OSU's Kerry Coombs on YouTube

Courtesy of youtube.com and Land-Grant Holy Land, listen to the video below of Ohio State cornerback coach Kerry Coombs and the speech he gives to prospective recruits.  Among the recruits in attendance is incoming Ohio State recruit Ezekiel Elliott.  The video primarily focuses upon Elliott, but with Coombs' speech in the background, along with music from "Last Of The Mohicans", it makes for interesting viewing.  Enjoy - Go Bucks!

The New Hires At Wisconsin & Kent State - Any Impact Upon The Buckeyes?

Bret Bielema's sudden departure from Wisconsin for Arkansas was a major tremor across the college football landscape. After all, why would a man leave the land of cheese curds and quality beers for "The Natural State"?

Well, I guess we are getting a better idea now. $3.2 mil annually ain't too shabby.

Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez, the former head coach at Wisconsin, will coach the Badgers in the upcoming Rose Bowl game versus Stanford. For his efforts, Alvarez will make some decent coin for coaching one game. Again, not too bad.

In the meantime, Alvarez quietly conducted a coaching search for Bret Bielema's replacement. Names were bandied about, such as former Wisconsin offensive coordinator Paul Chryst, former Wisconsin player/former Ohio State secondary coach/current Jacksonville Jaguars defensive coordinator Mel Tucker, former Wisconsin quarterback/current Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, former Wisconsin offensive coordinator/former Minnesota Vikings head coach/current Cleveland Browns offensive coordinator Brad Childress...Are you starting to detect a theme here? Lot of former Wisconsin association.

And Barry Alvarez picked...Gary Andersen of Utah State.

Don't waste your time. No association with Wisconsin whatsoever.

My interpretation of this coaching hire by Wisconsin? Very solid pick by Barry Alvarez.

Yes, Paul Chryst would have probably made the fans and people of Wisconsin, possibly even Paul Chryst himself, happier with that hire. But I have to continue to give plaudits to Barry Alvarez for not going after Paul Chryst at Pittsburgh, after Chryst had only been there for one year.

Mel Tucker would have moved the dial. A young minority candidate, and former Badger player, may have excited the fan base. But Tucker has never been a head coach. Darrell Bevell is not a minority candidate, but is similar to Tucker in the vein that he has never been a head coach.

Brad Childress has been a head coach, but in the NFL. Even more importantly, Childress has been out of the college football scene for nearly fifteen years.

That leads us back to Gary Andersen. Even though Andersen has no connection whatsoever to Wisconsin, Andersen has done a tremendous job at Utah State. Andersen guided Utah State to an 11-2 record this past season. Barry Alvarez was able to see up close and personal how good of a coach Andersen is, when Wisconsin barely survived its early season battle against Utah State, 16-14.

Gary Andersen was able to scare other top programs during his tenure at Utah State. In 2011, Utah State nearly upset Auburn, losing 42-38. Oklahoma escaped Utah State in 2010, 31-24. Getting a team to be able to compete versus programs the caliber of Wisconsin, Auburn, and Oklahoma is impressive. Resume impressive stuff to an athletic director such as Barry Alvarez.

The connection to Ohio State? Gary Andersen served in 2004 as Utah's defensive line coach for current Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer. While the connection to Coach Meyer has not been as strong over the last few years, the former relationship should only add to the ongoing Ohio State/Wisconsin rivalry that has emerged over the last several seasons.

As for Kent State, who lost former Ohio State assistant Darrell Hazell to Purdue recently?
Kent State hired former Kent State player/former Ohio State assistant/former Arkansas defensive coordinator Paul Haynes to replace Darrell Hazell.

Again, I say a solid choice with the hiring of Paul Haynes by Kent State.

A few days, I suggested that perhaps current Ohio State co-defensive coordinator Luke Fickell may be a candidate for this job. I could not have been further wrong.

The reality is that Paul Haynes was actively seeking this job. Being a former player and student at Kent State makes Haynes the better choice for Kent State at this time.

The impact upon Ohio State? Barring something unforeseen, Ohio State will not lose any assistants heading into the 2013 season. Considering how important coaching staff chemistry is on any staff, let alone a team that will potentially challenge for the national championship, this is a positive step for Coach Meyer as the Buckeyes head into the New Year.

Vote East & West For New Big Ten Divisions!

