Silver Bullet Points Prepares For Harvest

Quick look at Tuesday’s press conference, Nebraska prep, and other news from the world of college sports:

Buckeye 411

• Injury update- Nathan Williams still out, Verlon Reed has torn his ACL and will be out for the season.  Yesterday, we were also informed that Melvin Fellows had been classified as a medical hardship, but there’s still no further information at this time. Philly Brown is day to day, and may see action against the Cornhuskers. Solomon Thomas will see some action- he’s returning from suspension and from surgery for the broken leg he suffered in the spring. Brewster said after practice that Philly and Michael Bennett both were active this afternoon.
• Fickell Speaks– On dealing with adversity and suspended players:

Probably we went ahead and went with our three points of wisdom from John Wooden that said: Don’t whine, don’t complain and don’t make excuses. And I think that’s what we have got to be able to do, and it starts from the top down with all of us as coaches.

How many times have we said, we are going to focus on what we have, not what we don’t have and focus on moving forward. So that’s what we have to do. We are not going to make excuses for guys. We are not going to allow them to be down and we are not going to allow them to do that; as coaches we are not going to do that as a team, and we believe everybody will follow suit.

• Captain, My Captain- Brewster, Sweat, Moeller. Attorneys at Law.
• The Problem With Screens- According to Coach Fickell, is that there was already someone with “spy” responsibilities on Braxton and that person would have been in a viable position to disrupt any of the “counter” options that the Buckeyes could have thrown at MSU on Saturday.  Doesn’t explain the inability to toss it to an uncovered slot receiver, though…
• Nevertheless- About Braxton,

Braxton is the guy that right now is our starting quarterback, and you know, I would think hook wise, we don’t want him to ever think that. And I think it just came into a situation for what they were doing and what we needed to do at the time. We made the change, but you know, I wouldn’t say that there’s hook we’re looking for if it doesn’t happen in the first couple series or whatever, we are going to change, no.

But I don’t have want them to think that, hey, you’ve got a short leash, or we don’t have enough confidence or faith in you.

• Nighttime in Lincoln- Coach said that the most important aspect was being ready to play in whatever situation presents itself, and compared it to playing at night in Madison.  During the B1G conference call, he said that the team was excited to represent the university for the first time in Memorial Stadium.
• On Bollman-

He understands what we need to do. We just have to do a better job of figuring out what our guys can do and what our guys can handle, and we will. There’s going to be growing pains and there’s going to be things, and nothing that a good offensive performance or a good win won’t make up for. But if we sit and worry about all of the people that criticized us, or we stay up late worrying about that, instead of worrying about what we need to do we can’t let it affect us.

• Player of the game- Believe it or not, there was one and it was Christian Bryant.  Just think if he holds onto that pick six, though…
• Shuffling Chairs- Mike Adams’ return couldn’t have come at a better time, with Marcus Hall’s “vacation”. The offensive line that will face the Blackshirts will be (left to right) Adams, Norwell, Brewster, Mewhort, Shugarts.  Not too shabby…

Checking In With– Rob Harley, who reminds us that you can catch him on the ESPN3 broadcasts most weekends, or on the sidelines at Ohio Dominican.  He also told us that some of the proceeds from Homage’s “House That Harley Built” shirt go to Harley Helping Hands, one of our favorite charities.  If you’re into vertigo and marching bands (and who isn’t?), check out his footage of Virginia’s work from halftime of their matchup against Idaho.

This Week In Scandal

• Seriously? There are many rumors swirling regarding the latest group of suspensions, but the most frustrating for me is that this may be a result of Pryor’s attempts to go pro. The theory is that, as he was discussing things that may have changed his status with the University (a prerequisite for the supplemental draft), he spilled the beans regarding his relationship with DiGeronimo and implicated others. This would explain the games missed by Howard and Hall as well as would fit into the timeline that was evidenced by the letter submitted by DiGeronimo in the end of June (page 5 here).
• On the bright side- This may explain why Gene Smith is so confident that this would not result in LOIC or FTM, since this issue was known to the committee at the time of the August 12 hearing. Yup, this was the “outstanding issue” that was addressed at the press conference following the meeting with the Committee on Infractions.
• Shark Attack- Mark Titus weighs in on the current state of Buckeye football… yeah, he ain’t optimistic.
• I’ll keep posting until you read it- The Arizona Republic’s great examination into the BCS fiasco.
• Ohio’s other BCS team- You know how cute it is when UChickfila tries to act like they’re one of the big guys? Well, you can’t say they’re not committed to the narrative, as they were hit with NCAA sanctions for violations across several sports earlier this week.

Headed to Lincoln? Yeah, about your luggage:

This Week In Expansion

• First- On Monday, it was West Virginia to the SEC, and BYU to the Big Integer
• Then- It was announced on Monday that the Big Integer had decided to play nice and share revenues. This was seen as “stabilizing” for the conference, and a sure sign that they had a back up plan to fill the empty spots left by Colorado, aTm, and Nebraska.
• Tuesday- Missouri gave their leaders the “OK, show me” to explore new conference alignment. Speculation is that they’re headed to the SEC.
• As of this moment- Nothing’s official, but there are also rumors that Louisville will get an offer from the Big Integer.

Other College Football News

• You don’t say- What? Wisconsin fans not classy to visitors? During a night game where they’d been drinking since Friday morning? Man, who could have seen that coming
• As we’ve known all along- Joe Paterno is not coaching, and sees himself as more of a “cheerleader”. In related news; Penn State has ugly cheerleaders.
• For the fashionistas- Oregon (big surprise) has a new “throwback” look that involves something called a “Puddles”.

• B!1!G!, B!1!G!- A recent ranking of academic prowess for various conferences ranks everyone’s favorite bunch of midwesterners at the top, even above the Ivy League.  #2 is the PAC-12, then the ACC, then the SEC and Big Integer.  Bringing up the rear… the Big lEast.
• Some people call me “Maurice”- Bryce Brown, the wunderkind so great he’s involved in recruiting issues at Miami and Tennessee, has decided to leave Kansas State for the NFL. Actually, that’s not accurate since he’s not at KSU… just hanging out waiting for something. And there you go.
• Highschool football play of the week: We leave you with this great return, proving how important it is to stay focused, no matter how the ball bounces: