Nitt Picks Shouldn't Have Brought That Noise

The rhetoric is canned and on sale at 7/11.  It's old news, and not even really news, that Royster said some coachspeak no one should have paid attention to, and Brandon Graham got all OB in his response.

None of this is of any concern except for this line, if only because I'm not buying it:

"I just don’t think they really know. How much preparation and how much we’ve been waiting for this game since last year."

It wasn't like last year was some kind of screw job that cost Michigan...anything, really.  They were outgained by almost 200 yards and lost by 29 points.  Where is the revenge factor angle here?

And why this game?  Our rivallessness means big name teams end up being big games, but as far as wins that get RichRod career points, the 2009 Penn State game is, at best, a distant 4th on the list.  Notre Dame, Michigan State and especially Ohio State all rank way higher in potential benefit with a win and potential detriment in the case of a loss.  Using strategy capital, which is limited, on Penn State seems like a bad idea with Ohio State still on the slate.  Assuming they have any left after ND and MSU.

I, Fumble. I took a trip to PA two years ago for Thanksgiving and, because I didn't want to get up at 4 a.m. and shop, ended up watching one of Pryor's game on TV that afternoon.  They jokingly (or maybe not) called Pryor "LiC", or Lebron in Cleats, and that worked in 2007 because they both were freak athletes, playing in their state's lower divisions, and simply dominating.

A quick example: Pryor was in the shotgun the entire game.  In the third quarter he went under center for the first time.  I specifically remember, in a hungover state, asking "why in the world is he under center?"  He snapped the ball, jumped over the center, split the linebackers and outran the secondary for a 70 yard TD.  That's why.

Bottom line, Pryor's high school coach could let him do literally anything and it would work.  The teams were too small, and he was too big and fast, for it to matter.  So with that it's a little hard to take this quote seriously:

"They need Terrelle to run more," former Jeannette (Pa.) High School coach Ray Reitz said. "They've put the reins on him and they need to let him go free. When I watch Terrelle play right now, I see a robot."

If anything they are letting Pryor make too many decisions without the confidence that comes with knowing the offense.  It's the wild rambling plays with no direction, the ones that were touchdowns in high school, that are killing OSU right now.  The methodical, calculated routine of Tresselball has fallen overboard and the solution is not to relax safety protocol.

The lost art of meta.  Blogging and meta was once a very popular topic in every circle.  This has stopped mostly because (1) everyone soon realized they didn't know the silver bullet either, and (2) the season is here.

But some are still trying:

Self-described print press "fanatic" Mortimer Zuckerman, who owns The Daily News and U.S. News & World Report, proposed to Forbes that the federal government could save newspapers by allowing sports betting on newspaper Web sites.

Great idea, why fix the newsroom when you can just prop it up?  Another great idea no one is talking about: let reporters sell crack. (H/T Mgo and Mvic)

It looks like a practical end.  Maybe Jimbo won't be getting that $5 million payout for waiting too long after all:

"I know I am in the last years - I say plural - of my career. My days are numbered. I did not want to say, ‘Well I’m going to leave at this time.’ I already know when I’m going to leave. And Jimbo Fisher knows when I’m going to leave. He and I have talked about it.

Sounds like 2010 and the chase is over.  Less dramatic, but a predictable end if true.  We'll see how it plays out.

In Score of Other Games. OSU fans aren't ready to give up on the Vince Young thing...Mumme Poll is out...Goldy is wully wully sorry.