected, faster than i expected, and oozed potential coming off the edge. he looked like he was quick enough to be a force rushing the passer and strong enough to stand up to the run. now with a year under his belt in the system and the strength and conditioning program, i am expecting a pleasant suprise out of jay richardson in spring camp. while he still has talents like will smith, darrion scott (though he could move to DT), and simon fraser firmly entrenched ahead of him, richardson has the type of skills where he could make a push for playing time, especially if mike kudla isn't 100% for spring ball.
coming from van wert ohio, i didn't know what to expect from joel penton. while he had a big senior season and all that, it was at a small school up in NW ohio and the caliber of competition in NW ohio is poor compared to NE, central, and SW ohio (though better than SE ohio for sure). after having seen penton in practice, you could tell why he was dominant against the relatively weak competition in NW ohio. joel penton has star qualities on the defensive line. while nobody is going to confuse pastor penton with the original minister of defense, reggie white, he is still a big time prospect all the same.
penton was much larger than what i expected to see and he still had the speed to play anywhere on the line. rumor is he may be getting a chance at offensive line this year. many position changes like that are because a guy isn't working out at his original position. i don't think this is the case for penton. he seems to have the same type of game as kenny peterson or darrion scott; he could contribute at either defensive end or defensive tackle and should be able to provide quality depth at either position.
quinn pitcock had the most hype coming out of high school. pitcock is a big and fast defensive tackle prospect. maybe it was the hype that led me to think more of him than i should, but i didn't think he was as big as reported. he was also caught underage drinking (not in a car, but in a barn if i recall) before school started and that set him back some in fall camp. he still has lots of potential and he could get some serious minutes this fall with the departure of KP and david thompson at defensive tackle. he will need to step up his game to earn the right to play next to tim anderson in the trenches, but the talent is there for sure.
tim schaeffer is rumored to be another candidate for the the offensive line like joel penton. i am racking the brain here, but honestly i can't think of anything positive or negative concerning schaeffer. i honestly don't remember him much from fall camp. my last memory of him was in high school where as a junior he teamed with simon fraser to win a state championship for upper arlington. hopefully he has that championship touch and wins another ring or 4 with the buckeyes.
anyways, that is all i have on the redshirt defensive linemen for now. i think i am nearly done in my look at all the redshirs. i have previously covered the qb's, wr's, te's, and ol's. we didn't redshirt any of the linebackers. i still need to cover the defensive backs. i know canadian corner michael roberts redshirted and i believe that brandon mitchell did as well (though i am not sure if he got any time on special teams or not off the top of my head). i will cover them here sometime this week i imagine and then i will be ready to start previewing spring practice in great detail. it isn't like there is anything else to talk about out there.
anyways, i will have another update here later this afternoon with yet another recruiting profile. enjoy monday as it drags on and on and on.
03-02-03 (11:45am) man it has been a rough morning for me. fun night, but a rough morning. i got three links to pass along and then i am going to pass back out. in linkage to keep us regular i got a brief recruiting piece from the dayton daily news. it is all about recruiting in the dayton area (from an ohio state perspective and a non-ohio state perspective with dayton area athletes). disturbing news about marcus freeman loving michigan in that article. next up in linkage i got a piece from the cleveland plain dealer with a bit on ioawa coach kirk ferentz thinking the buckeyes will be tough to knock off of the pedestal in 2003. last link for now is a career update on former osu assistant and long time tressel assistant ken conatser. he is semi retired if you don't want to bother reading that article, because honestly that is all there is to it.
anyways, i am going to relax here a little bit before heading to a birthday party for my 7 year old niece. enjoy.
03-01-03 (9:20pm) i have been messing around with the site template today. i am trying to resolve some of the bloat issues with the left hand column. i would like to move the internal links to my recruiting videos and recruiting profiles up into the header of the page and as a result move the top osu links up higher in the left hand column. i have a pretty decent template for this but it looks like crap if you use a small monitor or large text. i like the site looking sharp for all monitor and text sizes, so i threw out that template and decided to drink on it and see if i can't figure out something better sunday.
i was going to do an extended update tonight with another recruiting profile, but i am a little frustrated with computers after crafting that new template and having it not test well. instead i am just going to do some random thoughts on this and that.
in the football news department, it appears the buckeyes have made a scholarship offer to huber heights wayne linebacker marcus freeman. no suprise there considering he is one of the top linebackers in the nation. right now i don't have a list of offers in the recruiting center. i may try to incorporate that sunday as well. i believe that ohio prep scene broke that news, but i wouldn't know since they decided to make it a premium article.
i had high hopes in the short term for ohio prep scene providing some quality free information with cavball9 being associated with the site, but they have gone premium already after existing for something like a month maybe at best. how a site goes premium with maybe 30 visitors is beyond me, but it isn't my moronic business plan so what do i care. i thought these premium sites operated like drug dealers where they would put out some quality free info and then switch to a pay model once they got you hooked. this is a new strategy here. i guess they think they have such outstanding content that people would be willing to pay for it without being addicted to it first. good luck with that.
in other scholarship news, there is still no word if warren harding star tailback delbert ferguson has a scholarship offer yet or not. that doesn't mean he doesn't have one, it means the buckeye fans aren't aware of one. big difference honestly. i have heard some nonsense about it being related to delbert not having top shelf speed. that is a load of crap. delbert isn't a burner like a maurice hall or a robert smith (who a certain 'expert' loves to compare him to), but he is far from slow. i have read reports that he is running a 4.7. i don't take a stop watch to games when i go, but you can't tell me he is slow on a football field. he is a decisive runner that hits the hole quickly and with some thunder. once he gets in the hole, he is a load to bring down. don't take my word on it either, watch some of the free film i have on delbert ferguson (and marcus freeman, and ted ginn jr., and several other top prospects) in the vg recruiting videos section of this site. probably the two best runs i have of delbert are delbert_ferguson7.mpg and delbert_irizarry.mpg. they are must see tv.
while ferguson may or may not have track speed, he sure as hell has plenty of football speed. last time i checked, they removed the track from around the field at ohio stadium and football speed is what we are interested in.
i don't see any chance of us not making a scholarship offer to delbert, there isn't a tailback in his league in the state of ohio. all the other ohio guys are smaller tailbacks that may be better suited to playing safety or corner in college. delbert is a true tailback. i honestly have very little interest in going to see any other tailback in the state of ohio next season unless they want to play D in college. not that they aren't great high school players either, that just isn't enought to get a full ride as a tailback to a football power like ohio state.
this trend of small backs isn't just in ohio this year either. nearly all of the preseason top tailbacks in the class of 2004 are little backs. probably the only other big back in the nation i have heard of is adrian peterson from texas, and he isn't delbert big either.
in looking at the top juniors in the nation i have noticed three trends on the offensive side of the ball. there seem to be more top qb's this year than in the recent past, tailbacks are getting smaller, and receivers are getting bigger. you gotta love the trend of more qb's and bigger receivers, but the tiny tailback trend is something that has got to go. even if these little 5'10" 185 pound guys can run the 40 in 3.9 seconds, i don't want them at tailback. if you can't break a tackle, you don't line up at tailback for me, ohio state, the big10, or the NFL.
final note for the night. i was checking out some of the sites people were using to get to this site, and i noticed a bunch of traffic coming from a premium message board tied to that pathetic excuse for a site from insiders.com about michigan. i can only assume they were coming here to see the videos on prescott burgess and shawn crable. long story short, those videos are permanently deleted and the michigan fans won't be seeing them anymore. in fact, if anyone out there sees a michigan fan site or a (really stupid) corporate site hosting those videos, let me know and i will send them a nasty legal letter after consulting with the irish patent attorney.
otherwise, i have no objections to fans posting my links on their message boards even if it isn't an osu site. it surely isn't premium content so the other sites shouldn't have a problem with that either. i don't even care if the michigan fans come looking for video on guys like marcus freeman or ted ginn (guys they are deluding themselves into thinking they have a chance with; as if any ohio high school kid wants to give lloyd carr the oral commit as opposed to the verbal commit coach tressel is pursuing). of course if one of the guys in my free video archive were to commit to michigan, i will be deleting the file from the server, but i don't expect that to be happening much this year. i see michigan getting shut out in ohio as far as players i am interested in filming anyway.
anyways, that is all i have in me for tonight. i should be back online bright and early in the morning sunday. enjoy the night as it unfolds.
