Tag: ohio state

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day finalist for Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year

Head coach Ryan Day has been named a finalist for the 2019 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award Day has been truly remarkable in his first year as head coach at Ohio State The Buckeyes are undefeated at 13-0 and has beaten every single team by double digits this year The Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year will be announced on Friday, Dec. 20

Head coach Ryan Day has been named a finalist for the 2019 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award Day has been truly remarkable in his first year as head coach at Ohio State The Buckeyes are undefeated at 13-0 and has beaten every single team by double digits this year The Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year will be announced on Friday, Dec. 20

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day finalist for Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year

Head coach Ryan Day has been named a finalist for the 2019 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award Day has been truly remarkable in his first year as head coach at Ohio State The Buckeyes are undefeated at 13-0 and has beaten every single team by double digits this year The Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year will be announced on Friday, Dec. 20

Head coach Ryan Day has been named a finalist for the 2019 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award Day has been truly remarkable in his first year as head coach at Ohio State The Buckeyes are undefeated at 13-0 and has beaten every single team by double digits this year The Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year will be announced on Friday, Dec. 20

College Football Playoff Expansion: Would you Want It?

What does nobody have a logical complaint about this year though yet is still complained about regularly?
The College Football Playoff and how it needs expanded.

It’s that time of year that there are no major college football games to react to for a couple weeks aside from Army/Navy so in the tradition of the internet we’re left with a lot of venting of frustrations.

Some people are mad their coach is still around (Looking at you, USC…).

Some people are mad about the inferior bowl game their team got selected to (what’s up Fighting Irish fans?).

And others are mad about recruits flipping commitments and instead choosing a rival (Hey, Auburn!).

What does nobody have a logical complaint about this year though yet is still complained about regularly?

The College Football Playoff and how it needs expanded.

Each time I look on Twitter (I swear if it wasn’t for work I’d drop it and Facebook faster than Braden Lenzy could run past a Navy defender) it’s as if another “New and Improved” playoff format is being proposed.

Ross does great work and I have no doubt these talks have been had. I only have one question about it though:

Why?

This year’s playoff was perfect. Do we really need to see a two-loss Oregon team get added for winning the Pac-12? Does Baylor deserve in because they lost close twice to Oklahoma? Should LSU have to beat Alabama or Georgia a second time to prove they’re title worthy?

The answer to all of these is an emphatic “NO!”.

The ideas to include even more – 12 or 16 squads?

Ridiculous.

Who in their right might mind wants to see three-loss Auburn, Wisconsin, Michigan or Notre Dame get a shot?

They’re all in the top 16.

I like the idea of the regular season mattering in a big way. Rewarding good but great teams for good but not great play takes away the importance.

LSU versus Alabama was great a month ago but you know why? Because it was essentially an elimination game for the CFP.

I get the lack of excitement over heading to the Camping World Bowl but would you rather see an undeserving Notre Dame team get a playoff chance and get smoked by LSU?

I don’t see the point of that.

Because they come close to earning it and LSU shouldn’t have to beat yet another top 25 team and risk another week of injuries since its football after-all, to try to win a title.

Expansion to six teams could make sense in my eyes because it protects against the extremely unlikely chance that all five Power Five Conference champs end a season unbeaten yet one gets left out.

Beyond that is simply rewarding good, not great and I couldn’t be more against it.

Ohio State Football makes history with first program with one offensive and one defensive Heisman finalist

It’s not that the Buckeyes just have two finalists, but that they’re the only team in NCAA history with one on both sides of the ball.

It’s not that the Ohio State Buckeyes just have two Heisman finalists, but that they’re the only team in NCAA history with one on both sides of the ball.

Defensively, it was Bronko Nagurski Award winner Chase Young as the nation’s best defender. He was also nominated as the only defensive Heisman finalist, and one of just a few in the history of the award.

Although missing regular-season games, both dominant wins for Ohio State, Young set the university’s single-season sack record. The 6-foot-5 defensive end has a nation-leading 16.5 sacks on the season. He totaled 21 tackles for loss this on the year.

On the other side of the ball, it was star sophomore Justin Fields. He also already has accolades to his name, being dubbed the Offensive Player of the Year for the Big Ten.

Fields, who transferred to Ohio State this season, totaled 40 touchdowns with just one interception. A 40:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio is unheard of and one of many arguments on his Heisman resume.

Adding ten touchdowns and over 470 yards on the ground, Fields has led Ohio State as one of college football’s best dual-threat quarterbacks. But, his toughest matchups are still to come.

The duo has led Ohio State to a perfect 13-0 record, entering the College Football Playoffs as one of three undefeated teams remaining. The Buckeyes will be taking on Clemson in the Playstation Fiesta Bowl on December 28.

