ohio state buckeyes football
may 2003 archive

05-31-03 (3:20pm) still no news in buckeye land and i am still in full relaxation mode, celebrating the championship still i guess. college football is still a little far off but we do have some entertainment coming up. saturday june 21st is the ohio north south game held in crew stadium. finally some real football there for the locals living near crew stadium. i always liked this game better when it was up in stark county, but it is still football and it is next for our viewing pleasure. we got about three weeks to go without any football whatsoever and then we catch a break. after that the next football we will see is on july 19th in hershey PA with the big33 game. time for the mandatory big33 fact, there has never been a super bowl played without at least one big33 alum on the sidelines. pretty impressive really.

i am not as excited about the big33 again this year due to a less than spectacular roster. i guess the team is made up of a couple of players from each of the regions in ohio high school football. this does make for a nice geographic representation of ohio but it has very little to do with fielding the best team possible. it is time to shake up that crappy process and get busy with showing PA what football is all about instead of sending out politically correct teams like we are now that are lucky to go 500. screw that, we need to load up the big33 roster to the point where PA has no chance other than to drop us from the game and start playing some weak ass east coast state instead. that is all the football we will see until august pretty much.

in further entertainment, osu camp goes down june 17th through june 26th. lots of prospects should be on campus to be drilled and evaluated by the national champion buckeyes. ideally we should hear about a few scholarship offers and probably a verbal or two around then. otherwise it looks like i will need to be making up some crap on a somewhat regular basis. last year i took off something like two months straight this time of year and i don't want to do it that way this year. i imagine i will be slacking off a bunch these next couple of months but i don't want to miss more than a few days in a row either, that is the goal at least. i imagine i will have to bust out some more pictures and some new film to keep it rolling during this dead period. i still haven't even taken the pics off my still camera from the spring game and used them for the site (and i still have tons of pics from the kick scrimmage too). video projects that will be showing up on the site near term are a few new recruiting highlights from last season. i was doing st ignatius in the film studio lately, but i recently finished off the recruiting compilation video and i have all those files handy and ready to work with. i don't think i have posted anything on mario manningham of warren harding or curtis smith and freddie lennix of cleveland glenville yet. i imagine those three top underclassmen will be tops on that list along with anything i can find on osu verbal sophomore athlete jamario o'neal.

the mansfield game i saw last year was week two (we were rained out week one) was the first football game with the digital camcorder. the film we got from that game sucked but it did teach us about seat selection and some other key tips for the rest of the season. i know i will be seeing mansfield at least once this season and i can't wait to get another chance to film jamario in action. the tygers are a team i am likely to try and see in the playoffs as well this season i imagine. they have tons of speed and skill and they should be able to put up points with most teams on the schedule.

other than all this though there really isn't much to do other than preview the 2003 season and even that titty isn't big enough to milk for the whole summer without going dry. i hope to step it up a notch this summer in going off topic a little bit. with the national championship last year and all the recruiting action i have been rather boring and plain lately. i would like to shake that up a little this summer.

anyways, i actually did get word that the buckeyes have made another scholarship offer to an out of state linebacker. this time the bucks have made the offer to illinois product kyle williams out of bollingbrook. kyle is one of the top linebacker prospects in illinois along with sam carson, chris patterson, and eric andino. there seems to be some interest coming out of illinois this year and it would be nice to pick up a top shelf linebacker like one of these four.

anyways that is all i have for now. i will be back online sometime this weekend. enjoy.
05-29-03 (6:15am) another morning without any links at least not any this early. oh well. yesterday i was talking about scholarship offers and rumors right. anyways, i mentioned that i read somewhere that delbert ferguson had perhaps been offerred by coach tressel but i couldn't remember the source. i remember now that it is tom lemming and honestly he didn't sound too sure about it in his chat. somewhere else on the net i was reading that delbert was offerred by penn state and a few other major teams. still can't find where i originally read that. oh well.

burned myself a pristine copy of the fiesta bowl last night. i had to split it between two dvd discs to get it all to fit at that quality (first three quarters on disc1 and the fourth quarter and both overtimes and some celebration on disc2). i watched the first three quarters last night and was impressed by the quality of the copy. it felt good to be able to back up my dvd's so i don't scratch them up at all. i also burned a copy of the movie 'the usual suspects'. i haven't watched it and keyser soze in action like that in months so that was pretty sweet to pop in as i tried to fall asleep last night. highly recommend that movie to anyone out there big time.

anyways, the dvd burning is going well. my next big dvd project will be to work on putting the michigan game on dvd. that will take way too many hours but i imagine i will only watch that disc another 100 times or so before i die so it is worth the effort. i have another dvd project i am waiting to start, but i don't have the source video at the moment (waiting on the us mail). my only regret about the dvd thing right now is that you need to split football games (and even some movies) into two discs to get it all. this doesn't bother me that much honestly, but i really wish i had a dvd changer like my cd changer. oh well. maybe next time i hit best buy.

well, i need to finish getting ready for work and get busy today. i hope to get back online later today (assuming i can finally think of something to say). enjoy thursday as it happens.
05-28-03 (6:10am) i looked all over the net this morning and i can't find any damn links at all. oh well. the only remotely newsworthy item i found was that perhaps valley view's tailback-fullback brock bolen has received a scholarship offer from the buckeyes. superprep are the people providing that scoop. how a national site would know about osu offers before the regional 'experts' i am not sure. it makes me doubt the offer somewhat. not that bolen isn't a good player (not that i have seen him) but this just seems too quick. it isn't like bolen is out there dominating on the field since the buckeyes last seen his tape, the season is over and camps are just starting to heat up. i could see a guy like bolen earning a scholarship offer at camp, and superprep could be right here but it sounds fishy to me.

speaking of scholarship offers i read a report somewhere that delbert ferguson was offerred by the buckeyes. can't remember the source for the life of me, but i had the same general feeling about this news as i did the bolen news. personally i think delbert is one of the top players in the senior class and i hope like hell he is a buckeye, but it seems that the coaches are waiting on something with delbert. he will either need to show the skills off at camp or get a few games in under his belt at warren harding and get some new film back to columbus. the big problem with ferguson is supposed to be his ball security. from time to time he puts the ball on the ground. i imagine coach mcdaniels at warren harding will have that problem solved within the first few weeks of the high school season.

anyways, that is all i have for now. i will get back online later this evening again. enjoy.
05-27-03 (11:55pm) been away from the computer a bunch lately but i did want to check in real quick like with something in case any fans have missed it. for those out there completely starved for football information the first college football preview magazine is out thanks to the good people at lindy's. me and the cbg each forked over the seven bucks and picked up a copy tonight. craig krenzel is on the cover and it is the big ten preview edition. i am sure there are other regional issues out there so don't get fooled into buying a copy of their SEC preview. i imagine that one would have a big pic of eli manning on the cover with other bits and perhaps pics on the cover about two of these other three SEC qb's in casey clausen of tennecheats, david greene of florida and maybe even the pride of kentucky jared lorenzen now simply known as j-load.

anyways, back to what is in the lindy's that may make it worth picking up. first and foremost canton and osu hottie cheerleader tara gets a full page in the magazine leading off the hot chicks section. for those that didn't watch the halftime of the fiesta bowl, tara is the osu cheerleader that kicked something like a 20 yard field goal for charity and just drilled it. if you missed it, our buckeye friend vladimir gonzalez has posted a clip of it on the net. if you just scroll down the left hand column of this page near the bottom of that column you will find a link to his work and tara's sweet sweet kick.

