When the news of Terrell Pryor and the Tattoo Five broke, many were pondering how such a thing could happen.  But at the first news of this scandal, many thought that the Tattoo Five would be punished and that would be it. End of story.  I mean, it’s not the first time athletes have gotten caught accepting illegal (by NCAA standards) benefits.

The Ohio State squad was expected to start star freshman Braxton Miller through the first five games of the season and get Pryor and co. back in time to save the season.  But when more and more news of Jim Tressel got out, it was evident that Ohio State was on the decline. At least for this season.  Before all of this, the Big Ten announced that there would be two divisions within the conference.  The Legends Conference would include Northwestern, Michigan State, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa. Michigan State and Nebraska were the headliners here.  The Leaders Conference would contain Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin. The two top teams were supposed to be Ohio State and Wisconsin.

But with several things now happening, it seems that Wisconsin is benefiting from the Ohio State scandal.  Now, many are declaring Wisconsin the front runner to win the Leaders conference. But that’s not all.  Reports have surfaced that top QB transfer Russell Wilson may be headed to Wisconsin, and the decision may come soon.  With QB being the biggest question mark, landing Wilson would put the Badgers over Ohio State.  The former NC State QB is a proven passer (albeit some accuracy question marks) who has adequate scrambling ability.

While he won’t be as perfect for the system as Scott Tolzien was, he is certainly a notch above the QBs on the current depth chart.  Another recent story involving a recruiting battle also serves to show how Wisconsin is benefiting from Ohio State’s fall.  Kyle Dodson, a four star offensive lineman for the class of 2012 according to Rivals.com, recently committed to the Badgers over the Buckeyes.  Dodson was quoted as saying, “It was hard turning down Ohio State.”

In translation, what he’s saying is that “I liked Ohio State but was scared off a little by all the recent things happening.”  The Badgers have never been a recruiting powerhouse but in their first five commitments of the 2012 class, four of them are four star recruits according to Rivals.  The last time Wisconsin had four or more 4-star recruits was the class of 2009 in which they had five overall.  With the recent investigations against Ohio State and things looking upward for Wisconsin, it seems as though Wisconsin is going to get another shot at the Big Ten title.

After watching that game how do you think Ohio State, Kansas, Duke, Pittsburgh, North Carolina,  Florida, Notre Dame, San Diego State, BYU, Purdue, Kentucky and Syracuse are all feeling about what they let slip away.  Any of those teams could have easily won that game on Monday night, and probably did it in blowout fashion.  Here are a few facts just in case missed the game, Butler shot 18.8 percent on 12-of-64 shooting.  Worst ever in a NCAA final, and it broke the record from that awful Wisconsin v. Wash State game noted above.  There were times when walking around the house the play by play of the game was clank, clank, and more clank as both teams struggled from the field.

Connecticut (32-9) outscored Butler by an unthinkable 26-2 in the paint, which is almost unheard of when two teams are supposedly “evenly matched”.  Some even said that the match up favored Butler because UCONN as not a good three point shooting team, and the Bulldogs could pack their defense in and force UCONN to win the game with jump shots.  Well it sort of worked, UConn shot a miserable 34.5 percent from the field and still won by 12 points.  The Huskies were 1-for-11 from behind the arc, which exactly what Butler was counting on to get the victory.

The Bulldogs (28-10) went a mind-numbing 13 minutes, 26 seconds in the second half making only one field goal.  They made 3-of-31 two-point attempts.  The tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, Jeremy Lamb, scored 12 points all in the second half after being saddled with early foul trouble at the beginning of the game.  Butler’s biggest stars, Matt Howard and Shelvin Mack were ice cold, Howard went 1-for-13, and Mack went 4-for-15.

Butler’s 41 points were 10 points fewer than the worst showing in the shot-clock era in a championship game. Michigan scored 51 in a loss to Duke in 1992, Butler’s 12 field goals were the second fewest in a championship game only three more than Oklahoma made way back in 1949.  The Bulldogs shot 16.2 percent in the second half on 6-of-37 shooting, and fast break points = 0, not to mention two points form the bench.  What is lost in all of this is the fact that Jim Calhoun put himself in the elite legendary coaching class with his third national title, there are only a handful of coaches that have more than two.

