We’re about 36 hours from kickoff of The Game, and the locker room has been silent for the Buckeyes. Jim Tressel has always done an excellent job of shutting down camp and making sure that no bad news or distractions come from his sideline.
That Team Up North’s side? Ehhhhhh, not so much.
TTUN Head Coach Rich Rodriquez, while his team prepares to head south to Columbus, has decided to take a side road to Deranged-Wacko-Ville and forget about preparation for The Game. His method for achieving this goal? Attacking college football fans.
“It’s amazing some of the things that people would say [on a message board] or yell at you of a personal nature,” Rodriguez said Monday. “You almost want to tell them, ‘Get a life.’
Detroit sportswriters have begun taking him to task for disregarding the fan opinion so casually. As each day goes by, it looks more and more like Rodriquez was cashing in a paycheck without realizing the tradition behind TTUn and their fanbase.
He does so at his own peril.
While The BBC certainly agrees that sometimes message boards and fans can get way out of line….is this really something that should be entering the mind of a coach within two days of his team’s biggest rivalry? Rodriquez seems to have given us tremendous insight into why his team seems to lose focus at some point in every game TTUN has played in 2008.
Coach RichRod has no focus himself.
What began as a season of promise and hope for the future has TTUN blogs abandoning their six-piece essays on Mike Barwis (the pre-season ruler of the world), and have turned their sights instead to basketball and hockey. No longer are they discussing the merits of starting a freshman at QB, but are instead debating the pitfalls of starting a freshman at QB, while simultaneously debating the merits of starting ANOTHER freshman at QB who hasn’t seen a snap at all during 2008.
They have taken to task the argument of “Rodriquez was 3-8 during his first year at West Virginia, and look what he did there.” They fail to mention that WVU was 7-5 the season before RR arrived, with the new coach bringing them 4 less wins than the previous coach. They also fail to mention that RichRod went 9-4 in his second season at WVU, then going 8-5 in his third season and 8-4 in his fourth. If TTUN fans are happy with 8-win seasons for the first four years with Rodriquez, I’m alllll for it! Oh, and RichRod got those records playing in the Big East. When Ohio State plays Cincinnati, it’s called “part of our cupcake schedule”. When WVU plays Cincinnati, it’s considered a “marquee matchup in the Big East.
Translation…..you got what you paid for, TTUN.
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Now comes the worse news for the fans of our friends to the north.
Tackle Steve Schilling will likely miss Saturday’s game with a knee injury. Yet another fallen Wolverine will only hurt the team more and shrink the depth chart against one of the best defenses they have faced all year.
Also, WR Zion Babb has been kicked off the team (”violating team rules”), and another player, DT Jason Kates, has quit. I don’t believe either player will be missed, as neither even played much, but this is again symptomatic of the lack of control Rodriquez has and the lack of respect his players have for him. Justin Boren just got out early. Other players are learning why.
Steven Threet, most-of-the-time starting QB for TTUN, is still expected to miss the game with an injured shoulder, but RichRod is trying (poorly) to downplay the extent of the injury.
We earlied mentioned that RB Sam McGuffie would miss the game because of a death in the family. That’s been changed, and he will make the game after attending a funeral. Our best wishes go out to him. I’d also make sure if I were a defensive player, I’d key on him. He’s the only player on offense they have, and players high on emotion tend to do well in this game.
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Thanks to a quote from Adam Rittenberg’s ESPN blog, it looks like Rodriquez is expecting more defections from TTUN;
“We’ve asked the guys, and we’ve been pretty honest with them all along … we want everybody to make a total commitment to our football program, especially academically. If they’re not upholding what they do academically and athletically, then really they need to see if this is the spot for them.
It looks as if Jim Tressel may have set back the Wolverines’ progress with his mastery of The Rivalry, but Rodriquez may be looking to out-do him, single-handedly burning the entire program to the gorund.
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Thanks to BBC reader Beat Blue, we see that Ohio State will overtake TTUN in Big Ten win percentage all-time if we win on Saturday. Our all-time win percentage will be higher than the enemy’s, marking the first time in history that a team from anywhere but Ann Arbor will be the best team in Big Ten history.
Me likey.
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If you’re in the prayer business, put your hands together for me. I’m headed to Columbus for The Game, and my ex-girlfriend has bid on a pair of 45-yard-line tickets for the game, going at 400 bucks for the pair. I was going to go alone and find a scalper if possible, but if the ex wants to help a brother out, I’m all in for the good seats. Dinner’s on me at Brio on Easton!
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