in other things in the preview mag that may be of interest there are basically two articles with maurice clarett coverage, one all over chris gamble (kind of like he was all over andre johnson in the fiesta bowl), and then a complete preview of every team in the big ten, a breakdown of the conference as a whole about every imagineable way, and then a ton of other crap on top of that. it even has some info on notre dame, pitt, and the entire MAC conference. normally these magazines are a laugh to look back at after the season, but man i will tell you, when you are stuck somewhere with not a damn thing to do but wait for whatever reason there is nothing like whipping out the old college football preview magazine and doing a little research.

me, i have yet to completely rip into the magazine as of now. i basically just scanned over it. i did notice that they had the buckeyes number three in the nation (and michigan was number four). the sooners were number one and miami is slotted second. i imagine this magazine will stir up some thoughts or two and help me get back into my routine. speaking of the old routine, i need to catch some sleep. more bright and early.
05-27-03 (6:10am) what was intended to be a few days off from the site ended up being nearly a week but i am well rested and back now. i gotta go back to work early this morning so i don't have much of an update for now either but i do have one good link for the morning. the dayton daily news has an article on huber heights wayne linebacker marcus freeman. no real news in the article but a few positive osu comments from his coach jay minton. it does sound like he wants to take all 5 official visits before making a decision so we won't be locking him up any time soon.

i have only seen freeman play football once so i don't know too much about him, but i am familiar with his game. if you want to see him for yourself, i have a decent amount of film posted in the archive (linked in the top left corner like always) free for all to enjoy. back to freeman, marcus has good speed for his size and more importantly good football speed. he isn't just fast, he is fast at taking the right angle and fighting through the blocks. in a linebacker that is what speed is really all about and marcus freeman has all kinds of it. he is about six foot two and maybe 225 pounds. i have read reports of him being 6'4" and 240, but he didn't look that big in person when i saw him in september (perhaps it was october, can't remember). whatever size freeman actually is though, he is plenty big enough to play linebacker in college. his body style is probably best suited to be an outside linebacker, but i honestly like him more as an inside linebacker. his speed isn't cie grant blazing for an outside linebacker and he is such a fundamentally sound linebacker that i would throw him in the middle and let him roam sideline to sideline making plays. not saying he couldn't or won't end up playing outside in college, i just think he is a better inside linebacker right now. who knows what type of shape he will be in 2 or 3 years down the road when he is most likely making his impact at ohio state.

anyways, good to be back on the site and i will have another update around dinner time today. enjoy.
05-21-03 (6:30pm) sorry about the lack of updates today. i was away from the house and i imagine more of the same will be going down the next couple of days. i will still try to get back online late in the day if nothing else. i did get something good done though. i finally finished the crappy voiceovers i was doing for the recruiting compilation dvd and i have put it all together and burned a dvd master. it is working really good now. doesn't look professional or anything, but not bad for a first attempt either. i still have about 40 gig or so worth of files to dump off the cbg's hard drive and back into camcorder dv for a master copy in that format.

anyways that is one major project off my plate and on to some other long overdue work. my next video work is going to be some more st ignatius film for sure. i will probably compress off another hour of raw tape and then cap as many highlights as i can from the film. that shouldn't take too long at all though (couple of hours max if i want to enjoy the session). i am hoping to get lots of video work done before tuesday gets here and the holiday is over. i guess i could recompress the canton mckinley and dayton chaminade footage. speaking of that topic, a little belated set up. the reason i need to redo the recruiting highlights from these two games is because they don't work for a very small percentage of the readers out there. if you are one of these guys having issues with any of my film and you have problems for more than just these two schools, let me know and i will look into the problem, just include as much detail as you can in any email. that is another quick task. who knows maybe our buckeye friend vladimir gonzalez will get a little time in the studio for once. probably the next massive project i undertake is putting the entire 2002 season on dvd. i would love to bang out one game a week if i could, that may even time out nicely for the start of football this year now that i think of it.

there were some links out there, but honestly nothing that is breaking news either. the only news like item i saw was about raymont harris being inducted in to a bowl game hall of fame. i vividly remember raymont racking up the yardage that game, but certain bowl game hall of fames just don't interest me (especially with the NFL hall of fame there on 77). probably the only article out there that is fresh and must read material is from the good people at the bsb with another free article on tressel and drushawn humphrey. total class act by coach tressel to give the school an osu jersey with drushawn's name and number on it as well as a national championship ring to his mother.

very athletic director of coach T to get specific NCAA approval before giving a gift to a former recruits mother like that. i just don't see tressel ever getting tripped up by any of these NCAA problems. i am sure it is inevitable to get caught in something tick tack from a procedural point or by a loose cannon booster, but i don't see any systemic cheating ever going on under tressel like is expected and virtually encouraged by the NCAA by their lack of serious penalties.

anyways, that is all i have for now. i am heading over to my brother's house tonight and i won't be near a computer probably until the morning. enjoy what little is left of hump day by doing some of your own if you can.
05-20-03 (2:45pm) one more good link for now. the bsb has a transcript of a pay chat they did with ted ginn jr and sr posted for free. nice chat and some good info in there for sure. not much of an update otherwise right now. i am going to work on the header and left hand column of the page a little bit and get ready for high school and college football to kick off and give me something to do. more later.
05-20-03 (10:40am) first some big news and then a suprising amount of linkage today.

in the big news department the buckeyes have a new verbal it appears and that is sirjo welch a db out of columbus beechcroft. i gotta admit this is totally off the wall for me. nothing at all against welch since i have never seen him play football (i plan on adding their schedule to the tracker soon to see how he may fit in for the 2003 season). in fact he sounds pretty good with six foot buck eighty five size to go with 4.45 to 4.5 speed. here is a brief write up on him on 1460 the fan. you gotta like the description of welch as a human topedo flying to the ball. you can never have enough antoine winfield types.

this does bring up an interesting question in recruiting. with welch today and shaun lane already having decided to become buckyes, how many defensive back type scholarships are left this year? i know coach tressel has broken defensive back and receiver into a speed category and maybe some of these guys will move around. i agree, but then you need to throw miles williams into the mix as a buckeye commit too. then guys like fred davis and ted ginn jr are out there humoring the other schools at best and we are beginning to look full. then there are guys like west virginia's brandon barrett, PA's devon lyons, and the cali kids in rob estes and terrail lambert. the buckeyes have decent odds on all these national talents as well it seems. who knows, perhaps this is a once in a lifetime collection of defensive back types in an area and a nation and tressel and dantonio want to stock up. i am not sure how ohio guys like brandon underwood or brandon wamsley or any of those db's from trotwood madison fit into the equation now. there is just so much national interest in the bucks that i think they may be some quality players left out in the cold due to the numbers crunch.

in linkage i have a bunch today. here is a piece from the DDN on kirk herbstreit. the DDN also has a quick blurb on mike nugent. the canton repository has an article on the passing of Nick Roman. a chicago newspaper has a piece from mediocre recruiting expert chris pool with his top 30 players in illinois and top 20 players in the midwest lists. in further linkage, espn has a piece on the big10 post spring ball. final link for now is to a picture of the newest member of the buckeye family sirjo welch with the basketball team, he is number 24.

i need to get a few things done today and then i hope to be back online a little later today. enjoy.
05-19-03 (4:40pm) i just wanted to post a link to the first version of my 2003 ohio high school football tracker. it has all the schedules of the top players in the state (well not yet, it is still a work in progress with only 14 schools listed for now). i also plan on posting updates on how the players progress over this coming season in addition to links to newspaper articles on the prospects after each game. i am also going to add some preseason comments on the players that i have seen. anyways, i am going offline for now. more later or if not tuesday. enjoy.
05-19-03 (1:55pm) day one of vacation is going really well. i got up when i damn well felt like it today and have done what i wanted to all day so far. anyways, the belly is full right now and i am ready to get on the webpage a little today.