This is probably not the way Jim Calhoun or Kemba Walker drew up winning a national title, but I am sure they are not complaining about it today.  You have to wonder about Butler though, with as poorly as they played when they went in at halftime they were winning the game.  Then in the second half they were blown out after Calhoun made adjustments that freed up Lamp to exploit his size advantage on the smaller Bulldogs, had Butler been able to create some sort of inside game they might be the team celebrating a title.

Legends          _______ Leaders

Nebraska                                  Illinois
Michigan                                 Indiana
Michigan State                      Ohio State
Minnesota                               Penn State
Iowa                                          Purdue
Northwestern                         Wisconsin

There was a heavy negative fan reaction to the new names, and it has Delany thinking of changing the names to something different.  Here was his reasoning behind selecting those names, “The conference chose the divisions based on parity, rather than geography, which made naming them East-West or North-South impractical. The Big Ten also considered using names of historic players or coaches, that would have been “too limiting.”"

The fans who are upset over the name have a legitimate gripe, how do you designate some programs as “leaders” while others are “legends”?  Those two names can be interpreted any number of ways, so depending on what school you are at the name may be offensive to you.  Delany said that doing geographical names did not make sense, but in many sports conferences those geographical names never do.  Teams move around so much that geographical divisions are always getting a bit skewed, and I do give him credit for trying to think outside of the box.

People may adjust to the new names at some point, but putting out a fan poll to see what names or suggestions might have been more popular would have been the best course of action.  After all Delany said that his goal is to build fan bases, so what would have fostered excitement and loyalty more than the fans having the opportunity to name the divisions of the conference that their team plays in?  Welcome to the Hall of Fail Jim Delany, although your heart was in the right place your execution was poor.

The Manning Bowl did not live up to the hype – NBC marketed the game between the Giants and Colts as Manning Bowl II, as usual they interviewed Archie Manning and his wife.  They showed baby videos and photos of Peyton and Eli, it was a chronicle of the Manning family for the most part.  Well the game did not live up to the hype at all, coming into the game the Colts looked like the team that was searching for answers after getting hammered by the Texans.  The Giants pummeled the Panthers and looked like they were clicking on all cylinders.  Well the game proved the exact opposite; the Giants vaunted pass rush was non-existent.  Peyton Manning was able to have his way with the Giants defense, and Eli Manning could hardly find any time to do much of anything.  The 38 – 7 final score was actually not as bad as it should have been, that is how soundly the Giants were dominated.  At halftime I am sure most of America turned that boring game off, hopefully next week the Jets and Dolphins can provide a better game on Sunday night.

Mark Sanchez and the Jets silenced the critics. – After a pedestrian offensive performance last Monday night the New York Jets took the shackles off of Mark Sanchez and he delivered.  Sanchez had a career day by completing 21 passes and three touchdowns all career highs for him, and the Jets defense shut down Tom Brady and the Patriots in the second half.  People criticized the Jets for “under delivering” and talking trash and not backing it up on the field.  Many new Jets fan stopped supporting the team after one week, but the Jets were confident all week and came out ready against New England.  As for the Moss versus Revis match up it only lasted a half as Revis left with an injury on a fantastic one handed touchdown grab by Moss.  I guess both of them will have to wait until later in the year before they can renew this rivalry.

The Big Ten is a one trick pony. – There is a ton of debate each week about which conferences in college football are better than the others; it was thought that the Big Ten was a deep conference.  After this weekend it is apparent that the Big Ten only has one team that top teams in college football should be worried about, and that team is Ohio State.  Wisconsin squeaked out a lucky one point victory against unranked Arizona State at home, the ninth ranked Iowa Hawkeyes were ambushed in the desert by the Arizona Wildcats.  The Michigan Wolverines struggled with UMASS a FCS school who put 37 points on them, and Michigan State although undefeated has not looked dominant in any of their wins.  Penn State was considered to be another contender, but ultimately they were dismantled by the Alabama Crimson Tide.  It is difficult to tell how good teams are after a few games, and the Big Ten teams could get stronger as the season moves ahead, but right now it does not appear that the conference is particularly strong.

