A few days ago here on BlockONation.com, we posted part I of Coach Meyer's interview with BTN's Gerry DiNardo.
Here is part II of the interview.
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Nation Front PageWednesday, January 25, 2012
Urban Meyer Interview With BTN's Gerry DiNardo (Part I)
A few days ago here on BlockONation.com, we posted part I of Coach Meyer's interview with BTN's Gerry DiNardo.
Here is part II of the interview.
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Nation Front Page
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Ohio's Top Recruit, Cameron Burrows, Becomes First Member of Ohio State's 2013 Recruiting Class
by Nick Weaver - BlockONation Contributor
Buckeye Nation, welcome Cameron Burrows to the class of 2013. He has announced that he is “taking his talents to Ohio State”.Burrows is the No. 1 player in the state of Ohio, and he hails from the city of Trotwood where he plays cornerback plays for Trotwood-Madison H.S. He helped lead the Rams to a state title last season.
Burrows is a solid first recruit, rated as the overall No. 7 junior in the country.
He is 6'1 and a 190lbs. He has good speed, and he has a 3.5 grade point average.
He plans on enrolling early so he can jumpstart his chance to win playing time. He spoke about growing up as a Buckeye fan, and for him to get an offer it was “just an honor”.
The last player offered a scholarship from Trotwood was Will Allen from the class of 2000. He currently plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
This is a good first signing for Urban and the class of 2013. It will show the other potential recruits that Urban isn’t just getting lucky this year, and that he has already started the 2013 campaign.
Burrows bringing his 5-star status to the Buckeyes and announcing early should convince others to follow suit -- and sooner than later -- since OSU is only expecting to sign around 15 players in their 2013 class.
His committment may also open up a renewed pipeline to Trotwood's rich talent pool -- something Jim Tressel did not have, or seem to want during his OSU tenure.
Burrows is a good friend of Trotwood senior safety Bam Bradley.
Bradley holds an OSU offer, but is also seriously considering Pitt and Stanford. Trotwood coach Maurice Douglass wonders if the Buckeyes may already have too many safeties, and his input might lead Bam elsewhere.
Junior linebacker Mike McCray doesn't have an offer from Ohio State yet, but the No. 9 junior in Ohio is hoping for one and said Thursday that the Buckeyes would immediately jump into his top three.
McCray visited Ohio State in December with Burrows and Bradley.
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Nation Front PageWednesday, January 18, 2012
The Urban Effect: LB David Perkins Latest OSU Class of 2012 Commitment
And then there were 22...Ohio State's 2012 recruiting class is nearing capacity fast.
Since coach Urban Meyer began recruiting in late November, Ohio State has received verbal commitments from WR Ricquan Southward, TE Tommy Schutt, DE Se'Von Pittman, DE Noah Spence, OT Taylor Decker, OG Joey O'Connor, and now Perkins (pictured at right).
Ohio State's class — which was barely ranked in the top 20 — is now currently rated as the No. 4 overall class in the Scout.com team rankings.
With the recent dismissals of Dominic Clarke and DerJuan Gambrell, there are approximately four to six slots, max, left before this class is full (remember, this is NOT the SEC where oversigning is the "in thing" to do).
Camren Williams and Armani Reeves could be the next two dominoes to fall, and there's still room (for now, anyway) for a couple more elite O-linemen like Jordan Diamond and Kyle Dodson to join the fold.
Jim Tressel was often criticized in his recruiting efforts for not being able to close as NSD came and went.
As of now with two weeks to go until NSD 2012, Meyer appears to be the anti-Tressel, and as much as Buckeye Nation loved Tressel, finishing his recruiting classes on a high note was his Achilles heel — as much or more as his neglect for being honest with the NCAA when it came to issues of compliance — but those days are in the past, thus, I digress.
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Nation Front PageUrban Meyer Interview With BTN's Gerry DiNardo (Part I)
As you may have read a couple days ago here on BlockONation.com, Coach Meyer gave a tour of his new office and sat for an interview with BTN's Gerry DiNardo.
The tour was aired (and posted here) on the 16th.
Here is part I of the interview.
Meyer's comments on Fickell might surprise you a bit -- but then again, given the 2011 season -- maybe not.
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Nation Front PageMonday, January 16, 2012
Urban Meyer Introduces New Football Coaching Staff During Men's Basketball vs. Indiana (1/15/12)
At halftime of the Ohio State-Indiana basketball game Sunday, Urban Meyer introduced his completed coaching staff to the capacity crowd at a sold out Schottenstein Center.
Check out the video:
One thing was for sure in addition to the excitement over Meyer taking over the program -- the crowd loved them some Luke Fickell!
The 2012 Spring game can't get here fast enough, although, our basketball team is filling the void extremely well.
Let's hope they make a very deep tourney run -- i.e. win it all -- come March and pave the way into a great Spring!
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Nation Front PageThursday, January 12, 2012
Ohio State Head Coach Urban Meyer: BTN Interview and Office Tour
During the 2011 regular season, the Big Ten Network aired a show titled, Step Into My Office, where the coach at each Big Ten school gave the Network a tour of his actual office and then sat for somewhat of an informal interview.The BTN's Mike Hall visited with then-head coach Luke Fickell for a segment that aired during the season.
With the hiring of Urban Meyer at Ohio State -- Meyer officially took over on January 3rd, 2012 -- the network recently aired a special segment along those same lines on their Big Ten Football Report where Meyer offered a tour and sat for an impromptu interview (the full interview will air on Jan. 17th) with BTN's Gerry DiNardo.
Buckeye fans that may have missed it can watch below.