there aren't many links out there right now, but it is the dead period and something is better than nothing i guess. in linkage the mansfield news has a piece on coach dantonio. the name dantonio always makes me think of former hoops player don jantonio. jantonio wasn't great or anything but he hustled and was a true buckeye in some pretty lean times. i have nothing but good memories about jantonio. now dantonio comes along and we win a national championship and play some pretty good defense. this spring the buckeyes now have santonio holmes stepping up at wide out and then this antonio theme steps it up a notch with the verbal from akron buchtel's running back antonio pittman. i haven't seen antonio pittman play yet, but i figure if this antonio thing keeps going so well regardless of the letter in front of antonio, pure antonio must be pretty damn good.

i have been working on the high school master schedule and i hope to have something to post here before i eat dinner today. i should be seeing pittman play at least once, and maybe twice this season so i should have more to go on than the first name alone (other than the offer of a ship by tressel of course). speaking of verbals, pittman will be easy to see and get film on like i said, well shaun lane is going to be a difficult one this year (like todd boeckman and david patterson last year). right now i don't have any good weekends to see lane and hubbard play. i am hoping on a playoff miracle match up, but we'll see.

ben person will be another interesting player in terms of getting film on. typically a far drive to see an offensive lineman in action isn't too high up on my weekend wish list. however in person's case i may still be there. they play huber heights wayne and marcus freeman once this year and that sounds worth the trip. throw in the junior to be tailback at xenia in cedric tolbert and i think that will be a tough one to turn down. i can't remember who else is on that weekend, but that is looking like a winner right now.

in other verbals, miles williams and austintown fitch will be easy to see. i can't remember the exact games off the top of my head but they play twice in my area against some decent competition. likewise, carrollton's chad hoobler is really close to me (within a half an hour about) and despite the level of competition, i will make it a point to see a guy like hoobler in action for the first time.

Cleveland Glenville standout Ted Ginn Jr. other likely verbals are all looking pretty good for film opportunities. ignatius is looking like a go for the first saturday up in cleveland (the weekend before the buckeyes open up with washington). ignatius hosts westerville (north i think). that will get me more film on seniors brian hoyer and mike massey and junior jim ramella in addition to what i shot last year and have posted from the coaches film. i shot film on glenville and ted ginn jr last year but i will be seeing them for sure since they are coming to my area and playing at massillon perry early in the season. i am actually expecting big things from ted ginn jr at qb this year (unless they go with two qb's again to break in a new guy). ginn is fast as hell and should be able to make lots of big plays for the tarblooders. he definitely gives me some good film. another likely buckeye is fred davis out of toledo rogers. they don't play anyone really interesting to me but davis is probably one of the top 4 players in ohio if not the top player in ohio. i didn't get to see him last year and i am seeing him and getting down with doctor doug and the cbg in toledo for a weekend for sure. i already have film on youngstown ursuline's brandon braxton but i would like to see him again this year. i know i can see them in the playoffs for sure but the regular season may be difficult. we'll see there. weather has a way of wrecking all these plans it seems. in other likely future buckeyes, canton mckinley and ryan brinson are a great team to watch in a great stadium. they host ignatius this year but it is saturday and the buckeyes aren't off that weekend. still though, they are so close i know i will see the bulldogs and brinson in action at least once this year. warren harding has tons of talent in senior to be delbert ferguson, along with top underclassmen like juniors mario manningham and rocco cironi and sophomore tony reed. they are coming to stark county and that game against massillon washington on october 17th is going to be tough to miss for sure. one buckeye verbal i forgot about is jamario o'neal at mansfield senior high. i saw mansfield last year (my first non rained out game with the camcorder and my footage sucks). i want another shot at filming o'neal for sure this season as well as fellow junior to be brett donaldson. nobody on the tygers schedule is really a great game other than massillon washington and that may be a good choice, but i am going to see massillon at least 4 or 5 games this year it looks like so i may mix it up here and see the tygers against someone else. they are a likely playoff team to see too. speaking of massillon washington though and their schedule, they are hosting top dayton team dayton chaminade-julienne along with anthony turner, brandon harrison, and javon ringer. that is a really good team that is really far from me coming to my back yard and a tough game to pass up for sure. man, i need to start to finalizing this schedule and get busy posting it.

anyways, like i was saying, i only saw two links and as always, i led strong. this second article is nothing but a brief blurb on offensive coordinator jim bollman speaking up in canton at a $25 buffet. it wouldn't be a bad thing to see for me and the cbg but i don't see us going to this.

lately all i have been working on is the dvd projects. so far so good. sometime this week i imagine i will start posting some more cleveland st ignatius film on the net. the dvd process is really slow and boring but the footage i am getting with the digital camcorder is looking really sharp on dvd. i haven't tried from the vcr to dvd yet (think michigan game here as soon as i get my skills in order). so far this is looking pretty promising.

anyways, i am going to go grab myself a beverage and continue to enjoy the vacation. i will have another post here today for sure.
05-18-03 (1:40pm) another late day and weak effort update for now. i had planned on busting out my first incarnation of the 2003 high school football tracker but it didn't test out that well when i tested in on tiny monitors so it is back to the drawing board for that project. i still have months to iron out all the wrinkles, but i would like to get this done and set up.

other than that project for the site i am planning on spending most of the next week playing with the cbg's new dvd burner in the studio. i made up a 10 minute dvd this morning of highlights of delbert ferguson, ted ginn jr, and ryan brinson with chapters and a scene selection menu and all that crap and it actually worked. i was pretty pleased to say the least. now i just need to finish off the rest of my high school highlights and package it off for good before is start getting more film here in august with the dawn of the 2003 season. once i get this little project done and out of the way i am going to start putting the entire osu season on dvd for archival purposes. that will probably take months i imagine, but i want to get at least michigan and the fiesta bowl on dvd by the end of my vacation.

i do have one link for now. the bsb has a look back at eddie george winning the heisman trophy award in 1995. man reruns never read so good. excellent work by the best print publication on the buckeye football team.

as for me, i need to grab a late lunch (thinking hard about the taco bell right now) and then i am getting back into the studio. i know most of my studio work that i am doing this next week will never be able to be on this site (too large of files for the net), i am going to get some more st ignatius film posted this coming week for sure. enjoy what little is left of the weekend, i have been and then some.
05-17-03 (11:40am) i know my vacation (from work, not the site) doesn't start until monday morning, but it sure feels like vacation today. the vg went out and got his drink on after work last night with the cbg and some friends. it was a good night for sure. the only bad thing was that i had a flat tire when i woke up this morning. not sure how that went down. it wasn't completely flat either, maybe it is just a slow leak. who knows.

i still have a new webpage to bust out with the high school schedules and such but i want to add a little more to it before busting it out this weekend. for now i just have two links with the big news. 1460 the fan broke the news yesterday on the radio that carrollton senior tight end - linebacker chad hoobler has decided to become a buckeye. here is the link to the 1460 report and here is a piece from the canton repository on the same topic.
i have never had the opportunity to see hoobler play football in person, so unlike some experts i am not going to comment on his game much other than to say welcome to the family. i will be seeing carrollton play football at least once this season though and i will of course be posting some free film on the site for all to enjoy.

