But USC has a lot of talent to replace too. On one hand it’ll be awesome if OSU can beat them and bring respect to the conference. On the other hand, I don’t know if I can handle the Buckeye hype machine if their heads get any more inflated.

They have a bunch of 5* sophomores and if Shugarts and Adams make their way to starting RT and LT, respectively, they’d have a 5* starting at every position but RG (Browning – 3*). But they’ll also be facing the same issues our line would be facing…a lack of reps together. I guess when you compare that to our line (a 4* at every position but RT (Landolt – 3*), there’s nothing to worry about on their end.

and are they that much more different than what you’d put the odds for Penn State at?

Pryor came in with a ton of hype, but I seem to recall the media attacking #14’s aptitude for the game pretty early on – before he even saw a snap. Pryor is a season in now, and he has, possibly, the slowest and most exaggerated release in D-1A. Why doesn’t anybody say anything about that? Hell, Boeckman had to come in and bail him out in obvious passing situations in the Fiesta Bowl. I guess, by virtue of being a Buckeye, he gets a free pass, also.

we aren’t relying on Pryor being as bad as he was last year, though obviously that would make OSU worse. What we’re saying is that OSU arguably lost more than PSU did (top RB, top 2 WRs, a couple linemen, not to mention the losses on defense), while having a QB that might improve this year, but unless he makes a HUGE leap, he’ll not likely be better than Clark.

So while OSU is known to be great at reloading (because obviously 2007 means everything), they have a LOT of unknowns, and inexperienced players at key positions.

Why is it then that PSU gets the criticizm and OSU doesn’t? Basically * ratings from recruiting websites.

Now I’m not going to say that OSU is going to be bad this year, or even that they’ll be worse than PSU. All I’m saying is that when you look at it, there’s nothing to support that they’re going to be better than Penn State, either (other than the #1 recruit in the nation, but we all know how top recruits can turn out to be not so hot. See: Derrick Williams, great player, but universally hailed as an underachiever, and QB14…yeah….)

They have 8 Big 10 titles since we joined, true, but 6 of those are shared (1993, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2005, and 2008), and of those 2 of them (2005 and 2008) they “shared” with a team that beat them head to head (which for some reason isn’t a tiebreaker in determining who gets to wear “Big 10 Champions” hats) and had a better overall record (granted that doesn’t count in conference standings), so those really shouldn’t count. I know I would never claim to be a champion if I lost to another team with the same record. So yeah, if you can find me a period where OSU has won 4 Big 10 titles in 7 years (since we joined, and no, I will not recognize 2005 or 2008), I guess we’ll also have to say they underachieved.

2002 they were obviously the better team, since I mean they did win the National Championship.

2006 & 2007 they won Big 10 outright, and also played in the National Championship.

Then you have 1993, 1996, and 1998, which are a bit tricky cuz they tied with other teams they didn’t play, but in 1993 and 1998 Wisconsin was our representative in the Rose Bowl (1998 OSU played in the Sugar Bowl).

So while OSU does have a better conference record over the frame of 1993-2008, Penn State is in third place, which is not too shabby, and Michigan (the second place team) does not look like the team to beat in the Big 10 this year.

(assuming it is accurate, of course)

I bet if you did this same analysis from last year’s match-up, you would get about the same results, if not, fully in favor of tOSU (not to mention the game being in Columbus). That shows, at least to me, pretty clearly, that some of these criteria clearly don’t matter or are not great indicators of future success.

Cairo….has…a little…we…e…-…we…e.

(well, I’m assuming that sequence of words and letters has occurred somewhere on this site)

Everyone knows the SEC has less integrity than other leagues so when they cheat and commit crimes it doesn’t even raise an eyebrow. Let somebody from the Big Ten or Happy Valley jaywalk and we’re held to the flames because everyone knows that we hold ourselves to a higher level of integrity.

The OTL piece wasn’t about justice, it was about getting viewers to watch.

Let me know when Alabama isn’t on probation, then do a story on it.

I thought you were a PSU guy until I saw the site

http://www.blackshoediaries.com/2009/6/11/905272/why-does-ohio-state-get-a-pass#16855299
and
http://www.blackshoediaries.com/2009/6/11/905272/why-does-ohio-state-get-a-pass#16857123

and show me where your recruiting numbers absolutely show that OSU is significantly (both in the magnitude and statistical certainty) better than PSU [Hint: it is not, especially if you factor in how bad rankings are to begin with]

This will go on until Joe Paterno retires AND PSU hires some rock star/pompous assed coach. It’s not fair, but that’s the media’s rules.