03-01-03 (8:50am) i have one link for the morning. the canton repository has a piece about coach tressel speaking after a cavs game this month. hey, maybe the cavs will sell 8000 tickets this way. it is a sad scene when a high school in the region has higher average attendance than the only NBA team in the state, but that is cleveland cavaliers basketball under the purported leadership of gordon gund and wayne embry.
i often wonder who is the more inept management group in ohio. sure gund and embry are atrocious, but on the other hand there is mike brown disgracing the paul brown legacy by refusing to step down from mismanaging the franchise. i honestly think the bengals are worse here, but it is close too. it's a shame that these organizations aren't ran like businesses. in the real world franchises like the bungles or the cavaliers would simply go out of business. in the pro sports world that isn't the case. taxpayers support them with new facilities and the league supports them by sharing revenue with them in an almost communist fashion. this is best personified in one of the worst managers of all time in art modell who basically ran a proud franchise into the ground, stabbed the fans in the back, raided the taxpayers of football starved baltimore and used that money to buy up a championship team only to see it crumble after winning his trophy finally.
owners like art modell, mike brown, and gordon gund need to be allowed to fail. by supporting these losers, the league is enabling their losers franchises to continue to profit without any intent of competing for a championship.
in other news, i wanted to thank the military readers of this site again for all they do. i got a bunch of email on my support of them, this war, and my hatred of the anti-war protestors (especially the washed up actor types using it to get on the tube again). while i was obviously joking around with the topic, it is something i believe in all the same.
speaking of joking around and supporting the military, i have more of the same for this morning. a good friend of the site in the military sent me an email stressing that nobody should be pro-war, but that war sometimes is necessary and when it is (like it is) we should have rallies in support of the military personnel. i couldn't agree more.
when the inevitable happens and our troops overseas spring into action, everyone in this country should support them, and i imagine they will. i know our government will give them everything they need to do this job and do it right. there is a forgotten group here though and that is the military family that is left behind while the select few save our collective asses. i say we should all support a military family when this happens more than anything else. take a military family out for a good dinner. if you are friends with a military family, perhaps you could offer to babysit the kids for a night or two to give the other parent left behind a night to her(him)self. just try doing something nice for them if you can, it will be greatly appreciated i am sure.
i don't want to get preachy here, i am no ned flanders for sure. i need to turn this into some sort of a joke to keep this site's credibility (or more likely lack thereof). if this topic is too close to you, perhaps you should just stop reading, for the rest of you, a little entertainment.
when i say go out and support a military family, i mean support them emotionally and not sexually. don't take advantage of a lonely military wife or horny husband who is suddenly alone. sure you can take them out to dinner and help out around the house if you like, but don't let the instincts take over and try to close the deal if you know what i mean.
i honestly think anyone banging a military spouse during a time of war like that is guilty of treason and should be hanged for their crimes against this country. i don't care how hot she is or how tight that body is. show a little respect for your country and keep it in your pants.
anyways, that is all i have in me for today. on a serious note, show a little support for the military personnel out there overseas and those left behind defending the household. it is the least we can do for all they do for us. don't buy the hype that some washed up actor is generating in favor of peace (or is it dictatorship?). they just want to be on the tube again and they are using this cause to further their career. the fact that they are willing to help out a madman in his PR campaign in order to resuscitate a sagging career is treason in my mind as well, but that is another topic for another day. enjoy. [editors note: while i do like to joke around i do believe in this stuff too. also i plan on doing a more football oriented update later this afternoon as well.]
|