anyways, i am going to continue enjoying day one of ten days off in a row (this weekend, all next work week, next weekend, and the holiday monday are off for the vg before returning to work tuesday). i will be online more than usual these next ten days or so and with any luck i will be able to whip out a few decent football updates. this latest project (a page to track down the schedules of all the top recruits in ohio game by game) has been taking more time than i thought it would, but it should be pretty nice for this coming football season. i also plan on definitely whipping out some more film from the cleveland st ignatius coaches film that i have. that should be coming this next week. my biggest project for this week off is going to be to work on putting the 2002 osu season on dvd. i estimate that it will take at least a few hundred hours of work, but fortunately most of that work doesn't require my attention, once i set the computer up, it should pretty much do the deed for me while i get some shut eye or whatnot. anyways, i am off to enjoy vacation. i am going to try and get back online here later today but i can't make any promises. enjoy, i sure am.
05-16-03 (5:50am) sorry about the total lack of updates yesterday. i was having computer issues yesterday morning and unable to log on to the net before work. after work i ended up going out with the cbg and seeing the new matrix movie. i could do an update on that, but it would have little to do with ohio state other than the fact that keanu reeves has played two quarterbacks from ohio state in two different movies. oh well. i wish i had something to talk about this morning, but there aren't any links out there that i can find and i need to hustle this morning to get ready for work (friday and no weekend work for me). i will be online after work tonight and i will be starting to take a look at the high school schedule and posting them on a page for this website. it looks like i will be able to minimize my travel yet still see most of the talent i want to see. one player that is going to be next to impossible to see it seems is hubbard's shaun lane. i hate not seeing a buckeye verbal like that but they don't play anyone interesting and they don't come to my area. perhaps one of the open weekends i schedule will work out for me to see lane, but it isn't looking good. anyways, it is shower time for me and then a mere eight hours of work before a couple of days of shore leave. more tonight for sure. enjoy friday.
mansfield senior standout junior to be jamario o'neal. jamario is already a verbal to coach tressel. 05-14-03 (5:35pm) just one more link and then some random thoughts about that guy in the picture over there on the right. in linkage, here is the playboy pre season all american team. will smith and chris gamble were both named playboy all american for this coming season and i am sure they had a good time at the playboy mansion for the photo shoot.

i was reading some email and some other commentary about the pictured jamario o'neal. for those unfamiliar with o'neal, here is a quick refresher course. jamario is a sophomore (junior to be) star for the mansfield tygers. he plays some wideout and a little tailback on offense and he played both safety and corner last year. the big news here is that this top underclassman is already a verbal commit of the buckeyes despite having two more years of high school. the other big news is the talent. jamario is big, fast, and has some serious football skills. he isn't just an athlete dominating lesser talents in high school, he is a dominant football player that is athletic as hell.

anyways most of the recent talk about o'neal involves him playing safety at ohio state. while he has all the size and speed you would want in a safety, i am not so sure about that. jamario has all the tools to be an outstanding safety, but man you need to see him play offense before you pigeon hole him on defense. he has the uncanny ability to always find the crease in the defense and cut up that crease without losing any speed on the cut. i like jamario as a wide out - tailback like a rocket ismail type of talent but only with more size. i definitely like him as a return man too. i know all the 'experts' like o'neal as a safety right now. i guess that is one of the things that separates me from the 'experts', i don't pretend to be psychic about football (if i was i would be living in vegas and i sure as hell wouldn't have a 1-900 number giving up my picks for petty cash) and i have actually seen these guys play football in person. you just can't watch a mansfield senior game and not think about using jamario on offense. not saying that he won't end up on defense or that he may be better suited for D, but let the kid develop and see where he ends up. right now i would put him equal to former cleveland glenville standout and soon to be buckeye dareus hiley regardless of the age difference. most of the experts seem to like hiley on defense too, but we will see who gets lucky with the guess. i personally think hiley and o'neal both end up returning kicks and playing wide out at ohio state (though jamario could bulk up and play tailback too).

anyways, that is all i have right now. i am going to try and do some video capture work tonight if the cbg isn't using the computer. more in the morning.
05-14-03 (6:15am) i am running really late today so this is going to be short and sweet with just two links. the akron beacon journal has a piece on osu and the heisman and an article on coach tressel. gotta go, more later today.
05-13-03 (4:45pm) not much going on in the buckeye nation today, but remember this time of year no news is good news. i can't remember the last time we had a player get arrested or in the slightest bit o trouble. i am sure that comment will inspire a michigan fan reader or two of the site to give me the detailed list of incidents that have conveniently slipped my mind. hey, at least we haven't been involved in a money laundering scandal for over a half million dollars like certain schools up north.

i still haven't video captured any more film from the coaches film from cleveland st ignatius. i hope to get started with that tonight, but honestly i am already feeling really tired today and i can see me crashing early tonight and leaving the cbg (and his recording studio computer that i use to do all the video work) alone.

since i don't have much to talk about now (and more importantly i am still sifting through the master high school schedule while making a web page for the upcoming high school season), i am just going to do my best led zeppelin imitation and just ramble on.

speaking of the master schedule, i have started to make some plans. week one for the high school season starts august 22nd. since the buckeyes aren't playing that weekend, me and the cbg are going to try and hit a game friday night and saturday. friday the 22nd of august there are two really good games we would like to see. down in southwest ohio clayton northmont hooks up with dayton chaminade-julienne in an epic matchup. if i lived in that part of the state i would be there for sure, but since i don't and i already have film on dayton c-j (and i am not sold on the hype that there is so much talent at northmont that one is bound to end up at osu) i am going to pass on that game and see a top flight recruit and verbal commit in my area instead. that friday massillon washington hooks up with akron buchtel. buchtel features osu verbal tailback antonio pittman. running backs always make for good highlight film and i have never seen pittman play before so that should be a fun game with minimal travel. i believe that youngstown ursuline is hosting lakewood st eds that friday too (though i don't have the sked on me to be sure) and that should be a great game. fortunately i can still see both of those teams later in the season with much less travel than heading up to y-town.

on saturday there are no real good matchups that i see but one game i am eyeballing pretty hard right now. cleveland st ignatius is hosting westerville north that saturday and that sounds like a good chance to see brian hoyer and mike massey and jim ramella make their season debut on their march to the state playoffs. i was really planning on seeing ignatius on september 20th in fawcett stadium against the canton mckinley bulldogs but i realized that it was a saturday game and i figure that i may just be watching the buckeyes that day so i am going to use this first week to make sure i see ignatius at least once this season.

week two is pretty much set in stone for me. it is also another trip to massillon in week two though this time it is massillon perry instead of massillon washington. perry is hosting the talent laden cleveland glenville team that weekend and you gotta love it when a team like glenville comes to the area and saves me one more trip to cleveland.

while i have most of the relevant high school teams schedules listed in my database now, i still need to add a few schools before setting these plans in concrete. when i do get all the high school schedules in ohio done i will of course be posting a link to it on this page.

week three is still an open week for me. i can't wait to get up to toledo to one see our good friend doctor doug and party down in toledo and two see wr supreme fred davis. fred davis is the number one recruit in the state i have yet to see. i am going to try to hit a toledo rogers game as soon as possible in the season. that way if it gets rained out or he is held out with a minor injury (not that he is injured or anything now that i know of) i can reschedule him for later in the season.

the second best senior prospect in the state that i have yet to see is carrollton's chad hoobler. hoobler and carrollton are probably 30 miles from my house so that should be an easy game to see. unfortunately carrollton plays pretty weak competition. they only play two schools i would be interested in seeing and there are huge games in stark county both of those weekends so it looks like i am going to see hoobler play some less than top shelf talent. oh well.

anyways that is what i have been thinking about most lately. i can't wait to get out and see some actual football again this fall. if anyone out there wants to do what i do and video tape some football and post your highlights on the net free for all to enjoy, let me know and i will provide all the technical support and what not that i can. let me know and i can even keep an eye out for good talent in your area.

anyways, i need to log off this damn net and get some crap done before i have to make the plastic again in the morning. if i got the energy i am going to work on some special projects for the website and i may even post late night tonight. right now though all i can think about is stretching out on the couch with an ice cold beverage and unwinding from what has been a hectic week so far. enjoy crappy tv tuesday as it happens tonight.
05-13-03 (6:05am) just one link real quick like before i scramble to get ready for work. the dayton daily news has an article on several topics this morning. nothing new, but at least they are trying. the piece touches on tressel and his cornrows, the vegas odds on the bucks repeating, maurice clarett and his insurance policy, tyson walter and lecharles bentley, and walk on kicker from st eds brian pierce. like i said, nothing new here but it is buckeye reading material and this time of year anything in print is gold to me.