Click on this link to vote.  Have your voices heard.

A pox on all who vote for "Inner and Outer"...

http://btn.com/2012/12/13/take-the-survey-which-division-ideas-do-you-prefer/

Coaching Dominoes, Part 2: How Does This Impact Ohio State?

At the conclusion of every college football season, coaches are on the move.  Some are asked to leave, others decide that there are opportunities they would prefer to pursue.

This past week, many open coaching positions were filled. While Ohio State fans revel in the undefeated regular season of 2012, and head coach Urban Meyer's Buckeye coaching staff actively recruits talent for the upcoming 2013 season, how do these coaching changes impact Ohio State?
At the time of this writing, not all of the coaching positions have been filled. Below is an assessment on the coaching position filled by Cincinnati, as well as the currently open position at Wisconsin, and how the Buckeyes may be looking at these changes.

Cincinnati Bearcats

Who's Leaving? Butch Jones. Unlike the previous examples in the first article that detailed the coaching changes at California and Purdue, Jones is leaving Cincinnati to take on the head coaching position at Tennessee, from the recently fired Derek Dooley.

Who Is The New Coach? Tommy Tuberville. Tuberville's hiring ranks as one of the bigger shocks during this period of college football coaching upheaval (hint: the bigger one is below...). It is not because Tuberville is not well-regarded as a good coach.

It is because Tuberville is coming to Cincinnati. Let that one sink in for a moment.

Tuberville, a true Southerner who has never coached a program above the Mason-Dixon line, resigning from Texas Tech of The Big XII Conference, a conference with guaranteed playoff access once that system starts up in 2014, is heading for perpetual stepping-stone job Cincinnati of The Big East, a conference that seemingly appears to be falling apart with its members.

Speculation is rampant that Tuberville, who took the Texas Tech job in 2009, was never truly comfortable down in Lubbock. Cincinnati athletic director Whit Babcock worked with Tuberville at Auburn, and perhaps this job will provide Tuberville a sense of stability. For Cincinnati fans, who have watched their last three head coaches (Mark Dantonio, Brian Kelly, and Butch Jones) leave after each have spent three years on the job, hopefully Tuberville will stick it out longer than that for the Bearcats. In 2014, Ohio State and Cincinnati are scheduled to play. Will Tommy Tuberville still be at the helm for the Bearcats? We shall see.

Impact Upon The Buckeyes? To be determined. Considering how Ohio State has struggled to lure recruits from Cincinnati to Columbus, it will bear watching to see how Tuberville does while competing against Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer for Cincinnati talent that both offer.

Ohio State is supposedly going to hold its April 2013 spring football game in Cincinnati. I am curious as to how Tuberville will respond to Coach Meyer and Ohio State invading what Tuberville considers Bearcat territory.

Wisconsin Badgers

Who Is Leaving? Bret Bielema. Bielema, the hand-picked successor to current Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez, has left the comfort of Madison for Fayetteville, Arkansas, to take over as the head coach of the Razorbacks.

Articles bashing The Big Ten have been written about this topic since this coaching shockwave emerged last week, and I believe it is truly pointless to try to continue to argue why so many people believe this was a bad move by both Bret Bielema and Arkansas. Considering numbers usually make a more persuasive point, I will merely point out these numbers: 1 and 5. One represents the lone victory Bielema had while coaching Wisconsin against Ohio State (2010), while five represents his losses (2007-2009, 2011, 2012). I will only speculate that Arkansas fans are hoping for far better results against the likes of SEC heavyweights such as Florida, Alabama, and LSU than Bielema provided the fans of Wisconsin when his Badgers faced Ohio State.

Who Is The New Coach? To be determined. Barry Alvarez will coach Wisconsin versus Stanford in The Rose Bowl, but Alvarez will not be returning to the sidelines for Wisconsin in 2013.

Speculated candidates include current Boise State head coach Chris Petersen, current Jacksonville Jaguars defensive coordinator/former Ohio State defensive back coach/former Wisconsin player Mel Tucker, and current Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator/former Wisconsin player Darrell Bevell. Alvarez is keeping this one pretty close to the vest. For what it is worth, while Pitt head coach Paul Chryst was the most logical candidate, I give Alvarez a big thumbs up for not raiding Pitt's coach after Chryst only spent one year on the job. Classy.

