Wizblog

Buckeyes Roll to 7-0

This week we'll hear about how dangerous it is to underestimate the Indiana Hoosiers. Better the Hoosiers should be asking the MSU Spartans if they felt the Buckeyes were taking them lightly. Troy Smith had another workmanlike, mistake-free game, and his Heisman competitors had a bad week. Adrian Peterson is out for the season (after a stellar game) and Garrett Wolfe was held to about 200 rushing yards under his average.

We're also another week closer to the probability that the winner of the Ohio State-Michigan game on Nov. 18 has a ticket to the BCS National Championship Game. Michigan moved into the top three in the BCS, and edged out USC for No. 2 in the AP Poll. We were on this two weeks ago.

Unfortunately, the big story of this weekend's college football action was the brawl involving the University of Miami Hurricanes and FIU. I couldn't help notice the contrast between this Miami program and Jim Tressel's Buckeyes, for whom that kind of display would be unthinkable. Granted, it would be for most other teams too, but these guys are busy singing "Carmen Ohio" with their fans after the game (below), win or lose. As for Miami, you have to wonder if Coker has a grip on things there. When coaches say things like ""We've got a strong grip on this program", that's your first clue you might have a problem.

To be fair, even though the Hurricanes have the reputation of being, to put it mildly, brawlers, FIU has had violent incidents in several previous games, and seem to have instigated things wiith what Coker called a "slam dunk" of Miami's extra-point holder. I think the NCAA might come calling to Miami this time though, trying to find some "institutional control."

(photo via ESPN.com)

UPDATE:

I wanted to excerpt this anecdote about Tony Gonzalez calling his own number because of what it tells us about Tressel and his relationship with his players:

...according to Tressel, it was Gonzalez who suggested the play OSU used when he came free to catch a 12-yard touchdown pass from Smith.

“Gonzo is such a heady player out there,” Tressel said. “His awareness level of the whole picture is outstanding. The one touchdown he caught in the back of the end zone, where we had a little play action and we rubbed some receivers, we called that during the timeout and he called it.

“We had a different one in mind and Gonzo said, ‘Hey, why don’t we do this one?’ I never was up for a Rhodes scholarship. I figured I would go with Gonzo’s choice, and that was his call. He studies the heck out of the film. He’s very aware when he’s on the field of play.”

Smith credited Gonzalez for coming up with the call and then making the catch.

“That’s why we call him the Wizard,” said Smith....

Posted by dan at October 15, 2006 7:05 PM