i was hoping to get some more video capped and ready to post last night but i wasn't able to get with the cbg to get it done. there is a chance that i get it done tonight, but honestly that is sounding pretty remote right now with my schedule. i will try and get it done some time this week though for sure and get back to posting eye candy to help ease us through this dead period.

anyways, i am running a little late today and i need to gas up the car. more later.
05-12-03 (5pm) it doesn't look like i am going to get into the studio tonight to compress more any time soon. i may still get it done tonight but it is going to be late if at all. who knows maybe i will have a suprise for everyone late this evening. i do have some links though. the sporting news has a piece on maurice clarett taking out insurance in case he gets a career ending injury in college. this is the same deal as willis mcgahee. the ncaa fronts you the money for the insurance policy and then the athlete buys the insurance. the athlete then repays the ncaa either out of his NFL contract or out of the proceeds of the insurance settlement in case of injury. completely legit and one of the few pro athlete rules the ncaa has on the books. in further linkage, the mansfield news basically has a retraction of a mistatement from an article that sounded like the buckeyes made a recruiting violation. long story short, we didn't do anything wrong, the author of the article did and instead of saying he just made a mistake, he clarified the situation and milked another article out of it. weak. this link is to a picture of cie grant in his saints uniform. he is looking pretty sweet in the saints uni. on the other hand, here is a link to an article on the chargers with some info on matt wilhelm and a pic of him in his chargers uniform. something about wilhelm in blue doesn't seem right to me.

anyways, i am going to get some dinner here and get busy tonight on some stuff. i may still get some video work done and have a suprise late night update before i head to bed but i wouldn't hold my breath on that either. enjoy the fear factor championship tonight, i sure will.
05-12-03 (6:05am) believe it or not i actually got one link today and even more remarkable is the quality of the article. the akron beacon journal has a piece on the 2003 secondary. the article said things are looking pretty set in the secondary with gamble and fox at corner along with will allen at one safety position. the other safety position is right now between nate salley and tyler everett and perhaps donte whitner too. all three of those guys are top notch athletes and whoever is the best of those three will be pretty good so i am not too worried here. there was also some talk about whitner making a move for the nickel position in the article. i can definitely see that going down. it is the perfect way to get one of the crown jewels of the recruiting class on the field and into the mix right away without throwing too much at him all at once.

here is another link form the weekend that i missed. it is the first top100 list for recruits i have seen. i cross checked the list with my recruiting database and i have all 100 names in my database already. i did update the database some more this weekend. probably added about 30 more names and then spruced up the place a little bit too. it is linked in the top left hand corner of the page like always if you want to check out my progress.

anyways, that is all i have right now. i am going to get in the studio tonight and try and get some more st ignatius video clips ready to post tonight. ideally i get all this done, but honestly often i plan out more than i get done. anyways, my after work update will probably be a late update as a result. now you know, and as g.i. joe used to say, knowing is half the battle. more much later in the day. enjoy.
05-11-03 (10:55pm) i am posting a little later than i wanted to today but i am finally back online. i don't have much to share tonight other than a link to the ever expanding cleveland st ignatius film archive. i posted four more videos tonight. one is a short reception by mike massey from brian hoyer. two of the highlights are simple completions in the middle part of the field on passes thrown by brian hoyer. the fourth highlight is a touchdown catch by dan kralik thrown by brian hoyer. some fans have been (rightfully) impressed with dan kralik and have asked about where he ended up going to college. i honestly have no clue but he is going to help someone out big time with his type of hustle and hands.

anyways i am out of video captured st ignatius highlights and i didn't get and get any studio time with the cbg. the cbg bought a new toy for his studio computer again this weekend and was playing with that when we were together. we did squeeze in some quality time on the new xbox castle wolfenstein game on a positive note. for those unfamiliar with wolfenstein, it was the game that led to the creation of doom and all the other knock off first person shooter games out there. the xbox version is pretty sweet i gotta say (though the default controller configuration isn't like our favorite game james bond deathmatch). i am planning on getting with the cbg after work monday though to take off another hour of film off my camcorder and put it into his computer and do some magic with it to get it ready for the net. ideally i will have video updates everyday again this next week. i know this is the dead period and i am going to do what i can to at least provide some eye candy to help entertain us. anyways, i need to finish up some laundry and get ready for another week of work. enjoy
05-11-03 (10am) it has been a really good weekend for the vg so far and with any luck that will continue through the rest of today. this update is going to be brief but i will get back online later tonight with some more info. for now though all i have is two links to get your buckeye fix from. the canton repository has a piece on coach tressel and the quarterbacks while 1460 the fan has a piece on craig krenzel.

i will get back online a little later today with another update of the cleveland st ignatius film archive. enjoy.
05-10-03 (8:45pm) just one lousy link today and then a link to the ever expanding cleveland st ignatius film archive before i go about enjoying saturday. in linkage, the warren tribune chronicle has a piece on coach tressel appearing at the NYSE friday. nothing special, but hey it is the dead period afterall.

in the eye candy department i have three more videos posted in the cleveland st ignatius film archive. tonight the three clips are of brian hoyer attacking the middle area of the field. nothing fancy here just some reading the coverage and taking what the defense has given the offense. right now i only have four more clips from the iggy tapes compressed and ready to post. all four of those will be getting posted sometime sunday afternoon. ideally i will capture and compress another 20 or 30 clips in the cbg's studio sometime sunday afternoon so i can continue posting fresh video every day next week. we did make another trip up to best buy this weekend so i know the cbg will be playing with the new toys some. still though i imagine i should have the time to keep this video thing rolling for at least another week.

enjoy what is left of the weekend if at all possible.
05-09-03 (7:10pm) man i am tired today. it has been a long week but that is in the past and i am ready to do the weekend thing for a few days.

i got to see coach tressel bang the gavel and close the NYSE today on the closing bell on cnbc. he didn't speak or anything but it was still pretty sweet to see him get his due recognition. sorry i didn't tape it so my friend vladimir gonzalez could vidcap it and post it on the net. oh well.

i posted three more clips from the st ignatius film on the net tonight. all three are passes by brian hoyer. two of them feature catches by incoming osu freshman tony gonzalez. as always the new video clips are the last three in the archive. two of the throws are laser beams thrown by hoyer. the third throw hoyer does his justin zwick imitation and throws off the back (as in the wrong) foot. he still has the arm to get away with it in high school but i am sure it is something chuck kyle will be working on. just getting by isn't the ignatius way after all. hoyer was facing a blitz and that is probably the reason why he did it, though the blitz was picked up rather well by the blocking back. maybe he didn't expect the blitz to be picked up so effectively. who knows. while justin zwick still throws off the wrong foot often (though i have yet to break down the spring game snaps by the two qb's) this is the first time i saw brian hoyer do it in game action on my tapes. he is fundamentally sound in his mechanics in my non professional opinion.

i still haven't heard of a scholarship offer by the bucks for brian hoyer but i expect one at or shortly after osu camp. if he progresses as much this summer as he did from the first time i saw him against massillon last year to the rest of the season that i have now seen on tape, i think an offer will be a no brainer. hoyer struggled against massillon some but he showed lots of potential. massillon was like his third or fourth start ever (if i recall correctly) and it is one of the most hostile environments and defenses in ohio high school football. the more tape i watch (and rewatch as i vidcap it) the more impressed i am as he gained experience. he still has lots of work to do to get to the next level, but all the tools are there and you can't question the coaching up at ignatius.