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Nation Front PageTuesday, January 3, 2012
College Football Bowl Season Proves That It Really IS All About The Benjamins
by Nick Weaver - BlockONation Contributor
Since it is bowl season, I figured would show a summary of what the Buckeye football program does for the rest of the athletic programs.The Ohio State football program brought in $60,837,342 last year alone.
The program spent $34,373,342 last year, meaning the University banked $26,463,498!!!
That put them 17th on the most profitable list out of 50. That revenue includes media, ticket sales, and memorabilia (individual player memorabilia sales and tattoos-for-autographs excluded).
The Big Ten Network pays $19.3 million annually for football and basketball games combined. This figure is a few million less because the Buckeyes had one less home game this year than last year.
The football program supports 36 sports programs. It is broken down by 17 women’s programs, 16 men’s programs, and 3 coed programs. Each of those programs is fully funded by scholarships that are allowed by the NCAA. That is 1,076 student athletes who reap the benefits of the football program.
When it is all said and done, the athletic program only shows a $93,678 profit. This profit doesn’t even cover all the other expenses associated with the athletic programs.
Operations cost another $40 million, with over $5 million going back to the university to pay for the athletic department’s share of overhead, which includes insurance, payroll services, purchasing and accounting.
Where does the rest of the money come from? The university gets grants, endowments, and the money given to the “Buckeye Club”.
This is why bowl season is so important to college football and the universities.
The bowl payouts range from serious money (tens-of-millions) from the BCS games combined, down to "chump change" (one million or less per) in the nobody bowls.
That is why it will be a hard sell to ever see a playoff system in lieu of bowl games.
There are 35 bowl games this year with 70 teams in the competition and a lot of money to be earned, whereas a playoff system would likely only involve four, or eight, or 12 or 16 teams at most.
As they say, money talks -- always.
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Nation Front PageSunday, January 1, 2012
Ohio State vs. Florida 2012 Gator Bowl — Outlook, History Lesson, and Prediction
Ohio State/Florida—A Few Opening Thoughts...
The Ohio State Buckeyes and the Florida Gators would both probably like to forget their 2011 regular seasons and head into the off season on a high note with a win in the 2012 Gator Bowl.This will be the final game for the current Buckeye coaching staff. As you may have heard, Ohio State hired some guy by the name of Urban Meyer to take over their program next season.
While Luke Fickell and his staff have been focused on their final game, Meyer has been focused on catapulting the Ohio State 2012 recruiting class from barely in the top 25, up into the top 10.
Team Overview / Players of Note
FloridaThe Florida Gator offense ranks 102nd nationally at 334 yards per game. They are 9th in total defense, allowing an average of 299.6 yards per game, and rank 9th in points allowed per game (20.6).
Quarterback John Brantley -- who has passed for 1,912, yards with 10 touchdowns and six interceptions -- is expected to start for the Gators, while freshmen Jacoby Brissett and Jeff Driskel could also each play. Both have struggled, however, combining for just 354 yards and two touchdowns, with six INTs.
Running backs Chris Rainey and Jeff Demps split carries and combined for 1,329 yards and eight touchdowns.
Andre Debose and Chris Rainey were the top two receivers for Florida with 15 catches for 423 yards and 28 catches for 350 yards respectively. Debose caught four passes for scores while Rainey added two touchdown catches.
Ohio StateOhio State is 107th in total offense (320 yards per game) nationally. They are 24th in total defense, allowing an average of 328.6 yards per game, and rank 27th in points allowed per game (20.8).
The Silver Bullets had 23 sacks and 12 interceptions during the regular season.
QB Braxton Miller passed for 997 passing yards with 11 touchdowns and four interceptions and ran for another 695 yards seven rushing touchdowns.
Tailback Dan Herron finished second on the team with 596 yards and three scores, followed closely by Carlos Hyde with 549 yards and six scores.
The Buckeye passing game was very inconsistent and the receiving statistics reflect that. Devin Smith led the team in yardage with 247 yards on 12 catches, including four for scores. Corey Brown was second with 14 catches for 205 yards and tight end Jake Stoneburner finished the regular season with 14 catches and 193 yards.
Ohio State—Florida History Lesson
And Trends• Ohio State is 0-1 all-time vs. Florida.
• Ohio State is 20-22 all-time is bowl games.
• Ohio State last played in the Gator Bowl in 1978.
• Ohio State is 1-10 in bowl games vs. SEC opponents.
• Ohio State is making their 11th straight bowl games appearance, a streak that will end next year.
• Ohio State's defense has held opponent to fewer than 10 points 31 times since 2006.
• Ohio State's defense has allowed just nine 100-yard rushers in their last 48 games.
• Ohio State has held 67 opponents to 21 points or less since the start of the 2005 season.
• Florida is 6-2 all-time in the Gator Bowl.
• Florida is making their 21st consecutive bowl game appearance.
• Florida went 0-5 during the regular season vs. top 25 teams, while Ohio State went 2-4.
Final Thoughts and Score Prediction
The 2012
Something has to give and it's not likely going to be Ohio State's defense.
The Gators lost six of their last eight games to end the season and in those games, they averaged less than 225 yards and 12 points.
Look for the Silver Bullets to ramp up the heat on Brantley -- who was picked off three times in the season finale by Florida State -- and to score or at least set up an easy score or two for Miller and the OSU offense.
This meeting feels like it's going to be close throughout with moderate scoring, unlike the 41-14 loss Ohio State suffered at the hands of their new coach and his 2006 Gators team, but Miller and the Buckeye defense SHOULD be the difference.
Ohio State 27
Florida 20
"To be a champion, you have to believe in yourself when no one else will" - Sugar Ray Robinson
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