Willyville Guy

I love that Dixon is getting the long balls. He’s had a tough road to this point.

Agree about Haskins, obviously. He may be a bigger factor in the WR improvement than the coaching change in that room. It’s 2018 and I don’t want to spend the season talking about JTB, but everything we discussed last season about inaccuracies and not throwing people open was on full display. The passing game was glorious. Day and Wilson were definitely feeling themselves in the play calling. Wilson 100% called that TE pass for his own unit. I hope they prove themselves over these three weeks and Urban lets them keep it going. No called QB runs for Haskins was a dream come true. As for the Defense, well, now that Smith is gone the fans will need a new public enemy, and that person is Bill Davis. The LBs need to get organized and fast. Most of the points came on just a few big plays rather than sustained drives. Those breakdowns remind me way too much of 2013. Hopefully all the secondary players leaving for the NFL these past few years haven’t finally caught up to the defense.

It’s week 1 and those teams all stepped up when they needed to. We’ll see how it goes.

Home games against Wisconsin and Penn St, road games at MSU and OSU, mix in Northwestern and Maryland... seems like a rough road to me.

True, and Bush is a monster at MLB.

ND looks like they might not get another first down.

Michigan having OL issues, as expected.

Lol, State never saw it coming!

My first impression of Patterson is that he reminds me of Flutie out there.

That’s rough.

PSU does it. What a game. App St’s QB made his first college start at Happy Valley and goes 12 rounds. PSU handles early season adversity. KJ Hamler looks like a star. Welcome back, football!

There was a rain delay that messed up the schedule. The game was moved to ESPNEWS in my area.

App St just ran it right down PSU’s throat for that TD. (Taking notes.) KJ Hamler for PSU with a clutch 50 yd KO return. Crazy: PSU 4th and 2 with a minute to play down 7. Got it. TD PSU! Nothing better than football Saturday

I’m here for App State! Hugely entertaining early evening action between Auburn-Wash and PSU-App St. Washington’s passing attack is as good as advertised, especially the back shoulder throws. Auburn’s athletes are impressive and undisciplined. PSU wants this nightmare to end already but App St. not going away. Even if PSU pulls it out, I’ve spent all afternoon seeing App St highlights from their win at Michigan in 2007, so it’s a win-win.

Bosa had two FR, a sack and a TD in the first half of the season. Back end looked very 2013 to me.

Maryland might be the real story there. It’s been a rising program, Durkin for his flaws knows how to prepare, and a tragedy can bring a team together. All that being said, yeah Herman would love to hide in a champagne room right about now.

Totally. It's almost as if you're doing the couple a favor by watching the games!

Well Urban's undefeated season ('12) and his natty ('14) came primarily with Tressel's recruits, so it's fair to make that argument. But since then, Urban's recruiting classes have graded out at levels that Tressel never achieved, and the team has been historically successful during his entire tenure so far. As for this year, it's tough to tell. New QB, questions at OL, LB, and even the D-backs make it hard to predict how the season will play out. The team appears to be really stacked though, particularly at RB and DL. Several beat reports are predicting that the offense will break school scoring records this year. Can't wait to see how it plays out.

Almost forgot how much I love game trailers.

One of my college buddies from OSU describes this as the proudest moment of his life: Buddy: Dad, I want you to know that I proposed to Cindy and we’re getting married in the fall. Buddy’s Dad: That’s great - your mom and I love Cindy. What weekend are you getting married? Buddy: The bye week, Dad! Dad: I’m proud of you, son! “The bye week, Dad!” has become a rallying cry among my friends ?

Day and Wilson to share play calling duties. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

GAME WEEK!!

FWIW, I’m fine with the suspension for the same basic reason stated repeatedly here and in the Go Bucks thread: Urban let a loose cannon and bad coach hang around the program for too long out of loyalty to Coach Bruce and he got burned for it. Zach Smith is a clown and a jackass and a terrible example for student athletes. Urban knew it and should have fired him sooner, so the suspension is justified in my opinion. Since the investigation concluded that no legal or contractual obligations were broken, the trustees were correct in deciding that Urban shouldn’t be fired. Sorry for your loss, haters. But that’s pretty much it. I still don’t know what to think about Courtney Smith and her claims of abuse. I tend to accept the conclusions of the police investigations as well as Courtney’s own mother who said that Courtney is lying. However, I was particularly dismayed to learn that the OSU investigation confirmed the disputed report that Coach Bruce himself went to Florida in 2009 to dissuade Courtney Smith from coming forward. That’s a sad and disturbing addition to his legacy. Courtney deserves a process that is concerned with her story (and maybe that already happened, but it’s worth double-checking) without the irrelevant sideshow of who within OSU’s or Texas’s athletic departments knew or should have known. Finally, the narrative that OSU cares more about winning than domestic violence is completely bogus. Keeping Smith on staff was never about winning. He’s not a good coach and provided no competitive advantage. To the contrary, the investigation concluded that Smith’s job performance was a problem in the past few years. This is about nepotism and letting someone hang around because he was in the Ohio State football family. And again, the truth of Courtney’s claims are far from clear under the circumstances. I am sensitive to the issues of victim shaming and the difficulties of proving allegations of abuse that by their nature occur in private and are hard to prove with extrinsic evidence. Still, anyone who jumps to conclusions based on the convoluted and conflicting information available in this scenario must be results-driven and not concerned with the truth.