i have even read some speculation that hoyer may get an invite to the elite 11 camp in california after his performance at the nike camp up in ann arbor. if he repeats that type of performance at the osu camp i am sure a scholrship will follow shortly. the elite 11 would be nice, but honestly it is just gravy. sure it is nice to get the recognition, but the scholarship and the opportunity of a lifetime is what it is all about for a high profile high school qb.

i still have a few videos from the ignatius tapes vid capped and ready to post this weekend. i will definitely be posting fresh video saturday and sunday. ideally i will get some more time in the studio with the cbg this weekend and keep posting fresh highlights every day next week too. with football news not going down right now (and remember no news is good news this time of year) i figure it is the least i could do to post some eye candy to help us all through this dead period. if i do run out of film from the iggy tapes or room for highlights in the imagestation account (much more likely), i will start posting more clips from the film i shot myself last year in my free recruiting video archive.

anyways i am going to start the weekend out strong. no more updates tonight and i sure as hell won't be posting before the sun rises like i usually do in the morning. enjoy the weekend, i am about to in style. i suggest you all do the same.
05-09-03 (6am) just one link i can find early this morning. the dayton daily news has some random thoughts on the buckeyes. the article covers coach tressel making appearances at the stock exchange today (which you can probably see on the show the closing bell on cnbc at 4pm), the cubs game on the fourth of july weekend, and in the hula bowl in january among other things. nothing new in the article but at least the dayton daily news is trying to provide a little info for us buckeye addicts out there unlike the rest of the newspapers lately.

as for me, i need to get ready for work and then the weekend. this is the first weekend in a long time where i haven't had any plans work wise or social wise. i imagine i will get some video work done on my recruiting compilation video and perhaps bust out a master high school schedule for the website. before i start to enjoy the weekend tonight, i will post some more video from my cleveland st ignatius tapes too if you have been enjoying that. anyways, off to the showers. enjoy friday as it happens.
05-08-03 (6:45pm) sorry about the lack of updates today. i was running late for work this morning and just couldn't get online this morning. i did post three more links in the cleveland st ignatius library though, check it out i think you will like it. the first of three new clips is brian hoyer hooking up for a long touchdown. the other two clips are brian hoyer passes displaying some of the arm strength.

in linkage, the official website has a quick piece on coach tressel ringing the bell at the stock exchange tomorrow and will sing during the seventh inning stretch at a cubs game this year. nice perks for a 5 time national champion coach. last link for now is from the o-zone with part one on a piece all about recruiting. good work from a great site.

i have broken down most of the high school schedule trying to make plans for this season. everything is looking pretty good so far but a few teams will be tough to see. shaun lane and hubbard are going to be really rough for me. there are no good weekends for me to see them, especially against anyone i want to see. the same thing goes for chad hoobler at carrollton. hoobler has two games on his schedule that interest me, but they are both weekends with much much better games in my area. still though, unlike hubbard and shaun lane, carrollton and hoobler are within 25 miles from my house, i am sure i will be able to squeeze them in some weekend. in other schedule news, fred davis and rogers high don't leave NW ohio but he sounds like it is worth the long drive to see him. i will find a way to see fred davis, unfortunately they don't play anyone i want to see though. one interesting game that i would like to see is xenia and buckeye verbal ben person (as well as top underclassman cedric tolbert) playing huber heights wayne and marcus freeman. xenia is really far for me to drive but this one may be too hard to pass up honestly.

anyways, that is all i have for right now. i am going to break down the high school schedule some more tonight and try to get started on something i can post on the net for everyone else to use too. enjoy
05-07-03 (6:55pm) i actually found two links in the newspapers today, but honestly neither are worth reading or linking. 1460 the fan and the columbus dispatch whipped out a two or three sentence article on tressel coaching the hula bowl. the mansfield news has a short paragraph that basically says jamario o'neal is really fast. like i said, hardly worth the effort to link or read.

i did post three more st ignatius film clips tonight. they are the last three clips in the archive as always. the first new clip tonight is brian hoyer and jim ramella hooking up for a big gain through the air. the other two clips are brian hoyer hitting receivers downfield and showing off the arm strength. considering they are free and all they are probably worth the download.

one item actually worth linking right now. it will probably disappear too so get it while you can. this is a post on the o-zone message board from zeke about a conversation with tight ends coach - recruiting coordinator bill conley. some pretty good info here and i believe it. before switching jobs i used to lurk on the ozone message board nonstop and post occasionally, you can trust zeke on this one.

in other news, one of the video clips i posted last night of jim ramella doing his mark bavarro imitation had an undetermined qb. well one of my friends associated with the ignatius program passed on that info. the qb in that clip is kevin byrne. now you know, and according to g.i. joe, knowing is half the battle.

final comment for tonight before i log off the net is about the tressel regime. i got this via email from a quite credible source so i believe it, but it is the first i heard how it went down. during our spring game michigan had a nike camp on campus that drew tons of top recruits to michigan and away from the ohio state spring game. well coach tressel did what he could do to neutralize that and here is what he did. osu had announced in the recent past that they were starting up a hall of fame for ohio high school football coaches. they had the dedication for that hall of fame the friday before the spring game and over 1200 high school coaches from around the state showed up and they got much more than a hall of fame opening. tressel and staff gave all the coaches a one day intensive coaching clinic and used the osu team and practice to demonstrate some of the techniques. for those who haven't noticed coach tressel is always working the angle of getting in good with the high school coaches and this was pure class this move. it is this type of action that helps, as mr pink floyd once sang, build the wall (around ohio for football recruits).

anyways, enjoy the videos and get ready to watch more of them thursday. i still have lots more to post. tonight i am going to continue breaking down the master schedule for high school football this year and make my travel plans. more in the morning (assuming this server doesn't suck as much as it has this whole week). enjoy.
05-07-03 (5:55am) no links out there this morning as of this time. oh well. i guess they didn't see the news about john kerr becoming a buckeye. the cleveland st ignatius product has decided to forego scholarship opportunities at other schools to walk on and try and win a job as a buckeye. kerr had well over a hundred tackles as a true freshman starter for indiana last year. he will have to sit out the 2003 season like air force tranfer anthony schlegel however due to big10 rules, kerr may never receive a scholarship from the buckeyes (unlike schlegel) since he has transferred from one big10 team to another.

speaking of st ignatius, i hope everyone has been enjoying the st ignatius film i have been posting this week. i will have more every evening every night this week and possibly for quite some time assuming i get back in the studio before i run out of these 22 clips i made this past weekend.

anyways, i will have another video update after work tonight as well as some links hopefully. enjoy.
05-06-03 (5:15pm) the deed is done. another work day has come and gone and i have posted three more short highlight clips from my cleveland st ignatius film. that link will take you to the film archive. instead of giving my standard you gotta sign up and register for a free membership with sony imagestation to get in, i am going to disclaim the film today. i didn't shoot this film and it isn't my property. i am doing this as a favor for a friend and a reader of the site so other buckeyes around the world can see some of the iggy stars in action. this is actual coaches film shot from the coaches box up high on the sideline. being coaches film they aren't focusing in on one player as much as i like to do when i film games. as a result you get all 22 guys in the film but the detail isn't quite there for us casual fans to enjoy. still though it is pretty cool film. these are the same plays and games that are in coach tressel's office. i can't believe i was able to get my grubby hands on a copy of such film and i want to thank the supplier of the eye candy for sure.

the highlight clips i posted today are pretty good. the first new clip is of junior to be tight end jim ramella. he catches the ball and does his best mark bavarro imitation (you know, the guy jeremy shockeye wishes he was but is too stupid to know it). for those unfamiliar with bavarro he was a beast with the ball in his hands rumbling through the secondary. ramella gives you a small taste of that in this first clip. i am not sure who the qb is in this clip. it definitely isn't brian hoyer. it is most likely either rudy kirbus or former tribe pitcher john farrell's son (whose first name escapes me at the moment), perhaps it is another qb but those are the only other two iggy qb's i know of outside of hoyer.