Is anyone paying attention to Baseball? – There are several tight division races in baseball, and several teams fighting for wildcard spots in both the American and National League.  But, is anyone actually paying attention?  We hear a few people peeking in on the local home town team, but on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday football has smothered almost any talk about baseball.  Because nothing else is on Tuesday – Friday baseball is getting some run from people, but once football is in full swing baseball does not blip on the radar until the playoffs.  Bud Selig really needs to look at shortening the baseball season, and having the playoffs start in August before football really gets into full swing.

Much news out of the Michgan State versus Notre Dame Game. – If you watched any college football this weekend at some point you saw highlights from the Michigan State versus Notre Dame Football game where the Spartans beat Notre Dame 34 – 31 in overtime.  Aside from the fact that it was a good game that Notre Dame lost on a fake field goal in the first over time, there was controversy surrounding several plays.  On Michigan States touchdown that tied it to send it into overtime their receiver seemed to go out of bounds before coming back in and catching the touchdown pass.  That would have made him not eligible to catch the pass, but the officials ruled he was forced out.  The in overtime as Michigan State lined up for the field goal to tie the game (eventually faked) the play clock ran out, but no delay of game was called and the rest is history.  On Sunday Michigan State’s head coach Mark Dantonio suffered a mild heart attack and was hospitalized, so goes the up and down lives of college football coaches.   Notre Dame is 1 – 2, and the team looks mediocre, the Irish need to come to the realization that they are not a top flight program anymore.  Join a conference and prove you can run the gauntlet instead of being greedy and trying to cultivate the all might dollar based on past glory.

Miami and Ohio State squared off in Columbus on September 11th, 2010.  The Buckeyes came away with a 36 – 24 victory after a hard found game on both sides.  The game itself was exciting, and had several big plays in addition to moments when the momentum of the game swung almost instantly.  There were many revelations that came out of this game, far too many to list here.  Here are Eight revelations from the game, but feel free to add more in the comments.

1.  Ohio State Is a Good Team Not an Elite One

The Buckeyes defense was stout in the game, but there were plenty of holes to exploit as well.  Cameron Heyward was a beast, and is one of the most dominating players at his position in the country.

On the offensive side of the ball, the Buckeyes benefited from several short fields.  Pryor did have several good passes during the game, but there were many that still were off the mark.  His running ability was bottled up early, and as the game wore on Pryor’s running became more effective.  The most important part is he didn’t turn the ball over, and he played his game rather than trying to prove he could sling it all over the place.

The Buckeyes made very few mistakes, but Miami made the more costly ones.  The Buckeyes proved they are deserving of their top five ranking, but need to clean some things up before a possible BCS bowl berth.  Ohio State only had two drives on the Miami defense over 60 yards, and despite being setup inside the Miami 30 yard line four times to start drives they came away with mostly field goals.  This is what kept Miami in the game, and seems to be over looked by a lot of fans.  Fans should not think that this is a slight at Ohio State, it was a solid win at home over a game Miami team.

2.  Miami Needs to Commit To The Running Game

The showdown is fast approaching between Ohio State and Miami, these two historic programs are coming off of easy victories.  Miami pummeled Florida A&M 45 – 0, while Ohio State dismantled Marshall 45 – 7.  Both teams look crisp and on top of their games, surely those games were merely a tune up for the September 11^th meeting between the two.

There are many keys to winning this game on both sides, and many articles have been written about various aspects of the game.  One of the biggest match ups will be Ohio State’s offense versus The Miami Hurricanes Defense, both units are loaded with talent and each unit is capable of controlling the game.  Here are the key matchups when the Miami Defense is on the field, and what needs to happen in order for the Hurricanes to have a chance at victory.

Miami Secondary vs. Ohio State Receivers

Ohio State’s starting receivers DeVier Posey and Dane Sanzenbacher are highly underrated, both of these players are veteran experienced receivers capable of making big plays.  The Hurricanes defensive backs cannot underestimate the Ohio State passing game; it would be very easy for them to overlook the Buckeyes in this area.  Ohio State ranked 104^th nationally in passing in 2009 averaging 173.1 yards per game over the entire season.

The Ohio State passing game was used as a big play mechanism that was setup by their dominant running game, as defenses over committed to the running game and the Buckeyes would go over the top for big plays.  The Miami Hurricanes ranked 31^st in 2009 for defense against the run surrendering 122.31 yards per game, so the opportunity will be there for Ohio State to draw Miami closer to the line with success in the running game.