So in other words, it will hopefull go on forever.

With that said, though, I don’t think SweaterVest is a rock star, and he doesn’t seem that pompous assed. The program, on the other hand…

Except Iowa.

And Michigan State.

And Ohio State.

So … Northwestern and Minnesota!

So basicly what you did is boil the kool-aide down to a concentrated paste, then smoked it out of a crack pipe…right?

last year, without Wells.
Ohio: W 26-14, 162 yards team rushing, 50 by Herron (4.2 avg), 5-15 3rd down efficiency, also, Ohio was winning 14-12 until the 4th Quarter
USC: L 35-3, 71 yards team rushing, 51 by Herron (4.6 avg), 6-15 3rd down efficiency
Troy: W 28-10, 170 yards team rushing, 94 by Herron (4.7 avg), 3-11 3rd down efficiency, OSU was only beating Troy 14-10 until 4th quarter.

Then Wells comes back and averages 7+ yards for a bunch of games.

Yep, I really see Herron (running behind the same line, with the same QB to take the pressure off) stepping up there.

Also, while both OSU and PSU have legitimate claims to potential “upgrades”, do you seriously think that OSU is going to be fortunate enough to upgrade EVERY position where they lost guys to the NFL? Seriously? I’m with the rest of the guys here. Where do you get your Krack-Aid?

they were supposed to be WR’s but instead they were always fielding punts.

Probably because they’ve out-recruited you and the rest of the Big Ten so well over the past few years that the talent disparity is startling. They will not play a more talented team in conference play this year.

Blah blah omg recruiting rankings, blah blah. Go Irish!

(I’m too lazy to look up our rankings to show that we’re recruiting just fine, thank you. Also, 13-6.)

When OSU lost big to UF a few years ago, they were written off and lambasted yet came back to win the conference the next season.

Would you like to remind us all what happened to that Ohio State team after the 2007 regular season?

The last thing people remember is Mark Sanchez tearing apart your secondary, whereas people remember OSU taking UT down to the wire.

Or, they could just as easily remember Penn State having one bad quarter, but at least trying to fight back, unlike Ohio State, who were never even close to getting back into the game against SC.

Dude, no one in the media cares how close Big Ten teams come to winning bowl games. If they lose, that’s all we hear about. Period.

And, really, who cares right now? Most publications have both schools in the top ten. Both schools will receive a chance to prove who is better on the field.

I agree with this.

ok, I’ll admit that OSU has received better recruiting classes than PSU, but only if you admit that our “lower ranked” players still performed better than your higher ranked players, and as I challenged above, if you can show me a significant difference between the OSU & PSU recruit rankings, especially for the new starters…well then I’d just laugh in your face because you don’t know the understanding of significance (especially when you realize how big a joke the rankings are in the first place. How many 0-3 star players has PSU sent to the NFL the past few years?)

And your “how well we represented ourselves in the bowl game” argument is an absolute joke. Does that mean Iowa is the best team in the Big 10 (they, you know, actually won their bowl game). The Buckeyes loss to Texas was no better than PSU’s loss to USC, and the PSU loss to USC was certainly better than OSU’s loss to USC. And don’t give me any crap about not having Beanie Wells (we didn’t have Royster) or Pryor not being your starter yet (you had Boeckman…he seemed to be good enough for you to go to the MNC game in 2007). You guys got flat out destroyed in that game.

In 2006 OSU got lambasted for getting blown out to Florida. In 2007 everyone was groaning that you got back into the MNC game and predicting (correctly) another blowout. In 2008 Penn State was criticized for not being good enough to BLOW OUT OSU just like all the other big programs out there do. We played a conservative game, and beat you 13-6, and partially due to that were held out of the MNC game last year (our loss to Iowa wasn’t worse than say Florida’s loss, and our OOC schedule wasn’t worse than any of those teams except for Florida’s and USC’s).