the second highlight clip i posted today is of ignatius qb brian hoyer showing off some of the mobility with a nice pickup on the scramble. nothing fancy here other than a the athletic display and a wicked crackback block. i love crackback blocks like crackheads love crack.

the third and final clip i posted today is of brian hoyer hooking up with jim ramella for a short touchdown on the play action pass. again, nothing fancy here other than the flawless execution of the play.

in buckeye news, coach tressel will be coaching the hula bowl college all star game in hawaii on january 17th. i guess coach tressel is going to be celebrating his second national championship with the buckeyes (and sixth overall) in hawaii this time. good for him and the family. the only thing i ever worry about with tressel anymore is him getting burned out or missing out on valuable time with his non-football family. a week in hawaii (even if it is work related) with the wife will be nice after the long season comes to an end (and before the recruiting season comes to its conclusion).

in big news for the vg, i am starting to lay out my plans for my high school travels this football season. ohsaa has released the official master schedule for 2003 with every high school team in ohio's games listed. that link will take you to the page where you can download the 600+kb adobe pdf file. don't worry that ohsaa has poor web design and actually lists this as the 2002 schedule, trust me it is for 2003 their webmaster is just lazy and untalented and cut and pasted his 2002 text and forgot to change the date. way to earn that paycheck tool. if you don't want to download the entire schedule and are just wondering about some of the better players and when and where you can see them, be patient. i plan on working on my own private database of all the relevand schools in ohio (relevant for buckeye recruiting purposes that is) and making my own master schedule. i will be sharing all the fruit of that labor on this page when i get it done. like i said, if you are patient i will break it down for you.

anyways, that is all i have for now. i am thinking about heading over to my one brother's house and unwinding with him and a little playstation2 tonight. later on i am going to start breaking down the high school schedule and getting busy plotting out my travel plans for this high school football season. more in the morning. enjoy.
05-06-03 (10:30am) just two links real quick like. the dayton daily news has a piece on aj haw among other things. the akron beacon journal has a piece on justin zwick. me, i am running late. enjoy the day and i will have more st ignatius film posted after work today.
cleveland st. ignatius qb brian hoyer. this pic is from the good folks at fuchs and kasperek, click on the pic to go to their site. 05-05-03 (7:45pm) sorry about the late update today. i posted some film online after work today and i have been waiting for tripod to get their act together and let me post an update.

i got the ignatius film archive updated as promised earlier today. you do need to be a member of sony imagestation to get into the video archive (just as you do to see the recruiting videos i film myself and the video captures vladimir gonzalez has posted). sony imagestation is a free registration and it is hassle free. they have yet to spam me once even. i know signing up for something can be a bit of a hassle, but since sony is giving away free bandwidth like this it isn't too bad. it is the best free video hosting solution i am aware of (and a big special thanks to CLTbuckeye for the sony imagestation recommendation).

i captured 22 short highlights off the hour of film i did this weekend and with my basic math that sounds like about 3 or 4 highlights a day every day this week. anyways, check out the cleveland st. ignatius film archive. it is straight from the coaches film and not shot by the vg. i just do the work as a favor for a friend.

two of the video clips are touchdown passes from top ohio quarterback brian hoyer to osu commit tony gonzalez. one of the throws goes about 50 yards in the air and it is a sweet highlight. the third and final video i am posting today is a long pass from hoyer to junior to be tight end jim ramella. ramella doesn't get much press from the 'experts', but that just reinforces how little these tools actually know about football. trust me ramella will be a big time recruit in two more years if he continues to develop. for a sophomore at ignatius last year i thought ramella was a much better tight end prospect than senior to be mike massey. anyways, the three new video clips are the last three in the archive. check them out, i think you will like them.

anyways enjoy the film. i am going to be updating this particular video archive for at least the next week if not the next month. i know friend of the site vladimir gonzalez is looking to get some studio time too so he can capture and compress more fiesta bowl highlights for his buckeye friends. i will be back online a little later with some more if i can think of something to say. enjoy.
05-05-03 (6am) happy mexican fifth of may to all. if that isn't an excuse to wrap up what is almost always a never ending monday with a few coronas i don't know what is honestly. i wish i had some links as a gift for today but i can't find any out there. oh well.

now for a little eye candy. that picture on the left is of course head coach of the defending national champion ohio state buckeyes jim tressel. this is the first good picture we got of coach tressel since he took over the team. he looks a little suprised in this pic to me, must be his first time seeing the crazy bearded guy in person. a guy with that much facial hair gets that shock and awe type of look from time to time.

now for some random thoughts. i spent some time sunday updating the recruiting database. nothing major, but i did add some new names and some additional forty times for some prospects. i still haven't worked on the google search functions and some other stuff i plan for the database. maybe i will get to that next weekend. instead of working with computer code this weekend with my free time, i had a healthy dose of eye candy instead. me and the cbg spent some time in the studio working on a recruiting compilation video (mostly experimenting with menus and chapters and what not). the video looks pretty sharp on my dvd player and i am suddenly motivated to finish all the voice overs finally and give it one last edit before burning a master copy.

that is all well and good but it doesn't help out the site any at all honestly. fortunately i got some more video work in this weekend too. i have several hours of cleveland st ignatius film still to sift through and capture and compress to get ready to post. well i went through another hour of tape and did all that work last night. i don't have time to post any highlights this morning, but i will get some posted later tonight for sure (think 5 to 7pm type of range).

anyways that is all i have for this morning. i will have a video update later this evening. enjoy the day as it drags on and on and on.
this is a pic of two of the more anticipated defensive players on the 2003 squad chris gamble and aj hawk. gamble is already proven over a half season and hawk has shown flashes throughout his freshman year. both are looking like sure fire starters on defense and have the high hopes of the buckeye nation resting squarely on their shoulders. 05-04-03 (11:25am) just two links and another picture to share today. starting with the eye candy, this is a pic of two of the more anticipated defensive players on the 2003 squad in chris gamble and aj hawk. gamble is already proven over a half season and hawk has shown flashes throughout his freshman year. both are looking like sure fire starters on defense and have the high hopes of the buckeye nation resting squarely on their shoulders.

in linkage, i got two today like i was saying. 1460 the fan has a piece on the serious talent at wide out this year. that talent doesn't include potential receivers like tony gonzalez and dareus hiley and no doubt wide out devon jordan. things are definitely looking good out wide for the bucks in the future.

final link for now is from the canton repository on my man KP. from the article it sounds like kenny peterson will have a serious chance at starting this year at defensive tackle for the packers. in other news from that article KP will be wearing number 98, his cousin cie grant will be wearing number 58 for the saints, and buckeye legend mike doss is getting number 30 for the colts.
05-03-03 (9:25am) being smack dab in the middle of the dead period i don't have any football links from the newspapers. still though i have a couple of links that may interest a few of the readers so i might as well link them now. the buckeye sports bulletin has a free article in anticipation of next season in football and hoops. nice to see the good people at bsb realize that giving away a free article or two won't kill the business for a change. last link for now is on fight songs with drinking references. ohio state is mentioned in the article though it is mostly about new wexico state (and if i were a student/alum of new mexico state lots of alcohol would be the only way to get me to hit a game).

dvd burning is going well so far. if anyone is interested in picking one up best buy has some sweet ass sony dvd burners out there that record all four major formats (-r, -rw, +r, +rw) at 4 speed. they even have external and internal version. the exernal version is ready for usb 2 and firewire. i think it is called the sony dru500ax, but i could be off there a little bit. anyways, this drive is highly recommended by the vg.