Miami has one of the top corner backs in the country in Brandon Harris, and DeMarcus Van Dyke is solid on the other side.  The Hurricanes have enough talent to contain the passing attack of the Buckeyes, but if Ohio State has success in the running game or Pryor scrambles for a lot of yardage that talent will be negated in order to stop the run.  This will open opportunities to go over the top, so the key will be the University of Miami safeties Ray Ray Armstrong and Vaughn Telemaque staying disciplined and keeping the receivers in front of them.

Edge:  Miami

Miami Defensive Line vs. Ohio State Offensive Line

The Hurricanes have a deep defensive line rotation, but they are going up against an experienced offensive line full of juniors and seniors.  Opponents totaled 23 sacks against this offensive line unit last season, and with the size and athletic ability of Terrelle Pryor it will be difficult to sack Pryor.  The Hurricanes almost need to abandon any thought of “sacking” him in the purest sense, and focus on containing him in the pocket and slowing down the running game.

The Buckeye’s offensive line does not need to hold blocks for long periods of time, they merely need to direct the Miami pass rushers away from prior to create running lanes for him if he needs them.  This is one of the main reasons this offense does not wow you with stats, and just get the job done because they block towards the strengths of their quarterback.

Last season the Hurricanes defense ranked 43^rd against the pass surrendering 207.3 yards per game, and lacked a consistent pass rush all season.  The Hurricanes recorded eight sacks against FAMU in the first game, but will be facing a much better caliber of athlete this week.  With Adewale Ojomo and Marcus Forston returning the depth will help the Hurricanes stay fresh on the defensive line, but they will have to prove they can stop the run or at least slow it down.  The biggest task will be to keep Terrelle Pryor from getting to the outside and force him to scramble in the middle of the field where the linebackers and secondary will have a better chance to stop him.

Edge:  Draw

Miami Linebackers vs. Ohio State Running Game

The Ohio State Buckeyes ranked 19^th against the run in 2009 averaging 195.92 yards per game, with a bulk of those yards coming from Terrelle Pryor.   The Hurricanes line backing core is traditionally undersized sacrificing bulk for speed and athleticism, and this season the line backing group has been the biggest question mark for the Hurricanes.  They have Sean  Spence returning from an injury while Colin McCarthy is returning from a decent, but not great season.  The middle line backer position is occupied by Kylan Robinson for now, but it has been a revolving door during spring and fall practices.

With the Ohio State rushing attack being consistent yet unpredictable because of the random yardage spurts of Pryor, it will be a difficult task for this group.  Hurricanes line backer Sean Spence had these comments about the match up with Pryor, “It’s not just me – as a defense everyone has to execute and do their responsibility and we’ll be fine.” (Miami.rivals.com)

Pryor is bigger and just as fast as or faster than all the Hurricanes line backers, so it will have to be a group effort to stop him.  The Hurricanes should be able to slow down Brandon Saine, but Pryor is going to be the puzzle they have to figure out.  People using Jonathan Nesbit from Georgia Tech as a blue print need to avoid that mistake, the Georgia Tech rushing attack is completely different and the Hurricanes have looked horrible one season against Nesbit and great last year.  The option has a certain level of prediction to it, but Pryor’s running does not, even with the Hurricanes sideline to sideline speed they are still going to need something to break for them.

Edge:  Ohio State

Overall this is going to be a chess match.  Will the Hurricanes keep a spy to watch Pryor, or play him straight up?  Will the front four be stout enough up front to prevent the Ohio State offensive line from controlling the pass rush?  Will Pryor be able to complete passes against the Miami secondary on a consistent basis?  All of these questions will be answered on Saturday when these teams line up against each other in The Horseshoe.

The NCAA banned college coaches from text-messaging recruit back in 2007 because of the potential cost to a student athlete who did not have an unlimited text messaging plan.  This has become a growing problem because the NCAA was asleep at the switch when text messaging became a primary means of communication in this country.  The Miami Hurricanes have self reported several texting infractions in several sports, Football, Track, and possibly baseball.

