Friday Night Insights: Buckeye Fans, B1G Officiating and the Driven Foundation

From the Hip

Can someone please explain to me what is happening with the Ohio State Football fan base?

First, I get it, we all love our Buckeyes and want them to win every game 128,999 to nothing! That in itself seems to be a lot of people’s boggle when it comes to how the team performs. Secondary to that is the constant complaining about the coaches on staff, some who get paid several hundreds of thousands of dollars to do their jobs, and how the average Joe fan has it figured out but Warinner and Beck do not.

Let’s address the secondary first shall we. Not to be blunt, okay maybe I should be, but if you had a genius mind about play calling at the D1 level, you wouldn’t be on twitter, face-book or the couch! I get it, everybody thinks they see everything in color when in actuality you see it as black and white. If this play didn’t work and that play didn’t work then Joe fan believes his play would be the home run. I also get that part of the fun of following your favorite team is that somehow your idea came to fruition like the guys who get paid to come up with it did not really think of it before you.

I have to laugh at the mentality around coaching from the couch. I do it sometimes too but do not believe what I am saying will work at the D1 level. One, it’s too simple too work and two, I am not paid to do so!

I will be short and sweet around the first topic that started this part of the article out. The Buckeyes aren’t going to win every game let alone win them big. The fans have all the right in the world to feel this way but it just is not feasible! Look at it this way, if they finish the game with the W and have no major injuries then it was a great day. A loss can still not be the end of the world no matter how angry we get about it. Don’t let it ruin your day or weekend because some 18,19, twenty-something year old’s failed to execute on one Saturday.

Thats the important piece, five losses in five years while Urban Meyer has been there. One back-to-back losses in 2013 and this team is very special. It also may be the only team like last year that could give Alabama a run for their money. Live life folks ad do not let days like last Saturday cause you to go off the deep end!

Straight Shooter

I do not want to step on anyone toes here but I am pretty sure this is arguably one of the worst officiated seasons in recent memory for the B1G. I get that they have gotten a lot younger in the last two seasons as far as crews go but they spend an awful lot of their own money and time in the off-season attending camps to be this bad.

I do realize the B1G is not the only conference on the planet but it’s the one I watch on a fairly regular basis and they are lacking in the quality department. Now, admittedly I could never be a D1 play caller or coach, but I have had aspirations of being a college football official and truly believe I could do as good if not better than the ones right now. I definitely am not tooting my own horn but consistency and safety of the players are the guides for Friday nights.

I struggle with those not being some the reasons guys work on Saturdays. I do know that they make pretty good money to work and they are what we refer to as comma checks! I know a few pretty good guys who work the D1 level in the B1G and SEC. I can tell you that they do have some of those values as I have spoken to them, but the fork in the road comes from what the conferences want them to call.

College officials have the luxury of choosing to not call a hold or foul if it does not effect the play. The problem with that luxury is they are all human beings and at times make the calls whether they did effect the play or not. Case in point is just the lack of a pass interference call in the PSU game everybody has been clamoring for. The end result explanation is that the offensive player should have tied to play through it because of the officials positioning on the play.

You cannot tell me that official didn’t see the receivers arm get jerked down, not to mention the fact that the back-judge in the middle of the field has a clear view of it. He wasn’t going to flag it because it was the side-line officials call to make and they definitely aren’t allowed to fish in another’s pond at that level unless they believe the other to be “blocked” which in this case, the covering official saw perfectly the foul occurring and chose not to flag it.

One of these days we will get our wish sadly and the game will be officiated from behind a camera instead of on the field and the end result will probably be the same because the replay officials have been atrocious too!

Charity Bulls-Eye

I have spent a lot of my time supporting the DRIVEN Foundation ran by two former Buckeyes Roy Hall and Antonio Smith.

Mission Statement

Driven’s infrastructure is built on three core principles; perseverance (never give up), resilience (get back up), and assistance (help others up). Through our specialized events, outreach projects, and programs we combat community and individual shortcomings, while simultaneously fulfilling our mission. We use our platform for a purpose; to assist in solving various community challenges.

They just completed the DRIVEN 500 which is a team sponsored and driver’s racing against each other to raise money for the foundation. Two other big movements are the new DoGood_DoMore and their upcoming Food Outreach.

Since 2009 the Driven Food Outreach has solidified itself as one of the most anticipated community outreach events in Central Ohio. Over the last seven years, the Driven Food Outreach has distributed over 500,000 pounds of FREE food to nearly 4500 families. The 2016 Driven Holiday Food Outreach will be hosted at Moler Elementary school in Columbus, OH on December 17th.