Impact Upon The Buckeyes? To be determined. Without a coach in place, Wisconsin fans are probably sweating Coach Meyer and his assistants, such as Mike Vrabel, poaching their recruits. No matter who winds up with the head coaching position, the rivalry between Ohio State and Wisconsin will only continue to amp up as both programs fight for supremacy within The Big Ten's Leaders Division in 2013 and beyond.

Coaching dominoes falling - how does this impact Ohio State (Part One)?

At the conclusion of every college football season, coaches are on the move.  Some are asked to leave, others decide that there are opportunities they would prefer to pursue.

This past week, many open coaching positions were filled. While Ohio State fans revel in the undefeated regular season of 2012, and head coach Urban Meyer's Buckeye coaching staff actively recruits talent for the upcoming 2013 season, how do these coaching changes impact Ohio State?
At the time of this writing, not all of the coaching positions have been filled. Below are some early assessments on the coaching positions that have been filled by California and Purdue, and how the Buckeyes may be looking at these changes.

California Golden Bears

Who Is Leaving? Jeff Tedford

Who Is The New Coach? Sonny Dykes. Dykes arrives in Berkeley via Louisiana Tech. A former offensive coordinator under ex-Texas Tech head coach and current Washington State head coach Mike Leach, Dykes will be taking over a California program that fell to a 3-9 record in 2012. Among those nine losses was a close 35-28 defeat at the hands of the Buckeyes in Ohio Stadium on September 15, 2012.

Impact Upon The Buckeyes? Short term impact, but an impact on the 2013 season for the Buckeyes nonetheless: Ohio State travels out to Berkeley to play California on September 14, 2013. This game against California will mark Ohio State's first road game of the season.

Considering how high the expectations are for Ohio State with the 2013 season, combined with how Ohio State had to rally for a victory against California in 2012, Sonny Dykes' impressive coaching track record, how California will be starting a highly-touted quarterback in Zach Kline, and how Ohio State's defense struggled at the onset of the 2012 season, this should make for interesting viewing by Buckeye fans. Dykes' (and new Cal OC Tony Franklin, his running mate at Louisiana Tech) tend to operate an offense that goes a mile a minute. Between these fireworks and those of Tom Herman and Urban Meyers' respective attack, it should make for an action packed 60 minutes of football.

Purdue Boilermakers

Who Is Leaving? Danny Hope

Who Is The New Coach? Darrell Hazell. Hazell arrives in West Lafayette via Kent State. Hazell is very familiar to Ohio State fans, as he served as Ohio State's wide receivers coach from 2004 through 2010. Among the Buckeye wide receivers Hazell helped to develop into NFL players are former standouts Santonio Holmes, Ted Ginn Jr., Anthony Gonazlez, Roy Hall, Brian Robiskie, Brian Hartline, and Dane Sanzenbacher.

Impact Upon The Buckeyes? Considerable, when Ohio State fans remember that Purdue is in the same division (currently) as the Buckeyes. Ohio State is scheduled to play at Purdue on November 2, 2013. Ohio State rallied to defeat Purdue 29-22 in overtime on October 20, 2012.

Another question as it relates to Ohio State will be the Purdue coaching staff. Former Ohio State linebacker Marcus Freeman currently coaches linebackers for Kent State, and could be lured to Purdue by Hazell. Other possible Purdue assistants could be former Ohio State offensive line coach/offensive coordinator Jim Bollman, who was recently let go by Boston College, former Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Heacock, and current Kent State wide receivers coach and former Buckeye wide receiver Thad Jemison. All have ties to Hazell, either in the past or present, and all have extensive Buckeye ties.

Remembering that Ohio State has lost both of the last two trips (2009, 2011) to West Lafayette, how Purdue nearly defeated Ohio State this past season, and how good of a coach Darrell Hazell is, Ohio State fans will not want to overlook the Boilermakers. This could be the ultimate spoiler opportunity for Purdue, late in the 2013 season, when Ohio State will be hoping to finalize a possible national championship run.

Part two of this series will look at two other programs that have recently undergone coaching changes – Wisconsin and Cincinnati.

Chip's Annual Airing Of Grievances

Out of all the episodes of Seinfeld, one episode ranks as my all-time favorite. "The Strike", which popularized the idea of Festivus, The Airing Of Grievances, and The Feats Of Strength make that episode stand out more than any other in the series. Accordingly, I conduct my own "Airing of Grievances", particularly with respect to college football's future post season.