Personally the fact that a team can be put on probation for text messaging is fairly dumb; these kids should not be communicating with coaches directly in the first place.  This is no different than a player giving his cell phone number to a girl that is pursuing him and she texts him until he is out of messages, he gave her the number so it is his responsibility to tell her to stop.  In most of these cases the parents of the recruit are paying for the phone anyway, so why would the parents not pick up the phone and say “coach Shannon the text messages need to stop we can’t afford them anymore.”

It should stop right there Randy Shannon like any other coach does not want to piss of a potential recruits parents, instead though the NCAA makes a monolithic rule with unrealistic expectations.  What if the recruit initiates contact with the coach via text message is it permissible then?  What if the recruit has an unlimited texting plan, and prefers the text communication over talking on the phone?  When you make a blanket rule it leaves almost no flexibility for those who do want to take advantage of the technology.

I am sure Ohio State and Florida fans are waiting for the opportunity to jump on this topic, especially Florida with their $100k scandal several months ago.  This is a non issue; yes there were a few teams who landed on probation for text messaging, and another team gave up one scholarship and reduced a few campus visits.  In the end it’s all one big smoke screen the NCAA does not have a handle on anything these days, and they know their only weapon is making examples out of big time programs and hope that everyone else falls in line.  That is why there are so many schools self reporting violations now, almost every day you see another school mentioned.  When the NCAA put the screws to USC it put every other school in panic mode.

Miami still has hardly had any players arrested under Randy Shannon, and if Florida, or any other school’s fans want to compare “transgressions” over the last four years then that’s a challenge we can take.  I saw another ignorant comment from a Florida fan on the article,

“Funny. Reading UM fans’ posts on here through the last couple of years one would think that Randy Shannon’s program is the cleanest in all of college football.

Go figure.”:

Is he serious?  “Text messaging” is considered dirty?  I am sorry last time I checked $100k was not being sent over text to prospective or current players.  This is the dumb game schools have to play with the NCAA, this is just another example of the bigger problem in college football.  That is a different article for another day.  Back to the NCAA’s verbiage on this rule, “The NCAA website notes that “evolving technology presents unique challenges in recruiting. . . . Schools cannot text prospective student-athletes at any time, but they can e-mail during permissible contact periods. Schools can do so even from social media platforms such as Facebook. . . . All other electronically transmitted correspondence including, but not limited to, text messaging, Instant Messenger, chat rooms or message boards [e.g. a user's wall] within a social networking Web site or through other services or applications remain impermissible. . . . Tweeting is permissible as long as coaches are not using it to contact individual prospective student-athletes and are abiding by the standard recruiting rules.” (www.miamiherald.com)

That is the one of the vaguest explanations of a rule I have ever read in my life.  They say emailing even through Facebook is okay, but posting on the athletes Facebook wall is not okay?  That makes absolutely no sense at all, if the NCAA had a clue they would realize that many people have smart phones and emails to their Facebook or email accounts show up on their phones.  Theoretically this is texting, and tweeting is okay as long as they do not contact the student athlete.

Okay, so I am Joe coach I setup a Twitter account, and I ask Rob Blue Chip to follow me on Twitter.  He sets up his smart phone to receive Tweets as text messages, and once he follows me I Tweet “boy Rob Blue Chip would look great in a Hurricanes uniform”.  This message was posted to my Twitter account, and since the recruit is following me he gets a TEXT on his phone.

I can sit here and shoot holes in the NCAA’s texting rule all day, but I won’t.  As for the Miami Hurricanes they know that the NCAA and other schools would love to see them get in trouble.  People feel that Miami is making a comeback, and another set of violations could set the program back several years.  That is not going to happen these are mostly considered secondary violations unless they sent thousands of text messages to prospective recruits, which does not seem to be the case.  This only made news because it was Miami, no money exchanged hands and no bounties were paid the Hurricanes will self impose new policies and the NCAA will be pacified enough to leave them alone.  If the Hurricanes do slip up and get caught texting recruits again, then they may not be able to put off the NCAA next time.  The school has imposed tougher internal polices although it has not been disclosed exactly what those are.

The 25 most hated teams in sports list was recently released.  Many I agreed with and some I did not understand why they were even on the list, then I came to the team ranked at #11 which was the 1990 University of Miami Football team. I obviously was not surprised that Miami was on the list because that is all you ever hear from people who THINK they know about college football.

Here is an excerpt of what was written about the 11th most hated team of all time in reference to their Cotton Bowl appearance.