The last thing anyone who actually watched the PSU game past the 2nd quarter would remember us controlling the game, and playing better than USC was. People would have similar memories of the Fiesta bowl (you guys were down 17-6 entering the 4th quarter, were able to come back and take the lead 21-7 with 2 minutes left, and then looked completely incompetent as you allowed Texas to effortlessly move the ball and win with like 15 seconds left on the clock. I was actually cheering for you guys in that game, but was embarassed at the first 3 quarters, and the ending. That’s what I remember. In the USC game, Penn State nearly scored to bring it within 7. We didn’t, due to some odd clock management and an interception in the endzone on the last play of the game (sound familiar). It didn’t happen, but it wasn’t like it was a hail mary, so there’s a decent chance it coulda been a TD, in which case we would have lost by 7, opposed to you losing by 4. OMG, so terrible.

But the reason we care. Yes, both schools are in the top 10. OSU could lose (even to a non-USC team) and make it back into the top 10. If PSU loses, they’ll just fall back on this and say, “see, they weren’t really that good, and we knew it” and it will be pretty much impossible for us to move back up.

1) You are drunk on kool aid. You appear to be assuming that the new players will automatically be better. Assuming that Ohio State will “blast” Penn State when there is not yet an indication that Ohio State is vastly superior is also stupid and ridiculous.

2) The fact that you had to resort to bringing up off-the-field incidents indicates that you are not only drunk on kool aid, you are also a troll.

Deon Butler and Jordan Norwood? Yeah right, as if we can’t replace a converted DB and a former coach’s son who was gifted a scholarship. And D-Will?? Never lived up to the hype anyways. Probably the most easily replaceable guys in the country.

The OL? How hard will that be? We have plenty of 4* guys waiting in the wings. And stars are all that matter, correct?

Aaron Maybin? Couldn’t play the run. Mo Evans? One year wonder. Jerome Hayes? Dude will probably be BETTER after his most recent surgery.

And the secondary? Are you kidding me? Scirrotto was a baseball player posing as a football player all along, just got drafted by KC in fact. Mark Rubin? Converted swimmer. Tony Davis Jr? Not even good enough to have an original name. Lydell Sargeant? Overrated CB, but great at fielding punts (like that one in the end zone against OSU this past year). We won’t miss any of those guys.

So there ya have it, PSU will actually be better for shipping these scrubs on outta here. So good, in fact, that I think we’ll go 13-0 before the BCS rolls around.*

*Denotes one extra win for defeating Terrelle Pryor’s Ego

/sarcasm

What about wunderkind Jamaal Berry? Facing up to 5 years in jail is it? Or your league leading NCAA sanctions and recruiting violations? Every team has dirt, so don’t even go there.

Also you may know more about your team but you assume we dont know more about ours?

Lame.

Jaamal Berry must have gotten lost heading to Happy Valley and ended up in Columbus.

If that was supposed to be derogatory, you failed. We’re quite proud of our “under-the-radar agriculture”

I’m not arguing Penn State should be ranked higher. I’m saying I don’t see why Ohio State is ranked so high considering all the talent they have to replace. Every year they start out ranked in the top five or ten. And every year they squeak by some pretty bad teams and end up getting blown out in their bowl game.

The post was about Ohio State. Not Penn State. I’m quite comfortable with Penn State being ranked around #15 in the polls.

I kind of dashed that out without really thinking.

I can’t say I don’t truly understand the situation, but I know I don’t like it.

How does tOSU get so bashed by the media for performing so badly in big games and then get the love from them in the form of a high pre-season ranking? If the media hates seeing OSU in the title game, maybe start them lower, so its easier to avoid? I dunno, is a convaluded mess.
It is like a circle that keeps feeding itself: high preseason rank>very good regular season>drubbed in bowl game.

I think, maybe, the point is that if the media folks hate seeing tOSU in the title picture, they should show that what they think of them via the rankings. Or something, I try to not get too bothered by it, as it is June, just nice bantering material.

yes, in 2005 we had a “loss”, but even if we went undefeated nothing would have changed, since USC & Texas went pole to pole #1/2.

Last year we had the same record as numerous other teams, but partly because we started ranked in the 20’s, and didn’t have the luxury of beating overrated teams like occurred in the SEC & Big 12, we were held out (combined with the perception that the Big 10 was weak, which was partly because the media ranked everyone low pre-season, so teams didn’t get much of a bump for beating overrated teams)