As for the Heisman Trophy, it will be awarded in New York City on Saturday, December 14, exactly two weeks before Ohio State’s semifinal game.

Wisconsin is one part of a sexy Big Ten bowl season

Big Ten bowl thoughts

I’m not going to tell you that the full Big Ten Conference bowl season is great. Michigan State-Wake Forest? ZZZZZZ. Illinois-California? Nap time. Indiana-Tennessee? That’s nice. Penn State, thanks to Wisconsin making the Rose Bowl, gets pushed into the corner to play Memphis, getting the Group of Five assignment Power Five schools hate at bowl season.

However, five of the Big Ten’s nine bowl games are really sexy and very important. The Wisconsin Badgers are just one part of a five-part story. This year, the Big Ten’s better teams all drew high-profile opponents, which lends some snap, crackle and pop to the 2019 bowl season. One could very easily make the argument that in a generally lackluster lineup of 39 bowl games (UCF-Marshall! Appalachian State-UAB! Pittsburgh-Eastern Michigan!), the Big Ten has the best and most interesting matchups, the games a lot of casual sports fans will watch at bowl season.

Oregon. Clemson. Alabama. Auburn. USC. Those five schools have all played for national championships this century. More specifically, they have all played for national titles in the past 15 years. Four of the five (USC being the exception) played for the national title THIS DECADE. Three of those four schools (Oregon being the exception) won a national title this decade.

These are the five opponents for Big Ten teams in the upper-tier bowl games.

Oregon is Wisconsin’s opponent in Pasadena. Clemson faces Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl playoff semifinal. Alabama returns to the Citrus Bowl — where it began this decade against Michigan State — to play the other Michigan school, Jim Harbaugh’s Wolverines. Auburn gets P.J. Fleck and Minnesota in the Outback Bowl.

A hilarious aspect of the Outback Bowl:

USC is Iowa’s opponent in the Holiday Bowl. A trip to San Diego and a marquee opponent give Hawkeye fans a good reward for their team’s season. We can power-rank these games later on (you can bet that we will), but for now, simply realize that the five best Big Ten bowl games are all showcase events. None of the matchups are dull. Bama might blow out Michigan, but the matchup isn’t a snoozer. Harbaugh versus Saban demands attention… at least the first one and a half quarters.

The Big Ten isn’t going low-profile this bowl season. This is an attractive, dressed-up, high-end football fashion show to close out the 2010s and ring in the new year… and the new decade.

Fiesta Bowl tickets for Ohio State vs Clemson are officially sold out

The Fiesta Bowl, one of two College Football Semifinals, will showcase Ohio State vs. Clemson. The matchup is officially sold out..

The Fiesta Bowl, one of two College Football Semifinals, will showcase Ohio State vs. Clemson. And now, the matchup is officially sold out, the Bowl’s Twitter account noted.

The game will be played on December 28, 2019, and kickoff is set for 8 pm EST. The 2 pm tweet came just a few days following the announcement of the matchup.

Two of the three remaining undefeated programs, this will certainly be the more notable of the two semifinal games.

For Ohio State, it’s about re-writing history. The last time these two teams met, Clemson destroyed Ohio State, beating the Buckeyes 31-0. The Buckeyes also lost to the Tigers in the 2014 Orange Bowl 40-35.

A 31-point beatdown is certainly still felt, and a senior like KJ Hill should have a little extra motivation heading into the late-December matchup.

Ohio State, one of the nation’s most prestigious football programs, has created a fanbase that travels well. That said, expect the game, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, to have a good amount of Ohio State and Clemson fans in attendance.

Notre Dame/Iowa State: How to Watch the Camping World Bowl

That day, at least in terms of college football, begins at noon ET on the 28th as Notre Dame takes on Iowa State in a contest that airs on ABC.

Saturday, December 28 will be one of the best Saturday’s of the season for college fans with a couple of intruiging bowl games before the College Football Playoff takes over at night.

That day, at least in terms of college football, begins at noon ET on the 28th as Notre Dame takes on Iowa State in a contest that airs on ABC.

Penn State and Memphis doing battle in the Cotton Bowl will kickoff at the same time on ESPN.

Finally the College Football Playoff will begin following the Cotton Bowl with both games airing on ESPN.

LSU and Oklahoma doing battle in the Peach Bowl and Ohio State takes on Clemson in the Fiesta Bowl.  It has not yet been announced which of those two games will air first and which will be shown in primetime, but I’d be willing to bet the Fiesta gets the nod.

Every Big Ten voter in the Amway Coaches Poll put Ohio State at No. 1

Six Big Ten coaches had votes in the Amway Coaches Poll this year. All of them put Ohio State at No. 1.

The Amway Coaches Poll powered by USA TODAY Sports is decided by 65 FBS coaches. These 65 voters are split up relatively evenly between the ten conferences, to avoid potential bias. Not only is there possibly an incentive for coaches to make their opponents look stronger, but familiarity breeds respect, and coaches are generally most familiar with the teams in their own conferences.

Usually, the ballots for the Coaches Poll are kept private. No one knows which coach voted which way. However, in a tradition that came from the BCS, the poll does release the ballot of each coach for the final rankings. USA Today published those ballots, which contain some interesting nuggets.

An important takeaway, though, is that all sseven Big Ten coaches will ballots put Ohio State at No. 1. The Buckeyes received 14 first-place votes in the final poll, and a full half those 14 came from Big Ten coaches. Chris Ash of Rutgers, Jeff Brohm of Purdue, Michigan State’s Mark Dantonio, Ohio State’s own Ryan Day, Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald, Penn State’s James Franklin, and Nebraska’s Scott Frost all put the Buckeyes in the top spot. (Even though Ash was fired partway through the season, his vote isn’t transferred to a different school or coach.)

This is not too unexpected. The trends for years have indicated that teams are slightly overrated (relative to the rest of the poll) by coaches in their own conference–which is why the bias is spread out the way the poll does it. Still, it’s noteworthy that the Big Ten coaches all think that Ohio State is the best in the land, while the vast majority of others had the Buckeyes at No. 2. A few coaches did have Ohio State at No. 3 behind both LSU and Clemson, but no one had the Buckeyes lower. In fact, astonishingly, every single coach (and every single AP voter) had the Oklahoma Sooners at No. 4–not a single voter had them higher or lower.

J.K. Dobbins and Jeff Okudah agree, this Ohio State team is special

After come-from-behind win to seal the Big Ten Title Game, both Jeff Okudah and J.K. Dobbins agree; this may be the best buckeyes team yet.

When looking at all-time great teams in Ohio State history, it’s hard to look past this 2019 squad. While there were tremendously talented teams back earlier in the decade, this team’s resume speaks for itself.

A dominant win over Michigan in Ann Arbor, a come-from-behind victory to clinch the Big Ten Title, and a perfect 13-0 record are what they’ll take into the College Football Playoff.

But, the resounding theme is that this journey is far from over.

However, there’s no denying the talent on this team, and a few upperclassmen think this team could be the best one they’ve been on.

“For me, yeah, it is. It’s a really big part of this journey,” said Jeff Okudah following the team’s 34-21 victory over Wisconsin. The junior is the team’s best cornerback and easily the most-coveted NFL prospect among secondary players in the country.

He’s been a leader on this roster for three years and has turned in performances that have allowed it to maintain that unblemished record. But, he wasn’t the only one that had something to say on this Buckeye team.

J.K. Dobbins, who arguably should have received both the conference’s best running back award and the title game MVP, also believes this may be the best team he’s been on in his three years in Columbus.

“Yeah, definitely,” Dobbins said when asked if this was the best Buckeyes’ team he’s played on. But, there’s still one central theme, and it’s that this is just the beginning.

But to be the best, the Buckeyes will need to beat the best. With a place in the December 28th Fiesta Bowl against the undefeated defending champion Clemson Tigers, they’ll have a shot to show everyone else what those on the team believe.

Then, if Ohio State can down LSU or Oklahoma, we’ll be talking about whether or not this is the best Buckeyes team in the program’s history.

Ohio State Football: Game time, date released for Fiesta Bowl

Ohio State Football, after being relegated to the No. 2 seed despite being undefeated, will play in the Fiesta Bowl. Here’s the start time.

The Fiesta Bowl, which tag teams with the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl as the two College Football Semifinals, will be taking place in Glendale, Arizona. This season, it will be Ohio State and Clemson, two conference champions, battling it out in the hot southwest, but on an air conditioned venue.

Ohio State is coming off a victory over Wisconsin in which they were down 21-7 at the half. They looked flawed, but the Buckeyes still found a way to win the game after finding themselves in the second half, scoring 27 unanswered.

Clemson has just the opposite. The Tigers blew through Virginia. It’s 13-0, but it’s partially because the ACC is such a weak conference that the Tigers were given no respect as a top-two team in the nation.

That said, Ohio State Football, after being relegated to the No. 2 seed despite being undefeated, will play in the Fiesta Bowl. The game, which will take place on December 28, just released its start time.

Let’s hope this game ends better than the last time these two teams met.