“Seldom has a team been so undisciplined … and unstoppable. Miami had a Cotton Bowl record 132 yards in penalties. At halftime the ‘Canes finished with 202 yards in penalties, a bowl record that still stands. They also won 46-3. “If they aren’t the best,” ‘Horns coach David McWilliams said: “I don’t want to play the best.” — Austin Murphy (www.cnnsi.com )

I thought that was interesting that it seemed their entire basis for being ranked the 11th most hated team of all time was based on one game, a woodshed beating of the Texas Longhorns.

So I noted that and continued to scroll up the list wondering what teams were in the top ten. I look through the teams and I am passing the 2007 New England Patriots at the sixths spot (can’t argue with that one), the 1988-89 Detroit Pistons at the number two spot.

Then I get a look at who is picked as the MOST hated team of all time, and it is the 1986 Miami Hurricanes football team. Here is the entire passage that was written, so you can see their reasoning for ranking the Hurricanes in the top spot.

“His players were visionaries, early practitioners of an in-your-face brand of football that went out of its way to belittle and intimidate opponents. It was, in a lot of ways, the opposite of sportsmanship. It was a ‘Cane thing. To say that Jimmy Johnson (pictured, left, with Michael Irvin) gave his players free reign was an understatement.

The ’86 Hurricanes were caught up in “fights and fraud and alleged shoplifting and other unsavory shenanigans involving more than 40 players,” wrote SI ‘s Rick Reilly. “Miami may be the only squad in America that has its team picture taken from the front and from the side.”

It was also flat-out loaded, an NFL developmental squad, and not inclined toward modesty. The top-ranked ‘Canes showed up in Tempe, Ariz., for the national title game rocking military fatigues, in stark contrast to the coats and ties sported by the charges of “St. Joe ” Paterno, as Johnson dubbed his counterpart. In that famed Fiesta Bowl game, Heisman Trophy winner

Vinny Testaverde threw five picks and Miami turned the ball over seven times in a 14-10 Penn State upset that made a lot of people across the republic very, very happy.” — Austin Murphy (www.cnnsi.com)

First let’s point out the obvious Miami was the ONLY team to make this list twice, the Pistons, Yankees, and Chicago Black Sox were all on there even the 2005 USC Trojans.  None of them made this list more than once. The other constant with that list is that most of the teams on that list were very successful, or champions in their respective sports. What this says is that people don’t hate the Hurricanes just because of their Bravado; they hate the Hurricanes because they win championships with a chip on their shoulder.

If you look at the majority of the teams on that list the Pistons were known as the Bad Boys, even the Jimmy Johnson led 1992 Dallas Cowboys were on there. If you look at it all of these teams were highly successful, and people hated them because they won without being nice guys.

They went on the field and looked at the team across from them as an opponent not a group of friends who they were going to hang out with after the game.  Those Miami Hurricanes teams played football the way it should be played, with heart, emotion, and a general dislike of the team they are playing.

People always bring up all the “off the field” stories about those Miami teams, but what they do not talk about is hardly any of those players ever missed a game on Saturday because of an off field issue.  If Miami players were committing as many crimes blatantly as all the rumors say they would have surely been caught multiple times over a four year period.

The players at Miami just feed that stigma and over exaggerate all of it because they are proud that people were against them, and the succeeded despite people objections. Thinks of the genius in all of this, teams from 1986 and 1990 were so polarizing that they shaped the perception of an entire football program.

The perception remains today even though Miami has hardly had any players arrested over the past five seasons, which just proves all of the media hate is based off of personal bias more than fact.  Were those Miami teams in your face, cocky, and intense? You bet they were.

But Michael Jordan was just as bad, and if you believe the stories he was even worse and not one Chicago Bulls team made this list. Jordan is loved by millions, and he played the game of basketball much the same way as the Miami Hurricanes played football, but he gets nowhere near the same level of hate.

There was also a section talking about teams that barely missed the cut for making the top 25 most hated list, and the 2002 Ohio State Buckeyes were listed.  There were appropriately named “The Luckeyes” for that good fortune filled season they experienced which can only be described as something of a dream.  Well at least in South Florida the Gators and Buckeyes are fighting for the top spot of most hated team by Miami Hurricanes fans, maybe it will be a tie for first!