Every beginning of December, I must air my grievances with regards to the lack of a true playoff system. Oh yes, I know, a 4-team playoff will begin after the 2014 season, and I am happy for this small step towards progress.

Let me ask any of you – do any of you truly believe a 4-team playoff will make everything perfect? Do any of believe this will truly solve all of the challenges associated with finding a true college football national champion?

The solution, I believe, is very simple. Why not take every conference champion, and give them an automatic shot at the title?

And to spice it up? How about five at-large berths, for teams who did not win their conference, but are probably even more deserving than some of the lesser conferences?

Just hear me out on this. For years, a traditional argument against a playoff is that it would cheapen the regular season. Valid point.

But, if a team knew that it would be eligible to play in the playoff tournament by winning its conference, wouldn't that spice up every conference contest? Wouldn't that keep the interest in the regular season high?

Another argument against a playoff like this is that it would be too stacked towards the power conferences, a la the SEC, Big Ten, Pac-12, etc.

But, if every conference champion received an automatic berth, wouldn't that be fair to the smaller conferences? The Sun Belt, the MAC, the Mountain West...no more complaints about unfair access, like the current BCS (and very likely the forthcoming four team playoff model).

For those teams who played a tough schedule, but did not win their conference? The possibility of an at-large berth. How would those be determined? Strength of schedule. That goes back to the first argument of making every regular season count. Do you think teams would beef up those schedules, thinking that it could help to play quality opponents in non-conference play, versus the traditional creampuff approach most teams currently take?

Below is a rudimentary idea as to how this could work:

You may have noticed I placed the Sagarin Ratings next to the team. I have never met or spoken to Mr. Sagarin, and I am sure there are other computer rankings that could be incorporated into this system. For the ease of use, I included them for this little exercise.

Sixteen teams, beginning this weekend. The higher seeded team would be the home team. The second round could be held at the home team of the higher seed for December 15-16. Same for the third round, December 22-23. The national championship game could be held on January 7th, as scheduled currently, in Miami.

Now be honest  ~ who wouldn't want to watch every one of these games this weekend? Who wouldn't be curious to see if a great upset could occur, like maybe Northern Illinois defeating Kansas State, or Utah State taking out Texas A&M? How about Boise State having to go down to The Swamp to take on the Florida Gators? How good of a game would Stanford and Florida State be?

Would Alabama throttle Tulsa? Probably. Same for Oregon with Arkansas State...Oh yeah, I forgot that they played earlier in the season. Maybe Arkansas State's Gus Malzahn would have figured them out by now.

My point is, instead of voting on this, instead of arbitrary decisions as to how many tickets this team could sell, this would settle the championship on the field. Isn't that what all true competitors truly yearn for in this game?

Like I wrote up above, it's my annual Airing Of Grievances. Will it happen? No, not for the foreseeable future. The 4-team playoff will have to cut it.

Hey, if a man can wake up, with the possibilities of a unicorn lair in North Korea, why not dream of a 16-team playoff?

Undefeated Poster...

Courtesy of www.elevenwarriors.com.  Enjoy!

http://11w.s3.amazonaws.com/artwork/game-posters/2012/201213-game-poster.pdf

"How Dumb Is Chip?!?"

Tonight Ohio State will honor the 2012 football team for its undefeated record.  The event is sold out, and I will be anxious to see if this will have a positive effect on the many recruits in attendance.

Facebook posted a picture from about ten years ago, after Ohio State won the national championship.  Ohio State sponsored an outdoor event in Ohio Stadium on January 18, 2013, honoring the team.

My cousin John and I were among the many attendees who braved the bitter cold.  As the picture states, it was below zero.

A humorous anecdote from the event...

John lives in the Columbus area, and was talking to a friend about how he was going to attend this event, back in January 2003.  Knowing how cold the event was going to be, John's friend said something to the effect that John had to be dumb to go to sit outside for such an event.

John then proceeded to tell his friend, "Well, my cousin Chip lives up in the Cleveland area, and he is driving down to Columbus for this.  If I am dumb to go to this, then how dumb is Chip?!?"

Very valid question.

Hope everyone has a great weekend...