i was going to go to the tribe game today at 1pm (and i guess if the cbg decides he wants to go by 10:30am or so we still will go), but instead i am going to chill out at the homestead and work on the dvd burning. my first project is a compilation video of my high school football highlights. once i get the software and technology down cold, then i am going to start on the 2002 ohio state season in its entirety. it will probably take us months to get that done, but when we do it will be sweet.

in football coverage i think this morning i will talk a little about the linebacker play in the spring game. first off everyone's favorite to be the next whipping boy mike d'andrea probably shut up lots of critics with his play. he had some good penetration (and what man doesn't like some quality penetration anyways), came up with a turnover, and played solid football no matter where he lined up. it looks like the mental aspect of playing football is catching up with the physical aspect and mike d'andrea is going to get some substantial playing time.

another linebacker that is stepping up and playing well is air force transfer anthony schlegel. schlegel was around the ball often and looked like a serious run plugger in the middle. anthony will have to sit out the year as a transfer but he will provide some serious competition on the scout team and he will be a big time player in the near future for the buckeyes. last weekend me and the cbg stayed in columbus with the irish patent attorney and his better looking half. the IPA is obviously a huge notre dame fan and has all the ND games on tape. i really wanted to pull the air force game off the shelf and watch it last weekend just to get a look at schlegel makin g19 tackles against the fighting irish. i may even try and get that tape of the IPA and capture a few highlights to post on the net so buckeye fans can see schlegel in action.

the third and final linebacker i wanted to heap praise on is aj hawk. hawk was a suprise in the last recruiting class, but he isn't going to be suprising anyone this year. he is probably one of the most highly anticipated new starters on the buckeye defense we have had in years. everyone can't wait to see the haw swoop in and smack someone on the beak (or whatever that cheesy line musberger busted out was). anyways, aj is still looking like the man.

the big disappointment for me at linebacker was the absence of bobby carpenter. not that it was bobby's fault or anything, i just had such high hopes for bobby this spring (and fall) that i was bummed out not getting to see him play this spring. i personally think bobby has all the size and speed to dominate big10 football for years to come. with any luck i will be a little psychic and this will start to happen in the fall against washington in week one.

anyways, that is all i have for now. i am going to trim up the webpage length and work on some more administrative type tasks before i start to enjoy myself this saturday. enjoy the weekend as it flys by, i know i plan on it.
05-02-03 (5:30pm) still no links out there today. oh well. it is the most dead of dead periods for football news now so we should start getting used to no links. i honestly still plan on updating most every single day though even without the newspapers providing a topic for discussion. i imagine as we get further away from spring ball my updates will get way off topic and with any luck a little funnier. i will be doing some serious football updates though too. i have tons of film from cleveland st ignatius and i will be working on that this weekend for posting next week. i still have film from the high school season last year that i never posted too including a bunch of film on top underclassmen like mario manningham and curtis smith amongst others.

speaking of film though, i am grabbing some brews and getting with the cbg and working on burning a dvd. we are going to package off the entire 2002 osu football season but that isn't project number one honestly. i want to learn more about the process before starting something serious like that. i want my 2002 osu season on dvd to be perfect just like the season was. instead i am going to put all my high school football profiles from last year on dvd. we had thought about releasing that film as a commercial project to raise funds to finance the move of the site to a larger server but i have honestly thought about that some more and i think i will just keep that film in the immediate family. maybe next year we will try to put out something like that. right now i don't think i have enough high quality film to put out a dvd like that. i only have 45 minutes f useable film and some of it is marginally useable at that. anyways, i am getting thirsty and i need to get with the crazy one to get our learn on early this evening before i kill off some brain cells later tonight.
05-02-03 (6:10am) i couldn't find any links this morning so i am going to just briefly comment on some of the news the past few days. first off, dvd burning is going well. me and the cbg even made a dvd that ran in an unmodified xbox. the vg's dvd player plays all major dvd recordable formats so i wasn't too worried about making a good disc. getting one to work in the xbox was a pleasant suprise though since they won't read burned cd's. it takes way too long to make a dvd, but the quality is nice. i started dumping some of my high school film to dvd as a test last night and the quality was just shy of what i get with my camcorder. i will probably be working on this all weekend and we are talking about just skipping the tribe saturday like planned now. who knows.

michigan and penn state hosted nike football camps. ted ginn jr ran a blazing sub 4.4 at the penn state camp, but that is no suprise to anyone who has seen ginn play football, the man is smoking fast. i still see ginn waiting until relatively late in the process so he can get some publicity for his fellow tarblooders.

up at the michigan camp the ohio boys did really good. huber heights wayne linebacker marcus freeman was the most outstanding player of the entire camp and cleveland st ignatius quarterback brian hoyer was the most outstanding qb. freeman was big and fast for his size and impressed all in attendance from what i have read. i have been wanting to avoid a trip to dayton to see him play again this year, but he is making that awfully hard to do.

hoyer having a good camp like that will probably prompt some offers from some of the big boys. as far as i know ohio state hasn't made the scholarship offer yet (and i am thinking that will happen at the osu campt this summer) but he is looking like the buckeyes best shot of landing a big time quarterback in this class. it also looks like michigan state is making a push for hoyer now and honestly that would be a good fit for both the spartans and hoyer if he were interested. obviously i would rather see him in scarlet and gray, but john smith will run a qb friendly offense at michigan state and there is an opportunity to compete with drew stanton for the job in the near future. my only question about the spartans and brian hoyer is what type of talent will he be surrounded by. good qb's can be made to look great by having outstanding talent around them. great qb's can be made to look average if they don't have time to throw or any talent at receiver to haul in the rock.

anyways, it was a late night last night playing with the new toys and i am a little tired this morning and running slow. i need to get my ass motivated and to work today before enjoying the weekend. enjoy the day as it happens. i will have more later today.
05-01-03 (7:20pm) the vg website has been having issues the last few days if you haven't noticed. i went way over my bandwidth limit yesterday while i was at work. it seems a few individuals out there made a serious effort to download every single picture i have ever shot and keep refreshing them over and over again. long story short this pushed my site beyond its meager limits and shut me down when i was away from the computer. when i got home from work i noticed the problem and went about fixing it. me and tripod now have a new business arrangement (as in i had to cough up a few more bucks a month) and i highly doubt that these jokers can shut down my site again by downloading my crap all day long. as a side bonus i have a new site address if you have to type my URL in. i still recommend everyone view the same old address as always, but if you get tired of typing vanilla-gorilla.tripod.com over and over this new address may be for you. you can now reach this exact same page by going to www.osuvg.com. eventually i am going to move this site completely off tripod and onto my own dotcom address (that may or may not still be osuvg.com) so i don't recommend anyone change their bookmarks or links or whatnot. when this move happens this current URL will redirect you to the new page so everybody can find the page during the transition.

anyways, tripod finally took care of the problem and updates are now resuming on a more normal schedule. unforty i am not doing a typical update today because it is a big day in the life of the vg and the crazy bearded guy (the cbg). we just got back from best buy and we now have dvd burning technology. we can write to any format out there and we have some serious work to do. i am going to do some test work with my brother right now in his studio and that is going to take up the rest of tonight and many upcoming weekends. as a side bonus, i am going to be spending a bunch of time in the studio so i might as well get off my lazy ass and capture and compress some more highlight footage from my cleveland st ignatius coaches film. i have tons of highlights still to post and they should be coming after this weekend.

anyways, sorry about the site outage. i have checked the logs and identified a few IP numbers responsible for seriously trying to cripple the site (though i just ponied up a little more cash and made it much much stronger as a result). i thought about contacting their ISP and messing with them but i think i will handle this off the books and under the table. i can see these jokers signing up for some really crappy email newsletters and spam and whatnot for starters. if this happens again, i promise i will get more aggressive in my response. again though, sorry about the outage and the complete lack of a football update for over 24 hours. i am going to jump on the dvd burner and start testing it out.

enjoy.

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